... In a Gospel-shaped Community.

The last week has been crazy, with my visit to Shotton, buying a car and starting a new job I still feel like I've got lost somewhere in the blur of it all. So today has been a welcome opportunity to stand back and reflect on everything that has happened.

This was my third week attending CCC and as each week passes I'm feeling more and more at home there.
The welcome we've received is staggering, people are so warm and friendly, and the leadership have shown a genuine concern for the spiritual well being of our family.
It's so exciting to be part of a church that is truly missional, CCC really get what the gospel is all about, and as a church they are seeking to be missionaries in the South Wye area.

These are exciting times at Challenge. A new elder is moving to join the leadership team and we are in the process of exchanging contracts for a new building. I couldn't find a picture of the building itself, so I decided that a Google Earth map would suffice for now and as soon as I get a decent picture I'll blog it!

There is a clear vision forming for the future and the elders are leading us forward as a Church, into the things God has for us, and into the mission to South Wye.

I was reading a book recently and came across this question;

"Will your church have a mission of community or be a community of mission?"

This isn't only an important question for church leaders.
As church members, we need to think this through as well, and then think how we can best serve the church in its mission.

The danger for established and mature churches is that we can quickly develop a 'social club' mentality. The vast majority of our energies and resources are poured into 'entertaining and maintaining' existing members, with little, if any, emphasis being placed on equipping and motivating the body of Christ for outreach and mission. This is a debilitating disease that, if left untreated, will leave a church wandering without purpose, with a seriously weakened understanding of the gospel and a total blindness to it's imminent demise.

Now, all of this isn't to say that pursuing community is a bad thing, in fact through the Church God demonstrates how community is meant to be by redeeming it from the power of sin and reconciling it back to the eternal community of the triune God.

As a gospel shaped community we're meant to follow Christ's example, we should be selfless in our love and commitment, not just to the Church, but to the community around us too.
This is why attending CCC is so exciting, they understand that as a Church, if we are to be a faithful witness to the truth of the gospel, we must reach out with it's message of love, hope and reconciliation as well as demonstrating it in community.

Outside the Great Commission, I think all of this is best captured by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21;

For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
(TNIV - Emphasis mine)