October: Strategic Planning Month
Theme: “More Than a Destination - Knowing God for Eternity”
Sermon Series: “More Than a Destination - Knowing God for Eternity”
Texts: Matt. 7:21-23, John 17:3, Ps. 1:1-3, Eph. 4:11-16
Sermon #1: An Authentic Relationship
Text: Matthew 7:21-23
SCI: The Lord Desires More Than Sunday Attendance—He Desires an Authentic Relationship
Billboard: Be Sure The Lord Knows You!
Sermon #2: What Is Eternal Life?
Text: John 17:3
SCI: Eternal Life Is More Than a Distant Destination—Eternal Life Is a Perpetual Relationship
Billboard: Be Sure You Know The Lord!
Sermon #3: A Divine Plan for Spiritual Thriving
Text: Psalm 1:1-3
SCI: One Day In The Word Limits Spiritual Thriving—But Seven Days In The Word Promotes Spiritual Thriving
Billboard: Get In The Word Daily!
Church Anniversary (Pastor Terrell Hall) Sermon #4: A Church That’s Focused on Becoming
Text: Ephesians 4:11-16
SCI: Belonging to a Local Church Is The Minimum, And Becoming Through a Local Church Is The Maximum
Billboard: Keep Becoming for Maturity!
Each Sermon Central Idea is developed in the form of an indicative.
Each Billboard is developed in the form of an imperative.
Sermon Series Overview and Outline
Prepared by Pastor Trevor Crenshaw for October 1, 2026 – October 31, 2026
All outlines are subject to divine adjustment.
Helpful Quotes for Strategic Spiritual Formation and Discipleship
Dallas Willard — The Divine Conspiracy (1998) "Consumer Christianity is now normative. The consumer Christian is one who utilizes the grace of God for forgiveness and the services of the church for special occasions, but does not give his or her life and innermost thoughts, feelings, and intentions over to the kingdom of the heavens. Such Christians are not inwardly transformed and not committed to it."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer — The Cost of Discipleship (1937) "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."
C. S. Lewis — The Weight of Glory (1941) "Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
J. I. Packer — Knowing God (1973) "There's a difference between knowing God and knowing about God. When you truly know God, you have energy to serve Him, boldness to share Him, and contentment in Him."
A. W. Tozer — The Pursuit of God (1948) "The sweet language of experience is 'Thou God seest me.' When the eyes of the soul looking out meet the eyes of God looking in, heaven has begun right here on this earth."
Richard J. Foster — Celebration of Discipline (1978) "Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people."
James K. A. Smith — You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit (2016) "If we assume that people are primarily thinking things who are always 'on,' who think through every action and make a conscious decision before ever doing anything, then discipleship will focus on changing how we think... Discipleship under this model becomes a matter of mere information transfer. We want people to know more about Jesus... But the orientation of the heart happens from the bottom up, through the formation of our habits of desire."
Howard Thurman — Disciplines of the Spirit (1963) "There are many adults who for various reasons have escaped this essential discipline of their spirit. True, in terms of physical and intellectual development they have continued to grow. Their bodies and minds have moved through all the intervening stages to maturity, but they have remained essentially babies in what they expect of life... And for the religious man, it is to grow not only in grace but also in the knowledge and experience of God."
James H. Cone — The Spirituals and the Blues (1972) "...black slaves were not passively waiting for the future; they were actively living as if the future were already present in their community. To accept the future of God as disclosed in the present means that we cannot be content with the present political order. God's [future] arouses discontentment and makes the present subject to radical change."