We Said Yes

In one paragraph

Glenn Blake filled in for the pastoral staff this Sunday morning and shared his family's adoption story as a way into James 1. The message was personal and direct: saying yes to what God asks, even without enough money or strength or certainty, is how faith becomes a living thing. Glenn drew the thread from his own family's experience all the way out to a broader call for the congregation to keep...

Read together

1. Revelation 4 read at the opening to lead the congregation into worship
2. James 1 main passage read in full, covering testing, temptation, endurance, wisdom, and pure religion
3. Philippians 3 Paul counts his earthly credentials as worthless because of what Christ has done
4. Ephesians 1 closing benediction about God deciding in advance to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ

Talk about it

1. Glenn described a season early in his marriage when he and Liz were both genuinely open to whatever God wanted, and he thinks that openness shaped everything that followed. What does that kind of openness actually look like in day-to-day life, and what makes it hard to sustain?
2. The adoption process hit repeated walls: an agency going bankrupt, Ethiopia closing its doors, barely qualifying on income by $56. Glenn pointed to James 1 and the idea that tested faith is where endurance grows. Has there been a moment in your own life where an obstacle turned out to be part of the path rather than the end of it?
3. Glenn said that when he and Liz said yes, other people around them also said yes alongside them, and that he sees those people as part of the same testimony. When have you been that kind of support for someone else, or when has someone filled that role for you?
4. Glenn was honest that he sometimes feels like a fraud, pulled toward comfort and ease even while knowing what God has called him to. How do you personally deal with that tension between what feels safe and what God seems to be asking?
5. Glenn asked the group to think about something God has placed on their heart, maybe even years ago, that still feels right but also scary. What would it look like for you to take one concrete step toward that thing, and what is the real cost of not taking it?