Addendum to the State of the Church

I enjoyed presenting “The State of the Church” this past Sunday. In a nutshell, I challenged FBC to accept and pursue membership expectations regarding regular worship participation, connecting through small groups, directly serving through missional initiatives and giving of our time, finances, skills and other resources for the work of the church. To listen to the entire address, please visit: fbcblackmountain.org/sermons.

I hope you understand that much of my address centered on the “functional” ways we should participate at FBC. That being said, there are three underlying principles I hope you’ll be attentive to as we journey together:

• Discipleship – Becoming more like Jesus is central to our worshipping, communal and missional efforts. Discipleship is not a program; it is a continual process of growth for us as individuals and as the Body of Christ.
• Evangelism – You may have been disappointed or confused not to hear “evangelism” as a functional expectation of the church. Truthfully, evangelism pervades all that we do. When we worship – we proclaim the Gospel. When we connect with each other and with our community – we talk about Jesus. When we serve the least of these among us, we share the Good News through word and deed. Evangelism never ceases in the life of a healthy, Christ-centered church.
• Unity – Not to be confused with uniformity (sameness), unity is the desire to find common ground and shared vision despite our unique personalities. We give explicit testimony to this each time we gather at the Table; we must also live it out in our worship gatherings, leadership meetings, theological discussions and any other point where differences can arise.

Are you prepared to raise the bar as we look towards our future together?