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Home Grace Notes About Us Calendar Day Care Ministries/ Missions Testimonies Our Location Links & Resources	Grace Notes Thoughts from Pastor Dave: August 14, 2006 A Church with a Purpose (Part 2) As a living body united in Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, the purpose of Grace Baptist Church is to enable our fellowship to know God personally, to love God completely, to love one another and to share God’s love with all people. In part 1 of this series, I began by conveying that our new purpose statement has two important components. The first focuses on “being”, the second focuses on “doing”. In my last article I concentrated on the first component; today I want to begin the process of examining the second—the “doing”. Two New Testament passages came to have special significance for the Purpose Statement Committee as we studied God’s purpose for the church—the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Let’s see these passages in their entirety. The Great Commandment When the Pharisees heard that he [Jesus} had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22.34-40. You can also find parallel texts of the Great Commandment in Mark 12.28-34 and Luke 10.25-28.) The Great Commission Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and earth have been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28.16-20.) As you can see, the space for my article is quickly dwindling. With that reality in mind, I will save my comments about the relationship of the Great Commandment, the Great Commission and the Purpose Statement of Grace Baptist Church for our next edition of Grace Notes. In the mean time, I would ask you to draw your own conclusions. Read the Great Commandment and the Great Commission over again. Now look at our new purpose statement. Do you see the connections? Think about it. Pray about it. See You Sunday, Pastor Dave Miss an issue?

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Thoughts from Pastor Dave: August 14, 2006
A Church with a Purpose (Part 2)

As a living body united in Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, the purpose of Grace Baptist Church is to enable our fellowship to know God personally, to love God completely, to love one another and to share God’s love with all people.

In part 1 of this series, I began by conveying that our new purpose statement has two important components. The first focuses on “being”, the second focuses on “doing”. In my last article I concentrated on the first component; today I want to begin the process of examining the second—the “doing”.

Two New Testament passages came to have special significance for the Purpose Statement Committee as we studied God’s purpose for the church—the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Let’s see these passages in their entirety.

The Great Commandment
When the Pharisees heard that he [Jesus} had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22.34-40. You can also find parallel texts of the Great Commandment in Mark 12.28-34 and Luke 10.25-28.) The Great Commission
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and earth have been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28.16-20.)

As you can see, the space for my article is quickly dwindling. With that reality in mind, I will save my comments about the relationship of the Great Commandment, the Great Commission and the Purpose Statement of Grace Baptist Church for our next edition of Grace Notes. In the mean time, I would ask you to draw your own conclusions. Read the Great Commandment and the Great Commission over again. Now look at our new purpose statement. Do you see the connections? Think about it. Pray about it.

See You Sunday,

Pastor Dave

Miss an issue?