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 About Us  Our Mission Anticipating Jesus’ soon return by:
Discovering hope in Christ,
Experiencing God’s saving grace,
And walking joyfully with the Spirit in Jesus’ steps.
Our Vision of God’s Mission
We envision Kearney, the outlying communities and the world to be different in six years as a result of God’s mission being carried out.
We see ourselves working intentionally for the un-churched, young and searching members of our community. We see this work being carried out with promptness and intentional planning since we are anticipating the soon return of Christ. We also see our work entailing three specific areas:
Discovering Hope in Christ
As a result of our discovery of hope in Christ, we intend to guide & direct un-churched people of all ages into an experience of God’s saving grace. This means that all members will be provided opportunities to cultivate their relationship with God and share their experience with others. Also, entry events such as community service activities, socials and felt needs seminars will be provided to guide those outside of our faith in their discovery of Christ. Though these events will not always be purely “religious” in nature, they will attempt to point the recipients to Christ’s love for them. We see as our part the necessity of being aware of the needs of the community, discerning & planning ways in which we can meet those needs and carrying out these plans with promptness. Ultimately, it is our hope that all interactions with the community will help them transition from mere physical concerns to spiritual fulfillment.
We also see our Church as a means God can use to discover hope in Christ. As we worship together from week to week in an inspiring manner, we hope that visitors will feel welcomed and uplifted along with us. The goal of our worship will be to discover a contagious hope in Christ that we cannot help but share with the world. As a result, we will ever strive to make our Church services, inspiring, inviting & friendly so that those who visit will want to come back.
We see our Church as being friendly to children, youth, collegiates and young families. With this in mind, we envision our Church as providing meaningful social events, small groups and educational programs to meet the needs of our young & thriving community. We will not just expect these individuals to come to us, but we will also go to them through campus ministries, starting small groups in our neighborhoods, radio, internet & T.V. ministries and meeting needs wherever we find them. All this is our attempt to aid our discovery, as well as those in the community, of a Hope that can only be found in Christ.
Experiencing God’s Saving Grace
We see hundreds of people coming into a saving relationship with Christ. This manifests itself in two ways. First, we see every member coming to a personal knowledge of salvation and sharing this knowledge with others. Experiencing God’s saving Grace will take place through such avenues as: small groups, meaningful fellowship and inspiring worship. Sharing may come in the form of giving a testimony at Church, taking someone through Bible Studies, learning how to give a Gospel Presentation, gaining skills to interact with our community or serving God based upon our giftedness. All in all, members need to experience God’s saving grace and forgiveness just as those outside of our faith do. Second, we must also think of intentional ways to reach our un-churched community with the gospel. Specifically, we see ourselves providing teaching in the Basics of Christianity as well as informing them on the truths we have for this time. Though a prolonged evangelistic series is not out of the question, it may be necessary at times for a shorter series to be provided on the weekend so that members can invite those within their sphere of influence. Such meetings would serve as entry events into the life of our Church. We also see small groups being organized in member’s homes as an avenue for those in and outside of our faith to experience God’s saving grace.
We see our Church as a place in which children and young people are welcomed. As a result, our worship service may change from time to time to include them with a youth Sabbath being provided or social activities geared for them. Also, it may come to the point where we need to offer additional opportunities for young people to worship such as on a Sabbath afternoon, Friday night or Wednesday evening. In order to reach our young community we see ourselves as making sacrifices for them while upholding a pure message for this time.
We see our Church as a place where visitors and members are welcomed. Members who miss a Sabbath will be contacted to let them know they were missed. Visitors will be greeted warmly as they enter the Church and be followed-up on promptly so that they will want to return. One way to reach both our members and visitors is to provide Church socials. These serve as tangible ways to express our love to one another and to show the community that we are Christ’s disciples. All social events will be regarded as both nurturing and evangelistic in nature. It is through our actions that all within our reach will get a taste of God’s saving grace.
Walking Joyfully with the Spirit in Jesus’ Steps
We envision our Church as a place where an intentional discipleship program can be implemented to help those who have accepted Christ as their Savior continue to walk joyfully with the Spirit in His steps. Though our goal is to target specifically the new in Christ, we also will remind those "established in the faith" of their need to learn how to grow more and more like Christ. This program begins by introducing both the new Christian, those converting from other denominations, and those established in the faith to our concept of Church – Orientation to the Kearney Seventh-day Adventist Church. After orientation, all those interested in joining, transferring in or established in our Church will be encouraged to go through an intentional discipleship track. In this process we will learn how to be actively engaged in our Church, to experience personal victory over sin and other basics of Christianity 101-403 (see discipleship plan). Mentoring is a strong component of any discipleship plan and will be utilized. Also, all, whether new Christians or those more experienced in the faith, need training and responsibilities of leadership. For those who have completed Christianity 101-403, a specialized track in leadership will be encouraged for those wishing to become a leader in their ministry area (see discipleship plan 501s-803e). This phase of the discipleship plan will give the needed essentials for members to lead God's Church during a time in which professional clergy may be absent due to persecution. Part of this training involves planning a yearly church calendar. In addition to training, we plan to evaluate existing and future ministries by the relevance they have in preparing people to meet Christ when He comes. This means that change is part of our congregation’s culture and always an option!
We envision our Church as a place where individuals can serve according to their giftedness while keeping a corporate mission in mind. This means that we are not afraid of trial and error when discovering our gifts and no one is locked into a ministry position that is not for them. Ultimately, our goal is to be more like our risen Savior Jesus Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We envision this commitment as a process that begins as one accepts Christ as Savior, continues on to the ordinance of baptism and ends when Jesus comes again. By God's grace our Church intends be a place where all can learn to walk joyfully with the Spirit in Jesus’ steps
The Results We envision our Church as apart of God’s means to develop fully-devoted followers of Christ. Though numbers are not our goal, they may come with time and the need to start more churches could result. In such a case, the kind of Church Plant will be carefully considered and guided so that it can reach a segment of the community that we may not be currently impacting. God only knows what the future holds, but it may include more than one church here in Kearney. May God guide, lead and direct us as we attempt to leave footprints in our community. May we be continually anticipating Jesus’ soon return by:
Discovering hope in Christ,
Experiencing God’s saving grace,
And walking joyfully with the Spirit in Jesus’ steps.
Our Slogan: “Leaving God’s Mark in Our Community!”
What Seventh-day Adventists Believe Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
Seventh-day Adventists accept the Bible as their only creed and hold certain fundamental beliefs to be the teaching of the Holy Scriptures. These beliefs, as set forth here, constitute the church's understanding and expression of the teaching of Scripture. More >>
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