Jesus Cropped from the Picture

Jesus Cropped from the Picture

Outreach is the declaration and demonstration of the gospel to carry on the work of Christ to destroy the enemy’s works (Acts 8.26-40, Luke 4.18-19, Titus 2.11-14, Matt. 24.14, 2 Pet. 3.12). Outreach includes acts of compassion, proclamation of the gospel message, and sending missionaries across cultures to plant new churches. Christians accomplish outreach when they invite people to follow Jesus and join the Church, but they also do outreach when they perform works of justice, freedom, and wholeness, independent of whether the gospel is proclaimed or accepted. Christians do good works because of God’s heart. The Church’s legacy of meeting human needs through education, health care, clean water, and orphanages are a few of the examples of Christ’s prediction that the Church would do greater works than Christ (John 14.12). These acts of kindness do violence to the kingdom of Satan (Matt. 11.12). The People of the Story continually grow in Christlike discipleship as they worship , increase in their understanding of theology, and do outreach. Each person exercises their spiritual gifts as their church opposes the other kingdom. While the Traditional and Pragmatic methods emphasize “the church gathered (church happens inside),” and the Emerging Method focuses on “the church dispersed (church happens outside),” the People of the Story seek a more holistic approach that recognizes the church both gathered and dispersed . In theology, worship, discipleship, and outreach, Christians work out their salvation individually and corporately, making the local church a community that gathers and disperses (see Chapter 8) in a natural cycle of life; week-to-week, season-to-season, and year-to-year.

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