The difference between the church as a ministry and the church as a movement...

Take my yoke upon you…

(Yoke – a Rabbi’s understanding of God through the Scriptures.)

As we move through August and into the Fall ministry push, I look forward to people coming back from excursions refreshed and ready to hit the ministry year with a new vigor.

As a body at Impact, what we are asking for and what we are looking for is nothing less than everything God set forth in the gospel.  Jesus certainly came to make friends, but he was even more concerned with making followers, disciples. 

He was asking people to follow him and to take his yoke upon them and to deny themselves in doing so.  He didn't apologize for this apologetic either.  He knew what he was asking for and what the gospel deserved.

As so as I look toward August and the homestretch of the summer leading into the Fall and all that God longs to do through our body at Impact, I'm filled with hopes and dreams.  Our leadership is longing for more than just a nice little place to spend an hour on the weekend, we believe God's dream for the church he died for is so much deeper and grander than that.

When we think of church as a movement, not just a ministry...

We are asking you to not just enjoy it, but engage it.

We are asking you to not just attend it, but to affect it.

We are asking you to not just believe it, but to become it.

We are asking you to not just get from it, but to give to it.

We are asking you to not just applaud it, but to apply it.

We are looking for stakeholders, not freeloaders.

We are looking for partners, not patrons.

We are looking for contributors, not consumers.

We are looking for participators, not spectators.

We are looking for followers, not fans.

God is looking for kingdom-lovers, not just church-goers.

God is looking for producing Christ-followers, not just professing Christians.

And we are asking you to take this yoke upon you…this culture, this mission, this vision, this passion…

We are asking you to feel the weight of it upon your shoulders and to carry it around with you each day of your life. 

Will you take this yoke upon you?