This is the Way: How We Stay on Track

Devoted to What Makes Disciples

As Way of Christ moves closer to our public launch, there are a lot of exciting things happening. We are building teams, preparing our Portable Church, developing ministries, welcoming new people, and thinking about the future. But growth also brings a danger: it is possible for a church to become so busy doing good things that it gradually loses sight of the main thing.

That is why we concluded our This Is the Way series with an important question: How will we stay on track?

Acts 2 gives us a picture of a church experiencing remarkable growth. Three thousand people responded to the gospel and were baptized. But what happened next is just as important. These new believers didn't simply attend a weekly gathering. Luke tells us that they “devoted themselves” to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, sharing meals—including the Lord's Supper—and prayer. Their life together was marked by worship, generosity, relationships, and a deep sense of awe at what God was doing among them.

The word devoted is important. It describes continuing steadfastly in something—persisting in it, remaining committed to it, and giving it sustained attention. The early church knew what mattered, and they gave themselves to it.

That gives us an important principle for Way of Christ: We stay on track by devoting ourselves to what forms disciples rather than filling our church with activity.

Keeping the Mission Clear

Our mission is simple: Love God. Love People. Make Disciples.

That means our definition of success must also remain clear. A win isn't simply more people at Sunday worship. It isn't more programs, more events, or even a smoother Portable Church setup. Those things may be good and useful, but they aren't the mission.

A win is people becoming disciple-making disciples.

To protect that mission, we want to build our church around four ideas: clarity, movement, alignment, and focus.

Clarity means we know what we are trying to produce. Movement means we help people take their next step in following Jesus—from belonging, to becoming more like Jesus, to blessing others. Alignment means everything we do—from Sunday gatherings and LIFEgroups to Discipleship Groups, Kingdom Circles, children's ministry, hospitality, and even Portable Church—should serve the same mission of making disciples.

And then there is focus.

Focus may be the hardest part because it requires us to say no. As opportunities arise, the question can't simply be, “Is this a good thing?” There will always be more good things we could do. The better question is:

“Is this helping us do what Jesus called us to do?”

Churches rarely lose their mission because they intentionally abandon it. More often, good things slowly accumulate until the mission becomes just one thing among many things. Protecting the mission means sometimes saying no to good things so that we can continue saying yes to the things that matter most.

Faithful to the Mission, Trusting God with the Results

There is something else in Acts 2 that we don't want to miss.

Luke doesn't say the early Christians developed the perfect strategy and grew the church. He says, “The Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.”

The church didn't manufacture the growth. The Lord added.

That distinction matters tremendously for a new church plant. Our responsibility is faithfulness. God's responsibility is fruitfulness.

We don't have to manufacture success. We don't have to become the busiest church in town. We don't need to chase every program, ministry idea, or opportunity that comes along.

We simply want to become a people devoted to Jesus and His mission—loving God deeply, loving people genuinely, and helping one another become disciples who make disciples.

Our job isn't to build a successful church. Our job is to faithfully become the kind of church Jesus can use to make disciples.