Who We Are...

What makes Lighthouse what it is?  And what is the “something more” that inspires us to keep pressing forward?  Well, as with all things, it involves a story.  And here’s the short version:

We began in 1999 as a group of leaders wanting to start a spiritual community that attracted those who were not connected in relationship to God or to His family.  As with all churches, the mission was some form of what Jesus told us to do in Matthew 28....“Go and make disciples.”  (Our current wording of this is “Creating Communities of Loving, Living, Learning, Lighting Christ-followers.”)  For several years, we did this primarily through seeker driven services, and we saw many engage in a relationship with God and with Lighthouse.  Then, God allowed some things and directly did other things that deepened and adjusted how He wanted us to accomplish our mission.

We were working along with what appeared to be inexplicable limitations, when we started asking some different questions.  Questions like “Why are we staying the same size?” and “Why don’t we have a building yet?” morphed into “What is our unique niche in God’s work here in Williamston?” and “What if we’re already designed to do just that?”  It occurred to us that we wouldn’t be asking the right questions if God had not allowed limitations to make us rethink how we should approach ministry.  We had started to do different things as a result of not having a permanent building....things like meeting out in the downtown park from time to time....and one morning a light bulb went on.

Walls (like those in a church facility) are there to do two things:  keep certain things out and keep certain things in.  What if we had been gathered together and uniquely designed to be a church, not just without physical walls, but without institutional walls, either?  We had begun as a church committed to removing any unnecessary barriers for people to come into a relationship with God and His family, but what about those unnecessary barriers that keep us in the “holy huddle” once we do have that relationship?  We were already set up to become a church without walls not just in a material sense, but in a missional sense.

This led us to adopt these 4 Commitments of a Church Without Walls:

1.  We will be inwardly strong, but outwardly focused.
We’ve become convinced it’s really not “church” if it’s not engaged in the life of the community through ministry and service to others.  In fact, we believe Christ-followers can learn through good instruction, but they can grow only through service and ministry.

2.  We will integrate good deeds (show) and good news (tell) into our lives.
“Showing” to us means identifying the unmet needs in our community and either start ministries to meet those needs, or partner with existing ministries or human-service agencies that are already accomplishing a shared mission and could use our help.  “Telling” to us means doing our part by engaging people in meaningful relationships that lead to sharing our grace stories.  By doing this, we are doing our part to move all people in a positive direction wherever they are on the continuum of being deeply antagonistic about the claims of Christ, all the way to becoming a ministry-minded, reproducing leader.

3.  We will value impact and influence in our community more than attendance.
 We see our effectiveness in our mission measured not by what happens inside the church but rather by the impact the people of the church have on their communities.  And so we’ve begun to imagine helping people see how God can get into the life they already have instead of wasting those relational and ministry opportunities for a life of church programs. 

4.  We will become the “soul” of our community.
This concept comes from the words of a 2nd century Christ-follower who wrote in a letter: “As the soul is to the body, so Christians [are] to the world.”  We want to position ourselves through service so that everyone in our community knows someone who follows Jesus, so that when the storms of life come, we are already there to be the presence of God.  The haunting questions that inspire us in this are “If we picked up and left, how would the city feel?  Would our city weep?  Would anybody even notice?  Would anybody care?” 

We began to see ourselves, not so much as a static Lighthouse that invited all to come into it, but as a Life-Saving Station, that energizes and equips us to go out where the needs are.  In fact, the picture of a Life-Saving Station gave us a template to look at the spiritual journey anyone has with God.  And we see it happening in the following four somewhat distinct stages.

Stages in a Spiritual Journey toward God

Using a Life Saving Station Metaphor 

On the Great Lakes in years past, there used to be heroes stationed to walk the most dangerous coasts during storms to be on watch for ships in distress.  They were called Storm Warriors, and in that age of risky travel, they were revered for their dedication.  Life Saving Stations would house people who were constantly in training to risk high surf for rescues.  Known as Surfmen, the stories of their rescues were legendary.  Seamen, merchants and travelers were assured to know that someone who could help was going to be already watching out for them and ready to launch a rescue during a storm.

We have been inspired to ask the question:  “Wouldn’t it be great if our community had spiritual Storm Warriors on patrol, in position when the  storms of life come over  unsuspecting life travelers?”

We have committed to become those Storm Warriors and Surfmen.