many people… one what?
Many of you have seen Trace Crossing flyers, worship guides, and handouts with the phrase – “many people, one passion.” So what does it mean? Two things:
Many People – in Revelation 7:9-10 it says “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and people and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits onthe throne, and to the Lamb!” The picture of many people from every nation, people who spoke different languages, had different cultures and worldviews, is a picture we want to create here at Trace. The act of Christ on the Cross has broken down all barriers, and we are to be united under Him. Many people does not mean we have a big crowd, it means we accept everyone from everywhere. The picture of “many people” in heaven is clear, so why not pursue that here and now?
One Passion – the end of that passage from Revelation 7 says that all of these people were crying with a loud voice. They were different in every way except one – they praised the One who is worthy of Praise. The thing that brings us together is our worship. We worship by singing to Him, teaching His word, honoring one another, serving others, and offering our resources to Him. Without this one passion, we are just a group of mixed up people wasting time in a shopping center.
So what does this look like for our student ministry? The same as it does for the entire church. If we want to continue being many people with one passion, it has to be lived out in our student ministry. Students are the future of our church, not just Trace Crossing – but the church global. So many student ministries are full of only one type of people. If we want to look like the Kingdom of God, we have to reach out to many people -people who are like us and people who are not like us, people who are easy to love and people who frustrate us – and the reason we can all come together and be united is our burning Passion to lift up the Savior.
-B
barton- this is an awesome post. we talked about this tonight in highschool life group. i need to be reminded daily to humble myself and love people that are hard to love. i loved reading the passage in revelation..how awesome!! thanks again for all the work you and bethany are doing in our student ministry. we appreciate yall!
-mary jennings