September is an important month for restarts – our church activities begin again after a restful summer break, we celebrate harvest together and engage with the community through the Cherry Hinton festival.
This makes it the perfect time to consider ‘Growth’ – what does the bible have to say about growth and what can we do to pursue it as a church and as individuals? Do we strive to add others to the church and does God want this? How can we share our faith in meaningful ways?
This month as we work through verses in Matthew, Romans and Acts on the theme of growth we will also here about how different missionaries viewed these verses and what effect it has on their lives and those around them.
We are also privileged to welcome the founder of Operation Mobilisation (a large missionary organisation that uses short term as well as longer term workers, over 200,000 people have served on OM) George Verwer, on the 23rd September who will be talking to us on the Romans passage and his experiences within the organisation.
02-Sep Matthew 9:35 - 10:15 Jesus has compassion on people, preaches systematically within an area and sends out ‘harvesters’ to do likewise.09-Sep Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus’ last words before the ascension commissioned the church to continue making disciples.16-Sep Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 God intends and waits for growth, two kingdoms grow up together.23-Sep Romans 10: 14,15 Keep preaching so that others can hear the life changing message you received - how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!30-Sep Acts 11:19-26 The church was first called ‘Christian’ when people started reaching out with it’s message beyond racial / religious boundaries. The Lord was with the church as they spoke to ‘outsiders’ and it grew!