Practicing the Way of Jesus Together, Part 2

PRACTICING THE WAY OF JESUS TOGETHER
More Than Sunday
August 29, 2021 | By Paul Crouthamel

We are convinced that Jesus had more in mind for His church than an hour on Sunday mornings. Our vision of the church is a community where everyone matters, where everyone is needed, and everyone is transformed as we practice the way of Jesus together.

SETLIST

World Outside Your Window
Hillsong Young & Free

God of the Promise
Elevation Worship

New Thing
Hillsong Young & Free

Way Maker
Leeland

NOTES

Metaphors for the Church

  • Family
  • House of God
  • Temple of God built with living stones
  • Bride of Christ
  • Together

Abiding with Jesus, aligning our life with Jesus, and actively living out what Jesus says.

1 Corinthians 12:12-27
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body­ Jews or Greeks, slaves or free­ and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

When you practice the way of Jesus together, everyone matters.

1 Corinthians 1:26-28
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

When you practice the way of Jesus together, everyone is needed.

When you practice the way of Jesus together, everyone is transformed.

Ephesians 4:11­-16
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Action Steps to Take

  • Use your gifting to serve the body.
  • Become part of a Seven Marks Community.
  • Jump into our 7Marks Class.
  • Come to Starting Point.
  • Engage in one of our City Initiatives.