People's encounters with Jesus were life-changing because they started with him listening to them and to their real needs, made possible because he started by listening to his Father

Jesus called his disciples to follow from ordinary places, not superstars but ordinary people, formed by Jesus as they followed him. He extends the same call to us.

Following Jesus starts with the humility of confession and repentance, humility creates identity, identity creates authority, authority creates opportunity.

The Gospel of Mark is the Good News because it’s all about Jesus, and the Jesus story needs good messengers, just as John the Baptist proclaimed his coming.

The Acts 2 believers were committed to the truth and application of Scripture in their new life together, and took advantage of meeting together to learn.

The original New Testament church grew rapidly, in part because of the great corporate habits they adopted, including Audible, Bold, and Clear corporate prayer.

We are invited to consider Jesus, the one who endured the cross for us, who lives in every believer and in whom we have our life.

Following Jesus is not a "do-it-yourself" race - we are on a track marked out for us, and we run with our eyes on Jesus.

Every runner, hiker or traveler knows the secret to success is to lighten up for speed and endurance. The same is true spiritually, so we must learn to lay aside sin that trips us up and weight that slows us down.

Summary: As we begin to run the race it is encouraging to know we have home field advantage - the stands are full of witnesses the race of faith, and the Bible gives us a way to be mentored by the heroes of faith