ON THE MARK

 

On September 12-14, I asked the leaders of our church – active deacons, church council, and staff to meet for a weekend leadership retreat. I am pleased to say that the event was well-attended and there was a lot of good discussion and reflection over our history and our identity as Salem Avenue Baptist Church.

To begin to understand the vision God has for our church, we need to understand who we are in terms of our values, beliefs, mission/purpose and vision. Core values are reflected in those consistent positive behavior patterns which we display as a church. We also probed for those values which we would call aspirational, meaning, “we’re not there yet, but we know this is something we need to work on.” Bedrock beliefs are those foundational beliefs we turn to for comfort and strength in times of crisis or trial.

Our church has adopted a purpose statement which says, “Helping people discover the abundant life in Jesus.” To me this says that our purpose is to meet people where we find them, and lead them to profess faith in Jesus Christ and to grow stronger in him.  Who do you know who needs to know Jesus? Who do you know who may have a very good life, but is still struggling with the empty sense, ‘There must be something more than this?’” Mission/purpose is why we do what we do. Vision is what it looks like when we get there. Bill Hybels defines vision as a word picture of the future which produces passion. What would it look like for your friend, co-worker, family member to enter into the abundance of life in Jesus Christ? What is there in your experience of Jesus Christ that this person cannot live without?

When we can answer these questions, we’re well on our way to understanding God’s vision for us.

 

In His Love,

Bro. Mark