SERIES INTRODUCTION: Recently our staff and a number of lay leaders had the opportunity to attend the Multiply conference which focused on helping established churches fan into flames the God-given dreams for Kingdom expansion in Canada. We’ve asked each attender to talk about what God taught them through the week and how they see that affecting us at DHBC. Videos from the conference will be posted soon at https://www.c2cnetwork.ca/category/videos/
Reflections From Multiply (Anne)
2 days, 12 different talks, 19 pages of notes, and Kajle wants a summary? Please be patient as I do my best to put into words what God taught me through Multiply.
“Be known for knowing God”
I was challenged once again with the thought “do I know God? Am I taking the time to get to know him more? And do those that I interact with see that in me?” Knowing God means to love, trust, and obey Him. Knowing God means seeking first the Kingdom, seeking things above, putting my hope in His promises. Knowing Him means having my life hidden in Christ (see Kajle’s post). Knowing God means the Fruit of the Spirit are evident in my life as I abide in Him. And from that overflow we can make Him known in our churches and communities.
It brought to mind what Bill Clem talked about at our DHBC Retreat earlier this year: that discipleship is letting people catch you loving Jesus.
As we seek first to know God, we won’t be able to help but show those around us how the gospel has transformed our lives. Let’s be known for knowing God.
Encountering Jesus through Worship and Prayer
One of the talks was on worship in our churches. I know I am not the Deacon of Music (thank you Wes for your leadership in this area), but Pat Sczebel did a really good job at a thoughtful and systematic way to unpack the gospel through our worship. He laid it out this way:
God is Holy. This is a call to exalt and adore Him as King of Kings, limitless, majestic. A big view of God is where worship begins.
We are Sinners. When we see the King, our sinful condition is revealed, and the reality of our uncleanliness leads us to confession and lament.
Jesus saves us. What assurance! We have a great Saviour and we need to proclaim this grace. We lift our eyes up off ourselves and see Christ.
Jesus sends us. As a response to the incredible gospel, we come to a place where we say “Here I am Lord, send me.” He has restored us for His work and service.
As I have had my own moments of worship at home, and even times of prayer, I have been encouraged and found it helpful to follow this progression. Sometimes I get stuck in a rhythm of praying for my needs, and this has helped to get me unstuck. I encourage you to take some time this week in prayer and worship and spend time meditating on each of these steps.
5 loaves and 2 fish
Again, Kajle already covered this one. I’d encourage you to go back and read how He summarized it. I just wanted to reiterate that God really does use all that we have. While we are not impressive, we worship an impressive God, and if we bring all we have to Him, He will multiply it for His glory.
As our church goes through this time of transition, it is easy to look and say “God, we don’t have a lot right now. We need to hold tight to what we have to make it through.” But our challenge is to give back to God His church and say “Use it. Use us.”
Prayer through Transition
And finally, I was challenged with the importance of prayer through times of change, especially when making decisions. As you know, our church has had to make a lot of decisions this last year, and we still have some big ones to come. As leadership, the weight of this can be heavy as we seek to lead the church well.
I was reminded once more to bring our church to God in prayer. Prayer for wisdom, and prayer for the steps of faith we may have to make. So please join me in praying: for the leadership of DHBC, for decisions that have to be made, for unity through the changes, but most importantly, that we will see God glorified through all we do.