Welcome to the Awaken Ministries blog!  My name is Jeremy Garrett.  The purpose of this blog is to give you the background of how God has led me to this point and what my basic ministry plan is as we move into 2013.  Full disclosure—I have no idea where this is going!!  I am trying to be obedient to God in every aspect of this process.  I have spent time in prayer, time in study through the Centurion Program, talked to Godly people that I trust and had many conversations with my wife, Laura! One of the inspirations for this ministry is William Wilberforce and the excellent movie based on Eric Metaxas’ book “Amazing Grace”.  William Wilberforce got the attention of his nation—Great Britain—and the world to see the African slave trade for the abhorrence that it was.  He did this by prayer, teaching, working with a small group of Christians who shared his passion and by calling the nation to change its ways.  It was a long, difficult process and victory was never guaranteed.  But God used him to spread His Kingdom on earth.  But first—before Wilberforce took on the fight to end the slave trade in Britain—God put other people in his life to disciple him.  William—like most Americans kids today—did not grow up in a Christian home.  It took other Christians who were intentional about disciple-making to teach Wilberforce the faith.  That is what Awaken Ministries is about.  Awaken exists to equip Christians with Biblical worldview teachings that will allow them to successfully make disciples in their sphere of influence…and to be prepared if God opens new doors outside their sphere of influence.   (I say this because in the last 16 months the Lord has allowed Laura and me to visit and more importantly form relationships with and help advance His Kingdom in the Czech Republic and Brazil!)

What Awaken is…

Are you spiritually awake?  Is your Christian faith impacting the way you live your life and see the world?  Do you want to be awakened to live your life for Christ in a strong and courageous way?  It is so easy to go through our days without pausing to examine where we are going and what we believe–much less why we believe it. The mission at Awaken Ministries is to awake the sleeping giant within each of us to be who God has called us to be.   To awaken people’s hearts and minds and make the Word of God come alive in their lives by challenging people to see God in all His holiness.  He didn’t just come to save us from our sins.  God also gave us a Cultural Commission along with the Great Commission.  The Cultural commission calls for us to “be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth”.  Awaken Ministry’s vision is to inspire people back to “the faith given once and for all” by having them grapple with the basic tenants of the great Christian faith.   Our culture today is moving faster and faster into the “not-so-promised” land of natural secularism where truth is subjective and tolerance is tolerant of everything except the Truth.

How will Awaken seek to accomplish this …

First of all, Awaken Ministries will be rooted in prayer.  America needs revival and every revival we have seen in the history of this country was preceded by intentional prayer.  The prayers of His people earnestly pursuing after God because He is our only hope is what America needs.

Secondly, Awaken will seek to teach Christian orthodoxy to others so they can in turn be equipped to disciple others.  For the purposes of this ministry—Christian orthodoxy refers to the teachings of the historic creeds of the Church that were rooted in Scripture.  This will be done in a three-pronged manner:

1. Through resources that have been produced by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview (Being a part of the Centurion Program has been an invaluable experience for me and I want others to benefit from resources at the Colson Center!)
2. A weekly blog that will have commentary about the issues of the day from a Christian perspective
3. Newly created resources that will be produced to meet the needs of the people the ministry is serving

How can you be involved in Awaken?

There are several things you could do if you feel led by God to do so:

1.  Pray that lives would be changed for Christ as a result of this ministry and that I would be a faithful servant of Jesus.

2. Let me know if you would like to receive the weekly blogs and ministry updates via email by responding back to me either through email or on the “comments” section on this blog.

3. Spread the word about the class offerings listed below and let me know if you or your church would be interested in having me come facilitate a class for you.

Awaken Ministries class offering: (This could be done as a single 2-hour session or broken into two hour long sessions)

Christians That Changed the World…and How You Can, Too

“Never underestimate the power of one Godly life.” Chuck Swindoll. In this class, participants learn from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Mother Teresa, William Wilberforce, and many other Christians that literally changed the world by being obedient to Christ. We learn from them and then take what we’ve learned and apply it to our lives and situations. We can be agents of change in the world!

If you made it this far and you are still reading, thank you so much for your precious time!  I know you have many other things you could be doing now.

Awaken to a whole new life…

Ephesians 5:8-17

In Christ,

Jeremy