Vision Sunday 2015

Today Pastor Alex shared his vision message and the goals that the Elders have for this year:

1. To grow the Kingdom through church planting
2. To fully develop our campus for ministry needs
3. To lead the Carmel family to live a life of generosity

We serve a generous God and as disciples we should want to be like Him. Generosity is a matter of the heart. Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” We must remember that gratitude unleashes a life of generosity.

2 Corinthians 8:1-7 shows us that even though things might not be going as planned, we can still be generous. Paul tells the Corinthian church (and us) that while we are working on specifics in our lives, generosity should be one of those things that we work on. When we live generously, it glorifies God!

Plans for 2015

Nearest:
1. Men – Lead, love, and serve your family. This begins at our Men’s breakfast on February 7, 2015,
2. Celebrate Carmel’s 50th birthday celebration this fall!

Neighbors:
1. Working towards planting our Chinese church in 2016
2. Elders are “aggressively” exploring other opportunities to plant…
3. The Carmel Mile – a one-mile path around our campus focused on our city
4. Mosaic Storefront – We will be partnering with DSS and local foster agencies/churches to love and serve the foster families of our community. Grand opening is scheduled for Feb 15!

Nations:
1. We will continue to partner with the nations to spread the gospel.
2. We are working on solidifying partnerships that will form deep, healthy relationships.

To discuss as a family today
1. Do you see yourself as rich? Do you have a heart of gratitude? What are you grateful for in your life?

2. Pastor Alex shared 5 reasons that hinder our generosity (fearful, greedy, not thinking about it, focused on earth instead of heaven, and sin). Which one(s) hinder you the most? Why?

3. Will you take Crown this year?

4. How will you choose to be generous this week? month? year?

Prayer
Holy Father, you are so worthy of my praise. You have been so generous to me and I am grateful for ________________. I choose today to be like you in my generosity, but I need your help. Please forgive me for __________________. It has hindered me from being generous. Help me get my house in order so that I can be unleashed for your purposes this year. I know that generosity is a matter of the heart, and I need mine to continue to be shaped to be like yours. I am so looking forward to this year and how you will use me, my family, and our church for your Kingdom!