Opawa is re-emerging. The church experienced steady decline through the 1990s. Through the early 2000s, it made some courageous decisions, to change and to leave any negativity from the past behind. Steve and Lynne Taylor were called in late 2003.
Steve came with two Scriptural guides; How excellent are the Lord's faithful people (Psalm 16:3) and the call of the Spirit to wholistic mission (Luke 4:18-19). It is this sense of weaving the best of the past into a new mission future that has re-energised Opawa.
Vision:
Enabling people to walk and grow with Jesus and reflecting his love into our communities and beyond.
Values:
From a retreat in June 2004, the Board value
God as energiser of our life and mission.
We place the cross at our centre and seek the gospel at all places in our life.
We value our past.
We value lives transformed.
We value step by step processes in mission and want to provide multiple stepping stones into the church community.
We value wholistic well-being, lifestyle discipleship and want people to leave a legacy. We want deep foundations through training, whole-life coaching and spiritual disciplines.
We value transparency and open communication. This will include the use of internet.
We want mission to be a 2-way flow; that as we connect with our community, so our community connects with us, changing us and our architecture and our appearance.
We value a workplace reality and worship that engages with life 24/7.
We value all age and socio-economic groups and want all age groups to “age well.” We want a flow of shared resources in which all groups enhance and challenge each other and in which people are encouraged to “buy-in” to resource a Kingdom vision.
From these values, the Board sought to identify three priorities
train a new generation of leaders
communicate into the community
develop wholistic lifestyle teaching
So alongside all Opawa’s existing ministry and ministries, in 2005 we want to deliver
Growth coaching (train, develop)
“plus 5” leadership development (train, develop)
24/7 prayer room (communicate)
because Jesus came so that everyone would have life, and have it to its fullest :: John 10:10.
Posted by opawa at March 22, 2004 03:37 PM