March Update
by Luke Brodeur
As we continue on the journey of discovering how God is calling this church to engage in the Renewed Vision he has led us towards, we want to make sure that you have regular updates on how He is moving and working in our church body.
Key Dates:
March 15 | Staff leaders continue engage in planning for future staffing and strategic partnerships
March 09 | Pastor Kevin shares he’ll step down as Lead Pastor at the end of 2025; succession search process explained
March 04 | Leadership Board meets to pray and discern next steps for vision implementation
March 02 | The congregation shares and responds during the Sunday service (watch here)
February 16 | The congregation shares and responds during the Sunday service (watch here)
February 10 | Staff and volunteer leaders launch their 2025-2026 strategic planning process
February 09 | Renewed Vision 2025 is presented to the congregation (watch here)
The Congregation Shares
On February 16 and March 2 we created space during our Sunday worship service for anyone in attendance to step forward and share ideas or impressions that the Lord had laid on their hearts regarding Vision 2025. Creating “open mic” opportunities has been extremely rare in the history of our church, but we knew the Holy Spirit wanted us to continue engaging the whole church family in this way. It was a risk that paid off!
We encourage you to watch the services to hear all of the amazing things that were shared, but we wanted to highlight a few of our favorites here:
“God has beautiful dreams, plans and visions for this place. The presence of the Lord is so sweet here. And if you just feel like your faith is lifted and your heart is open when you walk in it’s because He is here. He loves this place and there is something very beautiful and very special about the anointing here. And what I felt like He was sharing with me was two things. First of all, I felt like He was saying there are Saints here, and there is this beautiful call. Often, we think of holiness as something we do, but holiness is being set apart for Him and for His purposes and I felt like there was just this beautiful invitation to this congregation to get swept away by Him. To be a people set apart by Him, filled with His love so that you are not determined by the world around you, but that you are determined by Him. And that you take Him; His perspective, His Kingdom into the world around you. And I feel it’s very special here too, that this is not a half measure or just a thought, but rather there is a beautiful, unique call to become a people for Him. And the second thing I felt like He was saying too is to begin to expand your vision, that He’s made you not just to affect a few people, not to just affect your family or your workplaces, He’s made you to affect the world around you. The word that came to me was “World Changers”, that He’s put people to begin to shift the culture, to shift everything. So, if you feel like “I don’t know what the impact is, or maybe I can have an impact on a couple of people”, expand your vision, start to pray, start to ask Him to extend those tent stakes because He has beautiful things coming. And so just begin to open your hands to receive more of His spirit, just to let Him have his way, because you will never be sad. What He is going to do will knock your socks off, it will shatter your wildest dreams in such a good way – like “Wow God, I never knew You had all of that in store.”
-James Shackelford, friend of the church
Song “Our House” | Lyrics given in a dreamOur house, is your house, is God’s house
Chorus
Our house, is your house, is God’s house
Bring your lonely, your broken, your sinners and saints
There’s always a hand to hold
Verse 1
Every story, every scar, come with questions, come with doubt
Every burden, every fear, lay them down, you’re welcome here
From the ashes to the flame, to the One who knows your name
Hope is rising, faith is strong
In this house where all belong
Verse 2
From the silence to the song
From the darkness to the dawn
Every soul has got a place
Here inside this house of grace
Bridge
Everybody’s welcome here
Nobody’s perfect here
Anything is possible right here, right now
Bring your lonely, your broken, your sinners and saints
No one’s left out in the cold
The stories are still being told
There’s always a hand to hold
Cause Our house, is your house, is God’s houseTerry Esau, Westgate member
Scripture Passages Shared:
Psalm 119:105
Matthew 5:14-15
1 Peter 1:3-9
Ephesians 3:16-21
Jeremiah 7:2-3; 17:19-29
Genesis 1:28
Acts 3:1-10
Joshua 1:9
Ephesians 6:6-10, 20
Matthew 10:7-8; 28:19-20
Isaiah 52:7
Romans 10:15
Hebrews 12:14-15
Next Up!
We are committed to continuously creating opportunities for God to speak through each of us in guiding us towards the fulfillment of the Vision He has given us. We know that the work of building and sharing community is just beginning!
We will have more opportunities for the congregation to share during upcoming worship services. We also encourage you to check back here regularly as we build out our understanding of what this Vision truly means for us.
Finally, we want to invite everyone who is invested in the life of our church to join us for our upcoming “Prayer and Brainstorming” sessions where we will work together to continue discerning our next steps:
Monday, May 12, 2025 | 7:00 pm
Monday, June 9, 2025 | 7:00 pm
