Shaping Our Future
Hello, Faith Family!
The fall season is upon us and our building is bustling from week to week. It amazes me how many opportunities we have at our church to gather, grow, and go. One thing which strikes me as a unique grow opportunity we get to experience at Faith is the SHAPE class held on Sundays at 9am. Now that SHAPE is in session, I want to give those of you who would like to learn more about it, a snapshot of how SHAPE came to us, where it is now, and where it is going in the future. Our hope is that everyone in our congregation would take this course someday and tap into the spiritual gifts God blessed them with in order to go and serve with purpose. Please enjoy this interview with Kevin Stirtz, founder of the SHAPE class at Faith:
Question: Who are you and what led you to Faith?
Answer: My name is Kevin Stirtz and I grew up in Burnsville. My formal education began right here at Faith Covenant Church with the Teddy Bears kindergarten class. My wife and I have been members at Faith since 2013. Prior to that we had tried a number of churches in this area. But we kept coming back to Faith because the people were so warm and welcoming. From our first visit, we felt we belonged here. So we stayed!
Question: How did God call you to start SHAPE at Faith?
Answer: In early 2017 Pastor Brad and I began working together to create a strategy and a plan for GO Serve. As we talked, we saw a need for a bridge between Gather and Go. We envisioned a resource that could equip us to make thoughtful and intentional choices about how we each could serve. Brad suggested the SHAPE program created by Erik Rees of Saddleback Church. Next thing I knew…I was teaching a SHAPE class.
Question: How do you see God working in SHAPE during this fall 2019 session?
Answer: Several new and exciting things are happening with SHAPE this fall. One is that Kimberly Harrison is facilitating the class. She has a strong passion and a gift for helping people discover how they’ve been designed to serve. We’re lucky to have her on the SHAPE team!
The second big change with SHAPE this fall is we’ve tailored it to our church family. Taking what we’ve learned from the past two years, we’ve re-designed the format and fine-tuned the content to be more relevant to our members and our community. It’s the same powerful SHAPE model but even better because we’ve made it our own.
Question: What are your hopes for the future of SHAPE & GO Serve?
Answer: We’re all blessed with the ability to help others. No matter where we are in our lives, each of us has everything we need to serve someone, right now (today!) And the great news about serving is that we grow every time we do it. We grow because we connect with others while we serve.
With SHAPE and GO Serve, I hope we’ll be able to help everyone at Faith learn more about how they might use their gifts and abilities to serve others. I envision the language of SHAPE and of service being a part of our everyday conversations here.
Kevin, on behalf of Faith I would like to thank you for your vision and leadership. If anyone is interested in learning more about SHAPE or GO Serve, feel free to email me at twaters@faithcovenant.org. I look forward to seeing you all on Sunday as we dive deeper into our current series entitled, “Let’s Go!”
In Christ,
Tone Waters
Director of GO & Communications