Bringing Jesus

2010

The Year We Make Contact

Love and Identify with Community

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. J.1.14

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Phlp.2.5-8

For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Heb.2.17,18

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. J.3.16-18

Making Contact

• Love the community (World)

• Identify with the community (became flesh)

• Serve the community (became a servant)

• Be merciful with community (merciful priest)

• Express faith, only God judges (whosoever)

Exegete!

Exegete Word Exegete Community

Vision 3D

Vision Intersection Profile

• Leader’s Passion

• Congregation’s Gifts

• Community Needs

vision

Thom Rainer, Breakout Churches

Defining “our” community

• Are we a neighborhood church?• Are we a church for our town/city?• Are we a county/regional church?• At present, do the majority of people at our

church come from the immediate community or drive in from elsewhere? What does that say?

Exegeting the Community

• Basic demographics– perceptgroup.com ($)– zipskinny.com– factfinder.census.gov– censusscope.org– religions.pewforum.org (religious affiliations)

• Windshield Survey

Exegeting the Community• History – what is our town story?• Of what are we proud or ashamed? (values)• What’s our vocation? (economic base, agriculture,

manufacturing, tourism…)• How are we making it? (cost for average home and

average family income…)• How does geography impact who we are? (isolated,

cold, sunny, crowded…)

Exegeting the Community• Talk to knowledgeable people

– Public servants (police, firemen, teachers…)

– Public leaders (mayor, aldermen…)

– Neighbors (try senior residential centers)

• Inventory community features– Note significant natural and man-made structures

– What community buildings exist and why?

– What is community aesthetic?

Let the Spirit Speak

• What are community needs?

• What does the gospel say to these needs?

• How can the church apply the gospel to these needs?

• What does the Spirit say to your church about a call to minister to the world God so loved?

Hope and a future… (Jer.29.12)

This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease… 4-6

Hope and a future… (Jer.29.12)

Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” … “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.”

Unchanging kingdom values

"So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty. “I the LORD do not change, so you O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” Malachi 3:5-6

Measure of love

Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1J.3.15-18

Christ’s final exam

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Mtw.25.34-36

Vision 3D

Vision Intersection Profile

• Leader’s Passion

• Congregation’s Gifts

• Community Needs

vision

Thom Rainer, Breakout Churches