The following is an excerpt from this past Sunday’s sermon at First Baptist Magnolia as I talked about our mission and moving forward with the mission in different areas of church life.

THE MISSION
The glory of God and the good of others through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:31-32)

The Glory of God
We seek to live and speak so that in everything we do and everything we say we make much of the holy, righteous, true and living Triune God who has loved us with an everlasting love.

The Good of Others
We seek to live and speak for the eternal good of others that many may be saved, both at home and abroad, for this generation and each successive generation until the return of Jesus.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ
The glory of God and the good of others is necessarily and essentially tied to the eternal deity, virgin birth, sinless life, sacrificial death, burial, triumphant resurrection, ascension, intercession and promised return of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God in whom the Father is well pleased and the Son of Man by whose death we are forgiven of sins, justified before the Father and granted eternal life as children of God.

MOVING FORWARD WITH THE MISSION

Structure
We will engage ministry leaders throughout the church in examining what we do, how we do it and why we do it in view of the mission, asking, “Does _____ further the church in glorifying God and doing good for others through the Gospel of Jesus Christ?” If not, why do we do it?

Spending
We will examine how we spend the Lord’s money in light of the mission, asking, “Do our expenditures glorify God and do good for others through the Gospel of Jesus Christ?” If not, why do we spend it?

Spiritual
We have begun the process of reviewing how the church is accomplishing the mission in three areas: discipleship, worship and being on mission at home and abroad.

As part of our review process, we will also be developing a proposed church constitution and bylaws that will adequately address our identity and beliefs in this quickly shifting culture and provide a Biblical framework for succeeding generations until the Lord returns.

That is my mission, my agenda, for the immediate future of FBC. I cannot tell you exactly what this church will look like a year, five years or ten years from now. Will it look different? Yes. How we do what we do will continually change to some degree as we, in our human imperfection, continually strive to perfectly glorify God and do good for others through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In seeking to glorify God and do good for others through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I am not interested in devising a scheme to reinvent FBC in my image, your image or the culture’s image. Yes, there are things we do and ways that we do things that I don’t like at FBC. The same is probably true for you. But FBC is not our church. It is Jesus’ church. And the greatest need of FBC is not a makeover of how we do things, but a refreshed understanding of who we are and whose we are.

Our great need is a heaven sent, Holy Spirit empowered, Gospel centered, God glorifying revival that spills over from this church into a spiritual awakening in our city, county and beyond for the glory of God and the good of others through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.