The Invitation
Presented by Pastor Matt Davis
In the gospel of Matthew Jesus gives four invitations out that form the direction of our vision as a church for the next three years.
The Invitation to Come
In Matthew 11:28 he says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,a nd I will give you rest.”
The Invitation to Follow
In Matthew 9:9 it says As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
The Invitation to Care
In Matthew 25:35 & 36 it says “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
The Invitation to Go
Matthew 28:19 says Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
“To invite means to present a request to people to go somewhere and do something.”
We are inviting people of all ages from the youngest to the oldest to:
Come and take a seat with the rest of us and Go on this journey together
Come and find a family and Go and bring others into it
Come and find a home and Go and bring others home
Come and find your place to belong and Go and grow
Come and find help and Go and help others
Come and find hope and Go and give others hope
Come and find your place to serve then Go and serve
Come and find Jesus and Go tell others about him
The Journey so far
A vision does not have a finishing line or a completion date, there is a crossover between what has been and what is going to be. Presenting the new vision simply refreshes, reenergises and refocuses us on why we are here and what we are doing here.
In 2016 we wanted to reach out, bring in and build up. In 2019 we wanted to build with the focus being on the health of the church being more important than the growth of the church.
In 2020 Covid hit, and we took care of the health of the church by feeding (physically and spiritually), encouraging and teaching the church by whatever means worked whether online, triple or double services, devotionals and so much more.
I believe as things move back to a new normal, we have come out stronger as a church.
There are many things we are doing that are established and effective and we are continuing on with those.
Where now?
We want to be the church of invitation that invites people in, asks people to care and sends people out.
The Prayer
It is both essential and important that we pray, as well as our midweek meetings and the praying that goes on in small groups we will be putting on different prayer events such as Days of Prayer, 21 Days of Prayer, Sunday prayer times. We cannot do what we have to do without the covering of prayer.
The Preaching
Our preaching and teaching is well established between Sunday’s preaching, midweek Bible Studies, The Academy, Small Groups and other groups. Two things we are looking at. We are going to be spending a year looking at the Gospel of Matthew, starting later on this year around November time.
As part of our discipleship we want to develop our Next Steps program for those who make a commitment.
The Programs
Many people come to church with baggage picked up on the journey of life. We have seen in recent years how effective programs like Keys to Freedom and Grief Share has been and we want to introduce two new programs for people to be part of:
Divorce Care
Single and Parenting Course
We are growing and developing our small groups in church with five running at the moment with one new group starting each year for the next three years.
The People
Everyone has a part to play, and everyone is welcome to attend but there is an invitation for everyone to get involved and become part of the work we are doing. We want everyone to find their place to serve.
The Premises
We are 15 years here in this building in November. As church grows numerically and we become fuller and limited in the seats we can put out we have to begin to think about what we do next. We are faced with three options:
Do we build and extend our present church?
Do we divide and go to multi services?
Do we plant another Living Hope church in an area of need?
The Partnership
In 2018 we re-joined the Assemblies of God Ireland (CCI) a movement of Pentecostal churches committed to seeing the whole of Ireland won for Jesus. The movement now consists of 42 churches, and we want to continue our involvement and strengthen our relationship in being committed to this movement and the part we play in it.
The Purpose
We want to glorify God in all we say and do;
We want to preach the Word in season and out;
We want to pray continually;
We want the lost to be found;
We want those searching to find answers;
We want the hurting to be healed;
We want the unlovable to be loved;
We want the hungry to be fed;
We want the abandoned to find a family;
We want the lonely to find a home;
We want the hopeless to find hope;
We want those who want to quit to keep going; and
We want everyone to serve.
We extend an invitation to all to be part of this journey for the next three years as we continue to live out the calling and fulfil the vision that God has given us.