Another new church document - mission/purpose statement - last post of 2025?

 


Still posting some pictures from the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service.  I like this picture with the Christ candle lighting up the Word of God that takes center position in our sanctuary.  This Sunday we go back to our ongoing study of the Gospel of Matthew.  The break has hopefully built some anticipation to Jesus' journey to Jerusalem and the cross.


The first coming has set the stage for the where we are right now in the life of Jesus.  The cradle of Jesus needs to be connected to the cross of Jesus.  It is like the connection of affliction with the following of Jesus.  The Acts passage that supports our new mission/purpose statement includes Paul's warning that affliction comes with the fulfilling of what Jesus has said to do.  Just as Jesus endured persecution and affliction that put Him on a cross following the Father's will so did Paul with being stoned, shipwrecked and run out of town at times following the Great Commission given to His disciples to make disciples of all nations.  

Stillwater Community Chapel

is a body of believers in Christ

commissioned by the Holy Spirit

to demonstrate the Father's love by

sharing Jesus,

strengthening believers and

serving others.

(Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 14:21-23)

It was great to go through this new statement.  The little words mean so much like "a, of, in, by, and to."  We see in Matthew 28 that Jesus said it and we we see in Acts 14 that Paul and Barnabus did it.  Our commitment to this same mission means we will not only have Jesus with us while we proceed forward but know that He is also with us when affliction and persecution come because we are walking in His steps.  Some might ask, "Is the affliction worth it?"  It must have been for Paul because instead of going home when persecution came, he just keep going and he would keep going to his death.  I think this is where we see someone denying himself, taking up his cross and following Jesus.  In a world and even a church environment that highly values comfort, Jesus pushes us to the value of commitment over comfort.

I was thankful that we actually had visitors with us on Sunday as we went through this new statement.  It instantly makes us accountable to what we are presenting.  We have witnesses present that are listening in to our conversation.  Maybe they will be back in the future and visibly see if we are following through.  These statements are only as good as our commitment to live them out.  We can post them on the wall; print them on a t-shirt; update on the website; and in the local newspaper but we need them embedded in our hearts so they can come out through the actions of our hands.  

Now unto the statement of faith which will take more time for us to go through. 

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 39th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Am I asleep to Jesus' presence?...Matthew 17:1-13...Falling in love again with His words.

Image
  The Never Summer Mountain Range is behind me.  It is always amazing to me how people will respond more quickly to a picture than to the text.  I updated our Facebook cover photo and profile picture and people are responded left and right to it.  I do not get as much response when I print text to the same group of people.  I think this bears true with the response to video presentations of the Bible over just the written text of the Bible.  But since we don't have actual video footage of Jesus (sorry Chosen) I feel it is important to not just rely on someone's artistic presentation of the text but to read it for ourselves.  The question would be, "Am I reading more than I am watching when it comes to God's words?" I have purposely not used much video in my preaching opportunities because video will steal the show, no pun intended, to the actual passage we are looking at.  I think we need to train ourselves again to rely on what we are reading rat...
Read more

Stephanie's blooming flowers...Matthew 17:24-27...Jesus the perfect fishing guide (longer post - Charlie Kirk)

Image
  Look at the color that greets us on our deck!  Stephanie sure has a green thumb.  I'm just the waterer and also diligent to keep spraying to keep the critters away.  It is also the sign here that colder weather is on the way.  There is snow on the tops of the mountains again and there was also frost on the roofs.  Summer people are headed to warmer temps and we settle in not just for the colder climate but also for the time the core has to zero in on each other.  What will come of our colder months together in light of the further developments of being a better established biblical church?  I am praying that we will develop a pathway to go from investigating SCC to investing in the ministry here, from being infrequent in attendance to being a frequent flyer with us, from just attending to one assigned to a ministry, and from the pew to being a player.  How are we assisting in this process and what does this person look like in practical ter...
Read more

The Big Feed...Matthew 14:13-21...Life around Jesus' table

Image
  This isn't 5,000 men plus women and children as in the passage last Sunday but this is our 5,000+ for the week.  It is amazing to be all around the table at once.  There are now 20 of us.  We have went from addition to multiplication in our family as each of our 4 children are now having their families.  Our 2 year reunions have been highlights of our lives and this one was spent in Colorado.  This picture featured the 20 rainbow trout the grandchildren caught at a local kids' fishing pond. Jesus is going to present 2 amazing events back to back for his disciples.  In this big feed they are ready to pass off the responsibility to someone else.  They tell Jesus to send the crowd away and their solution is that those people can fend for themselves.  They use the word " only " and calculate what was possible with the money they may have had.  The disciples were identifying and pointing at the need but they were not going to get involved ...
Read more