The president I used to work for when I used to work for Trinity Western University had a habit of saying, “We need to be end result focused.” Faculty thought the expression redundant. “Isn’t focusing on ends and results the same thing?” they would ask. And, of course, it is, but redundant comes in handy when you’re trying to make the point that mission accomplishment is everybody’s business.
Pantego Bible Church has a mission, to see people transformed by the Holy Spirit into fully developing followers of Jesus Christ, and rightly so. Personal transformation, expressed in three New Testament words, is the end result that God has in mind for all of us. The three words are morph translated “form,” summorphizo translated “conform,” and metamorphoo translated “transform.
About these three one author writes, “Paul used this word [morph] in his letter to the Galatians: ‘. . . . until Christ is formed in you.’ He agonized until Christ should be born in those people, until they should express his character and goodness in their whole being . . . Paul used another form of this word when he told the Christians in Rome that God had predestined them to be ‘conformed to the image of his Son.’ This word, summorphizo, means to have the same form as another, to shape a thing into a durable likeness. Spiritual growth is a molding process: We are to be to Christ as an image is to the original. Still another form of the word appears in Romans when Paul says we are not to be conformed to the world around us but ‘transformed b the renewing of your minds.’ This word is metamorphoo, from which comes the English word metamorphosis. A creeping caterpillar is transformed into a soaring butterfly—yet as the child of God we are to undergo a change that make s that one barely noticeable” (John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, 23).
Spiritual transformation, this discipleship process we go through to become like Jesus, is both intentional and incidental. It’s intentional because we can intentionally pursue a more thorough understanding of the 10 Core Beliefs and a more consistent exercise of the 10 Core Practices. As we do, the Spirit of God transforms us. It’s incidental because the Spirit of God also uses the circumstances of our lives to transform us. For example, he uses unexpected trouble to teach us patience and involvement with others in community to sharpen us.
As Pantego leaders we need to be end result focused; seeing people transformed and being transformed ourselves by the Holy Spirit into fully developing followers of Jesus Christ is our business. We do that by helping people develop the 30 Core Competencies through their own involvement in biblical community.
Pantego Bible Church has a mission, to see people transformed by the Holy Spirit into fully developing followers of Jesus Christ, and rightly so. Personal transformation, expressed in three New Testament words, is the end result that God has in mind for all of us. The three words are morph translated “form,” summorphizo translated “conform,” and metamorphoo translated “transform.
About these three one author writes, “Paul used this word [morph] in his letter to the Galatians: ‘. . . . until Christ is formed in you.’ He agonized until Christ should be born in those people, until they should express his character and goodness in their whole being . . . Paul used another form of this word when he told the Christians in Rome that God had predestined them to be ‘conformed to the image of his Son.’ This word, summorphizo, means to have the same form as another, to shape a thing into a durable likeness. Spiritual growth is a molding process: We are to be to Christ as an image is to the original. Still another form of the word appears in Romans when Paul says we are not to be conformed to the world around us but ‘transformed b the renewing of your minds.’ This word is metamorphoo, from which comes the English word metamorphosis. A creeping caterpillar is transformed into a soaring butterfly—yet as the child of God we are to undergo a change that make s that one barely noticeable” (John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, 23).
Spiritual transformation, this discipleship process we go through to become like Jesus, is both intentional and incidental. It’s intentional because we can intentionally pursue a more thorough understanding of the 10 Core Beliefs and a more consistent exercise of the 10 Core Practices. As we do, the Spirit of God transforms us. It’s incidental because the Spirit of God also uses the circumstances of our lives to transform us. For example, he uses unexpected trouble to teach us patience and involvement with others in community to sharpen us.
As Pantego leaders we need to be end result focused; seeing people transformed and being transformed ourselves by the Holy Spirit into fully developing followers of Jesus Christ is our business. We do that by helping people develop the 30 Core Competencies through their own involvement in biblical community.
