Hello, Violet Family!
As I was praying about what to share with you this month, God kept prompting me to share what is on my heart. So here it is…
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
I want nothing more than the seventy-five thousand people in our community of Violet Township and Pickerington to not only know of Jesus but to have a personal, life transforming relationship with Him. If Violet Baptist Church shut its doors today. Closed shop. Turned off the lights. Left. Would anyone in our community know? Would anyone in our community even care? These two questions drive me every day, these two questions demand my attention. One of my favorite quotes is, “Many times the church gets stuck because the WAY we do church becomes more important than WHY we do church.” It is so easy to get caught up doing church that we forget that the ultimate call is to be the church. The reality is that a lot of churches, no matter the location or size, seem to struggle to engage their community because they are disconnected from them. Now more than ever, our community desperately needs the church to be present and purposeful. I want to share with you a few things Violet is doing to increase our engagement with our neighbors and community through our mission to Love God, Love Others and Make Disciples. 1.What are the needs in our community? We have tried to be very intentional to carve out time to discover what the real needs are within our community. We have engaged with Pickerington school administrators, The City of Pickerington, Violet Township, Parks & Recreation departments, First Responders, Government agencies, and local business leaders who are for our community, and Christian Counseling Agencies who will be on site on a weekly basis at Violet in the near future.
Matthew 28:19-20 NIV
2.Who is for our community? Time is limited, and energy is not limitless. What I know is that our greatest resource is not money or buildings, those are vital for ministry, but our greatest resource is passionate Christians leveraging their one life to make an eternal impact for His kingdom. Whenever we discover a new need, God always surfaces an enthusiastic leader to step up and partner with us. We strive to partner with those with a heart for serving broken and hurting people. We want to partner with the business leader who desires to leverage their resources for kingdom purposes. We want to do ministry alongside the non-profits who value partnership and collaboration. We want to multiply the vision and actively seek out like-minded people who are for our community and our mission to further God’s Kingdom. 3. How do we streamline our strategy for maximum impact? A saying I hear in a lot of churches I go into is, “We are building the plane in the air.” Those words have come out of my mouth! Does that sound messy? Yes! Does it drive my inner strategic mind crazy? Absolutely! Let me just pause here and clarify. I am not talking about thoughtless decision-making that leads to poor stewardship. What I am saying is we can never wait for the perfect scenario to launch something; perfect scenarios do not exist and that would require no faith. When we discover the right need, start with prayer, gather the right people, build a God sized strategy, and move into action, God will show up in a mighty way! Along the way we must make wise decisions that position the idea and strategy for success and yes, take a gigantic leap of faith trusting that God will fill in the gaps as we move forward. If Loving God, Loving Others and Making Disciples is going to be more than a mission statement on the wall of our church, we need everyone engaged and involved. When people experience God’s love in action, they want to know more about it because it’s foreign to them. When this happens, doors will open to life transforming conversations about Jesus. In a culture where the conversation is focused on what the church is against, we can change the narrative by living out what the church is. In Christ Alone, Pastor Eric
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