(Written for the January 2015 Wayland UMC ARK Newsletter)
Good morning and God bless you. We enter 2015 with hope and expectation following strong worship services in December, including our Children’s Christmas presentation and hand bell choir on 12/14, Blue Christmas on 12/14, Christmas Eve with a congregation of more than 150 people, and the reception of six new members on December 28th! I am grateful for the ways God is calling us to life here.
While 2015 presents opportunities to make individual resolutions, as a congregation we are resolving to grow in faith toward the three goals we adopted at our annual Church Conference on 11/23/14. Our District Superintendent complimented us on how specific and measurable our goals are. This of course helps focus our efforts and release creativity to love God, our neighbors and ourselves in the coming year. These goals will be prominently displayed on our printed materials, meeting agendas, web site, Facebook page, and other communication sources.
Congregational Goals for 2015
Our objective is to create a balance among our inward focus and outward focus.
- Worship participation: Grow average church attendance with regular attendees to a goal of 100 in worship and sustain the goal.
- Spiritual Growth: Increase the number of leaders and committee/team members by 10%.
- Discipleship: Grow our education department and learning opportunities to have 40% of attendees involved in something outside of Sunday worship.
These goals wonderfully reflect the identity and purpose of the Church as it expressed in the introduction to one of the Baptism services in our United Methodist Hymnal:
The church is of God, and will be preserved to the end of time, for the conduct of worship and the due administration of God’s Word and Sacraments, the maintenance of Christian fellowship and discipline, the edification of believers, and the conversion of the world. All, of every age and station, stand in need of the means of grace which it alone supplies.
I invite you to share in our common response of resolving to make a difference in 2015 as Wayland United Methodist Church.
The church is of God, and will be preserved to the end of time, for the conduct of worship and the due administration of God’s Word and Sacraments, the maintenance of Christian fellowship and discipline, the edification of believers, and the conversion of the world. All, of every age and station, stand in need of the means of grace which it alone supplies.
I invite you to share in our common response of resolving to make a difference in 2015 as Wayland United Methodist Church.
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