Where do we go from here?

For nearly a decade FOPC has focused significant energy on finding a new denominational home. That journey culminated in our exodus from the Presbyterian Church (USA) into the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Here we can proclaim the Bible as God’s fully inspired and authoritative word and Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God and only Savior of the world.

We know where we have come from. Where is God leading us now? We believe God has an exciting future for us. What does the future look like?

A recent survey of American pastors reports their top need is getting clarity about their church’s vision and mission. As FOPC prepares to launch into God’s future, that’s our challenge too.
Ten years from now…

• What do we want our congregation to look like?
• What will people be saying about our church, our spiritual vitality, our core values, our contribution to the mission of Jesus Christ?

Our session appointed a Vision and Strategy Team to develop a vision statement for our church that captures both who we are now and the church God is calling us to become. It’s a picture of us, present and future.

This is what we came up with.

Fair Oaks Pres  
a joy-filled family of Christ followers:
Christ centered
Spirit empowered
Biblically based
Prayer driven
Putting God’s amazing love into action
Sharing Jesus’ transforming message of Life and Hope!

It’s a “work in progress.” Now we need your help. We want our congregation’s input and feedback so that all of us catch this vision and own it. Grab a pen, mark it up, edit, rewrite, change it around.

If you like something, say so.

If you don’t like something, suggest a better wording.

May is VISION MONTH at FOPC. We want to collect your comments.

• Drop them off in the VISION boxes in the Caffé, Worship Center, and church office.  
• Come to our Sunday brainstorming sessions between services in the Family Life Center. (Facilitated by members of our Vision and Strategy Team.)
• Join the churchwide conversation by posting your rewrites and comments

Why this vision?

We think FAMILY is our central identity as a community of believers.  Faith in Jesus Christ has brought us into God’s family. FOPC is a multi-generational family church—children, parents, grandparents, and singles loving one another, nurturing faith and passing it on, encouraging vital marriages, joined in a common mission, honoring, enjoying, and serving one another. We want to be the premier family church in a ten-mile radius.

We think overflowing and contagious JOY best describes our church family as we gather to celebrate and serve the salvation and mission of Jesus.

We lift up four CORE VALUES:

• Jesus Christ: we experience God’s amazing love and salvation through him; he is the Savior of the world and the Lord of the church; Christians are followers of Christ, radically committed to a lifelong adventure in union with him.
• Holy Spirit: the Christian life is a supernatural life in intimate connection with Christ. The Spirit of God fills us, controls us, and empowers us.  
• The Bible: God’s written word, supernaturally inspired. The infallible rule and guide for our faith and life, the Bible speaks to our culture today with God’s cure and hope for the troubling issues we face.
• Prayer: our vital line of communication with God by which we discern God’s will, center our lives on him, and ask for his grace and help. 

These values are central to our worship and daily life.

We believe love in action—toward one another, toward our community, toward the world “God so loved”—is the best expression of the new life God has blessed us with.

We believe the good news of the gospel supernaturally transforms people—saving, healing, liberating, recreating. Through this message Jesus Christ embraces us with God’s love and hope and sends us out to share it with everyone.