LT Survey Summary

2024 Fall Kickoff Lunch

Introduction

When we gathered for our Fall Kickoff in September, we again tried something new by introducing Vision Sunday, 2024. This allowed us to update the church on various aspects of church life and receive your feedback. 

This year, we had a truncated survey to compare our answers to the last results to see where we had grown and where the additional attention would benefit the church.

As a Leadership Team, the church's Elders and Deacons reviewed your anonymous input and made observations in various formats. Later in the fall, during one of our Elders' and Deacons' lunches, we discussed this to have a clear view of all of the input as a team.

This update will provide you with the key takeaways we discussed as a team and our plans.

5 Key areas

Care for the season of life that I’m in

We were encouraged to see how many of you state that you’re receiving the care you need for your season of life. This is one of those aspects of our church community that can rapidly change and there will be natural ebs and flows. Care happens in a variety of contexts: individual relationships and community groups being two of the most readily available. While we do see that there are still areas to grow, we’re encouraged by the care that you’re receiving.

Growth through discipleship

For us as a leadership team, the past several years have focused on discipleship. We know we’re called to be disciples and are mandated to make disciples in Matthew 28. However, understanding discipleship can mean many things to different people. We’ve focused on seven areas that lead to healthy discipleship in the lives of all believers: Spiritual Power, Repentant Life, Eternal Mindset, biblical truth, Healthy Habits, Missional Heart, and Generous Living.

Discipleship most commonly happens effectively in smaller contexts of individuals or groups of 3-4 individuals. 

As we received feedback both in the areas you believed you had grown in the previous year as well as where you desire to grow in the coming year, we were encouraged to see that there is a desire for Biblical Truth, Spiritual Power, and Healthy Habits.

Life transformation through our services

This may be one of the areas of most incredible growth for us as a church in the past year. We believe this is because we’re honored to celebrate baptisms regularly. Praise God for his power at work in us! May this continue in the years ahead as we eagerly await his return.

Your spiritual life

A bit more granular than the broader subject of discipleship, we rejoiced at hearing of growth in areas like forgiveness, relationships for accountability, and personal commitment to Christ. We were also encouraged to learn of a desire to grow in evangelism, prayer, and personal holiness.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit

While this may seem subjective at first glance, it’s a pretty simple measurement: Are we doing things in our strength or the strength God provides through his Holy Spirit? We are encouraged to hear from you on this. God's Spirit is moving in our midst, not just on Sunday but in every aspect of his church.

Next Steps

Our goal is to highlight these themes in sermons as they emerge from various passages, seek to provide growth groups and classes and support these themes through the different ministries of the church.

Conclusion

There are many ways to pursue the areas you want to grow as a congregation, such as Sunday mornings, community groups, ministries, discipleship, fellowship, and serving opportunities. Prayer, building relationships, and sharing our faith all represent a healthy spiritual community.