By Misty Umholtz

 I recently read Jen Hatmaker's book Interrupted: When God wrecks your comfortable Christianity.  I have to confess, I was interrupted. This book fascinated me, opened my eyes and made me uncomfortable. If you have a relationship with Jesus but feel like there is a missing component in your life, if you feel like there is a void in your Christianity or if you are in ministry and feel burned out or just depleted all the time, this book might just offer you the answer to what you are looking for. This is the story of how God led Jen and her husband Brandon to start a new kind of church called the Barefooted Church. Where it is not focused on bringing people into a building but it is about being the church by getting out in the community and serving others. They are literally the hands and feet of Jesus attending to the poor, the lonely, the abandoned, the sick, the widow, the orphan, the elderly, the needy, the veteran and the forgotten. One of their core beliefs in the Bible they base their church upon is Matthew 25 when Jesus says, “When you have served the least of these, you have served me. When you have not served the least of these, you have not served me.” They believe that our lives are most effected and changed when we get out of our comfort zones and serve others less fortunate than us. Jen shares how Jesus modeled evangelism through relationship and hanging out with sinners not hiding out from them. As a result, she and her family build bridges and befriend neighbors, co-workers, and anyone else in their life all for the purpose of bringing the gospel to them right where they are.  They are choosing to be interrupted. Honestly, I tend to be an extremist. When I read a book like this, I want to sell all I have and move into a homeless shelter. That is why God gave me a practical husband to help me out. So I ask myself,  "What is it I can actually do to apply the information I just absorbed?" My first step is to intentionally serve our neighbors and build relationships with them. Next, our family is going to participate in Second Saturday through our church. Third, my husband and I are going to pray for a specific ministry outside of the church building that God would call us both to do together. I have also asked seven or eight friends from church to read this book and form a small group, to take this journey with me and wrestle through some hard issues together. My hope is that our family will become more consumed in serving others for His Kingdom purposes than in consuming stuff for our earthly pleasure. My prayer is that we would lose some of our pride and selfishness along the way and we would find great fulfillment and satisfaction in focusing on what really matters for eternity, and that is people’s souls. How is God asking you to get out of your comfort zone?