Hope you guys are having a happy October and enjoying this Central FL fall weather. My son, who digs weather stuff big time, is oddly enough looking forward to the approaching tropical storm coming our way. The cold front may keep it south of us. We will see! Gonna bring some rain, which I guess we need, cause I have to put down some Scott's Bonus S this week, and rain is a good follow-up to that chemical-enhancement of our lawn.

But I digress. Cause only people who aren't trying to walk closely talk only about the weather. That's more for small-talk, porch conversations in which "I am fine" tends to be the only profound declaration. And that's not us as a church family, right?

NO WAY!!! Because we are trying to be worshippers, get equipped, live sent, grow together, and point neighbors and nations to Christ. And that insists upon deep love for one another and enduring commitment to the mission together, right? I thought you would agree :-)

So over the next few Mondays, I will be sending out a note to you trying to handle some of the "FAQs" that we have been conversing about since challenging one another with our "four next steps" as a church family together.

Once again, those are:

:: take the initiative to connect with 3 to 5 families within the Westpoint family to be family with, committing to passionately pray for one another and to deeply love each other through thick and thin.[you may already be walking closely with several families. that's great! if you are but you are not walking with a "sent" purpose, would you be willing to be more purposeful and intentional in your friendships?]

:: study the Scriptures together as a group of families for more than just greater Biblical knowledge, but rather in order to simply ask the question, "If this is true, how must we individually and together surrender to the Holy Spirit that adjustments might be made in our lives based upon the teachings of this Scripture?"

:: encourage each other and hold each other accountable to engage the lost in the pathways of our lives, praying for the lost together, being patient in the long-term of the friendship and journey, and proactively loving them first and caring for them in specific ways, welcoming them into relationship with us like they are family, too.

:: then, let's come together as a "BIG Family" frequently to celebrate what God is doing and to learn from each other as we gather on Sundays, as we connect during "together" events, and as several SENT Groups connect for meals and celebrations and to serve together.

First FAQ:
How will I have time for this?

The answer, I would suggest, comes in two parts. An encouraging part and a challenging part.

The first part of the answer is the encouraging part and is actually another question (don't you like it when people do that?). The question - who are you already doing life with that's a part of the Westpoint family? Most of the people who have told me they worry about having time for this already do life together with a few folks from our church family. Who is that? How are you doing life together? What is the purpose of doing life together? Scripturally it is to love each other through thick and thin (John 12:34-35) and to push each other onto love and service and mission (Hebrews 10:18-25). The answer, then, is not to do MORE but rather to do what you already do with MORE INTENTIONALITY.

The second part of the answer is the more challenging part of the answer. It, too, is a question (don't hate me :-)

>> Who are you short-changing both within our church family and within our community by not making time for this? <<

Yeah. Short-changing. If we really need each other, if we are the body of Christ, if we are sent as the One sent to us to love neighbors and nations, if we are to make disciples, if we are to love one another through thick and thin, if we are to obey the Scriptures TOGETHER rather than just learn them INDIVIDUALLY, then we would be short-changing each other as well as neighbors and nations if we don't make time for this. Right?

A little further with the challenge. And this one is FOR THE DADS OUT THERE - How are you short-changing your kids by not making time for this? What has wrecked me as a father is this one thought - is it rational for me to expect my kids when they go off to college to live a life surrendered to walk with Jesus and with other followers of Jesus loving neighbors and nations and making disciples IF they experience nothing more than a "sinners prayer" and "church attendance" and a tailored-to-engage-them youth program while growing up in my home? It's not. It's irrational to expect otherwise. And so I must make some adjustments.

You can ask the folks we walk with in our SENT Group. They will not describe Jen and me as the model SENT Group or the picture of the exemplary living out of these "four next steps." But I hope they would describe us as LEARNERS TRYING to grow together with them in Jesus and His ways and in love for one another and in making disciples among neighbors and nations. And we want to go deeper with them. Deeper in relationship and deeper on mission.

We aren't asking you to add a bunch of stuff here or even to immerse yourself in church activity and then do this on the side. We are suggesting, as we have been for over seven years just this time with more clarity, that this become your "church activity." With Jesus and with others for the sake of others.

May we make time. And may we even realize that there is no time to waste. May we love each other deeply and live on mission with Jesus together. We need each other. And we along with neighbors and nations need the near, real, life-changing, resurrection-power, love of Jesus, too.

I love you all. Grateful to be learning and living His ways together.
-jason

Yesterday in gathering, Tommy Novak led our teaching time through Acts 20:17-38. It was an encouraging and challenging time, encouraging in the sense that we all have a valuable part in serving together as His church and challenging in the sense that we all have a valuable part in serving together as His church.

The Sunday before, we were in verses 8 to 10 of Acts 19, and I shared with our church family the desire of our pastoral team and vision team as a whole to see us commit to some very practical next steps together as a church family. We shared the WESTPOINT acronym that we had come up with that is intended to be nothing more than a reminder of who we are as a church family together. May we:

be Worshippers
get Equipped
live Sent
grow Together
POINT neighbors and nations to Jesus

Two verses stood out to me these last two Sundays. One from Acts 19 and one from Acts 20.

10 And this went on for two years, so that all the inhabitants of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the message about the Lord.
(Acts 19:10, HCSB)

24 But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God.
(Acts 20:24, the Message)

It seems to me that if we desire to see the first we must be committed to the second.

Remember, Paul did not say in verse 24 of Acts 20 that there was one specific way that he let everyone he met "know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God." And why? Because there are many different ways, but all of them are compelled by the Gospel of a God who came near because He so loved the world. The "how" may be via long-term, loving relationship or via immediate-prompted, loving conversation, and in either case notice the central modifier to be love.

Do you want to see all the inhabitants of West Orange County hear the message of the Lord? Are you willing to let everyone you meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God? The former won't happen without the latter. And none of it will happen, at least as I would suggest to you, without two very, very important factors.

One, a love relationship with Jesus lived out in surrender and obedience as we listen and respond to the living presence of the Holy Spirit in the everyday rhythms of our lives. And two, loving relationship with one another as a church family. We cannot live sent apart from the One sent to us. And we cannot live on "mission TO" without living on "mission TOGETHER."

So, how does your pastoral team and vision team propose that we do that? It's actually very simple, but it actually may cause a bit of re-prioritizing and reorienting for all of us. Much like Acts 2:42 declares, we must take seriously our communication with God (prayer), our immersion into and obedience to the Scriptures (the Apostles' teachings), our love for one another through thick and thin (fellowship), and our life together unified around the Gospel message and Gospel mission (the breaking of bread together). Here's specifically how we propose to live this out together:

:: take the initiative to connect with 3 to 5 families within the Westpoint family to be family with, committing to passionately pray for one another and to deeply love each other through thick and thin.[you may already be walking closely with several families. that's great! if you are but you are not walking with a "sent" purpose, would you be willing to be more purposeful and intentional in your friendships?]

:: study the Scriptures together as a group of families for more than just greater Biblical knowledge, but rather in order to simply ask the question, "If this is true, how must we individually and together surrender to the Holy Spirit that adjustments might be made in our lives based upon the teachings of this Scripture?"

:: encourage each other and hold each other accountable to engage the lost in the pathways of our lives, praying for the lost together, being patient in the long-term of the friendship and journey, and proactively loving them first and caring for them in specific ways, welcoming them into relationship with us like they are family, too.

:: then, let's come together as a "BIG Family" frequently to celebrate what God is doing and to learn from each other as we gather on Sundays, as we connect during "together" events, and as several SENT Groups connect for meals and celebrations and to serve together.

This is not "in addition" to all the other church stuff we are doing. This is it. This is being the church together and living sent daily. This is loving each other walking in deep fellowship together through thick and thin. Is this what Jesus intended? Will we see "on earth as it is in heaven" if we reorient our understanding of church and our lives on mission to this simple of a commitment? Will every inhabitant of West Orange County hear the message of the Lord as a result?

Let's try it and see.

Meantime, be praying and PLEASE COME NEXT SUNDAY MORNING IF YOU WANT TO Q & A ABOUT THIS. We will take the teaching time to dialogue further about this, to pray together, and to leave together to live sent.

Jen and I love you all so much and are so grateful for this very sobering but exciting journey together as His church.

-jason

To the Westpoint family.

So grateful for the time worshipping and praying and singing and considering our next steps together yesterday. I apologize again for the lack of time to actually converse about the now and the suggested future. We will, I assure you, in the next few Sundays. If you missed the time this morning, the podcast will be posted probably today or tomorrow. Be looking for it on the home page of WestpointChurch.org or on the Facebook page.

Meanwhile, I wanted to send a note regarding three things. First, to share with you the basic, easy to remember acronym of our focus together as a local church family. Second, just a recap of "The Bottom Line" that was shared yesterday. And third, four stories about folks living sent / making disciples TOGETHER that are a part of our church family. As you have time, please read through all three. I hope it will encourage you as we keep learning and living the ways of Jesus together.

Grateful for how we have been living sent together. Grateful for the call and commitment to go deeper and deeper in living sent TOGETHER, loving each other as well as neighbors and nations, holding each other up as we live out the gracious, Gospel ways of the Kingdom of God.

-jason


WESTPOINT
be Worshippers _ in the daily and on Sundays
get Equipped _ to make disciples and to be family
live Sent _ serving AND sending both locally and globally
grow Together _ via SENT groups and as COWO
POINTing _ neighbors and nations to Jesus


THE BOTTOM LINE:
1. take the initiative to connect with 3 to 5 families in the Westpoint family to be family with, committing to passionately pray for one another and to deeply love each other through thick and thin.

2. study the Scriptures together as a family for more than just greater Biblical knowledge, but rather in order to simply ask the question, "If this is true, how must we individually and together surrender to the Holy Spirit that adjustments might be made in our lives?"

3. then, encourage each other and hold each other accountable to engage the lost in the pathways of our lives, praying for the lost together, being patient in the long-term of the friendship and journey, and proactively loving them first and caring for them in specific ways, welcoming them into relationship with us like they are family, too.


SERVING SASHA
In case you haven't heard, "Safe and Sober Housing Alternative" has found a new home!!! So excited for Cindy Underwood and the women who are a part of that awesome ministry! Well, in the process of cleaning up to prepare to move in, one of our SENT Groups who has adopted them as their one way of serving locally together stepped up to clean and paint and get the home ready for Cindy and another awesome group of volunteers to move stuff in. So grateful for that SENT Group being family together and including SASHA and Cindy in that family.

CARING FOR STUDENTS
Some of you during summer travel may have missed the announcement of Tommy Novak focusing in a new role with our team as the Pastor to Families with Students. He is loving and equipping parents of teens, walking with and making disciples alongside and among teens, and growing with an awesome adult volunteer team committed to loving and serving students and their families. Well, two of those adult volunteers got to step into action recently in a way that definitely moved them out of their comfort zone. Tommy was stuck in an important meeting when he got a text message from a student in a bit of an emotional crisis. Tommy knew he needed to stay where he was at least for another hour or two, and so he asked a couple of the adult volunteers if they could go and be with the student. They did. And they were stretched. But they were also blessed as they cared for, counseled with, and encouraged the teen. It was a beautiful expression of being a family living sent together.

GOLFING ALONE
The story was shared with me about one of our guys who two weeks ago was a bit inspired to go "live sent" on the golf course. He went out by himself, intentionally trying to connect with another player so they would have a twosome, intentionally hoping to begin a new friendship and enter on a journey together of learning love and hope and life together. Remember, this "making disciples" stuff is not a cold-call, overnight kind of thing. And it's not a one-round-of-golf kind of thing, either. In the end, the guy was so glad he did what he did. He made a new friend and hopes to golf together again.

LOVING THE LONELY
Less than two weeks ago, a woman in our community connected with one or two folks in our church family hit a crossroads in her life. Stay consumed with loneliness and addiction or get connected and get help. So far, and it's early in the game so please be praying, but so far she has chosen the latter. One of the ladies in our church family stepped right in and not only "loved first" becoming new friends, but also has loved well spending quality time encouraging the woman in crisis. On top of that, the Wednesday night women's group stepped up, as they have done so many times in the history of our church family, to love on and care for and connect with and walk beside the woman. What an awesome example of family!!!

To say I am grateful for the Westpoint Church family would be an understatement. Once again, we had a "family meeting" in which grace and unity was apparent. It is truly awesome to witness the love and wisdom God is growing in and among us as we walk this journey together. Thank you so much for your insight and input, your concern and commitment. IF YOU HAVE ANY FOLLOW UP THOUGHTS OR QUESTIONS, please email them in to us. And please be praying for wisdom and discernment as we walk through this decision together.

Regarding the ongoing vision and mission of this one-among-many local church expressions, may I take a moment to share a gentle reminder about what I pray will stay at the forefront of our hearts and minds regardless of what happens with this West Orange Baptist decision.

I pray that we would love Jesus and love one another as together we love neighbors and nations committing to make disciples in the rhythms of our daily lives. I also pray that we would continue to be united around mission with Jesus as He makes us to become the local church expression that He intended us to be.

The vision and hope of Westpoint has not changed from day one in February 2004.

Be the church together, do life together, give ourselves away together, make disciples, and hope to see followers and thus new expressions of His church multiplied. Live sent daily learning and living the ways of Jesus with our families, our neighbors, our co-workers, our local community, our world, and even online.

What has changed is our gratefulness for the Gospel and our understanding of His intention for His church. These have hopefully grown to be more as He intended, along with our awareness of and appreciation of His near love and redeemed purpose for our lives. That He is "God with us" continues to wreck and restore and send us daily.

God loved us first, loves us regardless, and has demonstrated it clearly. That "gospel" is inviting and transforming and compelling, drawing us to God and growing us in Christ and sending us with Him. That mission with Him includes but is not limited to attending a gathering on Sundays and for sure includes a command to make disciples of Jesus together as we are going among neighbors and nations. The making of disciples of Jesus, if done like He did it, occurs in the rhythms of the daily and creates among us a need for each other so that we will keep going on mission daily with Him. That "mission to" happens via "mission together," both as one local church expression as well as in unity with other local church expressions, hopefully resulting in "on earth as it is in heaven" in our community beyond just attracting a crowd to our respective Sunday gatherings. As we thus love one another doing life together and proactively caring for one another, as we also love neighbors and nations engaging our culture and giving ourselves away together, as we actually make disciples in the daily learning and living the ways of Jesus with others, and as we furthermore think and live beyond just a "MY church" mentality, we will see thru the maturity of our unity around mission people believe in the One who was sent (John 17:18-23) and thus new expressions of His church arise.

Will you pray with me this prayer?

"Lord, have Your way among us. May we live sent lives first and foremost and with utmost energy and intentionality to and alongside our families. May we actually know our neighbors' names and be growing in an active friendship with them. May we care about our coworkers' interests above our own. May we serve in an ongoing, relational manner just one way locally and one way globally, giving ourselves away alongside family and church family. May we also grow in friendship with those whom we serve. May we actually make disciples. Please help our pastoral team and vision team to actually equip for making disciples and to cultivate for genuine care and compassion for one another. And Lord, please help us to never again choose to just "go to church." May our gathering never be an event where we serve ourselves, but rather may it be a celebratory time together where we worship You and then are sent with You. Please, Lord, teach us Your ways that we might learn and live Your ways together."

Jen and I love you. We are grateful for you. We are praying and hopeful that we will cultivate for and get to see "on earth as it is in heaven" in each of our families, in our church family, along the pathways of our daily lives, in our community, and around the world.

-jason