State of FCC 2023

State of the union. The state of this union has always been strong and will never be any less strong. The Body of Christ is held together by it’s exalted Head, Jesus Himself. Every member belongs to one another is what Paul tells the Roman’s, so there is a unity among us and it is a unity that can never be severed. We may be dysfunctional in some areas, but we have never been more unified, nor can we ever be. If we are here and we belong to the Body of Jesus Christ, we are unified!

Unity in the church is not something that is achieved or attained by our efforts, it is something that we receive from God.

God has broken down the wall of hostility and brought Jew and Gentile together…meaning every member of the human race, regardless of geographical boundary marker or language or culture is under the authority of Jesus Christ. And we, who believe, have been united together and make up His body and are corporately God’s dwelling place by His Spirit. We are unified.

However, the unity that has been achieved by God needs to be maintained by us.

This was God’s plan and God’s doing…He attained the unity…we are called to maintain the unity.

In order to “maintain” anything, it assumes exerting effort and working plans and procedures.

This past week, we had to do some routine procedural things for our car. So we had to schedule an appointment, get it inspected, select tires, take off old tires, put on new ones. Take off old breaks, put on new ones. Flush out the old oil, and put in new stuff. It makes the car last longer and function the way it should. It has been optimized and it is working great. There is no grinding noise anymore, my kids think we have fancy breaks now…but really we just have breaks that work!

All f that work, cost money, time and planning. We were inconvenienced for a day or two, but we are good to go and it was worth it.

The Procedural Plan for Maintaining the Unity in the Church is found in Ephesians 4. Paul says,

Ephesians 4:1 ESV

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

We all, as individuals need to wake up every morning and honestly ask the Lord for Him to show you how you might be able to “walk an a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” Ask Him early on in your day and then all throughout your day. How should I walk. How can I honor you with this conversation? With this interaction, with this chunk of time, with this project. so on and so forth. We all bear individual responsibility to do this. This is really important…we must walk in a manner worthy of the calling, but Paul goes on to say that not only should we walk in such and such way, but we also need to be “eager” about something as we go about our walking business.

We are to be…

Ephesians 4:3 ESV

3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

So, as we start this state of the union address and recap a few hightlight from the past year and anticipate where we are to go this next one, we need to be eager to remember what God had done in our united midst this past year and eager to see if we can keep in step with Him together for 2024.

Where we’ve been.

We have a few highlights that we must give God glory for.

12 Baptism

8 Biblical counselors 0 Elaine Kamp, Ethan Smith, Shane Hamstra) (4 more that are currently making there way through the process.

10 new members? (8 more that are in the membership pipeline)

Whole bunch of dollars spent on our buildings.

We secured a line of credit as an act of faith. We committed ourselves to the serious belief that God wanted us to expand our ministry capacity, by updating existing buildings and erecting a completely new one.

This would make us ministry agile to host our current ministries and even possible allow for expansions of them or add new ones all together. We paid off our line of credit in May!

And now this fall we have been able to better utilize our facilities with Preschool, Oaks Christians Community

Collectively make disciples who make disciples and our buildings are helping us do that.

Doubled our Google Reviews (This is not vanity it is important). This is how people moving into the community find us.

Proverbs 22:1 (ESV) - 1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.

Awana enrollment (helpers /male helpers)

Women’s In House day retreat to start off the ministry year.

Started celebrating communion without those little pre packaged cups!

Finished up James (From Knowing to Doing)

Summer in the Psalms - Authentically relate with God (Plan for many years ahead) - Give you a voice for many years to come.

Equipping Hour (9 Week original series on Cultivating a Healthy Fear of Lord).

Staff Development (TGC conference in Indianapolis)

We became a House of Refuge with Love Life (2 prayer walks)

The Fair preaching……

Pastor Danny - school board

Gilles Remembrance service

Hosted an Improv night for Ebenezer

Liberty Concert

Renovated our Wayside Prayer Chapel

Participated in New Way Ministries (Christian Hope Association) Fundraise)

Whatcom County Pregnacy clinic (sharing and prayer time)

So many more things that I did not highlight.

Where we need to go…

All across every ministry platform, we want to strive at a few things this next year.

Set the bar…

(3 years in - back from Covid)…reestablishing the bar for our ministries. (Challenge) we can get lax or just have forgotten or maybe there was no bar to begin with and it was something that we have always done.

(What are the expectations) - we have just always done this or we feel like we should do this but without really evaluateing purpose.

What is the bar? What is the standard for this program and for the people that run the program and the people that this program ministers too? (We have to know what this bar is…we need to set it). Across all ministry platforms.

Aim at nothing, hit it every time (make your effort to please him last year 2022 - pretty generic. this next year we want to get specific and this is something that the leadership will be looking at this next year as we seek to honor the Lord with the specific assignments that He has given us in this little corner of His Kingdom.

Raise the bar. Never be content with where we are at. (Outdo one another in showing honor, verses about zeal and ambition, striving. “eager we talked about it early).

We want to become a caring community that cares for the community.

Simple things every congregant can do is this (read weekly email, Sunday attendance, Church center App, Greet one another (so much I could say about that, might save it for another time). Pray, listen.

Raise the bar across all ministry platforms.

The idiom raise the bar refers to setting a higher standard or expectation in any endeavor. It embodies the spirit of progression and ambition, urging individuals or groups to not just meet existing standards but to go beyond and establish new benchmarks.

How would I do this ministry function different if I “worked at this with all my heart” as if working for the Lord Jesus Christ and not just for these human’s in front of me. What does Jesus say. Whatever you have done for the least of these you have done for me.

Who can I say hi too?

Who can I connect this person with besides me?

What would it look like for me to do a better job at what I am doing?

How would I do this ministry function different if I “worked at this with all my heart” as if working for the Lord Jesus Christ and not just for these human’s in front of me. What does Jesus say. Whatever you have done for the least of these you have done for me.

Faith Goals this Year

Set and raise the bar of expectation and effectiveness across all ministry platforms.

Continue to be the perfect church for imperfect people. (We are real people, with real problems, so let’s admit that and work on what we need to work on to be a safe place for imperfect people to meet the perfect Savior.

Position ourselves within the community to be a spiritual hub for the thousands of people moving into the area. Landing spot for the newbies.

become a caring community that cares for it’s community.

2 Corinthians 4:5 ESV

5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.