Acts 1-2 is exactly what we are praying for at Montage. Jesus is alive, the Holy Spirit fills all believers with power to be Jesus’ witnesses, the church is on the move with the good news of Jesus. Acts 1-2 teaches that the church is a movement made up of ordinary people, empowered by Jesus' Holy Spirit to tell the world about Jesus.
The mission of God is for Him to be known. God’s desire to be known is an overarching theme through all of the bible. From creating Adam and Eve to have a unique relationship with him, to Abraham’s promise that his decedents (Jesus) will be a blessing to all people, to the tabernacle (God dwelling among his people), to Jesus being the visible expression of the invisible God, to Jesus restoring the broken relationship between humanity and the Father at the cross by becoming our sin, to heaven where every tribe nation and tongue get to spend eternity with God. All that evangelism is, is working with God to accomplish his goal to be known and to be with his people. It’s helping others know this amazing God that you know. This Sunday we will work through a few ways to have gospel conversations with the people God has put around us.
We believe that every word of the Bible is important like 1 Timothy 3:16-17 says. That is part of the reason why we go through books of the Bible and read every word. We also know that there are some scriptures that carry more weight. So, today we want to dig into some of the most important verses in our Bible. Granted there are many more verses that could make this list (I'm sorry if your favorite didn't make it) but we want to study these weighty verses and apply these to our lives.
Don't miss this week. We have some cool things too talk about and pray over. Leading into our gathering time we wanted to share our mission vision and values.
Everything begins with prayer. Jesus tells us to make disciples…but who? Where? How? There are so many people in our neighborhood, valley, city, and WORLD! It can all seem overwhelming. How do I pick who? And once I have, how do I actually disciple them? Welp, it starts with extraordinary prayer…which really means you take how you currently pray…and add a little extra…then it is “extra ordinary.” Don’t get overwhelmed by this like all of a sudden you have to pray 4+ hours every day…think just one small step forward in prayer.
We have been working our way through UP, IN and OUT; Worship, community and mission. We believe that those three elements are the minimum of what makes a church a church. If you have those three things centered around Jesus, you are a church. If you miss any one of them you aren’t a biblical church. We worked our way through UP and OUT and this month we are going to dig into IN: Community.
HERE is the worksheet for IN
God is calling us to be a part of a discipleship making movement, taking the gospel to the people around us, and seeing the next microchurch emerge from within those people. Here at Montage we talk a lot about what the heck we are supposed to be doing as a church. What is our mission? For that matter, what makes a church a church? We say that the three essential elements we MUST have are Up, In, and Out. Worship, Community and Mission. We dug into “worship” last month, this month we are digging into “Mission” and “Community” is on deck.
Today we are jumping into what makes a church a church. Here at Montage we believe the bible teaches that the three fundamental elements that make up a church are “up, in and out” “Worship, Community and Mission”. The church exists in the overlap and balance of those three elements. Worship is moving from unbelief to belief in Jesus in every area of life. (Romans 12:1-2). Community is living out the “one another” commands on a daily basis and living into our connection to the larger body. Mission is making new disciples (Matthew 28:18-20) and making the Kingdom tangible (Matthew 6:10) in our network of relationships. For each of the next three months we are going to tackle one of these three topics and do a little bit more of a deep dive. This month we will focus on what the bible (and we) means when it talks about WORSHIP.
Most Christians don't share the good news about Jesus. There are many reasons ranging from fear, to apathy, to lack of training and understanding. Today we are going help with those things. What would you actually say if you were going to share the good news about Jesus with one of the unsaved people you have been praying for? The Gospel can seem overly complicated and it’s hard to know what to say and what not to say. Today we are going to boil the gospel down to its most essential elements.
You can download the Gospel worksheet that goes with this video from our website at www.MontageMico.Church.
As we gather our microchurches together this month we will be diving into Spiritual Disciplines. I know that doesn't sound sexy but spiritual disciplines are some of the best ways to grow our relationship with Jesus. While there is no formula to force that to happen, there are principles we can incorporate into our lives.
4 guidelines to help you discern Jesus' calling for you. Make sure to download the printable worksheet to accompany the video here.
