Today is the next installment in my series of posts on the mission statement of our church. As a reminder, our mission is “to make disciples of Jesus Christ who love God and love people, by reaching and teaching everyone.“

I’ve already written on the importance of a clearly defined ministry goal and the definition of a disciple of Jesus Christ. Now we’ll move along to the marks of a genuine disciple.

There are two distinguishing marks of a disciple of Jesus. One is a love for God. The other is a love for people. If you claim to be a Christian, these two things should increasingly characterize your life.

Above all, a disciple must have a love for God. All other Christian virtues, emotions, and duties stem from this root of love. When a religious leader asked Jesus, “Which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus answered without hesitation that it is a love for God. He said, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). This is a genuine, all-consuming, love for God that is so strong that all other relationships, by comparison, are viewed with contempt (Matt. 10:37).

Jonathan Edwards calls love “the chief of all affections, and fountain of all other affections” and believes “the essence of all true religion lies in holy love.” He goes on to say,

From a vigorous, affectionate, and fervent love to God, will necessarily arise other religious affections; hence will arise an intense hatred and abhorrence of sin, fear of sin, and a dread of God’s displeasure, gratitude to God for his goodness, complacence and joy in God, when God is graciously and sensibly present, and grief when he is absent, and a joyful hope when a future enjoyment of God is expected, and fervent zeal for the glory of God. (Religious Affections)

Likewise, Alexander Strauch writes,

Above all things, we should seek to increase our knowledge and enjoyment of Christ and deepen our love for him (Phil. 3:8-14). After all, the deeper our love for him the more we will become like him in love and the more we will be able to teach others to love. (Leading With Love, 30)

Love of God is the greatest commandment, the essence of true religion, the fountain of religious affection, and the mark of a true disciple. How is your love for God? Is it growing or waning? Have you, like the Ephesians, begun to leave your first love (Rev. 2:4)? Consider the following questions:

• Are you growing in your knowledge of God? We can’t expect to love Someone we don’t know.
• Are you growing in your fellowship with God? We can’t expect to love Someone we don’t spend time with.
• Are you growing in your obedience to God? We can’t expect to love Someone we ignore.
• Are you growing in your disdain for sin? We can’t expect to love Someone who we enjoy rejecting and offending.
• Are you growing in your appreciation for the cross? We can’t expect to love Someone if we forget their greatest demonstration of love toward us (Rom. 5:8).
• Are you sure that you are a Christian? We can’t expect to love God unless He has first loved us (1 Jn. 4:19).

How marvelous is our God, and how worthy of our love! Let us develop daily a deeper love for God in heart, soul, mind and strength. Let us be satisfied with Him, enthralled with Him, and completely devoted to Him. May He become our portion, our passion, and the sole object of our affection. In so doing, we will prove to be Christ’s disciples.

In church life, meetings are necessary (I’ll refrain from calling them a “necessary evil”). But we should never have meetings just for the sake of having meetings; time is too precious. And as much as possible, leaders should try not to make meetings long and boring.

Meetings, like every other aspect of church ministry, are an opportunity to worship God. They should be conducted joyfully, peacefully, and for the purpose of edification. And I believe this was accomplished at the Inland Empire Association annual meeting last week.

On Tuesday, Oct. 28, I and another family from our church attended the annual meeting for our Southern Baptist region. Here are three things I appreciated:

1. Hospitality. This year’s meeting was hosted by First Baptist Church (Primera Iglesia Bautista) of Moreno Valley. This church did a fantastic job of showing Christian hospitality. Young and old were working side-by-side to serve all the guests. No detail was overlooked. Parking lot attendants waved flashlights, greeting people and offering directions. A delicious Mexican meal was catered, complete with chips and salsa at every table. Tables were set up outside in the courtyard to create a nice ‘alfresco’ dining experience. Servers were standing by, offering coffee, and taking our plates as soon as we were finished. The whole atmosphere was relaxing and conducive for fellowship, which brings me to the second point.

2. Relationships. If our association just wanted to give an annual update, they could save a lot of time and money by e-mailing everyone the Book of Reports. But that would miss one of the most vital elements of ministry: building relationships. One of the highlights of last week’s meeting was carpooling with the Poes from our church, then visiting with Pastor Pete and his assistant Doug during dinner. Pete is a pastor in Ontario, and it was a delight to learn about his church and his passion for VBS and prison ministry. It was also nice to briefly see Walter Price from Fellowship in the Pass, David Sqyres from Palms Baptist Church, Tony Brown from One Eighty Ministries in Joshua Tree, and Rex Shaver and his assistant Michael from Wonder Valley Community Church.

3. Organization. The meeting had a tight schedule, and for the most part, they did a good job sticking to it. From what I could tell, every report was limited to 3 minutes. These were interspersed with some congregational singing and a video presentation. The music was appropriately upbeat, though I would have appreciated a more cross-centered emphasis in the lyrics. Reports were pre-printed in the book, along with a calendar of events for the upcoming year. It was all sort of a whirlwind, but I think it was just enough to give us a sampling of what God is doing across the region. Some of the reports were repetitive from last year, which might discourage people from attending year after year, but thankfully the meeting only lasted two hours total. I wouldn’t agree philosophically with everything these churches are doing, but it did illustrate the diversity of the Body of Christ and the importance of engaging the lost in each community.

Overall, it was a good meeting. I think our Director of Missions did a fine job planning and executing the event. I’d encourage others in our association to attend next year. Hopefully, we’ll be back at First Baptist Church for more of those tamales!

This fall, our church has been asking the question, “What is the mission of our church?” In other words, what is the target, the overarching purpose, the unifying statement, that describes who we are to be and what we are here to do? What has Christ entrusted to us that will determine our faithfulness to Him on the day of judgment? (Mt. 25:21)

Developing a sense of God-given purpose can greatly help the maturity and development of a church. In his book Comeback Churches, Ed Stetzer notes, “Comeback leaders agreed that having a clear and compelling vision was foundational in the transformation of their churches. Casting the vision with other leaders and with the congregation was an integral part of their leadership. Through vision casting, a sense of unity developed as other leaders embraced a new sense of urgency about church growth and reaching the lost” (p. 45).

After much prayer, research, and discussion, our leaders have arrived at the following mission statement:

“Our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ who love God and love people, by reaching and teaching everyone.”

We’re now beginning to share this statement with our congregation and collectively thinking through ways we can apply it practically.

We believe this statement is faithful to Christ’s Great Commission (Mt. 28:18-20), while giving a snapshot of a true disciple and a method of how discipleship must be done. We believe it is short enough to be memorable, yet long enough to say something of value. In the coming weeks, I would like to break it down into smaller parts, examining one phrase at a time.

Our prayer is that God would be pleased to use our church and this mission statement to advance His kingdom for His fame and glory.

Photo credit: ogimogi

The church that I pastor is Southern Baptist. But the funny thing is, we’re not in the South. I remember being at a conference last April back in Kentucky and told someone I pastored a Southern Baptist Church in California. With a puzzled expression he replied, “You mean they have Southern Baptists out there?!” So, what’s in a name? Ed Stetzer has just released some new polling data from pastors about the term ‘Southern Baptist’:

Among Southern Baptist pastors, 7 percent strongly agreed – and another 20 percent somewhat agreed – with the statement, “Having the name ‘Southern’ in the ‘Southern Baptist Convention’ is a hindrance to the work of SBC churches.” Forty-one percent strongly disagreed with the statement while 27 percent somewhat disagreed and 5 percent “don’t know.”

To further clarify opinions on the denomination’s name, Southern Baptist pastors were also asked their level of agreement with the statement, “Having the name ‘Southern’ in the ‘Southern Baptist Convention’ is a hindrance to the work of SBC churches outside of the South.” As the focus shifted to Southern Baptist congregations outside the convention’s historic strongholds, 16 percent of Southern Baptist pastors strongly agreed and 26 percent somewhat agreed, while 29 percent strongly disagreed and 21 percent somewhat disagreed. The remaining 9 percent “don’t know.”

In other words, 42% of pastors agree or strongly agree that the name ‘Southern’ is hindering the work of churches here in Southern California. Many churches in our area are trying to overcome this barrier by using names like “Pathway Church,” “Sandals Church,” and “Cloudbreak Church.” But according to research by Thom Rainer, pastors might actually be more paranoid about this than unbelievers:

Perhaps one of the biggest surprises in our study was that the name of the church had very little influence on reaching the unchurched. For the most part, neither the presence nor the absence of a denominational name influenced the formerly unchurched’s decision to join a church…Over 80% of the formerly unchurched told us that the church name had little or no influence upon their joining a particular church…Nearly 2/3 of those respondents indicated that the denominational name had a positive influence on their decision. (Surprising Insights from the Unchurched, pp. 38-39)

I don’t see anything sacrosanct about including the name of the denomination in the name of the church. Nor do I see any hard evidence that proves churches should be swift to change or avoid it. This is a decision each church must make. The most important thing is that whenever we have contact with the world, that they recognize us as churches that belong to Jesus Christ.