Study Guide   01-31-10

Ministry Focus For This Year

Mission Statement of FUMC Grove

Making Disciples of Jesus Christ by …

“Building Christian community where the love of God is freely shared, the gospel of Jesus Christ is clearly encountered, and the Holy Spirit transforms life.”

The scripture below is a visual description of how the FIVE Purpose Areas for ministry are gleaned from Acts 2, as described in last Sunday’s message. The five words (underlined and in caps) are added to the scripture for illustrative purposes. They correspond to the five categories of our church’s ministry structure, and the same five categories of the Long Range Plan for Ministry developed last fall. They were also referenced in last Sunday’s message, “Our Church’s Purpose.”  

Acts 2:41-47 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all. All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching (DISCIPLESHIP), and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (CARE) --including the Lord's Supper--and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. (LAY MINISTRY) They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—all the while praising God (WORSHIP) and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. (OUTREACH)

Every local church has a ministry structure, and none is the perfect one. This just happens to be ours. Our intent in developing the Long Range Plan for Ministry late last year, is that it would be utilized in the following ways:

a- We will revisit it in 2010 to begin developing an administrative component to the overall plan, including finances, property, staffing, policy, etc. 

b- We will use the first part this fall to evaluate each area of ministry.

c- And each area of ministry will also revise their part of the ministry plan, adding another year to the five year component, and deleting the year past.

Our Lay Leader (who helped us develop the first part) has agreed to help develop all of these components this year.  

Below is an abbreviated summary of highlights from the Long Range Plan for Ministry developed last fall for our church. Of course, this list does not represent all that is included in the LR Plan, but are either new or highlighted focus areas for this year.  The LR Plan is a work in progress and will be revised each year. The order of their listing here is the same as in last Sunday’s sermon notes and are as they appear in Acts 2, with no other bearing on their importance or priority. 

Discipleship (growing our faith)

-Children

     -enhance mission involvement

     -cultivate participation in sanctuary worship

-Youth

     -increased communications with congregation and  

      parents

     -enhanced involvement with Youth Ministry Team

     -cultivate youth participation in sanctuary worship

 -Adults

     -develop senior adult ministry, create a Sunday

     School class for parents of young children, help

     others in the church develop new ministry

Care (being in relation to one another)

-develop congregational health care info and

 equipment/supplies

-seek additional fellowship activities for the church   

  family

Lay Ministry (helping you to serve effectively)

-help congregation identify individual ministry gifts;  

  develop more training opportunity for lay ministry

Worship (providing corporate praise/adoration)

-study the worship needs of our congregation to

 evaluate worship times, number of services, and

 venues for our worship service offerings

Outreach (beyond the church family to others)

-Evangelism

        -new methods of reaching new people

        -better tracking of our folks thru ACS (for non-

         attendance)

-Mission

       -aim to increase support of missionaries and

        seminary students

       -possible Project Honduras mission trip in 2011

       -doing sufficient mission to be a 5-Star Church