Teaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - God's Blessing

Series: What Are We Doing Here?
Sermon: God's Blessing - Ephesians 1:1-14 (1.5.25)

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is such a great letter for us to study because it presents us with the story of God.

The story of God, and how his story - revealed through Scripture - includes the human story; our purpose, our condition, our path to life, our response, our future.

God’s story offers us salvation and transformation on a personal level, but in Ephesians the point goes beyond individual redemption; this is God’s story of gathering a people for himself and his purpose. He’s building the church as the body of Christ and through his church community God is at work, doing more than we can see or imagine, even as the Spirit moves through us and brings us together under the unity of the gospel.

On Sunday, we looked at the first 14 verses of the first chapter of Ephesians. We could summarize our passage like this:

God has issued an immense blessing (verse 3) to believers (verse 13) by promising and guaranteeing (verses 5 and 11) that those who are in Christ (verse 13) will receive the inheritance (verse 14) of salvation, and that we know this is true because those who put their hope in Christ (verse 12) will feel the power of the Holy Spirit (verse 13). Because of the gospel, our sins have been forgiven and our redemption has been won by the blood of Jesus (verse 7), who will ultimately redeem not just faithful humans but all of creation (verse 10).

What a story!  

The church - properly understood as the family of God, made up members saved by grace through faith - is the object of God’s affection and the purpose of his creation.

This global, timeless, unified church is the reason God did what he did and is doing what he’s doing. The church is the reason Jesus came the first time and will come again a second time.

God’s purpose for creation is the church, and the purpose of the church - our purpose, the summary of Ephesians and the summary of the entire biblical narrative - is to know him and to make him known.

Which led us to another important aspect of Sunday’s worship service, when I was finally able to unveil what we’d been working on for several months: a new mission statement and new core values for MCC.

Mission statements aren’t everything, but when they’re succinct, memorable, and accurate, they can help form an organizational culture and identity and get everyone pointed in the same direction. In our case, because MCC is a church, the direction we need to be headed is toward God, and we need to be moving together. That’s what this is all about.

Our series on Ephesians is titled What Are We Doing Here? Our answer - and God’s answer - is: the church.

So, here are MCC’s mission, vision, and value statements. I invite you to join me in memorizing them, repeating them regularly, using them to help guide your approach to church life, and doing your best to live them out, for the glory of God.

MISSION
TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN.

The mission statement is intended to… 

…spur hearts and minds to growth; personal spiritual growth, corporate church community growth, and numeric church growth.  

…be referenced regularly, memorized and ingrained, and create the foundation for a vibrant and active church culture that knows its purpose and lives out that purpose.

…serve as a “north star” for churchwide decision-making; do each of our programs, events, and the components of our Sunday worship gatherings serve to either contribute to discipleship (“to know God”) or outreach (“to make Him known”) or both?

…signal to potential MCCers what we’re all about - that this is the church of Christ Jesus, not just a civic organization or social club, and that we have a specific supernatural and eternal purpose.  

VISION
LOVE20: SHARING THE LOVE OF CHRIST WITH THE 20,000 PEOPLE IN THE 20 COMMUNITIES WITHIN A 20 MILE RADIUS OF MCC.

The vision statement is intended to… 

…remind MCCers that we are a regional church and that the opportunity for evangelism and good works is significant.

…convey to potential MCCers that while MCC is in Minier, our people come from many different communities to worship and serve.  

VALUES
UNITY IN GOSPEL TRUTH - In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things love.

SPIRITUAL FORMATION - Our goal is not just Christian knowledge, but Christlikeness, as evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

THEOLOGICAL THOROUGHNESS - Know what we believe, why we believe it, and what to do about it.

RELATIONAL AUTHENTICITY - “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (Matthew 13:34-35)

The value statements are intended to…

…serve as MCC’s core principles that guide the ongoing realization of our mission and vision.

…act as standards for how we conduct ourselves and approach our life together as a church body.

…be a central part of our branding and presentation that communicates to MCCers and potential MCCers what they can and should expect here.  

To know God and to make Him known!
- Pastor Brady