“Our vision is that we become a thriving community of individuals transformed by the life of Christ and conformed into the image of Christ for our good, God’s glory, and the good of our community as we share the good news of the gospel with the world.”
We have Core Values that guide us as we purse the fulfillment of this vision.
CORE VALUES
Be Real (authenticity): The amazing grace of God draws us into a life of honesty, reflection, transparency, and confession, free of hiddenness and shame before God and others.
This is a call to truth, honesty and transparency with God, ourselves and each other about who we were without Christ, who we are in Christ, and who we can become.
Look at the witness of Scripture. It is full of stories of those whose lives are broken - Noah, David, Rahab, Gideon, the disciples, the woman at the well, Paul. God thought it was important that everybody else knew their story. Yes, they were deeply flawed. We all are. The beauty of repentance and forgiveness story can only be understood when the story can be see in its entirety.
If someone says, “Because of Christ, I’m not who I was,” that awesome. But…who were you? The glory and hope of Christ is clearly seen when His work in us is clearly seen, and that happens when all of it is seen. Then it's more than words on paper, or just a good idea. It’s truth that transforms. This is why we try to be transparent from the pulpit, and put you through series like “The Emotionally Healthy Church,” and encourage small groups…
Belong (community): The amazing love of God draws us to participate in a seemingly impossible community, inaugurated by Jesus, where we work toward fully knowing and fully loving each other, a community where we are grounded on biblical instruction, prayer, friendship, and a lifestyle of surrendered worship.
This has to do with our strengths, weaknesses, gifts, talents, struggles, personalities, preferences, backgrounds, current situations, preferences. This is a call to be part of a community where we are fully known and fully loved.
To be fully known and fully loved? Can we do it with each other? We are trying. That’s why we stress honesty and repentance with God and others. That’s also why we preach forgiveness and grace and love, because we are going to need that in this kind of community!
Become (transformation): The amazing power of God empowers us to practice and grow in Christ-like maturity and righteousness by the power of the Holy Spirit in the context of authentic community life.
Genuine Kingdom transformation happens through the work of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. That begins with salvation and continues as we continuously commit and re-surrender our lives to Christ. He loves us as we are - and too much to leaves us in our brokenness and sin. The ongoing transformation in our lives is a change of four things: HEART, SOUL, MIND, and STRENGTH.
Our Heart (passions) - the things we love. We need to understand what God loves and what breaks His heart, study to understand why, and seek to match our heart with God’s.
Our Soul (imagination) - the things that give us a sense of wonder or awe. Is our wonder and curiosity directed toward the right things?
Our Mind (intelligence) – that which informs us and how we think about the world. We need to be committed to truth! –
Our Strength (actions) - joyful obedience to Christ, not because we believe our actions save us, but because we are offering our lives as a “living sacrifice” to the only One who deserves our allegiance.
Be Called (destiny): The amazing goodness of God leads us to discover our unique, God-given potential to effectively serve Him and others as we engage in the Great Co-Mission to expand the Kingdom of God beginning in this community and spreading into the world.
We are called to enter into the rhythms of life together with others as much as we can without compromise, both as friends and as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. This begins in our homes and moves into our church, and then into the community and the world. We volunteer in church, engage in evangelism, meet practical needs, and simply live bold and humble lives as unashamed ambassadors of Jesus.
What happens when this kind of church community exists?
It becomes a place where the wounded, the weak, the guilty, the broken, the overlooked, the shamed, the questioning, the hopeless, can find a biblically transformational home in the presence of God and in the midst of God’s people. It’s what the Old Testament called a City of Refuge, a place for safety and renewal, a place to refresh before traveling once again through a hard and lonely world.
What if, in Traverse City, when someone had given up hope, they thought of our church, and our Savior?
What if, when someone thought, “No one understands me. No one will take me as I am,” they thought of us, and of our Christ?
What if someone who carried the weight of a sin they have never told anyone thought this was the place they could finally find a non-shaming community in which to repent and find the forgiveness of God and the love of others?
What if someone thought, “I just want a church where people are real! I want them to be honest about how hard life is and hopeful that pain and evil don’t get the last word!” And they thought of us.
What if someone who thinks, “If anyone knows my story, they will reject me,” finds a place here where people will listen, and laugh, and cry, and pray, and walk with them ever closer to Christ?
So we think Living God is called to be this kind of church, but that’s not where our core values stop. We are meant to go out and make more and better disciples of Christ. So how do we expand the impact of CLG in the world around us?
SEASONAL VISION 2024
I’m not offering a roll-out of new programs and initiatives. We’re not planning a big advertising campaign. Were not hiring new preachers or musicians or office staff or SS teachers or small group leaders. We’re not planning any new additions. There is nothing to roll out this morning that hasn’t been hinted at or done already. It’s just a reminder that we believe Jesus has placed us in this community as a place of refuge, healing and hope for sake of His Kingdom and for the glory of Christ, and from that community we are called to go and represent Christ and spread the good news of the gospel in word and deed.
Our current seasonal vision focus is Witness (“the good of our community as we share the good news of the gospel with the world.”)
The Bible is clear that that our Christ-oriented love for each other (1 Peter 4:8) and our unity as the body of Christ (Colossians 3:14) is a mark that we are transformed children of God and a witness as Jesus’ ambassadors to the world (Romans 15:6). One of the ways in which this will be ‘lived out’ is when we are a) a light in darkness, declaring and living the transforming truth of Jesus and His Gospel, and b) the salt of the earth, a presence that preserve those things that are Kingdom values in a decaying culture.
This is not a seasonal vision that is intended to stop us from our previous focus, which focused heavily on the first three parts of our core values. When COVID and a divisive election landed heavy on us in 2020, it didn’t take long to realize we needed to focus on becoming healthy by Kingdom standards as individuals and as a church body. I think that focus has paid off.
We haven’t arrived (!), but I believe that God has graciously and patiently built a depth and maturity in our church family that has borne good fruit. WE DON’T WANT TO MOVE PAST THAT AS IF WE HAVE NAILED IT. It was a good reminder that sowing faithful obedience, humble lifestyles of worship, and a commitment to learning how to love more like Jesus yields a good harvest.
On our website, under the category “Serve,” we have noted this:
We believe it is crucial that church attenders are involved in the life of their local church body and in the community in which the church is placed. This is God’s design for the flourishing of the church as a body and for individuals in whom acts of service are part of God’s plan for refinement and maturity. Not all are called in the same way and in the same degree, but all are called!
I want to show you ways in which you can be involved in maintaining our foundation while looking to engage purposefully in our focus on witness. But the bottom line is that I encourage all of you, as you are able and as God calls you, to think about what it looks like to actively become a part of something bigger than yourself in this church, in the community, or in the world.
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OPPORTUNITIES IN CHURCH LIFE AT CLG
Kids/Youth/Adult Ministries
1. Nursery/AWANA/Children’s Church (Adam and Amber Metiva; Amy Gordon; Esther Krueger)
· We need safe and caring people to join the team of nursery workers on Sunday mornings. You will work one Sunday every 5 or 6 weeks with another team member.
· We provide the teaching time on Sunday morning for ages 4 to 12 and need helpers during the first hour and second hour serving snacks and helping with games and crafts.
· Awana is Wednesday night and our great need is to have one person listen to a group of 3-4 children recite their Bible verses. You could choose one Wednesday a month to be your Wednesday and be a great help! (7:30 to 8:00p.m.).
2. Youth Group (Corban Shaw; William Krueger; Kristin and Dakota Bolton) Wednesday nights are covered, but there are other ways to be involved, including helping with a Sunday morning class.
3. Small Groups (Anthony Weber)
4. Women’s/Men’s Group (no current leaders – talk to Anthony)
Sunday Morning Building Team
Greeter/Security/Coffee (Pete Thiel)
· Greeters: two couples every Sunday to welcome people as they come through the doors and answer questions for any newcomers.
· Security. Being a watchdog for our children. We have a security team to ensure that our children are safe from any intruders. The more eyes the better.
· Coffee: making coffee before the service
Sunday Morning Service Team
1. Audio/Visual (Adam Metiva)
2. Musicians/singers/worship team (Tom Childs)
3. Prayer Team (Julie Eickenroth)
4. Library upkeep
5. Holiday decorating
SUPPORTED OPPORTUNITIES LOCALLY
Ministries By Our Congregation
1. Touching Hearts (Marilyn Dear and Pam Kritcher – see “TC Touching Hearts” on Facebook)
2. Thomas Judd Care Clinic (Emily Slater)
3. Prison Ministry (Gary and Pat Hambleton)
4. Meals (Karen Windorfer)
5. Helps Ministry (Deacons – contact Adam Metiva)
6. Building Projects (Pete Thiel) Projects would range anywhere from vacuuming and cleaning to ground's maintenance or construction projects that we may have.
7. Operation Christmas Child (Amy Gordon)
8. The Church Newsletter (Katie Schlomer)
9. The Church Directory (Marji Shev)
Ministries From Within Our Congregation
1. Freedom Farm (Julie Eickenroth – freedomfarmgt.com)
2. Affirm Ministries (Susan Hoekstra – susanhoekstra.com)
3. Peace Ranch (Jackie Kaschel – peaceranchtc.com)
4. His House (Patrick Hill – His House at NMC on Facebook)
Ministries in the Community That We Support
1. Single MOMM (singlemomm.org)
2. Thrive Medical Clinic (thrivemedicalclinic.org)
3. Goodwill Inn (goodwillnmi.org)
SUPPORTED MISSIONS/MISSIONARIES OVERSEAS (Esther Krueger)
1. VidaNet (vidamissions.com)
2. Esperanza (Esperanza1513 on Facebook)
3. The Sanchez family (borderlandsinternational.org)