St James' Church

“So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel … and the spirit of Joshua … and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord…” Haggai 1:14

We have started a process of working out our ministry plans for the next 5 years. This will include the period of about two years during the interim period, where we will be holding our Services in Harding Road, and two years after we have shifted back into our new premises. The staff has done the initial planning work of delineating 6 areas of focus: Services, Evangelism, Discipleship, Community outreach, Missions and Prayer/Worship. We are now in the process of forming small teams of leaders to work out the details for each of the area.

These six statements are based on our Crossroad Vision:

1. Growing our Weekend Services to 600 by 2010 and 1000 by 2012 and have 80% of these weekend worshippers in community through Cells and other forms of small groups.
2. Intentional evangelism through the effective use of the Alpha Course (and her ethos) and other creative ways to reach the ‘unchurched’ in both the marketplace and heartland areas.
3. Developing a systematic way and culture of intentional discipling of our believers, families and potential leaders.
4. Growing our community outreach through our HOPE ministry, HEAL ministry, Kindergarten etc. We will also reach out to the Holland Village community through projects, including a on-site service center.
5. Growing in our commitment to and involvement in cross-cultural Missions as a church.
6. Growing in prayer and worship through creative ways of involving and engaging the whole church.

It is my conviction that a more involved process will build our leadership base and encourage more to own the vision. Already, many of you are contributing in precious ways to ministry here. This process will give us a chance to go beyond our ‘regular doing.’ It is a pause to pray, seek the Lord and see the future together. All our leaders are of course in touch with most members or regular worshippers in the church. We value your feedback and insights.

The potential of what this church can be for the Lord is enormous. Let’s give our best to the work of the Lord. And may His Spirit stir us to “begin work on the house of the Lord…”