Around the weekend of June 10th-11th, the church celebrates two major anniversaries. 230 years ago a decision was made to form a new congregation in Cotton End. 170 years ago the congregation decided to build a new place of worship. Without these visionary people we would not have our current site and our rich heritage of witness in the village. But what about us? Where are we in this unfolding story of the church in Cotton End?
We dream of a church where... This is where we begin--the dream of what church could be, the dream of what church should be.
Two things help define this vision:
#1 Our Core Values: commitment to Christ; authentic lifestyle; commitment to each other; commitment to serve and reach; centrality of prayer and worship
#2 Our Mission Statement: To know God and to make God known
But what picture does this paint? If you turn it around and ask, "What sort of church looks like this?", what kind of answer would you get?
The Four Essentials
These are the non-negotiables of church life. They may be expressed in subtly different ways, but they are at the heart of what it means to be the church for me.
A Biblical Church: In other words a church that is committed to being a church of the book. We want to let the word of God get deep down in to our lives, to affect the way we think and live. We do not want to conform the message to the way we think and live, we want to think and live in conformity to the message.
A Mission-involved Church: A church that is not committed to taking as many people as possible into a relationship with God cannot be a true expression of church.
A Relational Church: Jesus said it would be our love for each other that would speak of our connection with him.
A Praying Church: Prayer does not generally come easy to us but we must make it a priority. Without it we are disconnected from God, we cannot know what he is calling us to do because we are not talking to him and listening to him.
The Challenge
The challenge we face is simple. We need to change the ethos to match the values; change the ethos to match the vision; change the ethos to match the goal. The goal is simply:
To bring as many people as possible into the deepest relationship with God possible
The ethos of the church is how it really is, and this must change to match the dream, the vision.
There is nothing like the local church when it is working right. Its beauty is indescribable. Its power is breathtaking. Its potential is unlimited. It comforts the grieving and heals the broken in the context of community. It builds bridges to seekers and offers truth to the confused. It provides resources for those in need and opens its arms to the forgotten, the downtrodden, the disillusioned. It breaks the chains of addiction, frees the oppressed, and offers belonging to the marginalized of this world. Whatever the capacity for human suffering, the church has a greater capacity for healing and wholeness. No other organization on earth is like the church. Nothing even comes close.
Bill Hybels
