Next Steps Gathering Recap
Rev. Paul Lawler Shares About Mission Statement and Goals
Rev. Paul Lawler is Christ Church’s Lead Pastor
Christ Church Current Mission Statement
We glorify God as we make, mature and mobilize disciples of Jesus Christ by loving Jesus—and loving like Jesus—in the world.
Pastor Paul shared a recommendation for simplifying our mission statement. The proposal was not based on concern about the statement’s aims, but his intentionality was so that people of all ages would easily recall it. From four years old to 94 years old, the goal is for anyone would be able to recite our mission statement.
Our current statement, “make, mature, and mobilize disciples,” encompasses being a disciple. However, there is room to simplify our mission statement because, in passages such as Matthew 28, there is explicit instruction from Jesus regarding what it means to be a disciple.
So when you get to the section of how we do that, “by loving Jesus and loving like Jesus in the world,” Paul shared that a phrase like that is more in line with core values. A core value is not your mission; a core value is a spirit in which you accomplish your mission.
Why Does This Matter?
The hope is for every member and regular attendee of the church to own the church’s mission. For a church to gather in worship as succinctly as possible, a mission statement with all parties aboard enables the church to stay at the edge of the sword.
When we look at our mission statements, typically, a board makes all these decisions, so if you’re wondering, why not just let a board decide, get their approval, and move on? Christ Church is not doing that because we need this to be in our hearts. It’s not just a thing; it’s who we are as a people.
Christ Church Updated Mission Statement(s) for Consideration
We glorify God as we make, mature and mobilize disciples.
OR
We glorify God as we make, mature and mobilize disciples of all peoples.
Please be in prayer over these two statements as we consider this revision.
What Are Some of the Church’s Other Goals?
Pastor Paul also asked the congregation to pray about some overarching church goals. But, again, these are not things to be decided today but are things to put on people’s radars as specific things to pray about.
No 1) Mission Goals
How are we supporting missionaries in areas of unreached people groups? As a church family, who should we be supporting? What are our goals locally? Globally?
No 2) Discipleship Goals
Jesus commanded us to make disciples, so unless we are making disciples, we are not disciples. Our goal should be to equip as many people as are willing to be equipped and live out that role of the Church. What kind of patterns do we want to sustain for disciples making disciples?
No 3) Church Planting Goals
What do we want to see God do in terms of planting new works in the Memphis area, southeast, or even the nation?
Bro. Chris Carter Shares About His New Role, Executive Pastor
Explain The New Executive Pastor Role
The Executive Pastor is in a supporting, servant leadership role motivated by the question: “How can I graciously make everyone else better or more effective on our team to accomplish the mission and vision of Christ Church?” Everyone means Pastor Paul, our staff, and all of you, our congregation.
Bro. Chris shared that his prayer is to function to ensure things get done and goals get accomplished promptly and in a way that promotes a healthy culture in a God-honoring way.
Who Will the Executive Pastor Support?
1) Senior Pastor & Church Leadership
Bro. Chris will work with the senior pastor and church leadership to support and implement the church’s vision within our congregation. He can support Pastor Paul and church leadership by providing feedback on issues they seek his input on and by taking responsibility for day-to-day issues. As well as by being available to all leadership committees and chairs for input, feedback, and strategy execution.
2) Church Staff
He will work alongside the staff to support and provide encouragement that will help them do their job to the best of their abilities. This will include regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings with each staff member and being available upon request (goals, feedback, availability).
3) Congregation
He will work within the congregation to serve and support the membership as one of your pastors: caring, preaching, funerals, weddings, counseling, meeting with members about concerns, and senior adult ministry support.
Pastor Nathan Cook Shares About Missions
Nathan Cook is Christ Church’s new Missions Pastor
Nathan is a product of Christ Church. It’s where he gave his life to Christ and was discipled. For the last 20 years, he’s lived in the Binghampton area and worked in health care and planting house churches, sending more than 50 missionaries to North Africa and the Middle East.
Nathan’s heart is to raise Christian leaders within the church and release them to the nations. He mentioned they “don’t currently have a roadmap for achieving that. However, we have a compass.”
Ministry in Memphis
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;They shall build up the ancient ruins;
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.Isaiah 61:1, 4
Jesus begins his ministry in Luke 4 by reading this passage in Isaiah and announcing that He has come to fulfill its prophecy: to proclaim good news to the poor and to heal the brokenhearted. When the poor receive the Gospel, they become empowered to restore broken cities.
As a resident of Binghamton, Nathan has seen firsthand in that neighborhood how the most powerful agents of change are those that have been changed by the Gospel and are now ministering in the communities they came from. Christ Church has the opportunity to enter into Gospel-centered relationships through our ministry partners that will bring change and transformation to our community.
Binghampton Development Corporation (BDC)
The BDC has asked the church to train mentors (allies) to come alongside ten men they have in a job training program. The goal is to build relationships so both us and them can learn from each others’ experiences. While this is a service opportunity, Nathan wants it to be framed as a starting point for forming relationships. This is an opportunity for the BDC and those ten men to launch change and transformation in the city.
Other ministry partners provide avenues into long-term relationships where change and transformation can occur. More opportunities will be announced.
International Missions
God’s mission is revealed throughout the Biblical narrative, from calling Abraham to bless the nations (Genesis 12:1-3) to establishing the temple as a house of prayer for all nations (2 Chronicles 6:32-33), to the final picture in Revelation of people from every nation worshipping God (Revelation 7:9). God has a plan to redeem a people for Himself.
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:14
This verse provides a clear picture that God’s mission will not be complete until the church finishes the task of proclaiming the Gospel and making disciples among all the unreached ethnic groups of the world.
According to the Joshua Project, there are currently 7,413 unreached people groups in the world with less than 5% Christian population. Out of these 7,413 unreached people groups, there are 3,195 unengaged, unreached people groups, which means that no known missionary or church is actively working among them. Therefore, they have no access to the Gospel.
We want to equip people from our church to serve as long-term missionaries among unreached people groups and to partner with indigenous leaders and mission organizations to complete the mission God has given to his church.
Sunday School Classes
Nathan is interested in visiting all of our Sunday school classes this year to teach about these two Scripture passages and begin conversations about how to live them out together as a church. Please email Nathan to arrange a time for him to speak to your class.
Pastor Grant Caldwell Shares About Discipleship
Pastor Grant Caldwell was recently appointed as Christ Church’s new Discipleship Pastor
There’s a difference between growing and building things. For a garden to grow, it needs structure. Discipleship creates structures so people can grow and flourish. Discipleship intends to move people towards growing deeper into the heart of Christ.
Discipleship Mission Statement:
Discipleship ministries at Christ Church Memphis makes, matures, and mobilizes fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
Yes, this is similar to the current Christ Church mission statement; however, it is a clear picture of the process of discipleship and disciple-making. As the statement says, the goal is to make, mature and mobilize fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
Who Are Disciples?
Our calling as Christ's followers is to be made into a disciple, mature in discipleship, and mobilized into disciple-making. How do you define those terms?
Disciple: A fully devoted follower of Jesus
Discipleship: Growing together to become fully devoted followers of Jesus
Disciple-making: Developing fully devoted followers of Jesus who develop fully devoted followers of Jesus.
Our call is to participate in all three of those areas. The call of discipleship is not moving into more but moving deeper. It’s not about doing more activities or achieving more things. What Grant expressed is a hope to accomplish with discipleship is moving deeper into the heart and mission of Christ.
What Do Disciples Do?
What made Wesleyan discipleship unique?
John Wesley’s commitment to discipleship, and the way he structured people, is one of the key reasons why Methodism spread and had a lasting impact for the Kingdom of God around the world.
Our model at Christ Church will be similar:
“So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.” 1 Corinthians 14:12
The original context of this verse is Paul confronting a church that’s approaching spiritual gifts and the Holy Spirit in unhealthy ways. But Pastor Grant shared that we should pray into that verse while searching for meaningful ways to use our spiritual gifts.
We want to study what the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives. As we grow deeper in our Wednesday night groups, small groups, and Sunday school classes, let’s allow our eagerness to do something for the Lord to build into a manifestation of God’s kingdom.
Let’s pray about what we have learned and how we can respond. The goal is to create a rhythm of learning and growing together, then being sent out.
