WARNING: If you don’t want to hear me BRAG on God through His people, STOP READING NOW!
Otherwise, prepare to have your heart blown open with glory unto God.
October 5, 2014 marks the 10th Anniversary of LifePoint Church. I pray our celebration and vision becomes a catalyst for many more Gospel-centered, missional church plants in our city and around the world. This post is written as a testimony for two primary peoples; the people of LifePoint Church, and the families and friends of LifePoint Church who faithfully invested to help us launch. May your heart be encouraged through this testimony.
LifePoint’s 10th anniversary focuses on three priorities.
First, CELEBRATE all that God has done to give thanks and bring glory to Him.
In January 2004 as I prepared to share the news and vision for a new church plant, God pressed 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 on my heart to call for prayer for this new work.
“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thess 1:11-12
These verses have continued to lead my request as people have prayed for LifePoint over the past 10+ years. These verses have been a comfort and a catalyst over the last 10 years as they provide 4 reminders.
1st, God’s power flows through continuous prayer. Every major season or shift at LifePoint, every major decision and development has always been covered in prayer. We know, because we have learned, that our prayer releases God’s mighty power that works. Before all other labors, God’s people must clothe everything in prayer.
2nd, God makes us worthy of His call by HIS work IN us through the Gospel. The greatest demonstration of God’s power working among us is the Gospel transforming people, marriages, homes, jobs and situations. LifePoint has experienced a great amount of transformation in many ways over the first 10 years. Two couples shared in our morning services how God used the people of LifePoint to minister to them, and save their marriages. Another shared of how the church has ministered to she and her family over the last ten years to lead them closer to God. May God multiply His work through us because He is most powerfully at work IN us.
3rd, We release God’s power THROUGH us as we work by faith. When we trust and commit (resolve) to follow God in work that honors and glorifies Him, His power is released to work through us. We’ve experienced this in big ways on a number of occasions; remodeling our first facility, a major land purchase, capital campaign the same weekend as the greatest stock market crash since the Great Depression, a relocation, and hiring staff. The only testimonies more powerful than these big ways are the many transformations He has worked in people’s lives; salvation, addiction recovery (drugs, pornography, alcohol, sex), marriages in crisis restored, adoptions, men learning to lead their families, calling and sending our people to the nations, and the list continues.
I believe LifePoint stands at the threshold of another giant step to release more of God’s power for Gospel-centered mission to reach all people.
4th, God receives glory through our Gospel labors and honors us in the work. THIS is not about us, but all about God. Therefore, we must surrender our lives fully, sacrifice in increasing measure and pursue with renewed faith and vigor all the God leads us to accomplish.
Second, ENJOY God’s work both IN and THROUGH us by the Gospel.
The sweetest testimony of the anniversary evening is one of fellowship. My first thought as we finished our public launch service on Sun, Oct 4, 2004, was simply this, “Will anyone ever come back?” (I knew our gathering would empower greater sending.) Today I encourage the people of LifePoint to “Look around you. You came back, and many continue to come. Our fellowship in community is the testimony of God’s work, more than can be seen or known, greater than we can imagine and increasing by God’s power.”
Another powerful testimony to enjoy for glory at our 10th Anniversary is one of Gospel mission & multiplication. Numbers seldom tell a complete story, but they do provide a “sound bite” that represents the whole story. God has blessed LifePoint as stewards of His mission. In the first 10 years LifePoint has,
- excelled in faithful stewardship. By God’s grace, we’ve invested over a half million dollars in global mission beyond our immediate fellowship, exceeded three-quarters of a million dollars in annual budget, and secured over $2.5M in capital investments from which our mission operates, led by 7 elders and a staff of 14 (including F-T, P-T & volunteer).
- reached and blessed people in our city with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By God’s grace, we’ve baptized 164 people (the majority of which were adults), grown our covenant membership to almost 300 adults, host over 500 in average weekly attendance, served hundreds of families in needs, and loved on thousands of people in the name of Jesus.
- increased and strengthened the spread of the Gospel to the nations. By God’s grace, we’ve resourced and strengthened Impact Partners in countries from Mexico to Guatemala to Costa Rica to Thailand to China to Indonesia to South Africa to Ivory Coast to France to Italy and other nations. Over a dozen people from within LifePoint’s Covenant Membership have or presently serve among the nations of the world, with more making plans to “Go”.
- planted Gospel-centered, missional churches that plant churches. By God’s grace, we’ve planted 4 churches in our first ten years with two more planning to launch in the next 18 months. We have served as strategic partners for eight additional church plants and encouraged and cultivated labors for many more through direct participation in our networks and affiliations. We launched a regional church planting network (2006) and partnered with others (2012) to now extend throughout the Midwest (plantOzarks / plantMidwest). The church planting network we joined in 2004 (Acts 29) now has over 500 churches globally.
LifePoint Church is a church planting church planting churches.
Third, INVEST & multiply Kingdom mission from this night forward.
Our 10th Anniversary turns our eyes from remembering God’s faithfulness in the past to pursuing greater glory in the future. “10/100 Greater Things” means LifePoint pursues 3 distinct practices for Gospel multiplication.
Practice #1: “10/100 Greater Things” means LP makes disciples. The heart of LifePoint’s vision will always remain established on our foundational commission. Wherever we go and whatever we do, the heart of our Gospel labors will be to make disciples of all people.
Practice #2: “10/100 Greater Things” means LP maximizes Gospel influence. We will labor, cooperate and encourage with growing zeal to increase our influence for the Gospel. We, the church of the living God, will hold forth the His Word and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ that His manifold wisdom might be made known in all the earth.
Practice #3: “10/100 Greater Things” means LP multiplies Kingdom impact. We will continue to pursue greater glory among the nations, beginning with our neighbor. Our love for God will be most demonstrated through our love for other people. Our passionate pursuit for God’s Kingdom mission in the world will be no less than to the ends of the earth to reach every nation, tribe and tongue. What God has done thru LifePoint as His work, we will continue to cultivate toward “Greater Things”. Where God leads LifePoint to develop our vision and expand His mission, we will follow toward “Greater Things”.
LifePoint, “10/100 Greater Things” begins HERE & NOW, following Jesus by faith and trusting that ‘He will’ because ‘He has said’ and ‘He is able’. Jesus is our strength & rest.
“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly that all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.” Eph 3:20-21