The Church Is....We Are...

The Dead Sea. No movement, no rainfall. Nothing flowing in, nothing flowing out. Stagnation. The Jordan River. Flowing. Fresh. Teeming with life. This is a better picture of what the church can be like. Discipleship is not just retraining the same old people. It is reaching out. The church as an outpost for the Gospel.

Stages - - 1)))Live an evangelistic life. Live it. But I'm not gifted in this. Roughly 5-10 percent would say that they are, but even they don't want to admit it because of the stereotypes that are then bestowed upon them. The Bible is not multiple choice. The Bible is an all of the above. We don't get to pick whether we are going to be a missional church, an outreach church, a contemporary church, a good eating church... I have no special gift, but there are some things I do to try and live out what I have been called to do...let me show you. And we were blown away. You can go out and mess up - - and God might use it anyway. So...what do we do? How do we grow our heart that is four sizes too small? I haven't 'so loved the world' enough to even take care of my neighbor lately. What we become as leaders is what our church is likely to become. We must reflect what we want others to be. A)))Passages. Go to the Bible, find what fires you up. How do we let the word of God dwell in us richly? How do we see through chapter and verse eyes? Hebrews 13:2. Luke 16 - Lazarus. Luke 15 - the Lost - that which is missing. John 4 - the woman at the well. B)))Partner. Who is in your life, that when you are around them, they fire you up to reach for the people on the outside? Amy. Logan. Jeff. Katie. C)))Person. We have to get out of the labratory (lavratory?) and get out on the field. HMMMMmmm... there's a story here... who should we be looking for...to...at...walking with...reaching out to... It would revolutionize our churches if we all had someone that we loved who was far from the Gospel. D)))Prayer. E)))Person.

2)))Once you have been instilled with the desire to evangelize, reach out to those around you and do the same to them. Re-instill the vision, teach others what it means to have that adventure. Pray about it. Focus others. Attack on every front. Do what it takes. This isn't just something we're doing for the month of July. It has to be an ongoing thing. The man tiling the floor behind the friend's desk that you're trying to convert heard the message you thought was for someone else. This is a whole new thing...ricochet evangelism.