Yesterday the leaders of the Southside Church met and simplified what we are all about: Loving God (greatest command); Loving Our Neighbors (second greatest command); Serving everyone (continuing the ministry of Jesus - he came not to be served but to serve). Every ministry at Southside will have the same vision - Loving God; Loving Our Neighbor; Serving!
You could call this: Upward Growth; Inward Growth; Outward Growth. I think Milton Jones wrote a book called "How to Make Disciples" using that wording, so this is not original with us!
Instead of growing a church, we have set our minds on making disciples!
We're learning to think steps not programs. How do you get a person from worship to small groups? You think steps - perhaps a "Discovering Southside" Workshop; an ice cream social with the elders/ministers/ministry leaders, etc that will lead them to be in a small group.
We see this as a process - first step -- worship. More than likely, that will be their first connection with Southside. Second step - small group experience. Third - invovled in serving; using their gifts, talents and abilities to glorify God. We're also going to limit people to one area of serving!
We talked about learning to count horizonally instead of vertically. If worship increases by 50% but small groups grows only by 10% - something is wrong with our process! So, we will begin to think horizonally.
One of our elders said it best when he made this comment, "I hope that this is just not a new slogan; but a new standard of how we do church. It will take a lot of commitment to adopt this new way of thinking; maybe even dropping some activities that are popluar but that do not contribute to the process." BINGO!
So, we have laid the foundation. I really like the idea of growing disciples instead of growing a church. I'll keep you posted!
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