GO + SHOW THE GOSPEL
"45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
- Mark 10:45
INVEST
Sometimes the greatest way to invest in and bless others is to simply give your time to serve them. Sometimes the strongest community is built among those who serve shoulder to shoulder together. We have a diversity of needs in the church – needs that are always surfacing and evolving – and we depend on our volunteers to invest.
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Volunteers lead groups, take out trash, counsel hurting people, change diapers, make videos, play music, edit documents, clean bathrooms…the list is endless. Some people find opportunity to serve in ways that align with their gifts. Others simply respond to a need that they see (taking out the trash isn’t a spiritual gift but someone needs to do it).
WANT TO SERVE?
Some volunteering requires a long-term commitment, like Children’s Ministry. Some is temporary, like giving a ride home. All of it is important. Check and sign up for ways to serve below.
INVITE
God calls us to invite others into our lives.
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So we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.
-1 Thessalonians 2:8
Everyday hospitality provides a unique way for Christians to invest in others... by invitation - To dinner, to the park, to coffee. To the very bits and pieces that make up your everyday life.
When we invite others in this way, we testify to God's initiative to show us undeserved hospitality in Christ.
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We invite you to meet a pastor for coffee. To invite you into a practical daily routine to love you, listen to your needs, and pray together.
HAVE COFFEE WITH A PASTOR
INTRODUCE
While the actions of invest and invite display the fruit of the gospel's transforming power in our life, an introduction is the verbal telling to others of Jesus Christ's reconciling work to save us and make us more like Him.
As we serve others and invite them into our lives, we pray those relationships naturally engender conversations in which we can share the gospel story. We believe the good news is the best news and are dedicated to making the gospel non-ignorable in the city of Aurora and around the world!
WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
There is no greater message to be heard than that which we call the gospel. But as important as that is, it is often given to massive distortions or over simplifications. People think they’re preaching the gospel to you when they tell you, ‘you can have a purpose to your life’, or that ‘you can have meaning to your life’, or that ‘you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.’ All of those things are true, and they’re all important, but they don’t get to the heart of the gospel.
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The gospel is called the ‘good news’ because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not. And at the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged. And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness–or lack of it–or the righteousness of another. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well being but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.
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The great misconception in our day is this: that God isn’t concerned to protect His own integrity. He’s a kind of wishy-washy deity, who just waves a wand of forgiveness over everybody. No. For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It cost the sacrifice of His own Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising Him from the dead–so that Christ died for us, He was raised for our justification. So the gospel is something objective. It is the message of who Jesus is and what He did. And it also has a subjective dimension. How are the benefits of Jesus subjectively appropriated to us? How do I get it? The Bible makes it clear that we are justified not by our works, not by our efforts, not by our deeds, but by faith–and by faith alone. The only way you can receive the benefit of Christ’s life and death is by putting your trust in Him–and in Him alone. You do that, you’re declared just by God, you’re adopted into His family, you’re forgiven of all of your sins, and you have begun your pilgrimage for eternity.
- R.C. Sproul