But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
These were the last words that Jesus said before he ascended into heaven. They appear right at the beginning of the book of acts – which happens to be the story of the church. They form, what most consider to be, a mission statement for the church. The idea is that our main task as a church is to tell everyone about Jesus. Who he was, what he said, and what he did. Compare this to the last words in the Gospel of Mathew where Jesus says “Go and make disciples, Baptizing them” (which is also considered a mission statement for the church). The difficult thing about these words is that they are often interpreted to mean, go and make people who are just like you; who dress, talk, sing, and believe like you. This has resulted in churches who behave more like clubs or fraternal orders than like the body of Christ.
To be sure, the first church in Acts struggled with this topic. Do the new followers of Christ need to become like us? The answer was no. They didn’t need to become Jewish, follow their customs, ways of thinking. They only needed to 1) believe in Jesus, the son of God, as Lord and Savior, 2) remember the poor and, 3) refrain from satanic rituals and worship practices (Acts 15). That’s it. The main idea they learned was simply to be witnesses and introduce people to Jesus. A lesson that Jesus taught them himself (see John 4).
One of the ways that we at Alpine are trying to get back to this original vision of what the church was to be is by forming a new kind of worship experience on Saturday evenings. This experience will be a bit different than what we have usually done on Sunday mornings. The goal of this gathering will be to introduce our neighbors to Jesus. To speak to them in ways that they can hear, understand, and relate to. To bring the joy that we experience from knowing Jesus, into their lives. We would like to invite everyone at Alpine to help us as we begin this new ministry.
Ways you can help:
- Tell your friends, co-workers, and family members about this new worship experience. It is called Saturday Night Connect: Connecting to God, life, and people. It will be held every Saturday night at 5:30 beginning on April 23rd.
- Help us deliver invitations to our neighborhood. We meet on Sunday April 10th at 1:30 PM at our church building, in order to invite our neighbors. We need all the help we can get.
- Pray for this new worship experience. Pray that God will bring people to gather and through this experience help new people to discover who Jesus is.
Thank you so much for your continued support. Please do not hesitate to ask me or a member of our Ask Frank task force if you have any questions.
[button url=”http://www.alpinelutheran.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Summit-040416.pdf” target=”_blank” color=”blue” size=”large” border=”false” icon=”fa fa-file-pdf-o” btn_content=”Click Here to View the Full Summit”]