We’ll just pretend this is me listening to Rob’s sermon, feverishly emailing Joanne.

So, this one time, I missed a church service – gasp!! – I know, I know. But, if you can give me the benefit of the doubt for just a second, I DID listen to Rob’s sermon online later that week.

I was sitting at my kitchen table, quietly taking notes, listening to Rob drone on and on about sea monkeys, when all of the sudden – BAM! He had my attention. He started talking about the importance of packaging properly representing the product inside. I guess sea monkey marketers didn’t do a very good job at this back in the early ’80s. I wouldn’t know. I wasn’t born yet.

He talked about how, as Christians, the way we act should match what we say. Our messaging should match our life. As a church, our “key messaging” (marketing lingo) should be about who you’ll encounter when you get to church. As a marketer and professional communicator, this was a sermon that resonated with me.

It was at this point that Rob continued speaking and I dropped my pen. “Wait, what? What did he just say? I have to write this down! Rewind!” Unbeknownst to Rob, the next words out of his mouth were so inspired that I feverishly emailed Joanne, our ministry administrator, with the subject line, “Rob said a cool thing!” I’ve since been told this is the only email that has ever contained such a subject line. History in the making, folks.

With our leadership team’s approval, I’d like to present our very first Capstone identity statement, taken word-for-word from Rob’s sermon, book-ended by our mission statement:

We are alive in Christ…

We are a community of broken people, fixed, and being fixed, by grace.
We are imperfect people, following the perfect example of Christ.
We are hurting people, looking to be a part of healing.
We are angry people, softened by the love of Jesus Christ, and the love of our brothers and sisters.
We are humble people, lifted up and called sons and daughters of God.

…We are transformed for mission.

Church is messy. Capstone is messy. We are broken, imperfect, hurting and angry; but, we are alive, and we are being transformed. He’s not done. Praise God for that. We invite you to join us on the journey.