Why Mountain Springs Church?
The 7 Distinctives of Mountain Springs Church, Part 1
- Why has God raised up Mountain Springs Church? With around 500,000 churches in the United States, why Mountain Springs Church?
- This was the question I asked as a missionary in Okinawa, Japan in 1990 as Liz and I asked God to show us the next step in our lives.
- Ex. Liz and I loved Japan; we had served for 8 years in first Tokyo and the last two years in Okinawa. We loved the Japanese people. We loved what God was doing in Japan.
- We had been a part of establishing campus ministries in 20 universities in Tokyo and then established ministries on the three universities in Okinawa.
- We had a great staff team and the ministry was flourishing.
- But God began to work in my heart with a love and passion for the local church.
- As I studied the book of Acts, I could not help but notice that God’s primary and best plan for reaching the world for Christ was the planting of new churches.
- It was during a time of fasting and prayer that God gave my wife, Liz, a dream that indicated that we were called to Colorado Springs. God confirmed this word many times throughout the next few years.
- We started Mountain Springs in our home as a little Bible study in the fall of 1994. We outgrew our home and moved to a library, then to Pioneer Elementary School, and then to a storefront in town. We came to this land in the summer of 2002 and have built these 3 buildings in the past 6 years!
- Why Mountain Springs Church? What is our purpose?
- God has led us to establish MSC to bring glory to the Father through centering all worship, ministry, and mission in the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Head of the Church and everything we do should reflect glory and honor back to Him.
- We believe that Christ is best magnified in our lives and in our churches as we are equipped to go out and change the world. We are best equipped through the teaching of God’s Word in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Many churches and ministries emphasize the importance of the Holy Spirit to the neglect of solid teaching from God’s Word. Other churches and ministries have a strong teaching ministry but neglect the power of the Holy Spirit. We believe in the fullness and blending of both the Word and the Spirit. We believe it is only through the work and empowerment of the Holy Spirit that lives are changed, and it is only through the power and promises of God’s Word that lives are founded and grounded. We need both.
- We believe that God has given us a charge for this generation. We believe that the Lord has given us a mandate and calling to impact our world through planting and building churches and ministries that express the fullness of expository teaching of God’s Word with a deep reliance on the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit. God has spoken to us to plant 1,000 churches and ministries around the world.
The DNA of Mountain Springs Church
- God has given Word and Spirit Ministries International (WSMI) certain distinctives that set us apart from other ministries. These distinctives are the unique genetic code, or DNA, that God birthed within us as He led us with His Spirit.
- I believe the purpose and distinctives of Mountain Springs Church are best described through a story in which Jesus meets a Samaritan woman beside a well.
- Our story is found in John 4. In this passage, Jesus exemplifies seven distinctives that are the DNA of Mountain Springs Church.
John 4:1-4
- John the Baptist and Jesus were being scrutinized by the Pharisees. John was emphasizing repentance and Jesus was preaching about the Kingdom of God; both were unpopular with the established Jewish religious leaders.
- I think Jesus chose to leave because he did not want any trouble from John’s disciples because Jesus’ popularity was soaring and John’s was waning.
- Several roads led from Judea to Galilee; one along the coast, another through Perea, and one through the heart of Samaria. The one through Samaria was the shortest route.
- I love John 4, verse 4, because I think it shows that Jesus “needed” to meet this woman. It was a divine necessity that He meet her.
Vs. 5
- When the nation of Israel split politically after Solomon’s rule, King Omri named the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, “Samaria”.
(See 1 Kings 16:24)
- The name eventually came to refer to the entire district and sometimes to the entire northern kingdom, which was taken captive by Assyria in 722 BC.
- While Assyria led most of the 10 tribes of Israel away to what is now northern Iraq, they did leave behind a sizeable Jewish population in this region, and then transferred many non-Jews into the region.
- These groups intermingled to form a mixed race through intermarriage.
- The Samaritans withdrew from worshipping Yahweh at Jerusalem and established their worship at Mount Gerizim in Samaria.
- Samaritans did not regard all of the Bible as authoritative, but only took the first 5 books of Moses, the Pentateuch, as inerrant.
- Thus, to the Jews, the Samaritans were considered heretical.
- Intense ethical, religious, and cultural differences divided the Jews from the Samaritans.
- Sychar was a town on the shoulder of Mt. Ebal, opposite Mt Gerizim.
Vs. 6
- The precise location of “Jacob’s well” has been set by the Jews, Samaritans, Muslims, and Christians and has an unfinished Orthodox church on it today.
- This would have been a running spring where the villagers would come to get water each day.
- Even Jesus, in his humanity, became weary. He had traveled for many hours, walking, and was tired.
- It was the 6th hour, noon, the hottest time of day.
Vs. 7-15
Distinctive 1: The Centrality of Jesus Christ
- This Samaritan woman has no idea who she has just encountered at the community well.
- She is probably shocked that Jesus, a Jew, would speak to a woman He doesn’t know in public. This was a breach of rigid social custom.
- To make matters worse, Jesus engages in a conversation with a Samaritan, considered a heretical people.
- Jesus hooks her through a conversation that begins with a “felt need,” water, and quickly moves to her real need, “living water.”
- Jesus points her to the only source of happiness and purpose. Jesus points her to Himself!
- At the core of our lives is a longing to know God.
- Blaise Pascal, the great French philosopher once said, “There is a god shaped vacuum in the heart of every man that we try to fill up with created things, but can only be filled by God, made known through Jesus Christ.”
- The true beginning of our lives starts with encountering God made known through Jesus Christ. Only through Christ can we discover the adventure of life and inherit eternal salvation.
- This is the central purpose of Mountain Springs Church, to guide and equip people into a personal, vital relationship with the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.
- He is the center and source of all happiness and purpose. He is the Water that never runs dry. True purpose and happiness is found only in an intimate, dynamic, growing friendship with Jesus Christ. The central purpose of our lives, the main purpose of our churches is to point every man and woman to Christ.
- At MSC, we believe that Jesus is the Lord of His Church and should be so exalted. We believe that our primary purpose is to be a people who lift up Christ and lead others to Him.
- He is the source of all happiness and purpose!
- He is the One and Only that we worship.
John 3:14-15
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
- The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is our central theme.
- In every program, small group, or activity of Mountain Spring Church, we labor to lift Him up.
- At the center of all the activity of our churches should be the preaching of the gospel through lifting up Christ and His work on the cross.
1 Corinthians 2:2
“For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
- The theme of Word and Spirit churches and ministries, in all that we do, is that Christ would be named and proclaimed.
- Ex. Our small groups, children’s ministry, youth ministry, counseling ministry, ministry to the poor, adoption, everything is evaluated as to whether Christ is central.
Vs. 16-21
Distinctive 2: A Grace Atmosphere of Love and Acceptance
- Jesus showed uncommon love, grace, and acceptance in just talking to a woman. This woman is miffed that a Jew, and especially, a “rabbi,” would hold a conversation with her. This was unheard of at best, and scandalous at worst.
- It is interesting what we can learn about this woman in our passage.
- Women usually came to the well as a group, and the fact that she came alone would indicate that she was probably a woman of ill repute.
- This woman had tried intimate relationships with many men to find happiness and purpose.
- She had tried religion to find God.
- She even knew enough about the religion of her day to understand different worship styles and traditions (Vs. 19-20).
- Yet her heart was still empty and unfulfilled.
- Jesus, who was the fulfillment of the law, did not hammer her with the law. Jesus asked probing questions, listened, and gently guided her toward the true source of life, Himself.
- Jesus did not judge her, condemn her lifestyle, nor reject her current beliefs.
- Jesus, through his attitude, questions, and demeanor, created an atmosphere of love and acceptance, an atmosphere of grace.
- It was in this atmosphere of grace that the heart and motivations of this woman were exposed. She was open to the work of the Spirit through the kindness of Jesus. She was prepared by this grace and was now being wooed by the Spirit toward new life in Christ.
- Ex. When you have an accident, two kinds of help come to the scene:
- The Police, whose main responsibility is to find out who is at fault. They tape off and measure the skid marks, interview witnesses, and hand out tickets.
- The Paramedics, who don’t really care who is at fault. They are there to help the victims and the injured and keep them alive.
- Mountain Springs Church doesn’t care who is at fault; we care about saving people, healing people with love and grace.
- At MSC we encourage an atmosphere of love and acceptance for all people, even those who come out of the most sinful of backgrounds.
- We believe that God’s grace, expressed through love, is the best way to draw people to a grace-filled Savior. In a grace atmosphere people can more fully discover a personal loving God.
- Ex. In Black Forest, where we live, we only have about 90 days of growing season, so if you seriously want to have a garden, you need a green house. A green house protects the plants and allows them to grow through harsh weather conditions.
- At MSC, we believe that people need a “green house” of grace in order to experience Christ and grow in their personal faith.
- All of us come to Christ at a different place and a different pace.
- At this church, we desire to let the Holy Spirit and the Word of God minister to people at a grace pace that will bring eternal transformation.
Vs. 21-24
Distinctive 3: Worship in Spirit
- Imagine that? God is “seeking” out worshippers!
- Jesus is instructing us as to how we are to worship the Lord. God wants our hearts. He wants us to commune with Him in an intimate relationship.
- God is not concerned with the place of our worship like He is with the attitude of our hearts.
- Ex. Never in the history of the world, has worship and worship music been so emphasized in the greater Body of Christ.
- At MSC we will always emphasize contemporary music because we believe it speaks most powerfully to the heart of our generation.
- But we love the old hymns too, and we blend the two together often.
- Jesus is saying that He wants us to worship Him in the power of the Holy Spirit. God has given us His Holy Spirit to be the source of power for communion with the Lord.
John 7:38-39a
“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive.
- When we, by faith, give our lives to Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is Christ living within us. It is through the power of the Spirit of God living within us that God transforms us from selfish sinners into God glorifying saints!
- The filling of the Holy Spirit happens as we die to ourselves and give Christ control of our lives.
- I would rather say we are “Spirit spilled” rather than “Spirit filled.”
- It is this power that enables us to be His witnesses.
- Just before His ascension into heaven Jesus said,
Acts 1:8
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
- Hence, our lives and churches are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit moving and acting in our personal lives and in our churches, we will be absent of Christ’s presence and power. We must worship the Lord in the Spirit.
- We believe in all of the power of the Holy Spirit. We want our praise and worship to be anointed, empowered, and led by the Spirit of God.
- We want to equip our people to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- We want our people to know and understand their spiritual gifts and, with those gifts, minister to others.
- We want all of our ministries to reflect the work of the Holy Spirit in changing lives.
- We believe that when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we are true worshippers of the Lord.
- Are you walking in the Spirit today? Have you truly given Christ control of your life? Your job? Your finances? Your marriage? Your single life?
Questions to Ponder:
- How are you lifting up Jesus Christ in your daily life? What makes you any different from others who don’t know Christ?
- How can we show greater love and grace to those who are hurting around us?
- What do you think it means to worship the Lord in the Holy Spirit?
This sermon was produced at Mountain Springs Church in Colorado Springs, with Senior Pastor Steve Holt. www.mountainsprings.org
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