Forty Days of Purpose

We're doing the Forty Days of Purpose at church. Its actually the second time I've done it, and I'm looking forward to getting new insights, and a deeper understanding and relationship with God.

When I was reviewing it, I tried to remember each of the five purposes that Rick Warren identifies as being core to our existence. They came in a natural order for me: Worship; Discipleship; Fellowship; Evangelism; Ministry. Every time I think about them they change order slightly, but Worship is definitely up there as #1; Discipleship, Fellowship and Ministry in the middle; Evangelism lower down.

I think that this may be tightly coupled to how God made me: not that any of the purposes are any more important than any other, but they have a natural order in my life, a natural priority. Worship is definitely number 1. Whenever I think about what God has made me for, worshiping, music, praise, all come instantly to mind. It's what occupies mind most the time, most days. Even at work, behind a computer, I'm usually listening to something (right now CounterMoon from Donald Fagan's Kamakiriad). On lunch breaks I'm song-writing whilst working around - or at least groove-writing.

Discipleship & Fellowship are also something very important to me - growing like Christ, and helping others to grow to their potential I've always loved to do. I have difficulty separating this from Ministry, but I think I'll have to look at that more closely this time. I think Evangelism is more prominent at the moment, as I've been reading a lot about it in Warren's previous book - The Purpose Driven Church. This is very much based around the question: How do we get unchurched people to meet Christ?

And that's really the point, I'm feeling more. How do we get more people to meet, and stay with Jesus? How can I do that better? 40 Days is not just an evangelism tool, or a church programme to fill in a few weeks. It really is a tool for living.