One time Peter Drucker wrote, I finally came to understand that of all of the organizations in the world, only two of them in my humble opinion are changing the lives of human beings.” “First,” he said, “Twelve-step programs, AA programs. They really change people’s lives.” He said, “The second is local churches. And of those two, 12-step programs and local churches, only one changes eternity.” He said, “When I understood that, I wanted to give more and more of myself to it.” And he did. He dedicated money and time to the local church.
When you come to understand that the local church is the God-anointed means by which the lost will be redeemed in this world, then you’ll arrange your life to be more and more a part of what it takes to make a church really go. We see that in the book of Acts. They were willing to make the sacrifice because they knew that what they were birthing was going to change the world. They knew that because they had been changed by the message. We read the Scriptures in Acts 2 of what a biblically functioning community looked like without the overhead of buildings and programs and staff. It’s a group of people totally devoted to the proclamation of the message of saving grace and to one another too. Both are needed and required to be a Chrisitian church. I think they would appreciate our vision statement that says, “Westheights church exists to help people to find and follow Jesus.” So our mission is to both believers and unbelievers. It is the two-fold ministry of the local church we see throughout the New Testament.
During CONNECT our focus has been on the community of believers that attend Westheights. That is good and we need to focus on that to build up the body of Christ. However, I hope that you will join us on June 6th when we switch our focus to the community of people around Westheights church. It is our plan for our sixth annual Westheights Family Carnival to bless and love our community with a free, fun, family day on our church property. Last year, 3400 people attended our carnival and were blessed by our church. I hope that you will mark the date on your calendar and join with us in this gift of love to the Westheights community.