Focus Week 1: Set in Relationship
Author: Matt Oxley
January 13, 2022
Happy New Year Creek family! I am so grateful for all that God has done in our church and I am so excited for another year of building the Kingdom with all of you. Each year at The Creek, we start with our Focus series where we outline the vision that God has given us for the year. Habakkuk 2:2 tells us to write the vision, make it plain, and run with it.
First and foremost, our vision is to see people saved, connected, healthy and engaging in the mission Jesus gave us, and if you’ve been at The Creek for any amount of time, you know we communicate our vision through our "Set In" statements: Set in Relationship, Set in Family, Set Free, and Set in Motion. This vision drives us in everything that we do. We align our team, goals and strategies to see this vision become reality in our church body, our community, and our world.
In our first week of the Focus series, we are digging into what it means to be Set in Relationship. The primary function of a church and a Christian is to be set in relationship with God and help others be set in relationship. Meaning, the main function as a church and Christian is to tell the world the great news of what Jesus did for us...the gospel. The bible outlines this for us clearly in Matthew 28:18-20, which says, “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” This is our Great Commission, to share the gospel with the world.
Gospel simply means this: good news. And this is the good news of Jesus:
You and I are born into sin and a disconnected relationship with God. We have no way of restoration and that is exactly why Jesus came. Jesus is God and through the cross, he paid the debt of sin that we inherited at birth. He showed us His power to give us life through the power of His resurrection (Romans 5:12-21). God in His great love reached out to reconcile our relationship. We have to receive that offer of relationship and accept the grace offered to us. (Romans 3:23-26, Romans 10:9-13, John 1:12) By faith we believe that Jesus is Lord and rose from the dead to save us. By faith we ask for forgiveness and a relationship. By faith we receive the grace God is offering to us. (Ephesians 2:8-10) His grace sets us in a relationship with God and transforms us. Then we get connected to other Christians (set in family), we grow and get healthy (set free) and engage in the mission to tell others (set in motion).
I am so excited to see what God has for us in 2022 as a Church Body, and I am so grateful to share in this vision with my Creek family!
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