Doing Life Together

Doing Life together is more than a new slogan for “EGFirst. It is a Biblical understanding of what it truly means to be a church. The complete vision statement is as follows. 

“EGfirst is a family dedicated to following Christ and Doing Life Together in a way that demonstrates His love for all people.”

Eau Gallie First Baptist has a rich heritage and is the oldest church in Brevard County. Last May we celebrated our 120th year of ministry. We were started by a few Christian settlers who came to the Eau Gallie area in 1889 and have remained steadfast in ministry well over a century. The church is now experiencing some of the greatest years of ministry. Back in 1998 the church approved a long range plan which included purchasing 17 acres of land and relocating our church building from its downtown Eau Gallie location.

At a cost of 4.4 million this was a monumental task. God blessed us, and allowed us to build our current 40,000 sq ft facility. After only a year and a half in our new building we were already feeling some growth pains, and we immediately went back to having 2 Sunday School hours and two morning worship hours. At that time we dropped the Saturday night Alive worship service that had grown to around 200 attendees. Over the past 8 years our church budget has doubled to over 1.1 million dollars and we have been recognized in the state of Florida for ranking in the top 100 churches in mission giving, baptisms, and worship attendance out of 2800 Southern Baptist churches.

We as a church have a long history of stability. I have been your pastor for over 16 years, Our other pastors have been with EGFirst for 14, 8, and 6 years.. The previous pastor was here for 18 years before God called him home to heaven. We have started new churches, and are filled with people who have a heart for loving one another. Most people would describe our church as friendly and inviting. There is a sense of realness among our church body, and most people want to learn more about the Christian life.

Recognizing our need for more space, our staff and leadership team came to the congregation with a proposal to add some modular buildings for future classrooms. In planning for these buildings, it became apparent to me that we were only doing what we thought we could afford, and not seeking what God wanted for his church at EGFirst. We scrapped that plan and hired an architect and designed a 22,500 sq ft 2 story building that would house our growing student ministries and provide space for adult classrooms. After the preliminary plans were finished, the economy was spiraling downward, so I asked the leadership team to meet together to talk about our future.

At a three hour meeting back in May 2008 we agreed to build the building in two stages. The question was asked about how the new building fit within the overall vision of the church. I realized at that moment that our church did not really have an underlying vision that was effectively owned and embraced by our church family.

Yes, we were operating according to the Great Commission and the Great Commandment, but I as Pastor could not clearly articulate a vision. Several of our church leadership team members were commissioned to form a vision team with the sole agenda to pray and seek God’s direction about the overall vision for His church at EGFirst.

As a Christian I have been involved in doing church ministry all of my life. My training in seminary and special conferences was more mechanical and analytical than spiritual when it came to vision casting. In fact, most Church’s operate more from a business perspective than a spiritual relationship. I have been involved in doing Long Range Planning and have worked for the State Convention in helping churches set and reach goals. This type of planning is effective, but it fails to address the heart needs of the church.

Now that you know who we are as a church, and how the vision came about, I would like to explore the direction we are heading as a church.

Where are WE GOING?

Doing Life Together will undergird every ministry and program of our church. Scripture teaches that we are just more than members of an organization, rather, we belong to one another.

Romans 12:3-5  "For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think [of] [himself] more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, [being] many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another."

Eph. 4:25  "Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one [of] [you] speak truth with his neighbor," for we are members of one another."

Doing Life Together translates into becoming more connected with one another than ever before. It is a process where every member begins to understand that church is more than an hour on Sunday. The vision really isn’t a new thing- it seeks to capture the spirit of the early church.

The goals of the church are not separate from the goals of our individual lives. We are connected and interrelated in such a way that we share the same values and celebrate the same victories. At the same time, we share in the same trials and painful events. We learn to make the necessary sacrifices in order to help reach out to a hurting world with the healing balm of the Gospel. Recently, I witnessed several of our members who attend the first service make it a point to attend the first portion of the 2nd service so that they could celebrate the 9 who were being baptized.

I don’t think they knew any of the candidates personally, but because they are part of the body, they wanted to experience the joy of seeing Children, Youth, and Adults profess their faith in Jesus Christ. I personally don’t have any preschoolers in my immediate family, but I couldn’t be more excited about the upgraded playground that was just completed. Everything that happens in the body may not pertain particularly to you, but because you are part of the EGFirst family, it should be an important part of your life.

Doing Life Together means coming alongside of one another during times of trial. Many of our seasoned and mature believers have learned to share in one another’s burdens, Scripture states: Gal. 6:2  Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Our deeper connection with one another comes from spending time with one another and looking for ways to help and encourage those going through times of trial. When we as a church really learn to do life together we will stop being program driven and we will be people driven. Often we go through a program, no matter how intense or exciting, when the program is over, our enthusiasm wanes and we slip back to our old ways. We have done church wide programs such as the 40 days of purpose, and One month to live, and while these have had some positive impact, they do not have the power to keep us focused.

Doing life together is a process by which every member of EGFirst will take ownership in the body and begin to understand that God has brought them to this church so that their unique gifts and abilities could be used to magnify the Lord and advance His kingdom. It will be every member’s heart desire to see our church grow larger in number and deeper in our relationship with God and one another. Evangelism won’t be an event, but rather it will be part of our life story. We will begin to see that we are part of the big picture and that no one is unimportant in the body.

The Bible states 1 Cor. 12, "12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all 1 4Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body."

This is where we are going.. remember it is not a program… rather it is a process. The question we ask next is How are we Going to Get There? We get to the place of Doing Life Together by communicating the Vision in everything we do. I selected a Vision Implementation Team that is made up of our Pastoral Staff and 4 members of our church leadership. Most of you know them. They are Mark Harpold, Tim Harden, Matt Jackson, Mike Franzone, Suzanne Devault, David Harpold, Lynn Phillips, and Duane Morrison along with myself.

At least twice a month for the past year this team has met and prayed for God to touch this church with a powerful vision and purpose that will please the heart of God. We have examined the 5 purposes of the church and have written them out in our own words. We just completed the process of selecting an evaluation team made up of dedicated members of the body who will examine and rate the effectiveness of every leadership position and ministry in our church.

The church body will be asked for input so that we can discover how well we as a church are functioning. While we are taking this journey together, we are already discovering areas that need attention and we can be placing needed changes in action so that we can be become more effective right now. We don’t have to wait to assemble a report in order to know that certain ministry areas can be repaired. Just in the process of asking questions will bring to our minds areas in need of change or adjustment.

It is important to remember that we as a church are not going through this process because we believe we are on our last legs as a church and if we don’t do this we will die. Rather, we are doing this because we are healthy and effective as a church but know that there is always room for improvement and strengthening of existing ministries. We are not satisfied to just get by. Instead we want every member of the EGFirst body to experience the joy of what it means to Do Life Together in such a way that we can experience the life changing power of God.

Some of you may ask, What will it look like when we get there? 

First of all, we will never reach our destination, as the vision will keep driving our church to rely upon God like we never had before. Some of you know that I have been part of the men’s small group experience at EGFirst. In the past several months, my Iron Men’s group has been going through the study, Experiencing God… The one thing that this has taught me is that God is at work around us, and he invites us to join him in what he is doing. All too often, I have made plans and asked God to join and bless me… Let me tell you now, that is not how God works.

You may ask, “Pastor, how does this vision affect whether or not we build a building?” My reply to you is this… You may ask, “Pastor, how does this vision affect whether or not we build a building?” My reply to you is this… As we learn to do life together our joy will be multiplied and our sorrows decreased. I believe that we will not be able to contain the joy in our church family, but that it will spill over into the lives of our unsaved neighbors and co-workers. Personal evangelism will no longer be strained or mechanical; it will flow naturally out of our hearts! We will want others around us to share in the joy that we have. Accomplishing the great commission will be easy, as we simply invite others to come DO LIFE TOGETHER with us at EGFirst!

When we as a church have learned how to DO LIFE TOGETHER like that, there will never be enough space to contain the people that will want to be a part of our church! We will have no choice but to expand. God will make it radically apparent to the whole body our need for additional buildings. As we step out in faith to embrace this vision, God will provide all of the resources needed to accomplish his will.

Doing Life together will not just impact our church body, but it will impact the world around us. We will roll up our sleeves and do everything that we can to permeate the community and world around us. We have reached out in many tangible ways to the community in the past. We have assisted with meals and volunteered at the Space Coast Seafarers Ministry. Our church provided the funding and labor along with other churches in our area to build a home for a grandmother and her grandchildren for Habitat for Humanity. We have helped start other churches. We provide volunteers and funding for Pregnancy Resources. These ministries are only a small taste of what we can do together as God’s people to reach the world and fulfill the Great Commission of Going Into the World. Matt. 28:19-20

As a pastor, at times I have felt that my mark of success has been about growing budgets, larger attendances and numbers of baptisms. While these areas are certainly a partial indicator of spiritual health, it only scratches the surface of what it means to be the church. I no longer am satisfied with being the pastor of an average American Church. I am frustrated in seeing so many people in the body who are stuck in neutral with their spiritual growth. I desire to see people connected to the body… serving out of their giftedness, and giving their lives away through personal ministry and care.

What can I do today to help our church on this great and wonderful Journey?

You can pray… You can begin to live out the vision… You can join the leadership of this church by asking God to do a mighty work in your life today.

There is a song that has served as a foundation for the vision. It was written by Gloria Gaither, and titled “I Then Shall Live” May the words to this song allow you to understand and embrace the Vision of Doing Life Together.

I Then shall Live