The Church Equips, The Disciples Do

This past Saturday five of us from Franconia began the 13ish-hour journey from Alexandria, VA to Orlando, FL for the 2010 SBC annual meeting. None of us had ever been to a SBC meeting before. Throughout the 26 hours in the car, 2 days of the pastor's conference, and the annual meeting one thought continued to reverberate. What are we supposed to be doing here at Franconia Baptist Church? What is our role in the fulfillment of the Great Commission?

I believe that the local church exists primarily to glorify God by making disciples (Eph 4:12). A new disciple is made when a sinner hears the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Rom 10:13-14; John 3:16) and yields to the calling of the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:30). Disciple making was never intended to stop with conversion. In the second verse of the Great Commission Jesus explicity commands the disciples to teach these new disciples His commands. This is the transformational process that Paul describes as the "renewing of your mind" (Rom 12:1-2).

So what is the responsibility of the local church then? We are called to assist in the transformational process of equipping the saints (Eph 4:12). As the disciples are equipped they are then sent out into the fields to advance the boundaries of the Kingdom of God by proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ through their words and their actions.

We were standing around, way to late at night, talking with Jonathan Leeman from 9Marks. He summarized the distinction well with an analogy of the church compared to a college. An engineering school trains and equips engineers to go out and engineer things. The church brings glory to God by training and equipping the disciples to God out and make other disciples.

This may seem obvious, but I assure you that the way many of our churches function does not reflect these principles.

-Aaron

Exciting things at Franconia Baptist

I thought I'd take just a minute to let everyone know about what God is doing at Franconia Baptist these days.

This past week marked the final day of our preschool and Kindergarten for the regular school year. They will be having 3 weeks of summer camp and then a summer break.

The preschool will be finishing up just in time for Franconia's first Vacation Bible School in a number of years. We will be using the Lifeway Saddle Ridge Ranch materials for what should be a great time of sharing Christ with the kids.

God continues to bring wonderful new people to our church! We have added to our numbers each month including two by baptism. It feels like we are really making a difference in our community.

This weekend we're going to have a mini retreat at the church to talk about a vision for Franconia Baptist that is rooted in making disciples for the sake of the Kingdom.

- Aaron