So it's been a very busy couple of months. I'll probably write a lot more about what has transpired in our life in the last eight weeks in some future posts. Suffice it to say that God has really been stirring up my creativity and giving me some great insight into what he wants us to do here in Lexington.
For eight years now I've had a burden and a desire to plant a Spirit-empowered, life-giving church in Lexington, Kentucky. In my mind and heart I could see some of the end product of what I believe God wants LifeGate Church to become. I see thousands of people in Lexington coming to Christ. I see a house of prayer for all nations. I see a church that has a missions focus and an international impact. I see a multiplying church that plants other churches in Kentucky, the U.S. and eventually around the world. I see a training church that raises up leaders for the Body of Christ. I have a lot of big picture ideas and dreams from the Lord. My problem has been that I'm not sure how to get from our living room Bible study to where I sense God is taking us.
For the last two months I have been really challenged in this area and I've been asking God to give us some inspiration. Jesus said that the principles of prayer are pretty simple, "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be open to you." After having what seemed like writer's block for nine months, the floodgates of inspiration and creativity have opened. The vision that God is giving me for how LifeGate will function is simple. Basically, we're going to build a house (spiritually speaking) that will look something like this:
Foundation - This is the first and most important thing that you do when constructing something. The depth and strength of the foundation will determine how high and how large the building will be. The foundation for LifeGate church is found in Matthew 22:37 - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Our foundation is going to be intimacy with Jesus, loving Him, expressed through prayer, passionate worship and the practice of spiritual disciplines. From that foundation, we're going to build four walls for ministry.
Reach - LifeGate is going to be focused on reaching non-Christians with the hope of the good news of Jesus Christ. The passion and purpose of Jesus was to seek and save the lost. The epistle of John tells us that whoever claims to be a Christian must walk as Jesus did. In other words, our purpose needs to line up with His. If there is anything that we can do to Reach non-believers, we are going to do it.
Renew - Paul tells us in Romans that we are not to conform any longer to the pattern of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. LifeGate wants to not just reach the lost but to also make fully devoted, mature disciples of Jesus Christ. As a pastor said to me a couple of weeks ago, "We want a full-service church" where people can experience the freedom, purity, transformation, power and maturity that Christ intends for us to experience.
Refine - LifeGate will be a church focused on helping people refine their God-given gifts, talents and abilities in order to expand the kingdom of God. We will train leaders who will impact their circles of influence with the message of Jesus Christ.
Reproduce - The Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20) instructs us to Go and Make Disciples. Jesus tells us to teach these disciples to obey everything that He has commanded us to do. I believe that first and foremost among those commands of Jesus is to go and make other disciples. In other words, the process of disciplemaking should be self-sustaining and multiplying. LifeGate's goal will be to reproduce ministry regionally, nationally and internationally.
Relationships - No building is complete without a roof. The roof serves primarily to protect the interior of the building from the elements. We are not only to love God with everything that we have, we are to love our neighbor as ourself. God's word is clear that we are intended to serve him together with others in community. In doing so, we are protected and encouraged. LifeGate will be intentional about developing relationships among believers as we work together to advance the kingdom of God.
Psalm 127 reminds us that unless the Lord builds a house, those that build it are just wasting their time. I'm excited to see what God is going to do in building the house called LifeGate Church. More later.
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