Pursuit Graduation 2024

Discipleship begins with a simple “yes” to the invitation of Jesus to ‘come and follow me’. We celebrated this journey undertaken by this year’s Pursuit team of 11 students at our graduation celebration in December.

Grace-filled growth. Transformation. Fun. Encouraging. Safe. Inspiring. These are a few of the words that describe our time together. Hebrews 12 says “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down … and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us” (NLT). We are thankful for the network of support from family, friends, and churches, our ‘huge crowd of witnesses’, that has made it possible for us to go on this adventure together.

Our graduation celebration was an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the growth, the challenges, and the process of discipleship. Our year began with an invitation to ‘Seek first God’s Kingdom’ (Matthew 6:33) and to step out into the unknown, a challenge to embrace the opportunity of growing together. We celebrated a journey well-traveled.

SBC celebrated eleven graduates from their Pursuit discipleship program in December

Pursuit is a discipleship program for young adults who desire to follow Jesus. We grow in our faith, develop as leaders, and discover our gifts. We ‘seek first’ God’s kingdom using experiential learning, practical application, and missional experience. We believe that we have much to learn from each other. Our students showed up, leaned in, and taught each other well this year. They were active participants in God’s transforming work in their lives. God answered our prayers and met us along the path of faith.

Discipleship is rooted in community. It’s messy and it’s beautiful and it’s people. Our students spend time learning from leaders who are living out the kingdom and invitation of Jesus in missional ways all over the world. One of our highlights is sharing the work of discipleship with our many trusted partners in teaching, leading, and serving. Our partners bring the body of Christ to life for us.

In Brazil we partner with a camp ministry called Quest with a vision to see campers ‘experience the journey’ of following Jesus. Together we hosted an English Camp and did various projects around their property. God used the Quest team to transform our hearts in ways that we are only beginning to understand. Seeing God’s kingdom in the country of Brazil, learning from the Quest team, and seeing His creation showed us the size and scope of His plan for us.

In Winnipeg, God used Inner City Youth Alive to show us what a ministry of solidarity looks like. They modeled for us a ministry of being good neighbors. Seeing God’s people do God’s work in the North End through the ministry of the ICYA team was a tremendous encouragement to us and we are so thankful.

Pursuit is only the beginning of a lifelong discipleship journey. We respond to the invitation given to us by Jesus to follow him. We do so in a posture of surrender and we do so in community.

We are loved by God. So let this be our practice: Receive God’s love for you. Respond by sharing His love with the people around you.

God bless you as you follow Him.

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This article was originally published in The Recorder Vol 62 No1