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A Recap from Sunday's Sermon

Preaching Text: Luke 4:42-44

After praying for the Lord to give me a word or phrase for 2019, I felt like the Lord gave me this phrase: "Abundance for Others". I think this is significant because we need to change our corporate narrative from "Are we going to make it?" to "What should we do with it?"  Things were really tight for our church in the early years, but we've grown quite strong.  I believe the Lord wants us to use this abundance for others.

In Luke 4:42-44, Jesus tells his home town that he must go to other towns as well.  He came to preach the Good News to them also.  The Lord is on mission and we should be too.

Over the past six months, the staff and I have been refining our vision statement to be even clearer and nuanced to us specifically.  We've narrowed it down to four words, which are mostly actual (meaning who we already are) but also aspirational (who we want to become).

Extending Grace

Extending means pushing the reach of our ministries out further.

Grace is our message about Good News for sinners.

Discipling Generations

Discipling is intentionally helping faith along in others, per Matthew 28:18-20.

Generations means that our ministry reaches all ages.

The most "aspirational" of the words is the first, extending.  It's time to reach further than our island.  There are two practical applications here.  The first is that we must start making practical plans to plant some new churches in our rapidly-growing area.  Our diocese is asking for our help in this regard.  The second is that we start to see the Alpha course as the tool we use to share the gospel with those who are not yet here.