Where are we heading?
By Dave Stone
Today I want to talk about our vision for the future of this church for the next 10 years. I want these words to be marching instructions and guard rails for our church.
Our Lead Team, Elders and many staff have been working on these very words for nearly 11 months. We have been studying our strengths and weaknesses, our past and present. We’ve looked at data and trends—but most importantly, we have spent time praying and fasting, asking the Lord to clarify our direction for where we need to move this church.
Our mission: Connecting people to Jesus and one another
We felt there was no reason to tweak this. It has served us well for nearly five years.
Our vision: To be a praying church who reaches out and challenges everyone to follow Jesus completely.
We don’t simply want to be a church that prays, we want to go much deeper.
Next week, we begin a sermon series on prayer. We will start at different places. Some have never prayed while others are veteran prayer warriors, but our goal is for each of us to come to realize that there is power in prayer.
Our Strategies:
Our leaders have pared our plan down to six specific strategies. They play to our strengths, but they also clarify how we will intentionally pursue living out these strategies.
1. Impact the region by gathering together for biblical preaching, authentic worship and faithful prayer
Our preaching here at Southeast will always come directly from God’s Word.
We are trying to grow in authentic worship where we take our masks off and check them at the door. The church is a safe place where vulnerability, and transparency allow us to go to a deeper level. And our prayers are not perfunctory or just mechanical, memorized prayers that have no meaning, but they are faithful prayers that are borne out of our life experience.
2. Building spiritually healthy homes by equipping godly men to lead and pray for their families
This is the most significant strategic change. We are going to be more intentional about reaching out and challenging men to follow Jesus completely. Of course we will continue to teach, encourage and strengthen women, but we are going to try and step it up in our outreach to men who don’t attend church and in discipling the men who do attend.
3. Deepening followers through Bible study, discipleship, service and prayer
Notice that most of these strategies apply to all of us—young or old, single or married. The call to Bible study, discipleship, prayer and service is for all of us, and it can take place at church, but it’s not limited to church.
Many of you are here because of those at Southeast who went ahead of us.
We work in a harvest field where we didn’t plant the seeds. We are building on the members and leaders who have mentored for decades.
4. Serving the community by going to them in the name of Jesus
Five years ago, I said in a sermon, “If they won’t come to us, that’s OK, then we will go to them, and we will love them and serve them.” Service allows us to be a representation of Jesus Christ, who washed feet and cared for the forgotten and overlooked.
Acts of service over the years and decades are starting to come to fruition. We have earned the right to be heard because we have picked up the towel and basin and are trying to wash the feet of this community. People are starting to notice it, experience it, and lives are being changed.
5. Advancing the Kingdom by praying, sending, partnering and planting
Before Jesus ascended to heaven, He said, “ ... you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Advancing the kingdom begins with praying, sending, opening multi-sites, sending missionaries and planting churches.
6. Awakening the next generation by investing in them now
Young people need to be introduced to the Lord. Many are praying and believe that this next generation will be at the heart of our nation’s next spiritual revival. We can’t just throw up our hands and give up. We must get involved and invest in the next generation now.