What is vision? Vision is a clear and compelling picture of a preferred future. Every organization, every social movement, starts with a vision. The future is determined by the power of the vision. Vision is the world’s most desperate need. There are no hopeless situations, only people who think hopelessly.
We need to know God’s dream for The Connection Church. Our vision in a nutshell is this:
“The Connection Church exists to connect people with the life-changing power of Jesus.”
A vision from God changes us. It consumes our thoughts. It points you in the right direction. A vision is bigger than just me. If one person can accomplish the vision, it’s too small. You can’t get away from a vision because your vision pursues you. Vision wakes you up in the middle of the night and gets you out of bed in the morning.
Where there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29:18
Vision is more than a wish, a hope, or a daydream. It’s a divine revelation from God. When it comes to the vision of the church, we don’t make it up. Jesus gave us our marching orders.
Jesus said, Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 2and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20
Jesus says it starts by telling people about how they can be saved, then leading them to follow Him through baptism, which is going public with your faith in Jesus, and helping them grow to be fully devoted followers of Jesus. That same thing could be said for every church. It all starts with reaching people who are far from God.
Before we talk about what’s ahead of us, it’s important to stop and celebrate the victories that we experienced in 2018.
“Remember the wonders He has performed, His miracles, and the rulings He has given, Psalm 105:5
God did so much for us and through us this year at both of our campuses in Buda and San Marcos!
Top 10 List Big Victories of 2018
10) Our Connection Christmas Services
We had 11 services, our best production we’ve ever had, so much so that some people even came back a second time to bring more guests with them. All in all, over 2300 people attended our Christmas services in 2018!
9) Our Community Events
We partnered with the city of Buda for the Community Easter Egg Hunt and provided over 100 volunteers serve to show our community how much we love them and how much God loves them.
8) Our Connection Groups
Connection Groups are small groups of people who meet in homes on a night during the week to pray together, grow together, to get to know each other better, eat together, and serve one another and others. A church is too big when you don’t know anyone. The way to get to know people is to be a part of a Connection Group. Currently, we have 17 groups meeting throughout the week around Hays County.
7) Our Ministries
A Few Ministry Spotlights:
Prayer Team!
If we don’t need prayer to fulfill our vision, our vision is too small.
And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him. Hebrews 11:6
What we pray for shows our priorities. Our Prayer Team prays over every prayer request we receive through our Connection Cards and other requests that are made. They pray before our services on Sunday, and they meet with people to pray with them at First Wednesday. They have a big job because prayer is the
If there’s no prayer, there’s no power. If there’s a little prayer, there’s a little power. If there’s a lot of prayer, there’s a lot of power!
Celebrate Recovery!
Celebrate Recovery uses a Biblical 12 step process to help people overcome addictive and compulsive habits. We have seen dozens of people delivered from addictions through Celebrate Recovery this year and I have seen so many people get their coins and their graduations.
Creative Arts Team!
We started Team Night for all of our creatives including Media, Tech, vocalists and Musicians, prop designers, and really anybody who does something creative. This single step has really helped us grow our team and our creativity. We love creativity at The Connection Church. God is creative so the church should be one of the most creative places on the planet! It’s a sin to bore people with the most exciting message on the planet!
6) Men of Steel and GirlTime
Men of Steel hosted an event called Gridiron Games with Pastor Tyron Cormier from 5:Nineteen Church in Beaumont, Texas. They started a new study called “The Bible Project” through 99 essential doctrines in the Bible.
GirlTime held their 2nd Chosen Women’s Conference Weekend with 250 women in attendance. The annual Red and Green Christmas Gala served 224 ladies!
5) Our Kids and Student Ministries
Konnection Kidz
- KonnectionKidz led over 300 kids each week with nearly 600 kids visiting us for the first time in 2018. Mega Sports Camp was held at both campuses.
- Camp
Chaosome Winter Camp: 146 campers, 90 volunteers - Our First Camp
Chaosome Summer Camp: 62 campers, 50 volunteers
Fuze Youth Movement
- Fuze Student Ministries had our first Elevate summer camp with 60 students and 23 volunteer leaders.
Gen Next Young Adults
- Gen Next College and Young Adult Ministries moved to San Marcos campus to be closer to Texas State where they are now listed as an official campus organization with around 40 young adults attending each week.
4) Our Dream Team
Our volunteers make everything happen each and every week!
We have 320 people serving on our Dream Team giving almost 25,000 volunteer hours in 2018.
3) Our Generosity
We unleash generosity at The Connection Church. I am so glad to be a part of a generous church because God can do so many things through a church with open hands.
2) Our Missions
Local
- We’ve assisted over 60 families financially in 2018 with food, gasoline, rent, utilities, and medical bills.
- On Thursdays, we host the Hays County Food Bank where people come to get food each week.
- We provided complete Thanksgiving meals for about 450 people in Hays County
- Angel Tree — We provided Christmas gifts for 58 kids of incarcerated parents.
- Our San Marcos campus has adopted DeZavala Elementary School to show care and love for the students and teachers there! One example of this was that our Kid Kore Kidz wrote all the grandparents letters for grandparents day.
- We have a team going into Hays CISD Impact School each week to mentor at risk students.
Global
- The Run for the Love of It 5k raises money for missions.
- Our Go Team traveled to Guatemala where we built latrines (sanitary bathrooms) for the people.
- We fed over 40,000 healthy meals to children in the three villages of Agua Zarca, Plan de Avila, and El Raparadero.
1) Changed Lives!
These are all things God has done through the people of The Connection Church!
In 2019, we’re going to keep on doing the things that work and that produce results. But we’re going to stop doing the things that aren’t working. And there are going to be some new ways God is going to open up doors for us to walk through. God has given us a Vision. Our vision doesn’t change, but we may need to change ourselves to fulfill the vision. Vision without execution is a hallucination.
We will reach more people than ever before in 2019!
We have to! This is a non-negotiable! So many people are facing an eternity without Jesus!
Over 100,000 people in Hays County have no connection to a church! That’s over half of the people living here. We live in the fastest growing county in Texas and the 4th fastest growing county in the United States! God has placed us here at this time and at this place to reach people who need Jesus!
God is saying to us, “You are just getting started.” There are thousands of people that God loves who aren’t a part of His forever family. God is counting on us to burn brighter than ever before in 2019 and to be dealers of hope to the people in our community!
In 2019, we are charging the gates of Hell with a squirt gun. The reason we started The Connection Church was to reach as many people as quickly as we can, and it happens one life at a time. It means loving the unlovable, inviting people to church with us, and speaking up every chance we get about Jesus,.
Every weekend, we want to create an environment that gives people the best possible chance to meet Jesus.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.” Romans 1:16
God is still changing hearts and lives!
We can’t coast when it comes to reaching people for Jesus! We have to give it everything we have! We are going to give it everything we’ve got when it comes to our mission on reaching people for Jesus!
Connecting with God and each other.
We were created for connection. Part of connecting spiritually with God is connecting with God’s people.
More than anything else, I want to live out God’s purpose for my life, reaching my full maximum redemptive potential, taking as many people to heaven with me as possible, and I want to do that with other people on this journey with me. If you want this year to be more than last year, you need strong connections with people who are walking with you, loving you, and praying for you. No one needs to walk alone. You have to take the step to move toward connection.
Spiritual maturity.
This is the year for you to grow in your walk with God by committing to discovering your spiritual gifts, to giving generously, serving regularly, and having a meaningful time alone with God.
There’s a lot that you’re going to have to do in 2019. These may feel like you’re just going through the motions. But there are some things that you get to do that matter for eternity! Get off of the sidelines and in the game, because if you are in a group, serving on our dream team, growing in your walk with Jesus, 2019 will be the best year of your life so far!
The Christian life is a participation sport! You either support the vision or you support division. It’s not about attending a church service and sitting, soaking, and souring. It’s about being a part of the mission God has given you along with us.
This is about changing the world. There is a lost and dying world out there. We need to become a mobilized army on mission in Jesus’ name to do whatever it takes to fulfill God’s vision for us!