Do You Have An Opinion?

Do You Have An Opinion?

Many of you don’t remember this far back. You are new to our church. But seven years ago or so, Chapel Hill went through a mid-life crisis. We had been growing in every way that impresses—worship numbers, membership numbers, financial numbers—but we suddenly discovered that we were disconnected from our congregation. We had become something of a consumer church. People could come, pick and choose from a number of great programs and ministries, have no sense of real involvement or engagement… and not care! 
 
It was a very disturbing time, both for me as your pastor and for our elders. We decided that we did not like our trajectory as a church  And we also decided that we were willing to do the hard work necessary to redefine our mission and to realign ourselves to fulfill that mission; a mission that was devoted to “pew power”—to engaging the people in the pew in the mission of the church, rather than relying on those guys “up front” to do it all.
 
I think we have come a long way since then. We modified our mission statement, adding the words in italics: “Working together to present everyone mature in Christ.” Not a big change, but it stood for something important. We developed a new, simple and clear, three part strategic plan. We decided we could no longer count on paid staff to drive the mission of this church. We had to engage the people in the pew in the work of God, or we would not be fulfilling our mission.
 
So we want to see how we are doing. We are going to do an all-church survey. It is an on-line survey and will be available starting April 27 for two weeks only. And it will be the kind of hard data our elders can use to decide if we really are on mission.   

We need your help. When you hear about the survey, please go online and take it! Whether you are new or long-time, mature or young in the Lord… every voice matters. You will hear more in coming days but this is a heads up. Do you have an opinion? We want to hear it!
 
Pastor Mark
 
P.S. Our new Membership Class starts May 5. If you have not registered, you may do so here. It’s your chance to be part of the mission of this church!