2019 has been the ride of a lifetime for Jen and I. My perspective of life has been altered in a way that goes beyond words. I went from being in my mid 20’s surrounded by teenagers…. to all of a sudden being thrust into every stage of life from the miracle of childbirth, to the slow steps at the end of life. In addition to that I have also been thrust into the greater picture of the American church and what is happening within it across our country. That great awakening within myself stirred quite a few inspirations that have led our leadership to our direction for this new decade. It starts with what you can clearly see is a “new look”.
Why does CCLC need a “new look”? Part of the reason is that we were given a new vision for this church in 2017 which is why you see EMBRACE, EMPOWER, and EXTEND on everything our church does. Previously what was found on every piece of our church was “Following the Son” and this phrase had inspired our previous logo and “look”. The world around the church in America has changed and people don’t “know” that they are supposed to give to the kingdom, or find their worth in Christ, or their community in the church, or their life in eternity. For the first time… the Bible belt of America…. Is living on the edge of a post Christian culture. This means that children in this area are raised, and reach adulthood, having never been taught a single thing about Jesus. The majority of people under the age of 40 are struggling with some form of mental sickness whether that be depression, addiction, aggression, or apathy it doesn’t matter. People are putting their hope in what the world has to offer and are finding that they are coming up empty. Their hope should be in Jesus and all he has given us….. so….. if we want to help them we need to point them to those things and not just the fact that “our church follows the Son” because they probably have no idea what that means.
We have been working for quite some time to have this all clearly laid out in a way that points the world around us to the fact that what is done inside of our church is unique to what the world is showing them. What we are doing is nothing “new” by practice and in most ways nothing has “changed” we are simply making it understandable for those who were not raised knowing what we know. It starts with imagery that sparks the interest of a culture whose attention span is only about 5 seconds visually. How do we do that? Take what we are already doing, what we already believe, and make it eye grabbing.
What I will do now is redirect you to the other part of this consolidated effort…. our new website. The new website has the ability to point a person to not just what we believe(7 practices of Jesus)
and where we are, but what we do for others as well. Go check it out! Go to CCLCTN.com and click every button, read every paragraph and see what we believe as a leadership team is where we are being asked to go in 2020. Once again we are taking who we already are, and what we already believe and made it accessible and understandable. Anything “different” can at times rub people the wrong way in the beginning, we understand that, and we want to help if that is you. Any time, any day, any location we can talk. I have been blessed to be “full time” so if the only time you can talk is 1:00am…. My ears will be open at 1:00am. We want to be all we can be for every person in Loudon County, and that includes you. It has been a tremendous year. Thank You!
With Grace and Peace,