This is a little bit of a “state of the church” article. Occasionally I get the questions, “Where is Grace Community Church going? What’s the plan?” Of course, we have a mission and vision statement, and we are working hard to make “discipleship through relationship” more than a catch phrase. Good things are happening on many fronts. But what are our future goals and plans? The elders of the church are asking the same question right now – “Where are we going?” They see some things we used to do that we don’t do now. They see some things that we could do more effectively than we are doing them now. These things start to suggest some ways to work in the coming months. In this article, I want to give you a peek at some conversation topics of leaders at Grace.
The Mystery of the future
I want to first acknowledge a mystery. James reminds us to attach the words “if the Lord wills” to our great plans for the future (James 4:15). Plans, objectives or goals for the future are only wise when they are held with that humility. God’s plans are not written in the sky, or emailed down to us from headquarters in a PowerPoint. So we pray, we think about the scriptures, and we make some plans. If the Lord wills, we shall more than succeed with them. We shall overcome!
Having prefaced with the idea of the will of God, the reality is we have divine marching orders from the Master himself. All believers are called to make disciples of all nations. We may have come up with “discipleship through relationship” as a motto, but Jesus Christ give it to us as a mission and a methodology. Many specifics of the strategy itself are left to prayerful wisdom. Trial and error can be our friends. Hard work is not unspiritual.
We are thinking about the big picture
One of the goals this year that I have as a leader, and we have as your elders, is the development of a long range (think 3 to 5 year) plan. We’ve already had a couple of vision related discussions, touched on some things we as individuals are passionate about, and discussed some things we think Grace could do better. We will be working this year on a process to get us to some concrete and measurable things we want to accomplish in the next few years. We want to do it in a way that we are assured (accountable) that the effort goes into the key objectives. We may find some venues to hear from you along the way about our life together, and your dreams for our future. These won’t be top secret. They will be a part of the big picture at Grace for a few years to come.
These long range plans will shape the annual planning for our staff. We staff members will set our annual objectives guided by the long range goals for our church. Other key volunteer leaders will also have their calendar shaped by these objectives as they say “yes” to some volunteer duties, and “no” to other good, but less urgent opportunities. The elders will check in periodically to evaluate the plans, revise the process, and see where the Lord has moved into our plans in different ways. Perhaps one great idea is frustrated, while a new idea sees great blessing fall upon it. That’s part of the mystery of planning I mentioned.
We are thinking about a second worship service
We realize many GCC services have been crowded recently. Some of you may have wondered, “Do the elders know how crowded it is on Sundays?” Yes, we do. We’ve been watching this closely. We realize this overcrowding limits our ability to make disciples of the next searching soul who tries to find a place to park with great difficulty, and then enters the building to see the standing backs of so many people - so hard to find a place to sit! We don’t want to blow our one chance to show them the “handshake of Grace.” We were blessed a few weeks ago to have three adult baptisms, and four adult professions of faith all on one Sunday. The last thing I want to see happen is for the next person like that feel unwelcome because of overcrowding! The wisest next step at this point seems to be an additional worship service.
We’ve been batting around some ideas, and interacting with a few leaders at Grace about them. We’ve been discussing a 10 week period from Easter to Memorial Day as a potential window to experience a model for two services with Foundations. We’ve even batted around ideas about what the new service would look like, and how it might meet our spiritual longings in some creative ways. Nothing’s been decided. Nothing’s been voted on. The suggestion box is still open. Of course, soon, at least some initial decision will have to be made so we can prepare for this window of opportunity.
We are thinking about intimacy with Jesus Christ
I interviewed a number of long service pastors on my Sabbatical last summer. I came away from my sabbatical impressed by the impact of thoughtful planning for spiritual health on the part of most of them. They took care of their souls, and maintained their intimacy with Jesus Christ as something of first priority. The elders enjoyed hearing me talk about this, and we are all interested in taking this idea further. If this is good for the Senior Pastor, isn’t important for the staff? What about the elders? Wait a minute…what about….everybody! We want to take some time as elders to think through these things and figure out some “best practices” for spiritual health planning. Ultimately we want to improve the way we make disciples at GCC so that we all are enjoying Jesus Christ and his peace, love, hope and joy to the fullest possible extent. Of course, we will be spending our whole lives on this quest.
I’m optimistic.
So, I pulled back the curtain on some discussions going among the elders. You now know some of the conversations going on. Pray for the future conversations to be very fruitful. I’m optimistic. If GCC were a precious metal, I’d be a buyer. Well, being that it is the church of Jesus Christ, it is precious…that is to say, we are precious to Him. I see good things ahead. I am more optimistic about our future than I’ve been in some time. God has shown himself kind and gracious in so many ways as of late. This has been the source of my optimism and encouragement. I expect that there are going to be challenges. I think beautiful things are ahead. I hope they look like Sundays with many baptisms, friendships that shape us to look like Christ, and events that bring the people of God together from diverse backgrounds.
In Him,
Don