Week 7 // Invitation & Challenge

“OUT” asks questions about your impact and contribution in the world. What inspires you, moves you, demands a response from you? Where do you want to touch the world? Where do you want to serve humanity? Whom do you want to see meet with God?

Consider the places where you are called to touch your world. On what are you motivated to spend time and energy? Do you work or study? Who are your friends that aren’t Christians? Where do you meet socially with those outside of church? Where are you involved with those outside of the church? What are your hobbies? The answers to these questions are an invitation to mission.

With whom do you engage in the world? What do you do to connect with the world? How do you connect with the world? Where do you engage with the world?

Week 6 // Invitation & Challenge

It’s all about relationships.

You have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.

1 Peter 2:21 (NAS)

Week 5 // Invitation & Challenge

Up, In, and Out are relationships.

“In the night, a sailor cannot see land, nor can he get his bearings from the coastline. He must navigate by trusting the dimly lit buoys already set in place. In the same way, when you go through dark seasons, you will be restricted by, or released to what has already been established within your soul.”

Wayne Cordeiro, Leading on Empty, 2009

Week 4 // Invitation & Challenge

It’s a triangle of relationships.

“If you want the blessing of God in your life, you must care about the things God cares about.”

Rick Warren

Week 3 // Invitation & Challenge

Truth won’t change you until you put it into practice.

“We are educated far beyond our obedience. Our goal is for each one to have one relationship with one person who seems far from God.”

Mark Batterson

Week 2 // Invitation & Challenge

Discipleship is about relationships.

“Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves, thanked God for them, broke them into pieces, and gave them to his disciples, who distributed the bread to the crowd.”

Mark 8:6

Week 1 // Invitation & Challenge

It’s all about relationships.

The Invitation and Challenge of Unity

Remember, Imagine, John Lennon’s 1971 idea of peace and harmony? Lennon’s lyrics are inviting but only a faint echo of something more from eternity. Jesus, too, has a dream of harmony. It’s that one day His disciples would live as one: “My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one…and the world will believe you sent me” John 17:21 (NLT). Instead of pairing off by mini distinctions and styles, by the kind of “Christian shoes” we wear, Jesus prays we would live more effectively for His purpose. John and Yoko sang for world peace. Jesus prays that we live as one so the world will believe He is for real! Jesus prays we kick off our separatist shoes so the world sees we are really His feet.

The Invitation and Challenge of God

The invitation and challenge of God is found throughout the Bible. On page after page, we see God’s inviting people to be with Him and challenging them to do something for Him. Think of this invitation in terms of relationship, our identity formed by God’s covenant with us.