About Us

Jump to: Overview, Mis­sion, Core Val­ues, Goals

Overview

We appre­ci­ate your inter­est in The First Chris­t­ian Church (Dis­ci­ples of Christ) of Sander­sville which has been serv­ing Christ since 1857. While we are proud of our long, rich her­itage, we are focused on our present and future min­istries. We have grown in the past few years, but are poised for even greater growth in the years to come. We are blessed with an absence of con­flict, divi­sion or seri­ous issues, and have con­sen­sus on our mis­sion and goals. We are a very car­ing con­gre­ga­tion that is alert and sen­si­tive to the needs of oth­ers. Indi­vid­u­als are val­ued here, and their opin­ions and input are welcome.

We have over 140 par­tic­i­pat­ing mem­bers with a healthy mix of youth and adults of all ages. Most of our mem­bers live and work in Sander­sville and rep­re­sent a cross sec­tion that con­sists of busi­ness peo­ple, school pro­fes­sion­als, social work­ers, labor­ers, home­mak­ers, retirees and stu­dents. Wor­ship ser­vices aver­age about 80 atten­dees each Sun­day. We have empow­ered the laity of our church to get involved, come up with ideas, and imple­ment pro­grams. Men and women are both wel­comed into the lead­er­ship of our church.

Our great­est strength as a church is our com­mit­ment to out­reach. Our CWF is very active, oper­at­ing the Mis­sion Store where cloth­ing and house­hold items are offered at greatly reduced prices to meet com­mu­nity needs. Pro­ceeds from the store fund mis­sion projects. Two years ago our church started the Bread of Life Min­istry in which we deliver hot meals to over 70 needy peo­ple through­out Wash­ing­ton County once a month. Our church gives gen­er­ously to Week of Com­pas­sion and other spe­cial offerings.

Two youth pro­grams, Wednes­day After­noon Apos­tles and CYF, serve youth ages four through high school. These pro­grams have attracted unchurched youth and have served as an effec­tive evan­ge­lism tool to bring fam­i­lies into our con­gre­ga­tion. We are very proud that we inte­grate youth into the ser­vice each week as acolytes and Junior Dea­cons. High School Youth are an inte­gral part of the adult choir.

Part of our excite­ment for the future is our recog­ni­tion that we have areas in need of con­tin­u­ing improve­ment, includ­ing evan­ge­lism and the edu­ca­tion and spir­i­tual growth of our mem­bers. We have taken steps to spark a revival in our Sun­day School pro­gram, which is a forum to pro­vide Bib­li­cal teach­ing, small group min­istries, fel­low­ship, and increased spir­i­tual and evan­ge­lis­tic growth for our congregation.

Our facil­i­ties are in very good con­di­tion. Our church sanc­tu­ary was built in 1907 and is one of the most beau­ti­ful in Sander­sville. We recently replaced the old roof with an attrac­tive, archi­tec­turally com­pat­i­ble one. A 2,000 square foot annex was com­pleted in 1984. Another 5,000 square foot annex was com­pleted in 2002. These two addi­tions pro­vide com­fort­able and attrac­tive set­tings for Sun­day School, small group meet­ings, youth activ­i­ties, spe­cial pro­grams, wed­dings and other events. Sev­eral groups can be accom­mo­dated at the same time and 100 accom­mo­dated com­fort­ably for a meal in the fel­low­ship hall.

A spa­cious nurs­ery and car­ing providers accom­mo­date the needs of babies and small chil­dren. The first annex was recently ren­o­vated to pro­vide class­rooms, a large choir room, a rob­ing room and a spa­cious office for the min­is­ter. A pleas­ant and large yard allows for cook­outs, fish fries or ice cream socials and recre­ation for youth and adults. Our con­gre­ga­tion has invested in ramps and a wheel chair lift to make our facil­ity more acces­si­ble to all. We love our Lord and want to make his house a home where all feel welcome.

To sum up, we are a fam­ily of believ­ers that wor­ships God and cel­e­brates His pres­ence in our lives, stud­ies the exam­ple given us by our Lord Jesus Christ to learn the pur­pose that God has pro­vided for each of us, min­is­ters to peo­ple in the Com­mu­nity and the World using the gifts and bless­ings pro­vided by God, cares for and com­forts each other using the Spirit of Chris­t­ian Love, and helps oth­ers to know Christ. We wel­come new believ­ers into the fam­ily of God.

Mis­sion

As a fam­ily of believ­ers, we are to glo­rify God through…..

  • wor­ship — by cel­e­brat­ing God’s pres­ence and love in our lives;
  • dis­ci­ple­ship — by nur­tur­ing the spir­i­tual devel­op­ment and growth of all who God brings through our doors;
  • fel­low­ship — by car­ing for and com­fort­ing each other in the spirit of Chris­t­ian love;
  • out­reach — by min­is­ter­ing in the name of Christ to those with needs in our own com­mu­nity and in the world;
  • evan­ge­lism — by shar­ing the Good News with those who do not yet know Jesus Christ.

Core Val­ues

As a con­gre­ga­tion that embraces our Chris­t­ian Church (Dis­ci­ples of Christ) her­itage, we have “No Creed but Christ.” How­ever, we do share some core val­ues that help define us as a Chris­t­ian community…..

  • Those choos­ing to unite with our church fam­ily can do so by mak­ing a con­fes­sion of faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of the liv­ing God and pro­claim­ing him as per­sonal Lord and Savior;
  • We prac­tice the believer’s bap­tism by immer­sion, although we honor other bap­tism traditions;
  • We renew our faith through communion-centered wor­ship, gath­er­ing at the Lord’s Table each week for for­give­ness, restora­tion, and thanksgiving;
  • The Bible is the inspired Word of God, and serves not only as a nar­ra­tive of God’s love for all of human­ity but as a guide for Chris­t­ian living;
  • Jesus Christ desires to have a per­sonal rela­tion­ship with each of us;
  • It is the respon­si­bil­ity of each believer to grow closer to Christ through Bible study, prayer, and action;
  • We are called to reach out and share our faith with oth­ers, invit­ing them to expe­ri­ence a life-changing rela­tion­ship with Jesus Christ;
  • As a Chris­t­ian com­mu­nity, we are to wel­come and love all who enter our doors;
  • We are to call on the Holy Spirit to help us dis­cern and ful­fill God’s pur­pose for our lives, both indi­vid­u­ally and as a com­mu­nity of faith;
  • We are to work coop­er­a­tively with other Chris­tians to seek unity in the body of Christ.

Goals

  • To grow as a church fam­ily by reach­ing out to the unchurched in our com­mu­nity in a spirit of accep­tance, love, and encouragement.
  • To grow as indi­vid­u­als by increas­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ties for bib­li­cal teach­ing and study through renewed empha­sis on Sun­day School and small study groups.
  • To improve our efforts to pro­vide effec­tive sup­port for the needs of our church fam­ily, through pas­toral efforts, our shep­herd­ing pro­gram, and prayer life.
  • To con­tin­u­ously work to increase the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the entire church fam­ily in the mis­sion of the church.
  • To main­tain our his­tor­i­cal place as a lead­ing source of out­reach to those with needs in our community.
  • To con­tinue to empower the laity of our church fam­ily to be “min­is­ters” for Jesus Christ.