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From the Pastor |
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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. Bro.
Mark |
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