The Three Pillars of This Church

John 4:7–24 NKJV

7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” 15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Our church will have 3 non-negotiable pillars.

If anyone comes to our church, they will experience these 3 things:

The Three Pillars of The Garden Fellowship:

Spirit

Truth

Love

Jesus broke the barrier, so He could send the Holy Spirit!

The leading of, and manifestation of, the Holy Spirit has to be a leading part of our goals with God.

How to accomplish this:

our worship has one goal: every mind in the room on God!

every aspect of our service has that same goal.

every ministry of our church, the same goal!

Intentionally listen to the voice of God and give Him room to move and speak.

everyone have the mentality of praying for, noticing, building up, and listening to God about and for each other!

As a church, upping our consistency with God!

Each of us listening to God’s voice all week!

this requires making God’s voice our priority.

It’s extremely important to remember: These aren’t the pillars of the leadership of the Garden Fellowship. These are the pillars of our church!

Updated Mission Statement:

We want this church to bring God’s Spirit, truth, and love to this community. We want to see people delivered, healed, and hearing God’s voice. We want to see a move of God that brings major drops in drug use, unmarried pregnancy, divorce, alcohol abuse, and crime. We want to see marriages healed, parent-child relationships healed, and miracles of provision and breakthrough.

We want to see 75 people in weekly attendance.

Everything we do is to equip and to get equipped.

To be filled and to fill.

To understand and to teach.

Overcoming sin is not a goal. Why do you want to overcome sin? The only reason anyone would need to overcome sin is to know God. Your goal is to continually hear God’s voice and be available to be used by Him.

Focusing on overcoming sin is like focusing on eating right. No one just eats right for no reason. Eating right is a means to an end. It’s a *way* you accomplish a goal. If you focus on losing weight, for example, you’ll eat right. If you focus on lowering your blood sugar, you’ll eat right.

What if we focused on being people who were so in tune with God’s voice, we started seeing sin as the poison it is? What if we started realizing that whatever struggle we have is nothing but the enemy keeping us from hearing God’s voice? Being available to Him?

The enemy wants you focused on sin so that you’ll never feel ready. You’ll never feel worthy. You’ll never expect God to work through you.

As a church, every one of us, our goal is to walk continually in Spirit, truth, and love. We can’t let any one of these go.

if we let love go, we’ll deprive the Holy Spirit of the opportunities to reach people through us

if we let Spirit go, it’s just our flesh vs. the enemy.

If we let truth go, we spread confusion, fear, pride, law, and bondage. It’s the truth that makes us free.