Joe's Jottings

     In the 2004 Book of Discipline the Mission Statement for the United Methodist Church was “The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.”

     In the 2008 Book of Discipline we made a slight change.  “The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”

     Today, there is a new mission statement that’s been presented by the Council of Bishops. “The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the church and the world.”  Interestingly enough, the second sentence following all three Mission Statements remained the same. “Local churches provide the most significant arena through which disciple-making occurs.”

     I think everyone would agree; the world certainly needs transformation. But what about the church? What about you. Is a spiritual transformation something needed? Here are a few facts from George Barna’s book Revolution that lead me to think so.

¨ The only time believers worship God is when they attend worship.

¨ 8 out of every 10 believers do not feel they have entered into the presence of God, or connected with Him during worship.

¨ Only 1 out of 4 believers say when they worship God, they expect God to be the primary beneficiary of their worship. Most say they expect to get the most from the experience.

¨ The typical active believer will die without leading a single person to a lifesaving knowledge of and relationship with Jesus Christ.

¨ Most churched Christians believe that since they are not gifted in evangelism, such outreach is not a significant responsibility of theirs.

     Did you identify with any of these? Do you want to grow in your spiritual journey and do you want to help others grow? Do you want to embrace both the Mission Statement of the United Methodist Church and ours? Just in case you don’t know ours, it’s “That all may come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and become His disciples through prayer, worship, fellowship, witness and service.”

     If you said yes to any of these questions then please join me (BroJoe) in one or both “Transformation Studies that will begin in December.  Starting on the first Sunday in December (12-6) and each first Sunday thereafter from 4 to 5:30 I will be offering a once a month study on Spiritual Formation. Then, in order to make disciples and transform the world, starting on the third Sunday in December (12-20) and each third Sunday thereafter we will have studies and/or group discussions on reaching out to the un and de-churched of our community.

      Please be in prayer about these two endeavors and open yourself to God’s call to take part in this effort.

BroJoe