for those of you who are wondering what the gathering is all about, i thought i'd post this for your reading pleasure:
Our vision (i.e., if we could close our eyes and dream about what we'd love to become, this is what we would see)- to become a missional- community of transformed worshipers
Our mission (i.e., why we are occupying space on God's green earth)- to engage the emerging generation of atlanta with the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ
Our values (i.e., this is 'coffee shop' language that we use to communicate HOW we intend to accomplish our mission)-
to enjoy CONNECTION with God
COMMUNITY with one another
while being CONTAGIOUS to those who don't know Christ
and being COMMITED to making disciples
We think this is what God is calling us to do as the gathering. Hopefully, these are very similar to God's call on your life personally. We want the gathering to be a catalytic spring-board that helps you to live out the implications of the gospel in your life.
One thing I'm currently wrestling with is what it means for us as a community to step out in faith together. I'm pretty sure of what it means for me to live by faith as an individual, but the idea of a community risking itself for the great end of furthering God's glory is a little trickier to figure out.
Will you join me in thinking through the implications of our mission statement for your life individually and our community corporately?
many blessings, matt
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2 comments:
i'm down. i'm down for coffee discussion as well.
i wrote a pretty long comment the other day and somehow it didn't post. i was too discouraged, and it was too late at night to write it again. i apologize in advance for being such a wordy fella. . .
God is clearly calling us, as the gathering, to work out the implications of doing life together in a gospel-centered/Jesus-centered fashion.
what does it mean when matt talks about "praying big," asking "God to be God"? what does that mean for us as a community? is it just a phrase that gives you goosebumps for a few minutes? does it mean that we spend all our time begging God to make our group bigger, slicker, prettier? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
something occurred to me the other day, that i think is relevant. the apostle paul speaks of spiritual milk as opposed to meat (1 Cor 3:2) as does the writer of hebrews (5:11-14). hebrews says that the audience ought to be teachers by now, but they are still babies, not yet ready for the deeper things of the faith. i have often wondered what these deeper truths were. are they in the bible? is the true meat of faith found in the minutia of knowing old testament bloodlines? is the true heart of our faith in cracking cryptic codes that will tell us the exact hour of Jesus' return? what is this deeper stuff?!
what if the deeper stuff that paul talks about, and the bigger prayers that matt talks about are one in the same? what if it's been sitting under our noses this whole time? what if maturity is not found in memorizing another answer for biblical trivial pursuit, or completing your weekly spiritual checklist. 4 out of 5 quiet times. . . i must be doing pretty well.
what if it's all about the gospel? what if the process of going from milk to meat, didn't involve new information, but new implications. what if maturity means the degree to which the gospel has taken hold of us and every corner of our minds, hearts, and lives.
as matt spoke on sunday, we need this gospel constantly. we need to learn to preach it to ourselves. if you are anything like me, you are pitiful at this. so, we need to practice by preaching it to each other! don't settle for information and theological facts in place of the gospel of Christ Jesus in your d groups. don't settle for a mere retelling of facts in place of authenticity and brokenness in your coffee discussions.
we have to open up the wound and treat it with the blood of Jesus Christ. it doesn't end with a little "acceptance" prayer. that hardly even scratches the surface. i need you to preach the gospel to me in our interactions. you need me and all the rest of us to do the same for you.
lastly, we need US to pray for us. what does it look like to pray big? well, pray that the gospel would grip us like nothing else. pray that EVERYTHING that dangles in front of us, to entice us away from grace would lose its appeal. and again if you're like me, that could be just about ANYTHING at the right time.
invite God to show up and be God with me. y'know, if we're just getting together as a sunday-school, or a social network for twenty-somethings that happen to be christians, i'm sorry, but i'm out. no offense, it's just not what i need or want.
i need, WE need to be owned by this gospel. and we aren't. will you pray with me?
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