How do I get there?
It’s hard to go somewhere if you don’t know how to get there. People frequently get lost on the way to our apartment. First off, the house number doesn’t exist on anyone’s GPS (and I literally mean anyone’s GPS). Then, every GPS (again, every GPS) takes you the wrong way and you end up behind a locked gate to which we don’t know the keycode! I’ve had many a stressed-out delivery person on the phone to whom I’m trying to give directions!
It’s hard to go somewhere if you don’t know how to get there. Our mission at Chapel Hill is working together to present everyone mature in Christ. Our goal is to strive as a community of disciples of Jesus to help one another grow in our faith so that we may reach the destiny that God has for us in Christ. We want to see one another grow and develop and mature and reach that potential that we have in Jesus. We know where we are going, but do we know how to get there?
We believe that it is God’s Spirit living inside of us that is ultimately doing the work of growth, but we each have a role to play in this ourselves. If someone asked you, “How can you help yourself grow as a Christian?” you would probably have some ideas: go to church, read your Bible, pray, join a LifeGroup, etc. And those are good things that do help us grow, but we all grow in different ways at different times in our walk with Jesus.
It’s a bit like how we grow physically… We always need to eat to grow, no matter how old we are. But when we are younger, we need someone to feed us, then as we grow older we can feed ourselves, but we still can’t prepare the food for ourselves. One day we get to a place where we can both feed ourselves and prepare the food for ourselves. And then finally, we find ourselves in a place where we are preparing food for and feeding others, as well as ourselves. All our lives, we are eating and growing as a result, but in different ways.
It is the same spiritually. As we grow and mature as disciples of Jesus we need to do different things to help us grow. For example, a Christianity Explored class works great for a new believer, it doesn’t work as well for someone who is more mature in their faith. Or, going on a missions trip to Portland State University to tell people about Jesus works well for someone a little further along in their faith, but it doesn’t work well for someone who isn’t really sure they believe in Jesus.
We want to work together as members of Chapel Hill to present everyone mature in Christ, but if we don’t know how to do that, we can’t achieve our mission. That is why we are teaching Next Step.
Next Step is a class all about how we grow as disciples of Jesus. It talks about what that process looks like and what we can do as a ‘next step’ to help ourselves grow in our faith. The material we are teaching in this class has completely changed the way your pastoral team personally does ministry, and corporately it is changing the way we structure all our ministries at Chapel Hill.
Please consider coming to Next Step this week on Tuesday morning from 9.30-11.00am or on Thursday night from 6.30-8.00. Childcare is available at both.
Our hope is that it will help you know how you can better grow as a disciple of Jesus; and that as 1,000 of our members go through this during the summer, it will change for the better how we at Chapel Hill work together to present eveyone mature in Christ.
Ellis
P.S. If you are not yet a member but would like to go through the same material as covered in the Next Step class, please register for our First Step class on June 7 from 12-3pm. As well as the material covered in Next Step, you will also hear more about Chapel Hill and have a one-to-one conversation with a Pastor where more time can be taken to help you know what is the best next step for you in your journey with Christ. There is no obligation to join Chapel Hill upon completion of the First Step class.