Have you ever heard the phrase “the hill to die on?” They would not “die on that hill,” or maybe they even said, “Now that’s a hill I would die on.” In Acts 1:8 Jesus says “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  Now, we all know the word for witnesses there is from the root in Greek “martureo.” That’s where we get the word martyr. The actual Greek word literally means” one who dies for his faith. So they received power from the Holy Spirit “to die for their faith.” It is a reasonable assumption from this passage that all believers get the Holy Spirit and thus His power for the same purpose to be a witness for Christ. But when we haul out verses like Philippians 4:13 which says “I can do all things through him who strengthens me”. … or even Joshua 1:9 when God called the people of Israel to “be strong and courageous” - it’s a safe assumption that God gives His people Holy Spirit power to die for their faith.

This Sunday, we are going to vote on the newest iteration of our Constitution and By-Laws as were presented to you weeks and months ago. I think it’s safe to say that’s not a “hill to die on.”  We are also going to roll out a vision from the church Elders that has to do with what it might look like if we were doing our recently adopted church mission perfectly. Remember that our church mission is “Loving God by helping people follow Jesus.” We think if we did that perfectly it would look like we are: Together on the Journey with Jesus. That would be lived out in four words: pray, grow, give, and go.

Pray that we grow closer to the Lord and His church in every aspect of our lives.

Grow in relationship to Christ and His people according to His Word.

Give of our time, talents and treasures to come alongside and help people in the name of Jesus.

Go give the good news about how to live in relationship with God through Jesus, in every arena of our lives.

Then every ministry of the church is looked at in light of what would best help us to do one of these four things… Praying, growing, giving, and going - so we journey together with Jesus. You gave us a lot to consider from the Vision Wall. We could put every ministry that we want to do or keep doing underneath one of those four.

Pray: We may have more ministries like prayer triplets, or a midweek prayer meeting for the church or some other emphasis on prayer that might get more people praying together.

Grow: Would include our intentional discipleship plans, Bible classes, training classes, small groups, etc. We received many ideas for classes that you submitted.

Give: Think of our benevolence ministry. What would it look like if every person in the church mobilized to live a life of selflessness for the Lord as part of their daily walk? Could we all be involved in coming alongside others and partnering with them using our time, talent, and treasure to help them dig out of difficult circumstances? Could there be other ministries we can think of to give ourselves to those in need? There’s a whole lot of other things we could explore and do under this heading.

Go: Can include evangelism prayer lists, classes on personal discipleship and apologetics, joint efforts with other churches to reach the community for Christ–all this and more.

So, are the things above “hills to die on?” Nope! They are just tools to use. With the aid of the Holy Spirit they could be “Power tools!” But the purpose for these tools is to help us as a church family to be witnesses to each other and to this lost World. If witness means one who dies for his faith, then we need to ask the question: “Can we use these tools God is putting at the disposal of our church to help us all die for our faith in Christ?”

For the deacons and elders,

Pastor Bob