Creating<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The unifying vision of Mt Vernon Church is creating contagious communities of hope. Over the next week or so I want to\u00a0flesh out that vision so that more\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/creating\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Creating\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The unifying vision of Mt Vernon Church is creating contagious communities of hope. 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{"id":2369,"date":"2014-12-01T07:00:09","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/?p=2369"},"modified":"2014-12-01T07:00:09","modified_gmt":"2014-12-01T13:00:09","slug":"creating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/creating\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The unifying vision of Mt Vernon Church is creating<\/strong> contagious communities of hope<\/em>. Over the next week or so I want to\u00a0flesh out that vision so that more can grab onto it.<\/p>\n

$\"CCCOH\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The very first word is \u201ccreating<\/strong>.\u201d Creating<\/strong> is about intentionality. It\u2019s about us recognizing that our world is broken and sin-infested. Left on it\u2019s own, it\u2019s doomed to despair and destruction. People are walking around in darkness, in ignorance, in hopelessness. As\u00a0followers of Jesus, we have the answer. We follow God in a world that has forsaken Him.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreating<\/strong>\u201d is simply the choice to run back into a burning building to see how many more we can save before the whole thing comes down. It\u2019s not comfortable, it\u2019s definitely safer on the outside, but there are still people needing salvation. And so we \u201ccreate<\/strong>.\u201d We\u2019re intentional about stepping into the void and declaring the truth of Jesus to a dying world.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreating<\/strong>\u201d is intentionality. Not to simply do church out of a sense of history or tradition, but to tap into our God-given creativity to create<\/strong> irresistible environments that draw people in from all walks of life. It\u2019s the intentionality of teaching timeless truths in creative ways. To give that left hook that no one is expecting to better communicate a truth.<\/p>\n

God created<\/strong>. We are made in His image. We have the power to create<\/strong>. We create<\/strong> families, educational systems, forms of government, television shows and the latest technological gadgets. We also create<\/strong> churches, gatherings of local believers committed to doing life together. At Mt Vernon, our local gathering of believers doesn\u2019t meet out of mere habit, tradition or convenience. We meet with a purpose. Why? Because we are creating<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"