TORVINKRELLA – Page 2

The Power and Danger of Rules

A friend recently asked me to state, in one word, what I thought could kill a movement. As I reflected on that, my mind went to Acts chapter 15, where the Jerusalem Council met and struck down the whole issue of circumcision. This isn’t about circumcision, but it is about rules.

That was my one word answer—“rules.” Rules that have outlived their original purpose.

I believe rules have their place—they have their time, and then they’re done. Too often, however, rules hang around long after their purpose has expired. Some were meant for a generation ago—or maybe thirty generations ago—and yet they still hold back the work of the Kingdom of God.

If we’re serious about doing the things God has really called us to do, we need to regularly take a hard look at our rules. Maybe once a year, reassess: What are we doing? Why are we doing it? Should we keep doing it—or should we stop?

Lessons from the Jesus Movement

I came up during the Jesus Movement, and so much of what we did back then was considered off-limits by others—at least in their minds. The way people dressed, the simple fact that we served coffee after church—those things upset a whole bunch of people.

Then we got into a tangle with our denomination over something else. We had a 58-year-old aerospace engineer who volunteered his time as an associate pastor. This man had led very successful, large Bible studies in the region where we lived, and he was thrilled with what we were doing as a young church. He joined us wholeheartedly.

But I couldn’t get the denomination to give him a pastor’s license so he could officiate a wedding. I got into a heated argument over this with a wise denominational official. Eventually, he got them to change course and created an entirely new system for licensing pastors trained in local churches, not seminaries.

A New Generation Facing Old Rules

This brings me to a conversation I had a few weeks ago with a very exciting young couple. I had met three men, all missionaries from Liberia to the United States, serving alongside their wives. All of them are church planters, and all hope to multiply more churches.

One of these men is married to an American woman who had been trafficked in the sex industry as a young girl. The remarkable thing is that these people are now doing short-term missions to Kenya, where they have met young girls caught in similar situations.

The big problem? Their denomination has a rule: no woman can be a pastor. And these young women in Kenya don’t trust men—for obvious reasons.

She wanted to start an online church for these girls.

I felt my role in this situation was to remind this brave young woman that she wasn’t hired by the denomination, and that she could choose to do what God was putting before her. I’m not sure where that’s all going to lead, but I have a strong feeling it’s going someplace good.

Once again, the rules in place have their reasons. I happen to disagree with this particular rule to some extent. But in the end, the rules aren’t the main issue—the young girls in need of a pastor are.

And if this young woman is able to shepherd them through WhatsApp and other social media platforms, then she should be free to do what God has clearly placed in her lap.

Balancing Submission and Speaking Up

We need to remain submitted to our leaders and their wisdom. But we also need to learn when to respectfully push back and to hope and pray that, like the men at the Jerusalem Council, our leaders will respond to genuine spiritual need the way those men did when Paul and Barnabas presented their case.

What About You and Me?

My point here isn’t really about them—or even about the people who seem to be blocking ministry efforts in Kenya. This is about you and me, and whether we’re willing to assess the rules and policies we’ve put in place over the years—and ask if they’ve outlived their usefulness.

In our church staff, we always made this kind of assessment during our annual planning meetings. We intentionally looked for ministries that had outlived their usefulness so we could shut them down or phase them out.

It would have been wise for us to do the same with our policy manual. Throughout the year, we developed policies based on decisions we made, and at the end of each year, we would try to harvest those decisions that seemed worthy of becoming formal policy.

But we never quite figured out that we should spend the same amount of time asking which existing policies had outlived their usefulness.

Ralph Moore is the Founding Pastor of three churches which grew into the Hope Chapel ‘movement’ now numbering more than 2,300 churches, worldwide. These are the offspring of the 70+ congregations launched from Ralph’s hands-on disciplemaking efforts.

He travels the globe, teaching church multiplication to pastors in startup movements. He’s authored several books, including Let Go Of the Ring: The Hope Chapel Story, Making Disciples, How to Multiply Your Church, Starting a New Church, and Defeating Anxiety.

The post The Power and Danger of Rules appeared first on Newbreed Training.

Summer Home Refresh

To kickoff summer, I’ve been making small updates around the house. Sometimes the smallest update can make such a huge difference! Here are a few of my new recent home finds I’m loving 〰️

I just got this new neutral rug for our living room and it has been a bestseller for awhile now. I love how it brightened up the room so much. Its on major sale right now – over 50% off!

Rug // White Chair // Faux Tree // Frames // coffee table bowl // coffee table box

last week I did a powder bathroom refresh. I still need to get some family pics in the frames but Targets new home arrivals are so good and an affordable way to freshen up a space! I added these frames to the wall, and the towel holder and flowers for height. Everything linked here.

waffle hand towel // white tray // towel rack // frames // faux flowers // soap dispenser

new rug – only $25!!

wavy accent mirror – under $100!

plates // gold silverware

colorful tumbler cups

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What Kind of Leader Starts a Movement?

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is an excerpt from What Actually Starts Movements by Emanuel Prinz, used with permission. This book is a significant new resource for leaders pursuing disciple-making movements. You can purchase the book here.

There is a kind of person the Lord of the Harvest looks on with favor and uses to start a movement.
—Bill Smith

As you prayerfully engage with this content, consider:

What kind of person consistently shows up at the center of gospel movements?
Which leadership qualities really matter—and which ones are just noise?
Could these traits be intentionally developed in your own life?

Traits and Competencies of Effective Leaders

Effective catalytic leaders use a variety of movement ministry approaches. While there is no single method that guarantees a movement, those God uses to initiate them consistently manifest the same set of traits and competencies.

If we sat down in a coffee shop with catalytic leaders from rural Kenya, an American city, an Indian metropolis, and an Indonesian island, we would find all four remarkably alike in their essential character—even allowing for cultural and personality differences.

So, when we ask what starts a movement, we first need to examine the kind of leader behind it.

Digging Deeper into the Research

To answer that question, Emanuel Prinz and his team conducted a comprehensive review of movement and leadership literature, along with empirical research. They started with 31 key sources—14 focused on apostolic and movement leadership, and 17 drawn from over 600 studies on secular leadership. From these, they identified 228 unique traits and competencies.

They narrowed the list to just 24 traits that appeared in at least three different works. Then, using surveys of effective movement catalysts worldwide, they compared these qualities between leaders who had catalyzed movements and those who had not.

The traits fell into three distinct domains:

The Personality domain: traits related to individual personality and character.
The Spiritual domain: traits and competencies of a spiritual nature, having to do with one’s relationship with God.
The Social Influence domain: traits and competencies having to do with relating with others, describing social behavior and ways to influence others.

Wherever movements are happening, leaders marked by these traits are leading the way. They don’t all share the same tactics—but they share the same kind of transformation.

Want to become the kind of leader who catalyzes movements?
Start by examining your own leadership profile—and pursue the kind of growth that aligns with how God tends to work when revival breaks out.

Emanuel Prinz (D.Min., Ph.D. cand.) is a missiologist and educator who has conducted the broadest-ever research on movements. He has taught at various universities and has published numerous articles in journals such as Missiology, Evangelical Missions Quarterly, Journal of the Evangelical Missiological Society, Global Missiology, and Christianity Today.

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Memorial Day Sales / Outfit Roundup

Happy Sunday! I’ve been feeling inspired with new summer outfits! Wanted to share a recent outfit round up and some amazing sale happening this weekend for Memorial Day!

〰️Abercrombie is 25% off sitewide + additional 15% off with code: AFSUMMER
〰️Levis is 30% off sitewide – will be living in my new white levis shorts this summer!
〰️Target is 30% off swim, 40% off sandals and up to 40% off women’s fashion
〰️Wayfair is having major sales including my new living room rug over 50% off!
〰️Madewell is 30% off shoes – my new brown suede sandals included!
〰️Paula’s Choice is 20% off – my fav liquid exfoliator on sale!
〰️Cupshe – use code CHRISTINE20 for 15% off $70 and 20% off $109

Red tank / cropped jeans outfit

navy one piece / pool outfit

Navy dress outfit

straight leg white denim outfit

brown suede sandals & living room rug – on sale

my satin blue dress & boys outfits

festive memorial day / fourth of july outfit idea

brown one piece swimsuit

casual everyday summer outfit

butter yellow summer dress

memorial day / fourth of july summer outfit inspo

white swimsuit coverup dress

fourth of july outfit

holy grail skincare product on sale this weekend

casual everyday summer outfit

Target sandals on sale

my new neutral living room rug on sale

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Leading Change Without Overdoing It

A friend recently gave me reason to pause. He was talking about a tendency many of us have as leaders—to over-strategize. Sometimes, in our passion for progress, we fail to wait for our people to catch up. Instead of walking in the light we already have, we chase after new light, new revelations, new ideas.

The Perils of Constant Innovation

One of the greatest dangers pastors face comes from reading about other pastors who appear more successful. It’s easy to fall into the trap of implementing a new idea every month—or every week—in an attempt to keep pace. But this kind of restlessness can deeply unsettle your team, whether paid or volunteer.

What my friend said was simple, but profound: Don’t make any major change until your church has grown by 20%. If there’s no growth at all, of course, change is needed. But when there is growth, it’s a signal to be steady. It’s time to walk in what you already have and give your people the opportunity to adapt and respond positively to the current ministry flow. Let that growth bring people into relationship with Jesus in the context of how you’re currently doing ministry.

When you have grown by 20%, that’s the point to consider a structural change. Even then, it may be more tactical than strategic—small adjustments rather than grand reinventions.

When Change Becomes a Trap

Early on in the churches I pastored, we built a simple ecclesiology grounded in Ephesians 4. It defined the church’s purpose: to equip the saints for the work of ministry. We paired this with a model drawn from Acts 2, viewing weekend gatherings as our “temple” expression, and house gatherings as our “house-to-house” life.

We asked: What works best in the temple? What works best in the house? And we stuck to that model for years.

But here’s where we stumbled: At nearly every annual planning retreat, we tried to reinvent the wheel. We’d take the church apart and attempt to reassemble it. And that, over time, was exhausting. It depressed our staff and disrupted the very people we were trying to serve. Rather than speeding up growth, it slowed us down.

Ironically, while we were tying ourselves in knots trying to restructure, we were planting churches at a steady rate—about 1.5 to 2 churches per year. That side of our ministry stayed strong, largely because of one thing we did well.

Allow Ministry to Rise from the Ranks

We had cultivated a culture where ministry bubbled up from the congregation. We were always preaching: Find a need and fill it. We spoke of people being God’s masterpiece, created for good works. That gave rise to many homegrown ministries.

The answer to most ideas was a resounding “yes.” We connected people with others who could help them fulfill the vision God put in their hearts. It created an environment of adaptability and permission.

But ministries, like everything else, follow a bell curve. They begin with excitement, grow, multiply, and bear fruit—but eventually taper off.

Know When to Let Go

One of the wisest practices we adopted during our annual staff retreats was to identify two or three things that weren’t working as well as they once had. We used to joke about “killing dead horses.” Sometimes, we’d simply relocate a ministry to free up valuable space. Other times, we had to make the tough call to shut something down entirely.

In some cases, we cut back funding when participation had dropped. This often helped the ministry leader recognize that the season had passed. The decline in resources communicated the reality more gently than words sometimes could.

Final Thoughts: Embracing Change with Discernment

Living in a constant process of change is inevitable, especially as we respond to a shifting culture. But that doesn’t mean we need to overhaul everything all the time.

Sometimes, the most faithful thing we can do is to pause, walk steadily in the light we already have, and give our people space to grow alongside us. When change is needed, let it be intentional, measured, and born out of prayer and discernment—not comparison or restlessness.

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Perfect Casualties

When a leader becomes consumed with the idea of what is perfect, it can cause a ripple effect of harm to themselves, their loved ones, and especially to staff and employees. This is because perfectionism cannot be contained. Like that burned popcorn smell that seeps from the microwave, polluting the air and everyone around it for hours after it’s been thrown in the trash, a leader’s preoccupation with flawlessness oozes into the fabric of the organization and lingers long after the leader is gone. One person’s relentless pursuit of perfection can set unreasonable standards for others, creating a near hostile work environment for the team. Everything must always be exact, not just according to the employee’s standard but according to leadership.

Furthermore, what the leader believes to be perfect may not even be known to anyone until what is submitted is rejected, often with great disdain or even violent repulsion. This is how some described the deep perfectionism of Steve Jobs, genius and late CEO of Apple.

[Perfection] pushed him to both hurt himself and others. Others have pointed to Jobs’s terse behavior with his employees. Some recalled him as “rude, dismissive, hostile, spiteful,” writes Gawker’s Ryan Tate, who discusses the manipulation Jobs used to “inspire” his workers. Yet, Jobs went beyond the pushy boss, who blows off the handle. “He screams at subordinates,” writes Gladwell and once told his public relations assistant that her suit is “disgusting.” He couldn’t handle anything less than perfection, and often took it out on others. (Rebecca Greenfield, “The Crazy Perfectionism That Drove Steve Jobs,” The Atlantic, November 7, 2011)

The double-edged sword of perfection caused both great success for the company and great harm for Jobs and those around him. At times, this maddening pursuit led to superior products developed in record time. On the other hand, his fixation with perfection created a lag in decision making, causing him to take weeks on mundane decisions like choosing a sofa or washing machine. (Greenfield, “The Crazy Perfectionism.”)

This is more than just a desire to be our best selves or to expect others to do well. Perfectionism is an absolute fixation on a vision of perfect and an unwillingness to rest or settle until that vision is realized. The obsession with an extreme version of excellence is so subversive, so cunning that leaders may not even recognize its possession until it’s too late. They may not consider their passion to be harmful until staff members leave or complain, close friends or family intervene, or they are consumed with the personal costs of depression, anxiety, burnout, or worse. Perfectionism in the workplace is often an attraction to those who like challenges, enjoy responsibilities, and frankly, those who like to win. These team members often subject themselves to torturous expectations leading to long days, late nights, and constant mental contortions just to please the exacting boss. While it can be argued that perfection draws perfectionists, calling their allegiance to the organization at the expense of other loyalties and commitments, there is no guarantee that these temperaments and pursuits will lead to any version of success. In these rigorous environments, team members suffer the collateral damage of anguish when decisions cannot be made or stress when actions must be taken to appease.

Perfectionism keeps leaders and teams in constant cycles of paralysis or frenzy, always plagued by the need to grasp an ideal that is consistently beyond reach. Both the leader and those who follow suffer the effects of poor mental health as the angst of decision making often leads to anxiety and depression. Even when they can see the damaging effects of perfectionism, some leaders cannot let go of their meticulousness and conscientiousness for fear of missing the mark or losing the competitive edge.8 They are afraid of messing up and worry that lessening of the pressure will lead to poor performance or a lazy embrace of mediocrity. As a result, these leaders may see their perfection as an organizational asset instead of a liability. They may see those who push against their standards as necessary losses instead of casualties, believing that the pursuit is well worth the loss. But what happens when the pursuit of the absolute divides and devours absolutely?

Perfectionism is a jealous, empty consumption. It leaves no room for anything other than a mirage conjured in our minds that will never truly be attained. It drives us to seek after it, to live for it, and to love it more than anything else. We pant for perfection, like dehydrated survivors in the desert, thirsting for its refreshing waters only to find ourselves lapping at the rough sands of reality. It pushes us to want it above everyone else and to sacrifice anything and anyone to receive it.

Because of the strength of its pull, the only way to correct perfectionism is to crucify it. We must nail to the cross that which seeks to engulf us. For some already held by the grip of the flawless, the fear of killing what we think makes us better can be overwhelming. You may be thinking, If I let go of this image of what is perfect, even if it doesn’t exist, won’t I succumb to imperfection? Won’t I give in to what is subpar? If I stop striving for what is perfect, won’t I cease to exist? This fear of falling into substandard living and leadership is a valid concern for those truly looking for another way. But to those of us who struggle to release the exactness of what holds us, God says, “have no fear.” The same one who calls us to nail perfection to the cross is the only one who is truly perfect. In Christ, we find the only true and loving image of perfection, and we can never reach what our hearts desire without him.

Jesus, fully God and fully man, is the only one who lived sinless among us. He set the standard for those who would follow so that we might be more like him. And just in case we were unsure of what perfection looked like, he gave some specific examples in Matthew 5. In a conversation with crowds and disciples, Jesus laid out what it meant to be perfect. It looks like being blessed in persecution and suffering for faith (vv. 3 12), being salt and light in a bland and dark world (vv. 13 16), fulfilling the righteousness of the law (vv. 17 20), refraining from anger and holding nothing against anyone (vv. 21 26), thinking no lustful thoughts (vv. 27 30), rejecting divorce and remarriage (vv. 31 32), making no oaths and keeping your word (vv. 33 37), not resisting evil (vv. 38 42), and loving your enemies (vv. 43 47). He closed these human impossibilities with one last command: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

But Jesus knew that none of us could ever reach this standard in totality. None of us could be and do all that he spelled out in this chapter, and certainly none of us could be perfect as God is perfect in and of ourselves. But what if Jesus wasn’t calling us to do something to be perfect? What if this text was not about doing but about being in relationship with perfection himself? Could it be that our proximity to Christ’s perfection would imbue within us rays of divine grace that would be sufficient for our weaknesses? In other words, it could be that Jesus was saying, “Come and be in deep relationship with me and I will give you grace that perfects your imperfections.”

Rev. Dr. Nicole Massie Martin holds degrees from Vanderbilt University, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She is the Chief Operating Officer at Christianity Today and founder and Executive Director of Soulfire International Ministries. She is an accomplished writer and author, serves on various boards and councils, and leads the Grow Ministry at Kingdom Fellowship AME Church in Maryland. She and her husband, Mark, are proud parents to two amazing daughters.

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Change and the Power of Why

One of the ongoing struggles in church leadership is learning to separate vision from strategy, especially when leading people toward change. Too often, we focus on the how—how something will be implemented, who will be involved, where it’s going to happen—but we overlook the deeper question: why are we doing this?

If we don’t understand the why, we can easily lose our way. Whether we’re implementing a new ministry initiative or planting a new church, we must always return to the deeper purpose. That’s what moves hearts. That’s what brings lasting change.

The Theology Behind the Tasks

Back in the days before cell phones, during the early stages of church planting, I carried a lightweight notebook with me everywhere I went. I used it to jot down ideas and outline the functions of the church—everything from ushering and greeting, to children’s ministry and even parking lot coordination.

Each page in that notebook represented a different ministry area. But more importantly, for each task, I would try to write out a theology for why we were doing it. What does the Bible say about the way we welcome people? How should our values shape even something as mundane as parking cars?

That may sound overly detailed, but I found it grounding. When we rooted every form and function in biblical principle, we kept ourselves from drifting. We weren’t just copying what we saw elsewhere—we were aligning every action with a spiritual foundation. The form of ministry should flow naturally from its function, and both should be driven by the why.

Know Your People’s Capacity for Change

Another challenge we face is failing to fully consider the capacity of the people who will implement the changes we dream up. Vision without compassion becomes a burden.

That’s why my best advice is this: make haste slowly. Take the time to explain what you’re doing and why. Most change starts in the pulpit, but it must also filter down into smaller circles—first to your core leaders, then into the conversations they have with the people they lead.

The Pulpit as a Tool for Change

I was mentored early on by Robert Schuller. At the time, he led a church of over 8,000 people, what would eventually become the Crystal Cathedral. He once said he could “counsel all 8,000 people,” and while he may have been thinking psychologically as much as spiritually, there’s real truth in that statement.

We often underestimate the power of the pulpit. When you stand before people with a microphone around your neck, they listen. They trust. They believe what you say. That platform gives you a unique opportunity to shape culture and guide people through change—if you use it wisely.

One of the best ways to bring people along in a season of change is to treat your announcements like progress reports. Weave them into sermons if possible but state them clearly.

Start simple: “I’ve been thinking about something…”
A week or two later: “This is something we’ve been talking about as a staff…”
Then: “Here’s what we think it could look like. We’d love your input.”
Eventually: “We’re going to test this out.”
And finally: “Here’s where we’re going.”

That kind of transparency builds trust. It gives people space to catch up emotionally and spiritually. It invites them into the process rather than surprising them with a decision. More than that, it respects the tremendous trust that God has placed in you—the leader who speaks to His people every week.

Final Thoughts: Lead with Humility

Strategic change requires more than clever ideas or fast execution. It requires wisdom. It requires humility. And above all, it requires a clear and compelling why. When we lead with that—anchored in scripture, thoughtful about people’s capacity, and respectful of the pulpit—we guide our churches not just through change, but toward transformation.

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Spring Closet Refresh

I just love a good spring closet refresh! There’s something about the weather changing and getting nice again after a long winter and wanting some new bright colors in my closet. I recently placed some spring orders and wanted to share!

red floral dress // sandals // Chloe bag

top // denim shorts // bracelet

white dress // necklace // sandals // bag

knit top // gray pants // sandals

yellow top // denim shorts // bracelet // Chloe bag

red dress // necklace // white sandals // gold bracelet

green half zip // pink shorts // sneakers

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When Mobilization Went Unnoticed

Did you ever stop to consider that at the heart of everything Jesus did was mobilizing His followers to do ministry?

I believe the purpose of the Church—the “big C” Church—is to equip its members to do works of ministry. This follows the Apostle Paul’s teaching that each believer is God’s masterpiece, created for good works. We are saved by faith but made for good works.

I spent much of my life as a pastor lobbying for others to plant churches. I was living under a couple of false impressions. The first was that church planting was a special calling reserved for a select few, as if God had called us to plant churches but not others. The second false impression was that I could pressure pastors into planting churches as a programmatic effort.

As I matured, I began to realize that every church is called to reproduce itself and that our effectiveness in multiplication came from perseverance in reproduction. However, as I continued to grow, I came to understand that disciple-making is at the root of everything we do. I then realized that if we didn’t first make friends, we couldn’t make disciples. Finally, I came to see that disciple-making begins before a person accepts Christ, not after. Friend-making and disciple-making are intertwined in a “follow me as I follow Christ” process.

Recently, however, I was taken aback when a friend described our disciple-making efforts as “mobilizing the saints for the work of ministry.” He said this publicly, portraying it as something heroic. Yet, I felt far from a hero because I hadn’t fully grasped the impact of what we had been doing so productively for so many decades. Honestly, I was embarrassed by his pronouncement.

In reality, mobilization has been at the heart of the simple disciple-making model used in the churches I started. We intentionally connected challenging teaching from the platform to the small groups in our church, which we called MiniChurch. The process was so simple that I couldn’t understand why other pastors wouldn’t be willing to give it a try. We even eliminated a “discipleship class” by relying on friends to disciple their friends. In our MiniChurch gatherings, we followed up on the weekend teaching by asking three simple but powerful questions—questions I have repeated countless times because they have been so effective and can work for others as well as they did for us.

We taught through the Bible, always striving to communicate in a way that resonated with a younger audience. We went chapter by chapter teaching with a simple and often humorous approach, aiming to instill both sound theology and a full understanding of Scripture. Every teaching challenged our members to action, which is why my friend observed that we were mobilizing the saints for ministry. But the real action happened in MiniChurch. We would gather around food and fellowship and then ask:

What did the Holy Spirit say to you during the weekend service?
What are you going to do in response to what the Spirit spoke to your heart?
How can we help you or pray for you as you seek to obey the Lord?

The power of what we did was in linking a mobilizing message from the pulpit to an interactive relational setting, where friends ultimately held each other accountable for what the Holy Spirit was speaking to their hearts. Without being overly mystical, we strongly emphasized the Spirit’s role in our midst.

As I look back on my life, I realize that pressuring people into planting churches did little good. Even focusing on disciple-making could hit a dead end if our goal was merely to develop strong believers. What we had actually done was link what was happening in church and MiniChurch to the mandate of Acts 1:8—constantly keeping the vision of reaching beyond our walls, all the way to other nations, in front of our people. We mobilized our members for ministry where they lived, worked and played.

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What We Find When We Ask, God, Where Are You?

There’s an account in Scripture, in the book of Acts, about the apostle Paul’s own dark night. Luke’s second scroll tells it like this:

Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Acts 16:6-10

Maybe you notice a repeated refrain:

“Having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word [there] . . .”

“The Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to . . .”

Paul and his crew were trying to follow their calling, their mission, yet God thwarted their efforts. God changed their direction. God stopped them in their tracks. God blocked their goal. They thought their feet would take them one way, but the Spirit of Jesus had other plans.

This passage of Scripture almost reads like a cosmic joke, a deistic pinball machine. God was obscuring Paul’s path, even as he was inviting the apostle to follow sightlessly. Paul was given a dream, a vision, but he did not have a map. Still, Paul took one step of faith at a time, while God moved him in unexpected, tedious, and seemingly ridiculous directions.

And yet.

What we see in Paul’s story is often what we cannot see in our own, especially when we find ourselves in the middle of an obscure evening. God is at work, even when the path is dim. God is doing something, something good, even when we can’t see clearly. God’s past faithfulness—in Scripture, in our own stories, in the stories of other fellow travelers—can give us something to hold onto when our own belief feels hard.

All along, God was awakening Paul from his former naiveté, exploding out of the boxes Paul had placed him in. God used this journey, in all its disorientation, to reveal that he works in ways bigger than the apostle might have imagined, in and through people he might not have imagined: in Gentiles and in women, outside the institution, outside the religious elite. Paul dreamt of a Macedonian man but was eventually led to Lydia, who became one of the first female leaders of the early church. In this way, God’s obscurity served as Paul’s invitation into an entirely new trajectory, one where he would co-labor with women for the gospel as he continued to preach that gospel to Gentiles.

Perhaps for us, like for Paul and his companions, every God, where are you? is a step toward greater goodness, meaning, depth.

I cling to my tentative hypothesis that in the night, we are being invited into transformation. But I can’t quite land on my thesis because the darkness doesn’t feel particularly helpful or transformative. Mostly, the dusk is presenting a harrowing question: Can I fumble forward in faith, even if I cannot find the place where God is hiding?

God is up to something, even as we search for him in the obscurity of dusk. But it’s something many of us weren’t prepared for in our spiritual formation or church upbringing. In his hiddenness, God is inviting us to release certainty, which is scary.

We are asked, instead, to embrace faith, which is scarier.

Adapted from What We Find in the Dark: Loss, Hope, and God’s Presence in Grief by Aubrey Sampson. Copyright © 2024. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries.

Aubrey Sampson (MA, evangelism and leadership) coplanted and serves as a teaching pastor at Renewal Church, a multiethnic congregation in Chicagoland. She also speaks regularly at churches and conferences around the country. She is an award-nominated author, a coach with Propel Women Cohorts, and the cohost of The Nothing Is Wasted Podcast. Aubrey is the author of several books, most recently Big Feelings Days: A Book about Hard Things, Heavy Emotions, and Jesus’ Love (October 2023). Her most recent title, What We Find in the Dark will release from NavPress in April 2025. She is passionate about helping hurting Christians find God’s presence in their pain. She and her husband, Kevin, and their three hilarious sons live, minister, and play in the Chicagoland area. You can connect with Aubrey on her website, aubreysampson.com, and on social media @aubsamp.

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