Thursday, September 27, 2012

What's Next For Church - Harvest Time?

Hello Everyone,

This morning the crisp fall chill in the air was a reminder that the seasons are a-changing! Esther and I have been sensing that what has been happening in the natural is a reflection or indicator of what season we are moving into as a community. Fall is about taking in the harvest and giving thanks for the harvest. So we believe this is a season of harvest. There are people around us that are ready to come in to the Kingdom! We've been reflecting on the words of Jesus from John 4: 34: "My food," Jesus said, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look as the fields! They are ripe for harvest!"

This summer we tasted of this harvest when we saw a number of young people say "Yes" to Jesus at camp. We believe this was an encouragement from God that we are entering a season of seeing some friends and family around us say "Yes" to Jesus.

So with that in mind, we want to meet this Sunday and ask the questions: 'What Next for Church?' and 'How do we be and do church in this next season?' These questions flow out of the 'Why Church?'  question. Simply church is about relationship/community/family on mission together- so we want to ask, 'How we can go deeper in our friendships to help one another grow as followers of Jesus?' and 'How do encourage, equip, and go with each other on the mission of seeing people come into the Kingdom?"  The cool part of simple church is that we can turn the rudder of the schooner and change direction without much effort. We want to get our sails up and point our sails in the direction that the wind of the HS is blowing!

We don't want to just go through the motions of 'doing church' where we do the same thing getting the same results; which is pointless. Where we need to re-calibrate our compasses to point in the right direction of God's purposes for church, we want to do so. Where we need to re-tool for the journey, we want to do so? Where we need to re-align our resources of time, energy, and money, we want to do so? We may use the SOAR tool to draw this out. If you are curious what SOAR is, you'll just have to come and find out.:--)

So come prepared to dive in on the discussion around the above. The end goal is we want to come away with some practical steps of how we gather, when we gather, who we gather with, and where we will each put our time, energy, and money towards being missional community together!

We will meet @ the Schultz abode at 10:30am this Sunday! Bring food to share for the feast as we connect around the table together celebrating who we are in Jesus.

Love,

Tim and Esther