Community Update from Dr. Bob: 4/10/2024
We held our first Vision Discernment gathering this past Monday evening. This six-week event follows along with the Kingdom Churches sermon series and is designed to include everyone in the visioning process for Community Church Rancho. If you couldn’t make it on Monday, it’s not too late! We’ll host a live Zoom version this Thursday night–just RSVP here and we’ll send you the link. We’d like to see the participation of everyone who considers themselves a part of Community.
Why be a part of these gatherings?
As individuals, the goal is that we would all be transformed and that we would all be involved. The church is the collective response of all of the individuals in it: Come because YOU are the church. Not just the staff, not just the board, but everyone. As we grow and shift our focus as individuals, we will live lives increasingly aligned with the Kingdom of God.
As a congregation, we are about discerning our direction together in alignment with the scriptures and the Holy Spirit. By coming together and interacting over these core passages, the goal is that we—as an increasingly Kingdom-oriented people—would discern how to live that out at the congregational level in a way that makes sense and impacts the community around us. Together, we are seeking a vision for moving forward.
Last night, one participant shared about how her table discussion group had so many ideas about how they could start some “Kingdom stuff” in our community. She shared how in the past she had mentally outsourced all of that sort of thinking to the staff, but was now finding it so empowering to be able to envision what the future of the church could look like together with other laypeople—along with the knowledge that they had the power to take those steps.
This series is only six-weeks long, so try to come to all of them. Each week we’ll have an in-person option on Monday night and a live Zoom version on Thursday night. This church is all of ours… let’s listen to God together for direction and vision and what he might want to do with us to further the mission of Jesus.
This season is an important one for each person individually in their own growth and also for the congregation as a whole. If we want revival to come, it starts with us. Our personal and corporate response is what’s going to make the difference in becoming the church we want to become.
Prayer Focus: God, help us to hunger more of you and your Kingdom in our lives. May we say, with joy, “Yes, Lord, whatever, whenever, wherever.” Pray for one another to that end – that each of us would live out that heart and hunger for God’s work!
