Expanding God's Kingdom

This is the process by which we bring other people into God’s Kingdom and with them their families, organizations, and institutions. It includes evangelism and much much more. At Life Church we allow the Holy Spirit to work through believers who express God’s abundant life in the full range of human activity (e.g. work, recreation, the arts, entertainment, learning, and relationships). We develop Kingdom life within the church, and then export it to the world – through every Godly means necessary!

We expand God's Kingdom by developing relationships with people. We allow the Holy Spirit to draw them to Jesus through us. Our life groups are a net for gathering the people who interact with us. We use businesses, entertainment, community activities, and educational programs to reach those who don't yet follow Jesus.

God "Breaks In"

As Christians we are part of God's Kingdom. God expects us not only to represent His Kingdom, but to expand its borders. God has never depended on men and women reaching out to Him first. God has chosen to break into human history at numerous times, most significantly in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Touching People Where They Live

In Jesus God left His "home turf" to reach out to us and He expects His church to do the same -- touching people where they live and walking with them in the issues that affect their lives. God cares about the full reality of people's lives. If we are to faithfully represent Him, we must not pretend that this covers only a few pet church issues (e.g. homosexuality, abortion, school prayer).

Action Plan

Here is how we will expand God’s Kingdom:

Overall Strategy

The following approach will characterize this process:

  • Identify and target spheres of influence that are ripe for penetration by Kingdom people.
  • Assign a prayer team to intercede for the successful penetration of the target.
  • Sponsor activities that provide pioneers with opportunities to penetrate the target by developing relationships with key individuals. Key relational goals include learning people’s world view and value system.
  • Plant mature non-pioneers into the relationships established by the pioneers.
  • Allow the Holy Spirit to give the increase through the new relationships that have been established.

Tools

  • Share Groups
  • Adult Learning Center
  • Entertainment Center

The Public Face of God’s Kingdom

The work of expanding God’s Kingdom includes representing His Kingdom to the public. In order to represent the Kingdom accurately, we must avoid giving the false impression that God is only concerned about a few pet issues. The church in the United States has received a lot of media attention over the past 30 – 40 years. Unfortunately, much of the resultant news stories have given some members of the general public the impression that those who believe passionately in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are primarily concerned about school prayer, abortion, and gay marriage.

Does God have something to say about those particular issues? Of course He does! Are these the only issues God cares about? Absolutely not! At Life Church we want to present the public with a more complete representation of God's views. Although no attempt that we make to represent God will be perfect, we will be on safe ground by starting with what Jesus characterized as the two greatest commandments of the Jewish scriptures:

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“ The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-32

Loving God With Everything

Fulfilling this commandment requires us to publicly proclaim the truth about God and to worship Him. We will always oppose any public policy that would restrict our ability to do this. Our responsibility to speak publicly about God supersedes any other political or legal principles.

Loving Our Neighbor As Ourselves

Fulfilling this commandment involves both personal and public action. The personal side is covered under the subject “Developing Mature Believers”.