Meeting & Moving

So, our Mission statement is “Meeting & Moving.” Specifically, it is “Meeting people where they are and Moving them to where God wants them to be.” But that is really vague. That makes it a memorable Mission statement, which is great. But it could be a little too vague for unifying a church. And where does it come from? Is it an idea someone dreamed up? Is there biblical justification for it?

Session 1 of UG looks at our Meeting & Moving Mission statement. You get to read and discuss two key passages in Matthew’s gospel, passages which have defined Christian faithfulness since they were written by a wretched tax-collector turned Apostle and evangelist to the Jews. Beyond that, you will look at how we believe we are called to pursue faithfulness by looking at two biblical examples, Paul and Christ Himself.

There’s a woman looking to draw water from a well. She doesn’t go to the well during the cool morning hours of the day. That’s when most of the women from the town are found in that spot. No, she battles the heat to avoid the crowd. It’s strange that she should avoid others since that’s her heart’s deepest desire. She wants to be known. She wants to be accepted. She wants to be appreciated. She wants to be loved. But therein lies the problem. She has gone about intimacy the wrong way. And her promiscuous ways have resulted in driving her further away from significant relationships. Their stares pierce through her soul and their words tear at her flesh. So she goes to the well during the heat of the day knowing she will be alone… But not on this day. Today, there’s a prophet at the well, one whose eyes don’t pierce her soul, but search her heart. He could have stayed far away from the mess of her life, even from the mess of this world. But He chose to step out of eternity and enter into suffering so that He could show a desperate, lonely woman that He can offer her rest for her soul. And He doesn’t start by telling her that she has made a disaster of her life. He will eventually get there, but He starts by talking about cool water on a brutally hot day.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at how messed up her life really was…