Just One can make a difference

Last night was a record night for our "church within a church" that we call Journey.  On any given Sunday evening we have between 70-80 people.  Last night we were just under 130.  All this growth is organic.  It's really cool.  As long as we continue to not lose sight of our focus which is Jesus - period - we will glorify Him and the numbers will continue to grow naturally.  It was our last night in our "What If" series.  Our focus was on what if we really served the world.  Our guest speaker was Greg Russinger from Just One, an organization designed and committed to end social injustice, i.e. poverty, orphans, and specifically last night - human trafficking.  It was a real eye opener, and even though our service went almost 2 1/2 hours, no one seemed to notice.  The Spirit was on the move.  You see Greg hangs out where Jesus would be hanging out.  With the Lost.  Jesus operated / operates where it's messy.  Our culture, our world is messy.  So ask yourself, as an employee for Jesus, where do you spend your time with the gifts and talents  He gave you?  

How does a doctor heal the well?  About as well as we Christians can add life to our brothers and sisters.  If we are not engaged with the lost, then we might as well be fired.  If a doctor got paid for only engaging well people, he would most certainly lose his job!  Right?

That being said, I was totally stoked and convicted at the same time.  Stoked to see the growth last night, and convicted that I wasn't doing enough to serve the world.  So tonight I was going over some notes I took at an Exponential conference last April in Orlando.  Here are a few the notes I jotted down regarding doing church right.  It's a good litmus test to see if we (Journey) are still on task - still have the right focus - still taking the right steps to further engage and grow the Kingdom.  

NOTES:

* Follow Jesus' lead.  He sets the primary template. 

* The "church" comes out of missionary engagement. 

* The recovery of discipleship should be a core task. 

* Our movement/growth can grow only in proportion to our disciples! 

* Expand your disciples & expand your movement/growth! 

 

We need to recover, or rediscover, the apostolic movement.  To do that we need to cultivate missionally responsive, culturally adaptive, organizationally agile, multiplicituous people.  In short, we need to mobilize the people of God.  Own up to our missional responsibilities.  We need not only to produce, but to reproduce.   Employ missional leadership. (Eph.4) 

Now understand what I am saying here.  I am not saying it's all about numbers.  What I am trying to say is that this is what we should be doing regardless.  The question we have to ask ourselves is - are we?  

After last night at Journey it was evident that our ever increasing "movement" is indeed doing just that - moving.  I do believe we are on the right track, and that our focus is still ALL ABOUT JESUS. 

It reminds me of what Jesus says in Revelation 22 - Behold, I am coming soon.  

Are YOU moving?  He is coming you know.   Soon!