A New Year affords us a moment to pause and ask ourselves: how do I invest my time, money, passions and relationships wisely in 2017 to ensure I make the most of the year? How can I change old habits, take more risks, grow as a person and ensure I don’t stagnate?
With those questions in mind, we’re going to do a short five week series starting on 8th January 2017, and host two seminars to help us start the new year on the right trajectory. So here are the five things we’re going to encourage to you invest in and, as you’ll see, they’re all to do with being made in the image of God. To be fully and truly human, is to understand and live out our identity as image bearers of God.
(1) Invest in friendships
We are made in the image of a triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and therefore part of our DNA is that we are built for relationships. Just as God himself is a community and enjoys intimacy, affection and love within that community, so we too are built for community and are to find intimacy, affection and love through friendship. That is why in a perfect paradise we are told (Genesis 2:18):
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone”
God provided for Adam with a companion. So making friends and living our lives in community is how we are made. The book of Proverbs says that choosing friends/partners wisely is one of the great secrets to success in life, so it’s important to invest wisely in 2017.
Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm (Proverbs 13:20)
A good way to invest in friendships is to start or join a Life Group.
(2) Invest in your gifts
Another dynamic of being made in the image of a triune God is that the church is both a unity and a plurality, just as God himself is both one (a unity) and three (a plurality). So the church is a unity, in that we are united under Jesus with one baptism, one Holy Spirit, one God and one faith (1 Corinthians 12:2-6, 12-14). And we are a plurality, in that each of us has different gifts, different backgrounds, different ideas, different personalities… we’re all different! And we are to bring our differences and our gifts to make up the one body (1 Corinthians 12:7-11 and 14-31).
Each of us has different gifts, given to us by God. We are not to worry about the gifts we don’t have, or be envious about other people’s gifts; instead we’re to discover our gifts and use them to serve the church and glorify God. When we do, we become the people God made us to be… we become fully alive! So it’s important to invest in our gifts as we start 2017.
If you’re interested in discovering more about your gifts have a read of this blog post and complete the questionnaire within it. You might also like to attend our 6.30 Leadership training course where we’ll be thinking about how to grow and use our gifts.
(3) Invest in the city
Another aspect of being made in the image of a triune God is we are an overflowing people. Let me explain. Just as God’s love and joy is always overflowing as the Father loves the Son, who loves the Spirit, who loves the Father, and so on and so forth… in a divine dance that never ceases and never lacks; so too the church should overflow with the love and joy we have received from God and it should overflow not just into one another but into Dublin, the city in which he has placed us.
God himself has shown us how this works, when out of an overflow of love and joy he made the world. Creation was not an accident or an afterthought (like modern atheism and ancient religions would have us believe). Creation was also not necessary so God could have people in submission to him (as Islam might say). Creation was an overflow of love and joy from the divine community.
But not just in creation, even more so in redemption, this overflow of love was demonstrated as God’s love overflowed again in the sending of his son, “who for the joy set before him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). And then he commissions us: “as the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). We too are sent into the city of Dublin, to make a positive impact, as we overflow with the love and joy of God in our lives. So God wants us to face outwards, consider the great city of Dublin and think about how we can invest in it for the common good of the people, and ultimately the salvation of many.
(4) Invest in God
If our need and desire to make friends comes from being made in God’s image; if our gifts and abilities are given us by God; and if we are sent by God with his overflowing love into Dublin, it goes without saying that we need to get to know the God in whose image we are made. But each of us knows that rival gods appear in our lives everyday. They are usually good things (e.g. work, family, friendship, love or a social/charitable cause) that become ultimate things… things we cannot do without!
As we start 2017 we need to consider what it means to invest in our relationship with God. Every relationship requires time and intentionality, and every relationship goes through ups and downs, but everyone knows a good long-lasting and fruitful relationship requires investment and sacrifice. So it is with God. Sometimes our relationship with him feels easy and he seems close. Other times it’s hard and he seems far away. But through all the seasons we must invest in him.
If you want to consider how to invest in your relationship with God and how to develop a daily devotional life, do read the blog post ‘Prayer – Getting Started‘ and consider joining a Life Group.
(5) Invest in the church
In the final week of our series we will look at what it means to invest in the church; after all it is Christ’s body and we are his ambassadors (his hands and feet) on earth. Most people have never thought about the church as something to ‘invest in’, as for most people church is something you attend, or consume, or take part in every now and again. As Tim Keller highlights, we have bought into the consumeristic and experiential view of the western world when it comes to church:
Instead of looking to the Word of God to be their norm and their guide, people tend to look to their own experience, feelings, intuitions, and impressions to be their guide. Emotion and expression are very good, but when you make it more important than the Word of God, or put it higher than the Word of God, it becomes an idol.
He goes on to say
Instead of looking to the church to give themselves into community, people look to the church to get the services they want. They have emotional, vocational, and relational needs and they go to a church because it is a good place to network. People see the church as a mall, rather than a family that they give themselves to. Consumerism becomes the idol — that is, my felt needs become an idol; they are more important than being part of a community.
The bible has a different vision for church. It’s called a family and a body, a bride and a building, a garden and a city. Each of these things need nurture and care; they need investment to ensure they’re happy and healthy, beautiful and strong, fruitful and thriving. God wants us to see church not as a meeting we attend, but as a family to which we belong. Of course we’ll receive and consume but we’ll also give and serve. And we’ll pray for it, we’ll welcome new people in, we’ll see that people are cared for, we’ll use our talents and time and treasures to serve its purpose in bringing God’s kingdom to Dublin.
Again, the 6.30 Leadership course is a great place for you to learn more about to serve the church and the city of Dublin more strategically. And after our service on 5th February we’ll have our AGM… so don’t miss that!!
Two Seminars & an AGM (6.15pm, after the service)
Sharing My Faith (22nd January 2017)
This seminar will be a very practical look at how we can share our faith with people who don’t know Jesus. How do I share my testimony? How do I share the gospel? How do I answer their objections to my faith? How do I ask them questions so they see the cracks in their thinking? How can we awaken a desire in people to start seeking God and asking questions?
Decision Making Seminar (29th January 2017)
We run this every year and it’s always well received. What should I do with the rest of my life? Who should I marry? Will I ever get married… and what if I don’t? What job shall I do? Shall I stay in Dublin or move away? This seminar helps you think through how to answer these questions without waiting for ‘the will of God’ to be revealed in a dream, in the sky, in peace in your heart, through a fleece, through a prophecy, through randomly opening the Bible or through any other of the many dubious tactics we often use to discern God’s will and make decisions.
Christ City Church AGM (5th February 2017)
Do join us as we look at the church finances: what we have coming in, how we have spent the money, how that aligns with our vision and values, and how we’re looking to spend our money in 2017 as we ask God to keep growing in depth and number.
I hope we’ll see you on at a Sunday Gathering in the New Year, and do sign up for 6.30 Leadership if you’re interested.