Below is most of my introduction from this past weekend. I share it primarily for the purpose of putting before us the definition of the gospel that we are using for this series. I think it is important to familiarize ourselves with the definition in order to further expand our understanding:

The gospel is the final answer to every issue and it is the solution to every problem.

The Gospel: Understanding that God is more holy than we can imagine and we are more sinful than we care to admit. Yet, God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to reconcile us to Himself. Christ’s love is beyond all comprehension and as a result He took our place on the cross and satisfied the wrath of God. Through the resurrection of Christ and by the grace of God, when we repent of our sin and make Jesus Lord and leader of our life, we inherit eternal life. As a result of our faith, we become ambassadors for Christ who proclaim and live out this gospel.

The Gospel is the Great Exchange

The gospel in short – Christ died in my place

Being able to define the gospel is one thing – having it captivate your soul and saturate your life is entirely different.

Christianity is not about receiving the gospel and then moving on from there. We receive the gospel and then we go deeper in the gospel.

The gospel is not the diving board we jump off of into the pool of Christianity – it is the pool itself.

Grasping the gospel and living by the gospel is not about saying the sinner’s prayer and learning some new principles and keeping some new rules – when we live gospel saturated lives we are allowing the gospel to become the filter of our mind, the lens of our eyes, the gate of our heart and the attitude of our actions.

This past weekend launched our new series, Soul Life and we began the series by talking about the seasons of our soul. Philosophers, poets and theologians have all compared the seasons of nature to the seasons of our soul. In the weekend sermon we broke it out as follows:

• Fall is a season of transition.
• Winter is a season of loss
• Spring is a season of new beginnings
• Summer is a season of abundance

As the week has progressed and I have had a couple conversations around the sermon, one thing has come up a couple times and it is not something I hit on in the weekend. What I have discussed with some people is how at times we might be experiencing multiple seasons at the same time. I believe that one season will always be predominant but others may be sharing their ripples. For example, you might be in Winter at work and in Spring in a relationship; you might me in Summer spiritually and in Fall economically. Life is way to real and way to messy to only and always be in one season at a time. That is where choosing to trust God and His sovereignty once again becomes a key factor.

True spirituality does not escape reality but rather embraces reality.

Discover that He is a God of all seasons.

A few years ago I sat in my office and spoke with a young couple about the next steps they needed to take in their faith. For the husband, he needed to be baptized. I remember when I spoke to him about this his response to me was, “I am not doing the dunk!” They left that day and that was pretty much the last I saw of them for a few months. Then out of no where this couple reappears at church. Through a set of circumstances their world had come crashing down and they returned to the Lord broken. Specifically, the husband was a different man. Just a few short weeks later I had the opportunity of “dunking” him. This has been a few years now and ever since that day this man and his family have faithfully followed the Lord. This couple two sons are now real champions for Christ! In fact, while on vacation, my family and I had the opportunity to spend the day with this family (they moved to Texas a couple years ago) and it is amazing to see God still at work in their lives. When we get together we often laugh about, “I am not doing the dunk”.

Baptism does not save an individual but it is a big step in publicly declaring your faith. It lets everyone know that you are not ashamed of Christ and you have been buried with him in life and raised to walk in newness of life. Your old man has been laid to rest and you now declare the resurrection power of Christ.

This past weekend was another great witness to the work that Christ is doing in hearts and lives. In all 3 of our weekend services we were able to see people baptized. We saw a young man in his 20′s who was saved at Parkview get baptized. We had a young mom who Pastor Jack led to the Lord get baptized. We had a little girl who came to Christ because of her older sister get baptized. We had a young boy who was saved at camp a few weeks ago get baptized. I could go on… the stories are unique and they all were a testimony to life change. What excited me is that when it came to the first step after salvation, baptism, each individual boldly decided to follow and obey. They passed the dunk test!

Our tendency as humans is to become inwardly focused. My pull is toward self and away from others. I can be narcissistic, self-centered, and oblivious to the needs of others. Because this is true of humans this can also be true of churches.

One of my desires has always been to help Parkview be externally focused. I want to see us fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) and the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:35-40). I want to see us follow the example of our Savior (John 13:1-17). Being externally focused is not the challenge – staying externally focused is!

I am so thankful for a faith family that embraces serving and caring for others. Last week we had a wonderful response to a last minute ask when it came to bringing water bottles for our firefighters. The week before that we stuffed a pickup truck load full of food for our food pantry – just yesterday a family from our church was served out of the pantry. Three weeks ago on a Saturday morning over 100 people from our church blitzed the city with Random Acts of Kindness. This past weekend we had another guest that was a result of the RAK event! The RAK event was a “beta run” for opportunities that we will be engaging in this Fall. Beginning in the Fall of 2011, one Saturday a month, we will engage in ImpACT Saturday.  On each ImpACT Saturday we will have multiple opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus to our community in a way that leverages the person God created us to be.

For several months my desire has been to raise the Evangelism temperature of Parkview. I am so thankful for a staff, elder team, leaders and a church family that have a desire to share Christ in loving and meaningful ways. Our mentality is not if you want us come visit – we will take Christ to the streets.

Click here to read an article that resonates with the topic above.

Parkview, our greatest days lie ahead – not as we think about ourselves, but as we live to bring life to others!

The Big What of our organization is our mission – Guiding people to Life Change in Christ. At times it is very important to break that into How. One thing we need to be clear about is what are some of the steps to the How – How do we go about fulfilling the mission? How do I personally experience Life change? Here are a few elements of our What broken down to How.

• Everybody looks to take their next step spiritually. The reason for this statement is because none of us will arrive into spiritual utopia or elitism until heaven. Therefore, all of us have a step to take.
• Community is the greatest catalyst to taking a next step and experiencing Life Change. Nobody will ever be all they can be spiritually apart from being in biblically functioning community. God did not create us to be loners. Strong relationships will never be built in a weekend worship experience. There are not many of them, but our church has a few people who have been coming to Parkview for several years and have refused to get in community. I don’t know their name, neither does anybody else. I guess I will learn it when their family calls and asks me to do their funeral. I do not say that with a tinge of sarcasm but with a weight of sadness. Life Change happens in community – soul to soul connection.
• We all must seek a healthy, vibrant relationship with the risen Christ. We must not rely on eating once a week at a weekend service but rather we must be self-feeders. We will seek Him in His Word and seek His plan in prayer.
• Life Change is not just about me, it is also about others. As a result, I will not seek to be served but I will seek to serve others. I will not be an oxygen thief but I will breathe life into the lungs of others. I will follow the model of my Savior and I will pick up my towel and serve others. I recognize that in the process of helping others grow, I will also experience growth in my own life.

My desire, and I believe the desire of many others, is to experience Life Change and the above thoughts are just a launching point for how we can begin/continue experiencing Life Change.