Devotional Text

Pastor David’s devotional for October 19, 2022

The Desert Spring purpose statement:
We welcome all people to discover and live a life of purpose through Jesus Christ as together we make a meaningful difference in the lives of others.

In the spring of 2008, it had become clear that Desert Spring needed revival. After a season of steady growth, the church had fallen into decline. Over several years, the congregation decreased in size by about 20%. As a result, the culture of the church had become one of despair—something was wrong, but folks didn’t know what needed to be done.

I arrived as Senior Pastor on July 1, 2008, and immediately started the work of revitalization. The work involved embedding 5 principles or values into the culture of the church. I called these values “Principles of Revitalization.” The five principles are: Hope, Trust, Joy, Inclusion, and Outwardly looking. Within months, despair started giving way to hope, and the revitalization had begun. It took several more years to implement all 5 of the values, but now 14 years later these principles are defining marks of the culture of the church. Because they are embedded in the culture, we can see each principle being lived out within the congregation. Of course, our congregation is made up of people—people like you and me, and for the principles to be lived out within the church, they must be lived out by the people who are the church.

Last Sunday, I finished my series of sermons entitled “This is Us.” In the series we talked about all 5 of these principles—2 of them (Inclusion and Outwardly looking) as a part of our purpose statement and the other 3 (Hope, Joy, and Trust) as characteristics of the Christian life. Wrapping up the series, I would like for us to think about the ways we live out these principles individually and as a congregation.

Here is a series of questions to reflect upon:
1. What does living a hopeful life look like for you? How do you see hope lived out in the life of our church?
2. Are you quick or slow to trust people you meet? How do you see trust being lived out in the life of our church?
3. In your personal life, how is joy expressed? How do you see joy being lived out in the life of our church?
4. What does inclusion mean to you? What does it look like in your life? How do you see inclusion being lived out in the life of our church?
5. What does outwardly looking mean to you? How do you see Desert Spring living out the principle of being outwardly looking?

This is us: We welcome all people to discover and live a life of purpose through Jesus Christ as together we make a meaningful difference in the lives of other.

Back to where I began. In 2008 Desert Spring needed revitalization. Much has happened since then, and the church has grown in every way. Today I believe Desert Spring is a vital and exciting church that is faithful to God! If you were asked to describe Desert Spring to someone who does not attend a church, how would you describe the church? What does it mean to say Desert Spring is a vital church, faithful to God?

Just some questions to ponder…
God bless you and I hope to see you soon!
Pastor Dave