Emergence

For the next 6 weeks at Emergence, all the campuses at our church (Lincoln Park Campus & Spanish Campus) will be unified around one central idea.  I realize that every week at the church all of our campuses teach through the same text from the pulpit however, for six weeks we will align are small groups, youth ministries, children’s ministries, women’s ministries, and men’s ministries.

I was spending some time thinking of some of the benefits of that this morning and here is what I have been chewing on:

1.  It unifies our entire church on one theme, and one study at all levels

2.  It allows families who have children to all discuss what they learned on Sunday together.  It equips parents to have conversations as they disciple there children, and lead the small church at home God has entrusted them with.

3.  It ensures doctrinal soundness.  While there are many great books discussed at the small group level, it is always easy for doctrinal error to slip into a church through a small group environment.

4.  It prevents groups from forming there own vision for the church.  Jesus gives the church vision.  Elders submit to that vision, and strategically plan how to be obedient to Jesus vision inside the church where the Holy Spirit has entrusted them to leadership (Acts 20).  Then as the elders submit to Jesus, we all submit to the elders and the strategy they bring forth.  This gives Jesus great joy to see his bride the church functioning as he intended, and the leadership joy in being faithful to Jesus and shepparding the flock. (Hebrews 13:17)

This then allows us to live counter cultural lives for the glory of Jesus in a culture that hates both submission and authority.  Many in our world today rail against the idea of authority, and by having a problem with authority they show a heart out of line with Jesus who has all authority. Matthew 28:18 (NIV)  Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.   Jesus gives us a counter cultural model where he is head, and he establishes leaders in government, church, and homes and as we faithfully submit to his design, we simultaneously offer a counter cultural model of God’s goodness to those who do not know Jesus, and model submission to our children and families.

5.  It encourages Sunday morning note taking, attendance, and engagement with the sermon.  It moves us from passive learners to active learners on Sunday morning allowing us to retain more of what we hear.

6.  In our information culture it allows for us to meditate on one truth (Col 3:16)… thus allowing for meditation, repentance, prayer, growth, even service built on that truth.  The temptation in our day is that we can hear 3 sermons a day, listen to worship music, and go from event to event.  The danger is we can move to a place where we are simply hearers of the word.  This allows us to be both hearers and doers of God’s truth. (James 1:22)