Yesterday, I shared with one of our C3 Forums. The passage that is currently on my heart and mind is the Prologue to John’s Gospel. It’s on the forefront because it is the focus of our newly launched B2B Devotional (read more below).

Although 85 degrees this week, the change of season was also on my mind. Fall has begun. It is a season of starts. We switch to Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Football kicks off (kind of, this year). And people start new ventures, like joining a C3 Forum (again, read more below).

As I looked at the Prologue to John, in this season, with this C3 Forum on a Wednesday morning, I was struck by the launch of fall, the audacity of the author and the belief of the message.

Launch. John 1:14 says that Jesus moved into our neighborhood. The Prologue to John reveals that Jesus existed as the Word since the beginning of time. He lived in perfect community with the trinity. Jesus left that perfect community and came to this place. Jesus launched.

In the fall, leaves depart from the comfort of their limb, that home on their tree. They launch and provide beauty and new life, either as seeds or future soil. Fall is a season of launch. Where is God calling you to launch this fall? Where may you need to “move into the neighborhood?”

Audacity. John makes audacious claims in his Prologue. You can say to yourself, “Who does John think he is…?” John makes critical claims of the Christian faith. These claims that have been argued throughout the history of the church until this very day.

At the the C3 Forum, yesterday, was a guy that is the marketing genius of our region for this generation. He is constantly coming up with new and exciting business strategies that serve people and make audacious claims. It’s a ton of fun to have this kind of leadership in your small group.

What audacious claims are you making on behalf of God’s Kingdom today? There is much to say in this season. Where is God calling you to speak the Truth?

Believe. This is the most important word in John’s Gospel. It is core to his theology and it is just one word, “Believe.” John 3:16b, “…that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

In the Gospel of John, he never combines an adjective or adverb with his use of “believe.” It’s not, “sincerely believe” or “really believe” or “just believe.” It is consistently believe period.

There is a level of trust in believing. In the midst of a pandemic, how are you believing? What do you need to believe for? This is a season to believe.

This fall, how will you launch? Will that launch be audacious? And in the midst of that audacious launch will you believe in the One who moved into your neighborhood?

Something we can consider together this fall while reading the new B2B Devotional (subscribe here) over a Pumpkin Spice Latte.