Our process
A man once said, “The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.” The idea is that we must identify our priorities and keep our attention and resources continually fixed on them. We feel this is extremely important for our church.
For us, church is about helping people grow spiritually – helping them to know Christ better and love Him more. We believe this personal connection with Christ is our deepest need, highest fulfillment and greatest achievement; so, this is the organizing principle that guides everything else we do.
We like to describe this process of spiritual development as a journey. We use four checkpoints or signposts to help guide us and determine our progress. These four signposts are: Connect, Grow, Serve and Reach.
Connect
Connection is realizing that a successful journey requires meaningful encounters with an all knowing, all powerful, perfectly righteous, completely loving being who wants to be actively involved in our lives.
It is also about realizing that a successful journey is hardly ever accomplished alone. We can connect to each other in ways that foster faith, hope and love. We connect in a ways that help us become the best possible version of ourselves.
Grow
Growing is gaining a greater understanding of who God is, what He has promised to do, and applying that understanding to how we live our lives.
Three main avenues of growth that we try to focus on are gaining knowledge of Christ, strengthening our dedication to Him, and cultivating a desire for God and a delight in Him.
Serve
Serving is discovering and developing the gifts that God has given us by putting them into practice for the benefit of others.
We feel we best accomplish this be realizing that serving is part of God’s plan, that He gives us ability to serve, and Christ shows us that to follow him is to become a servant.
Reach
Reaching is committing to pray, work and give to reach people that Christ died to save through the demonstration and declaration of the good news.
It is about taking practical steps to help others connect, grow, serve and reach. It’s about showing others how to know Him better and love Him more.
How it works
We wanted to make the spiritual development process as clear and simple as possible. We feel all of us are more likely to do something that is simple than something that is complicated. Even though it may be simple, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. Following Jesus will require a lifetime of learning, it will cost you in pretty much every way possible, but friend, the result is worth so much more than we can ever give. What you give may be expensive, but what you will receive back will be priceless
The result of following Christ is not just that we become like Jesus and spend eternity in Heaven, but that we can help others to do the same. A life lived for Christ will make a difference in this world and in the next.
Connect is what our Sunday mornings are designed to accomplish. We want to give people opportunities to make meaningful connections with God through prayer, music, and the Bible. We also try to build in time for each other over coffee, during a break or at lunch.
Grow is something that happens individually and corporately. We want to give people practical tools and instruction to help spiritual growth. We also design some events to promote growth through special classes or series which provide a forum to ask questions and interact with specific topics.
Serve is mostly about a finding a way to contribute to the church fulfilling its mission. We believe that people are more effective and fulfilled when they operate in their “sweet spot”- that place where our abilities, experiences and interests come together. We want to help people identify these and help them develop the skills and practices necessary to operate in them.
Reach is typically what happens outside the walls of the church. It is about making a difference in our community through service and acts of kindness. It is also about telling and showing others what God has done for us.