As the Calendar year is drawing to a close, I’ve been thinking about these past 12 months, what they looked like, what happened in them, and what we can take away from it all going forward into 2014. After I’d truly thought about it, I came up with a succinct statement that I feel sums up the year fairly well. “It was a year like any other.” Now, before you start wondering what kind of funk I’m in to make that kind of a statement about the past year, let me explain my rational for the statement itself. I started off thinking about the events that have transpired globally, regionally, etc. There were bombings, school shootings, terrorist attacks, financial woes, rampant diseases, you get the point. I thought about the needs of our city. The homeless were still homeless. The needy were still needy. The poor were still poor, and my heart was being moved for them. All in all, I realized that not much was vastly different then the previous years. What it all boils down to is that one thing is exactly the same year after year after year: we need Jesus. No matter what the calendar shows, no matter how many days and weeks may change, the one constant that it will never reveal is that this world is in desperate need of Jesus. Now before you spiral into depression over the last year, let me shine some incredible light on what might seem like a tragic tale. The good news is that God, as in the days of old, is raising up an army, a generation, and a people to boldly and unashamedly take the light of Jesus Christ into this world. That’s where you and I come in. This year, God has been building something in the hearts of men and women across the globe and in this region as no exception. He’s been preparing us to carry His love and be the hands and feet as we embrace the unloved and the broken. This, church, is the brilliant goodness of what the Lord has done in His glory. He’s brought us together to be more than a building, more than a congregation, and more than the sum of our parts. He’s built champions. So yes, this year may on paper look like any other year did. Bought a seedling that is planted in the ground may appear the same way for a season. Then the new season comes and what a difference it makes. Our calender year is coming to a close and a new season is beginning. Get ready church, because this next year will be a year when the unseen becomes visible, where what was done in secret springs forth, where the internal shaping of our hearts breaks forth into the external movement of people reaching out to a lost world that is crying out for help. In other words, next year will be a year unlike any other. -Pastor Joe