THE BEST IS YET TO BE!

Traditionally, the New Year is a time for reviewing the past 12 months and thinking forward to the time ahead. The New Year unfolds day by day and each new morning brings us into unchartered territory.  For me that is both refreshing and challenging. 2011 has been a wonderful year for Silver Creek Fellowship; we have seen growth at both campuses – both numerically and spiritually.  Mission of Hope has had a dramatic effect on our church and in the community.  It is now the fourth largest emergency food distribution agency in Marion County.

As good as a year as 2011 has been, I believe the best is yet to be!  Let me share a few things that I think God is leading us into over the next few years. Habakkuk 2:2 says, “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it” and so this is the (much shorter!) written down version.

Why do we exist?

þ We exist for mission. We exist to make Jesus known to our local communities and to the nations of the world. There is a big distinction between a pastoral church and a church on mission. Rick Warren says, “…at the heart of the distinction between a pastoral and missional church is the difference between a church organized around sustaining, developing and promoting its own life and a church organized around participating in God’s mission to the world to establish his redemptive purposes in the whole of human life. A missional church is a church which takes its identity, priorities and agenda from participating in God’s mission in the world”. We are a church on mission.

What sort of church are we?

þ We have both individual and corporate values. Individually we love God, love people and enjoy God’s grace. Corporately we are committed to being a church of Word and Spirit, a community church and a resource church.

What are we called to do? Or what is the vision?

We believe God is calling us to impact our communities, to care for and develop our people, and to connect, equip, train and send them into our neighborhoods and the nations – filled with the power and presence of God.

þ Impacting our communities by reaching more people with the gospel:

• We want to reach more people in the Silverton – Salem – Keizer area impacted with the gospel, see more people saved and baptized and see our regular Sunday attendance grow.
• We want to demonstrate the gospel with acts of kindness that meet the needs of people from every walk of life.
• We want to be a church that blesses the local communities in very real ways; practically, emotionally and spiritually.

þ Care for and development of our people.

• We want to see all of our people encouraged, supported and cared for through Home Fellowship Groups and pastoral support structures.
• We want to see every age group and life stage in our church provided for, from the very youngest to the very oldest.
• We want our people to be set free in Christ and grow in maturity as believers.
• We want to see marriages and families strengthened and built on strong biblical foundations.

þ Connect, equip, train and send our people.

• We want to see people fully empowered to be effective ambassadors for Christ and fully trained to be missionaries in their local context.
• We want to train and send people to be involved in planting churches in this nation and the nations of the world.

þ Power and presence of God

• In everything that we do we want the genuine power and presence of God to be manifest.
• We want to be a prophetic people, filled with the Holy Spirit, exercising spiritual gifts and allowing God to move freely in our lives.
• We want to be a people of praise and prayer where signs, wonders and miracles are commonplace.

How are we going to do it?

If we are going to fulfill all that God has called us to do over the next 5-10 years then we need to do two things:  1.) Guild on what we have already accomplished over recent years, and 2.) Step out into new areas by investing our time, energy and finance into some new things. This means change.

I love this Jack Deere quote: “Leaders need to teach people that change is an inevitable part of life. Dead things don’t change. Living things change because they grow. And growth means pain. Dead things don’t have growing pains. Neither do dead churches. Part of the price of growing is pain and insecurity. Remember when you were still physically changing during your adolescent and teenage years? Not only your body, but your emotions were changing. You were going down a road you hadn’t been on before. Remember how insecure you felt? But you accepted the pain and the insecurity because you wanted to grow. You didn’t want to stay a child. It’s the same way with a growing church. It is going down a road it hasn’t been on before. Being a leader just means learning how to manage the conflict that comes from the pain and insecurity of growing. Of course, we could avoid the pain by simply refusing to change, but most of us would rather go to church than a cemetery.”

2012 will be a year of change at SCF.  We will be making a number of changes across the life of the church: new guest Sunday strategies, new services, new ministries, new leadership opportunities and a number of other positive (we hope!) changes.

How can we all be involved?

A vision only becomes real when those who receive it begin to put it into practice. So how can we all be involved? You can be involved by giving your…

§        Time – we’re not the kind of church that people visit like a club. Our commitment to Jesus is reflected in our commitment to his purposes and to the local church

§        Abilities – no one can ever say “I have nothing to give in this church”, we all have a part to play so get involved!

§        Money – if you are committed to this church and this vision then surely you will give! It is a reality that we need finances to make everything in this church happens. The giving of your money really does make a huge difference as we seek to make Jesus known to our local communities and to the nations.

I love being a part of Silver Creek Fellowship. It’s not comfortable, it’s not passive, and it continues to embrace change, but there’s a reason. Our story is not finished. It’s hardly begun in many ways. We have a future.  We are a church family, together on a mission, transforming our local community by proclaiming a gospel that has the power to change people completely.

Come and join us, become part of the story.