DEAR FRIENDS –
Years ago, a simple phrase guided IBC’s effort to share our resources and help fund local and global mission projects: Not Just Ourselves. As we continued to use the phrase to describe externally focused initiatives, we came to see that Not Just Ourselves shouldn’t be limited to special projects at a special time of year. We realized the Not Just Ourselves mindset should shape our ministry and sharpen our focus all year round. Everything we do at Irving Bible Church is ultimately for the sake of others, for the sake of the world—not just ourselves. As a church, Not Just Ourselves calls us to serve our congregation and our neighbors. Not Just Ourselves calls us to make missionary disciples—Christ-followers who are living out their purpose by abiding in Jesus and joining God’s mission in the world.
Not Just Ourselves calls us to something bigger as individuals and families too. We must recognize that God has given us so much—everything from amazing grace and abundant life to spiritual gifts, skills and talents, resources, and passions—and that he has given us these things not just for benefit of ourselves and our families, but for the benefit of others as well. When God provides for us, he’s not just providing for our well-being; he’s also providing us the means through which we can be a part of what he’s doing in the world. This is why we serve, this is why we give, this is why we show up for one another and for our neighbors. This is why we embody hospitality and empathy in a broken world.
Not Just Ourselves invites us to live out the self-giving love of Jesus with generosity, joy, and compassion. As we do, we become more and more like our giving God, and our love for others puts the love of God on display for all to see. In other words, the Not Just Ourselves life forms us in the way of Jesus for the sake of the world.
We hope you will press into the Not Just Ourselves life at IBC. We also hope you will prayerfully consider a deeper financial investment into the ministry needs and opportunities we are pursuing in the days to come. We long to see these initiatives come to fruition because of the impact they will make on the people we’re called to serve, and we continue to depend on your financial generosity in order to make progress.
Will you spend some time in prayer, reflection, and conversation about how God is inviting you to respond to the Not Just Ourselves invitation?
-Barry Jones, Senior Pastor