Excerpted from the 2002 Annual Report
Prepared for the Annual Congregational meeting, February 9, 2003

Dear Church Family,

What an amazing God we worship and serve! As I look through scripture I see God time and again helping his people focus on what he is calling them to do next. Having been involved in the Chapel Hill Bible Church for over 25 years, I also stand amazed having seen God continually guide us to fulfill his purposes for us in the Triangle area.

For example, in the mid 90’s the church leaders saw that the church had drifted away from reaching out to the young adults and college students that had been so much a part of the original vision of the church in the 70’s. So we sensed God calling us to recapture part of this church’s original vision to be a light to the college campus and young adults in the community. I think we all can rejoice that God has done a mighty work in this area. In the last five years we have probably doubled the number of young adults and college students in the church.

As we have moved into a new facility with many new people and opportunities, what is God leading us to in the coming few years? To help us answer this question, a year ago the elders asked a small group of elders (Jim Thomas, Mark Acuff, Tim Conder, Randy Russell and I, Jimmy Long) to spend this past year leading us through a new re-visioning process. During these months this group has spent many hours in discussion, reflection, prayer and soliciting others input. We have met with the elders, deacons, and such groups in the church as Thirty-Nine Forever, 30’s and 40’s, young adults, college, and youth groups.

Although we gathered volumes of input, we began to hear from various groups in the church and from our own time of prayer and discussion some general themes being expressed. The themes include needing a smaller place(s) for everyone to belong because the church seems so big. We heard people express a genuine desire to develop in the area of spiritual formation. Others cited the great opportunity we as a church have to reach out to the surrounding communities. These desires from various people within the church resonated with what the vision committee was hearing from each other and from God. We also recognized that to accomplish all that God wants to do in our lives and through our lives in ministry we need to continually be developing the resources and gifts of all us in the church to serve and lead.

I want to thank all of you for the help you have given us in this process. Although it is the role of the leaders of the church under God’s guidance to set the direction for the church, we could not have accomplished this task without your help. God used your input to guide us in the direction we sense God leading us.

We are presenting to the congregation a new Vision Statement that we think God will use to lead us for at least the next 5 years. In addition we are presenting to the congregation four Strategic Initiatives that we sense God will use to guide us in the next 3-5 years in accomplishing part of the vision he has for us. Please recognize that neither a vision statement nor initiatives describes everything about us nor answer all the questions people might have. A Vision Statement describes who we want to be known as. Strategic Initiatives describes what areas that we need to work on.

You might notice that none of these initiatives are targeted to a particular age group. Rather, these are values that we want to infuse all of our ministries. It is our hope that each of our ministries should incorporate these initiatives into their programs.

Vision Statement: To be a community that experiences and expresses the love of God

Strategic Initiatives
Community: providing a place for everyone to belong
Spiritual Formation: enabling people to live like Jesus
Mission: extending the compassion of Jesus to our local communities
Resources: developing leaders, finances and facilities to accomplish the vision

In the weeks ahead, the elders will identify the leaders and the process we will use as a church to accomplish these initiatives over the next few years.

Living out this vision and accomplishing these initiatives will take the gifts of all of us in the Chapel Hill Bible Church. We covet your prayers and active involvement in the coming months and years.Your servant,

Jimmy Long

Chair, Elders Vision Subcommittee

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