Everything I do in life is designed so that I will build the house of God. I want you to own that on the inside as your life theme. That you will build the church. A lot of church members/ministers are out there to tear the church down. We build up, not tear down. God simply wants a full house. The churches that will be full are full because we have compelled people to come in. The difference between a church on fire to a church that isn’t is the same as the difference between uncooked dough and fresh bread. You have to add fire.

In Leviticus, the priest always kept the temple fire burning. We have to have fire and passion in our church. That’s what makes church compelling. People are attracted to fire, to life, to music. Isaiah 64:4 says that God works with those who wait for Him and He meets with those who rejoice. When you become a compelling church you attract not only people but God.

We need to build not only churches but also the people in the churches. We need to create environments that release, not restrict. We want to build the lives and dreams of our members so that they are equipped to go forth and reach the lost – expanding God’s kingdom and building God’s church.

Expanding God’s Kingdom and building God’s church requires vision. We have to have vision. Whatever your vision is, that is where you are going. If you want to go one way, but the train of your thoughts – your vision – is going another way, that is where you will end up. You vision will always determine where you will go.

The great thing about thoughts is that you can change them. Change your vision. See it. Believe it. That is how faith works. It’s called vision. See it. Name it before God.

God really does work all things together for good for those who love him. Paul, speaking from a Roman jail to one of his favorite churches in Philipi, reported that the Christians in Rome had become bolder because of his imprisonment. Something that the devil tries to use for bad, when God has the hearts of the people, God will use it for good. People have to be willing to put their lives on the line for the vision and burden of building God’s house. I am praying that over the next few days that this burden will come upon us.

What gets me up praying for this church is seeing people about to get started on the great adventure. There is unlimited potential in God’s house. It’s like a crucible – God’s fire is unquenchable. Sometimes you find yourself in the fire of God and all you can do is cry out to God.

But that is part of preparation for carrying the vision and building God’s kingdom. Some of us are going to get this feeling and feel this burden. It’s going to feel weird. It is like God asking you to come up, move forward, and come farther – showing you where he wants you to be.

God will challenge you in one of three areas:

1. Money – you have got to slay the money/giving giant. It is a giant that torments people and holds them back. It keeps you at the start. If you ever flinch when we take an offering, you haven’t slayed the giant. You ought to be rejoicing! How awesome it is that we get to give to God? That he would even receive our offering? That he would even take the time to receive it, because he doesn’t always.

2. The giant of Attendance – the giant of being in the house and coming to the house of God. The hardest thing for some new Christians to get is starting a new lifestyle and adjusting their world to get plugged into the house of God so that it becomes automatic and becomes a priority. Everything happens in the house of God.

3. The giant of Servanthood – understanding that your are a servant and that God uses servants.

When you win in all three of these areas God has a clear passage to you and he will bring revelation to you and put things on you that you wouldn’t be able to carry before. My prayer for next week is that a bunch of people defeat these things. People who haven’t gotten it yet to get it.

That happens through pastoring and leadership in the church. Pastoring people is leading them. Shepherding is about sheltering God’s people, protecting them and leading them into green pastures so that they can get fed. Speaking faith filled words over their lives that the Holy Spirit can get on. Then these words become true. God gets on it and puts his power on it. Bring the crowd into the core. There is something about building strength and stamina in the Spirit. We do it together, at times like Holy Spirit conference, so when we aren’t together, we have the stamina to stand on our own – in our own world.

Get a hold of someone and get them on the journey. Put God first and see what he will do.

I am sitting in Dusseldorf airport thinking about how great America really is. We have so much freedom, our life style and affordability is truly the best in the world.

Being in Europe reminds you that a move of God does not last forever. Every village you go to there is a church, a big church, a big empty church. We did attend mass by accident Sunday night and there was a healthy crowd but nearly all were over 60.

The reformation started in Germany. A fervor and passion rose up in the German young people and soon spread around the world. Where are all the passionate young people in Europe living out their dreams for Christ?

We must never loose sight of the importance of keeping our young people engaged in C3. It is of utmost importance that we allow them to express love for God in their own way. It’s hard for us oldies. Sometimes but you just have to spend a few days here to see that unless the young are kept in church, all that will be left is the buildings with no body in them.

Dean & Jill

We are placed here for a purpose. Our citizenship is in Heaven, but we are chosen here on Earth. We are called out to advance God’s kingdom here.

Traditional vs. Missional – The mindset of tradition states that people come to church to consume programs offered to them and then leave. People are shifting their mindsets and realizing that they have a purpose. Everyone is searching for their purpose—we find it in God’s house. There is a new way of thinking from ‘I’m coming here to get’ to a release and longing to be used, built up, and sent into the world. A traditional mindset developed a position on everything, and a missional mindset is about experiencing the Holy Spirit. We want to experience what the Holy Spirit is going in us and in the church.

The Holy Spirit was sent to come alongside to help, encourage, and comfort. We do not just want knowledge of the Holy Spirit. We want to believe by faith and have an experience. God wants to express his love in a way that is real for us, an experience.

This new mindset means that every person has access to God. Others can help us connect with God but no one needs to stand between us and God. Every person can come before God even when you do not feel worthy enough to do so because we are not told to live by our feelings but by our faith.

A missional church collectively joins together and engages in something. We participate and worship together. We can have beliefs about the Holy Spirit or we can experience him in our lives. We will all come to have a revelation of who God is. The more we progress the more God will reveal to us. The word of God will come alive. The Holy Spirit will reveal truth to us; not just what we are told by others, but a truth we have found on our own. Discover God for yourself. Every person has a call, but God must become real to you first.

The Holy Spirit is at work in the world. God has a plan and it includes the salvation of every person. But everyday people are perishing, so His will is not enough. We have a part to play. We fulfill God’s will. We have been chosen, given the spirit, and been empowered. The Spirit is the key that unlocks our future in fulfilling God’s plan. The spirit will lead us as we allow him.

Water is a consistent theme in the Bible. Rain is caught in basins and forms rivers. Water equals life, and God’s rain and rivers equal divine blessing and abundant life.

When God rains down on us, we don’t want to waste it. We want to catch it all. The church acts as the catcher when God rains down on the earth. The rivers that are formed from God’s rain flow through the house of God. God wants this river to be a raging torrent to reach the world, and it is our job as the church to make this happen. When the church is flowing in the river, then the Spirit of God falls on all flesh.

This is why it is so important for us to become members of the house of God and serve it – to be missional in mindset and not consumers of the church. Just because you are saved and part of the family doesn’t mean you are a son or daughter of the house. Being a son or daughter requires relationship. “Your sons and daughters will prophesy … they will confound the wise…” When sons and daughters understand authority and submission, they are released to be a mouthpiece and receive wisdom way beyond their years.

Part of our job in building the house is to create this releasing environment. God wants to release you. This release comes from serving. When you come to Christ, you lower yourself – you become generous and serving. You submit to God and submit to others. The Bible says that the lowly shall be elevated to the mountaintop, and the last shall be first.

Psalm 1 talks about being planted next to the river. The Hebrew translation for this word is actually channel. Channels are man-made basins to catch and redirect water. See how God wants us to be part of his plan? God wants us to build the river. God wants us involved by creating a place for the latter rain to be caught. Then, people will start planting by the river and will prosper. Everything people need is in the water, and the house of God is the channel. The Bible says that a tree planted near the water will flourish, but a tree planted away from water will struggle to survive. We want the river to be wide, strong and well-built so that when God rains down – rains down his Spirit – we can catch it. That is why we are focusing so much on the Holy Spirit.

Rain in the Bible is equated to blessing. We are designed to be trees planted by the river. If we stay away from God’s river, we become malnourished and shriveled. Part of being planted by the river is being connected to the house of God.

The one word that describes us is “connect” – connect to God, connect to yourself, connect to others. Connecting up, connecting in and connecting out. This is part of being missional. It is not the call of God for us to be an island When the rain of God is caught and the Holy Spirit is allowed to move, it is easy to connect with God. We need to create that environment to bring people to God – an environment of faith and expectation. The church isn’t just here to get bodies in the seats. We are charged with keeping the river strong, flowing and pure, and fueled so people can feel the river in us and thus be drawn to God through us. God wants commitment. God told Gideon that he didn’t need a lot of people, but the ripe, committed people to accomplish the goal. The ones who are looking.

We don’t want to grow the church at the expense of growing people in God and planting them deeply by the river. We want people to discover their place in God’s house and in the mission. We want to produce, not consume. We serve the house of God – it doesn’t serve us. We want to play our part to make the river wider by serving, praying, submitting, encouraging. We want to build a river filled with servants that love to serve God and are willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill his purpose. We want an outpouring and we want to catch it.

We don’t want God’s rain to go to waste. This is part of our mission.

“I came to you in weakness, timid and trembling.” This came from one of the boldest saints in history. Paul, after his conversion, hid away for 14 years. During that time he began to get an understanding of his mission in life, which was taking the gospel to the gentiles. He was in constant danger from both his friends and his enemies. He was beaten, stoned, whipped, chased by the Pharisees, shipwrecked, and deserted, but he still driven to spread the Gospel because he knew he was on a mission.

Mission shaped churches – following the example of Paul – do not thrive on traditions and knowledge of the past. We all carry traditions, knowledge and learning from our past experiences. However, these traditions are nothing to what God wants to do through us in the future. Paul was a Pharisee. He had all of the Church tradition and knowledge – but he could not and did not let it define the mission God gave him.

“I didn’t come to you with powerful words, human wisdom or eloquent speech – by the Holy Spirit and his power among you.”

We are not a traditionalist kind of church.

Traditional says we come and consume some church stuff on a Sunday. We are missional because we come and celebrate and leave with vision and faith to share and take the gospel to the world. A mission shaped church is not about coming, taking what you want and leaving. It’s about taking what God gives you and using it to fulfill His purpose.

In a mission shaped church, we participate in worship and become worshippers. We don’t just show up on Sundays to watch the band.

Institutional churches are organizations that run like machines, with interchangeable disposable parts. Missional churches are living organisms with every member playing a vital role. Every member is important and has a calling and a purpose.

In traditional churches the leadership is top-down. In missional churches, leadership is flattened. Leadership isn’t just about authority, it’s about influence. Leaders help people understanding who they are in God, why they are here and where they fit in the House of God. Missional churches create a platform in which people can experience God, understand his purpose for their lives and position themselves to be used by God.

We are called to connect with people and bring God’s power to their world. In the future is the power of the Holy Spirit being unfolded in our lives. Despite our varied pasts, just like Paul, we don’t let our pasts define our future. That is our mindset – a vision mission for the church, not programs for people to consume. This missional mindset allows people to live out the gospel and experience in for themselves.

The mission of this church is more important than our feelings. Paul said it is more important than our own well-being and safety. The church mission is a microcosm of the great commission. As Paul said, we have to do what God tells me to do, and until He stops confirming with signs and wonders, we have to fulfill the mission.

Mission driven churches are people driven. We will let go of some of our traditions and make adjustments within the boundaries of scripture for the sake of reaching the lost. We want everyone to feel welcome in God’s house. We want to create an environment for the Holy Spirit to move and change lives. The most important role of the Holy Spirit is inspiring, empowering and releasing the church by giving us the tools, wisdom, gifts, faith and vision we need to go and fulfill the mission.

When you discover your role in the house and God’s calling on your life, there is no better revelation in the world. We want to be part of seeing God’s people grow – to discover God’s plan for them and empower them to fulfill it. That is the vision of a mission shaped church, and that is what we are.

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