Life Groups & Missional Outlets
Hi Church Family,
Starting this weekend, we are restraining ourselves from meeting for in-person prayer meetings on Saturday and Sunday corporate worship. All the official church gatherings are going online as the Peel Public Health announced that religious gatherings are restricted to 50 people. It is a sad reality that we cannot meet in person, but given the rising cases of COVID-19 in our cities it is a right thing to do in order to be good citizens, honor the government authorities, and love our neighbors.
It’s been challenging for many of us, but in the midst of challenges I have seen so many evidences of God’s grace in our lives. I thank God for the work of faith and labor of love I see and hear in your lives and in your Life Groups. I pray for you to continue to grow in faith and love in this season. And I thank you for praying for me and our church leadership, and thank you for being faithful church members in this season. I am encouraged to receive your prayers and your support.
God works in mysterious ways and he has been faithfully at work in our lives. “We know that for those who love God all things—[yes, all things, including pandemic and personal pains]--work together for the good of those who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28).
We trust that God is doing a new thing in and through all that we are experiencing. And we will keep trusting Him and we will keep fixing our eyes on him who is sovereign over everything and is fulfilling his good purpose. And we will keep worshipping our Lord, loving one another and serve in his mission to bless the people of all nations.
If you need a prayer or pastoral visitation via zoom, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or to any of our pastors and elders. We are here to serve you and care for you. If you would like to be part of a Life Group, please let me know and we will have you get plugged in. The Life Group season began last month and I am hearing good stories of our members connecting via zoom, keeping each other accountable in their daily Bible readings, caring and praying for one another. You cannot do Christina life alone. You need to be connected to the people of Christ. So please let me know if you want to be part of a group.
For those of you who are part of a Life Group, let me remind you that the vision of Life Group ministry is: “"to glorify God by growing together as fruitful disciples of Jesus." And we pursue this vision through three means: 1) Abiding in Christ; 2) Loving one another; 3) Bearing witness of Christ to others. I have already written about the first two means in my previous column. I want to share a little bit about the third and last means: Bearing witness of Christ to others.
Jesus lived out his life in three relationships: UP—with the Father; IN—with his chosen followers; OUT—with the hurting world. As followers of Jesus we also need to live out our lives in three relationships. Our Christian life is not complete without the healthy dynamic of all three components.
I must confess that I do personally and relatively well with the first two (Up and In), but not so well with the third (Out). I can be so upward and inward focused that I neglect the need outside of my personal life and church life. But healthy Christian life and church life must have the third component that flows out of the first two components. Ministry and missions for others (must) flow out of abiding in Christ and loving one another in the body of Christ.
Because we can easily fall into a kind of lifestyle that neglects the lost and the broken, we are intentionally asking all the Life Groups to choose one missional outlet together, so that we grow together as missional church that intentionally bear witness of Christ through word and deed. And bearing witness is not about exerting more effort to do more. Our bearing of witness is made possible and can only be by the power of the Spirit who is the witness of Christ and empowers Christ’s people to bear witness of Christ through word and deed to people in this broken world (John 15:26-27).
And when we bear witness of Christ by the power of the Spirit, we experience the grace of God that cannot be experienced otherwise and our relationship with God and with one another deepens and strengthens. The three movements of UP-IN-OUT feed off of each other towards the healthy life of a discipleship. I pray that we will grow together as fruitful disciples as we abide in Christ and his word, love one another, and bear witness of Christ to others by the power of the Spirit—to the glory of God.
