It's not about the facility

Greetings!
This week, Chestnut United Methodist Church and New Light are making news! A reporter from The United Methodist Reporter, a newspaper with nation-wide circulation, recently interviewed several people from Chestnut and New Light and wrote an article highlighting our ministry. You can read the article online by clicking here. We look forward to seeing the print version, which is due to come out on October 31.

It has been an exciting time of dreaming, imagining, praying, hoping, and planning, and new visions for ministry in Portland are taking shape! We have architectural drawings for renovations to our new space, and we've begun to talk with a contractor about completing the work. Obtaining the required permits from the city will take more time than we had hoped, so it may be January before the space is ready, but we know it will be worth the wait! We're moving forward, and things are going well, by the grace of God.

Ultimately, though, we know that it's not about a facility. It's about ministry that offers hope, healing, peace, justice, love, and compassion. It's about sharing the Good News of God's love made known in Jesus Christ. It's about participating in the work of the Holy Spirit, which changes lives.

And so our vision includes so much more than a new facility...

Check out this description of Churches with Vision:
A church with vision that is consistently affirmed and lifted up will always be an exciting, dynamic, energizing center of hope. Such congregations are not only effective as channels for the healing grace of God, but their ministry also helps prevent all sorts of human and social problems by their faithfulness to the Gospel.
Visionary congregations tend to be responsive to human need, not only within the membership, but within the larger community. Congregations inspired by dreams and visions are usually involved in one or more major mission projects. These congregations tend to be Great Commission-centered, rather than self-centered. Their attitude tends to be, "We cannot do it all, but we can do something. What we can do, we will do, by the grace of God."
Visionary congregations experience the life of faith as an inspiring journey, rather than as a depressing obligation. There is a joyful contagion about these congregations. This posture of forward-leaning receptivity positions people to receive new visions that call forth new approaches to previously unseen needs.
-- from Vision 2000: Planning for Ministry into the Next Century

What do you think? Do we qualify as a Church with Vision, according to this definition? How might this description guide our thinking and planning as we lean into the future God places before us?We are so excited to be part of all that God is doing here in Portland, and we look forward to sharing this journey with you all through the months and years ahead!

In Christ's love,
Allen & Sara