We Are Called to be Active Apostles

Some of our Life Groups had a lot of introducing and getting to know each other to do from this last week. This means that we did not get to talk about the heart of the lesson a lot. I figured I would post this background information as my blogpost for the week. Please discuss any questions that you might have with your Life Group Leader or myself.

John 20:21 – Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 – 19For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

The Greek word for apostle means “sent one”. Biblically it was used to describe the twelve that traveled with Jesus. It is also used to describe Paul, Barnabas, Silas, and others in the New Testament. Today the meaning has changed but the mission that God has sent us on has not.

All Christians in every generation are called to bring the good news of the kingdom into a spiritual encounter with the aspirations and challenges of that culture where it resides. Believers are on a mission from God. To engage today’s world with the good news requires the formation of a gospel community – the church of Jesus Christ – to be a visible representation, witness and instrument of the sovereign outreaching hand of God in our culture. For many Christians this may require a new vision, new ways of thinking, and new patterns of behavior (different styles of worship, life groups, etc.).

Since Christianity is a minority voice in this post-Christian culture, the church must adopt an approach to ministry learned from the foreign missionaries who communicate and relate in understandable ways to the godless inhabitants in their respective cultures (1 Cor. 9:15-23).

The culture around us sees the church as weak and irrelevant. As Christians we have all been sent by God to go into our own city as missionaries. We are to be culturally entrenched and personally involved. We must incarnate Christ’s life in our culture in order to impact this culture for the Kingdom!

My challenge is as we process through our life groups (The Journey Scattered) and our corporate worship (The Journey Gathered), are we living the 10 characteristics of a missional church identified by Scott Thomas the director of Acts 29 church planting network:

1. Committed to the authoritative, infallible, inerrant, inspired Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:14-17; Acts 2:42). The authority of all missionary work is founded in the truth that God has a clear word to communicate to the world.
2. Understands the centrality of the gospel in all aspects of a person’s life (1Cor. 15:1-4; 2:2; Gal. 6:14)
3. Sent by God as missionaries in their own culture (Mt. 4:19; John 20:21; Acts 16:20; 17:6) and to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8)
4. Boldly and intentionally promotes the gospel through church planting globally, collaborative expressions of mercy and generosity.
5. Dependent upon Holy Spirit to use individual as agents for evangelizing (Acts 1:8).
6. Relationships and sacrificial love are the expressions to others in their journey toward faith (Matt. 5:13-16, John 15:12-17, 1 John 4:19-21).
7. Helps others find Jesus in their own way and timing (1 Cor. 9:20-23).
8. Participants are affected in every way through a calling by God to be an agent for the gospel (Acts 4:13, 31-35).
9. Practices its faith in community—groups of people together (Acts 2:42-45; Phil. 1:27). It seeks to participate in true community like our triune Godhead.
10. Worships God in an authentic, personal and evangelistic way (John 4:23-24). We worship a Savior who left us here to be captured by His mission.

About

We are a new church plant on the west side of Atlanta in the Austell and Mableton area. At the Journey, we are trying to re-form the church around the teachings and example of Jesus Himself while building relational bridges to people in the current culture. Out with the self-righteous, judgmental attitudes and the useless religious traditionalism, and in with the fresh wind of the timeless teachings of love and forgiveness, acceptance and repentance. Come and find a home at The Journey.