Tidings Article - March 2010
Dear Friends,
In the fall of 2009, our church started on a project to develop Values and Mission Statements and a Vision/Strategy for implementing the Values and Mission.
Working together, we created a Values Statement focused on being Centered in Christ, Grounded in the Word, Offered in Worship, Unified in Discipleship, Bonded in Love, Supported in Fellowship, United in Prayer and Invested in Missions.
Next, we needed a bold, brief and biblical Mission Statement explaining what God wants us to do. I brought a rough draft of a Mission Statement to our January Council meeting. After some discussion at that meeting, it was revised. This was approved in February:
The mission of the First Baptist Church is to show the York community and the world the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
The statement is active. It says that we are to “show” others about the love of God, which requires action.
It is broad in terms of geography. It starts in our “Jerusalem” and goes out to the whole world (Acts 1:8).
It is general, but focused on a specific aspect of God’s character: love.
It was love that motivated the Father to send His Son to the world, so that anyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. Loving God is the greatest commandment. The next greatest commandment is to love our neighbor. If we do love each other, the world will know that we are Jesus’ followers. We are to be devoted to each other in with sincere love, and to even love our enemies.
The last phrase is of major significance: the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. All of God’s love comes to us through Jesus and because of what Jesus has done. Christian love is obviously centered on and rooted in Jesus.
May we love God and our neighbors, and show it every day,
Pastor Tim

