Mission Statement

Sharing the Good News
of Jesus Christ
through
heartfelt worship,
loving outreach &
caring ministries
--- peacefully, simply together.

Approved by:
Congregational Business Meeting
May 21, 1989

Vision Statement

We, the members of the Sebring Church of the Brethren look to our future and in our common vision see our congregation in 2012…

1. Worshiping in spirit and truth by prayerfully proclaiming the Word of God while joyfully expressing our faith through a variety of means, such as music, drama, testimony, altar calls and possibly a second more contemporary worship service to attract younger adults.

2. Building youthful vitality within the church by offering more programs, activities and events for younger families, youth, and children; staffing a Youth/Young Adult Pastor, and providing nursery care for all church programs.

3. Teaching the Biblical story by offering a strong biblically based Sunday School curriculum and small group bible studies for adults and youth throughout the week.

4. Maintaining and expanding our church’s identity by clearly communicating the story of the Brethren; teaching our denominational history and beliefs to current members and prospective members; promoting attendance at Brethren conferences, camps and events; and becoming more visible through advertising to the community who we are as Brethren.

5. Renewing our mature adult and older adult ministries by developing specific fellowship, activity, discussion, and care groups; and creating several interesting options for adult Sunday School.

6. Developing two local community, outreach programs that meet specific physical, social, relational or psychological needs of people and can be clearly identified by the Sebring community as programs of the Church of the Brethren.

7. Reaching-out worldwide by providing financial support to at least one new church development project and to at least one missionary family; and by participating in all of the denominational related special mission offerings (Heifer Project, CWS Blanket Sunday, etc.)

8. Witnessing God’s salvation so that others come to Christ by providing broad and specific training to our church members on how to do tasteful and appropriate personal evangelism.

9. Raising up the next generation of believers by increasing our K-12 Sunday School attendance to 50.

10. Identifying the spiritual gifts of members through an intentional assessment process and providing specific leadership training for teaching, team leadership, and program administration.

11. Increasing our average annual worship attendance to 300 per Sunday by faithfully inviting others to worship and increasing the ratio of permanent to winter attendees to 50/50.

12. Emphasizing biblical stewardship through year-round teaching of the scriptural basis of holistic stewardship, tithing, and intentional faith-giving.