What Is Generations?

We have some big opportunities in front of us to do some radical new things that no other generation has had the opportunity to do. We’ve all benefited from the sacrifice of others, and it’s our turn to plant and to build so that others may experience the goodness of the Gospel.

There are movements of God that are so clearly an opportunity to make a difference in many generations that we must prepare ourselves to respond with urgency. One such movement of God is with our impact partners who are baptizing new believers and raising up church leaders in Japan. We have been involved with church plants in Japan through Mustard Seed Osaka since 2011, and an exciting new chapter is about to unfold.

An exciting new chapter is about to unfold for generations of Japanese lives that will hear about the hope of Jesus Christ.

As Mustard Seed has grown beyond the original cities of Nagoya and Osaka and expanded its reach into the cities of Kyoto and Kobe, the need to become a property-owning organization for legal and cultural reasons is becoming more and more urgent. Once they own property in Japan, their foundation for planting churches in more communities and more cities becomes dramatically more solid. By partnering with them to purchase strategic property for their church plants, we can engage in the spread of the Gospel throughout the country of Japan.

The work in Osaka and across Japan is something we are committed to because there are generations of Japanese people that need to hear about the hope of Jesus Christ. They are waiting for our engagement and investment.

We live in a community where many are unaware of or unresponsive to the message of Jesus and the hope it holds as our foundation in life. As we reach unchurched and unsaved people, we see an opportunity to reach out to a segment of our four states community that cannot or will not attend a church community on the weekends. In order to more effectively prepare God’s people to discover completeness in Christ, we desire to plant a new worship service on Thursday nights here on our own property.

In order to more effectively prepare God’s people to discover completeness in Christ, we desire to plant a new worship service on Thursday nights.

In many ways the implementation of this new worship service will seem like a church plant. We are asking the people of Christ’s Church consider serving at and participating in this new endeavor and making it your family’s worship service. We will promote Thursday night worship to our community at large so the word gets out to those who need to hear it. Thursday night worship will afford an opportunity to invite a whole new community of people—those that work or are unavailable on weekends or that are not receptive to Sunday morning church—to a non-traditional experience.

These services will be the beginning of our corporate worship weekend and will correspond with the same teaching we do in our weekend services.

Over the history of Christ’s Church, we have always prioritized the value of making sure our Children’s Ministry had the right kind of facility to worship, connect, learn and play. As Christ’s Church grew over the last decade, our children’s ministry inherited some parts of the building that were designed originally for other age groups and learning styles. The space we currently have allocated on our campus for children’s ministry needs to be updated, reallocated and made more safe and secure for the number of children we serve each week.

We want to reimagine the entire space from a child’s perspective and build a new ministry center in our current facility.

We have an opportunity in front of us now to start from scratch with our Children’s Ministry area in our facility. We want to reimagine the entire space from a child’s perspective and build a new ministry center in our current facility that is intentionally designed for the hundreds of kids that come to hear about the love and hope of Jesus every week.

We want a place of excellence for teaching, gathering, worship and play to be safe and age appropriate for the next generation.

Building a worship theater was part of the original Generations proposal. However, God is not leading us to accomplish this initiative at this time. Here is a little bit about the initial proposal given to the Christ’s Church community when Generations was announced.

Demographic studies for our area tell us that there are over 100,000 people in our community who are not engaged with a church family. At the same time, our Sunday morning attendance has swelled to a functional capacity since we shifted our service times in the summer of 2015. This raises a unique challenge for all of us to answer: Are we willing to grow beyond where we are now in order to open up seats for others?

We see a unique opportunity to position ourselves to reach new generations by building a worship theater adjacent to our main lobby.

Historically, this church has always answered that challenge with a committed “YES”, and that commitment by generations before us opened up the opportunity for each of us today to experience discipleship and community through Christ’s Church of Oronogo. Looking at both the trends in our community and at national research, we see a unique opportunity to position ourselves to reach new generations by building a worship theater adjacent to our main lobby and Adult Worship Center.

This new worship venue will be an intimate environment in order to provide alternative opportunities for smaller segments of our church family to gather for worship. By adding a venue of this size and doing multiple services on a Sunday morning at the same time as our current services, we will open the opportunity for at least 1000 more people to come hear the Gospel. By connecting the lobby of the new theater to our current lobby and doubling that communal space, we expand our reach while still staying relational. Worship in the theater will become an easy entry point for new guests who don’t want the overwhelming experience of the current Adult Worship Center. This worship theater will also serve as a place for the Thursday night worship service to gather.

The ultimate goal of our Generations campaign is to see every disciple of Jesus risk a significant step of faith in God’s plan. For each of us, there is a challenge of faith by which we awaken our hope and life in Him.

For some of us, it will be to surrender ourselves to Jesus and become a disciple of who He is and what He asks of all of us. We all need to accept the offer of His salvation and Lordship. We need to repent of our sins, confess Jesus as the only means of our salvation and choose to surrender the path of our lives to His Lordship.

For some of us, it will be to become committed to the ministry of the church. This will look differently for each of us and will be as varied as serving others, sharing the message of hope that we have in Jesus, or sacrificing financially to bring about these blessings.

For all of us, being generous with our time, talents and treasures is the path of growth in our walk with Him. It can’t be done for us, it can only be done by each of us as a statement of our hearts and trust in God.

Our desire is that each believer would take one significant step in faith and grow in their trust.

During the next two years, we are focusing our generosity into one fund. This is a single fund that includes all of our current ministries and all the expanded areas God is leading us to that you see in the previous pages. The challenge is for each one of us to sacrificially expand our generosity. Our goal is to raise a total of $12.8 million in commitments over the next two years to fund our current, general operating budget and to pursue the vision we feel led to accomplish for God’s glory. Our operating budget for the next two years will be approximately $8.3 million. The remaining $4.5 million dollars would allow us to accomplish all the new initiatives.

The Generations campaign will ask some to begin to give for the first time and experience trusting in God and it will help others to begin to pursue generosity in their relationship with God.

The Generations campaign will ask that some give beyond what they have been giving to trust God at a deeper level by sacrificing beyond what they previously thought possible.

The Generations campaign will ask of some to give from their current surplus of money, for others to liquidate some stored resources (property, possessions, investments, etc.) and for others to change their lifestyles so that they can say “no” to unimportant things as a means to saying “yes” to greater things.

We have been praying that with some beginning to give for the first time, others stepping into a more regular and consistent pattern of giving, and others giving generously beyond their regular giving we can continue to do the ministry we are doing and accomplish this vision of growth before us.

We invite you to ask God to show you what you can give to the Generations campaign in a two-year pledge of your generosity. Each person or family will be given a commitment card to pray over. On November 19 we will have a Commitment Sunday where our church family will complete and submit their cards in our worship services. Our challenge is to ask every participant in the ministry of Christ’s Church to pray for and commit to a response to the Generations campaign to advance one step further in their trust of God.

Beyond Financial Giving

Accomplishing the vision that God has laid in front of this church is going to require a sacrifice on the part of all of us. We are asking each household to pray and have conversations as a family about what they can give financially to support the new work and propel the love and hope of God to new generations. But giving financially is not the only way to be involved in the Generations campaign.

This Generations campaign can only come to fruition if we respond to God’s call to give with a financial sacrifice and a sacrifice of our time and energy. Just like taking a next step of faith in how you trust God with your finances, what would it look like to step into a deeper level of trust in how you invest your time and energy in these new initiatives?

Dates To Remember

October 29 - November 19, 2017

Generations Campaign Series

November 19, 2017

Commitment Sunday

November 19, 2017

Visit from Jay Greer of Mustard Seed Osaka

January 7, 2018

Generations Campaign Begins

December 30, 2019

Generations Campaign Ends