James 5:19-20

My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back from wandering will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.

As I look around St. Petersburg and interact with people, there seems to be a common theme. Maybe it’s the same all over, or maybe this phenomenon only occurs out here on the peninsula, but there seems to be a large number of people who used to go to church, but don’t anymore.

I went through the same thing. When I was a kid, I was forced to go to church, at first by my parents, and then by my school. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing except that I never really connected to church. More specifically, I never really connected with God. I just went through the motions.

Then I went to high school and college and wandered away from God because, really, I never actually knew him. I felt like he was a real thing, but didn’t feel like he and I had a relationship.

But God used people in my life to draw me back to him. For that, I am eternally grateful.

People in churches seem to think that we have to go out of the country to do mission work. And, they are right, some people are called to take God’s message of love to people who have never heard the name of Jesus before.

But there is a huge mission field in St. Petersburg. And while most people have heard the name of Jesus, many of them, even though they went to church for years, never really experienced God.

How do I know that? Because if they had, they would never have wandered so far away.

We are a people on mission moving out in ever widening circles to change our world.

The ever widening circle of Radius is expanding throughout St. Petersburg and we are dedicated to helping people who have wandered away from the truth experience God in a very real and meaningful way. We do this by being a visible, tangible evidence of Jesus Christ in St. Petersburg.

Come join us as we look closer at what it means to experience God. And if you just can't wait until Sunday, check out Blake's message on James 5 from this past Sunday.