welcome to community church

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welcome to community church september 132009
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the people with Jesus the Church as a prophetic
colony
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confessing church
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confessing church the confessing Church finds
its main political task to lie, not in the
personal transformation of individual hearts or
the modification of society, but rather in the
congregation's determination to worship Christ in
all things.
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confessing church new people, an alternative
polis, a countercultural social structure called
church.
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confessing church seeks to influence the world
by being the church, that is, by being something
the world is not and can never be, lacking the
gift of faith and vision, which is ours in
Christ.
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confessing church seeks the visible church, a
place, clearly visible to the world, in which
people are faithful to their promises, love their
enemies, tell the truth, honor the poor, suffer
for righteousness, and thereby testify to the
amazing community-creating power of God.
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confessing church knows that its most credible
form of witness (and the most "effective" thing
it can do for the world) is the actual creation
of a living, breathing, visible community of
faith.
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We would like a church that again asserts that
God, not nations, rules the world, that the
boundaries of God's kingdom transcend those of
Caesar, and that the main political task of the
church is the formation of people who see clearly
the cost of discipleship and are willing to pay
the price. - Hauerwas and Willimon, Resident
Aliens
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We derive our identity, meaning, loyalty, and
mission from Jesus and his Church alone.
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We submit everything in our lives to be
transformed removed, changed, renewed in
light of the reality that we are the people who
are with Jesus.
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We embrace the life of a colony a group of
people living by one paradigm in the midst of all
kinds of other paradigms local, national, and
global and of passing that on to our children.
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We pray for and anticipate the power of the
Spirit working through us to make us a prophetic
colony.
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We derive our identity, meaning, loyalty, and
mission from Jesus and his Church alone. We
submit everything in our lives to be transformed
removed, changed, renewed in light of the
reality that we are the people who are with
Jesus.
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15Do not love the world or anything in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father
is not in him. 16For everything in the worldthe
cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and
the boasting of what he has and doescomes not
from the Father but from the world.
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17The world and its desires pass away, but the
man who does the will of God lives forever. -
1 John 215-17
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15Do not love the world or anything in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father
is not in him. 16For everything in the worldthe
cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and
the boasting of what he has and doescomes not
from the Father but from the world. - 1 John
215-17
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 29"I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them,
"no one who has left home or wife or brothers or
parents or children for the sake of the kingdom
of God 30will fail to receive many times as much
in this age and, in the age to come, eternal
life." - Luke 1829-30
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Already, even in the present time, this new age
breaks in to our sad old world. Within the life
of Christian fellowship there are new homes, new
families, new possibilities that open up for
those who leave behind the old ways.
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The church is called in every age to be that sort
of community, a living example of the age to
come. In that sort of selfless and trusting
common life, church members themselves, and the
world around, can glimpse what Gods new world is
like and learn to live that way more and more. -
N.T. Wright
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We derive our identity, meaning, loyalty, and
mission from Jesus and his Church alone. We
submit everything in our lives to be transformed
removed, changed, renewed in light of the
reality that we are the people who are with
Jesus.
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We derive our identity, meaning, loyalty, and
mission from Jesus and his Church alone. We
submit everything in our lives to be transformed
removed, changed, renewed in light of the
reality that we are the people who are with
Jesus.
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1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of
God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living
sacrifices, holy and pleasing to Godthis is your
spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any
longer to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then
you will be able to test and approve what God's
will ishis good, pleasing and perfect will.

- Romans 12
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2 Dont copy the behavior and customs of this
world, but let God transform you into a new
person by changing the way you think. Then you
will learn to know Gods will for you, which is
good and pleasing and perfect. -Romans 12 (NLT)
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1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping
you Take your everyday, ordinary lifeyour
sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and
walking-around lifeand place it before God as an
offering. Embracing what God does for you is the
best thing you can do for him. Don't become so
well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into
it without even thinking.
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Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be
changed from the inside out. Readily recognize
what he wants from you, and quickly respond to
it. Unlike the culture around you, always
dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God
brings the best out of you, develops well-formed
maturity in you. -Romans 12 (The Message)
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1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping
you Take your everyday, ordinary lifeyour
sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and
walking-around lifeand place it before God as an
offering. Embracing what God does for you is the
best thing you can do for him. Don't become so
well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into
it without even thinking.
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 3For by the grace given me I say to every one of
you Do not think of yourself more highly than
you ought, but rather think of yourself with
sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of
faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has
one body with many members, and these members do
not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we
who are many form one body, and each member
belongs to all the others.
-Romans 12
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 3For by the grace given me I say to every one of
you Do not think of yourself more highly than
you ought, but rather think of yourself with
sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of
faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has
one body with many members, and these members do
not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we
who are many form one body, and each member
belongs to all the others.
-Romans 12
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Search me, O God, and know my heart!    Try me
and know my thoughts!And see if there be any
grievous way in me,   and lead me in the
way everlasting! - Psalm 13923-24
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12Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and
dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
- Colossians 3 that is
why Scripture says God opposes the proud but
gives grace to the humble. - James 46
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 3For by the grace given me I say to every one of
you Do not think of yourself more highly than
you ought, but rather think of yourself with
sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of
faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has
one body with many members, and these members do
not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we
who are many form one body, and each member
belongs to all the others.
-Romans 12
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21Submit to one another out of reverence for
Christ. - Ephesians 5
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12Not that I have already obtained all this, or
have already been made perfect, but I press on to
take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took
hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself
yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward
what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to
win the prize for which God has called me
heavenward in Christ Jesus.  
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15All of us who are mature should take such a
view of things. And if on some point you think
differently, that too God will make clear to you.
16Only let us live up to what we have already
attained. - Philippians 3
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2 Dont copy the behavior and customs of this
world, but let God transform you into a new
person by changing the way you think. Then you
will learn to know Gods will for you, which is
good and pleasing and perfect. -Romans 12 (NLT)
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My task is to bring out in the open and make
plain what God, who created all this in the first
place, has been doing in secret and behind the
scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like
yourselves gathered in churches, this
extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and
talked about even among the angels!
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All this is proceeding along lines planned all
along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus.
When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever
needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to
go. - Ephesians 3 (The Message)
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God bless you.Have a great week.