A Church that Changes the World (A New Year's Challenge to DBC)
Sermon Notes
What does an Acts 1.8 church look like?
• People wait on and live in the power of the Holy Spirit
• People live to be Christ’s witness
1. He followed His Father’s will – even to death
2. He made disciples
3. He spent time with lost people and gave Himself for them
4. He served others
5. He gave us His Spirit to accomplish and finish the task
• People embrace Christ’s mandate to reach the world
1. The Christian Church is becoming less theologically literate.
2. Christians are becoming more ingrown and less outreach-oriented.
3. Growing numbers of people are less interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic solutions for life.
4. Among Christians, interest in participating in community action is escalating.
5. The postmodern insistence on tolerance is winning over the Christian Church.
6. The influence of Christianity on culture and individual lives is largely invisible.
What does it look like?
LOVE
INVEST 
FOLLOW
ENGAGE
A 2011 Prayer for DBC
In 2011 we will give ourselves anew to build a passionate, LIFE-transforming community reaching our world for Christ through our lives and through our church. We purpose to live this way by living and growing a God-pleasing, Christ-centered, Spirit-filled life. To that end -
1. Will give ourselves anew to Love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength/mind, and with all of our resources?
“With God’s help, we will.”
2. Will we give ourselves anew to Invest our lives in loving each other and thereby obeying Christ’s command to love one another as He loved us?
“With God’s help, we will.”
3. Will we give ourselves to Follow Christ and to become more like Him as we surrender our ambitions and all that we have to Him – presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice to Him?
“With God’s help, we will.”
4. Will we give ourselves to Engage our world (by building relationships with them - those who live in our neighborhoods, those who go with us to school, those with whom we work and play) through the power of the Holy Spirit so that they will know that we love them and trust God to create opportunities to share with them the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ?
“With God’s help, we will.”
An Application to Consider
My Radical Experiment
I agree with the Radical* claim that I can find satisfaction and real service to God only in abandonment to Jesus. I hereby commit to a one-year experiment of radical living according to the gospel…open to any changes God wants to perform in my life as a result of this experiment. Over the next year….
1. I will pray for the entire world.
To make this commitment real in my life, I choose now specifically to _______
2. I will read through the entire Word.
To make this commitment real in my life, I choose now specifically to _______
(We have two different plans for you to consider)
3. I will sacrifice my money for a specific purpose.
To make this commitment real in my life, I choose now specifically to _______
4. I will spend time in another context.
To make this commitment real in my life, I choose now specifically to _______
5. I will commit my life to a multiplying community.
To make this commitment real in my life, I choose now specifically to _______
Signed _________________________
Date _______________