Building on 70 Years: Our Church’s New Mission and Vision in Action
It’s not enough to look the part; we have to live it out. These new goals aren’t for staff or leaders—they’re for all of us. They push us beyond comfort and keep us dependent on the Spirit.
What Are Christ Methodist Church’s New Goals?
100% of congregation engaged in daily worship through prayer and Bible reading.
100 members involved in ongoing, intentional discipling of one or more adults.
100% of congregation engaged in a small group within the church
100% of congregation engaged in service with one or more CMC ministry partners
20% of congregation engaged in ministry teams
30 new organic churches planted with a focus in North Africa and Asia.
Our Foundation: Mission, Vision, and Values
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31
After over two years of comprehensive planning, prayer, and discernment, we're excited to share our new churchwide goals with you. Through a process that included more than 30 congregational representatives in three distinct efforts, we've established a goal and measurement culture for our church to hold ourselves accountable, coordinate efforts, course correct where needed, and identify successes to celebrate God's work.
Before we share our goals, let's remind ourselves of our foundational statements that guide everything we do:
Our Mission: We exist to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all people.
Our Vision: Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we magnify Jesus Christ as we make, mature, and mobilize disciples locally and globally. We worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly. We serve by caring for the poor, oppressed, and marginalized. We spread scriptural holiness for the spiritual awakening of all peoples.
Our Values: We, the body of Christ, act in love, move in faith, submit to the truth of Scripture, commit to prayer and worship, and live and serve in community.
This vision affirms our legacy—as Rev. Maxie Dunnam once preached, we stand on the shoulders of giants—but it challenges us to move forward to meet our future.
The Planning Process
This journey began in 2023 and included three defining efforts:
1) The Next Step Process
We affirmed our spiritual legacy and values, recommitting to Christ as our cornerstone and the authority of Scripture. The Next Steps Committee evaluated and recommended our affiliation with the Global Methodist Church, which an overwhelming congregational vote approved.
2) Mission, Vision, and Values Update
A lay-staff team worked to refresh our core tenets with significant spiritual effort. Many congregational members helped shape this work as part of the 469 respondents to our church survey. Overall, the survey showed we're a healthy, albeit not perfect, church. You rated our regular prayer, preaching, growing in your relationship with the Lord, and stewardship of resources as strong. The strongest response was that we recommend our church to others—we are a firmly committed congregation.
3) Transcendent Goals
A third group of lay and staff representatives defined goals to fully live out our mission and vision, establishing signpost measurements that help us be affirmed in where God is moving and where we can cultivate synergies to be more impactful.
Our Six Churchwide Goals
These goals fall into three core categories of following Jesus Christ in discipleship: Worship, Discipleship, and Mission.
Worship Goals
Goal 1: Daily Worship Engagement—100% of our membership will be engaged in daily worship through Bible study, praise, prayer, and meditation on Scripture and God's goodness. Worship is more than a Sunday morning event in our lives—it's a daily ritual, an ongoing practice of discipleship.
Goal 2: Sunday Worship Growth—We will track and grow attendance during our Sunday morning worship, gathering together as the body of Christ to magnify His name.
Discipleship Goals
Goal 3: Personal Discipleship Participation—100% of our membership will be involved in weekly intentional community, such as Sunday school, small groups, or discipleship bands. If you're not part of one of these, we hope you’ll find your people at Christ Methodist.
Goal 4: Discipling Others—We aim to call and commission 100 people to be equipped for the ongoing disciple-making of others. We desire these 100 people to be leading disciples who have also made disciples themselves.
Mission Goals
Goal 5: Ministry Partnership Engagement—100% of our membership will regularly engage with one of the ministries our church partners with, either locally or globally. We have about 25-30 ministry partners that our missions department will tell you more about as we all engage in this activity.
Goal 6: Ministry Teams and Church Planting—20% of our membership will be involved in ministry teams that focus on the needs of great importance in our city or world, such as housing or education. We will be actively involved in planting new churches and expanding God's kingdom through new congregations.
Two Key Principles
As we think about these goals, there are two key pieces that balance our work:
1) This Is Our Work
"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." 1 Corinthians 9:24
This is not the work of a few on staff or in church leadership—it's the work of every member of our congregation. These goals are for each of us, individually and collectively. God, in His goodness, mercy, and wisdom, thought it was a good idea to invite us to be part of His work.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, these goals will keep us focused and engaged, pressing on to do our part in building God's kingdom in this church, city, and world. We have work to do.
2) This Is God's Work
"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow." 1 Corinthians 3:6
What we're talking about here is His work. As the Apostle Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 3, we are planting and watering the seed, but who grows the seed? God grows the seed. This is God's work, and He invites us to be co-laborers with Him.
God's Power for the Future
God has done great work here at Christ Methodist for 70 years. Many of you have experienced God in powerful ways through ministry, service, worship, and relationships here at the church. As we celebrate 70 years, what about the next seven? What about the next 17? What about the next 70?
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." Ephesians 3:20
God can do anything far more than we can ever imagine in our wildest dreams.
The writer of Hebrews tells us we have "a great cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1)—disciples and believers who have gone before us, cheering us on as we strive to serve the Lord with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. The faithful disciples and believers who planted this church 70 years ago, whether present or with the Lord, are cheering us on as we think about the next generations to come.
Like runners in a race, we run together, cheering each other on, moving in the same direction, holding hands, linking arms, sometimes carrying each other, always with God carrying us. When we hear the encouragement and see the support of our cloud of witnesses, we find the strength to finish well.
We can celebrate our rich legacy, but the status quo is not sufficient. We need a culture of seeking the Lord's will and adapting how we reach into a rapidly changing world, challenging ourselves and improving as we grow closer to Him.
We are better together, moving as one, building evidence, and gaining confidence that one day we will hear the Lord say, "Well done, good and faithful servants" at Christ Methodist Church. May His kingdom come and may His will be done on earth in our lives at Christ Methodist, from Binghampton to Bangladesh, and to God be the glory and the majesty and the honor forever and ever.