Leadership Team Chairman
Not long ago I received a message from Pastor Johan early on a Saturday morning, “Are you available to meet today, I’ve got something I need to share with you.” Little did I know that conversation was to be the unveiling of God’s focused Mission and Vision of our church. When we got together, Johan shared what God had put on his heart in the middle of the night and my immediate response was, “That’s it! That’s who we are.” I had no doubt that what he was sharing was indeed inspired. After parting I sat down to unpack what he had told me and put into words what the Mission and Vision I had heard meant to me. 2 days later I shared that with Johan over breakfast and watched as he broke down in tears. His response was, “That’s exactly what’s on my heart."
Two weeks later Johan shared his heart with the other pastors and then the Leadership Team. I believe everyone was brought to tears that night. It was the most powerful and emotional church meeting I've experienced. To the person we all said, “That’s it!” We knew that the Holy Spirit was at work.
Now we have the privilege to share this Mission and Vision with you and trust that you too will say, “That’s it! That’s who we are and what God is calling us to be!”
My prayer is that you will not simply hear it but that you will take time to reflect on it, chew on it, unpack it and wrestle with it and come up with your own understanding of what it means to you. How does it speak to your heart? How will it impact your ministry? Our Vision as a church is to be “A contagious community of Jesus love”. That will only happen when we are living out our Mission of “Helping people discover, live and share the love of Jesus”… and that begins with you and I first loving one another.
So what does it mean to me?
“Helping people discover, live and share the love of Jesus"
Our Mission as a church is to love on people. To show people, not just tell them, of God’s life changing love for his creation and specifically for them. He calls us as his followers to be the living expression of that love in a hurting world, living it out in witness so others will see it and want to know Jesus. As they come to know His love for them we want to help them embrace that love and live into that love because Christ’s love brings restoration, healing, change and peace. As we live into God’s love, it fills us, transforms us and overflows to those we encounter. This is our desire, to see people restored to the point that God’s love is so prevalent and real in all aspects of their life that it overflows to all they encounter.
“A contagious community reflecting the love of Jesus”
Our Vision is the manifested result of truly living out our Mission. We want to create a COMMUNITY that people are so excited about they will want all their friends to experience it. If we become a COMMUNITY that truly loves on people, that expends all of our energy on helping people know and live into God’s love, people will want to share that and invite others to experience that love because true love is contagious. Can we do this on our own? No. But God can! He can transform our hearts, our ministries, our attitudes. The work has already been started…RFKC, Church under the bridge, River of Life, Local Serve, Life Groups, and so much more but we need to sharpen our focus and constantly ask, “How does this help someone discover, live or share the love of Jesus?” and “Will this contribute to building a community that is reflecting Christ's love and that people are excited to have their friends experience?”
What does our Mission and Vision mean to you? As you unpack these statement for yourself I invite you to share your heart with us buy clicking the button below.
Together we CAN become a contagious community reflecting the love of Jesus!
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13
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