Our Vision

We, at Second Presbyterian Church, have a vision to be exemplary in every aspect of our life and mission. In light of this overall vision, the Evangelistic Planning Team (EPT) proposed a ten-year vision for evangelism:

We want to become an exemplary church in leading the lost of all ages to faith in Jesus Christ and to active fellowship in His Church (without diminishing the current strengths of Second Presbyterian Church) so that, in partnership with sister churches, we lead our entire community to greater faith, church participation, and spiritual health.

In January, 2006, at a joint meeting of church officers (elders and deacons) and staff, the Evangelistic Planning Team presented their findings in the form of a 10 Year Master Plan for Evangelism. The plan states:

• By God’s grace, to become a healthy evangelistic church in five years and an exemplary evangelistic church in ten years.
• Research shows that most conversions to Christ occur at young ages (81% under the age of 20: 75% under the age of 15). Therefore, we must give special attention to children, youth, and college students. Studies also show, however, that people of all ages are open to the gospel, especially during times of transition and special need (marriage, first child, divorce, life threatening illness, tragedy, death in the family, new resident, etc.).
• We believe the goal is not more members or greater attendance, but real, sound conversions to faith in Jesus Christ.
• We believe that genuine conversion will inevitably lead to active participation and real accountability in the church of Christ (not just Second Presbyterian, but some evangelical church).
• Research also shows that a conversion followed by intentional discipleship and church participation often leads to additional conversions of family members and friends.
• If we are successful in our efforts to reach the lost, every aspect of life at 2PC should be enhanced, not diminished - our worship, our fellowship, our teaching, our mission, our giving, our discipleship. Whatever we do in evangelism must be carefully contextualized into the life and culture of our people.
• If we are going to be used of God to transform not only one local church, but an entire community, we must partner with our sister evangelical churches in assessing the need, developing our strategies, and reporting our progress.
• We are painfully aware of the statistic that no county in the USA has a higher percentage of Christians today than they did ten years ago - and this is the age of the booming mega churches! Apparently, the evangelical church has largely been “reshuffling the deck,” moving Christians from small churches to large churches. However, we have not been changing the real spiritual lives of our communities. Our vision is not just to change Second Presbyterian Church, but our whole community, so that people in our community are transformed.

2PC has a heart for the lost, and desires to be an agent of change in Memphis.