The Gospel
The beginning of North is simply realizing the good news of Jesus Christ.
- “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
- And that “we love because He first loved us” (I John 4:19).
Basically, because God loved us so much, despite our never-ending selfishness, He gave His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins, and then to conquer death with that love, now we have to respond in a like manner. How could we possibly give back what was given to us? By loving God completely (heart, soul, mind and strength), and the overflow of that means we will love our neighbors as ourselves; not as penance for earning more of God’s love; not as some ascetic ritual, but simply as a worshipful response to the God who loves us. Kind of like when you start falling in love with someone and you send them flowers just because you’ve been thinking about them all day, except on a much more important scale. The paragraphs below are simply us trying to make it easy for you to touch someone’s life in response to God’s love, and for you to be involved in a community of people who are trying to do the same thing. But it all begins with the realization of God’s love.
The Plan
- Cause - We believe that Jesus called the Church to live in unity, providing for peoples’ needs in the community – whether that is physical needs like food or shelter, or emotional needs like love and kindness. People in the community of North actively look for people with needs, and try to match resources with needs (food > hunger) to help those people. Of course, our greatest resource is the people who attend the Tuesday night meetings.
- Community – When a person gives his or her life to a cause, then they get passionate about it. Passion attracts other people, and before you know it there’s a whole group of people gathering around a cause. That’s community and it leads to…
- Culture – Wherever cause and community are, there is culture in their midst. When we gather on Tuesday nights, it is simply to celebrate the culture that is going on all week – the culture that is actively spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and meeting the needs of people in the community.
The Audience
North is aimed at young adults in the 18-29 range, but if you’re older than that and you feel like you can get on board with the direction of the ministry, then we’d be glad to have you. That said, we believe that the young men and women in this age range are poised to do radical ministry simply because of their position in life. They’re in the planning stages of life, making decisions about the direction they want to take, and we want to enable them to reach their communities with the love of Jesus Christ.
The Essentials
North, as a whole, meets on:
- Tuesday nights at 7 p.m.
- In the North Ministry Center
- On the campus of Trinity Fellowship (5000 Hollywood Rd.).
- But North meets throughout the week to spread the good news in homes, at homeless missions, at schools, etc.
As far as this blog goes, you can expect these five things:
- Cause Highlights Written – With some amount of frequency, we will highlight a cause by attending a meeting or event, and then writing about the experience. The entire ministry of North is built on the foundation of Cause, so we will work to maintain that priority by reminding everyone how important, and truly life-changing these causes can be.
- Cause Highlights Video – See above, only easier to read.
- Teachings – The staff at North, namely Matt Spears, David Ritchie, Patrick Schlabs, or a person of their choosing may occasionally contribute a teaching.
- Event Communication – If North is doing something in the near future, we will provide the information here.
- Community Board – At our Tuesday night meetings, we have a board where people post things that are going on in the community. If it has an Internet link, we will post it here.
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