A Vision for Spiritual Formation at Unity Church
Pastor Jeff Fisher
February / March 2006
Most of you by now know that I have accepted the call to serve as the second full-time pastor at Unity Church. As I wrote in my acceptance letter to the Council, it is with both excitement and humility that I accept the call extended to me to continue serving as Pastor of Spiritual Formation here at Unity. I am extremely grateful for all the hard work that the Staff Study Team put into identifying the needs and goals of our church. I am also thankful to the congregation for affirming my potential to help us meet these needs and goals. Although, technically the specific role and responsibilities do not begin until the beginning of the next fiscal year in July, I have already been “dreaming and scheming” about all the different possibilities of fulfilling my role in “equipping the saints for works of ministry.” My intent in this article is to give you a brief look into my developing vision for spiritual formation at Unity.
There are really two major areas where I would like to see us grow as a church. The labels are not unique with me, but I refer to them as Passionate Spirituality and Leadership Development.
Passionate Spirituality is when our lives are so centered on Jesus that we as God’s people, individually and collectively, naturally grow in our faith and love for others. There are so many different ways that people connect with God, sense his presence, and are filled with His Spirit. My goal is that we as a church can explore these venues more fully and help each other discover the best way that each of us engages with God. In doing so, I believe that we will each grow in our desire to know God better, and as a result get to know God better, and then have a greater desire to know Him even more! Too often our lack in motivation is not because we don’t want to know God, but because the method we are expected to follow doesn’t match with our personality or our passion.
One of the ways that will significantly help in this area is the continuing development of our small groups ministry. I wish that every person would take the step of investing just a little bit of their time in participating in a small group. They, of course, aren’t the answer for everyone. But they do provide numerous opportunities for fellowship, growth, prayer, study, and simply experiencing God together. Those who have taken that step and joined a small group can testify to its benefits and joys. There is definitely an increase in one’s spiritual vitality when we willingly live life together in Christ.
Another way that we can seek to develop a deeper passion and desire for spiritual growth is through a mid-week teaching time. Through the Old Testament Challenge, we have sought to integrate our morning worship with our small group study and our daily devotional reading. For those who have taken advantage of this, it has been a tremendous blessing. As the OTC comes to a close and we look ahead to what is next, I hope that we can have increased enthusiasm in studying God’s word together.
Leadership Development is when we as a church recognize, equip, and utilize the gifts and potential of people for service in the kingdom of God. Again this is something that will look different for different people. We are the “body of Christ” because we are each a different part and we serve different functions. In essence, it is asking and answering the questions, “If you could do anything you wanted to serve the Lord, what would give you the most excitement?” and then, “How do we as pastors and leaders best serve to equip and empower you to do what really excites you for the Lord?”
As we seek to continue our growth as a vibrant ministry, we must regularly be looking ahead to the future. In order to develop leaders we will have to make sure that we are all heading in the same direction. So at some point we will again need to begin work on a Five-Year Plan for our church. This is especially true as we expand our ministry into a new facility and continue to minister beyond our building. We will all need to work together, using the gifts and passions God has given us, to grow and reach others for Jesus. Our ministry teams will each need to take the time to really capture their role in carrying out our mission and vision as a church. So we will need training sessions, consistent feedback, and ongoing encouragement for each of our ministries. Some of this we have already begun to develop, and we can quickly see the benefits of moving in this direction.
As we seek to become more structured and organized, though, we in no way want to eliminate or diminish the freedom of the Spirit to guide us into new and exciting adventures. In fact, as we consider these various endeavors, I don’t want any of this to be my agenda or my plans. I don’t even want them to be something that I (or we) come up with and then ask God to bless. My desire for Unity Church is that we will seek out God’s agenda and do what God wants us to do, so that we know without a doubt that it is already blessed. That’s why I believe the first step in all of this is to pray, seeking God’s agenda for Unity Church which is guaranteed to be immeasurably more than all I could ever ask or even imagine.
