“Glorifying God, Growing Together, Going to the Nations.”
This statement reflects who we are, who we are becoming (glorifying, growing, going indicate activities in progress) and who we want to be.
“Glorifying God” reflects the Bible’s teaching on why we were created. It is summarized in the answer to the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism: The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. We seek to be God-centered in everything we do. This is especially true in our worship. God is our focus, God is our audience in worship. We exalt his greatness, while recognizing our lowliness and our need for him. We read God’s Word and preach expository sermons from God’s Word because in it God’s glory is revealed. We sing hymns, psalms and spiritual songs that exalt God, not man. Since God does all things for his own glory, so we seek his glory in everything.
“Growing Together” encompasses a number of things about us. First, it expresses the biblical truth that we grow as Christians only when we grow “with all the saints” (Eph. 3:18). The Christian life, though including a personal walk, is primarily a life in community. We grow together as a corporate body of believers. Thus, we grow as we study God’s Word together. But fellowship together is also vital to our growth. Acts 2 describes the early Christians as daily eating together. Christians cannot grow to maturity apart from a life lived together, with the joys, struggles, encouragements, hurts, wrongs, forgiveness and reconciliation that that entails. As a church, we are growing together, and we can only grow to maturity as we are together. We praise God for the numerical growth that God has brought to our church. But more important is our spiritual growth and our recognition of the importance of community.
“Going to the nations” reflects Jesus’ final earthly command to his church: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). We are a missions-minded church with a growing missions budget and active missions and outreach committees. We support missionaries and missions agencies both locally and around the world—in places like Honduras, Germany, Africa and Japan. But our desire is to grow in our commitment to missions—not only as a missions-supporting church, but also as a missions-sending church. We desire that God will give us a greater vision and zeal to fulfill the Great Commission.
If I can answer questions about our church or the Christian life, or if I can be of service in any way, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
May you know more and more the blessings of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.
Your servant in Christ,
Dr. Bill Barcley, Pastor
Sunday School ... 9:45 a.m.
Morning Worship ... 10:55 a.m.
Evening Worship ... 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday Church Supper/Bible Study/Prayer Meeting ... 6:30 p.m.