JAKE STIMPSON | CHURCH-PLANTING | CHURCH | BODY OF CHRIST | BRIDE OF CHRIST | KINGDOM OF PRIESTS
The church is more than a building, more than a weekly religious meeting. It’s the Family of God, the Bride of Christ, the Salt or the Earth, the Body of Christ… the representative of God on the earth.
JAKE STIMPSON | CHURCH-PLANTING | CHURCH | COMMUNITY | NEW TESTAMENT | LOVE | SERVE | KOINONIA
John 13:34-35 – 34 I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another.” The Bible’s picture of the church is more than just a weekly gathering. It’s a family who lay their lives down for one another.
JAKE STIMPSON | CHURCH-PLANTING | CHURCH | COMMUNITY | BOOK OF ACTS | GIFTS | BODY | GRACE
Ephesians 4:15-16 – “Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” When Jesus launched the church, He envisioned it as a community in which every member had a part to play, and when everyone was doing what they were made to do, the body would grow. You matter.
ESTABLISHING CHURCHES 4 - THE POWER AND PRESENCE OF GOD
JAKE STIMPSON | CHURCH-PLANTING | CHURCH | COMMUNITY | BOOK OF ACTS | POWER | HOLY SPIRIT
Describing the early church, Acts 2:43 says, “And awe came upon every soul.” Time and again, the New Testament applies the same words to the early church: awe, wonder, amazement, astonishment… Compared to everything seen until that point, the church was different, the church was otherworldly. Because the church was filled with the very real power and presence of God. From the very beginning, God’s Spirit and power dwelt in His church. It is meant to be no different today.
ESTABLISHING CHURCHES 3 - Five Characteristics of this New Kind of Community
JAKE STIMPSON | CHURCH-PLANTING | CHURCH | COMMUNITY | LOVE | UNITY | WORD OF GOD | BOOK OF ACTS
Does something about the American church experience seem odd to you? Like it’s so different from what we see in the New Testament? If you’ve ever felt like that, you’re not alone. Jesus’ heart for the church was not to have a weekly religious meeting but to have a community of radical love, unity, and devotion to the Word of God, a community that would bring healing and restoration to a broken world.
JAKE STIMPSON | CHURCH-PLANTING | CHURCH | COMMUNITY | KOINONIA | ACTS 2 | ACTS 4 | LOVE | FELLOWSHIP
The New Testament picture of church is more than a building with a steeple and stained glass windows. It’s more than a weekly religious service. It’s a life-changing, devil-stomping, sin-crushing community of love.