Growing and Maturing in the Gospel
We are a group of people who have been captured by the grace and beauty of God as displayed in the gospel (a.k.a. the good news of Jesus Christ). But the gospel isn’t just how we begin with Christ. It’s not just the door you walk through to become a Christian. Growing and maturing as a Christian means growing and maturing in the Gospel.
Growing and Maturing in the Gospel
We are a group of people who have been captured by the grace and beauty of God as displayed in the gospel (a.k.a. the good news of Jesus Christ). But the gospel isn’t just how we begin with Christ. It’s not just the door you walk through to become a Christian. Growing and maturing as a Christian means growing and maturing in the Gospel.
It’s the gospel of Jesus Christ that saves us, and it’s the gospel of Jesus Christ that changes us. Because while Jesus meets us where we are, he never leaves us there! That journey of transformation touches every part of our lives. It changes our relationship to God, to ourselves and to others. And it dramatically affects the way we relate to the world. The gospel is what we practice, and the gospel is what we preach.
To be captured by the gospel means you’ve been made a part of God’s people. It means that you are the church. The buildings you pass with crosses on top (and there are a ton of them in Nashville!) are not the church. The church is not the pastor or the paid staff. The church is not a show you go to Sunday morning. The church is the people of God. At Midtown, we see ourselves as a local expression of that spiritual reality, worshiping and working together until Christ returns. That work and worship isn’t best left to the professionals – it’s the calling on every follower of Jesus. For this reason, we believe that the purpose of Midtown is to equip and form God’s people for worshiping God and for participating in God’s work in the world.
We are convicted that God has called us to participate in the work of equipping his people through planting churches that remain connected. It will take a whole movement of churches committed to the gospel and to personal and social change. We want to be part of the transformation by planting churches that create new space for new people to be exposed to, and transformed by, the gospel. Planting new churches also creates opportunities within Midtown for people to step into new roles and be equipped in new and exciting ways. By staying connected, we are able to pool and share resources, provide mentoring and accountability for staff and develop a dynamic, creative environment. Are there costs to this model? Absolutely! And we believe they are more than worth it.
