“The life of faith isn’t meant for tourists. It’s meant for pilgrims”

-Eugene Peterson

There seems to be a litany of possibilities for every decision we make, and more often than not our way leaves us wanting. Throughout the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus enters into that chaos. Held within its pages is an invitation to a new way, so much so that early believers were simply called “Followers of the Way”. They weren’t marked by merely believing in a few theological truths, rather they were marked by being with Jesus, becoming like Jesus, and doing as He did.

Why dive into this book? Matthew is very intentionally a discipleship manual. Of the four Gospels, Matthew is written for this particular purpose - a handbook for equipping the followers of the Way to make disciples of the Way.

This is a sacred journey we are beginning as a church. Eugene Peterson writes, “The life of faith isn’t meant for tourists. It’s meant for pilgrims”.  This life of faith will transform our hearts and minds as we encounter the one who is simultaneously the fulfillment and incarnation, sparking a divine revolution - Jesus.

In the coming of Jesus, the kingdom of God stops being a future reality to hope for, but rather a current truth transforming our world. The kingdom is at hand, and we are invited on this pilgrimage to discover a new way - the way of Jesus.