Taking The Church on the Road

Posted Mon, 10/26/2009 - 12:49pm by Matt
 “As you (God) sent me (Jesus) into the world, so I send them.”
John 17:18
 
One of the fundamental desires in the establishment of Renewal Church is that God would instill in us a passion to join with Him in His work in the world as we seek to be missionaries each and every day.  We believe that the motive for the mission of a Christian is not simply to bring people to church, but rather to take the church to the people through active, missionary engagement in the world.  With this in mind, our primary goal is not to plant a church, but rather to be missionaries and engage the lost and invite them to join with us in walking with Jesus each and every day.  This type of missionary engagement will ultimate result in God planting His church.
 
Two weeks ago we taught through Acts 3 and assessed the apostles interaction with the lame beggar outside of the temple.  As a result of what we saw in that text, we were challenged to join with God in his work in the world in some unique ways.  Through that text we asked several questions about the mission of God and the way in which Christians can and should join in with His mission.
  • Do we allow religious activities to replace missional engagement?
  • Are there such things as coincidences with God or is he in control of every person that you come in contact with?
  • Do we pray for God to give us opportunities to share the gospel and miss the opportunities that are right before us?
  • Do we excuse ourselves out of the mission of God because of what we don’t have?
  • Is our mission motivated by guilt or the gospel?
As a result of these and other questions we are asking ourselves, we are seeking to find meaningful ways to take the church on the road each week as we actively engage those that God puts in our path. Over the next several days I will post some of the ideas that we are implementing as we week to train our hearts to actively take the church to the world.  As I share, I would love to hear any ideas you or your church use to engage the world with the gospel.