Loves
Our thrilling purpose here on earth is to love God with our whole lives, so we gladly worship our holy, exciting, loving, powerful God as a way of life in the tough times as well as in the good. When we worship together, we do it expressively through the arts, especially great music (Mark 12:30; John 4:23).
"Jesus replied, 'The most important commandment is this: "Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength."'" (Mark 12:29-30)
No lame music
No boring sermons
No begging for bucks
Reaches
Jesus Christ gave his life so that everyone could
receive forgiveness and have a great relationship with God, so we make sacrifices
as well through authentic relationships to persuade ripened-harvest family
members, friends, neighbors, associates, etc., to follow Jesus (Matthew 18:14;
28:19-20; Luke 5:30-32; 15; John 3:16; 2 Timothy 2:2).
"'Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'" (Matthew 28:19-20)
Jesus' last command
Our first concern
Connects
Individualism and hypocrisy cripple, so we love one another with authenticity and non-condemning acceptance regardless of ethnicity or differences in thought or lifestyle (1 Corinthians 13; Mark 12:31; Romans 14; John 13:34-35).
Jesus continued, "'The second is equally important: "Love your neighbor as yourself." No other commandment is greater than these.'" (Mark 12:31)
Authenticity
Integrity
Period
Equips
Every believer is to be like Jesus, so we make disciples, which includes leadership development, through training by experience (Matthew 28:19; Ephesians 4:11-16; Colossians 1:28).
Jesus "is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ." (Ephesians 4:11-13)
Serves
Everybody wants to be a world changer, but nobody wants to be a square peg crammed into a round-holed program, so we mobilize people in teams according to their particular God-given gifts, passions, abilities, personality and experience to serve our world. We do this in a risk-taking environment of trial and error (1 Corinthians 12-14; Romans 12:1-8; Ephesians 2:10; 4:11-13; 1 Peter 4:10).
"God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God's generosity can flow through you." (1 Peter 4:10)
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