This Week at Christ Community: 6-8-2018

One of the greatest characteristics of our church is our focus on missions. The mission of Christ Community Church is to make gospel-centered disciples among all people for the glory of God. This is our heartbeat. Psalm 96:3 says, “declare his glory among the nations.” This is what we long to see happen through the people who make up Christ Community Church.

We desire to make a local impact through reaching our neighbors, coworkers, family, and friends with the gospel. We want to see our church explode and multiply! We desire to see a spiritual awakening in our region that gives us the opportunity to plant and revitalize churches across the city of Charlotte.
 
Even now, we’re praying for God to bring about an opportunity for us to send our first core team out locally to plant or revitalize a church. Only God knows the timing of it all, but we must be ready to go when He provides the opportunity!

Reaching people at home and nationally is vital to our strategy. We are seeing God do great things through our partnership The Heights Church in Tampa, FL. Brandon Whedbee and Drew Tucker are reaching people with the gospel and discipling them into the Christian life. Pastor Stuart will be leading a mission team that will travel to serve the Heights Church in September. You can get more info about that trip here.

On August 5th, we will be commissioning our own Kyle Hurlburt and a team of others to help plant Vintage Church in Pittsburgh, PA. Many of our people have expressed interest in going with Kyle. This Sunday, immediately following our service, Kyle will facilitate a 20-minute interest meeting. If you have any desire to be involved at all, whether praying, giving, or going, please attend this interest meeting!
 
In the coming years, we will be equipping more people to leave our faith family to go plant churches in major cities across the U.S. We must be about reaching America with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Yes, we care about the nations! All of them! This Sunday, we will be commissioning two of our summer mission teams out. We will be praying for 25 people who will be leaving next week to go serve in Guadalajara and England. These people have prayed, trained, raised support, and are ready to go engage people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Join us on Sunday as we commission them out!
 
Not only do we send teams, but we send people who are called to go long-term. Some of our very own people, our very best, have been on the mission field for many years. Scott and Amanda Ray and David Dilly are just a few of these people. I’m in constant communication with them on the field. They watch our services online each week and they are laboring in hard places for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
 
My prayer is God would raise up more just like them! Are you feeling called to missions? Send me an email and let me know! I would love to pray for you, help discern what God might be saying, and point you in the right direction.

We don’t talk about our network enough. The SBC is a network of over 45,000 churches who unite together to train pastors, train and send missionaries, and plant churches. It is our #1 missions partner. We give a percentage of our budget each year to the SBC to cooperate together for mission advancement.
 
Next week is the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas, TX. Our church gets to send six messengers to voice our thoughts on the future of our Convention. Myself and Marci, Stuart and Taylor Owens, and Michael and Brittany Byrd will all be going to represent our church. I want to encourage you to pray for next week. We have a great opportunity to reach the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

As we continue in our summer series Citizens: Belonging to Christ Above All, remember to be faithful with making your summer count for Christ. Engage those around you with the gospel. Give faithfully to your church. Encourage fellow church members. Be a light for Jesus everywhere you go!