We launched into the new year with the vision theme for 2025: "The Gospel on the Ground." Have you ever been thrust into a story that had an unusual commencement? Mark is peculiar from the other gospels with its no-nonsense, immediate path forward. Mark 1:1 says, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ" and then moves continuously with rapid action. Mark opens not with the birth story of Jesus but the birth story of the ministry of Jesus.

If that is not different enough, the arrival story of the ministry of Jesus in Mark 1:1-14 pays particular attention to the forerunner of Jesus, John the Baptist. We will be unpacking that commission, course, and communication from John the Baptist in regard to his cousin, the "Lamb of God" who came to take away the sins of the world.