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)

Mission Accomplished?

The Mission/Vision Team met again tonight to talk about the issue of our Mission statement.  We began by narrowing in the last few times we met.  We all were in agreement that a mission statement needed to reflect the Great Commission in Matthew 28.  And that commission needed to have parts that included evangelism and discipleship.  

The previous times we met we kept getting mixed up in regards to whether we were talking about mission, vision, or core values.  Once we clarified that, it prompted quite a bit of discussion.  Two statements came in via email this last week that kind of pulled us into a strong working of what we were talking about.  They were these:

WE PASSIONATELY SEEK THOSE WHO WOULD JOIN US IN BECOMING PASSIONATE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

and 

PREACH THE GOSPEL, WORSHIP THE CREATOR, AND LIBERATE THE CAPTIVES

As we discussed it further, the reasons we liked these two aspects of it, the reason we didn't like certain ones, we came to a pretty strong consensus.  We're not in 100% agreement yet, and we're also not completely done with the wordsmithing of this statement, but what we landed on tonight is this:

To Passionately Preach the Gospel, Worship the Creator, Disciple the Seekers

There was strong agreement amongst our diverse group as we have pulled together into a team of people that this likely represents much of what we're seeking to say.  Now we're going to let it sit for a few weeks and germinate as we work on the vision and core values and then we'll come back to it after it sits for awhile.  

I'd like to heard your comments on it.  I'd be curious to hear your thinking.  Please feel free to add a comment below - either anonymously or with your name.  Please let us hear what you have to say.

You need to read this link....

It is good....

As We Look at the Vision

As we look at the vision for the church - we need to define how this looks and what we can and will do. This simple diagram, taken from this site: http://bit.ly/HRK4D

You can probably see a much clearer version on the website. It says much in regards to the choices we make and how we will make them in regards to the vision of the church. No, we're not going to "monetize" anything, but we are going to seek to work at what we're good at and what we enjoy and are passionate about. And we're going to get better about it!

Hungry? Feed Yourself! Break the Famine (Amos 8:11)

roger walter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Senior Pastor Seventh-day Adventist Community Church of Vancouver

Join the LIFE Journal Revolution

Make a Difference Blog:

http://tinyurl.com/akw9bq

Anything? Really?

If you could do anything for the Lord, what would it be?  If the answer was YES, what would you do for Jesus?  Shouldn't that be the answer?

You see everyone has a voice to give and everyone needs to be heard.  That's the goal of the Mission/Vision team, to listen to everyone, decipher it down into a meaningful, memorable, and Biblical way of looking at things.  Then to start say YES to everyone that asks.

Our next Mission/Vision Team meeting will be to start putting together some of the pieces we've been working on.  That means we'll actually start formulating the mission statement - we'll look at the previous mission statement, look again at some others, and filter them down to two or three various mission statements that we can put together to help set the direction for what we do next - define how and what we'll do over the next few years.

My goal is that everyone discover their Avocation.  What's an avocation, you ask?  Good question.  Your vocation is what you do to earn a living - where you spend your 9-5 workweek at.  Your AVOCATION is where you spend your time because you are passionate about it.  I believe that we are all called (1 Peter 1:9-12) to serve in our jobs to pay the bills, but we are also called to serve God in a way that pleases Him and accomplishes a Kingdom Difference.

So, what do you want to do for God - the answer is YES!

Hungry? Feed Yourself!  Break the Famine (Amos 8:11)

roger walter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Senior Pastor Seventh-day Adventist Community Church of Vancouver

          Join the LIFE Journal Revolution

Make a Difference Blog:

http://tinyurl.com/akw9bq 

So Simple Yet So Profound

As a church our ultimate goal is to reconcile the world and specifically our world to God through Jesus Christ. Christian churches around the world have worked tirelessly over the last twenty centuries and yet the world, at least our world here in North America seems farther way from God.

In my quiet time this morning I discovered something so simple yet so profound in God's word - something I've never seen in this light before. Listen to this...

When a person's ways are pleasing to the LORD, he even reconciles his enemies to himself. Proverbs 16:7 (NET)

WOW! Could this not also apply to the church - our church? Could we say that when the Adventist Community Church of Vancouver's ways are pleasing to the LORD, we even reconcile our enemies with the Church and thus with God?

As we envision the future of our church we must pray that the ways that we devise and follow would be pleasing to the LORD so that we could thereby aid in recociling our world to God.

LIVE Video Conference

Last night we met via video conference for the Mission/Vision Team.  I was/am in Michigan and the rest of the team was there in Vancouver.  It worked okay.  I can't say it was the absolute best for a discussion or for my ability to hear everyone.  But it worked a little.

In that meeting, we discovered that the average age of the community was 37, whereas the average age of our congregation was 43.  Although we're a little older, we're not doing too poorly.  The average age of the North American Adventist is 60!  Hey!  That means we're not middle-aged yet!  That's awesome.  But there was other demographic information we looked at as well - family size, education level, marital status, male/female ratio, etc.  

But the question comes now, what do we do with that information?  Where do we turn next?  There are some obvious implications that come with demographic information:

• Can we reach people who are like that?
• Are we like them, or different from them in our lifestyle?
• Some said like, others said different...
• How different can we be and still reach them?
• Does that affect our programming?
• Does it affect our theology?
• Should we feed the consumers of society or give them pure truth?
• Is there a balance between feeding people what they want, or what they need?

When people show up at church, after a fairly extensive survey was done, they found these 5 issues in order of preference:

1. People want to have the Presence of God
2. People want to Experience the Gospel
3. People want to Receive Hope
4. People want to Experience Acceptance by Others
5. People want everything to run with Excellence

This survey connects with who we are and who we're trying to reach.  It connects with people and allows us to understand what they are really looking for in church - it's the things that connect them to God.  It's not programming.  It's not good potlucks.  It's not about what style of music we use.  They want to see God and see God in others.  #5, the excellence thing, helps people to have a distraction free environment where they can have the other 4.

So the question remains, how does our mission and vision relate to these things?  How will it address these issues?  Stay tuned....

Be a Difference Maker!

roger walter

Senior Pastor 

Adventist Community Church

Fwd: Let this encourage you!

From: "Gene H. Heinrich" 

Date: May 5, 2009 5:14:24 PM GMT-04:00

To: Roger Walter 

Subject: Let this encourage you!

The means in our possession may not seem to be sufficient for the work; but if we will move forward in faith, believing in the all-sufficient power of God, abundant resources will open before us. If the work be of God, He Himself will provide the means for its accomplishment. He will reward honest, simple reliance upon Him. The little that is wisely and economically used in the service of the Lord of heaven will increase in the very act of imparting. In the hand of Christ the small supply of food remained undiminished until the famished multitude were satisfied. If we go to the Source of all strength, with our hands of faith outstretched to receive, we shall be sustained in our work, even under the most forbidding circumstances, and shall be enabled to give to others the bread of life.  {DA 371.1}


Blessings,
Gene

Wanted: Vision Implants

In my devotional time this morning I was unsettled by the lyrics in David's song recorded in Psalm 20. Especially Psalm 20:4

"May he [God] grant your heart's desire; may he bring all your plans to pass!"

I don't know about you - but I don't trust my heart's desire or the plans I concoct. Before I can sing these words I need implants! First, I need God to implant His desires in my heart. Second, I need God to implant his vision (plans) into my mind.

Maybe I'm the only one with this struggle - I'm naturally self-centered. If the desires and plans of my natural heart are allowed to be brought to pass I fear that I'll find myself heading down the broad road to destruction instead of the narrow road that leads to life.

Pastor Roger is right - we need to be focused on Christ. And as we move forward as a church and as leaders in the cause for Christ it's my prayer that God will implant His desires in our hearts and His plans in our minds.

Pastor Gene

Sitting in Class

I'm sitting in a class that is focusing on prayer and spirituality. We're discussing how worldview, core values affects our actions in the long-run. They often by-pass our belief system. For example, we believe in the priesthood of all believers, but we still want the pastor to be the one who prays with us.... We believe what Adventists believe, but we don't go to church.... We don't eat pork and we convince our live-in girlfriend to give it up too....

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.............

What we're dealing with on the Mission/Vision team is SO important to the future of our actions as a church. Core Values are our deeply held belief about HOW we do ministry/live life as we pursue our mission. Our mission, should reflect the great commission. But does it? Well....that's to be defined.

Regardless of where we are, where we are going, and how we go about doing it, we need to be focused on Jesus Christ. Look at this quote:

"Prayer is the answer to every problem in life. It puts us in tune with divine wisdom which knows how to adjust everything perfectly. So often we do not pray in certain situations, because from our standpoint the outlook is hopeless. But nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is so entangled that it cannot be remedied; no human relationship is too strained for God to bring about reconciliation and understanding; no habit so deep rooted that it cannot be overcome; no one is so weak that he cannot be strong; no one is so ill that he cannot be healed. No mind is so dull that it cannot be made brilliant. Whatever we need, if we trust God He will supply it. If anything is causing worry or anxiety, let us stop REHEARSING the difficulty and trust God for healing, love and power."

Be a Difference Maker!

roger walter

Senior Pastor

Adventist Community Church

Succeeding through Faith - Failing through Self

This morning my devotionals also brought me to the 17th chapter of Matthew. I believe what I found is significant for the Vancouver Church as we move forward to develop our mission and vision.

In the NET translation of Matthew 17:20 Jesus tells those who had failed as they were are trying to accomplish God's will in their world, “It was because of your little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you.

Apparently the disciples were trying to accomplish God's will (freeing a boy from a demon) through self. Jesus says God’s will is accomplished through faith – not self. When we set out to do God’s will through faith nothing is impossible for us to accomplish for God.

As the Adventist Community Church of Vancouver seeks to accomplish God's will in our community the leaders and yes the entire church needs to check self (including our motives cf. Psalm 139:2). First, are we trying to accomplish God’s will or our will. Second, are we trying to accomplish it through self or through faith. If through faith then we guaranteed success.

Let's make sure we are on the right team for the right reasons and that we are setting the right goals - God's goals. Then let's let our team captain (Jesus) lead us to victory!

Increase Our Faith

Today in my devotions, I saw something critical to our mission and vision process. It was found in Matthew 17:20 where Jesus says if we have enough faith, we can move mountains. In that verse, there is a contextual evidence to suggest that more prayer equals greater faith. So, I have just a couple of questions - do we have faith to believe that God is going to do something great in Vancouver because of the Adventist Community Church? Do we have faith to believe that we will make a difference in the community and in the lives of people at church? Next question: Are we praying about it? Are we increasing our time of prayer to increase our faith? Are we asking God for great things, or is it just a perfunctory performance as we begin to move forward. It is my believe that we need to focus on listening to God - in prayer, in the Word of God, and together so that we can focus our mission and vision. Take time to pray for your church now....

Our Third Meeting

We've been doing a lot of brainstorming in our meetings thus far.  What we've really been doing is beginning the process of building trust and teamwork.  We haven't gotten very far down the field yet as a Mission/Vision Team, but we are in the training phases of understanding each other, understanding the issues, and working together.  But we haven't arrived in any of those areas yet.

It's interesting to watch.  I'm the newbie.  I see a different perspective of the group than they see of each other.  Sometimes, we have a tendency to put people in boxes over time and see things from only one perspective.  As I've infused some new blood into things and we've brought some new people into the mix, there's a new thought process taking shape.  I think it's going to be a very strong process.

what I see in the process is a team of people who are coming to a clearer understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the church.  Over the next few weeks they will get some perspective on the demographics of the area we're seeking to reach.  And last night we began to pick over the process of the great commission - what we're called to do.  Matthew 28:18-20 serves as the great commission - a commission to go and make disciples. 

We also handed out copies of a book called, "The Externally Focused Church."  In this book, the author says the goal of the church is to seek the lost and serve the least.  While we do that, we're building community amongst ourselves and we're growing disciples together.

There are no more meetings planned for a couple of weeks.  We've got some assignments to work on over the next few weeks on studying the community.  It's a time of reflection.  Hopefully we'll see some parity of who the community is and how we would be able to reach them.  We'll also, likely, see some disparity and have to take some stands or make some changes.  Both are feasible.  

Please keep praying for the process.  I think things are going together well.  Last night we looked at sample mission statements and talked about what we liked and didn't like in those.  It was the beginning of discovery as to what a mission statement is and how it works.  

Mission is like the hub of a wheel.  The hub is attached to something solid (Jesus), and the wheel (everything the church does) turns on the hub (the mission of the church).  Every decision we face in the future will be measured against whether it will help us accomplish our mission or not.  In other words, we're going to do things on purpose, not by accident.  And our mission is our purpose.  

Hungry? Feed Yourself!  Break the Famine (Amos 8:11)

roger walter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Senior Pastor Seventh-day Adventist Community Church of Vancouver

          Join the LIFE Journal Revolution

Make a Difference Blog:

http://tinyurl.com/akw9bq