Who Are We?

Identify ourselves as being an attendee only or an equipper.   

The modern idea of being a “church attender” is totally foreign to the New Testament church. We are the church, so we can’t “attend” ourselves! The church is the body of Christ living as His people and carrying out his mission, each of us equipped and equipping others, so that the body keeps on growing.

• Above all, the goal is to remember who we are as a people originally created in God’s image and now- in Jesus- created anew and restored to relationship with God:
• “For you are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph. 2:10)

God has always desired a people who would live together in such a way that the world would know what He was like.

• This Family (The Church) has a purpose- or mission- in the world. In Jesus, God is restoring all things to himself.
• Therefore, as his family we are sent into this world to join with him in restoration and redemption.
• We are Missionaries, sent into our generation/culture to demonstrate the redemption that God is bringing through Jesus.
• As we go into our culture as Missionaries, we want to go just like Jesus, as Servants. 
• He came to give up his life for us, as our ransom, and so we are his possession and sent into his world as his Servants.
• We have to actively choose to be an equipper.
• We are disciples of Jesus who together are responsible for the maturity and mission of the church.
• Jesus called 12 men to be his disciples, learning from him how to live the life he created them to live.
• After his death and resurrection, Jesus instructed these disciples to go into the world and multiply themselves, making disciples in every nation, teaching them to obey everything that Jesus commanded (Matt. 28:19,20)
• Each of us has been called to be a disciple or student of Jesus, and each of us are called to help others become disciples of Jesus.
• We take responsibility to grow and develop as disciples ourselves.
• We are disciples who make disciples.
• Jesus made a statement in (Luke 6:40), “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.”
• Jesus invited his disciples into a process of learning how to live in his ways and to do his works.

 In (Matthew 28: 18-20) Jesus gathered his disciples together and commissioned them to continue this disciple-making process:

• “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
• Some time later in(Acts 2: 1-4) as the disciples were praying together in Jerusalem, Jesus sent them the Holy Spirit to empower them to go and fulfill this disciple-making commission.

The joy of knowing that we are gifted and needed in the disciple-making adventure should lead to a deep desire to be developed and equipped as a disciple so that we can become a better disciple maker!