THE MISSION UP CLOSE

At Life Challenge, we work from these three presuppositions:

1. The glory of God is the only soul-satisfying reality in the universe.

2. The glory of God is experienced through relationship.

3. The glory of God is the singular purpose for our creation.

From these three presuppositions come our mission statement:

E nlightening men & women with life-controlling problems

to the GOOD NEWS about Jesus Christ; &

E mpowering those who are spiritually hungry

through RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ and the community of believers; &

E quipping those who have made a commitment to Jesus Christ

for SERVICE in his kingdom.

A closer look at the three planks of our mission statement reveals that Life Challenge exists to:

1. ENLIGHTEN men and women to the gospel of the glory of Christ:

We aim to lure “happy-hungry” people away from the fleeting pleasures of sin into never-ending, ever-increasing gladness in God by making known the supreme beauty and loveliness of Christ crucified and risen again.

2. EMPOWER men and women through a living, dynamic relationship with Christ and His body:

We aim to “flesh out” the glory of Christ in a caring and nurturing community for the purpose of building into people larger and greater capacities for seeing and savoring the glory of God through Christ.

3. EQUIP men and women for mission and service in His everlasting kingdom:

We aim to so immerse persons into the glory of God that they will sacrificially and enthusiastically devote their lives to bringing glory to God in all that they say and do.

ENLIGHTENING to the Gospel

People are starving for God, but most do not know that. They have forsaken the “spring of living water” for “broken cisterns that cannot hold water (Jer. 2:13). They have exchanged God’s infinite beauty for things of no comparable value (e.g., exotic vacations, shopping extravaganzas, theatrical productions, wine, sex, and etc.). The result: they are dry and unhappy.

At Life Challenge, we believe that this God-planted thirst for joy and peace can only be quenched by encountering the magnificence of God. By tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. By partaking of the gospel of the glory of Christ. When we discover that His love is better than life itself, the world and all its charm loses it hold upon us (see Ps. 63:3).

Thomas Chalmers, a great preacher and professor at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland once said, “There are two ways . . . to displace from the human heart its love of the world--either by a demonstration of the world’s vanity, so that the heart shall be prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an object that is not worthy of it; or, by setting forth another object, even God, as more worthy of its attachment, so that the heart shall be prevailed upon not to resign an old affection, which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection for a new one. . . . The former method is altogether incompetent and ineffectual, and the latter method will alone suffice for the rescue and recovery of the heart from the wrong affection that domineers over it.”

What Chalmers was essentially saying was that a person’s appetite for bologna sandwiches is cured most effectively NOT by discussing the dubious contents of bologna or the side effects one will incur in his or her body as a result of ingesting bologna. No, a person’s desire for bologna is remedied by helping him or her develop a taste for filet minion.

The same is true when it comes to helping drug addicts and alcoholic. Bring such a person to the well of God’s Spirit and have him drink deep. Show him Jesus and all other “loves” will lose their grip on him.

Pastor and author John Piper writes, “We were made to know and treasure the glory of God above all things; and when we trade that treasure for images, everything is disordered. The sun of God’s glory was made to shine at the center of the solar system of our soul. When it does, all the planets of our life are held in their proper orbit. But when the sun is displaced, everything flies apart. The healing of the soul begins by restoring the glory of God to its flaming, all-attracting place at the center.”

EMPOWERING through Relationship

Christian psychologist Larry Crabb contends that the root of all our personal and emotional difficulties stems from a lack of togetherness. In other words, every dysfunction is the result of disharmony, fragmentation, and lack of connection.

The Bible bears witness to this. We learn from the very first pages of Scripture that the central problem of life is separation from God—a condition created by our sin. Jesus died so that we might be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:18), so that we who once were separate, excluded, and foreigners could be brought near (Eph. 2:12-13), so that the dividing wall of hostility would be destroyed and the two made one (v. 14), so that we could become part of God’s family, his children (Jn. 1:12). The very word atonement means “at-one-ment”—what was separated is now at one.

Salvation is NOT mainly about forgiveness; it is about fellowship. Paul puts it like this in 1 Cor. 1:9, “God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.” Forgiveness gets everything out of the way so that fellowship can happen. Fellowship is the consummate end of God’s redemptive purposes.

Interestingly, the number one thing most people look for in a church is fellowship (above good preaching, inspiring worship, quality programs for children, and etc.) In fact, this is what makes Islam so appealing to men and women in prison. It provides (amongst other things) a strong sense of community to those having little or no “rootedness” with others. The same is true of gangs in the inner cities.

At Life Challenge we seek to help men and women find intimacy with God and His people. We believe that loving relationships—beginning with God—are the key to health and wholeness. Life, to be meaningful, must be joined. God himself said, “It is not good for man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18).

EQUIPPING for Service

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:8-10). Scripture makes it clear that we are saved to serve—not sit. Further, we are saved to serve in order to bring glory to God: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

Service is our grateful response to all that God is and has become for us in Christ Jesus. The foundation and fuel of all true service rests in the glory of God’s greatness and in hearts that have been Spirit-quickened to that glory.

It is not enough to keep learning more and more. We must act on what we know. Pastor and popular author Rick Warren writes, “Impression without expression causes depression. Study without service leads to stagnation.” Just as the Dead Sea cannot support life because it has no outflow, so you and I will die if we insist on keeping our life. Only those who throw away their lives for Jesus and the gospel will ever know what it means to truly live (Mk. 8:35).

At Life Challenge, we would find it heart-breaking to merely see a person set free from the bondages of sin only to pursue a life of selfish gain. (Perhaps the later state would be worse than the former.) We aim to equip men and women to take dominion of their lives, their families, their communities, their schools, their work environments, and etc. by becoming servants of Christ who live to bring glory and honor to God in each and every role God in His sovereignty would assign to them.