It’s scary to start new things.  They’re different.  They might not work.  They might actually work and grow and become bigger than you could’ve imagined or prepared for.  Starting new things is hard…

And yet… don’t we need to?  Jesus basically started new things every day for the years he was working publicly and developing his disciples.  Everything was new.  And it was excited.  It was impossible to prepare for.  It failed and succeeded in ways that no one involved could predict.

The scary process of starting new things is part of the history of Group Mission Trips.  For almost 30 years we only did one kind of mission trip – our Workcamp program.  And we new exactly how that worked.  How to prepare and plan.  How to lead.  Bu then several years ago we felt God leading us to start a new ministry.  A new direction for us.  A new way to serve those with needs.  That’s how Week of Hope was born.

The crazy, fun thing is since the moment we chose to start something new (Week of Hope) we haven’t stopped.  From that choice Lifetree Adventures, Leading Edge Outreach, and The Big Day of Serving have all come (and gone).  One of those was a “failure” in the sense that it didn’t work for us and the churches we serve.  But we still tried and there are even more new things on the horizon now.

What about your ministry?  When the last time you dared to venture out and start something completely new?  Change the night of your main youth group meeting?  That’s crazy talk.  Stop doing your favorite outreach program for something new?  Impossible.  Take your students on a mission trip far from home?  Just too difficult.  Or it it…

What “new thing” could God be calling you to if you listened?