“The Purpose of Abundant Life Church”
April 29, 2007
For the last six months many of us have studied, in-depth, Rick Warrens “Purpose Driven Church”. I have tremendous respect for Rick and believe him to be a wise man of God. He has a unique way of simplifying and communicating the process of Church functions. For instance, I like how he communicates who we are to minister to. He calls it our ‘Target’ and puts it visually in the form of a bull’s eye target. Starting from the outside, the largest group is the community. The community is all the unchurched in our area who have never been to our church. The next largest group is the crowd, which represent those who are in church on any given Sunday, but don’t have much involvement other than coming on Sunday morning. They may or may not have a personal relationship with Christ.
The next group, a little bit smaller, is the congregation or the Church family. They are the regular attenders and have professed a faith in Jesus. They are believers and love the church, joined the church. They are at the potlucks and most church functions – but they just come. They belong - but aren’t very involved. They show up to worship – but don’t do much more.
A small group of people make up the Committed. Those are the ones who are deeply committed to Christ and the church and express it by tithing regularly, having a daily prayer time and bible reading time, and are committed to growing personally by being involved with a regular small group, like a Sunday school class or a home bible study class.
The smallest group is the core. They are the board members and teachers and the core group that is the heart of the church.
I like how the different groups are broken down. It’s not “us and them” or “Christians and believers” or “Sinners and Saints”. That’s a little to general. It’s important to realize how people are broken down into groups because you minister to them differently. You want to evangelize the community. You want to Exalt God or help the Crowd to worship God. The crowd can be involved in worship even if they don’t have a deep level of commitment.
The Church family needs Encouragement. After a week of spiritual battle – the congregation needs fellowship. Those committed ones need edifying or instructing in how to use their gifts and how to become involved in ministry. The core group are those already ministering. They are mature enough, advanced enough spiritually, to be in ministry to others and our job is to Equip them so they can effectively minister.
I don’t know if that blesses you – but it really blesses me to intellectualize and categorize the church in that way. It helps to know where to ‘go from here’ with certain people and groups.
After our study of the Purpose Driven Church, we realized that we needed to rewrite our Purpose for our church. We’d done that many years ago – but it wasn’t fresh and it wasn’t personal. So for the last couple of weeks we have been thinking about it, talking about it, working on it – and last Wednesday night we came up with a pretty good statement. Different individuals contributed some purpose statements that they came up with and I broke the group into smaller groups that hashed over the problem and came up with some thoughts. We then came together, considered what each one thought, pooled those thoughts, and took a little of something from each one. Pastor Bob came up with the key. He said, “Whatever we come up with, Christ needs to be central.”
So here’s what we did. We used the acrostic “CHRIST” in our purpose statement. Our statement is: “The purpose of the Mount Shasta Abundant Life Church of the Nazarene is to bring CHRIST to the community.”
Isn’t that simple and easy to remember? I really like it. It says it all. Now let’s look at the acrostic “CHRIST”.
C – Church Purpose. The other five letters stand for what our purpose as a church is.
H – Help others come to Christ. Jesus said,
“… go and make disciples…” Matt 28:19 (Living)
Some other words for it are “Evangelism” and “Mission” and “Outreach” but all those words are for the same thing. We are to help others to come to Christ. We need to go into the community to the unchurched and help them come to Jesus. That needs to be one part of our purpose.
Another part of our purpose is R – rejoice in worship. Anyone who comes to our church, we want to help them worship God. Another name for that is to Exalt God or Magnify God. But part of our purpose is to help people experience worship of God. The bible says,
“O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together.”
Psalm 34:3 (NASB)
“Worship the Lord your God…” Matthew 4:10
Worship means different things to different people. To some it means a service. We call it “Worship Service.” We sing “Worship Music”. But real worship is much more than a feeling or a song. Real worship involves a life style. Paul wrote to the church in Rome:
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God –this is your spiritual act of worship.” Romans 12:1 (NIV)
Part of our purpose as a church is to help people to enter into real worship of God.
Another part of our purpose is “I” - inspire and encourage in fellowship. Fellowship or encouragement is for the Church family. They are the congregation who have committed themselves to Christ and the Church. The Bible tells us that the early church devoted themselves to fellowship. They met together often. The ate together. They shared with one another. They worked together.
As we live for the Lord, we walk in enemy territory. We live in a foreign land, and sometimes the battle is brutal. We get beat up and bloodied. And sometimes on Sunday morning, we just need a hug. We need support. We need to know we are not in this alone. We need to be surrounded by friends and church family. It encourages us to sit down with someone who loves us, and eat with them. We may laugh and cry and kid around – but it is strengthening us as we fellowship. Pot lucks and parties are important. They have always been a part of the church. And they serve a purpose. They produce fellowship. One of our purposes needs to be to inspire fellowship with each other. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. But lone and lost sheep get killed. The Bible says,
“Be careful--watch out for attacks from Satan, your great enemy. He prowls around like a hungry, roaring lion, looking for some victim to tear apart.” 1 Peter 5:8 (Living)
“Two can accomplish more than twice as much as one, for the results can be much better. If one falls, the other pulls him up; but if a man falls when he is alone, he’s in trouble. Also, on a cold night, two under the same blanket gain warmth from each other, but how can one be warm alone? And one standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer; three is even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.” Eccl 4:9-12 (Living)
We need each other. One of the enemy’s tactics is to get the Christian off alone by himself. He begins to whisper lies and discouraging things to him. And if there isn’t someone to help him – he swallow those lies. One can be defeated. But two can defend themselves. We can watch each other’s backs. A cord with three or four, or a hundred strands, is a whole lot stronger than a single string. That is the way it is with a church. We need each other. We need to fellowship on purpose.
S, in our acrostic means S – serve and minister. We are to equip the core group in the church to serve and minister. Every member ought to be a minister, and one of our purposes in the church is to bring every person to a level of maturity where they can be involved in some kind of ministry. It may be cleaning the bathrooms or preaching from the pulpit. It may be mowing the yard, ministering to the homeless. It may be washing dishes or teaching a bible Study. There are a lot of ways to be involved in ministry. There are a lot of needs - and part of our job is to equip the core to minister by teaching how, giving tools, educating, trying new methods and so on.
The T- stands for teach Christlikeness. Part of our purpose is to teach – but with a specific purpose. We are to teach Christlikeness. Jesus said,
“Therefore go and make disciples in all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”
But that Scripture doesn’t stop there. After we go out and make disciples Jesus said,
“…and then teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.”
Matt 28:19-20 (Living)
Jesus, Himself, instructed us to teach obedience. When He was instructing His disciples once, He said,
“The one who obeys me is the one who loves me; and because he loves me, my Father will love him…” John 14:21 (Living)
Obedience is not an option for the Christian. Love for Christ makes us a Christian – but obedience is the fruit of that love. Paul said,
“…And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him.”
2 Cor 3:18 (Living)
One of our purposes as a church is to teach people to become Christlike. In our bible studies and Sunday school classes, that needs to be our goal. It’s nice to know the books of the bible and where Eden may have been and lots of bible trivia. But that kind of knowledge must not be our primary goal or focus. Our purpose is to teach people to be Christlike. We are to teach them how to produce the fruit of the Spirit of love and joy and peace and kindness and gentleness and self-control and all the rest. Jesus is in the life-changing business and the life change needs to be Christ-likeness.
That’s a pretty good purpose, don’t you think? : “The purpose of the Mount Shasta Abundant Life Church of the Nazarene is to bring CHRIST to the community.”
C – Church purpose is:
H – Help others come to Christ
R – Rejoice in worship
I – Inspire and encourage in fellowship
S – Serve and equip to minister
T – Teach Christlikeness
Now you know why you are here. Now you know what we are all about. Will you commit to being a part of the team? Will you commit to helping us accomplish our purpose? If so – pray this prayer with me.
Dear Jesus,
I commit myself to you. I commit to accomplishing Your purpose for my life. Please forgive me for my past. Forgive me for rebelling against you. From now on I promise to live for you. I promise to do my best to do Your will in my world. Use me. Help me. Glorify Yourself through my life.
In Jesus Name,
“Bond of Love”
