Pastoral Succession: Libin Abraham on Following a Legend

He’s like, “Well, what do you mean in? Like, what’s what’s happening here? Why are all these people coming?” 

“They’re coming for a church service.” 

He’s like, “Well, am I allowed to come in?” 

We were like, “Yes, please come join us.” 

He sat through the service. I was actually not even here that day. We had a guest speaker who was preaching on Acts 2 and how the Holy Spirit came. No joke, this guy runs to the front of the worship center at the end of the service in tears and asks, “Who is this God? Because I have never felt the power of an almighty God like this in my life.” 

It was just the supernatural activity of the Holy Spirit. Just knowing that God is drawing people, and we actually aren’t having to do the hard work. We just get to step into moments where the Spirit of the Living God is moving and he is actively at work. That’s been a sweet thing. 

And we have Alpha, which has been a great place for seekers to jump into. We have Alpha Youth that we’re kicking off this fall for students to jump into leading and facilitating environments of friends who are not believers but have questions. [We’re] just trying to create safe spaces where people can be. 

In terms of discipleship, we had to define what discipleship was. You would think a church who’s been here almost 50 years could easily define it, but we didn’t have [the] language. So we worked with our senior leadership team, and our definition was discipleship is a lifelong journey and it involves three things: intentional discovery, active dependence, and joyful partnership. 

The intentional discovery [piece] speaks of discovering Jesus, discovering who you are. Intentional discovery leads to a life of intimacy with him. The second thing is active dependence. And that is speaking about depending on the Holy Spirit as he transforms us from within into Christlikeness. We’re not trying to change ourselves. It’s not outside in. It is dependence on the Spirit as he transforms us. So if active dependence leads to intimacy [with the Spirit], joyful partnership leads to transformation. Joyful partnership is partnering with God for his purposes on the earth. Christ lives his life through us, and that leads to purpose and mission.

Join Libin Abraham and many other dynamic Christian leaders at this year’s Amplify Conference, October 20–21 at Wheaton College, and learn to lead with gospel clarity, live authentically, and multiply faithfully in the real challenges of ministry today.