Ju. Jones

As church planters, we usually have a model church that we admire.  It may include churches such as Willow Creek, Saddleback, North Point, Mosaic, Seacoast, Fellowship Church in Texas, the list goes on and on.  I too have a few churches that are under my radar.  One of those churches is the Church of the Thessalonians.  This verse has been blowing me away. “And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.  The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia – your faith in God has become known everywhere (I Thess. 1:7-8).”  Everyone everywhere knew about this church.  They were known for their enormous faith in God.  This church made a tremendous impact on their community as people turned away from idols to serve the true and living God (1 Thess. 1:9).  My Lesson for Today: Be known for influence.  Sometimes there’s a deep longing within us to be known for being cool, slick, and charming.  We mask in spiritual jargon, but we want to be the next big thing.  We say we want to create disciples, but is that really our hearts desire?  Or is it a mission statement that we place on the bulletin because it’s the Christian thing to do?  Is our goal simply to gather people or create a movement that will raise up disciples that are known everywhere for their deep faith in God?  I hope it’s the latter.  That’s my goal.