What's the launch?

Somebody asked me recently what we were hoping to accomplish with the Launch. I stumbled through an answer and realized I needed to be able to answer that question better. After spending a few days thinking about it, reading the Southwest Strategic Plan, and reflecting on our own 6 pillars, here is what I came up with:

I want this Launch congregation to become a mission minded community of Christ followers who worship, serve, and live life together.

Mission minded reminds us that in everything we do, we are thinking about those around us. We have our non-Christian friends and neighbors in mind when we think about how to set up chairs, what kind of music to sing, what words to use to describe our faith, how we give people chances to respond in giving, everything.

Community reminds us that we are in this together. My faith is not just between me and Jesus. My faith connects me with every other believer, every one of you.

Christ followers is at the heart of the statement. Jesus Christ is at the heart of who we are. Notice it doesn’t talk about what we believe. Though our beliefs are important (we’ll talk about that a lot!) faith is first and foremost a journey of following Jesus Christ.

The next 3 words all describe what we do together.We worship. And we worship together. And our worship grows out of who we are together.We serve. Jesus told us we are the light of the world. Our responsibility is to take the light of Christ into all the dark places in the world. Again, we do that together.We live life together. We are committed to being a church of small groups; a church where everyone feels like they belong; where everyone knows they are known and loved.

One thing that’s not mentioned in that defining sentence is a word about being open to God doing a new thing in us. We are continually asking God to lead us into creative ways of expressing worship, caring for our community, and sharing life together. You never know exactly what you’re gonna discover on a Sunday morning. And the Launch may look quite different in 6 months. Hopefully it will, as long as we’re following our creative and loving God.