Making, Maturing, and Multiplying

Followers of Christ

In the previous lessons, Crossway’s Biblical Convictions represent essential theological positions that guide us for life and ministry. Next, we turn to our Ministry Philosophy that represents the specific ways we seek to function as churches on mission for the glory of God.

While there is great diversity among the churches within Crossway Network, there are specific points of focus in the way we go about our mission that are shared by all of the churches. These shared elements create a common ministry culture among all the churches.

These are designed to help Christians discover and embrace this common ministry philosophy firsthand as well as sustain and advance the heart of it as the network and individual churches grow and multiply by God’s grace.

The printable version is available here.


LESSON 2.1

Glory to God

Doing all for the Sake of His Name

God is supreme. He is our entire focus. He alone is worthy of all praise and honor. He is the reason the church exists. We seek to lift up the greatness and glory of God in all that we do without compromise.

OLD TESTAMENT

Genesis 1:1; Isaiah 40:6-8,12-17,21-26; Isaiah 46:9-10; Isaiah 51:6-7; Psalm 8

New Testament

Romans 11:33-36; 1 Corinthians 3:18-23; 1 Corinthians 10:31

 

Lesson 2.2

Gospel Centrality

Keeping the Gospel First

There is only one gospel and it is central to all of life and ministry. It is the matter of first importance. The message of the gospel is timeless and unchanging. It is the focus of our daily lives and is the only message of hope for the world.

New Testament

Romans 1:16-17; Romans 5:1-2, Romans 5:6-11; Romans 8:28-38; 1 Corinthians 1:18-30, 1 Corinthians 15:1-5; Galatians 1:8; Ephesians 1:13-14; Colossians 3:1-17; 2 Timothy 1:14; 2 Timothy 2:1; Titus 2:11-14

 

Lesson 2.3

Intentional Discipleship

Making, Maturing, and Multiplying Followers of Christ

The church is only truly growing when people are becoming Christians. Seeing people enter the kingdom of God, leading them, and helping them follow Jesus is the heart of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). As a result, our focus is on reaching people with the good news of the gospel and seeing them grow into maturity in Jesus. We desire “conversion” growth more than “transfer” growth. We realize that God, in his sovereignty, may move other Christians to serve in a Crossway Network church. We welcome these people if their hearts resonate with our vision and if they have sought to preserve the unity of the church they have come from.

New Testament

Matthew 4:19; Matthew 20:18-20; Luke 19:10; John 17:18: Acts 2:38-47: 1 Corinthians 9:19-23; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21: Colossians 1:3-6: 1 Thessalonians 2:8

 

Lesson 2.4

Every-Day Mission

Reaching your World

Without changing the message of the gospel, we seek to bring it with clarity and power into the world around us. This requires understanding the cultures in which we live and seeking to communicate the gospel in a way that connects with the people around us. We believe every follower of Jesus should be equipped and actively living out the mission of sharing the gospel and leading people to Christ. This is often best accomplished when small groups of believers work together, praying for and engaging with those in their spheres of influence.

New Testament

Matthew 4:19; Matthew 5:16; Matthew 9:37-10:42; Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 10:1-24; Colossians 4:2-6; 1 Peter 1:13-16

 

Below you will find the lessons for discussion at our first meeting. As you will see, you can fill the forms out by hand (you may print them or get them from church) or you may fill out the digital form. If you need more time on the digital form, you can save it and return to it later.

The printable version is available here.

Unit 2, Lesson 5

Biblical Comunity- Living out the “One Anothers”

We were created for relationship with both God and one another. We believe that every Christian is to be experiencing genuine relationships with others in the body of Christ. These relationships are the primary context in which the “one-anothers” of scripture are experienced. Through these relationships, we learn to become more like Christ through serving others and being served in times of need.

This is the true outworking of the New Commandment of Jesus in John 13:34-35. As we love one another, we show the world we are Jesus’ disciples. This is an important aspect of being effective as we seek to reach those around us for Christ. The world should be attracted to the love and joy that God’s people have among themselves.

We are committed to fostering this kind of relationship through small group communities.

New Testament

Matthew 22:36-40; John 13:34-35; John 17:13-21; Acts 2:41-47; 1 Corinthians 5:5-6; 1 Corinthians 12:12-3; Ephesians 2:19; Ephesians 4:25-32; James 5:16; Hebrews 3:13-14; Hebrews 10:19-25

 

Unit 2, Lesson 6

TEAM LEADERSHIP – Serving Together in Plurality

We believe in the independent authority of the local church. We believe each church is to be led by a plurality of godly men who function as pastors together. We believe the role of pastor to be one and the same with the biblical terms “overseer,” “elder” and “bishop.” Acts 20:28-29 and 1 Peter 5:1-4 use these terms interchangeably. Among the plurality of pastors, there is recognition of differing giftedness and abilities in leadership that may set some apart from others in function, but not in authority.

As leaders of a local church, the pastors are “under-shepherds” to Jesus Christ together as a team.

Note: The character of leaders and how they function together practically is also more thoroughly developed in Part 3 of Crossway’s DNA Lessons, Leadership Culture.

New Testament

Acts 1:15; Acts 14:23; Acts 15:13-22; Acts 20:28-29; Galatians 2:9; Ephesians 4:11-13; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13; 1 Timothy 3; 1 Timothy 1:5-9; Hebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 5:1-4

 

Unit 2, Lesson 7

EXPOSITIONAL PREACHING – Proclaiming the Word of God

We believe that God’s word is the best and highest that we have to offer people. We also believe that the best way we can be “the pillar and support of truth” is to unfold God’s word in our preaching and teaching in the same way in which it was given by him. For this reason, Crossway Network churches will primarily preach sermons through books of the Bible from beginning to end. At times, local church pastors will take different seasons to address the needs of their church body through topic-based messages but the main focus of delivering God’s word weekly will be expository. In our preaching, we believe the Word of God is for the work of transformation and not simply meant to be information. With this focus in mind, we will always prioritize and strive for clear application and life-change in our communication of God’s word.

OLD TESTAMeNT

Ezra 7:9-10

New Testament

Luke 24:27; John 5:36-47; John 17:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Timothy 3:15; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Timothy 4:1-6; Hebrews 4:12; 1 Peter 1:23-25; 2:1-2

 

Lesson 2.8

VIBRANT WORSHIP – Stirring our Affection for God

We were created to worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:23), which means worship is a way of life for the Christian and involves everything about us (Romans 12:1). As a significant part of this life of worship, our churches are committed to providing gathered worship settings and congregational singing where God's people worship him in spirit and in truth together. We believe we do this “in spirit” – in part by cultivating a freedom of expression as God’s Spirit engages the hearts of His people and empowers them to use their gifts and voices to worship him with excellence. We do it “in truth” by singing songs that celebrate and speak gospel truths and declare a high view of God and His glory.

OLD TESTAMENT

Psalm 7:17; Psalm 9:2,11; Psalm 95:1; Psalm 13:5-6; Psalm 30:4,11,12; Psalm 33:1-5; Psalm 57:9-10; Psalm 92:1-4; Psalm 95:1-11; Psalm 100:1-2; Psalm 150:1-6

NEW TESTAMENT

John 4:23-24; Romans 12:1; Romans 15:9; 1 Corinthians 9:19-23; 1 Corinthians 14:15; 1 Corinthians 15:1-5; Ephesians 5:18-20; Colossians 3:16-17; Hebrews 2:12; Revelation 5:6-10

 

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