Welcome to Blogging with New Millennium Church of Little Rock. I'm Wendell Griffen and I serve as pastor of the congregation. New Millennium Church are people who praise and worship God together. We proclaim God together. We welcome all persons in God's love together. We live for God, in every breath and heartbeat, by the power of the Holy Spirit as followers of Jesus Christ, together.
We've been together since May 2009 and are people from different walks of life, diverse ethnic backgrounds, and varied levels of education, income, health, and other attributes. And what we share is a conviction that God has us in the world on purpose. We believe, with every breath and heartbeat, that God wants us to live to make the world a place of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, truth, and justice.
So that's what we try to do with ourselves. Everyday. All the time.
We draw our inspiration from the stories and historical accounts about people found in the Hebrew Scriptures (often better known as the "Old" Testament) and those found in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Our highest and most revered inspiration is Jesus, who is called the Christ (meaning Messiah or Anointed).
Jesus is God's highest and best proof to the world about who God is and how God operates concerning the creation and everyone in it.
Jesus is God's highest and best proof to the world about who God wants us to become and why becoming like Jesus matters.
And Jesus shows us what God cares about most and what God deserves from us if we are to produce it for God.
Notice I haven't said anything about what religious tribe New Millennium is part of. That's not an accident.
Across history, people have produced lots of sects, creeds, denominations, religions, empires, and other things in the name of religion. We're pretty good at it by now. But that's not all God put us in the world to do. It's not even what God put us in the world to do.
New Millennium Church is affiliated with two Baptist entities: the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc. That's because most of us were nurtured by and in Baptist homes, churches, and religious settings.
But even if we weren't Baptist, we'd still be trying to live for God and following Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Even if we weren't Baptists, we'd still think that we've been placed in the world to produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, truth, and justice with every breath and heartbeat.
In other words, we're New Millennium Church because we're determined to live for God in every breath and heartbeat as followers of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. So while many of us are Baptists, all of us aren't.
Just as some people are male while others are female. Just as people come in various shapes, sizes, genders, sexual orientations, political perspectives, languages, abilities, and other ways of being people. None of those things determine whether, if, or why we choose to live for God or not. The same is true about the religious tribes we hail from or become associated with.
We're New Millennium Church because we're determined to live for God as followers of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit to produce lives and a world of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, truth, and justice.
We're committed to do this together with anyone else and everyone else who wants to do it. This blog is an effort in that commitment. We'll use it to exchange thoughts, hopes, and other information about efforts to live for God and make the world what God wants it to become. Please share your thoughts, hopes, and information about efforts you are taking to achieve the same thing.
New Millennium also has a website at http://www.newmillenniumchurch.us/. Visit us on Facebook at "New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Arkansas." You'll see photos, learn about congregational efforts and activities, and find manuscripts of sermons that have been proclaimed on the website. You'll find about what we're reading together to become more useful agents of divine grace and truth in the world.
I hope you'll share your journey with us and join the journey we're on to make the world a place of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, truth, and justice. That's the will of God that Jesus taught us to do. That's the heaven on earth we read about in the Lord's Prayer.
That's what we're about today, tomorrow, sometimes stumbling over ourselves, but always mindful that we're here to live for God in every breath and heartbeat as followers of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Together.
Grace and Peace to you!
New Millennium Church is unique in that the focus is not on the Pastor, musicians, singers, or any programs, building projects, fundraisers or special days...aaaahhh, refreshing! We focus on doing and being better Christians as a whole by studying and applying GOD's WORD daily, by praising GOD in our actions that must and do transcend the walls of the physical church using our gifts, talents, and fruit of THE SPIRIT to show others the magnificent joy, freedom and LOVE we know and want to share through Jesus Christ! Not words but works, not programs but ensuring we share the presence and practices of Christ in our homes, neighborhoods, community, jobs, and everywhere we go. We invite you to join us as we who are not perfect seek to serve GOD WHO is perfect with a bold humility wrapped in an unapologetic faith in GOD OUR ALL and ALL, Jesus Christ our Savior, Deliverer, Redeemer, and Friend, and The HOLY Spirit our guide, our comforter, and our wind! We welcome you!
ReplyDeleteLove, Anika (Typos by my fingers)