Church is Messy

Rick and Svea talk about Rick's last weekend message about focusing in on our mission.

Topics Discussed in this Episode
  • 00:00 Intro
  • 00:50 What was the purpose of this past sermon? Why was it applicable to our church? 
  • 01:23 Discussion of changes in our church and in other churches - post-COVID, senior pastors, men and women in leadership, worship service options, etc. 
  • 05:15 The Bible and the Gospel require change and surrendering of preferences in many ways.
  • 08:29 All that we are and all that we have is based on Jesus, and we are grounded on the principle of trying to reach people for Jesus.
  • 13:09 How do we balance salvation as God's work, but other rewards come for our work? How does the Biblical metaphor of "building on a foundation" and the trial by fire function in the context of the Gospel?
  • 15:28 Our reward as followers of Jesus is seeing other people come to know Jesus.
  • 17:51 We are created FOR good works: reference 2 Corinthians 5 and how believers are ambassadors of Jesus.
  • 19:57 What is it that propels our church forward to reach people with the Gospel? We are not going to invest our time in things that do not help us reach our goals. Rick shares examples of how Autumn Ridge has been applying this.
  • 24:47 Future generations of local churches will need to manage whatever programs and initiatives we create and hand them off to them.
  • 27:35 The purpose of churches is to be all about what Jesus is about. 
  • 29:58 Methods do not equate to the mission, and if they are ineffective in reaching our mission, we can change them.
  • 34:27 Gospel comfort does not come from the way a church does things or from different circumstances.
  • 36:13 Every day, we are to live for the glory of Christ, to be with him, be like him, and do as he did in big and little things.

What is Church is Messy?

Church is messy podcast recorded at Autumn Ridge Church in Rochester, MN