If God truly sees you as His plan A, how should that change the way you see the church? Today’s message invites us to rethink church not as a destination, but as a greenhouse God uses to cultivate and prepare us for the lives we’re already living. When the church becomes a catalyst - forming, equipping, and sending us - we begin to see how God grows disciples inside the Greenhouse so they can bring life into the places and spaces where they live, work, learn, and play. Let's explore how this shift in perspective can transform, not only how we see the church, but how we step into God’s mission every day.

For Adult Homes and Groups

This week, reread these passages slowly and prayerfully: 

Ephesians 4:1–16; Mark 4:30–33; 1 Corinthians 3:5–9. As you read, ask God to reshape the way you see both the church and your role in it.

1. Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a mustard seed that grows quietly and unexpectedly (Mark 4). Where in your life might God be inviting you to take small, faithful steps rather than visible or immediate results?

2. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul reminds us that while we plant and water, God brings the growth. How does this truth free you from pressure or performance when you think about living on mission?

3. Ephesians 4 describes the church like a greenhouse - a place where people are equipped, nurtured, and grown for the work of ministry. How might this change the way you approach Sunday gatherings, community, and your everyday places of influence this week?

For Families with Kids

1. Plan and take a trip to the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Make a point to spend time in the Climatron (greenhouse). What did you notice about the environment there? What colors did you see? How did it feel? What were your favorite plants? Did they look healthy and growing?

2. Read Ephesians 4:1-16.

3. What is one thing you are good at that could be a gift to our church family, your home, or school that directs people to Jesus?

4. A greenhouse flourishes with life, just like our church is flourishing with many people to do the wonderful things Jesus calls us to do. What is something nourishing you get from church that you can take with you to share this week at school/work?

5. Pray for the Holy Spirit to continue His work of growth in your faith, strength to share it, and grace to live it out.

Ephesians 4:1–16

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit - just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call -  5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. 8 Therefore it says,

“When He ascended on high he led a host of captives,

    and He gave gifts to men.”

9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that He had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.