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What is Our purpose? Why did Jesus call the church together?
Isn't it funny that our Lord and Savior set up a system so many years ago calling a group of sinners together! I once heard a quote that explained it perfectly. It showed that everything God does is for His glory; in other words, He is showing off. My friend said, "The fact that the church has been run by and filled with sinners, for so long, it is the proof that there must be a God." What else could explain why congregations are still here after so many years? We are not perfect people, that is not why we are called holy. We are holy because of the one who makes us holy, and He never desired for us to be a self-preservation club but a group of gathered people that would be reliant on Him, and one that had a purpose. God did not call the church, God's people gathered, together just for the sole sake of saying there is a church here.
If all God wanted were church buildings to change the world you would think the world would look very different today. Most towns across America have at least one church building in the community, some of which are now vacant, and simply having them there has not changed the community. Nor did God call congregations to keep the status quo safely from within the building. I was asked several years ago if the congregation I was working with were to close their doors permanently, would anyone in the community notice? I went to a gas station just down the block and asked them if they felt our church had a positive impact on the community? The response shocked me, "what church?"
If Park Heights Church closed its doors permanently, would anyone in the community be impacted by it? Praise the Lord, we can say yes! This congregation continues to try new things to reach out to the community! We understand that the church, God's people, are called together, to do life together, for the purpose of mission. This litmus test is an interesting one that can help us keep track of how we are doing on the purpose Christ has given to us. We do have a purpose, but right now we are in the stages of asking the questions, how are we achieving our purpose, and can we do better at it?
Park Heights Church has a rich history. Many wonderful people have set us up for what we see as the church today. We have seen our congregation go through some hard changes in the past and some that were wonderful. Part of our history was God's hand at work to relocate our building to its current location, which at first was placed in the middle of nowhere. Now look around, God knew what He was doing, and we find ourselves located in the middle of a lot of people, and their dogs! Another part of our history was the active decision to try something new, a restart. Last October our congregation made several big decisions considering where we were and where we wanted to be.
The first decision was to either "Continue the status quo opting for a part-time pastor", do a "Church Restart" or "Make space for another church to plant a church in the facility, perhaps with a merger between the two churches sometime in the future."
You decided to do a church restart!
The second decision was to hire a new pastor. The search was for a "church planting style pastor with a track record of growth who would be fully engaged with the region through participation in the LLC, Leadership Tune-up, receive coaching, and be willing to raise funds." You did that…and here I am.
And now we are at a time in our history to see God bring our choices to fruition. What does a church restart really look like? It is several things including but not limited to; a restart date, our mission and vision, the values we will hold to, the ministry strategies we will incorporate into the life of our congregation, a name change, a new web site, new social media presence, and faith that Christ will guide us every step of the way.
As we move forward there really is one more decision that needs to be made; are we going to move forward simply because that is what was decided back in October, or are we going to move forward because there is an excitement to live into the purpose Christ has given to us as a congregation? Put another way, are we ready to partner with Christ in growing His kingdom on the South Hill and beyond? The questions that follow are, what does that look like both as a congregation and as the individuals that make up the congregation, how will we know what success looks like, and when is this all taking place?
June 4th at 7:00pm we are having a town hall meeting on zoom to look at what the next stage is for our congregation, to dream about the future, to answer the questions of why, how, what, and start taking steps towards becoming the church Christ has envisioned for us. Please do not hesitate to talk to me, or the Leadership team, about your thoughts prior to the meeting. Our big picture goal is to grow Christ’s Kingdom (Matthew 28:19-20), but our secondary goal is to do so as a united group of people on mission for Christ (Philippians 2:1-4).
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