A Season Of New Birth

Here at A.R.E. we spend a lot of time helping other people answer important questions like...who are we?...what is our purpose?...what do we value?...what will we do?...and how will we do it? But lately we've been asking OURSELVES these questions. In other words, we've been engaged in a renewal effort of our own.

A.R.E. is incorporating in a new way, beginning in January 2008. Even our name will be a little different. We'll be A Renewal Enterprise (A.R.E.), Inc. We'll be organized differently, as well. In addition to a team of part-time associates, there will be three of us working full-time: Dave Daubert, Tana Kjos, and me. As members of A.R.E.'s board of directors, we three have been working together over the past month to articulate a new purpose statement, a new set of guiding principles, and new missional directions for this "new" company.

All along the way, we've been listening for God's voice together, in prayer and through the biblical story.

In fact, when we met this past week, we read Matthew 1:18-2:23 together...in the spirit of the season, of course. And we spent time in conversation around these key questions: what is God doing here?...what do you hear God saying to you, personally, through this story?...what do you hear God saying to US, as a team?

It was a rich conversation! And we each felt so blessed to be in it.

Just a few of the things we heard:

- Be responsive to God! Make plans but be prepared to have God change them. (We ALL heard this!)

- God sends messengers to "wake people up." Is A.R.E. a sort of "wake up call" for the church? Or are we, instead, being sent to help walk alongside of those whom God has already "woken up" and who are asking, "Now what do we do?!" Either way, we're ready to let God use us.

- In what way is God trying to wake US up?? How can we be and act like "woken up" people, ourselves?!

I can't imagine trying to do visioning, strategic planning, or goal setting without spending time really listening for God together with my teammates. This is a pretty exciting time at A.R.E. It's a season of new birth for us, you might say.

Seems fitting, huh?

- Kelly Fryer