MISSION GROUP QUESTIONS FROM VISION SUNDAY - 14/2/10

This week we looked again at our vision as a church from 1 Peter 2.4-12 under the title "Church as God sees it."

We saw that Peter described the church as a spiritual house

(1) Built on Christ our cornerstone. He is our unshakeable foundation (against all other foundations). He sets the agenda for everything. Without him, there would be no church! The church is made up of those who have made him their cornerstone in their lives.

(2) Built together into a tight-knit community which share their lives with each other and depend on each other. You cannot become a Christian and not become part of the church. As you build your life on Christ, God builds you into his spiritual house. It is a community that reflects our cornerstone - humility, boldness, joy, forgiveness etc. To the extent you build your life into the lives of others will be the extent to which the glory and presence and power of God will come into your life. The church is not a meeting to attend but a community/family to belong to!

(3) Living as resident aliens in the world. We must hold the tension of being of deeply committed and involved in the world whilst remaining distinct and, at times, rubbing up against the world. If we do not hold the tension we will not be able to affect the world - because we’ll either be sol isolated that our community life will not affect anyone or we’ll be so similar that our community life has nothing distinct. What is our main distinctive? The good/attractive deeds of the community and particularly our love for each other (Matthew 5.13-16 + John 13.34-35). We long to see communities of light reaching out to all areas of the city and all people-groups in the city. That is our vision. It is not new or clever or flashy. But it has the power to transform Leeds just as the early church transformed the Roman Empire. Just as Matt highlighted last week, the vision is not so much about what we do, but who we are!

How does this affect our special offering? Firstly, Hannah O’Shea is coming on board to help us as a church build more children and youth into the ‘spiritual house’ - they are individual bricks with a part to play. Secondly, we are looking for someone to come on board as Operations Manager - who will be able to organise and facilitate the community to life….so we can spend our time with people and less time on administration/systems.

Thank you to all those who gave over the last two weeks, we will announce the amount at the service next Sunday.

Reflection + Application

(1) What does it mean for us as individuals to build our lives on Christ? What other things are we tempted to build our lives on (to find identity, security etc)?

(2) What does it mean for your Mission Group to share your lives together (or open your lives up more)? How can you practically do this without feeling like you have “lots more to do?” Becoming a tight-knit community will not necessarily be easy - talk through what Paul says to the Colossians 3.12-17. What are the key ingredients to this community?

(3) Where as a Mission Group have you become too ‘resident’ or too ‘alien’? How can you help each other keep the tension.

(4) Read Exodus 19.4-6 + look what Peter says in vs9-10. How does the church fulfil all that Israel was supposed to be? What does each image mean? How does that help us understand who we are as the church? How can you apply this to your mission group?

(5) Pray for us as a church, that we might live more and more as these communities of light scattered throughout Leeds and beyond, bringing people to Christ and into his community, the church. Pray also for Claire Sorely and Hannah O’shea as Claire hands over and Hannah takes over. Pray also for the right person to be appointed as Operations Manager.