Every year in January, your elders spend a weekend together on a retreat to reflect on the previous year, to discern how God has moved and revealed Himself, to give thanks for what He has done, and to prayerfully seek His will and direction for the The River in the coming year.
We prepare several weeks ahead of time by reading scripture and prayerfully seeking His leading for our church body. Having just returned from this retreat this past weekend, we now want to share how God revealed himself to us during this time of prayer and reflection and to share with you where we feel He is leading us for the coming year. Many of you prayed for our time together…we covet those prayers, and we do not take lightly the charge to lead this body well. We are desperately dependent on God to show us the way. It is helpful to think back over the last few years to see where we have been as He moves us forward, so that we may “line up” the markers He has given us on our journey together:
2017: “Pure, Purposeful Relationships” We believe that truth travels best through gospel-centered relationships. In 2017 we sought to emphasize the need for these relationships to build up the body (discipleship) and in sharing the gospel with those who don’t yet know Him. We felt that Life Groups, whether in church on Sunday or in homes in the community during the week were areas of emphasis, as well as finding a place of ministry to those on the outside, were important means of accomplishing this goal.
· 2018: “Unity and Oneness” Last year, God impressed upon us the need to be one with Him, and to be of one heart and one mind as a body. We become unified as we seek Him together. Just as we become one with Him by spending time and interacting with Him, we similarly become one as a body as we draw closer to Him, and spend time and interact with each other. This has led to several changes in our body, including the recent one service schedule and emphasis on Sunday School. We will discuss other fruit that has been borne out of this vision from 2018 during Sunday’s message.
This Sunday, we will be sharing with you a more detailed description of how God spoke to us during our retreat. In looking back over the last couple of years, we have seen that His charge to us for 2019 aligns well with how He has guided us in the previous years. We do not believe that the vision from previous years is “discarded” every year on January 1, but that He will continue to use the past revelation and “add to” it as He moves us forward. Additionally, this leading from Him fits perfectly with our mission to Exalt, Equip and Express, as well as our overarching vision to Grow in Christ and Further His Kingdom.
With that in mind, we would ask you to prepare for Sunday’s vision casting by reading through John 17, with an eye looking for traces of “Pure, Purposeful Relationships” and “Unity and Oneness” within the text. During our time of sharing the vision, we believe you will also see how God’s revelation to us for 2019 will be interwoven with these themes in this passage as well.
We look forward to sharing this vision with you as a body, having a hopeful expectation of seeing His plan affirmed as it is received by His people!