You may have noticed it's not Pastor Rick, he is back in town this week but we got turned
around a little bit in our scheduling because of the storm in the last week that we had
so we readjusted a little bit and so I'll be kicking off this five week series that
we're beginning today four way street and the fifth Sunday of the four weeks four way
street series will be the 22nd of October when we receive our I love this place gift
that Anita spoke about just a moment ago in the video.
We're going to be leading up to that during these four weeks leading up by highlighting
our four next steps and how I love this place supports taking those steps.
Here at Argyle we are always talking about our mission.
Our mission is to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
Everything we do here at Argyle centers on that.
We do nothing that doesn't work toward that goal.
Growing relationships with Jesus is the reason we exist and it's our only purpose.
Having a mission is important but it means nothing if we're not doing something to accomplish
our mission.
Talk is cheap.
Actions matter.
To accomplish our mission to get where we're going we have a strategy.
A strategy is a master plan a high level map.
Our strategy here at Argyle to accomplish our mission is to create next steps that encourage
intimacy with God, genuine community with each other and a servant's heart for the world
around us.
When a person first comes to Argyle they might be at any point along their spiritual
journey.
A few are mature Christians but most aren't regardless of where we are in our spiritual
journey.
All of us, the preacher, the staff, the members are the visitor who has never heard of Jesus
has not arrived at true Christ lightness.
None of us is there yet.
No one does all of their growing in a single instant.
No one learns everything they know in a single flash.
In the same way we break down spiritual growth into steps.
Our four main next steps here at Argyle are really pretty simple.
We want people to connect.
We want people to serve.
We want everyone to give and we want you to invest in the lives of the people around
you and invite them to be a part of our mission here at Argyle.
During the coming weeks we may use some of that, I love this place for another transmitter
pack.
During the coming weeks we're going to be talking about the steps for serve, give and
invite but today we're going to concentrate on that first one, connect.
Connect is probably the most important of the four steps and it's actually pretty intimately
tied up with all of the other steps.
It's really the foundation of all of them.
Serving is about being connected.
Service is always outside yourself.
We do things for ourselves but sometimes that's selfishness or survival.
When we do for others that's service.
We can't give or receive in a vacuum.
Giving always implies there's a receiver.
We buy or sell but that's centered on me but when we give that's centered outside of me,
centered on someone we're connected with.
Invest and invite by its very nature, by its very definition involves others.
To invest in someone's life and invite them to share with us in the Argyle mission springs
from a connection with someone else that has grown into trust and concern.
Connecting is important.
God wired us so that we function better as a part of a group.
Human beings don't do very well all by themselves.
Genesis 2.18 says, then the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone.
Of course that particular passage is usually quoted in connection with God's creation of
woman.
But it establishes a principle.
The principle is that connections outside ourselves are important and those connections
strengthen and improve us as human beings.
The Argyle strategy could also be explained in terms of connecting with God, connecting
with each other and connecting with the people around us.
We connect with God through prayer, through praise, through worship, through scripture.
The more we pray, don't look over your shoulder, it's not the sound guy's fault this time.
This is an equipment issue.
The more we pray, the more we rejoice in Him, the more we fall on our face before Him.
The more time we spend in the Bible, the closer we're connected to God.
We also connect with God through imitation.
The more we try to be like Jesus, the closer to Jesus we become.
The more we connect with the church and the people of the church, the more connected we
are to Jesus.
Remember the church is the body of Jesus and the church is not a place, it's not a building.
The church is the people who call Jesus, Lord and Master.
We connect with each other most effectively, we believe here at Argyle, in a life group.
This is where we believe spiritual growth can happen best.
We're going to talk about life groups more in a few minutes.
If you're not part of a life group already, you're going to have an opportunity later
this morning to make that connection.
Connecting to the people around us, the people next door, across town, across the globe is
important for a lot of reasons.
First, we have a story to tell.
We have a story that's important for other people to hear.
It's a story about how much God loves us and how much we need that love in His forgiveness
and how He demonstrated that love through the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus.
We call that message, that story of God's love through Jesus, the gospel.
The church that you and I are called on to tell that story to anyone and everyone.
The people who need to hear that story most aren't the ones that are sitting in here on
Sunday morning.
The ones who need to hear it most are the ones out in the world.
And we need to go out to them with this good news.
Secondly, as Jesus' people, as Christ's followers, we're supposed to do what Jesus did.
He didn't spend a lot of time hanging around with the church people of His day.
Jesus went out and mingled with the people in the fields and marketplaces.
He didn't spend a lot of time debating theology with religious scholars.
Instead, He spent time with the people who needed to hear of God's love for them and
His plan for their lives.
So why does all of this have to do with the, I love this place, gift?
It's because connecting, serving, and inviting are things that are enabled by the generous
giving of our people.
We use funds from, I love this place, to support projects and ministry needs over and above
our regular budget.
Our regular ties and offerings pay only the basic needs like our mortgage, insurance,
utilities, salaries, operations, all those boring details.
But there's more that needs to be done than we can cover in our regular operating budget.
In recent years, as Anita shared with you, I love this place as supported remodeling,
extraordinary facility needs, and expanded ministry needs.
I love this place as replaced dead air conditioners, remodeled our student space, sponsored children's
and student ministry leaders' camp costs, supported leadership training and development
church-wide, done community outreach like our recent Labor Day block party, and its
financed food and meals for people in need here in our community.
It's made our Thanksgiving feast possible for families in need.
It's financed backpacks for the Soilsbacher Center, snacks for kids at West Side High,
and back to school prep packs for over 200 teachers in local schools, local partner schools
here in our community.
It's brought emergency lodging, prescription drugs, and auto gas for people in desperate
need in our community.
Last year, when we had a sewer backup that flooded space over in Building B and C, we
had the ability to pay for professional cleanup that put our school back in operation without
any lost time.
Recently, when we needed to refresh and modernize our exterior, we were able to do it without
robbing Peter to pay Paul in our regular budget.
On October 22, you're going to be asked to bring your gift over and above your regular
offering to support, I love this place.
Keep in mind that we're able to do through your generosity all of these things and prayerfully
consider your gift.
The writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews tells us, and let us watch out for one another
to provoke love and good works, not neglecting together-together.
Here at Argyle, we believe the best place to watch out for one another and to provoke
love and good works, the best place to gather together, the best place for spiritual growth
to happen is in a life group.
That's our Argyle version of small group ministry.
A life group is 8 to 12 people meeting in a member's home during the week.
We encourage people to sit in a circle, not in rows.
Life group is designed to be a conversation, not a class.
Its purpose isn't Bible knowledge, it's spiritual growth.
We don't want to produce theologians.
We want to reproduce Christ followers.
We don't have teachers, we have leaders.
A life group needs to include three important elements, fellowship, Bible-based study, prayer.
Life groups develop deep, trusting relationships, real friendships, and mutual respect.
Don't ride a life group as likely to be the basis of some of your closest and most important
relationships outside your own family.
For some of us, maybe even including your family.
A church of our size is at the point that ministry needs simply cannot be met by the
pastor or staff alone.
We try, but our time is limited and our energy goes so far.
But when you're in a life group, ministry needs are being met.
A life group is close to the needs and it's quick to respond.
We don't believe that being in a life group is optional.
We believe that being in a life group is an absolute necessity for spiritual growth and
for the well-being of our church as a whole.
The body as a whole does best when each one of its individual parts is healthy.
And the best way for the parts of the church, you its people, me its people, is to be spiritually
healthy, to be spiritually healthy, to be growing closer to each other and to Jesus.
We need to be in a life group.
Me sitting up here and talking about this is one thing.
After all, I'm a paid professional Christian.
I'm kind of expected to say those things.
It's really important when you say these things.
And we have a short video here from one of our couples that's really found that life
group life has been an impact on them.
Don't share it.
