Maturing into Service and Multiplication (Values 4 & 5: WE ARE SERVANTS & WE ARE MISSIONARIES)
How do you measure spiritual maturity? It isn’t measured by how many notebooks of sermon notes you have filled, or how many theology books sit on your shelf. Biblical maturity is measured by posture and output: Are you serving the Body, and are you reproducing your faith in others?
Lifepoint Core Value 4: WE ARE SERVANTS
We use our time, talent, and treasures for God. (Serving, giving, stewards of grace.)
Lifepoint Core Value 5: WE ARE MISSIONARIES
We do whatever it takes to reach the one. (Evangelism, church planting, cross-cultural mission work.)
1. God’s Role: Pruning, Gifting, and Empowering
At this mature stage, God acts as the master Vinedresser who prunes mature branches so they produce maximum fruit.
- The Father Prunes: Jesus explains in John 15:1–2, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”
- The Spirit Bestows Gifts: The Holy Spirit gives supernatural gifts to mature believers for the common good. 1 Corinthians 12:7, 11 states, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good… All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.”
- The Spirit Grants Power for Witness: Acts 1:8 promises, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
2. The Believer’s Role: Stewarding and Multiplying
A mature disciple moves from being a consumer of ministry to a provider of ministry.
Stewarding Time, Talent, and Treasure (WE ARE SERVANTS)
Mature believers understand that everything they own belongs to God.
- Serving: 1 Peter 4:10 commands, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace…”
- Generosity: 2 Corinthians 9:7 encourages, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
Reaching “The One” and Making Disciples (WE ARE MISSIONARIES)
Mature believers adopt a missionary mindset wherever their feet tread.
- Relentless Outreach: Living with a passion to “reach the one” through personal evangelism, supporting church planting, and engaging cross-cultural missions.
- Spiritual Multiplication: Paul lays out the 4-generation multiplication model in 2 Timothy 2:2: “…and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”
3. The Church’s Role: Equipping, Deploying, and Sending
The ultimate goal of church leadership is not to gather a crowd to watch a performance, but to equip an army to go do ministry.
- Equipping the Saints: Paul outlines the mandate of pastoral leadership in Ephesians 4:11–13: “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith…”
- Mutual Accountability and Restoration: Healthy churches hold mature believers accountable so they don’t fall into pride or hidden sin. Galatians 6:1 directs, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.”
- Deploying and Sending: Church leaders must actively create pathways to send out church planters, missionaries, small group leaders, and serving teams—doing “whatever it takes” to extend God’s kingdom locally and globally.
Conclusion: The Full Circle
When an ecosystem is healthy, the cycle repeats continuously. Mature disciples (Servants and Missionaries) step into the world, empowered by the Spirit, to bring non-believers to Christ—where Jesus makes them NEW, brings them into His presence as HIS, folds them into the FAMILY, and sends them out once again.