Parkview Alliance Church's Vision
Our Process
Our vision process was a conscious attempt to listen to where God was calling us as a faith community for the next phase of our ministry. We did this through several means including prayer, reflecting on how God has led Parkview in the past and listening to what God was saying through you, the congregation. This process culminated in an Elder's vision retreat that was defined by anticipation, unity and courage. This next phase in Parkview's journey will be exciting as we live our purpose and vision as a church in the community where we have been placed.
Our Purpose:
Loving God and loving others in our church, in our community and in our world.
Our Vision:
Imperfect people sharing hope and love in our community.
Discipleship Defined:
The ongoing pursuit of becoming a fully devoted follower of Jesus as led by the Spirit and guided by His Word.
Over the last few years we have become aware of a trend toward apathy in regards to discipleship. This trend is not isolated to Parkview, and we do not want to site idly by while it continues. Therefore, we have chosen to be intentional about helping people grow in their relationship with Jesus. We want to strategically and intentionally shift this reality in and through every age group of Parkview's ministries.
This plan is our desire to lead God's people in greater love for Him and for others. We want to see more people have more opportunities to learn God's Word and our hope is to have a plan that is biblically based and culturally relevant.
We see that there are four primary areas that Scripture teaches that are key components to our spiritual growth and development:
Actively Learn Purposely Practice
Be In Community GO On Purpose
For more detail on these four areas you can download the document pdf's here:
Discipleship Plan Brochure
Discipleship Plan Long Document
Discipleship Plan Presentation from June 5, 2011:
FAQ's
(Frequently Asked Questions)
1) Why move Sunday School (KidVenture) to our Sunday Morning service time slot?
This was not an easy decision and there are many factors that went into this decision.
Reasons:
- We recognize that there are many parents who do not come early Sunday morning to bring their kids to Sunday School and because we don't have the resources to have an equally intentional program for all ages during church, many of these kids are not getting any age specific discipleship.
- We want the most amount of kids engaging on God's Word and growing in Christ. We understand culture has changed in this regard as many families don't come to Sunday School anymore. By making this change we feel that we will engage more children in a dynamic and fun learning environment and allow parents to fully engage in the teaching of God's Word on Sunday morning.
Pros of this decision:
- We foresee having more impact to more kids at Parkview (none of the children who come on Sunday morning at 9:45 will be without the discipleship opportunities, we simply gain all those who don't currently come to 9:45am Sunday School).
- We have the potential for more volunteers as some people will be willing to give time during the service who might not have come during the traditional Sunday School hour. Also, by focusing our volunteers into one time slot, we pool them and do one program well.
- This option allows parents to be in the service and fully engaged in Worship and the teaching of God's Word.
Cons of this decision:
- Our kids won't be in the service as regularly and so they won't be able to witness the regular parts of the service what we can take for granted (baptism and communion for example). We have thought about this and have already discussed ways to off-set this (bring the kids into the service baptisms for example).
- Volunteers are a risk as we have never done this before - we believe that although it is a risk, we could very possibly increase our volunteers because of the time change (see the next question for details).
Conclusion:
- These are simply a snap shot of some of the many issues we have discussed as staff and elders. Our Children's Ministry leaders feel this is the best way to move ahead with greater effectiveness and reach and we, as Elders, agree.
2) How are Children's Ministry Staff going to get to church if they are teaching Children during the worship service Sunday morning?
This is a concern of ours as leadership but there are ways of working around this. Because we only typically have Children's ministry options for 8 months a year (taking into consideration holidays, Christmas break and summer) and because we are looking at having people team-teach in shifts (giving consistency to the kids but not having a constant commitment for adults), the adults who do volunteer will only have to do so for about 4 months per year (1/2 of the 8 months we would have programming for). Also, because we foresee maybe having more people willing to volunteer at this time rather than coming early for Sunday School we, potentially, could have a greater volunteer base.
3) How about families who want to sit together in church?
We know and understanding and for some families this is an important value and this option doesn't prohibit or force parents to do anything. Children are always welcome in our services and it is completely up to the parents if they want to send their kids to the Kid's program or not.
4) Will there be anything for Adults on Sunday Morning?
Because the vast majority of adults who come on Sunday morning do not have kids in Sunday School, this has proven to be a great time for some. Consequently, we will have several options for adults on Sunday morning but our adult active learning options will not be limited to Sunday morning as this time does not work for everyone.
5) Will there be anything for teens on Sunday Morning?
Because our focus for the learning and growth for teens will be our Wednesday Night Fusion, this will be where we concentrate our efforts. There are currently no teens who attend Sunday Morning Sunday School who do not also attend Fusion. That being said, if there are teens who want to attend our Adult Active Learning options on Sunday morning, or any other time, they are always welcome to do so, and will be encouraged to do so. To that end, and because we want to encourage inter-generational learning, we will be trying to help facilitate and aid in this in the future.
6) Is this plan cast-in-stone for the long-term future?
This is a "fluid" plan and we will be making changes as we go as we evaluate effectiveness moving forward. Along with regular and intentional evaluations, we will be doing a comprehensive evaluation at the end of the 2011/2012 ministry year and will make whatever changes we need to as we pursue greater effectiveness.
7) What are the differences between an Adult Active Learning Class and a Small Group?
An Active Learning Class and a Small Group are similar but are also very different.
An Active Learning Class is short-term, teacher/content focused group that usually exists for a set period of time around a set topic.
A Small Group is a longer-term, facilitator/community focused group that usually exists for a longer term centered around the community and relationships.
We want everyone to be in community (mentorship or small groups) but we also understand that there will be a variety of people in your small group at different places in their spiritual journey (this is a great thing). Therefore, Active Learning classes offer the opportunity, at a variety of times and topics, to grow in certain areas of knowledge that are specific to you at a specific time (prayer, theology, bible knowledge, spiritual gifts, baptism class, new believers class, etc.).
8) What is Christ-Centered Recovery?
Christ-Centered Recovery is a ministry we are in the process of developing at our Downtown Campus that help people overcome areas of their lives in a small group setting working through Christ-centered Recovery programs. This is a small group type ministry with a facilitator that helps people overcome, with others, significant issues that have become controlling influences (alcohol, drugs, anger, co-dependancy, etc.).