Spiritual Blueprint Part 2
I want to continue the conversation I started a few days ago about what it means to develop a spiritual or a spirit-led culture for us at Elmwood and how that will effect the circle of influence that God has placed us in. Part 1 talked about what we need to SEE – The King and his heart! The next step we want to talk about is what do we want to become?
Part 2 WHAT DO WE WANT TO BECOME?
Clarifying what we want people to see and then become will ultimately define our mission. The good news is that we do not have to come up with a mission. Jesus gave us ours in Matt. 28. ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them everything I have commanded you.’
Jesus made it clear that as we go through life, our purpose, our mission is to build a bridge relationally that connects with people in such a way that it encourages them to follow Christ.What that means in the context of our church body (which is each one of us) is that wherever we and whenever we connect with people on their spiritual journey and the process that is taking place in their heart we want them to be taking steps forward in their faith relationship with Christ.
Being must always come before the doing.Here is another way of saying it that the Apostle Paul gave us in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (taken from the NLT) All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. 20 We are Christ's ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, "Be reconciled to God!" 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Another way to describe reaching every child, woman and man with repeated opportunities to hear and see the loving, life changing message of Jesus Christ within our circle of influence could be ‘to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by showing them His love through our lives.’
So far we have talked about who we need to SEE and who we need to BE!
Stay tuned for more!
Go Sabres!
