Vision 2022

Vision 2022 was introduced to the congregation by Dr. Welden in a 3-week sermon series. Listen to those messages here:

Vision 2022: Part One

Vision 2022: Part Two

Vision 2022: Part Three

A Picture of the heart of Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church (SAPC)

We are not all we will be, we are not yet all we desire to be, but by God’s grace and with His
strength this is who we are attempting to become as His church:

MISSION: Our mission at SAPC is to help people joyfully know Jesus Christ, love Him more, and serve Him better. (KNOW, LOVE, AND SERVE)

JOYFULLY: At SAPC we believe that man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Therefore, we believe that joy should characterize everything we do. Joy denotes the deep and abiding joy of which Paul speaks as well as the appropriate and genuine outward joy arising naturally from our relationship with Jesus Christ. It should not merely be an afterthought but should permeate every activity and ministry.

KNOW JESUS CHRIST: This denotes a relationship, both in beginning that relationship by coming to know Christ as Lord and Savior, and in stages of growth throughout ones’ life as a disciple. We see this as the core of our mission, and it touches on every aspect of the church.

LOVE HIM MORE: For our relationship with Christ to be healthy, it is necessary to continue to grow to love Him more. Being a disciple is a continuing process as should be the ever-growing depth of our love for Him.

SERVE HIM BETTER: At SAPC, because we believe that stewardship of self, time, and possessions is vital in every growing disciple’s life, we seek to enfold people and encourage, educate, and challenge every member to be an active part of the church by using their time and talents for the glory of God. We have a vision for “every member ministry” and seek to guide each one into a gift-based, passion-driven role in the church in at least one of our Major Ministry Areas (MMAs): WORSHIP, TEACHING, and OUTREACH. Such a role will be carried out joyfully and with excellence.
TO WHOM DOES OUR MISSION APPLY? Historically, churches have considered an area of ministry as their PARISH. This meant that their desire for ministry and application of their ministries were distributed not only to those who are on the roles of the church as members but also to those who are in the area of influence where God has placed them. While our location is physically in Northwest Columbia/Irmo, our influence and therefore our Parish shall extend to the spheres of influence of our membership. We will always desire to offer and apply our ministries to those areas. Further, we will seek to minister not only to people in our racial and economic demographic but will intentionally seek to reflect more and more every demographic of the community that we have been called to serve. This desire should be reflected in our prayer and planning.
BY WHAT MEANS WILL SAPC MINISTER?
We will be empowered by the Holy Spirit… God alone. We will be motivated by His grace and our obedience. We will be equipped by God’s Holy Word. And we will be empowered by prayer to the One Who alone can enable us to succeed. Prayer cannot merely be an add-on, nor should it be an afterthought. Prayer should be the first step and should permeate every ministry and activity of Saint Andrews. It is our desire to see growth both in our individual and corporate prayer times.

Logistically, ministry is carried out by the members of SAPC. It is ordinarily generated by the Staff, facilitated by Teams, and overseen by Elders.

Each Major Ministry Area (MMA) should reflect aspects of our mission, which is to KNOW, LOVE, and SERVE. The following text is a description of how we see our mission applying to our MMAs.

OUTREACH is how we will help people know Jesus Christ. WE WISH TO TOUCH EVERY FAMILY IN OUR MINISTRY AREA WITH THE GOSPEL so that they might come to KNOW and LOVE Him. This means SAPC is an outward looking church. We will creatively use all kinds of opportunities to introduce people to Christ by building bridges to our community. All bridges should be conscientiously two-way—for our members to go to the community and for our community to come into Saint Andrews; ‘drawbridges’ are not an option! The effectiveness of the bridge cannot be measured merely by how many join Saint Andrews but must be looked at in a broader sense. Our bridges should always be a positive thing for our community. Our desire is to bring SHALOM to our community—to make it better, more beautiful (in multiple ways), more peaceful—and bring joy. When these things are done in the name of Christ and for His glory, there is no sacred and secular divide. We will have an open hand with our facilities and property toward appropriate uses for our community. We will design and be open to niche ministries that are needed in our community whereby we may minister in the name of Christ. We are limited only by the Scripture and our vision. Our desire is for every member of SAPC to be a witness and to share Jesus Christ with those who are without Him or to whom He has become distant. We desire to equip, encourage, and provide opportunities for our people to help others really know Jesus Christ (SERVE).

We will also be involved in ministries of mercy in the name of Christ as deeds ministries to complement our words. Our fellowship with one another, which will be reflected in each MMA, should be a unique witness to our world of our love for one another. When someone from our community looks at SAPC from a distance or attends a ministry event, we desire for them to see a shockingly beautiful love and acceptance for them and for one another—a love that will point them not to us, but to Jesus Christ.

The need to know Christ goes far beyond personal outreach to our local ministry area. SAPC sees involvement in planting churches as a biblical and effective strategy to see conversions and to advance the Kingdom of Christ. Therefore, we will always be involved with one or more church planting efforts through financial support and direct involvement as local opportunities arise.

Further, we see helping people to KNOW Jesus Christ as including global missions. Through our denomination (PCA) and other biblical avenues, we educate about the world, encourage the support of missions and missionaries, and actually participate in missions ACROSS THE STREET, ACROSS THE COUNTRY, AND ACROSS THE WORLD. We desire to be a supporting and sending church in order to work towards our purpose to help people know Jesus Christ (SERVE). While missions are global, we will have focus areas where we will go deeper, more frequently, and support more thoroughly. We will also seek to care for partners we support as a part of our ministry team—this of course includes regular prayer but is not limited to that.

Our TEACHING will provide continuing opportunity for the people of SAPC to grow and mature in their understanding of God’s Word and its application to our lives. Our desire is for every member to be a learner. This will lead into ever deepening discipleship. Zeal without knowledge is useless, but so is knowledge without application. The more we KNOW Him, the more we should LOVE Him—that is our desire and the purpose of educating in the things of God. Because of our commitment to pass the faith on to our children, youth and children’s ministries will remain a high priority at SAPC. (SERVE)

WORSHIP is our opportunity to grow to KNOW Jesus in a deeper way and to grow to LOVE Him more. SAPC considers it to be of highest priority for those who would be disciples of Jesus. It is our desire to see every member be a worshipper both corporately (in our stated worship times) and privately. We desire to do all that is necessary to provide (SERVE) the opportunity of experiencing worship from the Spirit-filled and biblical perspective. We believe that God has gifted His Church in every age throughout history. In order to reflect that view, we will make use of our rich traditions in liturgy, music, and the arts. We will also use biblical and quality contemporary music, writings, and arts and be open to creativity in worship that is in Spirit and according to truth. We will focus upon and make use of the ordinary means of grace—the Word, the Sacraments, and Prayer. Our view of the centrality of the Word of God will include a focus on the systematic Exposition of Scripture. Our worship will also emphasize appropriately the other means of grace, namely Baptism and the Lord’s Supper and prayer.
HOW LARGE WILL SAINT ANDREWS GROW? At SAPC we believe that God desires from His Church both faithfulness and fruitfulness. We will seek to be fruitful by continuing to grow in two ways. Primarily, our desire is for our core of actively growing disciples to grow—that may or may not be reflected in overall numerical growth. Secondly, we believe that a healthy church will grow as large as God sees fit. Since SAPC has been blessed with a large enough building in which to expand, we will seek to continue to grow numerically in a healthy way. The key to SAPC is people, so growth will be monitored and the values of spiritual depth and shepherding care should never be diminished in the pursuit of numerical growth. If any of these values are hurt by numerical growth, all options (daughter church, expansion of staff, etc.) will be considered in order to address that issue.
HOW, SPECIFICALLY, DOES THIS VISION 2022 APPLY? The mission and objectives that are included in this vision statement, we believe, are based squarely on the Scripture. Over the years, therefore, we expect them to stay fairly constant (with minor revisions). The application of VISION 2022 will change as our Ministry Teams evaluate, set, meet, and update goals, and as we adjust to the current needs and demands of the day, in order to be most effective. Therefore, we do not fear, but rather expect and welcome change as God leads us by His Spirit.

Adopted June, 2017