Two Goals: Flourishing Churches & Transformed Communities

In John 15, Jesus reminds us that He invites us into an intimate, beautiful relationship with Him. This relationship is as closely interconnected and dependent as a branch is to a vine. He calls us to both to obey Him wholeheartedly and to ask Him to radically provide for us.  And then He describes his intention for His church – that we glorify Him and demonstrate the authenticity of our relationship with Him through our fruitful flourishing! “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” (John 15:8) 

At GCA, we believe that our shared mission is to cultivate flourishing churches that are effectively engaging their communities with the hope of the Gospel. Sometimes, when faced with daunting ministry realities and challenges, we can come to believe that Jesus never intended for our particular individual church (or our association) to flourish. But that is not a picture that is ever portrayed in scripture for faithful, obedient and dependent churches. 

Jesus goes on to say in John 15 that one of the primary reasons that we may not be experiencing the flourishing fruitfulness that He intended is because we’ve become disconnected from the vine. (John 15:5-6) We need to stay intimately connected to Jesus through faith, obedience, prayer, and the Word. Apart from His presence, there is no real power and we “can do nothing.”

In Mark 4, Jesus tells a parable of and to His church wherein He describes those who are “good soil” as bearing fruit, “thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” (Mark 4:20c) Once again, we see that Jesus’ intention is for His church to flourish and be fruitful. 

It’s worth contemplating some of the other reasons He lists there as causes of “unfruitfulness” (Mark 4:19d) According to Jesus, some of us have gotten distracted and/or discouraged by the “cares of this world.” (Mark 4:19a) We’ve become more focused on the problems of living than the mission of Jesus amidst those very challenges that He has sovereignly ordained or allowed. 

Others of us have been deceived by “wealth” (Mark 4:19b) – possessions, finances, material or relational influence, etc. have become the substitute source of our security, significance or satisfaction. Still others of us may not be as fruitful as Jesus intended because we’ve come to “desire” “other things.” (Mark 4:19c) Our great passion is no longer for the kind of intimate, dependent relationship with Jesus that bears fruit but we’re spending our lives in pursuit of other passions – hobbies, work, relationships, etc. Many of us naturally desire comfort over living out the reality of the great commission. 

If our one mission is to flourish and be fruitful – and our individual lives or our churches are not currently doing so, then let’s courageously ask, “Why not?” And if the honest answer is that we’ve somehow gotten disconnected from Jesus or we’ve become distracted, discouraged, deceived or our desires have shifted – then let’s return to Him in repentance and faith. Let’s trust and ask Jesus to make our lives and churches genuinely and deeply flourish whatever it takes! 

Our one mission at GCA is to help your church flourish. If you need help figuring out how to reconnect your own life or congregation to Jesus then we’re here for you. Let us know how we can serve your church and please be assured that we’re praying and working very hard for the flourishing of your congregation and the gospel transformation of your community.