Love Like Jesus 

God is calling the Golf Course Road Church of Christ to be a Christ-centered Family that loves like Jesus.

We understand that we have not always exhibited this, but our vision for our church family is that we will “love like Jesus” in everything that we do.  That kind of love will define us, and it will be our identity to anyone that encounters us.  We will be a loving family unit, with Christ as our head of the household.  As a family, we will be a people learning to be loved for exactly who we are, and to love others for exactly who they are.  Many smaller parts of the family will meet together often for prayer, study, service, and fellowship.  We will be devoted to the Word of God, gaining understanding of His awesome might and His great love for us and passionately pursue deeper relationship with Him through private spiritual disciplines.  And weekly, we will gather all together, diverse ethnicities from across Midland represented, multiple generations, side by side, for vibrant, participatory, spirit-filled worship of our Father.  Our excitement will stem from dwelling in the grace and love of Christ at all times, remembering that we are called sons and daughters of God.

However, families can be messy, and ours will be no exception.  In response, we will be so concerned about the health of our family, that we will engage in healthy conflict, rather than run from it.  We will be unable to worship until we are reconciled with our brother or sister, and we will be equipped to do that with a loving Spirit.  We will honor each other and look out for the interests of others above our own, because this is the kind of love that Jesus displays.  Our leaders will go first, challenging each other to demonstrate this kind of love.

We will be committed to our family and dedicated to the well being of each person.  We will help each other see ourselves the way God sees us, loving ourselves in spite of our faults.  As we learn to love ourselves for who we are, we learn to love others as ourselves, with unconditional love.  And with that love, we will see people for who they are, and we will meet the needs that anyone in the family has, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual.  We will prepare our family to do good works and teach members of all ages to love like Jesus.  All members of our family will see opportunity for service to each other, and act intentionally, inviting others to join them.  Individuals will constantly be mentored by others in the family, as well as be discipling someone else, and our leaders will model this pattern.

At the same time, our eyes that love like Jesus loves will see the vast needs in our community and will rally to address those needs.  We will partner with organizations, mobilizing our members to serve, providing our resources of time and money, utilizing our facilities for the good of those organizations.  We will be a people that defends and protects the most vulnerable in our community, in our schools, in our families, the elderly, the poor, the homeless, the addicted, the orphans and the ostracized.  When the need seems too great for us to have an impact, we will cry out to our Father, and He will be faithful.  We will rally other churches, community non-profits, and governmental agencies to act on behalf of those that cannot care for themselves, because that’s how we love like Jesus.

And the love of Jesus extends to anyone that has not yet come to put their faith in Him.  So, we will reach out to people, right where they are, sharing the love of Christ with them through private conversations, small group meetings, and larger corporate occasions.  We will invite guests regularly to be part of our family events, and we will treat them with the respect due to all of God’s creations.  We will first demonstrate our love for them, because God has first loved us, and when given opportunity by the Holy Spirit, we will extend an invitation into the grace of the Father through faith in His Son.  We will baptize them into the family of God and help them to mature into the fullness of that salvation by teaching and discipling them as part of our family.

And because God has chosen to give us additional resources, we will continue to extend His love as far as He will allow.  We will partner with organizations and individuals, as well as challenge our own family to plant additional churches that can “Love Like Jesus” in other parts of the country.  We will also look for strategic opportunities to partner with others to share that love of Jesus to the ends of the earth.  And knowing that it takes individuals to step out in faith, we ourselves will be listening for the call of God, and filled with the love of Christ from our Father and from our loving family, we will be a people that responds to that call with an emphatic, “Here am I, send me!”  

We are not that church yet, but we can be.  By the grace of God, we believe He is calling us to be that church, a church that truly loves like Jesus.