Welcome!

I’m so excited about what God is doing in your heart to lead you to begin training to start an Agape Moms, or entering a season of servant leadership training within an existing Agape Moms!

God has incredible plans for our lives and Ephesians 2:10 says that we are God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that he prepared in advance for us to do, that we should walk in them. God made you and gifted you on purpose, for very specific purposes. How neat is it that God uniquely invites us into his work alongside him? But sometimes we complicate it, or miss God's invitation entirely. Often moms search for a purpose outside of God's hardwired mission for us, or think that living for Jesus only means doing ‘big” thing like missions in Africa or getting a fancy seminary degree. Instead, we can embrace Christ’s call for us to make disciples, as we go about everyday, messy, mom-life.

This is where Agape Moms comes in, it intersects our personal mission of following God's plan for our lives in making disciples, and it gives us a place to welcome others who are far from Christ into our family of God. It's in our "bring your mess" environment of Agape Moms where moms can hear and see the gospel playing out, and where they can belong before they believe. God didn’t create us to do life alone, he designed us for community, and God gives us a very clear picture in scripture of what Biblical community is supposed to look like which we will unpack throughout our training. Acts 2:42-47 is one of our foundational texts, which ends with the description of the early church gaining the favor with all the people, and then the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. The purpose of the family of God is to live on mission for Jesus in what we are call “missional community.”

Missional community is a lifestyle born out of the gospel transformation in our hearts, a new identity in Christ, and a shifting in our thinking about missionaries as only being people who go far, to being what we’re called to do everyday as followers of Christ. Living on mission is a huge lifestyle change for many Christians, which is why the mission of Agape Moms is equipping moms to make disciples, as we live on mission, in everyday, messy, mom-life.

Watch this short video, introducing the idea of missional community and jot down your answers to the questions below, which you’ll discuss in your first training meeting. This video in and of itself, helped give me the courage to take the leap of faith and start the first Agape Moms. It put to words and gave real life images to the very things the Holy Spirt had been speaking to my heart through God's Word, and in my times of worship for many months. The church is not a building, it is the people of God, and we are called to live on mission for Jesus everyday, not wait for the lost to come to our church building. I hope it stirs your heart as well!

Discussion questions: 

1.) According to this video, how does missional community look different from small groups or the ways you’ve experienced church gatherings?

2.) What encouraged you most? What challenged you most?

3.) What one or two things do you want to start applying to your life today to begin to live on mission for Jesus in your everyday mom life? (This is how we will pray for each other.)

Next Session: Training SpringBoard