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Dear friends in Christ, Last night, we continued our EMBODY series in the sanctuary. Many of you know that we've been doing some team teaching and interactive study on Wednesday nights concerning the emerging mission, vision and strategy of our church. We've been reminding each other that our primary mission is to "make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world." We have also focused on 3 words that define our strategy. Connect, Prepare & Send. As a community of faith, we are seeking to: 1. Connect people to Christ; 2. Prepare each other for a life of discipleship; and 3. Send one another into the world to share the Gospel, in word and deed. The word send in the New Testament comes from the Greek word apostolos. This word is the origin of our word, apostle. An apostle is one who is sent. A delegate. An emissary. A missionary. One who seeks to translate one culture into another. Jesus initially calls us to be disciples (learners, students). But He intends for us to become apostles. We are a sent community! One pastor said it like this: "It's not how many the church seats that matters. Its how many the church sends! We are a sending church! We are called to be missionaries! I realized recently that many of my heroes of faith are missionaries: E. Stanley Jones, William Carey, George Muller, Lesslie Newbigin, Mother Teresa and others. These persons lived in such a way that their very lives became a translation of the grace of God. I read not long ago about a group that studied missional churches. They found that missional (or sending) churches had 12 things in common. A missional church is one that: 1. proclaims the Gospel. 2. involves all of its people in learning to become disciples of Jesus Christ.believes in the efficacy of prayer.