Our Mission

Our mission at The Waters is most simply stated:

“Love God, Love People, Serve the Community”

 

This is the same mission every Christian shares. We know that the single greatest accomplishment anyone can have in life is to love God with all his heart, mind, and soul. Likewise, the second greatest thing anyone can do is to love others. And the greatest way to demonstrate love is to model our lives after Jesus, who came to earth not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 10:45)

We are a Purpose Driven Church which means that we base our functioning on five foundational truths found throughout Scripture. Our mission will be accomplished by fulfilling these Biblical Purposes as every decision is made in view of these purposes.

 

While the whole of the Bible advocates the five purposes, we give an intentional emphasis on the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20).
Jesus gave the Great Commandment when he was asked to identify the most important of God’s commands. To paraphrase his response, he said, “Here is the entire Old Testament in a nutshell. I'm going to give you a simple summary of God's commands: ‘All the Law and all the Prophets can be condensed into two tasks: Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Later, as Jesus said goodbye to his disciples, he gave them a Great Commission. This command included three more tasks: go make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to obey everything Jesus taught.

THE GREAT COMMANDMENT

Love the Lord your God with all your heart (WORSHIP) and with all your soul and with all your mind . . Love your neighbor as yourself (MINISTRY). All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

THE GREAT COMMISSION

Go and make disciples (EVANGELISM) of all nations, baptizing them (FELLOWSHIP) in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey (DISCIPLESHIP) everything I have commanded you.

These two passages, the Great Commandment and the Great Commission, combine to create the essential elements of a healthy, growing, biblically-based church: worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and missions.

 

Being a Purpose Driven Church gives a plan to fulfill our mission. It also places an intentional process for bringing the lost into relationship with Christ and to encourage our members to purposefully move deeper into their relationship with God. In short, it helps to move people who do not know God personally into fully devoted Christ-followers. The Purpose Driven process establishes a clear and deliberate structure that makes it easy for every visitor to see how to take further steps toward God and helps every member to consistently measure personal progress in his or her own spiritual growth. We believe we must have a deliberate plan to help our members incorporate the five purposes (worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, missions) into their lives and to keep those purposes balanced. Healthy, balanced members are foundational to a healthy, balanced church.

We use the "concentric circle" model to explain the core Purpose Driven process for bringing people in our community into our congregation and then developing them into core members involved in ministry and missions.

 

 

 

The “concentric circle” model helps us to understand different needs at different levels in the lives of those it represents. This then helps us learn and understand what level toward which members should next move.

The five different people groups related to The Waters are defined as follows:

  1. Community:  Those living around our church who never, or occasionally, attend. 

  2. Crowd:  Those who attend our church regularly but are not members. 

  3. Congregation:  Those who are committed to both Christ and membership in our church family.

  4. Committed:  Those members who are serious about growing to spiritual maturity. 

  5. Core:  Those members who actively serve in ministry and mission in our church.

Each group has unique needs, motives, challenges, and POTENTIAL! Our goal is to transform a community through this process of helping people become Christ-followers.

 

 

The Purpose Driven model also offers a deliberate discipleship model that is easy to follow and which is effective. Purpose Driven moves people -- from being unchurched and uncommitted -- to a deep level of spiritual maturity and commitment, where they are involved in ministry and living out their God-shaped mission in the world. The following baseball diamond diagram gives a clear visual to this deliberate process.

 

 

Purpose Driven helps our members move deeper in their walk with Christ through:

  1. Fellowship:  Our members will learn to love each other and to love the lost.

  2. Discipleship:  Our members will have a consistent focus on growing deeper in their faith.

  3. Ministry:  Our members will understand their God-given SHAPE and be motivated to serve within our congregation.

  4. Evangelism: Our members will begin fulfilling Christ’s command to go into all the world, telling and teaching about Jesus.