Our Mission

Southminster is a caring family of believers; we exist to connect others with Jesus Christ.

 

Our Vision

“To be a welcoming church where families and individuals in our community can enjoy God and one another… where together we grow in faith and service to God.  We desire to bring glory to God by being Christ’s body…His hands and feet, His loving arms and His voice to all.”

We intend to “live out” this vision by emphasizing five goals or areas of ministry.

Church Family: We desire to inspire involvement of our church family in developing a “Be all IN” mindset for Jesus Christ. We will initiate and promote programs that will strengthen and grow our faith in Jesus Christ and utilize our gifts. We will also develop programs that provide more opportunities for service in our community in addition to our current “hands on” support for God’s Bounty food pantry. We will seek to expand the fellowship aspect of our church family ministry by offering additional activities that will appeal to and include a wider participation by the congregation.

 

Outreach: We desire to become a deliberate out-ward focused church in which our leaders and church family connect with the unchurched community, visitors, daycare parents, Olivet campers, VBS families, and our friends and neighbors for the purpose of helping them connect with Jesus Christ. This will require strengthening our programs for VBS and Camp Olivet and developing new programs that will enable our church to have more interaction with the community. We will strengthen our mission support both financially and through our prayers and actions seeking to be faithful to the words of Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20. A key aspect will be to provide opportunity for short term mission activities and trips for some of our members as well as increasing the reports and visits by our missionaries.

 

Worship: We desire to provide a worship experience that “WOWS” participants and brings glory to God through music, preaching, and traditional worship. . Music is an integral part of worship.  We have an instrumental prelude, opening hymn, sermon hymn and closing hymn.    Prayer is included as a prayer of confession, pastor-led prayers of the people and unison praying of the Lord’s Prayer.  Special prayers are included on communion Sundays.  A weekly prayer list is included in our bulletin and we are reminded during the service.  Sermons are most generally delivered from the pulpit but have been done “on the floor” in front of the congregation.  We include at least 2 scripture readings which tie into the sermon.   The end of worship includes a charge, words of encouragement, and things to think about during the coming week so we continue to think about the sermon and message delivered.  During special times of the year, we have special readings that very often involve families from the congregation.  We include youth in our services throughout the year as well.  A member of the congregation serves as liturgist each week, with each member of session serving at least once per year.  

 

 

Communication: A key aspect of our ministry is communication. We will establish reliable and effective communication to inform and involve our congregation in the support of our goals and strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ. We will seek to provide relevant information about our ministry to the community through our website and other communication tools.

What we believe:

Some of the principles articulated by John Calvin remain at the core of Presbyterian beliefs. Among these are the sovereignty of God, the authority of the scripture, justification by grace through faith and the priesthood of all believers. What they mean is that God is the supreme authority throughout the universe. Our knowledge of God and God’s purpose for humanity comes from the Bible, particularly what is revealed in the New Testament through the life of Jesus Christ. Our salvation (justification) through Jesus is God’s generous gift to us and not the result of our own accomplishments. It is everyone’s job — ministers and lay people alike — to share this Good News with the whole world. That is also why the Presbyterian church is governed at all levels by a combination of clergy and laity, men and women alike.

 

Learn more about the Presbyterian Church (USA).