Graduation!

First of all, we want to give a giant “congratulations” to Jennie Clerzeau and Melissa Sullivan for finishing High School! They are both graduating from Winter Park High School and from here forward will be known as part of the graduating class of 2014! Both of them will be pursuing higher education, Jennie at Valencia College, locally here in Orlando, and Melissa at USC (University of Southern California) in LA. Both have been great students and though have endured some trials of being “teenage disciples” have held on to their faith and I am sure will both have a great impact for the Lord in the Campus Ministry! Please congratulate our new graduates and keep them in your prayers as they move forward to the next phase in life.

Melissa Sullivan (Sorry we don’t have a picture of Jennie!)

Graduation can be seen as an ending or a beginning. It is the end of a long fought battle to receive a degree or get to the next step, proving you have earned the right to be called a graduate. It is also a beginning that leads us to even greater challenges and the excitement of the future! For disciples “graduation” could be seen as the end of a challenging battle with your character or struggles with sin. For others it is simply maturing in Christ…until “Christ is formed in you” Galatians 4:19. Each of us have been called to imitate the Lord and are commanded to have discipling relationships so we can overcome sin, see ourselves clearly through the reflection of the Word and to be called higher in our daily walk with God. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of ChristEphesians 4:11-13. We are called to mature and become more like Christ. This is a high calling and yet to mature in Christ is the goal of our faith as a mature disciple will be very fruitful. Thus fulfilling their purpose to save many and bring glory to God. There is so much to do! A world to evangelize, disciples to love and inspire and living out our destiny. What an exciting and dangerous path we have chosen!

I want this brief article to inspire and challenge each of us in the Orlando church to make it our goal to mature and to mature radically as we push forward into 2014. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:14-16. So many leaders are needed and every disciple is vitally key as we seek with all our hearts to be able to take part in the final “Graduation”…getting to heaven to be with the Lord and striving with all our energy to take many with us! Let’s graduate “spiritually” with class and mature powerfully as Jennie and Melissa have. Congratulations to both of you!

He stoops down to make us great, Matt Sullivan