Re-Vision

Excite

On Sunday morning our goal is for us as a church to re-engage with our vision.

At Trinity our vision is to…

“be a faith community of disciples, who want to become more like Jesus and to introduce other people to Him”

Can you summarise this in 2-4 words?

Read the account of Paul in Athens from Acts 17:16-34.

As you read observe Paul’s actions and why he responded in this way.

Note the opportunity this provided him with and how he communicated his message.

• How do you think this passage connects with our vision?
• What challenges you about this passage?
• What do you think we as a church need to learn from Paul in Athens?

Engage

When we do revision sometimes we summarise everything into as few words as possible, our vision can be reduced to:

• Transformed
• Transforming

We also look back, two years ago we started with:

• Disciples “abide in my word”
• Disciples “Love one another”
• Disciples “be Fruitful”

God’s messages to us over that last year

• Prayer
• Love one another
• Forgiveness
• Spend time in God’s word
• Serve
• Life groups
• Vision

Why consider Paul in Athens, Acts 17:16-34?

In Paul we see a man:

• Transformed by Jesus and Transforming with Jesus

We must learn from Paul’s actions and why he responded in this way.

• He observed what was happening around him
• He was greatly distressed / provoked in his spirit because the city was full of idols v16
• He reasoned with Jews in Synagogue, devote persons, in market place with those who happened to be there, and philosophers
• He preached the good news about Jesus and the resurrection v18

This provided Paul with a powerful opportunity

What challenges you about this passage?

• Are we provoked in our spirits / greatly distressed by the idols around us?
• If not why not?
• Are the idols such a part of our lives that our spirit in deadened?

An idol is something we put before, we worship more than God.

As a church need to learn from Paul in Athens (these points are for Daniel Strange’s book ‘Plugged In’)

• Enter – the culture around us
• Explore – the culture seeking ways to bring Jesus
• Expose – the cultures limits
• Evangelise – show the culture the good news of Jesus

Extend

In this section we seek to apply this passage to our lives and church.

Take time to thoughtfully and prayerfully consider the questions which where asked in ‘Engage’ around being provoked in our spirit by the idols around us.

If you are in a group discuss with the others the different idols we personally and as a church struggle with. This isn’t an easy thing to do but as we seek to become more like Jesus it is an important process. Also discuss how individually, as a group and church overcome the idols that are deafening our spirits.

How can you take forward Daniel Strange’s:

• Enter
• Explorer
• Expose
• Evangelise

Consider areas in your life and community where we can seek to work these out.

Reflect on the challenge Stephen gave at the end of our service:

We need to ask ourselves are we actively engaged to transforming the world with Jesus? If not then we must ask ourselves if we are being transformed by Jesus.