Well friends – that terrifying yet exciting moment has come for us as it comes for every child with the desire to grow up – it’s time for The Outpost to take off the training wheels.
Maybe you haven’t realized it, but the last year in the theatre has been practice for this Sunday and all that follows. According to God’s perfect timing, we’ve been slowly building a church core, slowly working out a system of leadership and delegated authority, slowly establishing the necessary roots downward into Weaverville’s mountainous, rocky soil, before sending our shoots of growth “above ground –“ but now it’s time to grow “up.”
You should know that what I see, and what the elders see, and what many others see when looking off into our future, is a growing church that reaches into the hundreds – 300 or 400 strong – and which is being used by God in a multitude of unique ways to begin a process of revival & renewal that will transform this town and this County in both spiritual and physical ways.
Biblically and historically, “revival” is what happens within a church community where the Holy Spirit has free reign because those Believers have overwhelmingly accepted and acknowledged, by faith, the rule of Christ in their lives – that is the definition of the presence of the Kingdom of God!
Once there is revival of the Kingdom among God’s children, the “domino-effect” is “renewal” in the surrounding community. That is because “side-effects” of the Kingdom of God begin to spill out of the church and into the streets! What are they? 1) An out-pouring of righteousness (the capacity to be blessed), 2) peace (inner prosperity/ serenity) and 3) joy (Rom. 14:17). An out-pouring of 4) transforming power -- the kind that heals the sick, makes alcoholics sober and turns depressed people into healthy people (1 Cor. 4:20), 5) present certainty (Heb.12:28,29) and 6), future hope (2 Tim.4:18) – and I believe it’s coming. Are you ready to be part of a wild ride? God has just removed the training wheels…
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