What kind of church - our identity.

What kind of church do we aspire to be?  What kind of person do you aspire to be?  They are, in essence the same question as the church is us – individuals who make the collective.

Values – who God is making us.

As a church we have four Jesus-exalting values.

Loving People

‘May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else…’  (1Thessalonians 3:12)

To embrace, love and welcome all.  To be truly hospitable, which means to ‘love or heal the stranger or other’.  To acknowledge that even if we do not feel able to endorse everything that is true of someone we want to embrace everyone irrespective of what is true about them.

After all Jesus taught us not just to love our neighbours but also to love even our enemies.  No one seems exempt from that spectrum. 

Courageous in Mission 

‘Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible…I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.’  (1 Corinthians 9:19-22)

To be brave, gusty, risky and ready to fail in reaching people with the great, good news of Jesus.  To place ourselves in the least comfortable and most confrontational situations and relationships so Jesus has a representative there.

Jesus exhibit this, coming alongside sinners, tax-collectors, and the immoral to such an extent observers failed to distinguish him from them and called him a sinner and drunk.

Bible Saturated

‘All Scripture is God breathed…preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.’  (2 Timothy 3:16, 4:2-3)

To delight in the Bible as God’s authoritative Word to the world in its witness to Jesus and to do what it says especially when we don’t want to (because of personal cost) or society wouldn’t approve (because of cultural conflict). 

After all Jesus affirmed the Old Testament (e.g: Matthew 19:4-5) and commissioned the New (John 15-16) – it is his Word.

Spirit-dependent: 

Jesus is the prime example of Spirit dependence – he was ‘…full of the Holy Spirit…led by the Spirit…in the power of the Spirit...’ (Luke 4:1, 14)

We want to acknowledge our absolute need for God’s Spirit to shape our character (Galatians 5:22-23), mobilise our gifting (1Corinthians 12), and help us live our values of love, courage, and biblical wisdom on a daily basis.

Vision – where God is taking us.

Our values tell us who we are – our identity in Jesus.  The Bible also talks about the vital component of vision.  ‘Where there is no vision the people perish; but happy is he who keeps the law.’  (Proverbs 29:18, NKJV)   Vision tells us where we are going – our ambition for Jesus.

As leaders we have begun to seek to see something of the future God has for us - to sense where he may be taking us over the next 5-10 years.  Over the rest of this year we want to join together is seeking and seeing this future and so in various meetings and groups we will be inviting people to discern together God’s call upon us.

You could:

·         Participant in the discussion: every voice matters and we are in this together.

·         Partner in the legacy: with time, talents and money.

·         Pray for the harvest: after all ‘the harvest plentiful, but the workers are few.’  (Matthew 9:37-38)