Sunday as Renewal?
April 14th, 2008 | by Scott |
Honestly, Sundays are draining affairs for me. By the time it is over I am emotionally and physically spent. That’s one of the reasons that not having the traditional Sunday night time where we just repeat what we already did on Sunday morning is such a blessing. I don’t miss that.
However, we have met the last two Sundays to discuss our vision for the upcoming year and it has been an incredibly encouraging process.
We have decided, for at least the next 15 months or so to focus on 4 specific areas in the life of this young congregation. They are:
–Community Involvement and Presence
–Children
–Small Groups
–Worship
Each of the past two Sunday nights we met to discuss in-depth what we mean by these ministry focus areas. All of these have a missional thrust and ties in to the mission statement that we have adopted for ourselves: seeking to be the love of God in Ponca City.
It was a blessed time for me to see the church as a whole buy in and take ownership in these areas. Not only that but we had an uplifting and inspiring period of worship. My sermon on “Blessed are the Pure in Heart” seemed to connect. We began a new class on Grace that elicited great discussion and has already begun to stretch us.
Not only that but we had our first visitors as a result of the website. The fact that they were able to listen to one of my sermons online and still decided to visit is a testament to the growing influence of this body of people in the community.
I’ll take more Sundays like yesterday, please.
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Now playing: Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers (Amazon Exclusive Version)
via FoxyTunes
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Now playing: NPR - Spring Music Preview
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5 Responses to “Sunday as Renewal?”
By Matt Wimberley on Apr 14, 2008 | Reply
Scott, How far are you from Tulsa? I may have to come to Tulsa on business sometime in May and if I was free on a Wednesday night I thought I might come visit your church.
Matt Wimberley
By Scott on Apr 14, 2008 | Reply
Matt,
I’m about an hour and a half from Tulsa. If that is too far for you let me know when you are going to be there. I make trips there from time to time and would love to get together for lunch or dinner.
By Greg England on Apr 14, 2008 | Reply
That would be encouraging! I, too, was so blessed when we disbanded Sunday nights. By the time I came to Long Beach, they had already done away with Wednesday night other than a few small groups, one of which (as always) met at the church because they were ticked off that the “regular” Wednesday night service had been abandoned in favor of small groups in homes.
By Amy on Apr 14, 2008 | Reply
Sounds like an awesome day. I know you and Tracy are such a blessing to Ponca City.
…and I love that mission statement. Can we borrow it here in Leb’nun?
By Scott on Apr 15, 2008 | Reply
We still have Wednesday night but are in the process of asking how to change them up.
Amy, use away.