Preparing for the Lord's Day
Since September, we’ve been unpacking our church’s mission and vision. In our mission statement, we identified God’s mission as awakening gospel renewal. And that gospel renewal happens through our worship, discipleship and mission. We further learned that gospel renewal must happen first in us before flowing out to our neighborhood and world. And all of this is driven by the supreme motivation of bringing God glory and his people good.
And should God gives us success in our mission, we would expect to see and experience flourishing gospel relationships in every life, in every place, and every way. That’s our vision. That’s what we long to see and pray for.
This Sunday we’re pivoting from looking at our mission and vision to our values. These six values mark or characterize our ministry as a church. So what do we value? We value the Transforming Power of Scripture. We value Rooted Worship. We value grace-empowered discipleship. We value being neighborhood-focused. We value relational ministry and we value church membership.
This Sunday we'll look at church membership from the vantage point of Hebrews 13:17, and in this we'll see that while the Bible doesn't explicitly address church membership, it absolutely addresses it in the relationships that elders have to church members and that church members have to elders. To come prepared for the sermon, take time this week to read and to meditate upon Hebrews 13:17, 1 Corinthians 12:12-26, John 10:12-13, James 1:22-25, 1 John 4:1,6.
As we come together in obedience to God's command and delight in his presence, we join our voices in song using the hymns, "Christ Our Hope In Life and Death," "He Will Hold Me Fast," and "We Are God's People." Come ready to experience the joy of the Lord together.
Sermon Information
Text: Hebrews 13:17
Title: The Priority of Membership
Outline:
1. Elders have a relationship to church members
2. Church members have a relationship to elders