My Wishes For The Church, Part 2 of 2
It took longer than I hoped, but I finally found time to finish up my thoughts on my dreams for Glenwood Presbyterian in the future. Again, these are in no particular order of importance except for the first one in my last post – being a church that glorifies Christ above all else. Here are the other four…
A Church That Saves Souls
Okay, I know it is God that saves souls and not the church, but the vision I have is a church that is focused on bringing the lost to Christ. Or, put a familiar way, a church of hungry sinners telling others where they found bread. For as long as I can remember, our church has stressed service over evangelism. Not that Christian service is bad, but often we were more concerned with meeting physical needs than spiritual ones. I’d like to reprioritize that. Jesus would always meet both physical and spiritual needs when he met people in his ministry.
A Church That Grows Disciples
I envision a church where the members are hungry to learn more about God and Christ. I would love our church to be about moving people along their spiritual journey into stronger and stronger disciples. This means good classes taught by good teachers on relevant topics. Our Sunday School should generate excitement just like our worship services.
A Church That Focuses On Families And Children
This is more a dream of mine because it is so important that we draw these groups into the church. But I also think that the church has so much work to do in the area of the family and in building strong foundations in children. Probably no institution is in more dire circumstances in today’s world as the family unit and statistics overwhelmingly show that most people come to Christ before the age of 25 or not at all. We need to really grab these folks while we can.
A Church That Is Welcoming
With this one, I mean more than simply having the right greeters at the door. I want a church that feels loving and safe when you walk in. This is caused less by greeters than by the general attitude that permeates the congregation. Have you ever walked in to a place or someone’s home and “felt” the love in the room? That’s how our churches should be. We would fill up the pews easily with that kind of attitude.
All right, I could go on and on, but I’ll stop there. I do want to say again that those of you who attend Glenwood Presbyterian should really think seriously during this transition time about the kind of church you would like to see us become.
Written by Brian Beasley.
"But seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well." Matt. 6:33
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I agree with all your wishes. I dream of a church that is on fire for God. When you walk in there is excitement and hope. We see potentional in every person that walks through the door. We live not in fear or negativity but in hope for our church. We trust God to accomplish anything. We are moldable to the will of God and ready for Him to use us. We inspire people to worship, walk and work for God. We give practical advice to families and people struggling in this world.
Comment by Jeana | February 11, 2008