This issue is my one-year anniversary as editor of Next-Wave. I was sitting in exactly this spot when I started typing my thoughts for October 2008. I looked back at that article to see if I was in the "same spot" mentally and spiritually, whether I was still feeling what I felt back then.
Here's what I wrote last October, in reference to Jesus walking on the water in Mark 6:
Jesus does something wild and dramatic to come to the aid of his friends. He walks on the waves and then quiets the storm with his presence in the boat. I think he's ready to do these things again. I think he is glad that we've gotten ourselves out here in the middle, with no more props to cling to and no more comfortable "normal" to soothe ourselves with. I thinks he's on the water now and heading toward people all over the world who have followed his call into rough seas.
Have you experienced anything wild and dramatic in the last year? Have you seen Jesus walk on the water to come to your rescue? In some ways, I really have. There are plenty of aspects of my life that are being tossed by storms and I still feel like much of the outcome remains unknown. We're still out in the middle, too far from shore in any direction to feel safe, but I am more certain than I've ever been that it was Jesus that ordered this journey.
Being sent by Jesus
Luke 10:1 “After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.” Wherever we go, we have been sent. As we invest ourselves in these relationships, they will become the  container for all that Jesus intends to build concerning his church. The first step to investing in relationships is to approach them in the faith of the verse above. Wherever we are, it is no accident. We have been strategically sent into the jobs, homes, neighborhoods, schools, friendships, virtual worlds specifically and intentionally. We are where we are because he sent us. We approach these places and these people as if Jesus himself is about to visit them. I believe that there are many in the church that are riding a "vein" of God's power. Veins bring blood back to the heart. Although expressions of God’s power are certainly living and necessary, I think that the bulk of the experience has moved a long way from the heart of God. His heart is expressed in the person of Jesus. His heart is to seek and to save that which is lost.
The American church experience has moved God’s power so far from the heart of reaching the people that are disconnected from him, that we must ride this vein of relationships back toward his heart.
Heal the sick there, and say to them, "The kingdom of God has come near to you." - Luke 10:9
Inside these relationships all the opportunity we need to bring God’s power into real-life needs will come. It happens in preparation for the visit of Jesus himself.
Healing is not a magic trick to be performed by only a few gifted and seasoned professional magicians. Healing is a bi-product of being on the healer’s mission.
It will always take faith and risk. It will always be scary to go for it, but you will most certainly know when the relationship has been moved by the Spirit to this critical point. Your sensitivity will prepare you for the opportunity to say “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” And when it occurs, it will be natural and practical as well as supernatural and exciting. It will allow you to introduce people directly to Jesus. They will not have to jump the hurdles of philosophy and religion and doctrine. A year later, I'm still a faithful reader of Next-Wave above anything else. It's still the only magazine, web or print, that I read cover to cover. My promise from the beginning was that I would do my best to stay out of the way and allow God to do all the speaking through Next-Wave. I hope you've experienced his voice. In putting this issue together, I have.
 You can reach Scott by email at scottjbane@gmail.com
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