The road of life is paved with good intentions…
But what if good intentions are not enough?
My Story
By exchanging personal weaknesses for God's grace, The Xchange was born. I found myself becoming overwhelmed and frustrated with the Christian life. When I first became a pastor, some 20+ years ago, I had the best of intentions to change the world for Jesus, meaning that Christmas was filled with only "Christian" gifts, reading the Bible a specific number of times, planting a church, going to church, and trying to raise Christian kiddos. My Christianity became focused on meeting specific standards, no matter how my heart felt about it. Over time, I began to wonder if motivation mattered. As an adult, life got so busy that I just did things rather than expressing who God made me to be. It all became exhausting. By God's intervening grace, I am now on a journey to let Christ live through me and Xchanging a self-focused life for a Christ-focused life!
The weaknesses that I speak of included no longer pastoring, almost losing a child to suicide, making many questionable choices, and using life experiences to prove my worthiness. It didn't work. I am thankful for how God stepped in and gave me this ministry. As the Lord leads me to build this ministry, I currently seek to practice what God teaches me by serving at Cambridge Christian School, the church, and at home. Definitely a lot of trial and error! I am fortunate to have this opportunity to continue the calling God gave me as I navigate life's complexities with truth, mercy, and grace, while clinging to God's sovereignty. I hope we can journey together to build our identity in Christ so that the Holy Spirit unleashes His church upon the darkness our world lives in. I hope you will join me in this battle!
The Xchange
The Xchange is a Christian discipleship-counseling ministry that seeks to glorify God by building a life defined by being “In Christ.” Because our thoughts, feelings, and actions are driven by how we see ourselves, it is imperative, urgent, and necessary to see our identity as connected to Jesus rather than to anything this world offers.
We, Christians, need to glorify God by renewing our minds to think more like Jesus. When we do, our emotions will come to love what Jesus loves. As our emotions align with our thoughts, we become motivated to obey the Bible and seek to please our Savior in all things.
The focus of the Xchange is on identifying how a self-driven life interferes with a Spirit-driven life. Does this mean I have it all figured out? No, but I am trusting the Bible that this is the life God has called us to and asking as many people as possible to walk with God in this way.
We can no longer be satisfied with just having good intentions. We need to see Jesus alive in His church, in His people. It starts with me, it starts with you, each yielded to God in all things, mind, emotion, and actions! Together we can be the church with our brothers and sisters in Christ as Christ leads us into the future!
Will you join me in trusting the work of Christ to Xchange my self-driven life for one led by Jesus?
What you will discover…
The Xchange ministry desires to see God as our compass for navigating life. He created us and knows us best. He indwells us with His Holy Spirit to protect us along the journey, lead us to better choices, and affirm that our salvation is “In Christ!”
As Christians, we look to Jesus as our source of life and for direction in all we do. But we can easily wander off His path. We rely on things like jobs, relationships, emotions, roles, experiences, successes, rejections, and more to guide us through life's circumstances. This never ends well, because we don’t always interpret our situations as the Lord would. So recieving his guidance is paramount to our success!
Now, whether we like it or not, there are consequences for this. A bad thought, a controlling emotion, and a poor choice often lead to a slide into struggle. The challenge is not to see the struggle as our new normal, could the Lord bring hope, satisfaction, and ultimately a new form of direction and leadership to our daily life? Absolutely!
Peter reminds us of this when he says, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11, ESV). The flesh is our old patterns of life apart from Christ, which makes things messy. It’s gonna take Christ to sort it all out, Xchanging self-understanding for a view of life focused on Him!
I pray you will explore this idea of identity further. Please subscribe to the newsletter to make sure you never miss a beat as we grow together, becoming stronger “in Christ"!
Maybe you have questions…