Liberty People,
What a powerful presence of the Lord we had together yesterday. I am still humming, “come take this vineyard you planted. . . make us new wine!” How wonderful it is when the Spirit blows and takes us to new places of refreshing. As I announced yesterday, please know that you are invited to join a time of prayer each Sunday morning at 8am. We will spend about 30 minutes in God’s presence. It is a great way to start your Sunday. Feel free to turn your audio/video on or off and lean in as much or little as you desire. The link is the same from our church service that is also found on our website: Liberty Sunday Prayer
We dove in to a new “Together” topic in our series yesterday, discussing being Together in Missions. As you know this is a topic so close to my heart. Let’s keep the story of Jesus, His lordship, and communicating that Gospel at the center piece and keep the spokes of compassion, justice, creation care and aspects of discipleship connected to that hub. If someone wants to draw up or make a diagram of this for us, I think that would be great for our missions team. 😊
LVC leadership has recently started a missions emphasis that is being led by Dawn Roberson. Please stay tuned in the weeks to come about the different happenings, initiatives, and opportunities that will be developed. I am personally thrilled that Dawn is leading the charge on this!
While it is true that each of us will not likely cross a cultural barrier, learn another language, and become a vocational missionary, we all have a part to play in being together in mission. It truly is our identity as sent people, commissioned by the Lord. Here are some cool ways that I have seen people get involved in cross-cultural missions over the years and ones that you can consider. Talk to me to learn more about how to get moving on any of them:
- Pray for the unreached people group of the day at http://www.joshuaproject.net. Or set your alarm to pray at 9:38am or 9:38 pm to pray out Mathew 9:38 (Lord of the harvest, send workers into the field).
- Choose to support a missionary or specific mission on a one time or monthly basis. I encourage monthly as it helps to take ownership, get to know specific missionaries or projects, and keeps you involved every month.
- Gather a group of believers together once a month to pray for an encourage a missionary that you all know.
- Take a short-term missions trip domestically or internationally
- Talk to Pastor John about discovering what people groups live around you and ways to connect. My role at Global Frontier Missions helps people do this all the time.
- Pray and ask the Lord, are you calling me? Do you want me to go? Is this my time?
- Join the missions team at LVC by contacting Dawn Roberson
The enthusiasm that was shown as we dove into the Great Commission text yesterday was one of the most encouraging times for me so far at Liberty. To be pastoring a church who cares about the mission of God and who desires to take it seriously is music to my ears. Stay tuned to what the missions team drums up in the days to come but don’t wait on us!! There are ways to get involved now just by carving a few minutes out of your schedule. I can’t believe that we get to do this! 😊
For the Kingdom,
John
John D. Trotter
Senior Pastor, Liberty Vineyard Church
Sunday’s sermon: Together in Missions (Pastor John Trotter)