Restoration2025: report from congregational input #1
We hope that you will join us for each congregational input session. The next one is Sunday, March 31 @1pm. We will provide food and childcare. You can also submit ideas, questions, and things you are hearing in prayer to this email address or through this form.
Thanks for reading and praying along with us. Here is a summary of what we heard on March 17:
Key Highlights
- Kids small groups (Nursery through 5th grade)
- Adult small groups (the model makes it easy for people to jump in)
- Use of liturgy, music, and other arts to invite people to connect with God on more than an intellectual level
- Open communication and sense of welcome from the leaders
- Youth and Young Adult Ministries (roughly defined as age 14 through 30)
- Fostering spiritual development and growth of individual members
- training and equipping folks to ‘invitationally’ talk about their relationship with Jesus.
- providing resources for life’s hard stuff: parenting, death, transitions, etc.
- more rigorous, in depth Bible Study / Scripture study
- Increasing local outreach – thinking about how we integrate into the immediate community
- using our facility/space creatively
- more conferences/seminars on topics that concern those in our broader community
- short term local missions trips
- caring for the vulnerable
- connecting w/ young professionals new to the area
There is a chance that this list doesn’t have the idea you want our church to pursue over the next five years! So make sure that you bring it with you on March 31 @1pm so that we can hear it!
Moving towards Jesus
- Jesus Who? — Never met Jesus
- No Thanks Jesus — Don’t care to meet Jesus because they a) don’t care or b) simply not appealing
- Yea, I Met Jesus Once — Met Jesus long ago and consider themselves “churched” or too busy
- Jesus Betrayed Me — He didn’t come through on something they wanted, didn’t protect them from pain
- What Now Jesus? — Newly met Jesus and looking for a home and a place to fit in and grow
- Following Jesus — Looking for my calling, to grow deeper, to give with a purpose
Ultimately, our goal is for people to a) meet Jesus, and b) be discipled by Jesus together with others being discipled by Jesus.
- Unchurched – and either a) Never been exposed to Jesus, and/or b) Don’t see the point. Our neighbors. Our fellow professionals (Gen X, Y, Z) looking for a home and a place to belong.
- Under-resourced– our neighbors who are financially poor, undereducated, families in foster care
- Unseen- our elders, our friends who experience depression, anxiety, loneliness
We are seeking God’s leading and His compassion. We want to run with anticipation and excitement towards the things He is doing and inviting us to join. Keep praying with us! Keep listening!
We hope to see you on March 31 at 1pm.
