Newsletter Article | September 20, 2026

What Will Be at the Center?

As we continue shaping the future of St. Luke-Simpson, we are beginning to move from vision into the framework that will help us live that vision out.

That makes this a good time to ask a very important question:

What will be at the center of everything we do?

This Sunday, we turn to the second commandment: “You shall not make for yourself an idol.” At first, that may sound like a commandment about statues and golden calves, but idolatry is much closer to home than that.

An idol is anything we ask to occupy the place that belongs to God.

Churches can face that temptation too.

A particular program can become too important. A style of worship can become untouchable. A building, tradition, preference, period of the church's history, or even numerical growth can quietly become the thing around which everything else revolves.

Those things may be good. None of them are Jesus.

That matters as we build for the future.

Our goal is not simply to create a busier church, preserve everything we have always done, or chase whatever happens to be working somewhere else. Our goal is to become the church Jesus is calling us to be here, in this community, at this moment.

That is why our vision begins with:

Encounter the Grace of Jesus.

Everything else flows from there.

We encounter Jesus.
We are Being Made Into Disciples.
We Serve Our Neighbors.

Christ remains at the center of all three.

As we make decisions about worship, discipleship, children and youth, missions, hospitality, leadership, outreach, and the ministries we develop in the years ahead, we will need to keep asking:

Does this help us follow Jesus?
Does this help people become disciples?
Does this help us love and serve our neighbors?

Programs will change. Methods will change. Our community will change. Some ministries will begin, and others may eventually end.

Jesus Christ remains the center.

That gives us freedom to dream boldly about the future without being afraid of change, because our hope was never supposed to rest in a program, a building, a strategy, or even our own plans.

Our hope rests in Christ.

So as we continue building the future together, perhaps this is the prayer we need to keep before us:

Jesus, remain at the center of everything we become.

Grace and peace,
Rev. Bradley