HarvestInsider

I am not ashamed to admit it.  I love New Years.  Why?  Because it is filled with Opportunity.  Opportunity to start over.  Opportunity to make positive changes in our lives.  Opportunity to evaluate where we’ve been, and where we are going.  The New Year is filled with Opportunity.

Paul writes in Colossians 4:5 “Conduct yourselves with wisdom… making the most of the opportunity.”  God has given us an opportunity to start 2012 with purpose and passion, which is exactly what I intend to do.

Over the past few months, I have been sensing an absence of passion in my own life and in the life of our church.  It’s not that we aren’t doing some great things, because we are.  However, it seems that the fire and excitement of our purpose seems to be lacking.  If we are going to make the most of our opportunity to impact the world with the Life of Christ, then something has got to change.

Living on purpose is essential to living with passion.  When we have a purpose for our day, our actions, our investments, then everything we do is infused with the passion of purpose.  Knowing our purpose clarifies our priorities, it aligns our actions, and it focuses our vision.  When those things are in place, so is passion.

I want to introduce an important statement to you that we are calling our “Defining Statement”.  We are calling it that because it will define who we are, and what we are about.  It will define our PURPOSE (why we exist), our PROCESS (how we accomplish it), our FOCUS (what we have to keep our eyes on) and our VISION (what we see as the result of accomplishing our mission).  Here it is:

Harvest Springs exists (OUR PURPOSE) to help those who are far from God, and everyone in between, to become fully devoted followers of Christ.  We do this through (OUR PROCESS) Loving God, Loving Others, and Loving the World.  Our task is (OUR FOCUS) to position people in places where they can experience the transforming power of God.  When this happens, (OUR VISION) Christ is exalted and our world is changed!

Over the next four weeks, at Harvest Springs, we are going to unpack this “Defining Statement” with the prayer that God will ignite us with a clear sense of our purpose and a passion to fulfill what He has called us to accomplish as a church.  I can hardly wait, because I truly believe it will be a “Defining” moment in the life of our church, and the ministry that lies ahead of us in 2012.

So with that, would you join me in praying for God to ignite our church with Purpose and Passion in 2012?  May God do His transforming work in us!!!

Love you All!  CORY