It takes each and every one of us doing our part to make God’s work through Image Church possible. We’ve been blessed this year to have new members, like Thomas and Amy Barnette, jump in and get on board with serving. God has given Thomas and Amy hearts for reaching the next generation for the Kingdom and a passion for being in community with other believers. Read more below or watch the video HERE starting at 9:08.
On Reaching the Next Generation
Thomas: Amy and I have always had a special place in our hearts for teenagers in life in general. We always want to be able to give back in Church. When we grew up, she was a Deacon’s daughter and I was a Pastor’s son. We’ve seen the impact of what an adult can do on someone that’s growing up in Church and making sure that they have that path of showing them what it can look like to be a Christian in the real world. And knowing that it’s not always all shiny and a bed of roses but knowing that we can go through life with them and be there for them. And showing them that we do love them, and not just, “I have to give you my advice every 5 seconds that I’m around you.” We just want to show them that there are adults around them that want to be with them and love on them. Our previous experience at Church before we moved to this area is we were given the honor of being what’s called Branch Pastors. We were the volunteer pastors under the Youth Pastor. We were given specific families that we spent extra time with outside of the actual youth services. We went to dinner with these families. We really poured into these families. Not just the parents, but especially the teens and letting them know they had someone to call, text, speak to about anything they were going through in life.
Amy: I would just add to that that I never saw myself working with youth. My youth pastor at the time when I graduated college reached out to me and said we have a need so I just jumped in. It was harder than I expected. I don’t know if you know but teens are hard to work with (I love you guys) but it’s a hard group. And honestly, I just got involved and my heart, God worked in my life more than probably I influenced them. It’s a great blessing to be a part.
On Community
Amy: When we moved here, we were looking for a Church and the number one thing that was really big was community. I would encourage you, if you’re not involved with a group of people that you can do life with, it’s really important. We’re not supposed to be lone ranger Christians so it’s important to get involved with a group of people you can do life with and when things happen, like my Grandfather passed away, the people who contacted me were people from our community group who could love and support us.
Thomas: Growing up in Church, it’s always been engrained in my DNA that you get involved. Like Amy said, one of the biggest things we wanted to find in a Church was to have community, to have life outside of the four walls on Sunday morning. It’s really easy if you don’t get involved outside of Church to get lost in a sea of people that come in and out of the door on Sunday. And all of a sudden, after you’ve missed two weeks, nobody really notices because you didn’t have that chance to connect. That’s the biggest reason we wanted to get connected. So that we could have faces that we could talk to, that we could see. I ran into Imke a couple of weeks ago at PetSmart. I heard her behind me and thought it sounds like Imke and I turned around and it’s Imke. And just having the opportunity to see people out and to be able to know that you have not just friends but your Church family to back you up in your community is also really good.
On Getting on Mission
Thomas: So I think everyone can agree when you’re in a new environment it’s not always easy to be the first one to take the first step of saying, “Hey, I want to get involved” or “Hey, I don’t really know where to start.” And I think the one thing we noticed when we started coming here is that there are so many people here that are so absolutely willing to point you in the right direction. And all it’s going to take is you literally walking up to someone and saying, “I’m interested, I really don’t know where I want to go yet.” It’s ok, you don’t have to know where you want to go. But they can point you in the direction of at least to something you’re interested in. And if you say, “I’m interested in youth,” and if you come check out youth, and you’re like, “No, this isn’t for me,” it’s not like you have to stay. We’d love for you to, but it’s ok if you try something and you feel like it’s not for you, and you move to the next thing and you get to where you feel like God really wants you to be. Don’t be afraid to really take that step of faith and to reach out to someone and say, “Hey, I’m interested.” That’s all it really takes.
Amy: I’d say be open. God might lead you to somewhere different than you might expect. Maybe God’s placed things inside of you that you didn’t know, or a heart for a certain group of people. I would also say that it’s super rewarding to be involved. What you get back - God will use a lot of things you see in your life as pain, he’ll give it purpose, and you’ll get to share it with other people. It’s really satisfying to be able to do that in the body of Christ.
We are grateful for Thomas and Amy being on mission at Image Church and their commitment to helping to build God’s Kingdom in Woodbridge. If you’d like to learn more about plugging in at Image Church, e-mail us at info@imagechurch.com and we’ll get you connected!
Seizing the Opportunity
Shaun and Dawn Newman, who joined Image Church this year, shared about God’s call on their lives to serve, how they foster this calling with their family, and how God is working in their lives through different ministries at Image Church right now - and how He can in your life, too!
Watch the video from our Facebook Live stream HERE, starting at 7:20.
Shaun shared the following on behalf of himself and Dawn:
Servants’ Hearts
“God’s call to our hearts has always been to be servants. Whether we’re involved in a Sunday worship set, whether it’s a Saturday morning men’s workgroup where we come together to beautify the property, whatever the case may be, there’s always an opportunity for us to be involved at the Church. And not only us, but our entire family to be involved. If there’s one message I could give through the process of learning to be involved with a Church, growing with the body of believers, it’s just simply that you have the opportunity to grow together in relationship in what you do. And it’s not just about what happens on Sunday mornings. This is a Church that knows very well that Church happens every single day. We come together and worship on Sunday but there’s always opportunity to be out there involved in the community, reaching out to others and serving our community, because there is plenty of opportunity to get involved in the community. It is an opportunity that we’ve taken on. We’ve learned and shared with our children this idea that each and every day we have the opportunity to be servants of God and bettering his Kingdom on Earth.
On Getting Plugged In With Ministries
It’s been a wonderful opportunity. The first thing we actively got involved in here with was a Saturday morning get together with all of the men. I brought my son over and saw it as an opportunity to build relationship together. We came together and we were beautifying the property. It wasn’t anything special or glamorous. We grabbed a rake and a trash can and picked up leaves. And that seems like it’s simple but it was also an opportunity where I was able to meet some of the wonderful men of the Church and just work together with them, building a rapport, building that relationship with one another. It’s what we’ve embodied and endeavored to do in our entire time in ministry. Always opportunities to grow together as a Church and it’s not just building up a Church in order to raise a number of people. But it’s coming together, it’s unifying a Church, it’s building a Church that’s able to be equipped to do things for God’s Kingdom.
Taking the Next Step
Our family - we weren’t believers in 2012. We weren’t going to Church in 2012. We had a unique opportunity to come together as a family and learn how to be Church as a family, and I think that that’s carried through all these years later. It’s not about necessarily knowing your Bible. It’s wonderful to know your Bible but you don’t have to know your Bible to pick up leaves in the parking lot or to serve on the First Image team and to be a welcoming face to everybody that comes in here. It’s an opportunity that we share. It’s an opportunity that everyone here can be involved in. And if you don’t know of an opportunity that exists at Image Church, I’d tell you to talk to somebody. If you see something that someone else is doing that you’re equipped for, that God has equipped you to do, just talk to that person. I’m sure that they can get you plugged in. If there’s someone here that knows how to play acoustic guitar, by all means, talk to me. Pastor Brian might not mention it every week, but if you can bless us by singing or bless us by playing an instrument, talk to one of us and we can get you plugged in, because there are opportunities all around us to build God’s Kingdom that way.
We are grateful for Shaun and Dawn being on mission at Image Church and their commitment to helping to build God’s Kingdom in Woodbridge. If you’d like to learn more about plugging in at Image Church, e-mail us at info@imagechurch.com and we’ll get you connected!
