timmcollins.com

I’ve known for several years now what we’ve been trying to accomplish as an organization.  Lately I’ve tried to figure out a fresh, new way to say it, and I realized there aren’t any. There are thousands of churches across America built for the unchurched (with more opening each week), and they’re all basically trying to accomplish the same thing, which is noble.  So instead of trying to be original, I thought I’d focus more on being accurate:

We want to build a church that unchurched people love to attend.

We believe very strongly that responses are God’s business.  We can’t change anyone’s life.  But we CAN build environments where all man-made obstacles have been removed and they’re free to respond as God leads them.  And we CAN present God’s message in such a way that they clearly understand exactly what he’s offering and exactly what he’s asking.  Ultimately, we believe that when those environments are built God will use them to draw people to himself.

Yeah, somebody else said it that way.  And lots of other churches are doing it.  But here’s the kicker: we believe that we’ve been called to fulfill this mission in a way that’s unique to the SW Winter Haven / Auburndale area.

I’ve been mulling this over for months now, and this statement grows on me every time I use it (which is A LOT lately).  It captures the essence of what we’re trying to do in a way that’s memorable and portable.

Over the next few days we’ll look at this statement from several angles, dissecting what this has looked like for us in the past and what it’ll look like in the future.

For us, it’s a new statement but an old idea.  Since the inception of RPC we’ve been aiming for this same goal.  Now we have a statement to match…