gps logoWhat Does It Mean?

These are exciting days at Cottage Hill! God has been visiting our Worship Celebrations in such an obvious way. People’s lives are being radically changed as they’ve claimed Christ as their Leader and Forgiver. There seems to be a unity of heart that is sweet and satisfying and could only come from His Spirit. You can literally feel God’s presence moving within our fellowship.

But, there is also an expectancy. It’s as if God is about to unleash His Spirit in a way we’ve never experienced. It’s as if you can feel we are right at the edge of what may be our greatest days ever! Crying out to God to lead us, we believe God has given us clarity of vision like no other time in our ministry days.

Read the following vision carefully. Understand that this is not a new program. This is not just another big idea. This is who we are. This is what we do. This is why we do it.

Our mission, to make Dedicated Disciples of Christ, has never been more needed than in these days of trouble and turbulence. But what does a Dedicated Disciple look like anyway? And what would a body of believers look like if they were all pursuing God with passion and purpose – focused on a simple, Spirit-led mission? The following three-step process applies not only to us as a church family, but every individual seeking to become a Dedicated Disciple.

A Heart for God
Worship isn’t an event, it’s a Lifestyle!

First and foremost, we must have a Heart for God. - to view Him as the only One worthy of our attention and affection. The Greatest Commandment compels us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. As an individual, this is evidenced in the way we live our everyday, walking-around lives. Every moment of every day is an opportunity to bring honor and glory to the One we love and serve! But there are certainly specific areas where we have personal worship expressions. A growing, Dedicated Disciple will experience Divine Intimacy by spending time daily with His Word and in prayer, cultivating a love relationship with the Father. You’ll also see a lifestyle characterized by Surrendered Stewardship of all that God has entrusted to an individual that’s becoming a Dedicated Disciple. And finally, while worship is not just an event, there is nothing more powerful than when the church comes together for corporate Worship Experiences. In the coming days, at every age level, from preschool through senior adults, you’ll be seeing even more creativity and emphasis on these times of corporate worship.

By the way, it is the Sunday Worship Experience that will most often be a non-believer’s first face-to-face encounter with God. It is there that many will begin their own journey towards becoming a Dedicated Disciple. So we encourage you, now more than ever, to invite your friends and family. Don’t wait for a special program or event. Recent research reveals that the vast majority of people not currently attending church would visit a church if someone would just invite them. Invite them and they will come!

Having a Heart for God is only the beginning of the process. If we are to truly be a Dedicated Disciple, we must have a Heart for People.

A Heart for People
Invest your Life in others through Bible Study Groups!

“By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Could Jesus have made it any clearer? When a watching world wonders whether or not we are a believer, a follower of Christ, it should be obvious by the way we love each other. Cottage Hill is a fairly large church. It would be real easy to just come in on Sunday, sit on the pew, listen to the music and message, slip out the back door and never be noticed. But the reality is, that’s just “going to church” instead of “being the church.” Being the Church means having a Heart for People! You’ve probably heard it said that the Church isn’t an organization, but it’s an organism. It’s a living body: The Body of Christ. We believe the life-blood of this Body, where developing a Heart for People happens at the deepest level, is in our small groups. We believe Radical Life Change happens best within the context of meaningful relationships and those are best developed in small groups. Here at Cottage Hill, we call these small groups Bible Study Groups, or “BSGs” for short. The Great Commission tells us to “…go and make disciples”, and that’s the primary focus for BSGs. In these Bible Study Groups, you’ll discover a place to grow together in your knowledge of His Word, to bear one another’s burdens, to learn how to develop Divine Intimacy, to share in the laughs and the tears of life with your brothers and sisters in the Lord, to learn different approaches for sharing your faith, and so much more. They will continue to primarily meet on Sunday mornings at 9:00 AM, but many BSGs will develop in other locations and times of the week as God brings people together from all walks of life. So if you’re ready to take your relationship with Christ to another level, join a Bible Study Group today and develop a Heart for People! Beginning Sunday, February 8, you’ll find an area in our atrium where people will be eager to help you find a BSG that fits your stage
of life!

Now there is but one missing ingredient to this process that calls us forward in our quest to become a Dedicated Disciple. It would be easy to get comfortable enjoying our Sunday Worship Experiences and even getting closer to one another through Bible Study Groups. But God has called us to be a people of action; a people with a Heart for Service.
A Heart for Service

A Heart for Service
Give your Life away through Servanthood!
A disciple is one who imitates the One he’s following. “…But whoever would be great among you must be your servant…even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life…” Think about that for a moment. The King of Kings and Lord of lords - God Himself came not to be served - but to serve. And He’s the one we are to imitate. The ultimate expression of a Dedicated Disciple is a life characterized by the heart of a servant. Do a search with your favorite concordance or bible software and notice the number of times in the New Testament the subject of being a servant comes up. It’s one of the biggest themes of Jesus and Paul. Putting others first, loving your neighbor as yourself, becoming a servant of all, and over and over it reads. This is where the rubber meets the road, where you find whether or not a person has truly been transformed from a life characterized by selfishness to a life centered on “otherness”. We’re calling this over-arching area of our church “Servanthood”. We believe it is the very call of Christ for us as a church family. Now, before you run out and sign up for just any job in the church you can find, understand that we believe you should serve through your giftedness. God has created you with special gifts and talents, things you never dreamed could have a purpose in the Kingdom. And to that end, God is leading us to some radical new vehicles for ministry! Check these out:

Having a Heart for Service means 1.) Serving the Lord by Serving Others in the Church and 2.) Serving the Lord by Serving Others in the World, showing and sharing His Love and Life. Within the church there are literally hundreds of ways to Serve Others: Bible Study Group leaders and helpers; serving with children and students; serving as a choir member; serving as an usher or greeter; and on and on we could go. But again, the key is to serve through giftedness. We’re going to make it easier than ever to find just the right area in which you can serve by simply visiting our website and clicking on our special Servanthood Discovery Tool (available beginning February 15). Using a very simple to use navigation system, you’ll find just the perfect spot to serve in a matter of a minutes! If you’re not computer savvy, have no fear! A special area in our atrium will be staffed with folks eager to help you discover your place to serve in the church.

How about Serving Others in the World? How are we going to do that? Well, in addition to the many outreach and missions opportunities that already exist at Cottage Hill, we’ll be launching Compassion Campaigns. These two-week Servanthood blitzes, happening two or three times a year, will give us the opportunity to go out into our community and show incredible amounts of compassion to a very needy world. You’ll have a chance to repair a widow’s roof, take cookies to civil service personnel, mow the lawn for a single mom, and much, much more! Our first Campaign will be happening sometime this spring, so be watching closely for more information.

Our desire is to build bridges to our community with opportunities to show them just how much we genuinely care. We’re not just interested in building bigger numbers on Sundays, we want to serve our community at the level of their everyday lives. So beginning on Wednesday, April 22, we’re going to begin offering Community Interest Classes with subjects ranging from cake decorating to GED preparation; from photography to fly-fishing; from English as a second language class to hunting techniques. These are only a few suggestions, but the possibilities are endless! Who are we going to get to teach all these classes? YOU! That’s right. Just imagine taking that special interest in your life that you are so passionate about and using it as a tool to reach our community! At no charge, people can sign up for a six-week class and gain a valuable new skill. We’re not asking them for anything except the opportunity to Serve them. Through those relationships we build week in and week out, God will no doubt give us the opportunity to lead many in our community to become Dedicated Disciples! Don’t believe you can teach a class like that? We’re going to give you all the help you need to get started! Be a risk taker! Be a Difference Maker!! Be watching for more details soon!

Don’t feel led to teach a Community Interest Class? Using the Servanthood Discovery Tool, you’ll also find dozens of other ways to Serve Others in the World through our many existing ongoing Servanthood opportunities.

The Challenge
Are you beginning to see it? It’s really quite simple! You start with a Heart for God, go deeper with a Heart for People, and ultimately learn to become a truly Dedicated Disciple by giving your life away with a Heart for Service! In response to this bold vision, we’re challenging you to do three things every week: Give at least one hour to our Sunday Worship Experience, at least one hour to a Bible Study Group, and at least one hour in Servanthood. Listen closely on Sunday mornings this month as Pastor Thomas shares even more details about this exciting adventure. Join us on the journey and watch what God will do! These certainly are exciting days at Cottage Hill!