Dear church,
I wanted to take a moment to say thanks. I could thank you all for so much! But I want to thank you for something specific.
Can I thank you for being bold enough to stand...? Because its hard to stand sometimes when you are carrying something heavy. Church isn't necessarily heavy but her burden is. Our new friends evenings and connect lunches on the first Sundays of the month are going to combine a little in that the message will be the same. We can only do that because you have shown Giovanna and myself including our leadership team just what it is we are passionate about as a church. Something everybody is noticing is that Christ Church has changed over the years, its not about what church does so much that has changed or its systems and procedures. Its more than that and its that people have changed.
Our challenge before us is to get to know people that call Christ Church home. Look around on a Sunday morning and ask "Do I know these people?". We want people to know each other.
So thank you all for the following:
- You have helped Christ Church to grow by desiring a clear purpose.
- You have helped by embracing the strategy we have to accomplish that purpose when it would have been easier to walk away.
In a nutshell, our purpose is to see people won to Christ. To see believers become disciples (this year's teaching series) and to release people to impact the world.
You believe God loves people. You believe that God commands us to reach people for Him and you believe that God's desire is that people mature in their faith.
And when I say thank you, what I mean by that is that you are standing up and declaring that we need to be big enough to serve everybody but small enough to know each other. And just because that might make the place a bit uncomfortable for a while, you are going to stand with us and see it through!
- You celebrate more than the song. You know that celebrating as a family (church and home families/couples/singles) can reach other families.
Your presence on a Sunday is more than a duty, you know its about celebrating being together and celebrating God who has brought us together. - You know that connecting in small groups is more than a bible study. you know that's more about growth and care.
- You know that by contributing that its more than being good at something. You believe that its about building the character to match the gifts being served so nobody burns out.
(A lot of the message this Sunday will pull some of that out and stretch it like spaghetti before us)
We will be based in Matthew 22:34-40
If you are leading a connect group or want to go a bit deeper?
Try this exercise that we do very early on in our 6:40 training or if we are training others to discover a church vision/mission/strategy. Its nothing new or scary.
Take a big piece of paper or a white board if you have one spare...
Draw a big circle and beside the circle write "Save" then below it "Equip" and then below that "Release" Based on Isaiah 61
Now imagine the year's direction for the whole church is in your hands as a group... you want to see everybody in church engaging growing and serving. (Have some strong coffee) Now as a group make some decisions but for this exercise agree that the purpose of the church is found in Save, Equip and Release (or Celebrate Connect Contribute OR Evangelism Training & Serving) or whatever 3 words you choose to describe the great commission that an entire church could remember and explain to another person in less that 3 minutes which is about how long you might have if they asked you why you go to this church.
Now imagine you have all the church money sitting in front of your group. You have all the church resource in front of you. You have all the church time in front of you and you have people asking where they can help. Imagine the whole church want to know what the purpose is going to be, they are asking why they should stay at your church? Imagine that some are not yet Christian, some have been Christians for years, others only a short time. Some are charismatic and some are not. Some are passionate about youth or mission or music or leadership and some look very confused and some are hurt and struggling. Others have secrets and others appear to be living a perfect life.
Your circle represents one year.
Can you as a group decide how much proportion of everything the church has and is to give to each area?
For example: Save 33% So you will invest 33% of everything the church has, people, time and money getting people saved (alpha, outreach, sermons, hospitality, greeters). Equip 33% So you will invest 33% of everything the church has, people, time and money and training and developing leaders, evangelists, missions, ministry team process, care for families serving, conferences, sermons, safe guarding policies, prayer meetings. Release 33% So you will invest 33% of everything the church has, people, time and money into empowering and delegating people to lead church ministries including budget monitoring, accountability structure, correction process, farewelling key people as they possibly take up position elsewhere, hand over projects to smaller teams to run, measure success.
* Please don't think that an even spread necessarily matches the church season she may be in or may have to go through in the year.
What season is the church in? Can your percentages move part way through the year if need be or massive changes occurred?
Go ahead, gift it a try. There is no wrong answer. Please don't argue over it lol! (However if you really want a challenge just go ahead and have a small group AGM and try explain the year with they why and how including all the detail of the what why and how) I am joking about the small group AGM!! Seriously... you may not want to meet again.
Now for the enhanced version of this exercise just choose one of you to be the pastor, one to be the leadership team, one to be the flower arranger, one to be the evangelist, one to be the finance person and one to be the guy nobody really knows but brings a massive bible every time and takes loads of notes specifically when you are talking.
Have fun and let me know your results (be careful... this might be inspiring and creative!)
Bless you and thanks :)
Scott and Giovanna
