VISION AND MINISTRY PROCESS
I have been the pastor of Iva First Wesleyan for four years now. For four years Noralee has been asking me, “Why don’t we have a mission statement? What’s our purpose?”, and for four years I’ve given her blank stares. I honestly didn’t have a clue. I’ve been waiting for God to tell me. Well, over the past year or so God has directed me into some pretty significant events that has finally brought clarity to this whole mission thing…
- The church planters assessment last November
- The ReFocusing process that I began in January (which has included reading a lot of missional books)
- The Samaritan’s Cupboard ministry that was started in January
- And most recently I have been reading Simple Church
The mission and vision of the church is finally coming into focus. I shared my thoughts with the Advisory Council last Sunday and everyone was giving me that “This is it!” look. We will be refining it over the next few weeks and months but this is it so far…
Our mission statement is very simple, but I think it works perfectly for a church that has been in existence for 91 years and has never had one. It is…
“Building disciples of Jesus Christ.”
This may be refined and changed a bit, but we want to stress that building disciples is what Jesus told us to do. It is based off of two key scriptures:
“Go and make disciples of all nations…” Matthew 28:19
“…you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house…” 1 Peter 2:5
Our ministry process can be summed up with the words KNOW, GROW, AND SHOW.
We want everyone in our circle of influence to…
1. KNOW Christ.
You know Christ by experiencing Him. We are asking our people to commit to three disciplines in order to KNOW Christ…
- Practice corporate worship by attending the Sunday morning worship service.
- Practice private daily worship by reading their Bibles, prayer, and personal worship practices.
- Faithfully give of their tithe.
2. GROW in Christ.
We are asking those in our circle of influence to commit to a GROWTH group. Right now we have two opportunities for GROWTH groups:
- Sunday School
- Small Group
I explained to our people that I think Small Groups is the best avenue. This will not be popular among some, but we are going to have to hash it out. We may have to use Sunday School as a starting point and then move people into small groups.
3. SHOW the love of Christ.
We are asking our people to commit to two disciplines:
- Samaritan’s Cupboard, which happens the fourth Saturday of the month. We would like for everyone to participate in this vital ministry.
- Daily give a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name to those around them who are in need of Christ’s love.
That’s it. Really simple, clearly defined, easy to follow. We believe if our people follow this simple three step process, they will truly be disciples of Jesus Christ. Also, as they know Christ, grow in Christ, and love others in the name of Christ, that will lead others to know Christ, grow in Christ, and ultimately show the love of Christ to others!
Obviously, we don’t really have anything for kids and teens right now, but we want to create the same process for them as we design and implement ministries. We have begun to communicate this and it will be a long process before everyone really owns it, but I am excited about how this process will grow God’s Kingdom!
RANDOMNESS
- I am listening to Sara Groves right now. I bought Tell Me What You Know a few months ago but haven’t really listened to it intently. She is one of my favorite artists and a master lyricist. This is her best CD since Conversations. It reminds me that I want to start my favorite Christian albums list very soon!
- Went to Family Camp last night. The point of John Ott’s message was great and it was one I needed to hear, but I wish it hadn’t taken him so long to get there! The best part of the evening was going to McDonalds afterward with Scott and Debbie and a couple from their church, Alan and Ophelia. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time!
- If you haven’t read Perry Noble’s blog today, you need to! Read it here.
- I am looking forward to watching the video of NewSpring’s service yesterday. Perry preached on Can I Lose My Salvation? I love Perry and NewSpring, I am a big cheerleader of his, and he is dead on 99% of the time, but I know where he is going with this and I think eternal security theology has created a lot of apathetic Christians, and now about 10,000 more people have heard it from a guy they think is a modern day prophet. I will reserve judgment until I hear it firsthand, but it does scare me a little.
- I have a lot of running around to do today, nursing homes, hospital, job applications, and a whole lot of church administration stuff to take care of (sigh).
- I am fighting a spiritual battle right now. God wants to take control of something in my life and I am reluctant to give it to Him. I know this sounds weird coming from a minister, but I am not sure I trust Him with it. “Lord I believe. Help my unbelief!”
- Keep me in your prayers today!
4 comments
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July 21, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Matt Rampey
Good stuff dude. I think you and I think a lot alike. I basically had the same kind of thoughts as far as purpose and mission at Mt. Moriah. Don’t let that scare you. I’m sure you’ll do a better job of initiating the necessary change than I did. My method was kind of like a sledgehammer; I’m sure you’ll be more wise. Besides, you’ve got more “chips” than I had.
Stay focused.
July 24, 2008 at 3:17 pm
jacknathan
That’s awesome Wade. We are in the process of restructuring things in our church. It’s a slower process. Especially when you have people on committees that don’t think on the same wavelength. But change is good. We have been growing (slowly right now, which is better than before) and I believe it is as a result of changes we are making in our vision. I recently had a conversation with two friends (both are recent Erskine Seminary grads) of mine who are on the Vision Team (committee which is seeking to implement vision in our church and make any changes necessary). We talked at length of shifting to become a discipling body. Matt’s wife is from Honduras and she said her church in Tegucigalpa the capital city is totally built on discipleship. Every member of the church who is not an infant in the faith is EXPECTED to have disciples under him/her. She said once they shifted to that vision, the church exploded with growth in numbers and in the depth relationships with God. So that is what we talked about doing perhaps. We figure it should start with the Elders in our polity structure, and perhaps dissolve the former small group structure in favor of discipleship groups with that as the main focus. We can fellowship on our own time. But, we’ll see if we make that transition. It’s primarily musing thoughts right now.
As for the Can I Lose My Salvation? issue:
I agree that that has done a lot of damage to the church. But I believe it is under the broader topic of cheap grace. So I don’t think the doctrine itself has done the damage, but its treatment by those who promote it. Every time it is addressed in a good pulpit, it is addressed in order give God glory and encourage deeper devotion to Him. It’s not an immunity card that gives license to sin. It’s a promise that yields a license to serve.
But I also believe that much destruction has been done to this belief when divorced from its theological context. TULIP really is like a precarious game of jenga, remove any of the five pieces and the whole comes tumbling down. If you don’t believe in the T-U-L-I, then you have no reason to believe in the P.
I have yet to attend a Newspring service. I have a good friend that attends and I plan on going with him soon. The only judgment I can pass on Newspring now is the same judgment I pass on most other churches (including mine with a few very minor exceptions). I see them doing much in their own church. I see them inviting people in. But I don’t see them serving in the name of Jesus as a church outside their doors. That’s a lot of money being pumped into their two campuses and four buildings and I don’t see it coming off of their campuses (again, I don’t see it so perhaps I am wrong).
Sorry, I just realized how much I wrote. I guess it’s because I haven’t been able to blog in a few weeks. I’ll be praying for you brother (or should I say “sir”)
July 24, 2008 at 3:20 pm
jacknathan
I don’t know why it made a smiley face. I just tried to close the parenthesis and end with a punctuation mark. Stupid internet. Now you can’t give good punctuation without it assuming you are trying to make a stupid winking smiley face.
July 25, 2008 at 12:14 am
Wade
I think you are right on target with your eternal security comments Jack. I did listen to Perry and he did a phenomenal job as usual. I think a lot of times it is how people recieve it and not so much how it is taught. I will comment on it in a blog real soon.