To glorify God by making disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our church is not very old and God has blessed us greatly in those few years. We have seen significant growth in many areas and have at times experienced the pains associated with rapid growth (such as building space problems, organizational problems, people with hurt feelings, etc.). We did, however, take the time in the fall of 1992 to meet as church leaders and articulate our mission statement in a formalized document as a basis for all future church activity. With the rapid growth, we do NOT want to lose sight of the mission to which we feel we have been called.

The church leadership spent eight hours one Saturday afternoon in a room hashing out the great issues of life and came up with our one line mission statement. It was simply "to glorify God by making disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ." Can you believe it?? What a group of heavy intellectuals!! This is a real think tank. Eight hours produces one eleven-word phrase--it is not even a complete sentence. The government could use a group like this to reduce the paperwork and bureaucracy. Seriously, this statement is consistent with the N.T., so it has to be valid.

Jesus left this earth with the statement in Matthew 28: 19,20: "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." This is one verse where I think the KJV is a little weak (one of the VERY FEW times). The word "go" is actually a participle which could be translated "going" or "having gone." It assumes that action is occurring. "Teach" is the main verb and is imperative (command). We are commanded to teach. This is the word for disciple. We are commanded to disciple people. Disciples are followers or imitators. We are to help people to become disciples of Jesus. The church is to be a group of people who are becoming more like Christ (not Michael Jordan). This is the mission of the church. It reminds me of the Mission Impossible show. The tape always said "this mission, should you decide to accept, is to silence the president's wife (or whatever)." The people always accepted the impossible mission. Our mission is possible because we have access to the infinite power of the Holy Spirit. We are on a mission to make disciples of Jesus. If you choose to accept this mission--get on board with our assembly, get involved and watch the Holy Spirit work through us.

Joe Bartemus, Pastor of Christian Education