This week's edition of the Cru Blog features a guest post from Jim Geyer, Campus Pastor at Summit Church's Spartanburg Campus. To find out more about Summit, visit http://www.summitupstate.org , follow them on twitter, and like them on facebook! That moment that any sports fan has seen or experienced. That one big play, the sway of the big “Mo” (momentum for those not versed in sports dialect!), the unforced error. These are all game changers. Those moments when what appeared to be a certain outcome was suddenly transformed into a whole different outcome by that one slice of the action that changed everything – especially the outcome of the game at hand. Game changers have oftentimes taken the certain win from one team and given it to another. So what is a “win” in the Christ-follower's walk? What can change this “win”? The first thing that we must understand is that a win for the Body is certainly not man-made. It is the purpose of why God is on the mission of redemption to redeem all peoples back to Himself. The win comes when every man, woman and child is given the repeated opportunity to see, hear and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ without them having to come or go anywhere! I think that we would all buy into the first part of the game plan for the Christ-follower and the Church. Where things go a little against our hard-wiring is when we say that this can and will best be accomplished when those who God is passionately pursuing come to Him by the means of our being the Gospel. Our being the vehicle by which God has no other plan. That becomes the game changer in the walk of the believer. If we truly believe that the Gospel is the story of God, who created the man who fell by his own choice away from the intended fellowship eternally with God, but who was then offered redemption through the work of Christ on the cross and will one day be fully restored into that eternal intent of Creator God, then we must know that this news changes everything. All of life. Because if the Gospel changes anything, it must change everything. And we, the Christ follower, must make this game-changer for the world in which we live our passion; our goal. The way the game has been played for too long in the world of the redeemed is that if we can just get people to come with us to hear the paid professional tell them of the Gospel, then they can be redeemed. Or if we program enough Gospel-related events, programs, concerts, “hooks” to catch the fish, provide all the written instruction books at the local Christian book store, then the Gospel will effectively be proclaimed. For all too long we have placed the responsibility on the backs of those called, trained or anointed. But that is proving more and more, as we see people moving further from the doors of the American toward church and more toward what the European church looks like: mission-less and dying. The big “Mo” has been in the hands of the enemy, aided by the Church. If we as Christ followers truly want to be change agents in the world around us than we must be the Gospel, we must live like the Gospel goes in us! Then, and only then, will the game change, will the win of seeing every man, woman and child having the opportunity to see, hear and respond to the Gospel, will the reason why God has us sovereignly placed where we are become the adrenaline that gets us out of bed every day. Draw a circle of a 4 mile radius around where you live, work, shop, go to school; do life. Who lives in that circle with you? Who works there? Who shops there? Who goes to school there? What business, government and other entities exist there? This is your God-given circle of accountability. This is the place where you, 24-7, must allow the Gospel to go in you. By the way you live, interact with, react to, share with, hang out with those within this circle will the Gospel go most effectively and passionately. This is the game changer – not staring at the back of someone’s head for 30-40 minutes within a walled cathedral listening to the paid professional. The game is changed when you and I, as Christ followers, fully devote ourselves to laying claim to that area and those people within our sovereign circle. It changes when we live as if the Gospel truly does go in us. I encourage you to read 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 and take time to let the power of this plan sink into your heart. It is a game changer. It is the formula for the “win." Let’s take the game back…let’s be the game changers!
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