When partnering with your family to know, love, and follow Jesus, we strive to create and share content filtered by the Head-Heart-Hands model.
Head: the knowledge of God and His Word | Heart: the personal connection from scripture | Hands: a missional mindset
HEAD
Ephesians is a letter written by Paul to the church in Ephesus made up of two groups of Jesus's followers: Jews and Gentiles. Jews knew all about God. They grew up knowing all the rules and religious traditions of their culture. They were proud of how much they knew and how well they followed the rules. This was their identity: how others recognized them. The Gentiles in the church, however, were brand new to faith! They hadn’t grown up hearing about God and they’d only just begun to know and follow Jesus. They didn’t know all the Jewish rules and religious traditions—they just loved Jesus. This was hard for Jewish people in the church (maybe even seemed a little unfair). They began to treat the Gentiles like they had to prove their new identity as Jesus's followers by how much they knew and how well they kept all the Jewish rules. Paul wrote to remind everyone in the church that their identity was not in their rules and traditions, family roots, or Bible knowledge, but in Jesus’s sacrificial love for them. This love shows up in the way they show love to each other. While they were at different places in their faith journey, they were together by God in Christ Jesus. They are part of God’s family, and because God’s family is forever, the Jewish and Gentile Christians were to love each other and stick together as one.
HEART
At our church, I see all kinds of people from all kinds of cultures and families with all sorts of life stories. I know people who have known and followed Jesus for a long time. They are so wise! I know people who have just begun to learn about Jesus and follow Him. They are so excited! And every week, people who do not yet know, love, and follow Jesus come to church because someone invited them. How awesome! I think so many different kinds of people come to our church because, at Venture, our identity is Jesus. We aren’t recognized by how much we know, where we’re from, or what we wear. People recognize Jesus in the way our church family loves and serves each other on Sundays and throughout the week!
HANDS
Wherever you are on your faith journey, you have a safe and welcome place in our church family! There are people all around you (in KXP or Movement and in your House Church) who love you and will stick with you as you grow to know, love, and follow Jesus! (That’s what God’s Family will always strive to do!) And you can do this for others! There are four big ways we love and stick with others on their faith journey at Venture: We invite with intention, invest in community, impact by serving, and ignite through giving. Talk about how your family can walk with others on their journey to know, love, and follow Jesus:
Name someone you can intentionally invite to church (or to dinner) this week.
Name one way you might invest in community (House Church, prayer, or service to another family).
Identify where your family can serve on Sundays and/or during the week.
Talk about what you might give sacrificially to provide an opportunity for someone to hear about and experience the love of Jesus.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for my church family who loves me and sticks with me! Give me eyes to see ways to serve people at my church, school, and in my family so that others see Your love through me.