“Bring People to Christ” is our mission statement. In the January meeting The Administrative
Council approved a re-tooling of our statement from “To Make Disciples of Jesus
Christ for the Transformation of the World” to a more compact and simple
statement of “Bring People to Christ.”
The new statement is only four words and yet carries the meaning and intent
of our former statement. Because the new statement is easier to remember
and carry with us we will find it useful in helping the church focus our ministry
efforts.
Everything we attempt as a congregation should relate back
to the mission and Bring People to Christ.
We will learn to hold ourselves accountable as we ask a couple of
questions. How does this activity Bring
People to Christ? We should be able to
make a list or name the ways. We also
can begin to set goals, SMART goals, which have a way of allowing us to measure
our work. For example, just how many
people should we expect to be brought to Christ by our Sunday worship services
in a year? How will we know? There are many great questions which we will want
to ask as we work together so that as the end of the season or end of the year
the simple question, “How is it going?” may have profound responses.
This new activity will take new discussions and new energy
related to our mission. We will need to
be vulnerable and direct in our communication.
This will also requires relationship building and trust building as key
pieces to our life together. We will slowly
begin taking steps to deepen our relationships focusing on our discipleship as
the key. The Spiritual health of the congregation
is always a place to begin again. We
cannot give what we do not have. We
cannot bring others to something we do not attend to ourselves. The first people we will need to bring to
Christ may be ourselves.
Knoxville First United Methodist is a great church, one
which has offered Christ for generations. This new season of re-focusing our
mission has the possibility of bringing surprising new life along with old
souls made new again by the power of the Holy Spirit. As a new year begins, may we begin a new
season with a new joy in our hearts offered through a refreshed mission to “Bring
People to Christ.”
For there was kindness and you responded with anger. 
