Today is the 2nd week of a series with Jared Scholz, Pastor of Greenhouse Church in Lawrence, KS, where we look at what it looks like to help people follow Jesus.
Jared shares how early into his adult life he was asked to be a part of a church plant and how that turned into a 9 year season. During that time Jared was getting to know who God was and God was helping him get to know himself. He had no aspirations of being a pastor.
Too often we are left to figure out life on our own, even in the areas of faith. We need elders in our lives, not necessarily those that have a title, but people who create belonging. We need them to say, “I see this in you” and tell us stories that give people us a handle on who we are. The reason Jared does what he does is because people around him pulled it out of him, built him up, and coached him.
He says, “This speaks to why I’m so passionate about making disciples and helping people follow Jesus in real time and doing it in the context of relationships. When you are in a healthy environment. . .so much of God’s dream happens over meals or as a father or mother talks with their son or daughter. Over the last 12 years it has been fun to live intentionally into forming a disciple making culture and watch the fruit happen where people get to know who they are by simply being in the family.”
Jared carries the joy of the Lord which has inspired others. He says that a “cup half full” approach to life is a choice and a habit. In his teenage years he battled depression. . .even in walking with the Lord. “I got really intentional about fighting cynicism and negativity. My enjoying the Lord has come at the cost of choosing to enjoy the Lord.”
This week ask the Holy Spirit to show you who you can speak life into. And if you need someone to be a spiritual father or mother to you, ask the Lord to bring them into your life.
