an address to a group of graduating college sophomores

It is so fun to watch a group come up through CCF. It’s amazing to see a group of green little kids come in these doors for the first time and then watch them grow and change, observe and think, to experience and to react. I have the most fun seeing how you relate to me. At first you treat me like your favorite cartoon character and you’ll hang on me like one of those poor guys in the Bugs Bunny suit at Six Flags. I’ll hear your individualized voices call with laughter in the middle of our lame jokes during the skit. We’ll go freshman camping and have a blast as the park ranger hands us our fine. We’ll experience these fresh parties where you try to pick me up in the middle and carry me to your respective sides. Then we’ll head over to Waffle House and we’ll sing “You Don’t Have to Call Me Darlin (Darlin)”, and toss ice cubes across the brightly lit dining room. I even remember a certain small group of girls going swimming in the Gulf of Mexico in the middle of the night, and I remember Liz Dawson’s scandalous bikini bottom making it’s way into the wrong hands the next morning.

And then you become a branch bark. You look around and realize that there are some new faces and some that have already become memories. More than once, you have gone home for Christmas break and come home one short. You entered a new chapter, and like all chapters, some faces remain in the story and others go onto a new page. But

God has drawn some out and others in.

Lauren Halford and Daniel Neuberger.

Neuberger, you wander in here randomly one day and the next thing I know, you’re in my car to the sex retreat. And then you’re everywhere.

You’re Omniberger.

Ya’ll have joined the family and you’re going to do great things.

Impossible things. Things we haven’t even dreamed of yet.

Branch Barks.

I see you Jesse. I see you sweeping those rocks every Thursday and sweating like a pig. I see you Kami. Cleaning up the house on Monday nights, top to bottom, all by your lonesome.

I see you Ashley Niklinski, rinsing the dishes and sending them through the Hobart.

I see you Nicholas and Caldwell, cleaning the kitchen, even cleaning my last dinner plate as it comes in right at the end.

I see you remember people’s names as they walk up to their second or third bible study ever. I see their faces light up at you Jordan, Carole, all the rest of you.

I see you Danielle, serving Caesar salad with a smile on Mondays.

And I am not naïve to believe that this is all that you’ve done. That you have done things that no other group of branch barks have ever done.

For a group that gave up their time and energy to go to the gulf, for some of you, more than once, and serve people in need directly.

For a group that was part of Mission Maasai.

For a group who ran around to frat houses, who posted fliers all over campus, who volunteered their time and their money to help people who are closer to the Indian Ocean than the Atlantic.

For a group that took two hours on the island at Woodland way back in August.

Way back in August.

Can you remember the way you felt going into the year?

Did you have a clue that you would be just like Jesus?

Did you know that you would be his hands and his feet?

Could you imagine that you would be Jesus to the down and out of New Orleans, to the college kids of Atlanta, to the beautifully traditional and nomadic of Kenya and Tanzania?

Could you have believed that a man who doesn’t even wear underwear, would be leading us in song and worship before God, late on a Thursday night?

These years don’t come to an abrupt halt. They are rivers that flow and merge into new ones, and as that happens, things change.

New chapters unfold and characters that have been pivotal, that have changed lives, that have been brothers and sisters and friends, and more, are going to go out into the near and far places of this world and are going to make new legacies.

They are going to Puebla, they are going to Chile. To Mexico City. They are going to England and Thailand and Italy and Spain and Germany.

They are going to Africa.

They are going to Atlanta and they are going to the suburbs, and they are going all over this country.

And all of you are going to go out into a new world of ccf.

A new dimension, a new chapter, a new beginning, where some things will continue, some things will change, and it will be up to you to build your legacy in this place.

No longer will you quietly wait for your job assignments and ask for the permission to be who you are.

No longer is this the ministry of Marisa Aston, of Jesse Dukes, of Becky Fernandez or Rebecca Felipez.

This is your house now.

You are a leader in a whole new stratosphere.

These crazy nextbarks coming in behind you, they look to you. The freshman that are going to take over our ping pong and fooseball tables for months to come, who have yet to ever walk through our doors our see the swing or ever dream that a place like this exists, they are going to be looking to you.

Who you are to them is what you choose to create.

We have to realize that it’s not about CCF.

This is not the end all and be all of the Christian Faith. It’s just there is something about this place that is meaningful.

There is something about this place that screams Jesus at me. It shouts love. It shouts challenge and compassion.

It whispers the truth in people’s ear when they are hurting, when they feel like they’ve lost something.

It’s not CCF. It is Jesus.

Its running after the Kingdom of God with every last ounce of energy and passion in our hearts and bodies while we have the gift of life to do it.

Who will be the people who choose to be at the center of God’s motion next year and in the years to come? Let it be you. Who will be giving this same speech to the class of 2015? Let it be you.

If there is ever the inkling of a dream to go do Globalscope for a semester, then do it.

If you think about it and hesitate, then come tell me and I’ll lovingly slap you across the face. Not this semester? Fine. We’ll find one. Not enough money? I’ll help you raise it. Your impact will be will be a rock dropping in water, the ripples carrying themselves for miles.

Dream of new adventures. Dream of new places to go and new missions, new causes. Educate yourselves in the world and have your eyes open to the emergencies that are occurring over the globe as we speak.

Learn and act. Err on the side of risk. Always.

What is the costs of taking chances? A semester? A little sweat? Paper money? A few years? A lifetime?

The costs are nothing in the face of the benefits. Feeding the hungry. Healing the sick. Standing up against and conquering injustice and inequality. Real relationships. Offering water. Living water. Changing the world.

This has been the heart of Jesus ever since he handcrafted you in your mother’s womb. Ever since he breathed on the disciples and told them to get outside of the walls of that upper room. Ever since he rose from the dead, since he died on the cross, since he was lying helpless in a manger.

It’s the heart of God, and I believe it will be the heart of CCF if you decide to be who you are.

And that is a child of God.

You’ve learned how to serve. Don’t stop. Serve your friends and love them. Serve strangers and love them. Serve the world and show them that God is in the business of making the impossible real. To increasing his name in the Earth. One of my favorite quotes goes like this:

Never think that a small group of dedicated men and women cannot change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.