Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 (NIV)
Life is a journey and Jesus is the way. The call to discipleship is a call to become a follower of Christ, a learner of his Word and ways, and an obedient servant in His kingdom, and a participant in His life. Jesus reveals Himself as we walk in the path God has mapped out for us. Each person's path is different, unique, and specially designed to help him or her come to a greater knowledge of and love for God and a greater passion to serve Him out of that love. We believe that, as a church and as individuals, we are on a journey with Jesus, an adventure of faith.
People who travel by foot travel as lightly as possible. The Bible calls Christians "strangers and pilgrims" who are on a journey. We are to make reaching the goal knowing and serving Christ our top priority, jettisoning any excess baggage that can weigh us down and hinder our progress. Jesus is the Way and will show us the right path one step at a time as we journey with Him . The important thing is to always be moving forward in obedience to God's Spirit.
One
day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he
saw two brothers, Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew, throwing a
net into the water, for they fished for a living. 19
Jesus called out to them, "Come, follow me, and I will show you how
to fish for people!" 20 And they left
their nets at once and followed him. Matthew 4:18-20
(NLT)
God never meant for our journey with Him to be boring. Unfortunately, much of traditional church life can be rather ho-hum and lacking adventure. People have arranged church to take the adventure out of life. We usually like to be comfortable rather than take risks of faith. We want others to do the work for us so we can sit back and enjoy the fruit of their labors. But when Jesus called his twelve disciples to leave everything and follow him, it challenged them to their core. He asked them to leave their comfort zone and the relative security of their families, homes, and jobs to venture out into the unknown of following Christ wherever he might lead. Jesus called them to give it all up in order to gain something far more valuable and eternal. For them, the call was irresistible. They were even willing to die for their Savior and the gospel. How about for you? Have you heard Christ's call to leave your comfort zone and take a journey of faith with Him? If you answer that call, your life will never be the same.
Journey is the disciple making team
at Liberty Church. We have
launched out into the deep to follow Christ and His Spirit in an
adventure of making disciples and planting organic, missional
churches. Missional means we are focused on fulfilling the Great
Commission, which involves sharing the gospel with people who do not
yet believe in Christ and ministering to the poor, the hurting and
the oppressed. We use Jesus' ministry theme Bible verse as our own.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
Because the LORD has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners; Isaiah 61:1 (NASB)
Organic means we seek to be led by the Spirit in everything we do. We have made the decision to no longer build with disgruntled transplants from other churches, but with brand new believers who are the fruit of our own evangelism and disciple making efforts. We do expect others who are moving into the area or who have no church home may wish to join us. They are also welcome to join us on the journey of making disciples. The churches we plant will be the result of God's bringing new life to people.
Relying on the grace of God and Christ's life within, we challenge each person to take responsibility for loving God, loving people and making disciples in their own context. In other words, the Holy Spirit will likely have different ways for each of us to reach and minister to people we know and with whom we relate. Journey employs something we call Mobile Ministry, which we use to reach out to, pastor and minister to people who may not even want anything to do with the traditional church because of past hurts and disappointments. Our intention is to bring the church to them. Our vision is to plant small neighborhood POD
(Priority One Discipleship) groups where people live.
The logo image for our POD groups is a dandelion with its seeds
blowing away from the round seed pod. Our intention is to make
disciples who will make disciples and launch POD groups which will
launch new POD groups. We have a vision to reach entire neighborhoods for Christ in this way and
bring transformation to communities.Our goal is to facilitate discipleship by starting these small groups as the Holy Spirit works in people's hearts to create a hunger in them for more of God. We prioritize disciple making, just as Jesus commanded. Our Lord told us to make disciples. It is his job and promise to build the church. We are expecting the Lord to use people who come to Christ as the building blocks (living stones) in these new church plants.
We don't exactly know yet where this adventure will take us, but we do know the Way. His name is Jesus. Our confidence is that as we pray and minister to people and do what God shows us to do, He will do what only He is able to do - build the church and save people. We are depending on God's Spirit to break through in people's lives in a way that will launch discipleship groups, home groups and even neighborhood churches. We do not have a formula, only faith in the Lord of the Harvest and a determination to persevere until we see the fruit of our labors.
We are looking for people who will join with us, who are willing to labor in the fields, sowing seed and reaping the harvest. This will be the most exciting adventure you have ever been on! Please take time to look over our website which will give you an idea of what our vision and plans are. If you would like to take this journey with us, please contact us so we can talk. This job is too big for one group. We want to partner with others of similar vision in order to reach our area with the gospel of Jesus Christ one person at a time.
Below is a short video that captures the essence of what we are trying to do.
Reaching a New Generation - REVISTED from Roxburgh Missional Network on Vimeo.