! ! ! ! What Brings Us Together Series Guide Winter 2013

Contents

2 Contents3 Introduction 5 Series Overview5 Jesus Brings Us Together5 Gospel Brings Us Together5 Fellowship Brings Us Together5 City Brings Us Together6 Holy Spirit Brings Us Together6 Renewal Brings Us Together6 God’s Glory Brings Us Together7 Series Structure7 Read7 Reflect7 Record7 Respond7 Review8 Week 1 Jesus Brings Us Together10 Week 2 Gospel Brings Us Together12 Week 3 Fellowship Brings Us Together14 Week 4 City Brings Us Together16 Week 5 Holy Spirit Brings Us Together18 Week 6 Renewal Brings Us Together20 Week 7 God’s Glory Brings Us Together

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Introduction

What brings us together?

We ask questions to clarify the assumptions that we have about church planting.

Tim Chester, the author of “Total Church” and “Everyday Church,” recently contributed an article entitled, “Five Church-Planting Dangers” in the Gospel Coalition blog.

He lists and explains the five dangers of desiring to plant biblically rooted church.

1. Planting a replica church- This church plant is a clone of your sending church or your experience. Church planting allows you to rethink church, creating patterns of church life more faithful to Scripture and more relevant to the culture. The danger is that you try to be a large church with a small church planting team instead of seizing the advantages of being a small church.

2. Planting a reactionary church- This is the opposite of replica church. This is what happens when people have endured a bad experience of church. Church planting for some people is a way of running away for church rather than resolving issues or reconciling broken relationships. People know exactly what they don’t want their church to look alike. But without a positive vision, the resulting church tends to have a negative culture or a culture that’s suspicious of other churches, feeling superior to them.

3. Planting a romantic church- You might create a church ideally suited to you, chances are it will not be missional. Your personal favorite features won’t necessarily create an ideal context to invite unbelievers.

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4. Planting a restorationist church- This church plant is an attempt accurately to create what the church was like in the first century, to restore apostolic Christianity. Churches like this spend a lot of time trying to identify precisely the patterns of New Testament practice. The real danger with the restorationist mindset is that you become inward-looking. You are more interested in winning converts from within the church than winning converts to Christ.

5. Planting a reductionistic church- In some ways this is the opposite of a restorationist church. Here the desire is to plant a church that is “incarnational” or “missional” or “contextualized.” But you understand these terms to mean creating a church that closely resembles the surrounding culture. The danger facing such churches is that they reduce the gospel and assimilate to the wider culture. In the end they have nothing to offer.

I pray and invite you to be involved in planting a church that is characterized by the following five features:

1. A Renewing Church- A church that is renewed by the Word of God and is renewing lives, families, and communities by holy and acceptable life of sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2).

2. A Responsive Church- A church that is responsive to traditions, trends, and to the truth. A church that responds to changing times with the timeless truth applied in a timely manner (Ephesians 4:1-3).

3. A Realistic Church- A church that is no non-sense, intelligible, and respectable to the outsiders (1 Peter 3:14-16).

4. A Reconciling Church- A church that presents and practices reconciliation between God and man first, then between man and man (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).

5. A Reviving Church- A church that hears what the Spirit says, repents, and remains faithful unto death (Revelation 2:1-11).

For the King, Pastor Samuel Choi

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Series Overview

Values shape who we are, what we do, why we do it, and how we do it.

We hope to clarify our values through the “What Brings Us Together” series.

Jesus Week 1

Jesus Brings Us Together | Matthew 4:19

We love Jesus. He is our God. He is the center of our life. He is the center of everything we do. We live for Jesus.

Gospel Week 2

Gospel Brings Us Together | Romans 1:16

The Gospel is God’s good news to broken sinners that Jesus Christ came to live, die, and rise again for the forgiveness of sins and the giving of eternal life. This news offers to bring us home to God for life that is truly life - everyday.

Church Week 3

Fellowship Brings Us Together | Acts 2:42

Church is a fellowship of a people who have been redeemed by Jesus and sent into their context to make God look good as He really is.

City Week 4

City Brings Us Together | Hebrews 13:14

We love the cities. We live, work, play and raise our children in the cities. We are not in the city to stand above the city (in judgment) or to hide under the city (in fear) or to mirror the city (in surrender), but to serve and challenge the city (in love).

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Mission Week 5

Holy Spirit Brings Us Together | Genesis 1:2

The mission of God is to make disciples (followers). We want as many people as possible experience the sin-cleansing, shame-removing, scare-lifting, life-changing, and world-altering power of the Gospel.

Renewal Week 6

Renewal Brings Us Together | 2 Chronicles 7:14

We want as many people as possible to see Jesus and experience life as it was intended to be: God-centered life now and forever. As this happens, the city changes. As people meet Jesus the city is transformed; integrity is restored, families are rebuilt, classes and races are reconciled, the social fabric is rewoven, and the culture is renewed through the gospel.

Multiplication Week 7

God’s Glory Brings Us Together | Genesis 9:1

We seek to grow in integrative ministry and help in movement dynamics through church planting and development of gospel eco-system.

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Series Structure

Each study is structured in a following manner:

1. ReadRead the Scriptures for at least three times.

2. ReflectReflect on the Scriptures to be aware of the Holy Spirit’s guidance into rightly interpreting the text. Hear the teaching to learn the “big idea” and engage.

3. RecordRecord what you are learning about who God is, what God’s will is, and what God’s word says about who you are.

4. RespondRespond by writing what repentance and faith look like.

5. ReviewReview the previous study and examine your progress, celebrate the growth, and share the story.

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Jesus Week 1

Jesus Brings Us Together | Matthew 4:19

We love Jesus. He is our God. He is the center of our life. He is the center of everything we do. We live for Jesus.

1. Read Matthew 4:19And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

❑ What is the will of God?

2. Reflect “Big Idea”

❑ In light of God’s will, what is he like?

3. Record

❑ What are practical ways we can put the will of God into practice?

4. Respond

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❑ In light of God’s will, what are practical ways that we blow it?

❑ What thoughts are revealed by these actions?

❑ What beliefs about God are revealed by these actions?

5. Review

❑ How are you doing in this area?

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Gospel Week 2

Gospel Brings Us Together | Romans 1:16

The Gospel is God’s good news to broken sinners that Jesus Christ came to live, die, and rise again for the forgiveness of sins and the giving of eternal life. This news offers to bring us home to God for life that is truly life - everyday.

1. Read Romans 1:16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

❑ What is the will of God?

2. Reflect “Big Idea”

❑ In light of God’s will, what is he like?

3. Record

❑ What are practical ways we can put the will of God into practice?

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4. Respond

❑ In light of God’s will, what are practical ways that we blow it?

❑ What thoughts are revealed by these actions?

❑ What beliefs about God are revealed by these actions?

5. Review

❑ How are you doing in this area?

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Church Week 3

Fellowship Brings Us Together | Acts 2:42

Church is a fellowship of a people who have been redeemed by Jesus and sent into their context to make God look good as He really is.

1. Read Acts 2:42And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

❑ What is the will of God?

2. Reflect “Big Idea”

❑ In light of God’s will, what is he like?

3. Record

❑ What are practical ways we can put the will of God into practice?

4. Respond

❑ In light of God’s will, what are practical ways that we blow it?

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❑ What thoughts are revealed by these actions?

❑ What beliefs about God are revealed by these actions?

5. Review

❑ How are you doing in this area?

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City Week 4

City Brings Us Together | Hebrews 13:14

We love the cities. We live, work, play and raise our children in the cities. We are not in the city to stand above the city (in judgment) or to hide under the city (in fear) or to mirror the city (in surrender), but to serve and challenge the city (in love).

1. Read Hebrews 13:14For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

❑ What is the will of God?

2. Reflect “Big Idea”

❑ In light of God’s will, what is he like?

3. Record

❑ What are practical ways we can put the will of God into practice?

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4. Respond

❑ In light of God’s will, what are practical ways that we blow it?

❑ What thoughts are revealed by these actions?

❑ What beliefs about God are revealed by these actions?

5. Review

❑ How are you doing in this area?

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Mission Week 5

Holy Spirit Brings Us Together | Genesis 1:2

The mission of God is to make disciples (followers). We want as many people as possible experience the sin-cleansing, shame-removing, scare-lifting, life-changing, and world-altering power of the Gospel.

1. Read Genesis 1:2The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

❑ What is the will of God?

2. Reflect “Big Idea”

❑ In light of God’s will, what is he like?

3. Record

❑ What are practical ways we can put the will of God into practice?

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4. Respond

❑ In light of God’s will, what are practical ways that we blow it?

❑ What thoughts are revealed by these actions?

❑ What beliefs about God are revealed by these actions?

5. Review

❑ How are you doing in this area?

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Renewal Week 6

Renewal Brings Us Together | 2 Chronicles 7:14

We want as many people as possible to see Jesus and experience life as it was intended to be: God-centered life now and forever. As this happens, the city changes. As people meet Jesus the city is transformed; integrity is restored, families are rebuilt, classes and races are reconciled, the social fabric is rewoven, and the culture is renewed through the gospel.

1. Read 2 Chronicles 7:14If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

❑ What is the will of God?

2. Reflect “Big Idea”

❑ In light of God’s will, what is he like?

3. Record

❑ What are practical ways we can put the will of God into practice?

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4. Respond

❑ In light of God’s will, what are practical ways that we blow it?

❑ What thoughts are revealed by these actions?

❑ What beliefs about God are revealed by these actions?

5. Review

❑ How are you doing in this area?

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Multiplication Week 7

God’s Glory Brings Us Together | Genesis 9:1

We seek to grow in integrative ministry and help in movement dynamics through church planting and development of gospel eco-system.

1. Read Genesis 9:1And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

❑ What is the will of God?

2. Reflect “Big Idea”

❑ In light of God’s will, what is he like?

3. Record

❑ What are practical ways we can put the will of God into practice?

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4. Respond

❑ In light of God’s will, what are practical ways that we blow it?

❑ What thoughts are revealed by these actions?

❑ What beliefs about God are revealed by these actions?

5. Review

❑ How are you doing in this area?

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