Over the last few posts, I started to unpack the vision we have for Kingsgate which is to: Raise a 300-strong church community, that is devoted to gospel-shaped Witness, Discipleship and Compassion
However, you might be reading these posts and asking the question: that’s great Adam, but what is it going to look like here at Kingsgate in 2 or 3 years’ time?
I want to suggest that it will look like a deliberate focus on three main things: witness, discipleship and compassion (and yes, these things do overlap a lot!). Let me try and simply explain what we mean by each of these:
DISCIPLESHIP
The reason we have discipleship in the middle is that we see this as the priority and balance for the other two. Another way of saying this is that the other two can easily lead to imbalance and an unhealthy approach without a strong focus on discipleship.
What do we mean by a strong focus on discipleship? Together we will encourage and challenge each other to allow the gospel to shape and conform every aspect of our lives into the likeness of Christ!
What a goal! This means that from the youngest to the oldest, no one has ‘arrived’ – we are all works in progress and so we all have space to grow and change and become more like Jesus!
This type of church focuses and prioritises on the cultivation of the fruit of the spirit in our lives: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
This type of church cultivates devoted fellowship where lives get woven together into communities where we can grow up in Christ-likeness.
This type of church recognises the importance of unity and so makes a priority out of:
“be[ing] at peace with one another” (Mk 9:50)
“Don’t grumble among one another (John 6:43)
Accept[ing] one another (Romans 15:7)
This type of church doesn’t just talk about love, but practises love in these types of ways:
Through love, serve one another (Gal 5:13)
Tolerate one another in love (Ep 4:2)
Be devoted to one another in love (Rm 12:10)
This type of church practices humility as described in so many places in the New Testament:
Give preference to one another in honour (Rm 12:10)
Be subject to one another (Ep 5:21)
Regard one another as more important than yourselves (Ph 2:3)
I hope you can see the magnitude of this task! A church community committed to gospel-shaped discipleship is committed to helping each person – regardless of their background, education, status in life – to grow up into the likeness of Christ. So much of the hardest and most challenging discipleship takes place in community because people are the sandpaper that God uses to shape and mould us!
