The State of the Church

A review of 2018-

Church programs and Camps:

We finished 1st year of AWANA. 3 young ladies came to know Christ as their Savior from this ministry. This fall we had one profess Christ as her savior!

Spring camp brought re-dedications from children who realized they weren't where they needed to be in their spiritual walk with God!

Teen Camp brought 2 teens to salvation!

We began renovations.

Remodeled the nursery

Leveled the activity building

Our building fund has grown tremendously!

Numbers: Every number has a name, every name has story, every story matters to God!

2018 we had: 3 baptisms, 1 new family join, many visitors, new families attending

Attendance: Sunday School Avg. 50 Morning Worship: 71

show slides of weekly attendance

We had some homegoings as well. Ms. Joyce Knight went to be with Jesus last January

Community:

We participated in some great things in our community this year.

Trunk of Treats, Community Spirit of Giving, not to mention our fundraisers with the burger burns, bake sales, spaghetti dinners. All these can and have made an impact on our community but there is still more to be done!

Vision: says "where there is no vision, the people perish" therefore we need to look ahead. When I think about the vision of the church I'm looking at 1,5,10 years down the road. It will take hard work, commitment to get there. it will take continually improving in every area of the church. It will take an attitude of cooperation and desire to see the lost come to Jesus and the un-churched to get plugged in and serving. It will take a Paul like attitude to get us where we need to be. In he said that "by all means I might save some".

Every number has a name, Every name has a story, and Every story matters to God!

To grow to be the church God desires us to be and to be the spiritual leaders in our community!

Mission Statement:

To go to the lost, care for the broken, growing disciples to further the kingdom of God.

Every number has a name, Every name has a story, and Every story matters to God!

Vision Statement: To grow to be the church God desires us to be and to be the spiritual leaders in our community!

Mission Statement: To go to the lost, care for the broken, growing disciples to further the kingdom of God.

To go to the lost, care for the broken, growing disciples to further the kingdom of God.

2 Kings

2 Kings 7:3 KJV 1900

3 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?

Some may ask why would I use this verse this Sunday, the first Sunday in 2019. You look around and there are many people worshipping today. The sad fact is many churches will close their doors this year. If you were to ask them did they see this coming five or ten years ago they would have said no.

The first point is this: we must be proactive.

They couldn’t wait, wouldn’t wait.

They didn't want to die. They had a drive. Their drive was hunger, our drive is serving God.

We can't wait for a famine before we witness. We must go out to them, we must build relationships with them, we must be proactive in winning the lost to Christ!

God used these 4 men to prove his power. God used their footsteps to run off the Syrian army.

Have faith that he can use our footsteps to beat back the army of Satan if we will have the faith to stand up and say "why are we waiting to die"!

says upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!

2nd point is this: a church that is growing is a church that is caring. Part of the mission statement is to care for the broken.

This isn't just the ones who are looking for a church home, but the ones who are members of the church as well.

We need to be in tune with their needs, especially their spiritual needs.

Too often we expect a new Christian to fall in line like some military rank and if they don't then they are chastised for it.

We like to tell them no we can't do that, or no you can't sing that, or no you can't and most of the time it is because what they are asking for is different. Different is ok!

We need to ask why are they not faithful in attendance, why are they not committing to serving, why do visitors not come back? The answer will shock you. They simply say "I felt like I didn't matter." This goes right back to again "by all means".

Mature Christian listen closely, we need to do what it takes to care for the broken. If that means leaving our comfort zone to change things up then so be it. God loves the broken and so should we.

The rest of the story that follows the 4 lepers, they went and ate and ate and ate. God supplied their needs.

We must listen to the needs of the broken and be the hands and feet of Christ that supplies their needs.

This leads to the 3rd point: if we go to the lost and care for the broken, then we can grow disciples.

But they aren't the only ones who need to grow. We all must grow in discipleship.

We all must learn how to get to know Jesus more. The intimate, personal relationship that transcends time and helps us to live more like him.

We can do this through prayer and personal bible study, but we also can do it corporately. Home bible studies are a great way to disciple people.

Fellowships, Sunday school get together where you invite someone over for dinner who is not currently involved in church or Sunday school. This is a great way to disciple someone.

It all starts with each and everyone here today saying Yes Lord, I will make a commitment to walk closer to you today so I can be a positive example to someone else tomorrow.

God is sovereign, he could have used anything or anyone but he used these men. He can use you today to help make a good church a great church. We can’t recreate the past. We can't look back and say those were the good old days and try to stay in them. Instead we must build for the future and it starts today. Not everything we try will be successful, so we will try something else, but there is one sure fire way to ensure failure and that is to sit around waiting to die.