This is our mission

I hope you are all familiar with our church mission statement: ‘Living for Jesus: loving like Jesus’. This is our over-arching purpose of Church by the Bridge.

We are seeking to be a community of people who first and foremost are about Jesus. We love him, serve him, adore him – because Jesus is the only one who has brought us life, hope, forgiveness, eternal life. So as followers of Jesus Christ, we are seeking to be a community that live under his Lordship. That is, we submit ourselves to his rule and authority, we obey his word, we make decisions that glorify him, we speak & act in a way that honours him. In a way, that’s our vertical relationship with God – living for Jesus.

The ‘loving like Jesus’ is aiming to express our horizontal relationships with other people. So within the church family, we are seeking to love one another well – encouraging, teaching, caring, rebuking, serving each other. But we also want to be known as a church that loves those outside the church family – so loving our local community, loving our nation, loving our world. This will show itself in very practical ways like community lunches, visiting James Milson, Clean up Australia Day; or in more explicitly evangelistic ways, as we seek to share the good news about Jesus with as many people as possible.

So that’s our overall mission: Living for Jesus. Loving like Jesus.

Each year, we set ourselves a vision or goal for the year. This is really a more contained, more specific focus which will shape our ministry for that year. So in the past we have had had: ‘Depth in Christ’, ‘Year of living generously’, ‘Year of belonging to local church’. This year our goal is ‘2011: The Year of Reaching those we know’. Let me seek to explain why we have decided to focus on this, and what it might look like.

I reckon we as a church have been good at building awareness in our community, so people know we exist and see lots of activity happening. I reckon we’ve also been good at putting on ‘events’ where people can be invited to come and hear a clear gospel talk, or come to Simply Christianity course. We’ve been good at leafleting our area, putting flyers in mail boxes to let them know what is happening (Adopt a Street has been great for that). But the reality is that each of us has people we actually know – friends, family, work colleagues – who have no relationship with Jesus. Some of those live in Kirribilli, others do not. In many ways, it’s easier and safer to seek to reach people we don’t know – put a flyer through a door, put on an event – that doesn’t put relationships on the line. But ‘reaching those you know’ means be bold, living consistently, inviting people to church. Oh, we’re still passionate about reaching Kirribilli – and many of our outreach events will be aimed at that. But our heart for the lost will surely be increased if we are purposely seeking to witness to people we already know!

So here’s the challenge! Pick 3 people you know who do not yet know Christ! Maybe one from work, one family member, one friend from social / sports club or even one from church – and think & pray about how to witness to them. Maybe a simple invitation to church 2 or 3 times a year (getting into the habit of regularly inviting people to church). Maybe a dinner-time conversation where you share you testimony.

Reaching those you know…try it! Pray that God would give you opportunities!

With love in Christ
Paul Dale (Senior Pastor)