It is so good to come together as a whole church and focus on our core mission: to make disciples. (Matthew 28.19)
It is amazing to have three leaders of such high caliber coming to encourage us. Mike Pilavachi has been the leader of the Soul Survivor movement since 1993 that has seen over 15,000 young people become Christians in the last 10 years. St Peter’s Brighton has been one of the fastest growing churches in the country under Archie Coates’ leadership, and Jim Partridge, who leads the amazing King’s Church right here in Burgess Hill is a brilliant leader and a great friend of The Point.
2020! What a great time to re-group, re-focus and re-commit to being ‘a transforming presence throughout Mid Sussex’. We will be looking at leadership for discipleship: it’s all about seeing lives change. And this has to happen in community. So we are going to focus quite a bit on the importance of small groups during these evenings. We will be starting new groups and re-envisioning our existing groups.
You may say, “I’m not a leader”. You may not have an obvious leadership role, but all of us are called to lead and to have an influence on those around us. Jesus is a leader, the best leader there has ever been! He lives in each of us and wants to use us to continue to lead others to God. These evenings are for everyone, not just those who are currently leading teams and groups. We will be looking at Leadership and Discipleship under three headings:
Lead more like Jesus
Jesus is the perfect leader. He had the most amazing influence on every person who came into contact with Him. He made disciples wherever he went. He said, “Come to me . . . and learn from me.” We need to learn how to lead like Jesus, the sacrificial servant leader, full of power and influence, but humble and poor. Jesus is amazing. He is our model, our inspiration, our leader and our Lord.
Lead more to Jesus
Jesus is longing to bring salvation to more and more people. He wants to meet our friends, neighbours, family members and work colleagues. He wants to use us to be that transforming presence, bringing His presence into every situation. Through us He can transform our homes, our streets, our workplaces and our schools. He has given us “the Great Commission” to make disciples of all nations, all people, all cultures. He wants to fulfill that right here in Mid Sussex. The transformation is happening one life at a time.
Led more by Jesus
We are all followers first, then leaders. We follow Jesus, we are led by the Spirit and, like Jesus, we want to do “only what we see the Father doing”. We want to connect with Jesus in a deeper way and strengthen our relationship with Him. However this doesn’t happen automatically, we have to make tough choices and be very disciplined. This is what some call “self-leadership”. We have to learn to lead ourselves (or allow Jesus to) before we can lead others.
I am really looking forward to these evenings as we enter the New Year. I believe they will have a big impact on us as a church and the directions we take as we move forward together. Please make these One Direction evenings a priority – see you there!