Johnny and I had dinner with a young man from the neighborhood and his fiancée. We had fun, played games and got to know each other. The young man is a natural born leader, a potential Kingdom leader.
Between the young man and his fiancée, they are interested in so many things…
Alpha Group to explore the claims of Christianity
Disciple Building to grow in their faith
Marriage Building to build a relationship that lasts
Conflict Resolution to navigate the difficulties with each other and other people.
The list of interests goes on.
How do we know what this young couple is interested in? We asked them… we surveyed the entire community to see what they were interested in.
Survey HERE
In our little community of 40 homes, people have shared 60+ interests with us, with more coming in. 60+!
Interests of Others. We are being deliberate in considering the interests of others.
Our Kingdom goals are both simple and complex.
Simple.. We want to see Kingdom impact everyone, maybe just a small step up the ladder toward God to…
Complex. We want to see the Kingdom impact everything…
Disciple Building
…that people would love God and follow Christ.
…that people would be disciples and be equipped: equipped to support and plant new works, hear from God, proclaim the good news, provide help, guidance and care to others and be equipped to teach what they learn to others.
Marriage and Family Building
…that people would build the pillars of their lives including marriages, families and more
Kingdom Building
…that these disciples would connect in various ways in Sanford, from fellowshipping on 7th Street, to connecting to congregations and even connecting across the city and beyond.
…that people would impact all spheres of society in Sanford, the sacred where we focus on God and following Christ, the social where we connect to others, the civic and all things regarding governance, the market…the marketplace and work.
What is our Roadmap?
The roadmap is Kingdom DNA. Kingdom DNA MAKES VISIBLE all of the elements needed to extend the Kingdom in any community. As the Holy Spirit guides us, we are understanding how to use this Kingdom DNA to plan our actions. More to come on this.
Exhortation
An update wouldn’t be complete without a bit of Kingdom Exhortation.
Build God’s house. People sometimes don’t understand the good news of the Kingdom & can miss building God’s house.
Haggai records God’s lament: Everyone is busy building their own house, no one is building the house of God.
SUBSTITUTED? How many people have SUBSTITUTED the goal of building disciplined followers and INSTEAD have the goal of building bigger gatherings and bigger buildings? Note, sometimes these bigger buildings are filled with larger numbers of babies who are barely able to feed themselves & incapable of discipling others.
All of us need the goal of extending the Kingdom, with our congregations and gatherings equipping people for this goal.
It needs to be about
God’s Great Commandment and
His Great Commission and
Seeing the Kingdom extend everywhere:
Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
We are all learning about Kingdom focus.
Seed to tree is how to go, according to our good friend, Derek Schneider!
Johnny and my steps.. We’re messengers & facilitators.
- Pray!!! Nothing happens without God showing up and leading.
- Connect people to their interests, especially Disciple Building.
- From the disciple builders, find a core group. Jesus had his 1, 3, 12, 70, 120, and the world.
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