Westwood seeks to be a church that worships and exalts our Lord Jesus Christ by proclaiming Him in word and deed, reaching a lost world with His gospel and baptizing them into the fellowship of the church; that each member and each family may grow to spiritual maturity and fruitful ministry, to the honor and glory of His name.
It is helpful to regularly read and be reminded of our church’s mission statement. It helps us focus on the essentials and be sure we staying on track with our all we do. It addresses the nature of our relationship with God (worship), with our church family (growth and nurture), our relationship with the lost (evangelism), and the motivation for it all (the honor and glory of His name).
Today I read a sermon preached by John Piper over 20 years ago. It is very relevant to us as a church and as individual followers of Jesus. He speaks to the centrality of worship, nurture and evangelism, and addresses the dangers of ignoring any of them:
Where worship is ignored, fellowship will become thin and man-centered and unspiritual, and evangelism will tend to call people to a social group rather than to a sovereign God.
Where nurture is ignored, the deceitfulness of sin will run unchecked in the narrow ruts of individualism and the collective testimony of a loving people will vanish, and the united heart of worship will disintegrate into isolated struggles for private religious experience.
Where evangelism is ignored, the recipients of grace become such living contradictions of the reality they profess that soon their worship feels like a sham, and their relationships are clogged by a nagging, unspoken sense of inauthenticity.
No church dare say, "We are a worshiping church. Others do evangelism." Or, "We are a caring, nurturing church. Others specialize in the vertical life of the soul." Or, "We are a band of witnesses and missionaries. Let others spend time teaching each other and singing spiritual songs." Parachurch groups may have the luxury of choosing among the priorities of worship, nurture, and evangelism, but the church of Jesus Christ does not.
Neither does the true disciple of Jesus. We are called by Christ to do these things and we must constantly call ourselves to account in all each of these: are we growing in the truth and spirit of our worship? Are we growing in the biblical depth of our teaching and application of biblical truth as disciples of Jesus? And are we growing in the courage and clarity and earnestness of our evangelism?
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