AAEVS - Conclusion

This has been a long series, nineteen months in the making. From hearing feedback from some of you, I believe God has used these posts as a blessing, which I am thankful. I am also delighted that I finally opened up my hopes for the future of the church.

Unfortunately, a few serious changes have transpired since I started this series back in June 2012. Because of this, discouragement and apathy is threatening to devour the vision and slowly vanish it away. However, we as a church need not dump the vision into the trash because of these changes, if we believe our eschatology more than just the systematic framework; our pastors have left us with an idea that the church that adheres to this view of prophecy ought to become a church that believes and acts like it, even if it makes us stand out.

But, this is hard for us because we like to remain at least a bit over average, where we stay complacent and unscrutinized by one another and other churches as much as possible. But God will not have any of that, He demands that we seek to be holy as He is holy; that is no compromise. You have a decision to make, will you submit joyfully and vigorously to your heavenly calling or will you walk away slowly in idolatrous pursuits of comfort outside the springing fountains of Christ?

This will depend on how much you care about Jesus. If He has the words to eternal life, then give Him all you got. The world which we know it and its lusts are passing away, but he or she who does the will of God in His Kingdom abides forever.

AAEVS - The Assurance behind Evangelism

“We proclaim that His victory will be complete when the nations bow before Him and every sphere of life demonstrates His Lordship. This will happen before the resurrection of our physical bodies. We desire to evangelize with this assurance of success, an assurance based on Jesus’ statement of His possession of all authority and His continued presence with us.” Evangelism Paragraph 2f-h

"And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." ~ Matthew 28:17-20

"Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." ~ 1 Corinthians 15:24-28

Here we are at the final section of this series, at the encouragements that God gives to His soldiers in the faith. We have discussed the mission and the means to fulfill it, but why should we care? What motivates us to leave our comfortable living for possibly long millennia of sacrificial evangelism and discipleship? The reason why is because of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His Resurrection was the future of the whole creation made manifest in the Anno Domini and the hope of the Christian proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In His Great Commission and in His Scriptures, Jesus gave us exceeding great and precious promises regarding His successful reign at the right hand of the Majesty on high, offering us numerous encouragements throughout the entire sacred canon of Scriptures.

AAEVS - The Mission of Evangelism (Part 2)

First, we have a vision: what is our goal and how do we go about pursuing it? Jesus our Lord put it into perspective when He taught us to pray, "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." Our goal then is to provoke people in every land to revere the holy name of God in repentance and discipleship, that God would be all in all. How do we embark on this quest? By making a commitment to make manifest the victory of Christ in our lives and in our world. We do this by remembering the second half of the Lord's Prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." We seek the provision of God, His forgiveness and our forgiveness of others, and His protection from the wiles of the devil.

Second, we have an aim: what are we trying to accomplish and how do we get there? We have from the Great Commission our calling, to teach and baptize nations. We aim that they would share and enjoy our fellowship with the triune God and with one another. We wish that they would rejoice in the doctrines of grace, the principles of the Protestant Reformation, and most importantly the mysteries of the gospel of Christ. We start by seeking the establishment of churches that love Jesus Christ and worship Him in spirit and in truth; then we seek to teach them in the Scriptures from which thirsty and hungry souls are nourished by the Holy Spirit.

AAEVS - The Mission of Evangelism (Part 1)

“Our vision is to be a church dedicated to the proclamation of the gospel throughout the world. Our aim is to make disciples of the nations and establish worshipping communities like our own. Our evangelism is joyous proclamation: we announce the victory of Christ over His enemies and the rescue of His people. By this means, we seek to bring every area of life under the Lordship of Christ.” ~ Evangelism Paragraph 2a-e

"For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing. For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;" ~ 1 Thessalonians 1:8-9

"All of Christ for All of Life for All of the World" ~ Motto of Canon Press

Now we arrive to the last article of the Elders' Vision Statement. First, we talked about the centrality and warfare of the Kingdom; second, we talked about the attributes and systems of a church community; third, we talked about the importance and expression of worship; in this section and the next, we will go over the mission and assurance of evangelism.

If we're honest, we don't evangelize as we like; we are caught up daily in our own worries and complaints that we ignore the global vision of the Kingdom of Christ in our community and in the world at large. We know we ought to be salt and light, but we are afraid of what the people around us would think of us; we know that God says that the fear of what people think of us is a trap, but we fear the loss of our privacy and dignity from our peers. Nevertheless, it seems the reason why we don't evangelize much is because we lack a passion for evangelism.

AAEVS - Expressing our Worship (Part 3)

Public Prayer

Jesus denounced the religious leaders for seeking to gain recognition and praise from the public by praying in the public sphere. (Matthew 6:5-6) So why would we as disciples of Jesus want to have a practice in our services that seems to run contrary to what our Lord has said? While we must not dare to dismiss our Lord's admonition to a private prayer life, the catholicity of Holy Scripture has a broader vision for prayer than just the 'closet;' nations are destined to provoke one another to seek quickly the Lord in prayer. (Zechariah 8:20-23)  How can this be? It is because the Church is a Trinitarian body, one and many. Therefore what a church does as a body in her assembly is analogous to what an individual follower of Christ does in his or her private devotions.

AAEVS - Expressing our Worship (Part 2)

Now we look at the activities that our elders had prescribed for our church (and for any church) which I believe is biblical and important. We will look at four of these activities and how they relate to the worship of Christ:

Proclamation of the Word

"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine." (2 Timothy 4:2) This indicates a continual function in the body of Christ. This preacher is not somebody speaking what is on his mind; this is a messenger speaking with the authority and word of God, a proclamation of what is true and righteous. This is an assertive, in-your-face proclamation; which makes this ministry so awkward in our postmodern, "everyone's opinion is right and nobody is really wrong except the 'intolerant' people" culture.

What is this proclamation about? Here is how Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile defined Spirit-fill proclamation: “Preaching is God speaking in the power of His Spirit about His Son from His word through a man.” It is a Christ-centered message. "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." (1 Corinthians 2:2) And why only Jesus Christ and His crucifixion? Because "by [Christ] all things consist." (Colossians 1:17) Christ is the intersection that brings everything together; and most importantly He is the only access to God the Father.

AAEVS - Expressing our Worship (Part 1)

“Our vision is to be a church that enters the worship service with awe towards God. We will view ourselves as ascending unto His presence with all other saints, both in heaven and on earth. We desire to actively worship God, not passively go through prescribed motions. This will include activities such as: confession of sin; reading of Scripture: public prayers; singing of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs; giving; praise; the proclamation of the word; and partaking of the Lord’s Supper.” ~ Worship Paragraph 3

"God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him." ~ Psalm 89:7

"And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight." Acts 20:7

"Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire." ~ Hebrews 12:28-29

In the first section, we looked at worship in general and the importance of it; in the second section, we looked at the means of building a worshipful attitude. Now in this section we will look at how worship is expressed, particularly in the public worship of God on the Lord's Day. It is appropriate that the first half of the paragraph still deals with the attitude of the worshipers of Christ, because Jesus said that good words come from good hearts. (Matthew 12:35) These three sentences contain three senses that involve how we ought to strive for a more edifying worship on the Lord's Day. The last sentence states what activities we ought to use to express our worship.