Do you know your mission in life? If you’re a Christ follower, there is a clear starting point to the answer. Drum roll please…

Discipleship.

The overarching mission of every Christ follower is to be a growing disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus makes this clear in his great commission:

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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Matthew 28:19-20

This command is both about being a disciple and making disciples.

What is discipleship? In short, Christian discipleship is the journey of glorifying God by enjoying, following, and sharing Jesus, even as we become more like him.

The apostle Paul puts the idea of discipleship in different but equally beautiful words:

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. Colossians 1:28

At Trinity Grace Church, our paraphrase of the gospel’s vision for discipleship is actually found in our vision statement:

Overflowing grace into a new culture, a new community, and a new city.

We long to first be loved by Christ and then have his love overflow through us. We also have another set of phrases that line up with our vision of a new culture, a new community, and a new city. These phrases attach actions to our pursuit of a new culture, a new community, and a new city. Here they are:

Be Glad in the gospel (a new culture). Belong because of the gospel (a new community). Be a Blessing with the gospel (a new city). In all this, you and I are becoming more like Christ in character, conduct, and our hope of the new creation in eternity. (I wish we could fit a fourth “B” word–“Becoming”–into our vision statement!)

At Trinity Grace, the elders make effort to have all our church’s energies and ministries contribute to one of the “new Cs” and one of the “Be”s. We hope you will find yourself always in some measure experiencing one of these three “Be”s. In other words, we hope you’ll be growing as a disciple of Jesus as you enjoy him (Be Glad), follow him (Belong), and share him (Be a Blessing), even as you become more like him.

I want to leave you with a few practical ways to engage this journey of discipleship.

  1. Belong by joining a New Community. New Communities are our expression of belonging at Trinity Grace Church. They are midweek gatherings in people’s homes that centre around relationships with Christ and relationships with one another. There is beautiful life sharing, Scripture “digesting,” and prayer that goes on. Click here to join a New Community.
  2. Go deeper into an understanding of our gospel new culture by discussing the current Ecclesiates sermon series online. On each sermon webpage, there will be a discussion panel at the bottom. We encourage you to ask questions and offer insights as you process God’s Word. Click here to get started with this past Sunday’s sermon. We hope that engaging God’s Word thoughtfully will lead to more gladness of your heart.
  3. Commit to “Words to Hide in Your Heart.” Every Sunday in the bulletin, there will be two highlighted Scripture verses. They will be featured with the heading “Words to Hide in Your Heart.” Carry these words with you through the week. Meditate on them, which simply means to think upon the words slowly, often, sometimes repetitively, conversationally with others, and prayerfully with God.
  4. Take a step toward Being a Blessing by filling out a form of potential areas of interest for serving. Click here to get started.

This blog post is entitled “Overflowing Grace Today.” “Overflowing Grace Today” is another way to describe our journey of discipleship. One day at a time, we are invited to root ourselves in Christ and to live our lives as an extension of everything good that he is. “Overflowing Grace Today” also happens to be the name of our church’s blog. So stay tuned for more posts. We intend to write about news, new things in our church’s life, and about the new life we have in Christ all through a gospel lens.

Grace and peace.