Series 101: The Church As A Family
- What is the Church?
- Can you be a member of two churches?
- What are my next steps?
Ephesians 2:19,
“You are a member of God’s very own family and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.” Circle “member”, “family”, “belong”, “household”.
The Church is a Family
– God expects us to be a member of a family
What makes our Church a family? – 4 things
– Our Salvation – What JC has done for us
– Our Statement – Why we exist as a church
– Our Strategy – How we Fulfill our Purpose
– Our Structure – When and where we fulfill that purpose
Church story – how we are here as a Church and why
– Vision and mission of our church
– Our Purpose Statement – Why do we exist?
The core of our classes
101 – The Church as a Family
201 – Discovering My Spiritual Maturity
301 – Discovering My Shape
401 – Discovering My Life Mission
Church Membership Covenant
– A Commitment to Christ and our Church as a Family
Ministry Covenant
– A Commitment to discovering and using my God-given gifts and abilities in serving God and others.
Missions Covenant
– The Commitment to share the Good News with others
Key Principles
– Our church is built on a network of small groups
– We are driven by the Purpose
– Life Development and Transformation Process
– Every member is a Minister
– Behavioral Preaching: “Be Does of the word and not a hearer only” (James 1:22)
– Lead by Serving
– The Church is a group of Imperfect People and sinners.
– Simple to get involved – Keep the structure simple
How the Church should be organized?
– The Church is a Fellowship
– The Church is a Family
– The Church is a Body – the body of Christ
– The Church is a flock
John 21. “Jesus asked Simon Peter, `Do you really love me?’ `Yes, Lord,’ said Peter. `Then take care of My sheep.'” Circle “Take care”. That’s the Greek word for “pastor”.
In our church, we do not have the pastors on our staff but we have lay pastors because this church is too big to pay everybody to care for everybody else.
Biblical view of Pastor, Deacon, Elder
Why do we exist?
– We exist to celebrate God’s presence
– We exist to communicate God’s word
– We exist to educate God’s people
– We exist to demonstrate God’s love
Our Statement of Faith
Ephesians 4:4-6 “There is one body and one Spirit, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of us all.” Essentials. But there are a lot of things in the Christian life, the Christian walk, that are not essentials.
They’re kind of open to however you interpret them, as you study, as you pray, as you ask God to show you. There are some things you’re going to differ from other people on. We consider a lot of these to be nonessentials and in those there’s liberty. In those, we can have diversity.
– The Bible is our sole authority
– Autonomy of the local church – JC is the head of this church. Not the Pastor, not the elders.
– Tithing
– Baptized – Immersion – the meaning of baptism & Lord’s supper
– Spirit-led living
Why Am I here?
What God wants me to do? – 5 things
- Admit
- Believe
- Accept God’s Free Gifts of Salvation
- Invite JC to come into my life and be the director of my life.
- Membership Application