House of Prayer
Sturbridge Worship Center is committed to being
one of our region’s driving forces in bringing forth a
center for 24 hour a day worship and intercession. We believe
that God is
establishing His international house of prayer all across the
earth. It is our commission from the Lord to provide laborers,
resources
and modeling for the body of Christ in this region for the purpose
of establishing a night and day prayer covering over Central
New England.
Worship
Worship is a vital part of our identity as a local
fellowship of believers. We are actively engaged in offering
to the Lord a sacrifice of passionate worship. Our vision includes
regular
congregational worship as well as becoming a resource to the
larger body of Christ through the writing of anointed worship music
as well
as the production of music CD’s to bless the body at large.
We are also actively engaged in developing traveling worship
teams to serve in conference environments and to assist other
local congregations
in raising up worship teams of their own.
Leadership Development
We are committed as a church to investing
in each individual member of the body of Christ to see that each
one of us reaches the full measure of what God the Father has called
us to become. We believe that each one of us is called to be a person
of influence for the kingdom of God in the lives of others and it
is our goal to release each believer through training and character
development. We have a distinct focus on training men and women of
God to rise up as leaders in the kingdom of God, both at a local
level and to the wider body of Christ.
Children
The Lord is calling for the church in America to capture
this next generation of children through creative, passionate,
relevant discipleship. Each child, both old and young, is important
to the
Lord and it is a part of our vision to raise up a children’s
ministry that is unique in both its creativity and its depth
of impartation. God wants to use the children NOW! not some day
down the road, and
it is our desire to play a part in imparting the gift of faith
to the children of New England.
Youth
The youth of today are going farther than ever before.
It is our conviction that God is going to bring revival amidst the
youth culture in the immediate future. Sturbridge Worship Center
is actively seeking means by which we can be catalysts for this coming
revival. We are committed to building a strong, Biblical mentoring
environment that will encourage each young person to stand up against
the pull of the world, not to just resist the tide, but to play a
part in changing the tide of despair in the youth culture.
Multi-media and Learning Resources
Sturbridge Worship Center
seeks to be a contemporary fellowship that is actively making use
of the technology available to our generation for the purpose of
outreach and for providing a variety of learning tools for the wider
body of Christ. We are also convinced that we will be developing
a variety of written, audio and video teaching resources as a gift
to the Church of the 21st century.
Conference Ministry
Sturbridge Worship Center is more than
just a local church! It is a part of our mission to become a center
of refreshing, impartation and equipping for the saints of God throughout
the wider regions of the body of Christ. This will find its expression
through a variety of means but one of those means will be that we
intend to host a progressively increasing number of conference settings
for both youth and adults. It is our goal to offer a diverse schedule
of ministries for the building up of the regional body of Christ,
and to dedicate our facility and resources to building the kingdom
of God throughout the region, not just in our own local church.
Outreach
It is our goal at Sturbridge Worship Center to be
a church that is reaching into our own local community and the nations
of the earth. We believe that our mission is diverse in its expression
but that the underlying purpose behind what we do is making Jesus
famous in the earth, through love, service, and the power of the
Holy Spirit. We intend to accomplish this through music, compassion
ministries, visitation and more in the days that lie ahead.
Missions
Our local fellowship is committed to missions through
two primary means: financial investment and personal participation.
Fifteen percent of all tithes and offerings that come into Sturbridge
Worship Center goes directly into supporting missions abroad and
para-church ministries in the states. We are committed to sowing
good seed into the nations in the form of our first fruits as well
as our lives. Sturbridge Worship Center is currently developing relationships
abroad with the intent of engaging members of the body in both short
and long term missions involvement.
Community Life / Home Fellowships
Community life is a vital
part of the kingdom of God (Acts 2:42-47) and we are committed
to developing a vibrant, healthy, Christian community life. We are
working
towards this through the avenues of home fellowships, times of
corporate recreation and fellowship and our regular times of worship
together.
Through these means as well as the nurturing of each one’s
personal relationships it is our prayer that every member of
the body will be joined to others in strong loving friendships
that will
provide both a source of comfort and opportunities for humble
service.
Networking / Inter Church Partnering
Sturbridge Worship Center’s
identity is rather unique in that we are a regional church with wide
spread influence for a church of our size. The Lord has called us
to be a hub for networking and equipping the larger body of Christ
through hosting various events, relational networking and through
the means of our conference ministry. We devote a significant portion
of our time, prayers and resources into the church of New England
with the utmost conviction that as the “whole” body is
strengthened our own local fellowship will be made strong as well.
It is one of our goals to raise up a servant hearted people who love
the Lord’s bride unselfishly as John the Baptist. (John 3:30)
Lion’s Den Ministries
Lion’s Den Ministries is
the personal ministry of Pastor Dan and Tammy as God uses them in
the wider body of Christ. It is through these means that Pastor Dan’s
writing ministry will go forth as well as different facets of the
networking and event planning that we will be undertaking. Lion’s
Den is a separate nonprofit ministry that will provide a non-threatening
para church organization that will enable local churches to co-labor
without the obstacle of church to church competition and many of
the other awkward issues that can sometimes arise between churches.
Compassion Ministries
It is our goal to engage in regional
compassion ministries in the days that lie ahead. We believe that
it is essential to a healthy mindset of humility that we engage in
caring for those in various forms of need. It is our conviction that
one of the greatest personal revelations of Christ that a believer
can encounter is when they encounter the Lord through caring for
the poor in spirit. We are currently in a season of waiting on the
Lord for specific direction and workers to know the various avenues
through which we will fulfill this part of our calling in an ongoing
way.
Biblical / Ministerial Training
Sturbridge Worship Center
is called to be a training environment to equip men and women of
God for a life of abandonment and service unto Christ. It is our
intent to create an atmosphere that promotes both the practical
development of a healthy, mature Christian lifestyle and a well thought
out,
accurate Biblical scholarship that will honor the Lord. We desire
to raise up men and women of the Word who are not hearers only,
but doers of the “whole” word of God.
Internship
Developing the potential of young people is a significant
part of our sense of mission as a church. Sturbridge Worship
Center and Lion’s Den Ministries are in the process of developing
a unique internship program for young people who would like to
invest a year in being equipped and mentored in their Christian faith
and
in practical Christian service. This program will involve the
young people who participate in a diversity of settings including
classroom
training, service projects, the house of prayer, the practical
administrative life of a number of local and regional ministries
and more.
A Center for Healing
One of our greatest longings and convictions
about the future of Sturbridge Worship Center is that we are called
to be a center for the healing of the spirit, soul and body. We
are committed to standing on God’s promises concerning the work
of Christ in healing that has been provided for through the Cross.
We are standing on God’s promises and have seen the first
fruits of what we believe is a healing revival that is soon to
break forth
across the body of Christ. It is our intention to raise up an environment
conducive to allowing the Lord to bring forth this purpose in our
midst that the captives may be set free.
Family Life
Sturbridge Worship Center cares deeply about the
welfare of the whole family and is committed to pursuing an ever
increasing degree of wisdom for the betterment of every family under
our care, through teaching, counseling, prayer and modeling of solid
Christian examples. We desire to play a part in turning the tide
of broken homes that is sweeping through the church in America while
being a place of refuge and restoration for those who have already
been wounded by the pain of broken family relationships.
We at Sturbridge Worship Center desire to be a church that is aggressively “pressing
for the mark of the high calling of God”, even as we confess
freely and humbly that we have much yet to learn and fulfill. Each
of the above points of vision is a goal that we are reaching for
with a whole heart even as we recognize what a tremendous task lies
ahead of us to become mature in these things. That’s why they’re
called vision! We have seen the mountain top, are pressing hard
and gladly welcome you to consider joining us as we journey towards
a more mature expression of our life together in God. If in any point
you see the great gap between who we are today and what we are reaching
for in our tomorrows, please forgive our lack and pray for us. We
know that it is only by grace that we will reach these goals, yet
we press on with the confidence of the words of Paul, Philippians.
4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!”