in Christ: Andrew Fountain's blog

I was mulling over my thoughts about our vision for Newlife Church and I came up with some key concepts. We want the church to be diverse in culture, age and social level. We want all the gifts in operation. We want evangelism and growth, strong teaching, and a love and care for people that addresses the social problems of the city and gives hope to the hopeless. God’s presence should be our delight and the source of our strength, and finally we want to be a resourcing church that is missions minded and plants other churches, acting as a strong base.

As I was praying about what to preach on, the example in Acts 13:1-3 of the church in Antioch came to me. Then I remembered there was more about the same church in Acts 11:19-30. I read the passages with increasing excitement as I realized that all of my points were found in the description of this church—even the ethnic/social diversity of the church and the caring for social needs. Here they are, (and honest, I didn’t plan there to be seven!)

1. Evangelism and Growth by God’s grace and favour [11:21-24]
2. A foundation of excellent teaching [11:25-26]
3. Strong in all the supernatural gifts [11:27-28]
4. A church that cares about and responds to social needs [11:29-30]
5. A church whose people and leadership are diverse in culture and social position [13:1] (listen to the audio to find out why)
6. A valuing of God’s presence as a source of their strength [13:1]
7. A church that has missions at it’s heart and is a strong sending and resourcing base [13:2-3]

The audio is very short, (only around 20mins). The link is here: nlife.ca/audio/vision-newlife-church