Big Question #1: (re)CENTER CHRIST

How can we re-center every message, ministry, and mission on Jesus Christ?

The heartbeat of Reimagine.Network

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>>>HOW TO ENGAGE THIS GUIDED EXPLORATION

This is not simply an article to read. It is an invitation to rethink how prayer shapes your life and ministry.

SCROLL — Survey the Big Question and its companion resources.

SCOUT — Notice unfamiliar assumptions, challenging ideas, and provocative questions.

SELECT — Proceed sequentially. Choose one issue that deserves closer examination. Reprioritze to suit your context.

STUDY — Explore Scripture and the linked perspectives.

SEEK — Prayerfully discern what the Holy Spirit may be inviting you to reconsider or change.

30 seconds: Scan the headings and questions. 3 minutes: Survey the major ideas and select a focus. 30 minutes: Study Scripture, explore a companion resource, and begin responding.

Jesus Speaks

“But what about you?... Who do you say I am?” — Matthew 16:15

Our Foundational Conviction

Every ministry problem is ultimately a Christ-centeredness problem before it is a strategy problem. Jesus Christ must continually remain—and, whenever necessary, be restored—to the center of every belief, every relationship, every decision, every ministry, and every mission.

Why “(re)Center”?

The lowercase “r” is intentional. Some people are discovering Jesus Christ at the center of their lives for the first time. Others are returning our Savior to the center after realizing something else has quietly taken His place. Throughout life and ministry we are continually invited to (re)Center Christ. This is the only Big Question that intentionally uses “(re)” because every other question grows out of this foundational decision.

Before We Examine Our Ministry...

Let’s begin with ourselves.

It is possible to believe in Jesus Christ, preach about Jesus Christ, lead a ministry in the name of Jesus Christ—and gradually allow other concerns to occupy the center of our attention.

Programs
Problems
People
Politics
Preferences
Performance
Even ministry itself.

So our first Big Question begins closer to home:

Before I ask whether Christ is at the center of my ministry, am I willing to ask whether Christ is truly at the center of me?

This is not an accusation. It is an invitation—to pause, listen, pray, examine, and allow the Holy Spirit through Scripture to reveal what—or Who—is actually shaping the way we think, live, lead, and serve.

✍ JOURNAL — What is occupying the center of my attention right now?

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Why Begin Here?

Because Jesus Christ is not merely one subject among many subjects we need to rethink.

He is the Center from which everything else must be reimagined.

How we understand the Gospel.
How we pray.
How we make disciples.
How we lead.
How we evangelize.
How we understand Church.
How we engage our communities.
How we pursue unity.
How we think about our future.

Before asking “What should we change?” ask:

Where is Christ in the way I am thinking about this?

✍ JOURNAL — Where might my assumptions, experience, preferences, or pressures be shaping my thinking more than Christ?

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Anchor Scripture — Who Christ Is

Read Colossians 1:15–20 slowly and prayerfully. Notice what the passage says about the supremacy of Jesus Christ: His relationship to creation, His Church, reconciliation, and the way all things hold together in Him.

Do not begin by looking for a ministry strategy. Begin by looking for Him.

✍ JOURNAL — What does Colossians 1:15–20 reveal to me about Jesus Christ?

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✍ JOURNAL — What does this passage expose or invite in me?

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Anchor Scripture — Christ in Everything

Now read Colossians 3:17. Let its comprehensive language confront the tendency to divide life into places where Christ is central and places where He is merely acknowledged.

Colossians 3:17 reads: "Let every activity of your lives and every word that comes from your lips be drenched with the beauty of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. And bring your constant praise to God the Father because of what Christ has done for you!"

Ask: What would it mean for everything I say and do to be consciously shaped by the Lord Jesus?

✍ JOURNAL — Where is Christ already unmistakably central in my life and leadership?

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✍ JOURNAL — Where do I need to (re)Center Him?

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READ — Look for Jesus Christ

Read Scripture first. Then read thoughtfully. Don’t hurry. Look for Jesus Christ. Notice what the Holy Spirit brings to your attention.

What does this reveal about Jesus Christ?
What does this reveal about my relationship with Jesus Christ?
What might change if Christ—not my assumptions, experience, preferences, or ministry pressures—truly occupied the center of my thinking?

A Personal (re)Center Christ Inventory

Don’t rush through these questions. You are not taking a test. You are inviting the Holy Spirit to examine you.

My Attention

What receives most of my attention right now? When I think about my life and ministry, what occupies my thoughts more often than Jesus Christ?

✍ JOURNAL — My response

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My Identity

Is my identity rooted primarily in belonging to Christ—or in my roles, responsibilities, achievements, influence, reputation, or ministry?

✍ JOURNAL — My response

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My Thinking

When I face a difficult question, where does my mind go first—to experience, tradition, experts, strategies, preferred theology, or instincts? Do I intentionally seek the mind of Christ through Scripture and prayer?

✍ JOURNAL — My response

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My Leadership

Am I learning to lead like Jesus—or merely trying to lead effectively? Are His character, priorities, relationships, compassion, courage, humility, and dependence upon the Father shaping mine?

✍ JOURNAL — My response

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My Relationships

Would the people closest to me recognize the character and presence of Christ in the way I listen, speak, disagree, forgive, encourage, and serve?

✍ JOURNAL — My response

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My Ministry

Could I become so occupied doing things for Christ that I unintentionally lose sight of Christ Himself?

✍ JOURNAL — My response

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My Future

Am I willing to follow our Lord Jesus wherever He leads—even when He challenges my assumptions, disrupts familiar patterns, or asks me to change?

✍ JOURNAL — My response

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Pray. NOW!

Pause. Become still before God. Welcome the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. Invite the Holy Spirit to be your Teacher. Ask the Father to renew your mind through His Word.

Lord Jesus, where have I allowed something—even something good—to compete with Your rightful place at the center?

Holy Spirit, what do You want me to see?

Listen before declaring.
Learn before defending.
Pray before deciding.

✍ JOURNAL — What am I sensing I need to keep listening for?

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INVITE • INVOKE • INQUIRE • INVOLVE

INVITE

Invite Jesus Christ to take His rightful place at the center—not ceremonially, not merely verbally, but intentionally.

✍ JOURNAL — Lord Jesus, where have I been leading, deciding, planning, speaking, or serving without consciously recognizing Your presence and leadership?

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INVOKE

Invoke His presence and authority. Jesus is not simply a source of inspiration for our plans. He is Lord. We are not asking Him merely to bless what we have already decided to do.

✍ JOURNAL — Jesus, what do You want?

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INQUIRE

Ask Christ-centered questions.

Before asking: What works?

Ask: What reflects Christ?

Before asking: What will attract people?

Ask: What will help people encounter and follow Christ?

Before asking: How do we preserve this ministry?

Ask: What is Christ calling us to become?

Before asking: What should we do next?

Ask: Lord Jesus, where are You leading?

✍ JOURNAL — Which Christ-centered question do I most need to ask right now?

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INVOLVE

Involve Jesus Christ in every dimension of life and ministry: every conversation, relationship, decision, meeting, plan, conflict, message, and mission.

ReCentering Christ is not merely adding more references to Jesus.

It is learning to recognize and respond to His presence, purposes, priorities,

and leadership in everything.

From Me to Ministry

We began by asking:

Is Christ truly at the center of me?

Only now are we prepared to ask:

Is Christ truly at the center of the ministry I lead and serve?

That question takes us from personal examination into ministry exploration.

✍ JOURNAL — What might become possible in our ministry if we begin with Christ at the center?

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ReCenter Christ Across Every Ministry

ReCentering Christ does not simply mean referring to Jesus more often. It means allowing His presence, character, teaching, priorities, authority, and mission to reshape why a ministry exists, how it functions, what it produces, and how its leaders make decisions.

Select one or more ministry areas. Ask:

Is Christ merely mentioned here—or is He genuinely presiding?
What currently occupies the functional center of this ministry?
What would change if we consciously welcomed, consulted, followed, and obeyed Christ?

•Worship

Is worship helping people encounter, adore, hear, and respond to Jesus Christ—or has attention shifted toward music, personalities, preferences, production, or the experience itself?

What would change if Christ—not style, performance, or preference—were unmistakably central?

•Fellowship

Are our relationships being formed by our shared life in Christ—or primarily by familiarity, affinity, activities, age, interests, and social comfort?

How is Christ teaching us to welcome, listen, forgive, reconcile, encourage, and carry one another’s burdens?

•Discipleship

Are we helping people accumulate biblical information and participate in church activities—or become people whose thinking, character, relationships, and behavior increasingly reflect Jesus?

What evidence would show that people are actually learning to follow and become like Christ?

•Prayer

Is prayer an opening ritual, a ministry program, or the atmosphere in which we seek Christ’s mind and respond to His leadership?

Do we pray mainly for Christ to bless our plans—or do we pray before our plans are formed?

•Scripture and Teaching

Are we using Scripture to reinforce our assumptions and preferred conclusions—or allowing the Holy Spirit through Scripture to reveal Christ and renew our minds?

Does our teaching merely explain biblical content, or does it help people encounter, understand, trust, and obey Christ?

•Evangelism and Witness

Are we promoting a method, defending a system, recruiting people to our congregation, or bearing faithful witness to the living Christ?

Are people encountering Jesus—or merely encountering our presentation about Jesus?

•Compassion and Service

Is compassion an isolated program—or an expression of Christ’s mercy, justice, dignity, and love through His people?

Are we merely providing help, or are we learning to recognize, serve, and represent Christ among people who are hurting?

•Leadership and Decision Making

Are leaders primarily managing activity, solving problems, maintaining systems, and pursuing measurable success—or discerning and facilitating obedience to Christ?

Where have competence, urgency, habit, or institutional momentum displaced dependence upon Christ?

•Stewardship

Are money, facilities, time, technology, and people being used to sustain what already exists—or surrendered to Christ’s purposes?

What might we release, redirect, or reimagine if every resource truly belonged to Christ?

•Mission and Community Engagement

Are we asking Christ to accompany our mission—or recognizing that Christ precedes us and invites us to join what He is already doing?

Where might Christ already be present and active in our neighborhoods, communities, workplaces, and cities?

Ministry Reflection

Ministry: __________________________________

Where is Christ already unmistakably central?
What appears to occupy the functional center?
What needs to be affirmed, examined, released, recovered, or changed?
What is Christ inviting us to do next?
Who needs to participate in this conversation?

✍ JOURNAL — What is Christ bringing to our attention?

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Ways to Welcome Christ Back to the Center

Christ may not have left—but our attention, dependence, and obedience may have drifted. These practices help a group pause, acknowledge Christ’s presence and authority, seek His direction, and respond to His leadership.

Choose one or two that best fit your gathering. These are prompts for attentiveness, not a formula.

*Speak an Invitation

A leader might pray:

Lord Jesus, we acknowledge You as the Head of Your Church and the Lord of this ministry. Interrupt our assumptions, redirect our plans, and help us recognize and respond to Your leadership.

*Welcome Christ Through Prayer or Song

Begin with a prayer, hymn, or song that directs attention toward the presence, character, lordship, and purposes of Jesus—not merely toward the meeting or its participants.

*Recite a Declaration From Scripture

Read a passage aloud together that declares who Christ is and what it means for Him to be central:

Colossians 1:15–20
Colossians 3:17
John 15:1–5
Philippians 2:5–11
Hebrews 12:1–3

Then ask:

What does this Scripture invite us to remember, reconsider, or surrender before we proceed?

*Silence • Listen • Share

Read a short Scripture and remain silent for several minutes.

Ask each person to pray:

Lord Jesus, what do You want me—or us—to notice?

After the silence, invite people to share briefly. Do not immediately evaluate, correct, or turn every response into a decision. Listen together for repeated words, themes, questions, convictions, or invitations that should be tested through Scripture and prayer.

*Pray the Lord’s Prayer Together

Pray slowly, pausing after each phrase:

Your kingdom come.
Your will be done.

Ask:

What would it mean for Christ’s will—not merely our preferences, habits, or plans—to be done in this ministry?

*Confess What May Have Displaced Christ

Invite the group to name silently—or, when appropriate, aloud—anything that may have occupied the functional center:

Urgency
Success
Survival
Tradition
Personalities
Preferences
Programs
Performance
Conflict
Fear
Institutional momentum

Pray:

Lord Jesus, forgive us wherever we have allowed something—even something good—to occupy the place that belongs to You.

*Place the Agenda Before Christ

Before discussing the agenda, pray through it. Ask:

Lord Jesus, what are we assuming?
What do You want us to notice?
Is anything missing from this agenda?
Is anything receiving more attention than it should?
What should be postponed, reconsidered, or released?
Where are You inviting us to trust and obey?

*Lead a Scripture Guided Group Prayer

Read a Scripture that reveals the supremacy, presence, or leadership of Christ.
Allow silence for each person to pray privately.
Read another Scripture or speak a declaration welcoming Christ’s direction.
Pause again for silent listening and prayer.
Invite several people to pray aloud.
Sing a Christ-centered hymn, chorus, or song.
Conclude by asking: Lord Jesus, what is our next faithful act of obedience?

*End With a Response

Welcoming Christ is more than creating a spiritual atmosphere. His presence and leadership call for a response.

Before proceeding, ask:

Because we have prayed and listened, what—if anything—must we now affirm, change, stop, begin, or obey?

A Caution for Leaders

Do not use these practices to manufacture an emotional experience, imply that every impression is Christ’s direction, or add a spiritual introduction before conducting business as usual.

Welcome Christ genuinely. Listen humbly. Test what you hear through Scripture. Then be willing to follow wherever He leads.

HEED

What is Jesus Christ inviting me to believe... become... and live out?

Write down one response. Not ten. One.

✍ JOURNAL — My one response

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SEED

Who needs to join me in this conversation?

✍ JOURNAL — Name / person / team

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Every conversation becomes another opportunity to see a little more clearly.

PROCEED

Don’t stop with personal insight. Carry what you are discovering into the ministry you lead and serve.

✍ JOURNAL — My next faithful step

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✍ JOURNAL — When will I begin?

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Your Next Step

Explore the (re)Center Christ Ministry Hub.

>>>CLICK HERE

Now examine your messages, ministries, mission, leadership, relationships, structures, strategies, and plans through one foundational question:

Where is Jesus Christ in this?

Carry This With You

Jesus Christ is not merely one subject among many. He is the Center from which everything else must be reimagined.

Anchor Scriptures: Colossians 1:15–20 • Colossians 3:17

Jesus Speaks

Our Foundational Conviction

Why “(re)Center”?

Before We Examine Our Ministry...

Why Begin Here?

Anchor Scripture — Who Christ Is

Anchor Scripture — Christ in Everything

READ — Look for Jesus Christ

A Personal (re)Center Christ Inventory

My Attention

My Identity

My Thinking

My Leadership

My Relationships

My Ministry

My Future

Pray. NOW!

INVITE • INVOKE • INQUIRE • INVOLVE

INVITE

INVOKE

INQUIRE

INVOLVE

From Me to Ministry

ReCenter Christ Across Every Ministry

•Worship

•Fellowship

•Discipleship

•Prayer

•Scripture and Teaching

•Evangelism and Witness

•Compassion and Service

•Leadership and Decision Making

•Stewardship

•Mission and Community Engagement

Ministry Reflection

Ways to Welcome Christ Back to the Center

*Speak an Invitation

*Welcome Christ Through Prayer or Song

*Recite a Declaration From Scripture

*Silence • Listen • Share

*Pray the Lord’s Prayer Together

*Confess What May Have Displaced Christ

*Place the Agenda Before Christ

*Lead a Scripture Guided Group Prayer

*End With a Response

A Caution for Leaders

HEED

SEED

PROCEED

Your Next Step

Carry This With You

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