Bring Renewal

EMBRACE OUR CALLING TO BRING RENEWAL TO THE PLACES WHERE GOD HAS US.

“Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” —Jeremiah 29:7

When people in our area got a chance to articulate their life goals, it usually had one of these two answers: “Work so hard that I can afford awesome vacations to escape work” or “Work so hard I can retire early and not work”. And no one really saw the conflict there, work not to work. Rather than seeing work as a means to an end, we need a better grasp on how God designed us to work and be part of something greater than self-achieved comfort. 

How might we affirm this?

People are realizing there are some real challenges and frustrations to work. Also, we were designed to desire a cycle of work and rest!

How might we need to challenge that?

Just because “work” was frustrated and broken because of the fall, doesn’t mean it lost its original meaning. God called us to “work and keep” the land. To order it and to produce. We have a deeper purpose. Work can actually be the “end” not the means to the end as God built us with certain gifts and talents to be used in the way he designed us.

Therefore, we need to understand the big picture of the gospel. God created and it was good, but the fall messed up the good, and now God is at work restoring the world from the fall. And he created a church where he renews people so they can become agents of his restorative world. We can actually connect to this deeper purpose when we find our place in God’s story.