1.     To try to do good and make the world a better place.

2.     Family, kids, and a career you enjoy.

7.     There is no purpose in life. If anything, the purpose is procreation.

12.   My brain would explode if I thought about it.

21.   To live out the fruits of the Spirit in your life.

22.   To live according to how God wants your life to be.

When we began this internship in February 2010, each intern had a somewhat clear vision for our destination: reaching our twentysomething generation for Christ.  What we didn’t have was the GPS roadmap to get there. It quickly became clear this wasn’t a static road with clear turns, but rather more like a fluid ocean with constantly changing variables with our destination hidden somewhere over the horizon.

Though frustrated at times feeling like the Israelites wandering in the unknown of the desert on their way to the Promised Land, we chose to believe God would remain faithful by reading Scripture, spending time in prayer, and listening for "whispers" of His Spirit.

A few months back we began visiting Bellevue College and the University of Washington to interact with students, prayer walk around the campus, and listen for what God might want to do there. On one such trip we stumbled upon  “Chapel on the Ave," a low-key location that is located on a major restaurant strip only one block from campus!

Upon introducing ourselves, we discovered the secretary was a "Person of Peace" (Luke 10:6) who previously attended ALPHA while in London, UK and spoke favorably of it to her boss. As with anything, we knew this connection alone wasn’t enough, so we began to build a relationship with them. We started attending their Tuesday night worship gathering. We never mentioned or pushed our agenda (unless briefly asked). After a month they approached us to discuss our ALPHA vision and have agreed to let us use their facility so that we can launch a course there on Thursday nights beginning Oct. 7, 2010 to target the students at the nearby university. 

This would not have been possible had we not remained faithful God would provide and if we had not taken the time to attend their gatherings and build a relationship with them.

Part of the reason I love ALPHA enough to pull myself out of the comfort of my routine in Southern California to come to VINTAGE is because I love to see lives being transformed by Christ. But even more than seeing lives transformed, I want to be part of the process of seeing these lives transformed. I want to produce “spiritual fruit,” as the Bible refers to it. But during our morning devotions today, I was reminded who really produces the fruit.

John 15 talks about God the Father being like the gardener and Jesus being like a vine and all believers are connected to the vine. John 15:4-5 says, “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” 

So often I find myself striving and working hard to try and make “spiritual stuff” happen, both in my life and the lives of others around me. And when I don’t always see “fruit” happening, I can get discouraged or depressed. For all the people we see come to faith on a typical ALPHA course (documented to be around 50% of attendees – and praise God for that!), I can still sometimes get bummed by the 50% of attendees who don’t find God by the end of their time at ALPHA. I sometimes think that I somehow failed. But what God is saying through Scripture is that I’m not responsible for people coming to faith. God is responsible for producing the fruit.

“Produce” is an active verb. God alone produces the fruit. “Bear” is a passive verb. Our responsibility according to this Scripture is to bear fruit. We have a passive role in the process of people coming to faith. This is affirmed elsewhere in Scripture.  Colossians 2:19 tells us to stay connected to Jesus who is the Head of the Body of Christ and it is from Jesus that “the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.” This is saying that more believers will come into the Body of Christ only as “God causes it to grow.”

So if you are like me and constantly striving to produce fruit, please remember today that you can’t produce fruit!  You can, however, allow God to bear fruit through your life as long as you “remain in the vine” that is Jesus Christ.