Karis: PURPOSE

Now, a healthy church, a winning church, nurtures all five of these environments, identifies leaders who can help contribute to these environments. And again, I wanna make it very clear. Leadership is very important, but it's also not the end all, be all. Not everybody needs to be or or should be a leader, but all of us can contribute to each of these environments. Right? These are the environments that lead to unity and maturity and the fullness of Christ showing up in our community. [00:26:11] (39 seconds)  #NurtureAllEnvironments

Now unity does not mean that we all look the same and act the same and talk the same. Unity is not uniformity. Unity is a shared commitment to God and to each other. Unity is a shared commitment to God and to each other. It is a commitment to keep the mission of God to restore his creation back to shalom at the center of everything that we do. [00:16:33] (44 seconds)  #UnityNotUniformity

This might this might be pushing it a little bit. It might be heretical, but I think it is true. John or Jesus saved John's soul, but Reunion Christian Church saved his life. This is what Paul is talking about in Ephesians chapter four. This is what we are talking about here in this Carus conversation. This is what we are about as a church community here in Davis. [00:34:46] (34 seconds)  #ChurchSavedHisLife

Nothing about numbers or size or anything like that. He talks about growing in the knowledge of Jesus. And then the last piece, I think that a lot of churches are focused on consuming consumption versus maturity. Maturity is is an others orientation. It's being focused on other people more than yourself, whereas consumption is purely a self orientation perspective. [00:14:39] (27 seconds)  #MaturityOverConsumption

Paul says. Also, this this idea of knowledge. Now, again, in our day and age, knowledge tends to get treated like information. And we live in a moment in in history where we have more information available to us than any human beings ever. But but knowledge, the type of knowledge that Paul is talking about here is not just about information. Knowing Jesus is is relational, not informational. [00:17:54] (27 seconds)  #RelationalKnowing

Second, the American church, I think, does focus on growing, but it focuses on growing numerically. No. Here's an interesting thing. Almost nowhere in the New Testament does it ever talk about numerical growth. Isn't that fascinating? When Paul talks about growth here, what does he say? He talks about growing in the knowledge of Jesus. [00:14:14] (25 seconds)  #GrowthInJesusNotNumbers

The excluded, not just being included, but participating. Not just at the table, but serving the meal. Not just at the game, in the game. And so again, my question for you, are you in the game? Are you in the game? There there is a John who needs you to be in the game. [00:35:21] (35 seconds)  #BeInTheGame

And he goes for a walk on a very cold February morning, and he sees the sign for the church, and he comes in. He's like, at least it'll be warm in there. And he sits in the back, and he hears the good news of Jesus, and he's greeted by some friendly people. And then again, he has this experience at the end of that gathering, where he it just all sort of hits him, and and he's weeping back there. [00:31:49] (26 seconds)  #StandFirmInMaturity