Hitting the Target

You know, whether it's archery, darts, or anything else, anyone can get a bullseye... if you draw the target after you've fired the arrow/dart. The key to improving, though, is to set the target out in front of you, shoot the arrow/dart, and then look to see how you've done. Then you do it again... and again... and again.

Of course the question, for those of us who would call ourselves followers of Jesus, is this: what's the target? In other words, what are we aiming for? What's a bullseye? And how will we know if we're getting better?

Well, here at NPC we have set out the target in the following terms: "Our Mission is to help people experience a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ." While the Bible can sometimes seem a little arcane and difficult to understand in places, there is absolutely no doubt that God invites us to grow and change, to become more like Jesus (e.g. John 3.3, 2 Corinthians 3.18 and 5.17, Ephesians 4.11-15. This is not something we do for ourselves, mind you, simply trying hard to be like Jesus. It is God's Spirit at work within us, though we do need to open ourselves and partner with the Spirit in this work.) And there is no doubt that those of us who have experienced and are experiencing this transformation are called, also by the work and power of the Holy Spirit, to introduce others to the life-changing love of God as seen in Jesus (e.g. Matthew 28.18-20, Acts 1.8, 1 Peter 3.15-16).

Great, sounds good! But there's an old piece of wisdom that crops up in my mind at this point. Maybe you've heard it before: "You can't lead someone somewhere that you have not been to yourself." If we are setting a target of "helping others experience a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ" when we have not experienced or are not experiencing that kind of life-changing relationship ourselves, then we are doomed to failure from the start.

Over these next few weeks, we are going to be looking at the question of what it means to grow in Christ, to mature spiritually. Like the stages of development in our physical, emotional and intellectual growth, there are also stages of growth and development in our relationship with God. If it is true that "we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ" (Ephesians 4.15), then maybe we can see similar stages in our spiritual growth, i.e. Birth, Infancy, Childhood, Adolescence, Young Adulthood, and Adulthood.

Please understand, I have no interest in wagging my finger at you or anyone else for not being spiritual enough or mature enough. I simply want us to be able to take an honest, searching look at ourselves so we can each figure out where we might be on this continuum of growth. Then we will be able to see more clearly where the target is for us and ask the Holy Spirit to start moving us closer to bullseye, closer to Jesus.

As always, if you can't make it out to the services (Sundays at 10am), you can catch up by downloading an audio recording of the messages HERE. Hope to see you soon!