We didn’t spend all that money and put all that effort in purely for our own comfort. We renovated because we believed it would help us grow and provide better facilities for our ministries.

So, what’s the next steps for us? How are we going to use these great facilities for the purpose they were built for? How can we be an even healthier and more sustainable church family?

On the 17th of July last year,v We did a workshop to start the process of identifying the values and vision of our church family. We discussed the ‘Lifecycle of a Church’, whether we might be in a

stage of growth or decline. We then discussed the ’10 Characteristics of a Healthy Church’. And finally, we discussed the ‘‘Why’ of church’, reading Ephesians 4:1-13; 17-24, Acts 2:42-47, Matthew 5:13-16, 28:18-20 and Philippians 2:12-16. We gathered everyone’s responses, based on those passages, and made this draft vision statement:

The crucified and risen Lord Jesus created the Stanthorpe Presbyterian Church to be a united family who worships God and to grow into spiritual maturity so that we can be a fellowship of supportive believers reaching our community.

Soon after doing this workshop, as directed by our Session and actioned by our Committee of Management, we all poured much of our time and energy into renovating our church building ready to move in by the end of the year. And we did it! We farewelled the SDA church building with much gratitude and had our first Sunday in our newly renovated buildings on 27th November 2022.

With that background, we now return to thinking about our mission, values and vision. Our elders often pray about where God might be leading us and the steps we need to take to seek God’s plans for us.

This sermon series is an opportunity for us to start praying together and to start by seeking from God’s word what it means to be his church. To ask what God might be calling us to be. To place ourselves under the lordship of Jesus as we seek how he wants us to live and grow as God’s family.