by Tim Goff
Four years ago, the Port Charlotte Church Board entered into a partnership with the Florida Conference Ministerial Department to explore mission, ministry, visioning, and values with a purpose of growing with excellence. We began to visualize what our campus might look like if we became more intentional about giftedness and calling among our members and ministry through outreach to our community. Significant developments included forming the following:
- Ministry Development Team—includes classes on giftedness and calling.
- Ministry Fair—purpose is to invite participation in various ministries.
- Resource Desk—located in prominent place in church lobby.
- Ministry Council—surveyed community to find overlooked niche which led to supporting more than 200 homeless high school students living in Charlotte County.
In order for members, new believers, and seekers to become part of church life and continue to grow as disciples of Jesus, they are encouraged to connect in four ways:
- Connect To God.
- Connect To Church Family.
- Connect To Ministry.
- Connect To Others.
To further facilitate this message, a new logo to help capture the concept was developed (above).
After completing an inventory from Natural Church Development, members discovered a need for emphasis in relationships and small groups. To meet this need, two types of small groups were chosen:
- Bible Reading Group, which meets throughout the year, uses This Is Life Eternal, developed by Wretha Lang.
- Sermon-based Small Groups meet for three 10-week sessions a year. The lesson is based on the weekly Sabbath message. When launched in January, there were 11 groups and more than 95 people involved.
One year ago, a new discipleship class on Sabbath mornings called Journey of Faith was offered to acquaint participants with several key areas of faith and nurture including:
- Discovering what following Jesus means, using A Discipleship Journey by Dave Buehring.
- Exploring Seventh-day Adventist distinctive teachings.
- Learning and sharing our health message through CREATION Health from Florida Hospital (see below).
- Remembering Our Roots—a review of the beginnings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
- I’m Allergic to Witnessing, an eight-session seminar on faith sharing in natural appealing ways.
As participants complete this year-long walk with new friends and the Word of God, we anticipate they will be well-settled in faith, practice, lifestyle, and sharing their faith. Mature members also participate for the purpose of supporting new people and inviting them to join small groups that meet outside of service times.
Port Charlotte members pray this approach will prove faithful to Jesus who said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” —Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV.
Port Charlotte Hosts CREATION Health Seminars
Port Charlotte Church has integrated Florida Hospital’s CREATION Health into a year long program of discipling. “As soon as CREATION Health was presented to Florida Conference pastors,” says Pastor Tim Goff, “I saw it as an opportunity to touch the public in an excellent way.”
Nine CREATION Health seminars have already taken place. The first one was conducted by Bill Froelich in his workout gym with a mostly nonAdventist audience. The second was conducted at the Cultural Center in town with 50% nonmembers attending. Other seminars were conducted at the church. Most recently, a seminar was held at the New Event Center in Punta Gorda with 75% of the participants coming from the community.
CREATION Health is a total wellness program for individuals and is based on the eight essential principles of health:
Choice
Rest
Environment
Activity
Trust
Interpersonal Relationships
Outlook
Nutrition