Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

When I die and stand before God, one of the things I believe God will ask of me is, "So, what did you do with your leadership gifts to be about your life mission?"

I don't think God will be concerned about how big our budget was, how many people in our pews, etc. But I do think God will be measure my faithfulness to him by examining how faithful I was to being about his main mission.

The last thing Jesus commanded his disciples before he ascended into heaven is: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

There is no clearer call for why the church exists than this passage.

Jesus didn’t created the church and then figure out what her mission might be. God created the church because the church of Jesus Christ is the most effective vehicle to carry out his mission.

When churches function as God plans for them to, there is no greater vehicle in creation to reconcile broken and sinful people to God, and to establish God's kingdom here are on earth as it is in heaven as the church of Jesus Christ!

That's the church!

Let’s look at the specific parts of the mission:

• “Go” - The church is a sent organism. We are to be in the world and the world is supposed to be a better place because Jesus is present through his church (the people of God).
• “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit” - The first thing that the church is to be about is making new disciples.
• “Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” - The second thing that the church is called to do is to make faithful disciples.

The pastors and leaders of LCOP will be exploring in the weeks to come:

• How are we doing in making new disciples?
• How are we doing in making faithful disciples?
• How are we doing in making our world a better place?
• Is what we’re currently doing the best ways to accomplish the above goals?
• How can we best accomplish the above goals?

We are praying, listening, discerning how God wants us to start a new ministry that can come along side what we are currently doing to help us to be more effective as a church to accomplish what God is calling the church to do.

We appreciate your prayers.