The teenage years are a great time to figure out who we are. Am I an athlete, scholar, social activist, artist, nerd or something else?
This year we celebrated Hope’s 15th birthday. At our leadership retreat in January, God clarified the “what?” piece of our identity as a church. What are we to do as we look toward this next ministry year (which begins Sept. 1, 2015) and beyond? As I explained in the message on Feb. 22, we sense God is calling us to obey Jesus’ great commission (Matt. 28:18-20) to be disciples of Jesus so we can join him in his mission to lovingly make disciples throughout our city and among all nations. In short, we are to grow this next year as a relational disciple making church.
While there is much to learn about what a disciple is and how we each can best train others to faithfully follow Jesus, Hope’s leaders are now in a season of seeking God in order to clearly understand “WHY” Jesus has given his followers this mission. If you would like to contribute your insights on this, please send them my way before our next elder meeting on April 9 (deanw@hopefordenver.com). Once we are clear and unified on “why” Jesus wants us to join him in this mission we will begin pursuing our methods for growing in this direction this next year and beyond (i.e., “how?”) and then align our upcoming budget accordingly.
Please join me, our leaders and the whole Hope family in asking God to continue to clarify our identity during this exciting time in our young church for His glory and our joy for generations to come.
With love and gratitude for all of you on this Hope bus!
Dean
P.S. “There is a little nerd in all of us.” A quote from my wife Rebecca that continues to brings liberty to my post-teenage soul.