Growing Up - Helping Believers Grow
Written by Ed Allen
Sunday, 19 September 2010 09:00
Sermon Outline
Gateway belongs to a network of churches called Northstar Church Network and every year Northstar offers an excellent training event that covers a wide variety of spiritual topics. In fact, there are typically over 50 seminars offered covering almost every imaginable church-related issue. A few months ago I was asked to offer a seminar at this year’s event on how to help new believers grow spiritually. They asked me to lead this seminar because the leadership of Northstar is very excited about what’s going on at Gateway and about my vision for how to do church.
While I was initially excited about leading this seminar, after some reflection, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity for Beth Baron. If you’re visiting, you may not know that Beth is our extremely dynamic and very Godly director of small groups. I thought it would be great, first of all, for Beth to have the opportunity to think through this topic. Plus, I knew that the group would be very, very blessed by what Beth had to say.
Then, one Sunday earlier this summer, I was talking about Jesus’ relationship with his disciples. I talked about what was involved in being a follower of Jesus and what that meant for us today. The man who organizes this event has never visited Gateway, but he “coincidentally” chose that very Sunday to visit us. After the service, he came up to speak to me and was very complementary. He added that what I had talked about was exactly why he had asked me to share at the training event. I knew almost instantly that God wanted me to do this. So I gladly came home from vacation a day early so that I could lead this seminar on how to help new believers grow spiritually.
In helping new believers grow spiritually, our goal is:
- To help people grow in their love for God and their love for others
- This is our goal for everyone
- Matthew 22:34-40
Assumptions:
- We don’t have to convince others about spiritual matters.
- Romans 1:18-20
- Ultimate responsibility for our spiritual growth is God’s.
- Philippians 1:6
- Hebrews 12:2
- We must participate with God in our spiritual growth.
- This explains the NT call for “faith”.
- Philippians 2:12-13
- Helping new believers grow in their connection with God is the church’s main responsibility.
- Matthew 28:18-20
- We sometimes forget this at Gateway. We place a lot of emphasis on connecting with one another, but sometimes we forget the purpose. It’s not so that we can feel more comfortable … Our purpose is to grow to be more like Jesus, in that, we love God more and more and we love others more and more.
What should we do?
- Matthew 28:18-20
- baptize them (incorporate them into the body)
- relationally
- what is expected of them
- This happens at” Gateway to Gateway”
- teach them to observe everything (teach them to live like Jesus)
How do we do it?
- Be Intentional (the first two are most important)
- “God what are you doing here and how can I join you”
- They are not our project
- Must be purposeful
- Can’t respond to our insecurities
- Spend Time
- Have to be with them
- Give definition to the life of Jesus
- Every church/every group has to give some definition to this. What do we mean by live the life of Jesus.
- Takes a lifetime to even figure this out much less pursue it, but we must give ourselves some footholds – a primer.
- At Gateway – 7 habits
- Use Resources with wisdom and purpose
- Practice Creative Devotions
- Invest in Community
- Nourish others out of personal health
- Open our lives to people in need
- Uplift God’s character
- Tell others about Christ
- This is never about the information
- Plug them into an effective growth system
- At Gateway: small groups
- We believe this was Jesus’ model
- And it works for our busy schedules
- At Gateway: small groups
- Always ultimately one-on-one
- You are the delivery system
- “who’s your man?”