When I was 19 years old, I had this spiritually formative encounter with Jesus in an alley in Midtown, Memphis. I didn't see it coming, and it literally altered the trajectory of my life, the way I saw the world, and the way I learned to see myself and others. It revolutionized everything. And yet, along the way of being a pastor, and I love what I get to do, I can honestly tell you there were some seasons where something shifted: the wonder of it, that imagination, fell away; something began to stifle it.
I became really tired. I was worn out. I was coping in various ways with an overloaded life. The good news is that I still believed mentally, but somehow in my being, I ceased experiencing the Good News of Jesus. I'm so grateful because I had a group of friends who walked with me to rediscover, not by doing more or becoming elevated to some form or fashion but by just walking me back into this life of Christ.
For those of you who serve the Church, that's the invitation of Jesus XP. There's this little text I love in John 1 where we have that beautiful introduction about the Word. And then we have the scene with John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin, who’s got his own followers. Well, one day Jesus shows up and a couple of them are really curious about him. They approach Jesus, who essentially says, “Hey, what do you want?” Then they say, “Well, where are you staying?” And then Jesus replies, “Come and see.” And the text tells us that they stayed with him the rest of the day.
It's like friends staying up late around a fire. In my experience with Christ and what we hope Jesus XP is for those of you who serve the Church is a moment to come back to that place of hearing Jesus say, “Hey, what is it that you want in the deepest parts of your being? What are you longing for? Come with me. I’ve got all the time in the world for you.”
Jesus has all the time in the world to unpack that with you—to make room for you—so come and see. This is not often what you may feel in ministry. Our hope is that that Jesus XP is an invitation to recover and to live in that soulful life with Jesus that probably got us into ministry in the first place. I think we’d all agree that when we live that way, we become lighter, freer. When I serve my community, that can't help but flow out of me as a hopeful presence for them. We think Jesus XP will help us recover our souls and then walk with other people to do the same.
We believe that Jesus XP feeds a curiosity for Christianity. I've seen a lot of my friends become more curious about Jesus. There is no arrival point in spiritual formation; we are always becoming. And
I've seen people who weren't curious about Jesus begin to lean in. Jesus XP unlocks curiosity for the person who may have made up their mind about faith. It does the same thing for the spiritually curious: it unlocks the wonder for people, including us pastors. Jesus will capture your imagination for transformation and spiritual formation, not just for your community but also for you.