Being Christ Church (3): PURPOSE - Mission

Being
Christ Church (3): PURPOSE – Mission

2014/05/18
Christ Church, Mountain Top

Prayer,
BCP (below)

Children,
Acts 26 (esp. 26.29)

Message,
Matthew 28.16-20

Worship,
Community, Mission

Friends,
Purpose, Life

Christ
United Methodist Church exists to honor God and to make disciples of Jesus
Christ for the transformation of the World.

All

1.    
Authority

2.    
Nations

3.    
Things, as many as I have commanded

4.    
Days

      Total Obedience (1,3)

      Total World – no matter how different we
are (2)

      Total Time

Disciple
(verb)

      Transitive (make) – the object is “all
nations”

      Intransitive (be/become) – become what we
are becoming

      Invitational, not Industrial

            Invite to become what we are
becoming

      Acts 26.29, “become such as I am, except
for these chains”

3
movements, with stories of Francis Xavier and the Apostle Paul

1.
Going – Definition: depart, set out

      Jesuits living with one foot raised
(Lowney)

      Francis Xavier, less than 24 hour notice,
heading to India (Tucker)

      Paul, “forgetting what lies behind, and
straining forward toward what lies ahead” (Philippians 3.13)

      Xavier: wanted to reach “out and out
pagans” (Tucker, 60)

      Paul: “not be building on someone else’s
foundation” (Romans 15.20)

2.
Baptizing – Bearing the name – part of the family

      Francis Xavier, unable to lift arms after
mass baptisms (Tucker)

      Paul, Philippian jailer (Acts 16)

      Every new person changes the nature of the
community, body

            The Paravas, impoverished pearl
fishermen

            The man who locked Paul and Silas in
jail

3.
Teaching –

      Jesus as New Moses – 5 sections of
teaching in the gospel (Arias, 19)

“Disciples
are not born, they are made, and it takes a whole lifetime, with no graduation
in sight!” (Arias, 20)

      Francis Xavier, teach creeds to children,
destroying idols w/ them

      John Wesley, teach children in every place

      Paul, “devote yourself to the public
reading of Scripture” (1 Tim 4.13)

A
bias for action

      “All authority” (obey)

      “Going”

      “To keep all things, as many/great as I
have commanded you”

            Transformation, not information

      “Theories get you thinking. Sweat get you
results.” (Fortune cookie)

      Fire, ready, aim

            Welcoming
the right kind of failure

            Putting
a premium on entrepreneurial implementation

      Xavier – creeds that were poorly
translated

      Paul – no one else’s foundation

      Wesley – lay preachers, small groups

      3^rd worship service

      Sports camp for kids

A
preference for the poor (Arias)

      Thrust of the commands: care for the least

            “Done it unto me” (Matthew 25)

            “Sell your possessions and give the
money to the poor” (19.21)

      Jesus as Emmanuel, God with us

            His Naming, Matthew 1.23

            “Done it unto me” (Matthew 25.40, 45)

            “I will be with you” (Matthew 28.20)

                        (Arias, 26-27)

A
devotion to Jesus

      ALL, ALL, ALL, ALL

      Disciple – follow, become like him

Christ
United Methodist Church exists to honor God and to make disciples of Jesus
Christ for the transformation of the World.

Lord
Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross
that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us
in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who
do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name.
Amen.

      Prayer, from The Book of Common Prayer, Morning Prayer II

Resources:

Ruth
Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A
Biographical History of Christian Missions.

Mortimer
Arias, The Great Commission: Biblical
Models for Evangelism.

Chris
Lowney, Heroic Leadership.

The Book of Common Prayer.