Life should be defined as the passionate pursuit of God. It should be marked by a hatred of sin in the believer’s life and an unquenchable desire for the fame of Jesus, taking every opportunity to share the gospel with a fallen world. If that is life, how are your vital signs? Can you find a pulse in the community of your church?

Now, contrary to any Rambo movies you may have seen, wars are not fought by individuals. Armies fight wars.

The number of seats we fill will not determine the legacy of our churches. The depth to which the gospel penetrates those lives will determine our legacy.

Keys: Meet practical needs. Find common purposes. Use local organizations. Combine passions.

We are image bearers of God, created in his image to proclaim his greatness to the rest of creation. This is who we are, not what we do. This means that we have intrinsic value as his image bearers and that we were created for a purpose—to acknowledge the glory of our Creator.

Christian or not, we all have an intrinsic need for community. We all suffer from the isolation that sin breeds. Our neighbors are desperate to belong and be connected to a people. Some try to rebuild community through social action, campaigns, planning better cities, revitalizing neighborhood schools, or feeding the homeless. Others join gangs or

A common mistake in the church today, as we put more emphasis on contextualization and mission, is to neglect the fellowship aspects of community.

To be a missiologist is to be observant, having your eyes open to the values of people in your city and particularly in your neighborhood. It is about discovering where people find their identity, what wakes them up in the morning, where they spend their time, and where they hope to experience community.

This is how many of us see sin, as a mischievous puppy to be managed, as if we can control it with a firm tone. The problem is that sin is not a puppy but a small fire. Spurgeon posits that managing sin is like setting a small fire and attempting to control it with the sound of your voice.18 Sin that is not destroyed will set the whole house on