Vision: Rooted, Related, Reaching

          For the past year, we have been asking ourselves this question: “How can we best make disciples of Christ here at JeffStreet?” and it has left us with several conclusions. First, God has blessed us in the past because of JeffStreet’s commitment to make disciples. Second, he has blessed us by adding to our number: over our 40 year history, we have grown from being a church of around 100 or so to being a church of nearly 700. Third, we have some unique challenges because we are not a little church and not exactly a mega-church so how do we best make disciples in a church of this size?

          We also have recognized our need to simplify and clarify what commitments are we asking people to make? How can we raise the bar of commitment here at JeffStreet so that we can reach our full potential as a church? What we have recognized is that when we often have a lot going on it can be very confusing for new folks, not to mention folks who have been here for a long time. So, we have decided that our new vision needs to directly address the need for specific commitments.

          We have introduced our new vision that is based on those three commitments: Rooted in Worship, Related in Community, Reaching through Ministry and our new logo communicates each aspect clearly so that we can help you to get connected to each commitment.

For years, we have communicated the importance of understanding that we were created to worship God. It seems as if we are simply asking for the commitment of participation in the Sunday worship service, but that is not all. We are calling our congregation to be committed to whole-life worship, which means that everything that is done throughout the course of the day, week or lifetime is done with the purpose of bringing glory to  God, which can change everything!

In the early church, we see in Acts 2 that they met together in each other’s homes which was very personal and led to the formation of very deep friendships. This simply cannot be replicated solely when we gather as a congregation on Sunday mornings. So, we are calling our congregation to commit to being a part of a Community Group. Some Community Groups meet on Sunday mornings in what we have traditionally called Sunday school and others meet throughout the week in people’s homes. We also have groups that focus on specific needs, such as DivorceCare , GriefShare and Celebrate Recovery. Others focus on training, such as the Bethel Bible Study. The important thing is that deep relationships are formed; however, we are not dismissing learning here, we are simply recognizing that transformation can happen when we learn in the context of community.

It has often been said that in most churches, 80% of the people do 20% of the work, while 20% of the people do 80% of the work. We don’t want that to be true at JeffStreet, which is why we are calling all of you to consider where you can serve in our church. We want to do a better job of helping communicate needs and helping you respond to those needs. What we have seen is that it is not enough to simply learn about Christ; rather, we become most like Christ when we serve him and his people.

          Our goal is that in 5 years, by April of 2016, 90% of our congregation will be living out these three commitments. We recognize that we don’t have enough opportunities at this time to reach that goal immediately, this is definitely a marathon and not a sprint. We are still working out the kinks and trying to figure out how we can accomplish this goal, but one thing that we know is that we can only achieve this plan with God’s help!