how well do we know . . .

I have been recently having some email conversations with a colleague of mine - and this morning as I was writing to him, and complaining about being sent out here on my own - I have the realization that Jesus may possibly have known these men that he called to follow him.

While to many people that might not be anything earth shattering, or inspiring, I think there are some very important lessons that we – as people, as leaders, as members of communities – can learn.

As a church it has always seemed odd to me that we send people out one by one (not a very biblical model anyway you put it). But we also find these crazy people who take on the challenge (me being a prime example) because we believe that God is calling us to “go”.

It occurred to me this morning that Jesus most likely knew most of the people in the small town of Nazareth – (maybe this has a bigger role to play than we have paid attention to before). And growing up in that small town were also a number men (an women) who became followers. Jesus most likely knew quite a bit about James and John – and for that matter their father Zebedee. I guess it had always been my assumption that the God-ness of Jesus led him to “know” who to call. I am just beginning to understand some of the ordinary ways that god works through the ways of humanity.

Jesus maybe saw much more in these men than we might, but we also know who are the good leaders of our communities, those people that we think could be great leaders, those people that we think will change the world.

So how well do we know the people around us? As someone just getting to know this community it puts another challenge in front of me. Not only who are the movers and shakers in this place here and now, but also who are the potential changers of the world!