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Meet the Staff
Here is the Finishers Staff based in Gilbert, AZ.
L to R : Tom Adelsman, Colleen Erdmann, Paul Erdmann, Renee Ladd, and Don Parrott |
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Coming Events
Click on these links to find more information about each event.
Chicago, IL - Apr 24-26
Dallas, TX - May 29-31
Philadelphia, PA - Jun 26-28
Atlanta, GA - Oct 16-18
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Affiliate
Organizations
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 www.GOCASA.org  www.SignificantLiving.org  www.TheJourneyDeepens.com |
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The Bridge serves to keep you connected with the amazing ministry and impact of Finishers Project. We welcome your feedback, so please call or write. |
Spread the Word!
Several Forum locations are being developed. If they are near you, we sincerely request
that you volunteer some of your time to help provide this opportunity for people
to connect with opportunities for significant impact:
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Cleveland/Akron Ohio, September 25-26
- Ft. Collins, Colorado
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Seattle, Washington
- Tyler, Texas, January 29-30, 2010
Click here to let us know you
would like to help make one of these Forums happen.
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Six "Challenges" or "Benefits",
depending on your perspective.
As
mentioned last month, over the next few editions of The Bridge I would like to
identify six "challenges" Boomers face when considering ministry in a
missions-related role. The six are: Faith,
Finances, Family, Fit, Future and Fight.
The purpose of examining these benefits is to help us see that God is
really carefully managing our journey, and not getting in the way of a desired
goal with all these obstacles.
FAITH: The first
"challenge", "obstacle", or "opportunity", depending on your perspective.
Can I trust God with my future? This question captures the essence of this
challenge. At first blush the obvious
answer is "yes!" Of course we can trust
God. He is in control. He is trustworthy. He only has our best in mind. He knows better what we need than we do.
But...have you noticed how second and third blush
begin to color our response? Shades of
what if...what about...how can I...I can't...quickly condition our trust response. We begin to evaluate the unknown future in
light of the known past. How we feel about our past strongly affects our
thinking about the future. In that
subtle moment we shift our trust to our own ability and experience.
That shift can create a dual track in our mental
processing. On one level, the spiritual,
we still love and trust God. On the
other, let's call it the practical level, we are trusting in our own strength,
our perspective, our evaluation of the future.
As a consequence, we develop an inner tension with questions we cannot easily answer. We want to completely trust our Lord,
but...don't we have to be practical? We
want to be all out for God, but...He certainly wants me to be responsible.
So - Can I trust God with my future? Maybe we should change the question. Can I trust God with His future? After all, who
am I? I've been bought with a
price. I'm a child of the King. I am his masterpiece, created to do the
things he has already designed for me to do and equipped by him to do exactly
those things. He has promised to never
leave me. There is nothing in his future
that could possibly separate me from his love.
Faith
is actually a wonderful gift afforded us by God himself. The dimension of time makes faith
possible. We are bound by time. Because we cannot see the future we need to
exercise faith. If we were not
time-bound, faith would not be necessary. God does not need faith. He sees
it all, past, present and future, in his eternal present. Because we cannot see clearly into our future
we are uncertain as to which direction to go. Our great, incredible privilege is that the very God who created it all
and sees it all is simply saying, "Trust me. I can see where your next step should be. I'll help you get there if you just trust me...just
have faith." Not faith in your abilities
or past experiences. Faith in the one
who can see the next step he has carefully designed for you.
If you desire to make a difference in your future and you
sense God is leading you to do that in a missions-related role, may I encourage
you to take the next logical step in that direction. It may only be a small step, but take
it. If you're heart is right, you will
not make a mistake.
Faith is stepping onto the invisible, not the
non-existent. We may not see it all
clearly. We may come up short when we
compare our abilities with future challenges.
Hindsight can be our weakness.
Foresight is God's specialty.
What we cannot see, he designed.
Where we have not gone, he is waiting.
Can I trust God with my future?
Yes, because it is my small part in his grand and perfect future.
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Spend a Weekend with an Experienced Cross-Cultural Worker!
These unique weekends offer a valuable experience of meeting
with others seriously considering cross-cultural work and being mentored by
others who have lived and ministered in other cultures. The group is relatively small, enabling
individual time with these mentors, allowing participants to ask their
particular questions and gain from the wisdom and experience of
fellow-travelers on the journey.
Dates and locations for these weekends called THE JOURNEY DEEPENS:
- April 24-26, Elgin, IL
- May 29-31, Dallas, TX
- June 26-28, Philadelphia, PA
- October 16-18, Atlanta, GA
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50 Million Over 50!
Right now there are just over 50 million Baby Boomers in the
U.S.
who are over 50 years old! Of those 50
million, approximately 7.5 million are Christ-followers. As a Boomer, you are either one of those, or
one who will join that unique number sometime in the next five years. Think about it...seven and one-half million
people who are looking to make a difference in their remaining years. And that number will keep growing until
2014! What an impact we can make!
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Don Parrott
CEO,The Finishers Project
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