MISSION Statement
To Inspire & equip kingdom minded disciples to serve Christ
FASTER
Our goal as a church was always to teach people to love God and love what God loves, People. It is out of this same goal that the vision was cast to create a lifted church. In John 12:32 Jesus said,
““And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”
Church today should be well equipped to point people to the only one who can save, which is Jesus.
What has occurred though in many churches today is a pointing towards brand awareness, social media, denominational piety, theological perfectionism, all justified by one’s endeavor to be excellent or holy. While some of these things are useful and even sometimes necessary within church, they are certainly not the ultimate ruler by which we should be measuring what a healthy church looks like. As a lifted church we know that it is Christ who does the heavy lifting, but only when we die to ourselves, that includes our preconceived notion of religion.
At lifted church we gauge success when our attenders become members of one body. When we become members at lifted church, we are pledging to live as: obedient disciples of Christ, who consistently share the Gospel of Jesus, commit to the strategy of small groups, and thereby lift Christ up within the community. It is through this surrendering that lifted church can truly live up to its name within the community. Because when lifted members are surrendered to this mission, a lifted church will be the result. At lifted church we simplify this calling to surrender into three categories: Faith, Family, Future.
“Lift up the church, by lifting up Christ”
Lifting others up, by lifting up Christ. Lift up lives, by lifting up Christ.
“Lifted lives make lifted churches. “
Who you are matters so much!
Before the church can be transformed, you must be transformed by His Spirit. The Spirit doesn’t stop at your transformation though, it continues to call you to His Bride, the Church. The empowering nature of God’s Spirit is that if He has changed your heart, He will also change your direction. The mechanism by which the Holy Spirit directs us to accomplish this change of purpose is through the Church. It’s in the Church that you not only discover your purpose, but also how your purpose unites with God’s great mission to bring all people unto Him.
The things that unite us are greater than the things that divide us.
Psalm 133:1 says, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” Unity can be severely underrated at times, but it is the greatest tool at our disposal given to us by the Holy Spirit to strengthen the Church. Unity is synonymous, with family, or at least it should be. When families are united in purpose and in mission, there is nothing that those families cannot endure and overcome in the name of Jesus. The same is true of the family of God, which Christ calls the Church. The unity of the Church in mission doesn’t just overcome trivial squabbles, but according to scripture perseveres even against the gates of Hell. What this means is that it is crucial that the Church live up to its calling; and this is only possible when the Church and its members are unified in its mission.
Belief is a powerful motivator, but when a group of people believe in something that has yet to come, we call that a vision statement. Our vision is to bring unity back to the faith, back to family and back to the future of the Church. Our future has yet to be written and we believe instead of hoping for the best outcome, we can fully participate in faith and honor God with our endeavors until we see Jesus completely lifted within our community. Far too often vision statements can put more pressure on the organization, because of their misplacement of faith towards their immediate endeavor, instead of towards their Savior. Our vision is to point people not in the direction of what they want, but in the direction of what God wants, which is their faithful obedience to His Word each and every day. While God’s vision becomes clearer every day, it will have less to do with what you could see and more to do with what God called you to believe.