A Letter from Gil and Hannah on July 1, 2023
NEW BEGINNING
I like New Things: new days, new times, new relationships, new opportunities, new visions, new dreams, and everything new because God provides new things every year, month, day, hour, and second. I love starting new things on a regular basis to refresh, revitalize, and renew our lives with new things God provides. So, I want to share a new vision for my third appointment year, “Missional Church.”
THE FIRST YEAR – “THE ORGANIC CHURCH”
As you may recall, I shared about the Ten Core Values of the Organic Church: Worship, Nurture, Care, Serve, Transformation, Restoration, Wisdom, Witness, Church, and Leader because we can walk our spiritual journey together when we have the same understanding of the church. One of the key things we need to remember about the Organic Church is “We Are the Church where the Holy Spirit Dwells” (1 Cor 3:16), so “It is very important to be a church where we are, not only going to the church building on Sunday.” I hope and pray that all of us keep remembering this and living it out in our lives.
THE SECOND YEAR – “THE COMPANION GROUP”
As I kept hearing about shooting incidents in America in 2022, one word that came to my heart was “Companion.” People who needed to express their uncomfortable feelings with guns needed a companion they could talk to and share their awkward feelings. So I started encouraging our church families to get a companion group, to be a companion to someone to walk together on our life journey. So we started fourteen Companion Groups among three churches of the Living Waters Circuit Ministry to gather regularly once a month, twice a month, or every week to check in on one another and encourage and take care of each other.
THE THIRD YEAR – “THE MISSIONAL CHURCH”
The third year of my appointment is the most exciting because this year is the year we respond to God's ultimate calling to the people of God and the church of God in action. God calls every single Christian to a church because God wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth of Jesus Christ, as 1 Timothy 2:4 states. In Wesleyan terms, we are to be missional to someone by connecting, networking, or linking each other in Christ. In my personal terms, we are becoming a family of God with more new people in the name of Jesus Christ. We can be the family of God because of Jesus Christ regardless of family, academic, or personal background.
INVITATION FOR A NEW JOURNEY
Therefore, I invite all of you to the Year of the Missional Church so that we can connect with more people as the family of God. I am going to ask you this question quite often this year: “How Missional Are You Now?” which means “How well are you connected with people?” “How do you make what you received from God flow to others?” or “How do you serve or care for your friends, families, or neighbors?” I hope and pray that all of us can enjoy our new journey together.
