I had someone ask me this week where I hope The Gathering will be in a year. It didn’t take me long to come up with a few things I hope to see this church being in the coming year:
1. Strong disciples. That is something every church intends to accomplish, but few actually do. This involves God’s people getting very serious about their relationship with Christ and investing the time and energy into developing a spiritual digestive system that can handle the meat of the Word. Churches are most often filled with little, baby Christians who have to be bottle fed the very basics of the Word. I want to see our people growing to a point of desiring to dig deeper and experience Jesus every day so that they can live lives that indicate a deep relationship with Him.
2. Community integration. I want us to become so involved in our community in so many different ways that if we were to disappear tomorrow, the community would miss us and be worse off with our absence. We need to focus on our Jerusalem so that the people immediately surrounding us are strengthened and encouraged because they were not only told the Gospel, they were shown it. That is going to take creativity and desire on our part.
3. Growth. I want to see us growing, not from transfer growth (people shifting from church to church), but because our church is so plugged into our community, people are encountering Christ and being transformed from death to life.
4. Missional Focus. I want to see our people so tuned into the mission that we are constantly looking for opps to go and serve. I want to see us hungry to change the world; to impact it with the Gospel for the glory of Christ.
Every single one of these are do-able in 2010. I believe God is calling us to great things for His glory. It begins with personal revival, a hunger for His Word, and a desire to draw closer to Him every day. If you are currently a part of The Gathering, are you ready? We’re on the starting line. Now, it’s time to run the race!
I’m ready!