Together

 “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” (Henry Ford)

How do Christians link together to rescue spiritually disconnected people?

1.   They can direct each other’s attention to the mission.

Discover creative ways to encourage others and to motivate them toward acts of compassion, doing beautiful works as expressions of love. (Hebrews 10:24, the Passion Translation)

As a community of Christians, we can keep each other more focused on the mission at hand so that our mission does not drift away (and is met).

2.   They can add their own unique gifts to the mission.

Use whatever gift you’ve received for the good of one another so that you can show yourselves to be good stewards of God’s grace in all its varieties. (1 Peter 4:10, the Voice)

As a community of Christians, our talents (or abilities) can be used in accomplishing our mission so a few individuals are not exhausted by doing all the work.

3.   They can create missional communities together.

I became “weak” to the weak to win the weak. I have adapted to the culture of every place I’ve gone so that I could more easily win people to Christ. (1 Corinthians 9:22, the Passion Translation)

A missional community is a group of people that gather around a common interest for the purpose of connecting with each other and bringing up spiritual conversations.

Much like the children’s game, Barrel of Monkeys, where plastic monkeys get linked together arm-in-arm, Christians must work smarter (not harder) together to bring non-believers to a saving knowledge of Jesus.

People are always seeking for some kind of meaning in their life. 40% of people attend an established “brick and mortar” church to find both God and life purpose. There are 60% of people that (for a variety of reasons) are alienated from church (in general).

They will never enter the doors of a traditional church. Christians must find new, fresh ways outside the conventional model of church to reach unbelievers. If they will not come to us, Christians must discover how to reach unbelievers in their own environment. How will that happen?

In rare instances did Jesus ever live God’s mission for Him by Himself. It was done in the community of His 12 disciples. He actively taught them as He sent them out 2 by 2 to minister to those around them

Marvelous things happen when both Christians and non-believers connect together in missional communities.

When Christians don’t witness about Jesus (as God is leading them to do); disastrous consequence can happen to other people’s eternal destiny.[i]

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[i] Inspired by the sermon “Helping Each Other Harvest: The Harvest” (installment four) Sunday November 21, 2021, Pastor Dave Jansen, CenterPoint Gahanna (CPG).  In-person services are available at all three U.S. CenterPoint locations. CenterPoint also has an online Sunday morning service (10am) that can be viewed at centerpointchurches.online.church or centerpointchurches.com/live.