Weekly Devotions - Sowing Seeds of Faith

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“A Vision For My Church and Yours"

Recently our staff grappled with agreeing on a vision and goals that could unite and excite us for this year and for many years to come. I only planned to spend one meeting on the whole thing, thinking we already knew this stuff. We just needed to write it down and get to work. Ouch! I was so wrong. We were struggling and arguing. Why? I soon realized we were disagreeing for the best of reasons. We have so many wonderful mission and ministry opportunities that it was difficult to focus on only a few areas. Maybe our struggle with a unified vision symbolizes what is happening throughout the church.

Our mission statement pictures a lighthouse and enclosed within its protective glow is: "A Light to Guide You Safely Home." For our vision, we were looking for something simple to explain our mission statement in a fresh new way. One staff member suggested, "If we're going to be a light to guide you safely home we must learn how to actually live the light." Live the light? That's it! "Live the L.I.G.H.T."

Live the L.I.G.H.T. or Love our Lord as we Invite, Grow and Help others To live like Christ:

L - Love our Lord as we

I - Invite,

G - Grow and

H - Help others

T - To live like Christ.

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Okay but what does that mean?

¨Love our Lord as we… the Lord is our cornerstone.

¨Invite… intentionally include others within Gods love.

¨Grow and… deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ.

¨Help others… respond to the needs within our community and world.

¨To live like Christ… We model Christ's example.

The Scripture which guides our vision come from the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew: "You are the light of the world-like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. Don't hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father." (5:14-16)

We turned our church vision into the following new goals for 2006:

1. Expand our small groups. We've learned that small groups offer the best way to help each of us connect with God and each other. Every person in our church needs that opportunity.

2. Communicate our vision. If we're going to be a church that makes a difference we have to clearly explain our vision from the pulpit and from the rest of our communication resources.

3. Seek, guide and encourage newcomers. As a church, we are called by God to be a witness for the community and world. Every newcomer is a gift from God we should handle with care.

4. Recruit, develop and strengthen leaders. Everybody knows we are an active church but we must constantly develop new leadership in order to continue providing ministry and missions.

5. Strengthen our team ministry. Team ministry signifies action but to be successful every player must feel necessary. Good teams help us move from pew sitters to mission seekers?

As a church, we will always place primary emphasis on prayer, our fundamental link with God. We also know we have a solid reputation for outreach as demonstrated by continued work in Katrina ravaged Mississippi as well as Jamaica, Sri Lanka and our many projects throughout the local community. This important work will continue and even expand as our church grows. We know one of our strongest ministries is with children and youth. We plan to continue offering stimulating worship combined with small group study and fellowship to arouse spiritual growth and promote active ministry.

We are privileged to represent God's holy church and earnestly strive to be: "A Light to Guide You Safely Home!" We seek God's guidance as we "Live the L.I.G.H.T." "Love our Lord as we Invite, Grow and Help others To live like Christ." Wow! No wonder our church puts so much emphasis on prayer.

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Last modified May 22, 2006.

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