Discipling our Community

I. How should we engage in the mission to disciple our community, when the culture around us is hostile to our faith?
1. Embrace your place as a religious minority.
(The culture war is over and we lost).
2. Settle down in one place. Build a life and stay there as long as you can.
3. Pray for the people around you,
especially those who do not share your faith in Christ.
4. Be a blessing to the community. (Mostly a blessing rather than mostly a critic).

II. How can we gain a hearing for the gospel in a culture where those around us are deeply skeptical of our faith & sometimes even hostile to it?
1. Invest in deep, long lasting, reciprocal friendships with non-Christians.
2. Let them see your faith in Christ.
3. Let them see you struggle.

III. Now, I want us to take a look at Jesus.
1. Befriend even the most "scandalous" of sinners.
2. Refuse to be scandalized by their