We are well on our way into a little Summer series called Why We’re Here: Unpacking Our Purpose. It’s about the statement that we faithfully recite every week. Almost a decade ago, we turned to the Bible to discover our purpose as a church and found it in the words of Jesus’ Great Commandment and Great Commission, as well as the book of Acts, chapter 2, where the church is born.
From that, we learned that the church exists to grow:
Warmer through fellowship—all those who believed were together and had all things in common
Deeper through discipleship— And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching
Stronger through worship—breaking bread from house to house
Broader through ministry—they began selling their property and possessions and were dividing them up with all, as anyone might have need.
Larger through evangelism— the Lord was adding to their number daily those who were being saved.
Jesus in the Gospels and Luke in Acts provide us with the five elements of a church’s purpose, filtered through the lens of growth. If you look carefully, you’ll see that we have carefully incorporated these elements into our purpose statement.
We are here to lead people on the journey to authentic faith (discipleship) by loving God (worship), loving our neighbors, (ministry) sharing Jesus (evangelism,), and growing in grace together (fellowship).
Now we’ve had a little fun with AI at the beginning of our messages, where I’ve asked it to rephrase our purpose statement in the voice of well-known characters. My favorite so far has been Michael Scott from The Office. I asked for requests, and here are a few.
John Wayne
Alright, pilgrim, gather 'round. This here ain't complicated, but it's important. It's our purpose, plain and simple.
We're here to lead folks. And not just across some dusty trail. We're settin' 'em on a journey to authentic faith. The kind that holds true when the chips are down. No phony business.
How do we do it?
First off, you gotta love God. That's where it all starts. Respect the Almighty.
Then, you gotta love your neighbors. You look out for 'em. A man helps his kin, helps his community. It's the right thing to do.
And you gotta share Jesus. You tell the truth. No fancy words, just the honest-to-goodness facts. It's a message worth spreadin’.
And we do it together. Like a good outfit. We grow in grace together. We get stronger, shoulder to shoulder. That's how we get the job done.
Now, let's ride.
Dirty Harry
You gotta ask yourself one question: "What's my purpose?" Well, I'm here to tell ya.
We're here to lead people. Not hold their hand. We're pointing 'em to the only path worth walkin': authentic faith. The real deal. No fakes.
First, you gotta square up with the big man. You love God. It's the first rule.
Then, you look out for your own. Your neighbors. If they're in a jam, you step up. That's how it works. You feel lucky?
And you tell 'em the truth. You share Jesus. No sugar-coating it. Just the facts, straight.
And you do it together. Like a unit. You get stronger in this thing. You grow in grace together.
Now, are you gonna stand there with your thumb up your back pocket, or are you gonna get the job done? Make my day.
We probably need to tone down the testosterone, so here’s a request from someone that should do the trick.
Barbie
Alright, you guys, like, gather 'round! Oh my gosh, this is, like, totally our mission statement! It's so amazing!
So, we're here to lead everyone on the best journey ever! It's not just a road trip to the beach, although that sounds super fun! This is a journey to authentic faith! It's, like, being your true self, but for your heart!
And we do it with, like, so much love! We're loving God with all of our sparkly, glittery hearts! And we're also loving our neighbors, because, you know, sharing is caring! It's so much better to do things together, like a big, beautiful sleepover!
Then, we're sharing Jesus! It's like we're giving everyone the best gift ever, like a new pair of shoes or a super cute dreamhouse! And we're growing in grace together, because we're a team! We're like a squad! We help each other be the best versions of ourselves, and we all get to sparkle a little brighter!
Come on, let's go! It's gonna be fabulous!
I decided to take things up a notch with AI. It’s just too much fun. Here’s a podcast it made for me, summarizing last week’s message.
So, last week covered what we mean when we say we want to lead people. Today, we’ll zoom in on how we want to lead people on a journey—a journey of faith.
Framing the Christian life as a journey goes all the way back to the beginning. Two thousand years ago, Luke recorded how the Jewish leaders began persecuting the newly born church. They called in a zealous, rising star among their ranks to quell this movement. His name was Saul. But Acts chronicles the wondrous and miraculous account of how he met Christ and became the greatest missionary of all time. You probably know him as Paul. Acts 9 gives the account of his conversion. Look carefully at how that chapter begins.
1 Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Acts 9:1–2 (LSB)
Notice how Luke refers to Christians as being part of a movement called "The Way," a term we see repeated throughout Acts.
9 But when some were becoming hardened and were not believing, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he left them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. Acts 19:9 (LSB)
23 Now about that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the Way. Acts 19:23 (LSB)
4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering both men and women into prisons, Acts 22:4 (LSB)
14 “But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets; Acts 24:14 (LSB)
22 But Felix, having a more accurate knowledge about the Way, put them off, saying, “When Lysias the commander comes down, I will decide your case.” Acts 24:22 (LSB)
This tells us something interesting about the early church. They called themselves, and others knew them as, “The Way.” We must ask why. It can’t be random. The answer is found when we study the Greek word Luke uses: hodos. Forms of this word occur 100 times in the NT, which makes sense when you consider it literally means a path, a road, a highway, in texts such as,
8 And most of the crowd spread their garments in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. Matthew 21:8 (LSB)
However, as is often the case with many words, the literal becomes metaphorical.
21 And they questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, we know that You speak and teach correctly, and You are not partial to any, but teach the way (hodos) of God in truth. Luke 20:21 (LSB)
Hodos in Luke 20:21 retains the idea of a path or journey, but it’s in the sense of a “habitual manner or mode of being, behaving.”1 Keep that in mind and look with me at one of the most well-known verses in all of Scripture. Jesus said,
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:6 (LSB)
Jesus reveals that the way to God is not a system of rule-keeping, ritual-performing, or even creed-maintaining, but instead is a person, and that person is exclusively himself. He invites all—regardless of background, ethnicity, or former life—to follow him and become part of a community that makes him the center of their being. It is such a radical calling that all those who set out on the journey are unmistakably different from the ways of the world.
I cannot think of this without also thinking of the Mandalorians of the Star Wars universe. Humor me, here. I’m a hopeless nerd. The Mandalorians are beskar-armored, helmet-wearing bounty hunters defined by their unshakeable ethic: "This is the Way." Their clan isn't bound by ethnicity or blood; it's forged by unwavering adherence to their code, and this philosophy is the guiding principle that shapes their lives, loyalty, and dedication to their foundlings (children). Even though their history is rife with conflict—clashes with the Jedi, brutal civil wars, and the devastating "Great Purge" by the Empire that scattered them across the galaxy and left Mandalore a scarred wasteland—it's this unwavering code that continues to bind them. It's the core of their enduring spirit, a testament to how "the Way" defines their very existence, emphasizing duty, honor, and the preservation of their ancient warrior traditions.
Now listen to the words of one Bible scholar who ties it all together for us.
…the use of “the Way” may to some extent be taken as referring to the mode of Christian life and morals, which resonates as well with central scriptural themes… It seems that “the Way” is used in Acts because of the claim of Jesus’ followers that they had found “the way” through Christ… this is “the distinctive element by which they defined themselves as heirs to the way of truth and righteousness as distinct from others” ... “The Way” is also applied in Christ-related, exclusivist terms (compare John 14:6), meaning Christ is viewed as the only “way” who demands exclusive loyalty; this proclamation and the faith-based and self-sacrificial lifestyle it demanded became a marker for the early church of identity and membership.2
As one fellow puts it, The Way is a “metaphor of movement.”3 And that’s just another means of saying that the Christian life is a journey, a faith journey.
Once again, the dictionary helps us flesh this out. Journey is defined as,
an act of traveling from one place to another
a long and often difficult process of personal change and development
A journey is about the space in between where you start and where you end up. And what happens along the way is what changes you. That’s the faith journey in a nutshell. However, unlike most journeys, literal or figurative, the Christian life is about always traveling and never arriving this side of the New Heaven and Earth, which takes me back to Paul, whose faith journey began on the way to Damascus, where he “traveled on the way against the Way, yet he was stopped on the way to join the Way.”4 Consider what Paul wrote to the church at Philippi.
1 Finally, my dear friends, be glad that you belong to the Lord. It doesn’t bother me to write the same things to you that I have written before. In fact, it is for your own good. 2 Watch out for those people who behave like dogs! They are evil and want to do more than just circumcise you. 3 But we are the ones who are truly circumcised, because we worship by the power of God’s Spirit and take pride in Christ Jesus. We don’t brag about what we have done, 4 although I could. Others may brag about themselves, but I have more reason to brag than anyone else. 5 I was circumcised when I was eight days old, and I am from the nation of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin. I am a true Hebrew. As a Pharisee, I strictly obeyed the Law of Moses. 6 And I was so eager that I even made trouble for the church. I did everything the Law demands in order to please God. 7 But Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless. 8 Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ 9 and to know that I belong to him. I could not make myself acceptable to God by obeying the Law of Moses. God accepted me simply because of my faith in Christ. 10 All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life. I want to suffer and die as he did, 11 so that somehow I also may be raised to life. 12 I have not yet reached my goal, and I am not perfect. But Christ has taken hold of me. So I keep on running and struggling to take hold of the prize. 13 My friends, I don’t feel that I have already arrived. But I forget what is behind, and I struggle for what is ahead. 14 I run toward the goal, so that I can win the prize of being called to heaven. This is the prize that God offers because of what Christ Jesus has done. Philippians 3:1–14 (CEV)
In other words, Paul was on a journey he would never complete until Jesus returns to set things back to rights. This is so important because many churches and Christians give the impression that when it comes to Jesus, the Bible, and Christianity, they have arrived (just like the Jewish religious institution Paul was once a part of). They have all the answers, and everything is black and white. It’s about a journey for them, but they act like they’ve already traveled it, found the destination, bought a condo, and moved in. And if you just do everything they say the way they say it, you can move in too. If Paul the Apostle could not say that, neither can we.
This is behind what we mean when we say in our purpose statement that we are here to lead people on a faith journey. We haven’t arrived, but we know the way—Jesus. We don’t have all the answers, but we follow the One who does. The journey is a challenge, but we take it together.
Let’s close with a story about what has been called the greatest rescue mission of World War II. During the final stages of the war, American airmen faced perilous missions over southern Europe, targeting Nazi oil supplies. Their planes, often described as "flying tin cans," braved intense anti-aircraft fire, leading to many being shot down. As injured pilots parachuted into occupied Yugoslavia, they braced for capture or death.
But what awaited them was astonishing. Serbian peasants, risking their lives, formed remarkable rescue teams. Their mission: locate downed airmen and rush them to safety before the Nazis could. These brave villagers fed and sheltered over 500 American airmen, keeping them safe on enemy soil.
This incredible effort became known as Operation Halyard. The rescue culminated in a daring plan involving a secret landing strip and a clandestine evacuation. Every single American airman was saved.
The journey wasn't over once rescued. To reach the evacuation site, the airmen spent weeks trekking with Serbian freedom fighters who knew the secret paths. Despite significant language barriers, the Serbians guided them every step of the way. Saved from immediate danger, the airmen now had to walk to freedom.
Operation Halyard highlights a profound truth: being rescued from one situation often sets us on a new journey toward something else entirely..
“For the airmen it was a journey of survival. For us it's a journey of faith. The One who saved us is now calling us to walk. It's nonnegotiable. Though snatched from spiritual death, we soon discover that the Christian life isn't an arrival; it's an adventure. Christ rescues us then he points us to the path of following him.”5
Merriam-Webster, I. (2003). In Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary. (Eleventh ed.). Merriam-Webster, Inc.
Bokedal, T. (2016). Way, the. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, L. Wentz, E. Ritzema, & W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Lexham Press.
https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/christian-life-pilgrimage
Bokedal, LBD.
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2010/september/3091310.html