02 Oct Assaulting the Gates

The mission that Jesus gave to us was quite clear and simple.

• He told his church to go and make disciples.
• As we do that, we would teach those disciples the commands of Christ, which are summed up in loving God with all our heart and loving others.
• Then, to make sure that the testimony of our lives is seen to all, we would baptize that new disciple in the name of the Father, the Son and the Spirit.

You have heard it before, but the beauty of it to me has never changed.

It was my privilege to attend a conference with about 55 denominational executives who are on the same page about the mission. We met September 14-16 in Nashville, where we:

• Shared stories of how our God is working through our churches to make new disciples.
• Discussed strategies for being more effective in reaching out to a lost and dying world.
• Prayed together that we would remain faithful and fruitful in accomplishing this mission.
• Reaffirmed that Christ had clearly told us that the gates of hell would not hold back the church of Jesus Christ.

The one thing that we did NOT talk about was changing the mission.

So I want to encourage each of you to stay focused on the mission Christ has placed before us. Let’s recognize the opportunities to push back the darkness and  bring the light of Christ into a broken and hurting world. Let’s together assault the gates of hell.