Church

"Mountainview exists to Glorify God, Grow in Jesus, and Go into the Word." In my last post, I explored what it means to be a church that glorifies God. In this post, I will tackle the second of the 3G's -- growing in Jesus. Both churches with and without a mission statement agree that spiritual growth is vital and necessary. And having a mission statement doesn't somehow make growth automatic. If it did, there ought to be more spiritually mature believers scattered across the country. When churches talk about reaching the world for Jesus, they often go the end of Matthew and what is referred to as the Great Commission: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them…

At our elder retreat last fall, we spent considerable time studying, discussing, and praying about our mission as a church. For many years we had a mission statement common to many churches of the Willow Creek era: "To help unchurched people become fully-devoted followers of Jesus." A mission statement does not have to be unique to be effective. At the end of the day, God will judge individuals and churches based on the outcome of their lives not on how many trademarks or copyrights they hold. As we wrestled with what the Bible described as the mission of the church and how that is to be lived out on the local level, we came up with the following statement. If you've been around Mountainview, then hopefully you already know it. "Mountainview exists to Glorify God, Grow in Jesus, and Go into the World." That's our mission statement, or as we…

Every year at Opportunity Camp I am blessed to work with a 100+ of God's most precious children. This year, our 45th year in existence, we are serving almost 140 children who are in the social services system. Many of them are in foster or group homes, but not all of them. Some come from single parent or low income homes. One camper has been with us for the past eight years. Often this would mean he has been in foster care for the past eight years, but not in this case. This young man was adopted when he was six months old, having been born to a mother addicted to drugs. He is one of the fortunate ones. Too many of the kids who enter foster care never get out of the system. That's not to say they may not have good, loving foster parents. There are many good,…

The Christian life is a collaborative effort between a person, the triune God, and the Christian community. God never intended a person to slug through life alone. Jesus promised us we would not be orphans (John 14:18) and the New Testament writers often referred to the church in relational terms (family of God, the body of Christ, etc). The collaborative nature of the church is important when it comes to helping people find their way back to God. Years ago I heard Andy Stanley use the phrase "invest and invite" to describe how North Point Church builds a culture of evangelism. It basically boils down to two things: Invest in a relationship with a non-Christian. As I wrote earlier this week, the best form of evangelism will always be friendship. If you are serious about seeing people enter a relationship with Jesus, it will cost you time, energy, and possibly…