Here at Kingsgate we have one pulsating heartbeat. We call this our mission which is:
“we exist to make much of Jesus”
Now a couple of times I’ve heard someone say, ‘Is that it? Is that really the main, central, cardinal, or chief passion for us as a church?’ When I’ve heard those sentiments being expressed, I’ve wanted to shout and bounce around and say ‘yes, yes, yes, yes’! – because there is no greater mission!
Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in Gal 6:14
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.”
Just pause for a moment and consider what the apostle Paul is saying. He’s saying, there is only one thing that he is going to boast about in this world – it’s not his academic ability, or his religious credentials, nor his status as an apostle, or his spiritual experiences, or even his apparent successes as a church planter – no there is just one thing that he will boast in (or using our language) make much of, and that is Jesus and his world-transforming work on the cross.
I want you to grasp this, with a passion that may propel some of us to live lives of hardship and isolation and apparent insignificance, but with this beautiful mission fuelling our hearts – this is all about making much of Jesus. Friends, I want you to grasp, like the Apostle Paul, that we have one all- consuming passion and that is to boast (or make much of) Jesus!
To make much of Jesus in a world that is attempting to make much of everything other than him, is a war cry – an act of civil war; not with guns and bombs but with devotion and love for Jesus, even if it means, as it did to the Apostle Paul, that we give away our lives for the joy of making much of Him!
