I have been following the first reading for every Sunday since Easter and will continue to do this for the whole season. The book of acts focuses us on the mission of the church. The mission of the church is what is done throughout the book of Acts.

It is in this book where we hear of Paul’s missionary journeys that bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. This is also our mission as a church.

I have come up with an idea that I would like you to contemplate. Here it is:

We Worship Together. We Grow Together. We Disciple Together. We Serve Together.

A visual of this might look like this:

We Worship Together

We Grow Together

We Disciple Together

We Serve Together

If we start at the top our vision is to come and worship together. We come and sing praise to God. We receive forgiveness through Word and Sacrament and give thanks for God’s forgiveness in his Son, Jesus Christ.

We then move to growing together. We grow by being in God’s Word daily through our Daily Devotions as well as Bible Study. We grow together in order to be better disciples. In the box above I have used the word ‘disciple’ as a verb. What I mean by this is we teach the people the teachings of Jesus Christ. We provide education for the young through our Sunday School. We provide teaching for all others through Bible Studies. We learn by hearing the hymns, readings and even the sermon in our services.

As we grow in our learning we then are equipped to teach our children, young adults and adults in order to make disciples. We serve the Saint Paul community by bringing the gospel to the lost. We serve the Kouts community by bringing the gospel to the lost. We serve by doing those things that serve the mission of the church.

And this may look like a cycle that is to be done one time and in order. Yes, that is a good way to approach it but there is more; we will be in different stages of this vision on any given day.

This is what being a church is about. I encourage you to let me know what you think.

Serving the Lord Jesus Christ,

Pastor Bob

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