Accomplishing the Mission!

Wow!  So much is going on right now in regards to actually accomplishing the mission of the Adventist Community Church.  Jesus said in Matthew 28 that the mission of the church was to GO.  It was the make disciples, teaching them and baptize them.  Within that, are two basic elements - evangelism and discipling.

Recently we've had several things going on that which show we are seeking to develop community and discipleship.  The Binding the Wounds class helps us by stabilizing people.  It helps by bringing healing.  It truly is discipleship.  We've had several social gatherings of Young Adults and other groups and much discipleship goes along with that.  Every time believers meet together there is a level of discipleship happening.  True, it would be best if that discipleship happened on purpose rather than on accident.  We've also formed several Community Groups and more are soon launching.  Our goal over the next year is to get all those groups focused on disciple-making and discipling.

For four nights now, we've focused on evangelism.  Danny is doing a tremendous job sharing truth with grace and truth with a purpose.  It's more than informational.  It's life-transforming truth.  Awesome.  Our goal is to have that happen on a regular basis.  To do evangelism as a regular part of the calendar and a regular part of the process - rather than an interruption to the calendar.  

What if we did Evangelism with such regularity that there were many people getting baptized all throughout the year and then new Community Groups were formed after each seminar?  What if within those groups we served the community, the church, and were growing deeper in our walk with God?  What if we did it on purpose?

I believe we'll get there - but it will take time.  I believe we'll get there, as we focus on about three things over the next three years: Discipleship, Evangelism, and Worship.  It's the D.E.W. of Heaven that will touch our hearts - that will change our lives and bring revival of our spirits to align with God's Spirit.

God Bless!

Roger Walter

Senior Pastor   http://bit.ly/qO3Vg

Adventist Community Church of Vancouver

Great Meeting Tonight

It was a tremendous meeting tonight as we discussed what the next agenda items are and then as we had huge discussion about what a disciple is and how do we get them there. Jack Smith led out in this section and did a great job.

Our next step will be to finish defining this and then to define our 3-5 year goals. Our job will then be to present to the church in business session.

I'm excited about the future as we seek to get it all figured out and begin aligning the church around our strategic plan.

More to come....


- Posted using BlogPress from my Phone

Community Groups - part of the pie

This blog has primarily been about the team building the mission/vision material.  But something happened yesterday that is so much a part of this that I had to also cross-report it here.  

Our Community Group training happened yesterday and the response was overwhelming.  The mission of the church is discipleship and evangelism.  The Community Groups will handle the discipleship.  This has potential to be huge! 

You can read about it here: http://tinyurl.com/akw9bq

Be a Difference Maker!

roger walter

Senior Pastor http://bit.ly/qO3Vg

Adventist Community Church

Last night we had an interesting discussion about the various size of churches - small, medium and large churches. The background for the discussion was this information take from the book "One Size Doesn't Fit All."

You can find this information at this website: http://bit.ly/anNoe

We probably spent about an hour talking about the ramifications of those concepts. The consensus was that we are a medium sized church that is on the verge of breaking into a large church - but some of our attitudes, actions and agendas are still in the small church. We are going to have to break completely into the medium church before we can ever grow beyond.

Of course,t he discussion also centered around the idea that as we grow bigger, we must also grow smaller through small groups. See http://www.vancouveradventist.com/news_entries/3113 for more information.

But we got stuck on the mission statement again. We've let it sit in our subconscious for over a month now and haven't talked about it, haven't thought through it, haven't dealt with it - just to let it sit and rest a little. In that time, we've talked about core values and some other issues.

Last night, I presented a basic remake of the mission statement as this:

• To be a community of people who worship the creator, proclaim the truth, and grow people to be disciples of Christ.

or

• To be a community of people who worship the creator, proclaim the gospel, and grow people to be disciples of Christ.

We got stuck on some of the wording, wordsmithing, etc. And it rests again. I was a bit frustrated, because I thought we would be able to get through it. In reality, I'd rather get stuck here than on some of the other issues. Once we hammer through this, it will enable the rest to come more easily.

If you were going to draw out the direction of what needs to happen it's this:

Mission --> Vision --> Core Values --> Strategic Plan --> Programs

Each of these builds on the previous one and points to the next one in the mix.

Mission: is a contemporary restatement of the Gospel Commission in Matthew 28:19-20

Vision: Is more specific to us - and is a picture of what it looks like at our church when we're accomplishing our mission

Core Values: are our deeply held beliefs about HOW we do ministry in pursuit of of our mission

Strategic Plan: is the steps we will take to get there over the next 3+ years

Programs: are the things we do from the day-to-day

We've gotten a lot done, and we really all agree on the basic concepts - we are really looking at the wording that will unite the church and ignite a passion in us to reach the lost. That's what is really going on.

Our next step: To begin talking to the greater group of people in the congregation to see what they think and get their input.

God is good - all the time, and this will get us pulled together eventually.... Your prayers are always encouraged!

Pastor Roger

rough draft of core values

Here's a VERY rough draft of what the Mission/Vision team is coming up with for Core Values.....  We folded (combined) a couple into others to come up with these - and they likely need more wordsmithing....

Seventh-day Adventist Community Church Core Values

Following God's lead with faith and prayer in effective community, discipleship and evangelism.

Evangelism – Lost people matter to God, therefore they matter to us – this means we prioritize the lost in our decisions – money, programming, and ministries.  We will always maintain our doctrinal purity to the distinctive Adventist truths while we seek to win the lost at all costs.

2.     Effectiveness – We're not seeking to do the best, but to do what we do effectively – this means we will consistently and constantly evaluate and measure our worship, evangelism, discipleship, prayer and stewardship.

 Community – A life lived within a community of believers is better served – this is played out in our acceptance of everyone, our worship together, and through our use of small groups for social, discipleship and service. 

  Discipleship – Full devotion to Christ and His Cause is normal – this is a journey that never ends for the believer.  Discipleship is following and it involves, but is not limited to: prayer, service, small groups, serving in your giftedness in teams, studying the Bible, sharing your faith, redemptive friendships, worship (private and corporate) and a proper use of Ellen White.

What do you think?

Another draft of the Mission

This was sent in via one of our Mission/Vision Team members....

> Another draft of the mission statement that I have been thinking
> about:
> Passionately reflecting Christ's love through the power of His
> presence, winning (or drawing) others to also become His disciples.
> Note AA9 that begins "The church is God's appointed agency for the
> salvation of men. It was organized for service, and its mission is
> to carry the gospel to the world. From the beginning it has been
> God's plan that through His church shall be reflected to the world
> his fullness and sufficiency. The members of the church...are to
> show forth His glory. ...and through the church will eventually be
> made manifest...the final and full display of the love of God."

Mission Responses Continue!

More responses from the Mission/Vision stuff. Make sure and see how the responses and comments are playing out on the website too. Totally uninformed opinions are helping us shape it, and we're keeping in their forefront. It's a discussion process. Keep on reading below....

On Jun 25, 2009, at 11:41 AM, Carolyn Karlstrom wrote:

Hi, Roger –
Generally, I really, really like the direction of the mission statement. Though I'm not on the committee I did read the message Neil Allen sent out last week with a variation of this. And was especially captured by his proposed last phrase "liberate the captives." That really resonated with me, as it's so apt. I can understand why it might need to be tempered a bit, though. Anyway, I would like to see the phrase "worship the Creator" come first in any line-up of descriptors, still don't like the word "seekers" for some reason, and would suggest something like this:

To passionately worship the Creator, preach the gospel, and disciple others.

And now you have my two cents' worth :-) ! ! !
Blessings to you . . .
Carolyn

Begin forwarded message:

From: David Allen

Date: June 29, 2009 3:54:51 PM PDT

This is a good definition of discipiiing:

Definition: from Barbara File who taught the discipling class at Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland. Don't know if it was original with her.

DISCIPLING IS COMING ALONGSIDE SOMEONE
TO TEACH ABOUT THE LORD
WITH WORD, AND ACTION, AND LIFE
TO THE POINT
THAT THEY CAN GO ALONGSIDE SOMEONE ELSE
TO TEACH ABOUT THE LORD
WITH WORD, AND ACTION, AND LIFE.

One other thought on Sid's idea ( "WE PASSIONATELY SEEK THOSE WHO WOULD JOIN US IN BECOMING PASSIONATE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.") - just to keep in mind for all of our ideas -

while it is true that we passionately seek those who would join us in becoming passionate disciples - that may become too limiting. In other words, do we only seek you if you play the game our way. Maybe our real objective is that we seek you in spite of what your decision is or what you do with the message. Otherwise we become our own club. Although I love the idea of what SId is saying we must seek in spite of response just as Jesus seeks us whether or not we respond. "We passionately seek out others so they can become passionate disciples of Christ." Needs some ! help

On Jun 23, 2009, at 12:26 PM, Roger Walter wrote:

Hey all, Great meeting the last two weeks. We've accomplished a lot. Now, as we ponder the newly designed mission statement (in it's rough draft form) over the next couple of weeks - please stay tuned to the comments section of the website Mission/Vision blog "Envisioning Vancouver" AND notice the new poll that is up there in the top right of our home page.

Both of these are designed to "get the word out" but they will help show us how much work it will take to bring this to clarity and to bring it into focus for the whole church.

The Mission/Vision Blog is here (Click here) and then scroll down to the bottom of the post and click on the comments link.

The poll is here (Click Here)