In early January, I always preach a sermon where we celebrate the things God has done the previous year. At the conclusion of that sermon, I always add what God is stirring in my heart for the upcoming year. A couple of weeks ago I shared that we are going to become a church who makes disciples who make disciples. I realize that for most of our congregation this is the first time you have heard that statement. I want to assure you this is not something that happened overnight or on a whim.
Let me briefly explain how we arrived at this point. During the Fall, I preached a series titled, "God's Design for the Church," and one of those sermons was about discipleship. During that sermon, I admitted that we are not doing a very good job of making disciples, and I also confessed that it was my fault. As a result, several of our staff attended a conference about discipleship, and then our ministerial staff spent two months completing a study on discipleship. We realize that our staff have had time the past few months to process and study this while discipleship is still a fresh concept for our church.
To help our congregation better understand what we mean by becoming a church who makes disciples who make disciples, I will spend the next six weeks preaching on discipleship. Our hope is to get our entire congregation on the same page in regards to discipleship. This coming Sunday, January 29, we will begin by asking, "What is the Purpose of the Church?" I hope you will take some time to think through these questions before Sunday. Let me ask it in a couple of different ways to get you thinking. What is a win? How do we define winning as a church? What can we point to and say that is winning? Try to fill in the blank. If our church sees ____________ happen, then we know we are winning. To further complicate the matter, what happens if everyone in our church comes up with a different definition of what winning is? Wouldn't that make it near impossible for us to win if we have competing ideas of what winning is?
I hope to see you Sunday.
In Christ,
Mark Smith, Pastor of FBC Jacksonville, AR
