INTRO...“FOR THE ONE”

…living our lives —> “FOR THE ONE”...I want this to be more than a title of a sermon series here at Creekside, my prayer is that in the days and years to come this three word statement becomes the anthem of creekside church!

WEEK 1 > OUR CALL…LOVE GOD AND OTHERS
-- QUESTION...Who is your ONE?

WEEK 2 > OUR POWER…THE GOSPEL
-- Our ‘first brick’ PROCLAIM CHRIST… When we are “Proclaiming Christ” we are demonstrating and declaring the GOSPEL…and we identified 3 ways the GOSPEL is applied to our lives:
1. JUSTIFIED (saved from penalty of sin)
2. SANCTIFIED (being saved from the power of sin) and
3. GLORIFIED (will be saved from the presence of sin)

WEEK 3 > OUR IDENTITY…BAPTISM
-- FATHER/SON/SPIRIT…FAMILY/SERVANT/SENT

WEEK 4 > OUR PURPOSE…MAKE DISCIPLES
-- Going...Baptizing...Teaching to Observe

WEEK 5 > A DISCIPLE IS A PERSON WHO IS ABIDING IN JESUS
-- Abiding in His LOVE...Abiding in his WORD...bearing fruit

WEEK 6 > A DISCIPLE IS A PERSON WHO IS BEING TRANSFORMED BY JESUS
-- put to death what is earthly in me, the old self with its practices
-- put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator

WEEK 7 > A DISCIPLE IS A PERSON WHO IS ON MISSION WITH JESUS
-- we are sent missionaries to finish the mission Jesus gave to us

WEEK 8 > OUR PRACTICE...MISSIONAL COMMUNITIES

OUR FOUNDATION TEXT…[ACTS 2:42-47]

-- This is a snapshot of what the early church looked like and how they organized themselves to accomplish the mission of Jesus, to be and make disciples.

VS 42 || THEY
- the disciples, christians, followers of Jesus

VS 42 || WERE DEVOTED
- committed, steadfastly continuing, continually devoting themselves || to the APOSTLES TEACHING (WORD), to the FELLOWSHIP of believers (community with others), to the BREAKING OF BREAD (eating together in their homes, doing life together, significant implications in the jewish life, it was a way to deepen relationships, learn about each other, and grow as a community), and to the PRAYERS

VS 43 || WERE IN AWE
- (gk Phobos) fear, awe, deep respect, reverence of Gods power, his work, the miraculous things he was doing through the apostles (validating Jesus was who he said he was)

VS 44-47 || WERE TOGETHER
- took care of each others needs by selling their stuff, they went to temple together, they opened their homes to each other, eating and living life together, they were glad and generous, they praised God…and they had favor with everyone…this life together was the best apologetic (reason we believe in God) to that group of people who were far from God, they saw it and they were drawn to Jesus because of it || and God used that type of community, that type of love and care to demonstrate the gospel…and many people were saved because of the way the disciples lived out their faith.

I WANT US TO HAVE THIS...

When I read this, I get so excited to think that we could see something like this happen here at Creekside, in Alaska. That as a church family, we would live in such a gospel centered way, devoted to each other, experiencing God’s miraculous work in our lives and in the lives of people who are far from him, that we are together in our mission…and that God is saving people from their sin and being added to the church family…I want this! I hunger for people to know Jesus. Your friends, THE ONE God has called you to love. This type of community is powerful. And we are trying to accomplish this through a very specific strategy. MISSIONAL COMMUNITIES.

WE ARE GOING TO BE FOCUSED ON THE MAIN THING…MAKING DISCIPLES...

We looked last week at the mission Jesus was sent to accomplish and then his sending of us on mission too. The Mission is to be a disciple who makes disciples. God is making us and sending us and making others all at the same time! And this is how he chooses to do it. What we see in ACTS 2 is a community of disciples, partnering together to be made into disciples and to make disciples, together. This is our practice. This is how we obey the mission Jesus sent us on. It isn’t about me going on my own into the world, alone, to make disciples. The model is that I do this with other disciples…this is why we do Missional Communities. Now…let me be clear…our MC’s are not fully developed, in fact they are kind of all over the place. But we are working hard to develop a framework that will align all of our MC’s moving forward…so today will be a bit of a vision casting talk of what we hope they will become (some are there but many are not)

WHY DO WE CALL THEM MISSIONAL COMMUNITIES...

- We are moving away from calling these groups “small groups” (everyone has their own names, community groups, life groups, D groups etc).
- We are trying to establish a different way of doing mission and the name ‘small groups’ fall short of what we believe Jesus has called us to in the mission he has sent us on.
- We are calling them MISSIONAL COMMUNITIES because we believe that both concepts of MISSION and COMMUNITY are essential in being and making disciples who are on MISSION. Community without mission becomes inward focused, selfish, codependent, and can lead to mission complacency. Mission without community forfeits one of the greatest apologetics for the gospel, a group of disciples living out the gospel in front of those who are far from God.

WHAT IS A MISSIONAL COMMUNITY...

A MISSIONAL COMMUNITY is a SPIRITUAL FAMILY who LIVES ON MISSION…TOGETHER

SPIRITUAL FAMILY [LIFE ON LIFE]

-- MC’s are groups of people…and these groups are SPIRITUAL in nature. They are not formed around common interests or hobbies, or people who enjoy each other’s company, or people in similar life stages. While an MC may share some of these things, it is formed around one thing: THE GOSPEL. The gospel is the good news that God, in Jesus, has reconciled us to himself and called us to be on mission with the message of reconciliation to those far from God

(2 Cor. 5.18-19)“18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

-- So we are spiritual community because Jesus has made us that way, and our primary orientation in the community is toward him.

FAMILY: We are also a Family…
-- A Missional Community that is functioning well is more than a loosely connected group of people on mission. Our connection in the gospel, and our orientation toward Jesus makes us SONS AND DAUGHTERS of God and BROTHERS AND SISTERS to each other (Identity: God’s Family).
-- Since this is true, MC’s should function less like classes or programs and more like families, both in relationships and rhythms.
-- I need a place that I can be truly known. A place where people see past my masks, can ask the hard questions and can shape me by the gospel…it is so easy to hide in a large group. It is so easy to not grow as a disciple when I am only relating to other disciples with a surface relationship. I can’t grow without other disciples loving me and pushing me and admonishing me.
-- I am a part of A SPIRITUAL FAMILY…missional communities help us to both be discipled and to disciple each other.

LIVES ON MISSION [LIFE ON MISSION]

-- A MC is the spiritual family of God, and our God has a mission (MATTHEW 28:18-20). We have talked a lot about this over the last few weeks.

-- He is a sending God. The Father sent Jesus...
(JOHN 17:18) “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”,

-- and Jesus sent us
(JOHN 20:21) “Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

-- So we are not simply a gathered people who enjoy the benefits of being together or being in the family of God. In reconciling us to himself, God has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation for others
(2 Cor. 5.19), and Missional Communities live on mission as a fundamental part of who they are.

-- We all have been placed sovereignly, specifically, in the “environments” we are in…families, schools, jobs, neighborhoods…so that we might help THE ONE God called us to in understanding the good news of Jesus. And we don’t do that alone…we do it TOGETHER

TOGETHER [LIFE IN COMMUNITY]

-- The family nature of a Missional Community implies a togetherness in the way we live, but it is worth saying plainly:

-- A Missional Community is not a bunch of people talking about community, life, discipleship, or mission and then going our separate ways to live that out. We live out these things together (Acts 2.42-27). We are regularly involved in each other’s lives, and we consistently do mission in groups rather than alone.

A MISSIONAL COMMUNITY IS PEOPLE-CENTRIC...

-- AN MC is NOT MEETING-CENTRIC.
It’s NOT primarily a weekly meeting. That has a start stop to it, like a class. It is an ongoing, living life together community

-- AN MC is NOT STUDY-CENTRIC.
It’s NOT primarily a bible or book study. But we will study the Bible together (REAP + Q’s)

-- AN MC is NOT INWARD-CENTRIC.
It’s NOT primarily a small group. It exists both for those inside the group and for those outside the group, both followers of Jesus and those far from him.

-- AN MC is NOT FRIEND-CENTRIC.
It’s NOT primarily a friendship group. It values the necessity of all the parts of the body, regardless of friendship, and seeks to keep people from falling through the cracks who aren’t yet friends. The hope is that all of you will become friends

-- AN MC is NOT ONE HOME-CENTRIC.
It’s NOT always at the same house, it shares the load with everyone – not just one homeowner, it meets in multiple homes so that we can practice hospitality and grow closer as a community.

-- AN MC is NOT ONE LEADER CENTRIC.
It’s NOT exclusively one leader led. It seeks to share the leadership weight of responsibility among all its people. There will be one main person who functions as the first among equals to keep things orderly and on track. But an MC is not the place for one person to have a platform to teach everyone else. We will use REAP so that everyone grows up, learning to be self leading and self feeding.

-- AN MC is NOT ONE PERSON CENTRIC.
It’s NOT primarily one-on-one discipleship. It seeks to do discipleship through multiple gifts, from multiple people, who are in multiple different stages of life. I like the example of THANKSGIVING DINNER with extended family

-- A MISSIONAL COMMUNITY is PEOPLE-CENTRIC and GOSPEL CENTRIC
…the people of God growing as disciples, on mission, to reach the people who are far from God.

THE VISION…WE AREN’T THERE YET!...

Our missional communities are where we want most of the life of our church to happen. This is where we will do our counseling, our prayer, our discipleship, and our mission. These are the people who will help us move, who will help us work on our houses, and who will babysit our kids. These are the people we will party with, will cry with, will eat with, and who we will study the bible with.

-- SO…when I say the phrase, Missional Community, I want you to begin to understand that this means we are a SPIRITUAL FAMILY WHO LIVES ON MISSION TOGETHER.

WHAT IS THE EXPECTATION?

-- As a Spiritual Leadership Team, our expectation is that every person who calls Creekside their home will EVENTUALLY be a part of a MISSIONAL COMMUNITY.

-- We currently don’t have membership (working on that). This is a great way for us to to grow, to be on mission and to be an active part of this church family.

MC'S ARE NEW THIS YEAR...
-- We have already had a lot of people want to be join an MC, some have already done it, some are still in the process
-- Our reality is we don’t have enough groups to facilitate everyone, but that is our goal! Pastor James is working through all of that and he is doing a great job.
-- If you want to take that step, reach out to him via email or call, let him know of your interest and we will work to get you connected.
-- We are currently doing the “SOFT LAUNCH” approach, the "GRAND OPENING" will be happening as we get these groups fully developed
-- MC’s that are going…we are going to be shaping you and you might experience some changes over the next year as we work to align all of our MC’s to be moving in the same direction, same rhythms, same purpose.
-- As a Spiritual Leadership Team, we believe this is currently the best way we can make disciples who are making disciples. We are not married to MC’s, and if at some point we feel like this is not the way to go, we will change things to better meet the mission of making disciples…but for now we think this is a great path forward. There will be more training, more creating and more guidance as we go, so thanks for your patience and jump in and join an MC!


1. JOIN ONE
2. START A NEW ONE (with Pastor James’ leadership and direction)

-- Let’s be the church on mission that Jesus has called us to be.

PRAYER, REFLECTION AND COMMUNION…

-- If you are not a part of an MC, what is keeping you from joining?

-- Who is your ONE and who are you on mission with to demonstrate and declare the gospel to them?

-- WHAT IS JESUS SAYING TO YOU TODAY?

-- WHAT IS JESUS ASKING YOU TO DO?