Love. Live. Lead.

“Love. Live. Lead.” Every Sunday I repeat this phrase during the welcome portion of our services. Information explaining this phrase is found within our by-laws and policy manual and on much of our printed material. We have posted these words on our website, pens, and we even hope to be putting together a t-shirt design in the coming weeks. It has become the mission statement of our church. This phrase has become a driving force for directing the ministries of our church, providing insight into leadership decisions such as budgeting and planning. We want to come to a knowledge of the love Christ has for us, live in a growing relationship with Him and each other, and we want to lead others to do the same. However, this mission can be intangible and meaningless without a specific vision of what it looks like for us to “love, live, and lead.”

In January of this past year, I spent three weeks preaching through passages of Scripture which provided concrete vision to our mission (I am certain that everyone remembers everything I said!). I proposed three goals for this coming year toward which I challenged us all to be a part in realizing. The first goal pertains to our attitude of prayer. We have continued to intentionally focus our prayer gatherings each Wednesday night so that we are becoming a “people of great prayer.” Additionally, we have recently participated in a church-wide “21 Days of Prayer” in which we are continuing to witness the positive results of drawing near to God in this practice. Finally, we joined alongside other churches for a prayer event at the schools at the beginning of the year. While we are certainly continuing to grow in this discipline, it is exciting to realize this goal being accomplished.

Our second goal concerns our partnership with another church for the purpose of global missions. We sent a team to Toronto, Canada, this past July and we recently hosted Alex and Indhira Fleming as they shared with us regarding their planting of “A Better City Church” in Toronto. As a result of this partnership, “A Better City” has had specific needs for ministry provided and we have participated in several coming to Christ and being baptized. We are in constant communication with Alex and we are planning to send another team this next year to work alongside them. We are making an impact not only in Moundville, but also literally around the world!

Our final goal focuses upon our dream to provide other staff ministers for leadership of our church. This desire has gone unrealized for many years as the obvious opportunities for reaching more with the gospel of Christ is ever before us. God has given us great influence toward reaching more families in this community, but the pressing need for specific leadership has gone unmet due to our financial inability. The current church debt, which we have carried for several years, has kept us from realizing this goal. However, in the coming weeks, the entire church will be made aware of a plan which our leaders will put forward toward accomplishing this end. It will be called “Advance the Harvest” and it will focus specifically upon reducing our debt so that resources can be released for the Kingdom. A phrase you will hear repeatedly is “equal sacrifice, not equal gifts.” Begin to prayerfully consider how God will make this goal a reality and how we can all witness God working through us!

Loving, Living, Leading,

Jason