building the Church

Matthew 16:1-20

 ¹⁵ Then he asked them, "But who do you say I am?"  ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

 ¹⁷ Jesus replied, "You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. ¹⁸ Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means 'rock'), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. ¹⁹ And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven."

I was really challenged by Nate's sermon yesterday about spiritual reproduction.  I am excited about putting this into action in two ways.  First, there is an older Brother who lives just down the street a couple of blocks, and I have been wanting to meet with him regularly this past semester and never put forth the initiative to find a consistent time to meet.  Yesterday afternoon, we spoke on the phone, and it looks like we are going to try to fellowship every Friday morning.

Second, Brandi and I plan to branch out from the Paseo-Home (church home group) that we have been attending and start a new Paseo-Home in a couple of weeks. This will definitely stretch us, but since coming out of the teaching position at Great Hills, I have been wanting to get involved in leadership here at Paseo.  The goal with the home group is to build community and foster discipleship with the intention of branching out and forming new home groups within a year.  I think there are several couples that might come who are in graduate school, which would give us all something in common to help us build community very rapidly.

Heavenly Father, thank you for answering my prayers about giving me a mentor and giving me a leadership opportunity.  Lord, thank you for the truth that Jesus is the Messiah, which is the foundation of the Church.  Lord, may I be a faithful worker in the harvest, and may I be faithful in being a disciple and making disciples.  I love you, Lord, and I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.