Pastor
Jeff
Summers
Evangelical Free Church of Mount Shasta
The
Basics
Over
the next several weeks we are going to
spend time looking at what it means to be the church.
We’re going to explore some basic fundamental
ideas about “church.”
We could approach
our conversation a number of different ways, but here are my boundary
lines (my
basic assumptions as we move ahead and ask God to help us understand
what He
might do in us and through us as His people—the church):
1) MY
FILTER: I
will run everything through the filter of this:
“The church is…people who voluntarily
gather with others believers under
the authority of God and the Scriptures, committed to worship, growth,
encouragement, and correction for the purpose of glorifying God and
living in
the world as messengers of His good news.”
2) BE
& DO: The
church by definition is not a monument but a movement…thus
God calls us to “be”
and “do”
3) No
One Is Immune:
There are implications for
us as individuals (Christ-follower
or not) and
as a
community of Christ-followers
I
am still a traveler on the journey
between here and heaven and do not pretend to have all of the answers. I believe that the next
few weeks can be
uncomfortable, challenging, and stretching, but I believe they will be
good
weeks.
May
we wrestle with who we are as The Church
and who we are as an expression of The Church.
May
we strive to be the people of God that
He desires us to be, doing what He desires we do.
And may we would passionately and accurately display God’s heart and character in our lives, our families, and our community as we seek to glorify Him above all else and leave His mark everywhere!
Thanks
for your grace and for joining me on
this adventure!
Pastor Jeff
GLORY
ROMANS
15:5-6
ORTHODOXOLOGICAL
BASKETBALL
&
BEAUTY
OUR
GREAT & TERRIBLE EXCHANGE (Rom 1:22-23,25)
OUR
ORIENTATION
(MEANS EVERYTHING)
WHAT
WE CANNOT HELP (Isa 6:1-13)
IMPLICATIONS:
1. Where
does my (our) focus need to
change?
2. What
can I (we) do this week to
glorify God in my (our) world?
3. How
will I (we) respond to the glory
of God?