How can we follow Christ and make Him and our Church a higher priority in our lives? Rooted in our own Church’s mission and anchored by Christ’s call for each of us to follow Him ( Peter 2:21) – we will together explore new and exciting ways to commit our prayer, presence, gifts, and service to the exciting work of our Church.

Click to download a Rise 2010 Commitment card!

Prayer
This endeavor, this challenge to rise up begins with and is sustained by prayer. Prayer is how we gain the strength and wisdom to do the Lord’s work in the world. Your prayer life and personal relationship with Christ are a vital compass that directs all aspects of our lives, including of course our commitment to our Church community and its important ministries.

Presence
One of the promises we make to our Church is to be present. Our presence serves a practical purpose, allowing this community to function as it should. It ensures members feel supported by fellow Christians. Our presence, though, also serves a spiritual purpose. We are called to come together by our Lord. We are called to gather, as Paul wrote, as the body of Christ. By doing so, by being present, we stay open to give of ourselves in service to Christ.

Gifts
Christians have long struggled with the most appropriate ways to give of themselves to Christ and their Church. We must open ourselves up to the challenge God puts before us: to bring, as Malachi wrote, our full tithe to the storehouse. The task of making Christ and our Church a higher priority may seem daunting, but the rewards of committing more resources to our Christian community are clear and critical to continuing our mission of service.

Service
As Methodists, we are heirs to a legacy of Christian service. That’s the ideal our community was founded upon, and it’s the mission we uphold to this day. We are now ready to raise Buncombe Street’s commitment to service and ministry to a level never seen at our church, and we are ready to do as the early disciples did: to commit ourselves to the following in Christ’s steps, and to taking on the personal responsibility, and spiritual opportunity, of Christian servanthood.