The leadership of Emmaus Christian Fellowship makes a point of reviewing one of our Foundation Documents each month for the purpose of keeping the beliefs and vision of the church always before our eyes. We read the document and ask two primary questions: One, do we still believe the doctrine or philosophy of ministry expressed within to be true to scripture? And two, are we faithfully teaching or fulfilling the principles laid out in the document?
We find this to be a helpful and challenging practice. The review process is helpful in that it forces us to take these (sometimes rather long, and some might say, dry) documents out from the file cabinet (the digital file cabinet, of course), read them, discus them, and in so doing, be reminded of the vision and beliefs of the church. Without being disciplined to regularly review our Foundation Documents it would not take long for the original vision of the church to be lost and for us to grow flabby in regard to our upholding of biblical truth. The process is challenging in that it forces us to ask orselves hard questions. It forces us to go back to the scriptures and to discuss things perhaps more deeply than we have before. It forces us to honestly evaluate the church and our leadership within the church and ask the hard questions, “are we being faithful?”, and, “in what ways do we need to grow?”
Here is a link to our Theological Vision for Ministry which we reviewd last month. We feel that this is a beautiful, challenging, and deeply important vision for Emmaus Christian Fellowship, and we would encourage you to read it.
Below is our yearly review schedule. Please keep the leadership in prayer as we meet twice a month to study, pray, and fulfill the other obligations associated with serving as overseers in the church. Please feel free to attend the open agenda meeting on the second Tuesday of each month at 7pm. Details about the location will be posted on our website and on The City.
Yearly Review of Foundation Documents
January – Mission, Vision, Passion, Commission
February – Emmaus Distinctive’s
March – Theological Vision for Ministry
April – Resolutions
May – Statement of Faith
Spring Retreat – LBC 1689
June – Emmaus Catechism
July – Chicago Statement on Inerrancy
August – Position Papers
September – Membership Process
October – Church Covenant
Fall Retreat – Bylaws
November – Policy and Procedures
December – Job Descriptions
Tags: Foundation Documents, Theological Vision for Ministry
Posted in News Foundation Documents Theological Vision for Ministry Church Documents Philosophy of Ministry Joe Anady
Posted by Joe
