Church Family,
Did you know our church was founded during Ulysses S. Grant’s presidency? Since then, we’ve witnessed 28 different presidents lead our nation. This church has seen quite a bit of history and quite a bit of change in that time. We have always had different parties represented in our church and today is no different. Whether you are celebrating, grieving, or indifferent today, may we all remember that our hope remains the same because hope is in the Lord. Our Mission stays the same because our mission comes from the Lord.
This Sunday, we embark on a three-week series on the amended Global Methodist Church mission statement. The original statement was “to make disciples of Jesus Christ who worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly.” David F. Watson said this about the previous mission statement: “The Old Mission statement places second-order concerns (how we behave) above first-order concerns (How God Renews our hearts and minds.)”
In a desire to keep the statement focused on the power that God has to completely transform our lives, it has been changed to: “To make disciples of Jesus Christ and spread scriptural holiness.” This change came out of a deep desire to keep our eyes on Christ and to reclaim that which makes Methodism distinct…holiness.
Holiness is not exclusively Wesleyan, but it is a key emphasis in which Methodism was birthed out of. This is the idea that we can be more like Christ today than we were yesterday. We are called and made to live sanctified lives.
Invite someone to church as we talk about this transforming power of God on Sunday!
Blessings,
Pastor Hayley