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Envisioning 'Grace Together'

Pastor Oliver prays that we will come away from next week's church camp with a clearer picture of what God wants from us.

If the apostle Paul was alive today, what kind of church would meet his commendation? In Paul’s letters to the Thessalonian church, he praised the church. In contrast to many of Paul’s other letters to the churches, he had more positive things to say of the Thessalonian church. What was the key element that drew Paul’s praise? We can see it in Paul’s thanksgiving near the start of the letter: 

  1. Firstly, they received the gospel of Jesus Christ with full conviction (1 Thess 1:5). They had believed in the gospel. They had the right doctrine.  
  1. Secondly, they lived out as a church the applications of the gospel. They imitated Paul, the apostles and the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess 1:6). They grew in Christlikeness so much so that they became an example to other believers (1 Thess 1:7).  
  1. Finally, not only did they proclaim the gospel (the Word of the Lord sounded forth…), but their faith in God – news of how they were living their new-found faith had gone out everywhere (1 Thess 1:8).

Their behaviour as a church modelled for others what it means to be a church that believed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Both belief and behaviour go hand-in-glove. The church at Thessalonica portrayed the gospel well because how they behaved as a community was congruent with and adorned what they believed about the gospel.

God’s purpose is for the church to portray the gospel of Jesus Christ (Eph 3:1-10). As Pastor and author Ray Ortlund writes,  

"So the test of a gospel-centred church is its doctrine on paper plus its culture in practice—'a demonstration in the life that this correct and vital scriptural emphasis meets the genuine needs and aspirations of men.' If a church’s gospel culture has been lost or was never built, the only remedy is found at the feet of Christ. That church needs a fresh rediscovery of his gospel in all its beauty. It needs to prayerfully reconsider everything it believes and practices."  

So, Grace Baptist Church, if we want to be a church that portrays the gospel, then we need to prayerfully consider what we believe and what we practise as a church. We need to examine that we genuinely believe the gospel, and we need to examine our church’s “culture in practice”. This is what we will be doing at this coming church camp.

We will come together to talk about the gospel and what it would be like to live out the applications of the gospel as a church community. We will be coming together to envision a picture of what 'Grace Together' would be like. We want to have a view from God of what our church’s “culture in practice” would be like if we truly believe in and apply the gospel in Grace Baptist Church. What would be the areas we can grow in if we want to move towards this picture of 'Grace Together'? Also, “culture in practice” involves us stewarding this picture and living it out in all areas of our relationships in the church. What steps can we take in our relationships, eg. informal, one to ones, CGs, areas of ministry and service and church on Sundays, to grow towards this picture? 

So, do pray for us that we hear from God from His Word and through our times of prayer together. Pray for us as a community, that we will grow in our relationships together so that we can better steward the grace of the gospel towards one another. Pray that we can genuinely be 'Grace Together'. Pray that as we come away from church camp, we leave with a clearer picture of what God wants from us, as a church that will portray the gospel both in our belief and in our behaviour as a community. Pray that Grace Baptist Church would indeed be a church community on gospel mission together!  

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Pray for God to prepare our hearts as we ready ourselves to hear from the preaching of God’s Word from Proverbs 1:7 and 1 John 4:18 this coming Sunday (9 Jun 2019) as we look at the 'Fear of God' versus the 'Fear of Man'. Pray that God’s Spirit will use God’s Word to transform our hearts and free us from our fears so that we can fear God.