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Missional Discipleship Community Exploring Sojourners Missional Discipleship Community being CHURCH Participant Workbook 1 Being Church Participant’s Workbook ©2018 Woodland Hills Church Published by Woodland Hills Church 1740 Van Dyke Street St. Paul, MN 55109 www.whchurch.org All riGhts reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recordinG— without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. CopyriGht © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All riGhts reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. 2 Session 1 The Church and the Mission of God Part 1 Overview What is the mission of God? This is the question that we must ask in order to understand what it means for the church to be the kind of church that God wants. God’s purposes must define the purpose of those who follow him. In this first teaching, we will explore God’s original mission and the way that we get involved with that mission today. This is founded upon the call for the church to be a people who reflect the image and glory of God’s beauty in a distinct and holy way in the midst of the world. Key Theme The mission of God is: - The Community of Jesus … - ... LivinG out the Ways of Jesus ... - ... AmonG and for the sake of our neiGhbors and the world. 3 Core Question: Where in the Bible does God’s “Story” begin? • The Mystery - “the mystery, which has been kept secret for lonG ages past … ... the preachinG of the Gospel of Jesus ... which leads people into the obedience of faith” (Romans 16:25) - “the mystery, which has been hidden from the past ages and generations … which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:26-27) • Message and Mission - the NT makes it clear that much of God’s purpose or “mission” was still a mystery until it was further unveiled in Jesus and His mission. - … The full-Gospel revealed by Jesus involves much, much more than just a message, it involves an onGoinG mission that we, the Church, are invited to carry on with Jesus. • The Gospel God … chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will. (Ephesians 1:4-5) - Before creatinG humanity, God’s mission and vision for us was that we would be “holy,” or perfect and blameless in love, as he himself is. - His Goal was that we would be like him, reflectinG him into this world as his image. - Christ’s dwellinG within us was our “hope of Glory” - His presence and power within us transforms us into lookinG like Jesus, and so beinG able to share-in and shine-forth his “Glory.” - “Glory” is just the briGhtness of God’s beauty and liGht shininG forth from us as his lookalikes on earth, or his collective mirror-image. 4 • The Original Mission of God - The creation of a people whom God would adopt and love as a family … - … who would then be shaped and formed within this lovinG family into his kind of love. - And God’s Goal was that he would then partner with this covenant people in the cultivation and multiplication of the beauty of this love throuGhout His world. • Genesis—Creation - Into the formless void of his created world God carves out a beach-head of beauty. - An enemy lied to and lured God’s partners cuttinG them off from their mission. - Because of the fall, the Mission of God now must involve a rescue, reconciliation and restoration dimension. • Abraham to Jesus Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about Him (the blessing of the nations through him). —Genesis 18:18-19 - God calls toGether a new nation to be a “liGht to the nations.”- Israel didn’t live up to their callinG and mission. - God never Gives up on His mission to have a visible covenant people—Jesus. - Jesus now calls all humanity out of their spiritual death and moral enslavement. Notes 5 • Mission of God - The Community of Jesus … - … LivinG out the Ways of Jesus … - … AmonG and for the sake of our neiGhbors and the world. Communiy of Nations God Notes 6 The Scope of God’s Mission • Good Works But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:4-10) - Walk in these Good works - Cultivate = abad, “to work” Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. (Genesis 2:15) - BearinG God’s Good image and multiplyinG his beauty in the world • Salvation, by grace, through faith, for works. - Salvation is not merely forGiveness of sin. - Grace is not merely God’s lovinG favor. - Faith is not merely coGnitive agreement. This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent. (John 6:29) Believe = pisteuō, to commit to be faithful to Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master. (Matthew 25:14-28) You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good. (Acts 10:38) DoinG Good = euerGeteō, Good-working 7 Reflections • Read through the notes on Ephesians 1:4-5 about the calling to reflect God’s image or glory. What does it mean to be a person who reflects God’s image? What would this look like? Begin this reflection by thanking God that the Spirit is already working in your life to lead you in this. Submit yourself to God’s work in you through this course. • In your own words, write out the meaning of the mission of God? Reflect on how this is distinct from what you have been taught in the past. • Read Ephesians 2:4-10 slowly. Mark anything that stands out to you. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you take a few minutes to reflect on what you have read. - Read this passage in this same way each day this week, giving space for the Holy Spirit to take you deeper into what it says. - Write down what you observe. - Allow the reading to lead you to prayer. • What is the meaning of “believe” according to this teaching? How have traditional views of what it means to “believe” actually hindered the mission of God? • When you hear the teaching on “good works,” what is your reaction? How does it challenge you? 8 Part 2 Overview What has stood in the way of God’s mission? The answer to this question may be hard for some to swallow; so be prepared. This teaching explores the ways that “null” Christianity has impeded God’s mission and then announces the call to holiness, to be a distinct people whose lives are defined by the mission of God. Key Theme The call to be holy and distinct requires repentance and discipleship. Null Christianity • Alan Kreider “Conversion, which had always entailed change, had by the fifth century in my view itself changed … No longer were converts joining a movement that was extraordinary; no longer were they associating with a network of communities of resident aliens. By the fifth century to become a Christian was to become ordinary, to become, not a resident alien, but a well-adjusted resident, a parishioner.” • Soren Kierkegaard “The human race in the course of time has taken the liberty of softening and softening Christianity until at last we have contrived to make it exactly the opposite of what it is in the New Testament.” • Jacques Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity “How has it come about that the development of Christianity and the church has given birth to a society, a civilization, a culture that are completely opposite to what we read in the Bible …?” • Jesus “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 2:8). 9 Holiness • Israel - Called to be distinct from the nations in God-like ways.
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