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Sunday School: 9:00
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TBC Pastor’s Corner

Handing Off the Baton

by Pastor Dan Bailey


For my family it’s track season. For the month of May you can find us at a track meet every Saturday watching our daughter run her races. My favorite track events are the relay races. As far as I’m concerned there is nothing more exciting in track than the relays. For one reason, it is the only track event that requires a team effort. Usually four runners, with varying degrees of speed and strength are assembled carefully to run the race, each their own leg of the race, handing off the baton to the next. The momentum picks up with each passing of the baton. The winning team has mastered not only running skills and exceptional speed, but also the ability to successfully hand off the baton to the next runner. The winning team won the race only because of the many hours of practice, preparation, and time spent together to perfect their race.

This morning I was reading an article by a Messianic Jew and he made the statement that God’s kingdom is like a relay race. His comparisons and conclusions were for his specific purposes, but his metaphor triggered my own thoughts on the comparison. Christ’s church and our mission here on earth as Christians is much like a relay race. We are not to live the Christian life alone. We are not to keep the baton of Christ all to ourselves. The Christian life is a group effort, which is why Christ assembled His church. The church is not to exist as a closed system where we enter the doors on Sunday, consume the Word and keep it to ourselves. We are to pass the baton to the next person, and the momentum increases every time it is passed.

I bring all this up because it is May. And every year when May arrives, it is bittersweet. It’s a beautiful month, the tulips and daffodils are blooming. There is a delightful mix of spring rain and sunshine. And the month is sweet with all the positive activities that annually present themselves to us. The school year is wrapping up with the promise of summer vacations. It is a time of graduations, both from high school and college. But it is bittersweet because for our church it always brings about separation. We all make close relationships with students and families through the tenure of their education here. The happiness brought forth with their graduation often meets sadness when they leave our church to begin their exciting careers in other cities. For those of us who remain here it’s stuff to let them leave and we truly feel a loss.

But that’s a part of handing the baton isn’t it? The church is for the saints to come and learn the mystery of Christ, to become His "workmanship, created in Him to do good works" (Ephesians 2:10). It is where we come to become unlike the Corinthians who were a "poor reflection" of Jesus Christ but rather become transformed to His glorious image (see Romans 12:1-2). But the church is to release the saints to go out to do His good work and fulfill His great commission. It requires a skillful handing off of the baton. We have to release those we have become a part of our lives and we do so with great joy in knowing that they will go from here as ambassadors for Christ, continuing on in the relay for Christ.

"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." Isaiah 55:12

Trinity Baptist Church
711 Fairview Dr. Moscow, Idaho 83843
208.882.2015
trinity@moscow.com