The Church We Want to Be

This past Sunday, our church talked about our goals for 2012 and explored the church we want to be this year (and hopefully in the years that follow).  We rooted much of our discussion in the epistles of Paul and his words of prayer and thanksgiving for the churches with which he ministered.  With that said, this is the church we want to be:

We want to be a place of mutual encouragement

always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.  For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. (Romans 1:10-12, ESV)

We want to be a place that partners in the gospel

because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. (Philippians 1:5, ESV)

We want to be a people who grow in our knowledge of God and His Word

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.  And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:16-23, ESV)

We want to be a people who walk worthy of the Lord

so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. (Colossians 1:10, ESV)

We want to be a people who are good stewards of God’s gifts

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10-11, ESV)

We want to be a people who honor God in all things (1 Peter 4:10-11)

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