Our Mission & Vision, The Awakening Church

OUR Mission

At the Awakening Church, our mission statement is: “Grow in Jesus. Give like Jesus. Go for Jesus.” Everything we do and believe in the Awakening Church can be summed up by what we call the three big m’s – maturity (growing in Jesus), ministry (giving like Jesus), and missions (going for Jesus).

Grow in Jesus

The first “big M” is maturity as we “grow in Jesus” and this is explained further in Ephesians 4:13-16, “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning of craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ – from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working of by which every part does its share, causes the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (NKJV). Not only are we passionate about ministry at the Awakening, but also maturity, for we must aim for the goal of becoming a “perfect man” (or woman). Now the word “perfect” used here does not mean sinless perfection, for we have already discussed that realistically we are never going to be sinlessly perfect until we enter heaven due to the sinful nature within us (see 1 John 1:8-10). This word “perfection” refers to the nature of one who is mature, whole, and complete. And this is attainable on this earth as we continue to grow in the Lord and as we fulfill by God’s grace “The Great Commandment” as we first love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and second as we love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:29-31). But even when we grow up spiritually speaking, none of us ever reach a point where we are beyond growth and room for improvement, for all of us have room for growth and improvement until we die and meet our savior face to face in heaven! None of us know it all nor do any of us have it all together and therefore we are in daily need of God’s grace and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to continue to mature, grow, and walk with purity in our hearts, with our behavior, thoughts, speech and our motives! As a result of becoming mature in the Lord, we will attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. A byproduct of maturity is unity and love and this is what the church must continually strive for on all occasions! In fact this is what Jesus’ last prayer was before He died on the cross. He prayed in John 17:22-23, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” This was Jesus’ heart and passion for His bride the church and this is our passion at the Awakening too! As Romans 12:18 states, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” At the Awakening, we seek to resolve conflicts biblically and to kill all gossip even before it starts (see Matthew 5:23-24 and 18:15-18)! This must be our prayer and this will happen as a result of being mature in Jesus Christ!

Give like Jesus

We fulfill what we call the “big M” of ministry, as we “give like Jesus.” Ephesians 4:11-12 states, “And He gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (NKJV). God has selected some gifted men and women to have, what we call, “the five-fold ministry” gifts of the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and/or teacher for the purpose of “the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry.” The gifts of the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher are for the purpose of equipping or preparing the saints. Who are the saints? Often when we think of the term saint, we picture a person with a red devil on one of his shoulders and an angel on the other shoulder. And if that person chooses to listen to the voice of the good angel and do what he tells him, than he is a saint. Therefore, often people associate a saint with a person who has his or her life all together and is completely holy and blameless in all his behavior. Although as Christians the ideal, and what we are called to try our very best to be, is to be holy and blameless in everything (see Hebrews 12:14 and 1 Peter 1:14-16), but the reality is we often fall short and sin due to our struggle with our sin nature on this side of heaven (see 1 John 1:8-10). Therefore, if we equate sinlessness or perfection with being a saint, then no one would qualify on this earth – except for one person – and that person was Jesus Christ! Jesus was 100% sinlessly perfect! And the good news is that when a person places his faith in Jesus Christ and as a result becomes saved from his sins, Jesus comes to live in that person. And as a result of living in that person, He makes that person sinlessly perfect before God, the great and only judge of the earth! In theological and biblical terms, this is called justification which means “just as though we have never sinned” (see Romans 5). Therefore, on judgment day, God won’t see you and me as Christians, but rather Jesus Christ living in us and thus sinless perfection (i.e. a saint) and will grant us entrance into heaven for all of eternity (what a great deal)! Therefore, the word saint is just another word for a Christian who has been justified before God. So the gifts are given to certain people within the church to build up or equip the rest of the church for ministry. The word ministry comes from the word minister which simply mean to serve. So although the pastor is often titled a minister because it is his responsibility to serve the church through his gifts, in reality all saints or Christians are called to be ministers or servants. We all have been gifted with some gift from the Lord! It might not be one of the five ministry gifts of Ephesians 4:11, but it could be another gift described in the Bible such as the gift of generosity, service, administration, mercy, helps, miracles, distinguishing of spirits, work of knoweldge, word of wisdom, leadership, prophecy, etc. (see Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12-14; and 1 Peter 4:10-11). But whatever the gift God has graciously and sovereignly given to us, we are responsible to use those gifts to equip and build up others (both toward believers in the local church but also outside of the local church to unbelievers too) and not for our own glory and selfish desires!

OUR Mission

Grow in Jesus

Give like Jesus

Go for Jesus

The last “big M” we seek to fulfill by God’s grace is missions as we “go for Jesus.” When I say the word missions, often people think of a select group of people who have a special calling of God to go to some distant foreign land with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Although these Christians are missionaries, the truth is that all Christians are missionaries according to the New Testament. All that the word “missions” means is that we are on a mission. All of us have a clear mission and mandate as Christians and it is the same one as the disciples (i.e. followers of Jesus Christ) and the early church were given in the Bible. Jesus spoke the mission to the disciples when He left the earth in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age.” Just as the disciples had a clear mission from Jesus and thus were missionaries, so we have the same mission today as they did and thus we are all missionaries! All of us are to make disciples of all the nations and thus fulfill by God’s grace “the Great Commission.” The word nation here comes from the Greek word ethnos which is where we derive our English word ethnicity from, and refers to people groups all over the world. There are still thousands of people groups who have never heard of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And according to Matthew 24:14, the end will not come until the Gospel is proclaimed in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations (or people groups). Therefore, the church both locally and universally, have some serious work cut out for them! Part of the process and journey of making disciples requires that we baptize new believers in water, which was something normally practiced in the early church right when a person initially got saved or shortly thereafter. Baptism was a sign to the world that a person had made the commitment to follow Jesus Christ from that point on. But not only were they to be baptized as a sign of authentic faith in Jesus, but also as disciples, we are to teach the new believer to obey all of Jesus’ commands in the New Covenant as revealed in the New Testament of the Bible. This is our great mission as Christians and thus all of us are technically missionaries!

“To experience a spiritual awakening by being like the New Testament book of Acts church in the 21st century.”

Our Vision

What we mean by an awakening is for the Awakening Church, but also the universal church of Jesus Christ all over the world, to wake up from her spiritual sleep and remain awake so that she will be red hot on fire for God (see Romans 13:11-14; Ephesians 5:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:5-10; Revelation 3:15-16; 16:15). We long to continue to seek after God and to love God with all of our heart. As we seek to do this by God’s grace, we will find that God truly will be the first love of our hearts and thus our greatest prize and delight. As God continues to be the first love of our hearts, we will run from the distractions of this world that try to steal our heart’s love and passion for the Lord. The cares, riches, and pleasures of this life can so easily soak and drown out the love, intimacy, and hunger for the risen Lord in our hearts. And when this happens, we need a fresh spiritual awakening both in our individual lives and in the corporate life of the church. This vision is fulfilled in our church when each believer in Jesus first gets awakened by God, second remains awakened, and third becomes awakeners for others as we lead others to a passionate first love relationship with Jesus Christ.

Another term for an awakening is a revival. This is where God revives His church or makes her come alive (both individually and corporately – see Psalm 85:6). At the Awakening, we are not satisfied with just going through the religious motions of playing church for we long to see and experience a real and genuine (not hype, a show, emotionalism, or religious performance) sovereign move of God’s Spirit that would revive not only our local church, but also the universal church of Jesus Christ like we have never seen or experienced before! And this would not be limited to just one church but a multitude of churches that are open and hungry for a fresh move of God’s Spirit. This would take place not only in NH and New England, but would also spread to the U.S. and all over the world! There have been several local and worldwide revivals throughout the history of the church including the 1st and 2nd Great Awakening in which God used men of God such as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield and John Wesley to shake up New England, the U.S., England, and even the world with the Gospel of Jesus and the Kingdom coupled with the manifest presence, power, and glory of God! This is what we need again in God’s church.

Our heart and desperate cry is for a fresh new move of God and we won’t be satisfied until we experience it – God come again and touch our church with your Holy Spirit must be our cry again and again! We are sick of just mere organized religion and institutionalism. We are a new and radical generation starving for more of God and long to see the Kingdom of God advance on this earth. To test when a true God sent spiritual awakening and revival comes, what we call the three big “G’s” will be fulfilled. First the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 will be fulfilled. When we are awakened or revived in our hearts, all of a sudden we are passionate for the lost to come and know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior! Our passion for God in our hearts spreads to our neighbor as we love them as ourselves by being the hands and feet of Jesus to a lost, hurting, and dying world. We long to see a Jesus revolution where a group of holy radicals rise up with love (not in violence or arms, but with the Word and prayer in the power of the Holy Spirit) and boldness to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ with no compromise! The second big “G” we fulfill is the Great Compassion of Matthew 25:31-46. When we are awakened, we seek to reach out to the “least of these” (i.e. those who are hurting, poor, rejected, broken, sick, needy, imprisoned, etc.) with the compassion and love that Jesus has personally given to us. We demonstrate this compassion as we love a broken and hurting world that is in desparate need of God’s love, grace, and freedom. And third we will see the Great Commandment fulfilled found in Mark 12:29-31. When we are awakened, we will see first have a wholehearted love for God and second we will love our neighbors as ourselves. There will be a true conviction of sin and true repentance and holiness in the heart of the believers. We will be in love intimately with God and seek Him wholeheartedly and the fruit of the Spirit will be evidenced in our lives as the church becomes one big loving family under the headship of Jesus Christ!

But how will we see this awakening? It will come when we begin to earnestly cry out for and seek after God with all of our hearts just like the early church did in the book of Acts in the New Testament of the Bible. We believe the book of Acts was written not only for history, but also as a blueprint of what a New Testament church should look like and how she should live (in function and not necessarily in form). We need to experience today the love, fellowship, unity, biblical teaching, generosity, holiness, prayer, miracles, service, fear of God, evangelistic fervor, passion for the Gospel of Jesus and the kingdom of God, spiritual gifts, power, movement of the Holy Spirit, thousands of people getting saved, the presence of God, etc. like the book of Acts churches experienced! The New Testament book of Acts church genuinely saw and experienced an awakening and revival! And all of this must and will happen by God’s grace, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, and Christ’s strength within a 21st century context. At the Awakening, we seek to be relevant to this generation and move in a new wineskin anointing of the Holy Spirit. We engage our culture (without compromising and becoming worldly) and connect with our generation with the love of Jesus Christ as missionaries in our culture. Methods must constantly change, but the message must always remain the same. In order to experience this awakening, however, we as a church seek to be desperate, hungry, and thirsty for the Lord and His presence – we starve for more of Him! Our heart cry is, “visit us again God with your living waters – with the fullness of your Holy Spirit!”

In this economic recession in the U.S. and around the world, we need an awakening, revival, reformation, revolution, and renewal in the church! With so much of the church being worldly, weak, and spiritually dead, we need an awakening and revival that will advance and manifest the Kingdom of God on earth bringing life, healing, and freedom to a spiritually dead, hurting, lost, and dying world! A preacher once said that the only thing that will get the American church to wake up and seek God with all of her heart is either – 1) God allowing or bringing persecution and suffering upon His church which will bring her to her knees and cause her to depend upon Him completely. This in turn would bring the church to repent of her sin and stop trusting in themselves, money, and other idols, but in the Lord fresh and anew or…2) an awakening or revival that will shake up the church of Jesus Christ and bring her to experience God’s manifest presence, power, and glory like never before and cause her to passionately pursue the Lord and not worldly and sinful things…At the Awakening, we pray that the latter, number 2, takes place for we do not want to be persecuted and we love the freedom of religious worship in America. However, our prayer is, “Lord do whatever it takes to wake up your church in America and worldwide so that she will seek You like never before and experience your awesome presence!” Or as the Wales revivalist Evan Roberts said during the great Wales Revival at the turn of the 20th century, “Lord break (or bend) the church and save the world.” We must stop playing church and be the church! This is our heartbeat and DNA and why the Awakening Church was started. We can’t hold it in as a church – God has called us to be the radical generation that seeks Him like never before! Our prayer is that this church, as well as all churches, will take an active role in witnessing to the lost and thus be used to win an end time harvest of souls for Jesus Christ, and be part of a worldwide awakening and revival (see Acts 2:17-21)! Anything is possible for those who believe what the Bible says. Will you believe with us and join us in praying for this vision to unfold? 2 Chronicles 7:14 states – if…”my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” This will forever be our prayer for not only our local church, but for the universal church of Jesus Christ. Our cry is that of Isaiah in Isaiah 64:1, “Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down…”