After the rollout of our 2019 Vision Plan, a number of actions were initiated, redirected, or further emphasized to advance the four initiatives that were developed. Below are some of the things that were accomplished in each of those four areas and also an accomplishment related to our core values. It should be noted that these are only a sampling of the many things that were done.
Training to Follow Jesus
- An adult education team was established, and they identified a set of core classes to strengthen the congregation’s foundation of faith.
- They developed and implemented a three-year curriculum covering many of those core classes and additional topics.
- Practical classes to help people grow as disciples of Jesus were included in this curriculum.
Serving Our Neighbors as Missionaries
- We have hosted numerous outreach activities serving our community and sharing our faith with others: Community Picnic, working with Inter-parish Ministries, Blue Bus of Hope, and others.
- We have emphasized outreach to non-members in most of our activities – KidFest, Bible Day Camp, Mini School, and others.
- We have emphasized sharing our faith from the pulpit in the “Learning to Fish” and “Hospitality Incarnated” sermon series.
- We held classes/workshops focused on training and developing our abilities to share our faith with others. These included the Contagious Christian class (three sessions), Finding Your Gift class, and a Personal Spiritual Growth class.
- We established a Visitor Follow-Up Team to reach out to every visitor. This team has now been in operation for over one year.
- We began to support the Great Cities mission to Boa Vista, Brazil.
Winning Our Children to Christ
- In October 2020, we hired Christian Thompson as our Youth Minister. We have been tremendously blessed by Christian, Angela, and their three children. Our youth ministry has been reinvigorated in terms of energy and activity. Our teens have been getting a steady diet of deep spiritual training, fun activities, and personal growth.
- We established and staffed the children’s ministry role. Cindy Summers initially assumed this role part-time while also performing administrative duties. Michelle Ingland later assumed this role. A new children’s curriculum was adopted and has been enthusiastically received by both the children and parents. We have had numerous events engaging our children in a fun, faith-building activities. We have seen greater involvement of parents in our activities and classes.
- Both of these ministries have seen significant spiritual and numerical growth.
Building Intimate and Lasting Marriages
- We have developed and presented classes on the topics of both marriage and parenting. These classes have been well received by those attending.
- We held a marriage retreat for couples. This was attended by both married and unmarried couples.
Core Values
We pursue God with passion.
We grow every day through the power of the Holy Spirit.
We unite as a family in Christ.
We love and serve others to bring glory to Christ.
We invite others to the blessed life of salvation in Christ.
As mentioned above, there were many other activities and accomplishments in each of these areas over the past few years. Much remains to be done. However, given the trying times over the past few years, God has richly blessed us in our efforts to minister to our members, reach our community, and deepen our faith in Him.