Pastor Stephen Hess –
Last year during our 25th anniversary the Session presented a new vision statement for our congregation. At the heart of that vision is the affirmation that we exist “To glorify God and make disciples that are completely transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Our elders also shared with the congregation two major areas for exploration that grew out of this vision—facility expansion and church planting. We felt that these two “big ideas” were consistent with Highview’s founding vision and central to who we want to be as we move into the future.
Since last fall we have been quite busy exploring these ideas. We held a series of exploration meetings in December and February where we presented more information to the congregation. The elders shared how these ideas grow out of our vision, and we gathered feedback from the congregation. Additionally, our elders have continued to pray each month about what next steps God is calling us to take. What follows is an update of where we currently stand with regard to our two major areas for exploration.
Facility/Ministry Expansion: Over the past few years we have encountered some challenges with carrying out our ministries as effectively as we would like because of space limitations in our current facility. This is a challenge we anticipate will increase as we look toward growing our ministries in the future. During our exploration meetings there was a general consensus that we need to explore this topic further. Therefore, the Session has now appointed a committee of people who will be tasked with discerning our current and future facility needs as they relate to carrying out our vision.
To be clear, this committee is not a “building committee” and no concrete plans are in place at this point for any building projects. However, this committee will spend more dedicated time focusing on the question of what our facility needs will be moving forward and what potential solutions we might explore to address those needs. This committee will be co-chaired by two of our elders—Tim Samuels and Chad Sutkay. Feel free to reach out to them at any time with questions or input.
Church Planting: Our denomination has challenged every single congregation to be involved in church planting at some level. There are three levels at which a church can be involved: 1) Parent – Planting one or more new churches; 2) Partner – Joining other congregations in our area to plant churches; 3) Patron – Providing financial support to those who are starting new churches.
As our Session has prayed about this and we discussed it at our exploration meetings, we continue to feel that becoming involved in church planting is a priority for our future. At this stage our involvement would most likely be at the level of “partner” or “patron.” Consequently, we are not taking steps to form a committee focused on church planting at this time. However, our Session and our Mission Committee are actively exploring opportunities for us to partner in church planting at both a local and presbytery level. We will continue to keep the congregation updated as we have new information.
Please keep the Session and the vision committee in your prayers. These are exciting times at Highview, and I sense that God is leading us to climb some new mountains together. We don’t yet know exactly where He will lead us, but we will continue to step out in faith trusting that God has great things in store for our church family!