I am challenged by so many things as I have this awesome privilege to work with people both in the
Kingdom and in this broken world. But one of the greatest things that I am challenged by is the fact that so many people still dwell in the Sunday morning crowd and are not fully engaged followers (we call them disciples) of Jesus Christ!
The task before us as a faith community is overwhelming…we live in an urban area of over four million people. Four million people who are living their lives for the most part, totally unaware of the paths they walk toward eternity. The overwhelming part is that one or two or five of us do not have the capacity to reach so many, because we know that must people are going to be reached through the power of contagious relationships. That is why we must have every member of our church family fully engaged.
We must have every person who calls themselves followers of Jesus, fully engaged in His mission. What does that mean? It simply means this: the people of God partnering with Him in His redemptive mission in the world.
You see, we have escaped the weight of our responsibility by living in this church-centric western mindset…where we feel like it’s the churches job to win lost people…and we have lost sight of the fact that the mission is Christ-centric and Kingdom-centric…
Our neighborhoods and workplaces are filled with the various cultures of this world and they are right here on our doorstep. It is estimated that within a 5 mile radius of the Church of Champions campus (our Jerusalem), that there are over 285,000 people living around us. That is the equivalent to over 91,000 different family units.
Over 220,000 of those people are Anglo or African-American; over 68,000 of them are from Hispanic backgrounds; over 21,000 of them are from Asian backgrounds; over 10,000 of them are from other cultures other than these listed, and over 4,000 of them are of mixed cultural backgrounds.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I submit to you that every one of us is on a mission and that is why every one of us needs to be fully engaged, not just within the four walls of our campus building, but right where we are at in our culture!
To be fully engaged in this Christ-centered mission there must be a radical activation of believers and churches to recommit to living, breathing, speaking and loving the Gospel, And to do so, regardless of the pressures to compromise the truth of the Gospel or to conceal its power within the four walls of the church.
I leave you with the words of Jesus that have burned in my spirit for weeks now: “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” John 17:15-18 (NIV)
Challenge yourself to be fully engaged every day that live in this world…fully engaged as a follower of Jesus and fully engaged in His mission for the culture in which we live!
