As we live the Christ-centered life, we become part of the Mission of God, a movement that has been happening since time began. The Apostle Paul says we become “adopted into God’s family.” Sometimes, its tempting to think we should act like the spoiled, rich heir and just sit down and wait for our inheritance.
We believe that when we’re adopted into God’s family, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, our lives become all about God’s family business, which is quite simply growing His family. Its the eternal business of reconciliation, of redefining life to be lived in and through Jesus. It’s more than sitting on Sundays, its living 24/7, a moving and active faith.
As a church, its easy to load the deck with our vision, but at Habitat, we feel that this needs to drill down to a personal level that we simply call our strategy. Keep reading to find out more about how we do in our own lives. Join us and get involved as we join God on mission.
Habitat Weekends are a time where we explore what it means for families and individuals to live the Christ-centered life. Each Sunday morning we gather together to worship God, learn about Him through Scripture, and to be with one another. At Habitat Weekends you can expect a group of people who are passionate about loving God and caring for the people in their lives. There's much more to Habitat Weekends than the Sunday morning service. We believe that having a good time together is an integral part of a life well lived; that's why we grill out, play some smash mouth volleyball, open up our homes to one another and make it an intentional point to have fun together. The basic formula for Habitat Weekends is to enjoy God, and enjoy one another. You're invited to come out any Sunday to experience Habitat Weekends for yourself and in order to find out what's going on check out our calendar, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
The Christian life is not meant to be lived alone. Habitat Weekends are the starting point for connecting with others and growing as a community, but we feel that the Christ-centered life can't be fully expressed or experienced on Sundays. Throughout Scripture, as the leaders of the early church were explaining what it means to live for Jesus a pattern developed. Different authors kept using the phrase 'one another' while explaining what life in a church should look like. A few examples would be to forgive, build up, love, and challenge one another. The reality is that a lot of these 'one anothers' can not be done on a Sunday morning, but must take place in a different context. At Habitat this happens in a format we call Group Life. It is a time for a smaller number of people to get together to discover and faithfully pursue the Christ-centered life. This may happen any number of ways, through discussion of a book, prayer, confession, or a bit more in depth reading of the Bible. Not every group will have every one of these aspects, but the purpose is to go beyond the casual 'hello' and talk about the stuff in life that really matters. While Group Life can take place in different ways, they still have the same goal, to live the Christ-centered life with one another. There are lots of ways to be involved in Group Life, and we hope that you are able to join in.
As Christians our Lord and King Jesus set forth an incredible example for us to follow, a pattern for living for the benefit of others. As we seek to become more like Him, we should start to live like Him and Beyond Me is a great place to start. The idea is simple; life is meant to be lived beyond one's self. In a culture that breeds an attitude of "more for me", the question we want each person and family at Habitat to ask themselves is "How am I going to live beyond me?" This is another central facet of the Christ-centered life and elemental to the Gospel. It's why we hope to see each person come to a point of living for more than themselves and begin to give to others. Living Beyond Me can happen in a lot of different ways, it could be volunteering at a local shelter, mentoring someone, or financially supporting a Christ-centered organization or ministry; and while this is certainly not an exhaustive list, Habitat Christian Community will always present opportunities for people to live beyond themselves.