Everyone has a next step, and we make it easy to find yours. 
There’s a big truth and a big promise in this House Rule: you have a place to go next, and we help you see what that is. But how do we do it?
We find the contradictory secret to taking simple steps in Colossians 2:7
…so walk in Him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith…
The Apostle Paul tells us to move ahead, but remain immoveable. Go, but stay grafted in. Travel, but stand firm.
Walk forward like you’re glued to the ground.
So many of our days are spent up in our headspace, worrying and wondering about the far-reaching consequences of action or inaction.
But Paul directs our gaze at the floor — our feet — four times in this one verse: walk, be rooted, be built, be established.

Simple steps change us, not just because we are doing something, but because we are finding Someone there.

Pay attention to the foundation, he writes. Don’t consume yourself with the infinite highway of possibilities, the curving road of change. Look at what you stand on, where you’ll lay your next step:
Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Proverbs 4:26
Historically, I have been terrible at this “focusing on my feet” thing. 

In high school, I made a chart of potential careers and rated them on a potential 20-year happiness scale. 

On the day I brought my first son home from the hospital, I used a calculator to add up the total number of meals I’d have to make for him before he left home for college. 

When my husband heard the call to preach, I went into panic mode, lunching with local pastor’s wives, trying to wring the wisdom of 30 years of ministry out into a 30-minute cup of coffee.

We’re all about forcing growth — wishing ourselves fully ready for the whole task before us. We scurry around, trying to manage it all or make a name for ourselves, or we shrink back in fear of our ability to greet the future, imagining the whole of it on our plate in one giant, horrible, choking bite.
We grasp at false and temporary maturity — external changes that never seem to seep all the way down to the heart of us.
But the Apostle Paul knows the truth in Colossians 2:7. We can walk in Him when we’re rooted and built up and established. We take real steps when we’ve tested the foundation under our feet and know it won’t give way.
We change in things that matter when we know the things that matter don’t change.
Grace is only and always about this work, week after week. We teach the Word through scripture and song, driving home the truth of the gospel: We are loved. We are free. We are His.  
Then we invite you to growth through the same simple steps God has used to form the hearts of His people throughout the ages. Service. Sacrament. Community. Generosity. Surrender. 
It is our privilege to partner in this promised work of the Spirit: Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21
This is what our mission means: helping people take their next steps toward Christ. We ask you to step forward quickly and step forward often — even in the smallest ways. Some our steps are brand new, but often our steps are just again. We do it again, we show up again we choose obedience again. 
Both kinds of simple steps change us, not just because we are doing something, but because we are finding Someone there. We show up, and God shows up.
That’s because we really grow, not by spending time in our heads, planning and goal-setting and discovering ourselves, but at our feet, knowing the Christ we stand on. We grow by devoting the bulk of our time to who He is instead of who we are.
We grow by moving forward in simple steps like we’re glued to the ground, by inching out on to the Rock of Salvation — the Cornerstone — the Sure Foundation — finding that the Amazing Grace who saved us will hold us fast as we take simple steps, day after day.