In this series, we’re trying to wrestle with how significantly Jesus changes a life. Jesus himself described it as someone starting over, being born again.
One of the first Christian leaders, Paul, said it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV): “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
This might make it sound like a one time thing, but it’s actually just the beginning of constant transformation. Here’s how Paul put it in Romans 12:1-2 (ESV): “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.“
Like when a baby is born, all kinds of development suddenly kickstarts – breathing air, feeding by mouth, seeing unfiltered light, and more. No longer in the womb, a baby’s mind and body start transforming to adapt to a new world.
In coming to earth as Jesus, then dying and rising again to destroy death’s power over humanity, God has reset the world. We can be born afresh into a new world – the kingdom of God.
If you’ve never accepted his offer to reset your life, to make you a new creation, then it’s quite simple. Tell Jesus, then tell someone else.
Start by telling Jesus. Simply pray, and ask him to let you start over. Apologize for all the things you’ve said, done and thought to turn away from him, and tell Jesus you want to turn back to him.
Then tell others. First, let me know, and another Christian in your life who can support you. Then, tell the world, by being baptized. We are about to celebrate Redeemer Church / Redeem the Commute’s first baptism on February 8th, and we’d love for you to be next. This is the way to show on the outside what God is already doing on the inside.
Then follow this series to learn how Jesus intends to transform each area of our lives. How we adapt to the kingdom of God, even in the midst of a world where others haven’t. We’ll look at these key areas of life:
Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I'm Ryan, your host of the Daily Challenges. Normally, we follow a weekly rhythm that helps us explore different topic and how following Jesus impacts to that topic. This week is going to be a little different. We're going to be taking an opportunity to just kind of see where we're as a community. Now, you probably know this is a mobile app and website for busy commuters. We're also trying to become a Church community. As we explore what it means to follow Jesus as individual people engaged and in a busy lifestyle. I want to make sure that we're completely disconnected from one another. Even though we're usually quite scattered as a community, we want to take time to gather as well.
As a gathered community, we want to make sure that we're committed to some of the same things in common. That's why through this week, this week alone it's going to be kind of a special week. We're going to be looking at each of the things our community is committed to, one-by-one and seeing how we're doing as a community, by hearing the stories of individuals, who are part of our growing online community or in-person courses, who are seeing their lives changed. We hope they'll inspire you to see some transformation on your own life as well.
Five things that we're committed to as a community; I'll start with being committed to growth in discipleship. We have some common content to learn together. We also want to be committed to God in worship, committed to generosity in our resources, committed to grace in our lifestyles and witness, and finally, committed to groups in community. Well, today is Wednesday. As part of our commitment this week to looking at the five things that the Redeem the Commute community is meant to be committed to as it becomes Redeemer Church, today we're looking at how we want to be committed to God in worship.
When we had a baptism service, about a month ago, we had a number of people come out and experienced the Redeem the Commute community for the first time in-person. One of those people came to the service, heard some inspiring music, heard me speaking on grace and baptism, and afterwards, came right up to me and said, "Wow, why don't we do this all the time?" That was really encouraging to hear. I'm quite ready for it, but the fact that somebody wants that is a really good sign that we're on the right track as a community.
We're learning what it means to follow Jesus, those who are ready to actually worship Him as Lord and Savior. That's really where we've headed as a community. It's the fullness of Church. Church includes the opportunity to meet regularly to worship God, sing songs, pray together and learn together as one large group community, not just small groups.
When you hear the word "Church," what do you think about it? You probably think of a building, right? Or maybe an institution or denomination or weekly event that people go to. I can't really blame you. That's one way the word can be interpreted in the English language. There is much more to the word "Church" than that. Church community is actually a word from … The word "Church" actually comes from the Greek, "Ekklesia," which means gathering of people called out for a specific purpose.
See, there is a gathered mode. They're gathered community of people. They're also called out for a purpose. They have a job to do out in the world. I think this describes a community of people who are gathered, so they can be scattered. Both modes are important for the Church. I know our mind usually goes to the gathered mode first, but we need to make sure Church communities are effective in the scattered mode as well. That's what we're going to try to be as a Church community. As Redeem the Commute becomes Redeemer Church, we want to make sure that we're effective in scattered mode first, that we're learning to follow Jesus on our own through our website and mobile app that we're praying, that we're gathering together in small group communities.
Then, we're going to start gather together for large public worship occasions, starting this fall. At least every month, we're going to start meeting regularly, just to worship God, learn together, pray together, sing songs together. That's going to be the gathered mode of worship for us as a community. We can be effective both in gathered and scattered mode.
Now, to be ready for that kind of ambitious goal of meeting regularly for worship starting this fall, it's going to take an army of volunteers and people who are gifted in various things like music, children's ministry, who are good welcomers, who are good in technology, things like that. It's going to take a number of volunteers. To be honest, we haven't met enough yet. If you're one of those quiet people watching Redeem the Commute's content, you haven't reached out yet to let me know that you're part of our community that you'd want to come in-person to worship with us, and you have those kinds of gifts that I'd love to hear from you.
Like I said, we need those who are gifted in music, those who are gifted with technology, those who are gifted in welcoming and serving others, making a good cup of coffee, maybe, and those who can simply let us know they're going to be part of this community as it starts to meet together regularly for worship. We need to know that you're committed to being a part of this before we take the huge risk of actually going ahead and launching a regular worship services.
This is a very strange way to start a Church. Normally Churches start gathered, start just having services and then eventually you try to get people to be followers of Jesus for the rest of the week. We've gone about the opposite way. We started by paying attention to Monday to Friday and Saturday, and now, we're going to add Sunday to our routine. We need your help to do that. I'd love to hear from you. That's why your challenge today is to fill in our worship survey. You'll find a link to it right at the bottom of today's content. Let us know. Leave your email address, please, so we can get in touch if you'd like to be involved, or just let us know what kind of worship experience is going to best help you worship God as part of this community.
That's your challenge for today to complete that survey, maybe talk with your group first if you're meeting regularly with a group, talk over what kind of worship experience would be best for you. It makes sense for you to how children in worship with adults or to have children's ministry as a separate occasion from adult worship. How long would the speaking be? Where it would be held, in a Church building with a steeple or in public space? Those are the kinds of questions we have on our worship survey.
