This will be the last of the Catches about what I took away from my Wheaton College reunion weekend and can pass on to you. We’ve talked about memorial stones — remembering when and where God met us in the past, the importance of keeping up with mentors and peers who challenge us, and always reminding ourselves to think through our faith, even when we come up with a different conclusion than everybody else.

And so today, as I close the door on this experience, I want to say that I felt (and now feel) very proud to be Somebody among Somebodies. Now I know that sounds arrogant, but it’s not what you think.

I am a part of something bigger and better than myself, which is our worldwide Catch Ministry.  Ever since we have been gathering we have continued to offer a real time internet ministry and means of teaching, encouraging and building up the body of believers, connecting the disenfranchised, and serving the seekers and those who feel alienated. We even serve as a personal ‘triage’ to individual Catch community citizens, matching the individual to our established network of Christian churches and resources.

As Catch citizens, you blow me away. Yes, the Catch is a biblically-based worldview model toward implementing the Great Commission mandate (Matthew 28:19-20) to make disciples of all men and women, and the Genesis 1:28 mandate to be responsible citizens of the earth. But you and I are living it! We are living lives within the marketplace and giving the grace given to us by turning that grace outward — grace shared with others rather than grasping it only for ourselves.

Together, we celebrate the announcement that God isn’t mad any more (2 Corinthians 5:19), and ask: so why are we?

We have something big here — something that is making a huge difference in the world because of what the world is missing. We have a commitment to each other and to a gospel our world so desperately needs — it’s the gospel of welcome — Grace Turned Outward. No one else is bringing this message as we carry it, of healing, acceptance, love, mercy and tolerance. It is our time. The time is now.

Dear Lord, thank you for these men and women whom you have sent to us and thank you that you are allowing me to be a part of them.  Lord God — This is huge.

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1:28

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19