What is a Luke 4 Church?
From my blog... http://luke4church.com/
Over the last few years, I have studied the different ways of doing ministry… programs, plans, strategies… I have researched all of the different “ways” of doing church. I mean for a long time I aligned myself with the missional camp… almost jumped in the emerging church camp… being a part of a evangelical, program driven church… we tried the seeker sensitive way of doing church… I about jumped on the social, progressive gospel train… our church adopted bits & pieces of purpose driven church. To be blunt, most of these models or ways of doing ministry always seemed to just the mark.
So as I became a missionary here in the United States, I had this grand plan that really focused on the missional aspects of doing church, we focused on meeting the needs of our neighbors in the fifth poorest county in the US… McDowell County, WV. We became engrossed in doing missional ministry. But there was something still missing. I went back and began to study in great depth, the ministry of Jesus. The way he did what he did, the why of what he did, who even did what did with.
Then in spring, 2008 it began to hit me.
After reading dozens of cutting edge books on ministry, on impacting our communities, on viewing our communities as mission fields, etc. I realized something. Jesus gave us his vision for the way he did his 3 years of public ministry in the first recorded sermon that Jesus gave to his hometown of Nazareth. It is found in Luke 4:18 & 19.
If you look at this, you will see this laid out the way Jesus did his ministry.
* He came to preach [to bring, evangelize, to announce] Good News to the poor… the social, economic, spiritual, emotionally poor. The Good News was that he [Jesus] came to give them a way out of their condition.
* He was sent to proclaim [to openly, publicly, announce] freedom [liberty, deliverance] from those that have been held captive by their sins, addictions, or whatever has kept them in bondage.
* That he was there to bring recovery [healing] to physically, spiritually blind.
* To bring release [freedom, liberty, deliverance] for those that are being physically, emotionally & spiritually oppressed.
* And Jesus ends his quoting of Isaiah 61 with that he came to proclaim [???] the Lord’s favor, or as Bono said a few years ago, Jesus came to tell everybody about an era of God’s grace.
These two verses and with Jesus’ example of doing ministry… this set the world on a different path. These two Bible verses, as they are lived out has & it can and will change our churches, our communities, our cities, our world. If they are lived out and practiced by churches & Christ followers everywhere.
If in churches, we need a new model of how to do ministry… then we need to look at the model that Jesus exampled for us. You see Jesus proclaimed & demonstrated the Kingdom of God. If you don’t know what the Kingdom of God is… he is the easiest way to put it… it is the reign of God. Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is not an earthly kingdom, but it lives inside of us.
You see when we proclaim Christ as our Savior, and we make the decision to follow Christ… then the Kingdom of God is extended in the lives of people. We are in a period of when we get to see glimpses of the Kingdom of God breakthrough this sinful world.
* Every time we show the love of God… we allow the Kingdom of God to breakthrough into somebody’s life.
* Every time we act the way Jesus would… we allow the Kingdom of God to breakthrough.
* Every time we do what Jesus would have done, regardless of who it is for… we allow somebody here to experience a piece of heaven… the Kingdom of God.
Over the next few days, I am going to break down even more what a Luke 4 church looks like… I will breakdown Luke 4:18- 19 more as well. Then I am also going to give a tidbit that I stole from one of Ed Stetzer’s books that will help you remember what it means to be a Luke 4 church.
Created over 2 years ago
