What is the purpose of the church? It’s an important question as we launch into a new season of ministry as an independent church in the Wesleyan/Methodist tradition. Focusing on our essential tasks is key to being a church that fulfills the Great Commission of making disciples of Jesus Christ.
Following up on our last series on the basic “Gospel Truths,” Pastor Bob Kaylor will take us on a deep dive into the basic mission and ministry of the church. The series is based on the definition of church long used by those in the Wesleyan/Anglican tradition:
The Church is of God and will be preserved to the end of time, for the conduct of worship and the due administration of God’s Word and Sacraments, the maintenance of Christian fellowship and discipline, the edification of believers, and the conversion of the world. All, of every age and station, stand in need of the means of grace which it alone supplies.
The series will look at the four basic functions of the church revealed in that statement: worship, discipleship, fellowship, and evangelism/mission. When we focus on these primary functions, we will lay a good foundation for the future.
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Worship | Week 1
This Sunday we’ll start by looking at the critical importance of worship in the life of the church. It’s worship that invites us into a new way of being as the result of an encounter with God. We’ll be using Isaiah’s encounter with God in Isaiah 6:1-8 as a model for understanding the “synesthetic” nature of worship, giving us a new perspective on what it means to gather together before God and to leave changed.
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Discipleship | Week 2
This week’s message will focus on discipleship and Jesus’ Great Commission to “go and make disciples of all nations.” How do we do that? How did the early church do that? We’ll take a brief tour through church history and examine the various ways that slow, patient, intentional character formation in the image of Christ became the catalyst that caused Christianity to grow most rapidly during its most intense period of persecution in its first three centuries. You could argue that we’ve entered another such period as the church finds itself on the outs with the culture. The key to growing churches is thus going to be growing authentic disciples who reflect the way of their Lord in their daily lives—people who are truly countercultural in a way that outsiders might notice and want to know more. That requires a different mindset than that of Christendom—a mindset of patience and what Peterson calls “a long slow obedience in the same direction.” What might that look like for us at Aldersgate?
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Click here to join our 10:30AM worship service.
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Fellowship | Week 3
The definition of the Church used in many Methodist traditions tells us that “the maintenance of Christian fellowship and discipline” is a key foundational building block of every local church. It’s a call to joint participation and sharing in the Body of Christ—the kind of fellowship described in Acts 2:42-47, where the common practices of the early church included teaching, breaking bread (another form of potluck?), and prayers, along with sharing things in common with those who had need. These are the basic building blocks of church participation and practices that we commit to sharing in together for the sake of the Body as well as our own edification.
We’re going to look at each of these practices this Sunday; in fact, we’re going to look at the process of “practice” itself. When athletes and musicians are so practiced at their craft that they can perform flawlessly without thinking, we might say that they are “in the zone.” A Duke psychology professor gives that an even more clear definition—it’s called being in the “effortless present.” It was the effortless present of the early church that attracted people to join their numbers daily, and these same practices can inform us about how to do the same in our own time and place.
And we’re going to give you an opportunity to participate together in one of those practices on Sunday as we pray around the church between the 9:00am and 10:30am services. We’ll circle up around the outside of the church to pray together for God’s presence and power for the work God’s calling us to do in the season ahead. It’s going to be a special time, so come early or stay late and don’t miss it!
Click here to join our 9AM worship service.
Click here to join our 10:30AM worship service.
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Evangelism and Mission | Week 4
Acts 8:26-40
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