Wrestling With the Church--Part 3 (at the staff retreat)

The Grace staff was on a two-day retreat this past Wednesday and Thursday. I've been on a lot of staff retreats in my 23 years of ministry but this was probably the best. In essence, we prayerfully wrestled with what it means to be the church. Usually, in "building" a church, most of the money and time goes into building the institution. But Jesus never really asked us to do that. Instead, he calls us to "build" disciples--to invite and teach and equip people to follow Jesus.

So with that in mind we fine-tuned our mission statement: Our mission is to follow Jesus on the bold, daring, reckless adventure of bringing grace to the world.

Then we began to ask the question--what would it really look like if all of our efforts and resources went into equipping each of us to do that--to follow Jesus--in our corner of the world rather than "building" an institution filled with programs and committees and general "religious busyness?" To see our new campus, not as another place where Christians create their own subculture--but as a training center that sends us back out on that reckless mission of grace?

Imagine--learning together to follow Jesus on the bold, daring, reckless adventure of grace! That's keeping it simple, significant, and fun.

More to come.