This week we will continue to study God's character as revealed through the life of Moses. In Exodus 18 we will see how God was stretching Moses' leadership ability to accomplish a significant movement of God. In the midst of being stretched, Moses's father-in-law, Jethro, showed Moses how to setup a produce and release culture and shared with him the benefits it would have on his leadership, the well-being of people, and the overall movement of God. In addition, we are going to see how a P&R culture has heavily influenced the culture of Northwest. In fact, mission and vision are directly linked to the principle of produce and release.
The mission God has given us at Northwest is to produce and release leaders who are fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Our mission comes right out of the Great Commission as Jesus gave his followers their final instructions. As a result, Northwest is setup to be a leadership factory that cranks out leaders (disciples) who are willing to devote their lives towards making the name of Jesus Christ famous in their community, workplace, school, circles of influence, and around the globe. Produce and release is who we are. It defines why, how, and what we do. And of course our mission is closely tied to our vision which is to lead people to experience a new life in Christ. We want to see people's lives transformed by Jesus Christ. Our mission and vision are the driving reasons we launched Northwest three years ago.
In light of this milestone, we recently asked ourselves a challenging question. What would it take for us to lead 200 people in worship on Easter Sunday, March 31? Our answer had two components:
- Intentional Obedience on our part to invited unchurched friends, family members, and neighbors.
- Prayerful Dependence upon God as we ask God to move and stretch us to reach more people.
But, here's the deal. This is not just a gimmicky church growth strategy. Rather it is our attempt as a young church to allow God to stretch us. We want to live out our mission, vision, and the lessons God has been teaching us in His Word. We want God to continually stretch us out of our comfort zones and cause us to depend more on Him and less on ourselves because we are serious about our mission and vision.
Happy Birthday Northwest! May God stretch us in new ways as we follow Him with total abandonment and obedience this next year.
Oh yeah, and we will have a big lunch after the worship service on Sunday. There will be a huge cake and a ton of smoked meat. Bring a side to share and come ready to meet new people.
Oh yeah, and we will have a big lunch after the worship service on Sunday. There will be a huge cake and a ton of smoked meat. Bring a side to share and come ready to meet new people.
