AAEVS - Putting Together a Christ-centered Community (Part 2)

Edification/Holiness

This is the primary goal of the church. All the other seventeen elements are summarized in this one aspect, which is God's desire for us to be like Him. Because we are bought with a price, we have no right to live for ourselves but for the glory of Christ; which is not a killjoy but a higher pleasure. (Here is an article from Desiring God: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-beauty-of-holiness-and-the-miracle-of-sanctification)

In God's providence, He has brought us together as Grace Covenant Church to be sanctified by the truth so that we would be a testimony to the world of the Trinitarian arrival of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. The Spirit intends for us to build each other up in the word of God, so that we could be used in His service. He moved Paul to express his prayers to the Ephesians about His expectation of churches everywhere of all ages to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let's expound on them and see if we could get some practical applications for our Church Community. (Eph 1:16-23, 3:14-21)

AAEVS - Putting Together a Christ-centered Community (Part 1)

“Our vision is for our church to be a group of covenanted believers, a community of saints. We desire to display God’s love to one another through encouragement, accountability, exhortation and discipline. We want to support one another and seek to alleviate each other’s needs whenever possible.” ~ Community Paragraph 2

"And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." ~ Acts 2:42

We have gone over most of the section on the Kingdom of God. Hopefully those posts have shown the necessity of a Kingdom-oriented vision. Now we come to the section on Community, probably the hardest concept to put into practice. Because it is against a individualistic mind-set in our culture that glorifies individuals that are concerned for themselves and do what is right in their own eyes. Also, not many people are concerned about a Church Community to begin with; There are few Christian books out there that talk about a community centered on Christ and Him Crucified. Therefore we need wisdom given by the Holy Spirit to discern how to practically construct a community according to Biblical standards.