9/19/2011

They walked with Him, ate with Him, heard His teaching, saw His miracles, prayed with Him, grieved His death and rejoiced in His resurrection. But only after Jesus had ascended into heaven and the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them did the apostles truly make Jesus’ mission and vision their own – to sacrificially serve others, share the Good News and build His church worldwide.

Ultimately, we are a product of their efforts, and today, we have the same mission and vision with the same challenge – making connections with new people and leading them from being passive spectators to active participants who embrace and ‘own’ the mission and vision of the church themselves.

How to best do that is something every faithful church must address, regardless of size, location, denomination, etc. At Crossroads, we will address this coming Lord’s Day, September 25 at 4 PM in our worship center in our annual all-church Vision Meeting. In recent months we have been moving on a path to accelerate the ministry and amplify the witness of Crossroads Christian Church here, near and far away. Beginning the first of the year 2011 we have studied through the Gospel of Luke together. Then we went through the book of Acts, considering the theme, ‘The Church Alive’. Presently, we are learning about our ‘Reborn Identity’ and rediscovering who we are in Christ. In October we will focus on ‘Intimacy With God’ including a special accent on prayer. That will prepare us for the challenge of ‘Revolutionary Generosity’ culminating with our Try The Tithe II weekend after Thanksgiving. All this preparation has been to prepare us for unprecedented effectiveness in building the Kingdom of God. My prayer this morning is that every person who reads these words has heart ownership of where we are going and what we are doing for the cause of Jesus Christ in our generation. It is no accident that we are in this fellowship, together in this hour. We should have just as much of a sense of destiny as the disciples of the first century!

Pray with me….. Father, you have called us to Yourself for salvation and we have answered that call. But you have also called us to Yourself for service and we want to answer that call as well. Thank you for the way you have honored and blessed our church over the past 43 years. Now Lord, help us to take higher ground than we ever have before as we seek to win the lost at any cost and weld them into your forever family as faithful witnesses. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Blessings,
Pastor Ken