What is the path?
In every ministry there exists a struggle to figure out how to make the most of people’s time and ensure that they are moving on a path forward (closer to Jesus). We also need to make it clear how the ministry will help God’s creation know their creator. This is the real life-blood of ministry. Not church hopping Christians, but making new disciples of Jesus daily. So how do we plan to do this? Many groups make their worship services more attractive, spend lots of money on advertisements, have a super outgoing charismatic leader, or plan extravagant out reach events. None of these are bad or wrong but what do you do with a limited budget, a small team, and a generation who won’t set foot in the church no matter how excellent a service is? You go where they go. You do what they do. You be a friend to the friendless. You pray for the faithless. You love the forgotten. I believe that Coastal Wesley will grow, be most effective, and do the ministry of Jesus when the students who are involved are the main attraction, advertisement, and incentive to the campus.
That is not to say that our worship services will not be excellent, our outreach events fun, and our Director relational. All of these things will be present and of great focus. But, our discipleship process is what will ensure that we are answering the call to awaken CCGA to the love of God, rather than just putting on a lot of events and hoping that they “work.”
The ideal process is that student leaders would be on campus, putting themselves in relationship with people who don’t know Jesus. Gain enough relational capital and familiarity with a person to invite them to an event the Wesley is putting on, like a movie night, game night, or ice cream social. From there they can see that Wesley is a welcoming, loving environment where people are safe to be themselves. We pray that they would then receive an invitation to come to a Wesley service where the gospel is presented, Jesus is worshiped, and the fellowship of believer is rich. Finally, they would join a group of students who are passionately pursuing Jesus through weekly small groups. Somewhere in this process, by the grace of God, this student would receive the invitation to put their faith in Jesus and find freedom through his sacrifice on the cross.
This is an ideal. We recognize that there will be many paths and stories as we serve CCGA but this path serves as the model and prayer for our campus to come to know Jesus. This may mean that growth is slow and the our worship services are not the best attended, but I believe that our students will be well discipled and given a vision for mission to their campus and peers that will change they way the interact with people forever, giving them the eyes and the heart of Jesus for the lost.
As always, we value Love, Holiness, Humility and Joy and we believe that Jesus has called us to awaken CCGA to the love of the Father. Pray for us as we seek to do the ministry of Jesus unto the Father, by the power of the Spirit, for the sake of CCGA, Glynn Co, and the world!