Welcome to the Victory Blog

Church is only half of God’s story for you. The other half is on the mission field right outside the church doors – where God expects you to live what you’ve learned while you were inside.  Week after week in church, so many Christians get built up on the wonders of Jesus and all His glory, but then that’s it. It stops there. The purpose of the Church is to equip you for what you need to do, which is hold Jesus up for all the world to see, not keep Him concealed or tucked away neatly within four walls.

The one question we need to ask ourselves after every message we hear in church is, “How can I take what I learned in here, out there?” As each of us increasingly acts on what we know, the Church body begins to reflect what it was always intended to be – united in thought and purpose (1 Corinthians 1:10 NIV). How are you doing on your part in this? If you’re connected to a church that feeds you well, how much do others on the outside reap the benefits of your fulfillment?

Many of us know why the Church exits. We understand that worship, ministry, evangelism, community and discipleship are basic purposes of the Church that train us to make Jesus known.  It’s great to be passionate about hearing His Word, but let’s be just as passionate about doing it. God has given us His Church to help us be successful.

Listen to Pastor Johnson’s teaching on the purpose of the Church here.

At any time if you’ve desired to get more involved in church, that’s an urge to pull away from selfishness and a longing to jump forward in your process of becoming a fully committed disciple of Jesus. God has a calling on your life; how can you operate in it if you’re just sitting in church?

God’s plan for His Church is about us, but not how we think. While most of us go to church for how it can serve us, God is focused on how it can grow us. He wants to mature you and equip you to do the work of His Ministry, and the Church is the training ground for that to happen.

When you understand God’s plan for the Church – why we go, how it works – you begin to better understand where you fit in it. There’s an incredible fulfillment that takes over your life when you lock in to a church that is alive and filled with Jesus. How and where do you start? Make yourself available to help or serve in any ministry, take classes that grow and change you, and get committed. You’ll begin to mature in very visible ways as you find yourself moving into the calling of God on your life. When you do this, you get strong and wise enough to defeat anything the enemy throws at you.

Get more on the plan of the Church here.

Cutting Church off is popular these days. People grow tired of this or that and feel the need to break away, thinking they can develop their relationship with Christ independent of His Church. But I’m not so sure we really understand what it means when we disconnect ourselves from it. The very foundation of the Church is Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:16).

You could be in your lone corner of the world, on fire for God, but before long your fire will go out. You have no real power by yourself; you have power with people, and it’s the Church – not the individual – that has the power to change society.

Hebrews 10:25 reminds us, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

If you’re on a serious path to becoming a fully committed disciple of Jesus, what’s your relationship with His Church? Do you understand it? Knowing the price paid for it causes you to see it through brand new eyes. Click here for more in-depth on this message.

If you’ve accepted Christ as Lord, then His promises apply directly to you, and He says He’ll provide for our needs like no other can or will – even in a dead situation. So what’s preventing you from living like He’s your Radical Provider?

From an economy perspective, what’s bad now will be even worse in the days to come. There are no earthly solutions. God has the spotlight on us, and He expects our mode of operation to be the exact opposite of fear, worry and survival. When you’re in Christ, you don’t have to “survive.” You live for the will of God, whether you survive or not.

We can depend on Jesus to be our Radical Provider, but can He depend on us to have radical trust, radical priorities and to live with radical stewardship? Listen here for more on how to live and respond to the way Jesus taught concerning provision from God.