Living the Five

Jim and Jen Cowart planted this church about 14 years ago and I
have watched this church every year grow stronger, grow deeper, grow
healthier, grow larger, and grow more visionary year after year after year.
In fact, this church has the honor of being one of Saddleback’s Church
Health Award winners! We are pretty picky about the churches that we
honor because they have to be balanced in worship, in fellowship, in
discipleship, in ministry, and in evangelism. They are doing the purposes
of God through the processes that balance all of these things. They have
the strategy and the structure that allow them to grow year after year
after year.
I have asked Jim and Jen to really help the churches, particularly on the
East Coast, who really want to be more purpose driven. What does it
mean to be purpose driven?
We believe, and the Bible teaches in Acts 2, and John 17, and in
Ephesians 4 and other places, that God wants your church to be built
around God’s eternal purposes. There are 5 of those purposes. Not 4, not
6, not 7. They are modeled by the church in Acts 2, they are prayed for
by Jesus in John 17, they are explained by Paul in Ephesians 4, but they
are best seen in the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
We believe that a great commitment to the Great Commandment and
the Great Commission will grow a great church. This is no theory, friend,
this works. We’ve seen it work in rural areas, urban areas, and suburban
areas, and regardless of the size or the denomination of your church, you
can be built around the purposes of God.
FOREWORD
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