The 4-M Church Reaffirming the Relational Foundation of What it Means to be the Body of Christ

Understanding Who We Are as the Body of Christ Now, you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a part of it. -I Corinthians 12:27

The Message The message is our identity. It is who we are. It is our spiritual DNA. The message is LOVE!

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the Law, tested Him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments. -Matthew 22:34-40

We Are... A people called into community as the Body of Christ to passionately Love God and to sacrificially serve others. This is our identity This is our defining lifestyle This is our gift to God’s world

Who Is Jesus to You? What is your Primary Picture of Jesus? The Inspecting Jesus The Judgmental Jesus The Disappointed Jesus The Distant Jesus

Or, Is He... The Compassionate Jesus The Grace-filled Jesus The Welcoming, Embracing Jesus The Serving Jesus The Lovingly Confrontive Jesus

To become Great Commandment churches and pastors, it is essential to see Jesus as excited to love us. This incredible love relationship with Christ is at the heart of being a Great Commandment people because it is about what kind of God is the God we serve. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. -I John 4: 8

The Message—Love—a passionate love for God expressed through a sacrificial service of others, is the foundation of a healthy and God-honoring congregational life. It is an identity that should describe every body of believers. It is our common identity that informs everything else that we do.

A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. -John 13:34 If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. -John 14:15-17

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends...This is my command: Love each other. -John 15: 9-13, 17

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. -John 3:16-17

When we build upon a foundation of love, we build upon a common foundation that draws us into the community of faith; a foundation that binds us all together as children of God, strengthens the ministry of the church, and provides a legitimate witness to the world of what it means to be the Body of Christ.

Growth Through Connection SHAPE