In Ephesians 4, Paul challenges the church in Ephesus to live lives worthy of the calling they’ve received. As the church we’re called to love Christ. We show our love for him by obeying him. Christ gave us the apostles and prophets writings and gives us teachers to explain them to us so that we can know him better. The purpose of this, in Ephesians 4:12-13 is so that we can be equipped for service, so the church will be built up, and we will become unified.
One of Christ’s commands is that we would go out into the world and make disciples.
Being a disciple means learning from and following Christ.
At St John’s we try and help people become stronger disciples in a few different ways:
The bible has lots to say about prayer.
Phlippians 4:6 says;
“6Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
And, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 tells us to
“16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
We put a big emphasis on prayer. Making sure that we’re always going to God and talking to him about what’s going on in our lives, leaning on his wisdom, and confessing our sin.
We pray in our services, in our home groups, in our 121’s, and we really want to encourage you to pray by yourself too.
The prayer team will happily help you if prayer is something you struggle with, and would love to lend you some resources to help you invigorate your prayer life.
Giving is also part of discipleship.
We give because we know that everything we have has been given to us by God and everything belongs to God.
We give so that we can see God glorified, both in Winsford and all around the world.
1 Chronicles 29:14 says;
“14But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.”
We are to give cheerfully and sacrificially, just as Christ sacrificed himself for us.
We should only give to the church when we understand what we have been given by Christ.
If you’d like to find out more about giving and how to give to St John’s, please speak to George or Alan.
We really want to equip people to serve the church and run occasional training sessions to keep each other sharp.
We also value external training, this takes place quite regularly in the North West and we’ll be plugging those events here, and on the calendar.
As Christians we are called to serve one another. There are loads of ways you can get involved in the life of St John’s and serve the other members of the family.
Here are some of the ways:
There are lots more ways. If there’s a ministry you think the church family should consider, please speak to George.