As part of our business on Tuesday night, Council had a mid-year review of our progress as a church. In January, together with the staff team, we set goals for our year, where are we at? The list included items such as: 

• Increase participation in service; 
• Increase participation in our growth groups; 
• Strengthen our welcome and integration. 
• Increase our engagement with our local community; 
• Grow authentic faith in people; 

What is your view, how are we going? The Council concluded at this point of the year, church life is positive, with growth still required. My own observation is strong foundational work has been done over these past 2 years to strengthen the church internally, God is beginning to open opportunities to serve beyond our church. My increasing clarity is our church is called to be contributors for the good of our society. Given how great our God is, and how much good comes from knowing Him, I think we ought to be ambitious in this pursuit, seeking significant impact. 

Personally, I find this exciting. My reflection as we pivot to this next ‘stage’ of ministry is two things need to adjust. The first is my behaviour. It probably will not surprise you to know my natural mode is to be out the front, active, doing. It is time to encourage, coach, empower, release more people. This is the second adjustment. We continue to need more people serving from their passion, in their gifting, especially leaders. The encouragement I get from our mid-year review is to not settle, but to keep pressing forward. I believe in terms of God’s vision for us, our church is just getting started. 

Enjoy, 

Jason