Share
Fulfilling God’s Vision To Seek, Share, and Serve
In the fall of 2005, First Presbyterian Church of Orlando adopted a vision for the future that centered on three words: Seek, Share, and Serve. These three words, flowing out of the Scriptures, encapsulate the focus of our ministry for the future as we seek to consistently move people along a path toward spiritual maturity, becoming fully committed disciples of Jesus Christ. As we grow in this understanding, we will be enabling our people to seek God through worship and study, share His love through personal relationships and outreach, and humbly serve a broken world by extending our ministry to those in need in our community and around the world, thus becoming a church centered in Christ and obedient to His call upon our lives.
SHARE His eternal love
“All the believers were together and had everything in common … and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” -Acts 2:44, 47
When God calls us to faith, He never calls us to isolation, but always into community. We become a part of His Body, the Church. This mirrors the interpersonal nature of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Created in His image, we too are made as relationship creatures. We need each other. The early church was often described as being together. They shared life together through the blessing of mutual relationship.
Further, they understood that the good news was not to be contained in their small community, but extended to the world beyond. Through the relationships they had in the community and their sharing of the gospel, conversions to Christianity were happening every day. As we build relationships with each other, we will find renewed and increased strength to obediently follow Christ and then bear witness to the world. If we have been truly touched by the power of God’s forgiveness and love, then like any other good news in our life, we will scarcely be able to contain it.
By our witness, others will convert to Christianity and be baptized. Our church will grow by conversion, not by simply adding believers from other churches. God has made us to share life with others. It is only in this sharing–in community–that we find the strength and power to live faithfully and obediently as His children. By sharing the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, the church grows as people come to faith in Jesus Christ. This is what we SHARE. We share in the joy of relationship and community with others in the church. We share the hope of Christ with others.