Today I have been to a coaching cluster meeting with other pastors and was encouraged to see what God is doing in His Kingdom. One pastor said they are going to be baptizing 14 people next week. God is working in that church in a mighty way. My mind started to wander ( as usual) to what does God want from us as a church in Sunfield,MI. Ron Ramsey , the Bishop of our denomination, said something to me that just will not get out of my mind. He said, "We as the church are not a democracy because we have a King and we do what He says." Jesus told us in Matthew 28:18,"Go and make disciples of all nations." Are we doing that? If not we are being disobedient to our King. We have talked a lot about vision at our community of faith recently. Our vision needs to be about reaching our community for Jesus Christ. Period. If we are not doing that ,we are a glorified country club.
Last week I was teaching in our discipleship class that the church needs to be the BRIDE of Jesus Christ. The book of Acts gives us a look at what that means. Acts 2:42-47 gives us an acrostic of what the church should be. Denny Miller a long time friend of mine shared what the BRIDE is to be, as he looked at this passage.
B- Biblical Teaching
R- Relationships with one another as brothers and sisters
I- Intercessory Prayer- Praying for others.
D- Devotion and Worship
E- Evangelism and Outreach
This is our example of what the Church of Jesus Christ , our King, should look like. Stay tuned for my next post.
Pastor Mark