Dear First Methodist Family,

The message series called "The Church" has only one weekend left, and I hope you’ve been following along in person, by pod-cast, or by going through the scriptures and study guide. We’ve talked about the beginning of the church as found in the Book of Acts and we’ve learned that the church is a mission and a movement. It’s not about a building; it not about a liturgy; its not about a style. It’s about the simple idea that transformed Jerusalem 2000 years ago: that God has done something unique in our midst, and He sent His Son as the payment for our sin, and He raised Him from the dead.

So, as we gather each weekend in worship and Sunday School in the Name of Jesus, and as this movement continues in spite of our tendency to drift toward being insider-focused, our congregation (ecclesia) has an inherent understanding that we know that "church" is transcultural, transgenerational, that it’s for all nations, and for all people.

That brings us back to Waco, Texas, where a group of people who were planted here in 1850, continue that movement. That brings us to us, because now it’s our turn. And there is a sense in which, in our city and in our community, God has handed us the baton. Fifteen years ago, we looked at our church, our ecclesia, and asked God to show us what bold things could we do to be the church we were called to be.

We’ve moved ahead, being part of the extension of what happened two thousand years ago. Because of your hard work, because you’ve been wiling to take risks, we are uniquely positioned in our community to move ahead with strength. By beginning new campuses, we will be able to “write” Chapter 29 of the Book of Acts right here! Life Church in South Waco is growing stronger every week and our Speegleville campus is preparing for an exciting future of ministry. Our Robinson campus will begin preview services in Robison in a week, which will allow us to reach new people with the grace message of Jesus Christ. In fact, the Robinson Campus will be called “Grace Fellowship.” We have five weekend worship services on our main campus; each service has an important and unique purpose in our overall mission.

We are in this moment in the life of First Methodist of Waco, uniquely positioned to do something that very few churches have had an opportunity to do. We have an opportunity to step out in faith and influence our community and world with boldness. But for us to be effective in this pioneering moment, everybody needs to be involved at some level. At the beginning of this series, we talked about boldness of the early church and I asked you to pray about being bold. And some of you wear your “God is Big Enough” bracelet as a reminder to be bold. We even prayed in worship “God help us to be bold, exhibit your power amongst us in such a way that we would be bold.” That was the prayer of the First Century church. If ever there was a time in the life of our church that we need to be bold and take risks, it’s now! So here is what I need you to do: I need you to be bold in four areas.

(1) I need you to be bold in your invitations. If you quit inviting, over time we will become a very insider- focused congregation (ecclesia) and we will no longer be on task with our Acts 29 mission.

(2) I need you to be bold in your volunteering. We’re creating new campuses, new mission stations, and new ministries all through our church. This weekend we will ask you to bring a card to the altar stating your boldness in getting off the sidelines and getting on mission. Your boldness in volunteering matters.

(3) And then we need you to be bold in your generosity and giving. The resource challenge will be met by your boldness and amazing things will happen. Just like in the Book of Acts, when the Spirit fell, there was an outbreak of generosity.

(4) And finally, be bold in your prayers, and I want to suggest specifically how to pray. First of all, you can continue to pray for yourself and your family. Pray for that test, that exam, that trip to the doctor, that financial need, for peace, for joy, for that vacation, for your day for personal healing. But after you pray all those important prayers, pray some bold prayers. Think about that person who never darkens the door of the church and I’m asking you to pray for him/her/them every single day. I hope you’ll pray boldly. Nobody else is praying, so I’m asking you to pray.

But this is not a “me” thing, this is a “we” thing – as we move into the next part of our time together and our responsibility and our opportunity as a church, let’s do this in community. If you could see you and if you could see us the way I see you and the way I see us, you would be so extraordinarily excited about what we could do together to make a difference in this city and to model how to impact the city for others. But for us to do that, everybody needs to be involved at some level. I hope you’ll consider the part God is leading you to play. Let’s give boldly, let’s volunteer boldly, lets invite boldly, because we have been invited to be part of this thing that God has begun and will continue to the very end of this age.