Each of us have an opportunity to serve as part of the broader family of Jesus followers. As we enter into the work of God’s Holy Spirit and encounter people in the name, loving attitude, and manner that Jesus brings to them through us, we can see lives changed and futures reshaped in the love and power of God! The hope of glory for those we encounter together is Jesus in and through us! Our feet are beautiful in as much as they are covered in prayer all wrapped up in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Today marks a special day for our little Jesus community we’ve been calling Jesus Missionary Communities. We will be heading to a community event as a family and loving on those we encounter together. We look forward to lifting those we meet up in prayer when we gather this Sunday and follow-up and follow through with those God leads us to continue to pursue. This Sunday we will have a few more joining us whom God has given me the opportunity of meeting throughout the week who didn’t have a church family here in Merced. We trust God as we learn to invite the lonely and those not presently in fellowship with other believers to join our family. As our family grows and serves our neighbors together, we hope Lord-willing to multiply to two Jesus communities by March and multiply again every six months to a year thereafter.
For any who have questions, we are staying very close to the same model of ministry as We Are Church is cultivating in the fear and love of God in Jesus Christ. It is just healthiest to not try to play the Holy Spirit right? And, we believe what We Are Church is doing is healthy and a needed change from the direction of the broader American approach of mimicking corporate America with the name of Jesus stamped on everything. That’s as far as I’ll go here, because we don’t want to be worshipers of “approaches to ministry” nor those who claim they have it all figured out. Like We Are Church, we are simply feeling out the Holy Spirit’s direction day by day with God’s Word and one another as constant companions! We need to be careful to not be human agenda heavy and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit light.
My prayer is to see more and more of the “new recruits” so-to-speak for our community coming from those in our church Jesus community. It’s exciting to hear stories of neighboring and hospitality and see the results of God working through us a day-to-day believers!
Open-handed and open-ended ministry to our neighbors is “not for the faint of heart” and yet it is; it’s for every believer as we strengthen in faith!
Grounded Gospel 