Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Would they mourn our loss?

This Sunday will mark two years of Sunday morning services for Ridge Church so I've been reflecting back and dreaming forward...Last year at our celebration of one year of Sunday morning services I posed the question--if our church ceased to exist in our city "Would they mourn our loss?" Would anyone know or care if we were gone? The idea came from Acts 9:39 where a group of people were mourning the loss of a lady named Tabitha. The striking thing in this passage is that the people that Tabitha had served were the ones that were devastated by her loss because of how selflessly she had served them and invested herself in them and given to them. So the piercing question is if we ceased to exist, "Would they (anyone in our city) mourn our loss?" I'm so passionate about seeing the Queen City (Charlotte) experience the overwhelming, restoring, enabling grace of Jesus. You can Listen to that sermon HERE--Andy Stanley kicked off the message and I wrapped it up with local vision:

That day I framed three things that if we pursue them and become them, they will enable us to become the kind of church who's loss would be mourned by our city if we were gone. I want to remind all of us of these three:

ONE: We must become a church that INVITES people to belong before they believe
TWO: We must become a church that INVITES the undeniable presence of God
THREE: We must become a church that INVITES radical participation in God's activity.

Again, go back and listen to the second half of that message to get the full context. It's a good reminder of the kind of church Ridge has set her sites on becoming--and is becoming! Go HERE to listen.

No comments: