You know on that big eye chart in the doctor’s office there is the big

E

at the top of the chart? I can’t see it. Yeah, that is how blind I am. 🙂 Except when I wear my glasses.

I am so grateful for all of you who take the time to comment. The weekends are hard for me. Friday is my day off so I am fortunate to even turn on the computer. Saturday is usually busy studying, but I do try to take the time to respond to comments. This Saturday was different. I am a Board member of our local Chamber of Commerce and volunteered to help at an event we were involved in. Friday I had ridden 23.5 miles (in wind), cut my grass for the second day in a row, and spread insect killer pellets (grubs, worms, etc). So by the time I was done at the event I was pretty tired. The computer never even got turned on.

So I would like to take this post to respond. (Hope you don’t mind). I deeply (and I mean deeply) appreciate all of you who say you will pray for me. That being said…I preached this morning on our new Mission/Vision. You can read about that in this post. Our previous Mission statement was “To win the HEART of Owen County.” HEART was an acrostic: Hear Truth. Exalt Christ. Accept the Imperfect. Restore Relationships. Teach Service.

About 6-9 months ago, Ryan, our youth pastor, thought out loud about “wish we could do something about the Mission/Vision statement. Make it more succinct. More memorable. More on target.” The young whippersnapper didn’t know I had made that up. 🙂 It went along for a couple of months when I was in my office one afternoon reading/daydreaming/snoozing when it hit me. I got out my Moleskine journal and started writing some things down. We went to lunch and I shared it with him for his thoughts/ideas. We tweaked it some. Two weeks later we got back together and tweaked it some more. We brought Diana into the mix and tweaked it some more. Then took it to the other leaders and tweaked it none at all. They liked it. I shared it this Sunday.

Mission (what we are supposed to do): To connect people to Jesus.

Vision (how we plan to accomplish that):

1. To be passionate pursuers of Jesus [Phil.3:10]
2. To be models of truth and love [John 8: 1-11]
3. To be involved in our community. [Luke 10: 25-37; Matthew 25:35-46]]

As you might guess there is more to say, but this post is already way too long. For those who commented: I hope this “broad post” is a satisfactory thank you.