renovate: January 2009

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Why Do We Need Another Church?

Tonight during our lead team meeting PJ (Pastor John Carnes) asked us a very thought provoking question: "Why do we need another church in Fairmont?" What a great question. Why DO we need another church? I guess the real question is why are we doing this? Several of us go to other great churches in the area on Sunday, so why bother? Well, I know that for me renovate is a chance to do church differently. I believe we all bring unique experiences and backgrounds to this adventure. I hope that renovate will allow us to share these experiences with others who, like us, are looking for something different. We want to serve our community; we want to be another instrument in the symphony of God in Fairmont. We believe that our unique style will serve to help people discover God in new and exciting ways. Ways that will complement the work that God is already doing in other churches in our area. PJ summed it up for us when he said that we believe that renovate is what God is asking us to do. If I didn't believe this I wouldn't bother. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel together this road of adventure!

Much Love
renovate Blogger Dave

renovate values

We Value People– We have a strong belief in individuals, creating a culture of grace which accepts people, helping them to belong before they believe and appreciating our diversity and seeking unity in the midst of it.

We Value Community– We believe that we best live out our faith in community with other people, engaging each other on our spiritual journey. We believing in being culturally relevant and keeping the message of faith simple.

We Value Spirituality– We are Christian, believing that Jesus is the one and only way to God, that he came to give us a personal relationship with God. In that value we desire to help people grow through spiritual mentoring, experiential and creative worship, and teaching spiritual disciplines, a balanced spiritual giftedness, and emphasizing Christlikeness.

We Value Character– We believe that Christ calls us to strive to the highest character, lived out in attributes such as: love, integrity, sincerity, kindness, honesty, open-mindedness, optimistic, hopeful, and realistic.

We Value Mission– We believe that all these values include mission, which encompasses meeting needs of those around us, areas of social justice ("glocal"=global and local), and taking the message of grace to those who need to hear it.

The scripture that helps define our mission is:
"You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again." Isaiah 58:12

We are excited about what is in our future, and ask you to keep praying for us to follow God's plan for renovate and that we will reach those who God has called us to minister to and introduce to the great grace of God.