The Grace Discipleship Group

Some random thoughts from some notes I received from Steve Timmis …

Because the worship and enjoyment of God is the ultimate goal of the church, we can and must assert that mission is the central purpose of the church in the world. It is the primary means by which God is glorified. It is the most significant and tangible expression of our delight in God and our appreciation of his grace.

That being the case, mission is not simply an activity we engage in alongside other activities. It is the task that defines all other activities. Our discipling of others is to equip them to tell others of Jesus, and to provoke them to godliness so that their lives might commend the gospel of grace to those who are strangers to grace. Because we love God and want others to love him too, we honour him by explaining to others why He merits our service and adoration. In fact, worship is not singing old hymns from a hymnbook or trendy songs from an overhead projector. It is a declaration of God’s virtues to all who will listen. And that is a life-thing before it is a meeting-event.
In assessing your life, assess to what extent mission is the priority. Calculate how much time you spend thinking, planning and executing gospel initiatives. Ask yourself how much time you actually give to developing relationships with people so that you can tell them about Jesus. He is the heart of mission, and mission is not mission if we have not spoken of him. In simple terms, gospel work is work that has the gospel as its priority.

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