The time I first came to LBF, back in 1977, what captured my heart was the church’s desire to see people come to faith in Jesus and grow into mature followers of Jesus. Although this is what every church should be about, my experience in other churches didn’t always bear this out. But this is what I wanted to be about and commit my life to. I didn’t want to be part of a church that simply allowed people to come and be part of a social club or come and simply fill their head with knowledge without any responsibility to living the life.
What I found here was a group of people refreshingly serious about their relationship with Jesus. For me this clear and challenging focus on mission has changed my life. It has taken me out of the world of business and placed me into the world of church ministry – a change I could not have predicted as I simply wanted to be serious about my relationship with Jesus. And now as we have just passed our 41st anniversary as a church, it is my prayer that we continue to represent Jesus well and stay serious about our faith.
As our church approached its 41st anniversary, I felt it was necessary to review our mission statement. And so we did. In reviewing our mission statement we wanted to make sure that it would be biblically based, while at the same time reflect the uniqueness of LBF.
Our process started back in January and was a collaborative effort with both the elders and the pastoral staff. It involved a series of meetings and discussions about what the Bible calls us to be as a church. It also included an assessment of our current LBF church culture. We quickly learned that four themes came out of our meetings. First we learned that we desire a growing passion for God and His calling on our lives. Second, we learned that we have a desire to love and serve our community. Third, we learned that we want to see lives transformed by encounters with Christ and His gospel. And fourth, we learned that we wanted to discover and experience and live out a focus of grace.
With these themes in mind and through hours of prayerful discussion we captured LBF’s central purpose as follows:
We exist to passionately pursue LIFE in Jesus and to lead our neighbors to do the same.
We believe this best expresses what LBF is about and captures our uniqueness as a church. But what do all of these words really mean? Continue reading.
Passionate Pursuit: This is no half-hearted journey. Our relationship with Christ and the continual deepening of the realities and rewards of that relationship is first and foremost our highest priority. Love and desire for Him should stir so deeply within us that we seek Him at all costs. To be passionate means that. If God is our Creator, no less than this is required. It would be silliness to treat God as one of our nonessential interests. Jesus has told us it must be more than a vital interest – it must become the reigning passion of our existence.
LIFE: While certainly the source of eternal salvation, LIFE in Christ is also a total redesign of our personal priorities and actions and a source of joy and comfort through the inevitable challenges we face. LIFE communicates vibrancy, energy, freedom, second chances, and is what actually comes from our relationship with Christ – abundant LIFE today and LIFE full and everlasting in eternity.
Lead: People are more likely to follow others who live what they say they believe. To live in a passionate pursuit of Jesus – to live what one believes – this is viewed as leading. Jesus led by example with His primary teaching about leadership being that as a servant. He has called His followers to lead by serving others. When we walk alongside to assist others in their journey toward Christ, we lead them with our own life as an example, while intentionally and boldly sharing about Jesus.
Neighbors: “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answered this question by telling a story about a Samaritan who saw a person in need and sacrificed a great deal to meet that need. While we certainly want to be intentional with our geographic neighbors, ultimately God defines “neighbor” as anyone He chooses to place in our path.
To do the same: It is our mission to not only personally live out this passionate pursuit of life in Christ, but to also influence others. It’s a contagious effort that seeks to share Christ with others – who will also do the same.
This new mission statement for LBF will guide all that we do and won’t do. We want the things we are involved with to help us fulfill this statement. I ask that you join the elders and staff in memorizing this statement (it’s easy, really!). That way it will be on our hearts as we all live, serve, and honor our Lord Jesus.
Be sure to read the other articles in this month’s Scroll to learn about how this mission statement will affect our church life.
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