Foundation for Forward Movement on Mission with Jesus

The following article was written for our church's newsletter this week:

We have just completed a series of messages to help us re-connect to the vision that Jesus has established in His Word for us as a church under His lordship and leadership.

We journeyed through several passages of scriptures discovering the biblical picture of a disciple’s lifestyle that will bring clarity and focus and intention to our disciple-making process as a church.

We came away understanding these three truths:

• A disciple is someone who loves Jesus expressing that love in personal, corporate, & family worship.
• A disciple is someone who loves one another in community with other disciples through service and sacrifice.
• A disciple is someone who loves his/her neighbor actively and intentionally to demonstrate the gospel.

All of these messages lay the foundation for us as we re-connect to Jesus’ vision for us and re-establish our commitment to Jesus’ vision in beginning a process and a journey together moving toward being a healthy church on mission with Jesus to have high-impact ministry in our community as a movement of the kingdom of God unto all nations.

We desire that all our members and regular attenders be…

• ·         Established & growing in their love for Jesus
• ·         Engaged in meaningful & significant relationships r
• ·         Equipped for ministry inside & outside the church family
• ·         Empowered for a missional lifestyle to

Remember, this is a process; it will take time to listen to the Holy Spirit in order to develop a simple, biblical, Jesus-honoring, Holy Spirit given, strategic discipleship process with opportunities for growth in all these areas for all our members. We want to invest our time, energy, and resources in that which will be most effective for helping all our members grow as we become a disciple-making missional community of believers for the nations unto the glory of God beginning right here in Thomasville. This will take lots of prayer and a desperate cry from God’s people for the Holy Spirit of God to guide us and direct us and stir us and lay out the path for us.

I want to challenge each of us to pray daily for God’s Spirit to blow a fresh wind among us, to produce in all of us a passion for Jesus, for us to have a broken & compassionate heart for the hurting in our community, for us to always keep the gospel of Jesus the main thing, and for God’s Spirit to show up every time we meet together. Pray, pray, pray…