Our Mission
The mission of the Horne Memorial United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
Stated another way, our mission is to turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. To fulfill this mission, Horne Memorial offers opportunities for Spiritual Growth through the caring commitment of each and every member in an atmosphere of love and Christian fellowship.
We understand our mission to spring forth from the Great Commission given us by our Lord Jesus Christ: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).
We seek to reconnect people to God, making them firm believers who live fully devoted lives to Jesus Christ.
Implementing Our Mission through Ministry
We understand our ministry to revolve around the two greatest commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).
Some of our ministries focus on the first commandment, helping us to “love the Lord [our] God.” Some ministries exist to aid us in our love of neighbor. Other ministries overlap.
Being a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ means we strive to evaluate our lives and actions by these two commandments. We worship God to glorify Him. We serve God by loving and serving our neighbor. “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).
A Disciple is a Fully Devoted Follower of Jesus Christ
A disciple is one who moves from being a believer to being a follower of Jesus. We recognize that God freely offers us salvation in Jesus Christ when we accept Him as our Savior. We recognize that this gift of God’s grace (traditionally called justification) is due to no merit on our part. We confess Jesus with our lips and so are saved (Romans 10:9). But, the Holy Spirit moves us beyond this passiveness in our lives. We recognize that we must surrender our wills to Christ and make Him Lord in our lives. This is a lifelong process of trusting fully in the grace of God to lead us in our growth on love and service to both God and our neighbor (traditionally called sanctification).
As Disciples We Love God
The greatest expression of our love of God is to glorify Him and to praise His Name in worship. The Holy Spirit gathers us into a worshiping community. While worship of God can and does take place in personal and family settings, all disciples are called to worship God in the context of Christian community. We offer a variety of opportunities to worship God in the context of community. The style and form of the worship is not as important as the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. “True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him” (John 4:23).
As Disciples We Love Our Neighbor
God has placed us in community. We live in a community of faith, with other brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. Jesus has given us clear direction in our relationship to these brothers and sisters. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34).
9 Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. 10 Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness. (1 John 2:9-11).
God has also placed us in the larger community of believers and unbelievers. He has done this because of His great love for all people: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). God calls us to be a people who live out our faith in action: “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” (James 2:15-16). We act on this call to serve by our involvement in local and foreign missions and in our evangelical outreach to our community.
God calls us to be evangelists – bearers of the Good News of Jesus Christ (see Acts 10:34-43). His message of salvation is offered to all people, just as He loves all people (John 3:16), and we are to witness to this love – this Good News – that others may confess Jesus as Lord and live (Romans 10:9; Ephesian 2:8-10).
Through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we seek to reconnect unbelievers to their Creator and include them into our fellowship of love and service. This completes the ongoing cycle of making disciples, which is the mission of the Church.
Staffing Our Ministry
We believe that all Christians are called to be disciples, and all disciples are called into the ministry of Jesus Christ. While we find is necessary to maintain a paid staff to help provide the framework of our work, we believe that the real work of ministry is undertaken by all who are disciples of Jesus Christ.
All decisions concerning involving staffing (both paid and unpaid staff) and the utilization of resources (staff, finances, facilities) shall be judged by their effectiveness in helping us fulfill the mission we have in Jesus Christ. Our pastoral and teaching staff work to equip us for the work of building God’s kingdom and edifying the Body of Christ (see Ephesians 2:11-12). The Coordinator of Lay Ministries and members of our Committee of Lay Ministries are committed to providing opportunities for learning and enrichment to persons of all ages in this community of faith and to engage them in the mission of the Church.
Training, studying, and preparing for ministry is vital, but can never be a substitute for ministry. As disciples we seek to grow in our knowledge so we might grow in our service.
A Final Word
If we are not reaching out and touching the lives of others we are failing at our mission. If we are not reaching out and drawing others into a relationship with Christ, we are failing at our mission. We we are not enfolding others into the community of faith, we are failing at our mission. We exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ. May that mission guide us in all that we do.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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