How do we help people Know God, Love God, Serve God?

Do you want to know what I really want of Trinity Life Church (what I think God wants)? I want to see people who do not really really love Jesus get an optimal opportunity to really really know about Him.

In my last post I said that if we do not serve God it is because we do not love God, and if we do not love God it is because we do not know God. We love God when we truly know who He is and what He has done for us. When we love God we cannot help but to serve Him. That is the Logic of Salvation. God moves toward us in love and reveals Himself to us. Only then can we begin to be what He has called us to be.

There is a catch, however. We cannot know, love, and serve God in just whatever way we want. This is God's thing. So how we know, love, and serve Him is up to Him. Makes sense, I think. I am fascinated at how often I hear people say something to the effect of: "I think of God as my friend because that is how I best connect with God." Once when I was with a friend snow shoeing in the mountains he said to me, "Here is where I know God" [paraphrase]. This type of thinking is a TRAGEDY OF AMERICAN RELIGION. So we want people to know, love, and serve God but in God's way, according to God's strategy. We do not know God in just whatever way we want; we do not love God in just any way that we please; and we certainly do not serve God according to personal opinion or cultural norms. So how then?

Gospel, Community, Mission. These are three of the most important concepts in the New Testament. These three, like KnowLoveServe are a logical sequence and so reveal the strategy of Trinity Life Church's vision to Know God, Love God, and Serve God. In the books of Acts we see that the rythm of apostolic ministry is 1) the preaching of the Gospel; out of the preaching of the Gospel a 2) Community of faith is created; out of the community of faith believers are 3) sent out on Mission to repeat the cycle of preaching the Gospel.

So you can see that in preaching the Gospel, people came to Know God; in Knowing God in the Gospel the people gathered together in Community to Love God; in Loving God in Community believers went out and fulfilled the Mission of God by proclaiming the Gospel; in Serving God in the Mission believers repeated the cycle begun with the Gospel in their own lives by now being the ones proclaiming it! See how discipleship works now?

We want people to Know God in the Gospel because that is how God has revealed Himself; it is how He has chosen to be known; it is in perfect harmony with who God is. So we do not want people to know God as if it didn't include a bloody cross; a crazy pentecost; or a bodily resurrection. How has He revealed Himself? That is how we want to know Him. See John 1:9-14; Romans 3:21-26, 5:6-21; 2 Corinthians 5:19; 1 John 1:1-4

We want people to Love God in Community because that is how God Himself wants to be loved; because that is how God expresses love (Trinity - see post on Living the Life of God for the Life of the World); because that is where our love for God matures and expresses itself. See John 17:20-21; Acts 2:44-47; Ephesians 4:1-16; *Hebrews 10:19-25; 1 John 1:3; 3:16-19

We want people to Serve God in the Mission because that is what God has called us to do. We have been set apart as a people bent on God's mission to the world. So we do not serve God by whatever fancy we choose but by planting signposts of God's coming kingdom through Gospel witness and living. See Matthew 28:18-20; Corinthians 5:13-21; 1 Peter 2:5, 9-10

Our vision is that people Know God in the Gospel, Love God in Community, and Serve God in the Mission. The first leads to the second and the second to the third. Getting to the third means that more people get to Know God in the Gospel and so on. So it is our vision, our process, and our strategy.

Everything we do will revolve around these three components. Even our services will move accordingly: Sunday service will be a proclamation & celebration of the Gospel where people increase in their knowledge of God. Community groups will be where authentic relationships are formed and the life of faith and struggle is shared; where the gifts of the believers are employed to build up the church. Outside of normal living relationships the mission of God will be fullfilled in some arrangement of participating in spreading the Gospel accross the city of Macon. Community Groups and Service are not required of anyone. The idea is that as people come to know God in the Gospel we will urge them to grow in their love by joing a community group; the third step of their maturity is to engage in intentional outreach to the unbelieving world.