A Balanced Approach

Growing Stronger in faith requires a balanced approach to church involvement.
We believe that if you will Reach Up, Branch Out, and Grow Deep then you will develop spiritual habits, practices, and relationships that will grow your faith for a lifetime.

Think of a tree in an Orchard. A healthy tree reaches up toward the sky, branches out to produce fruit, and grows deep roots to help it survive through the worst summer drought. As our faith grows we also need to stay balanced. God created us to have life and have it abundantly. Spiritually speaking, we are like a tree in an Orchard.

We Reach Up to Experience God’s Presence.
We Branch Out to Illustrate God’s Love.
We Grow Deep to Understand God’s Character.

These three areas of involvement are the irreducible minimums for Growing Stronger as a follower of Jesus. If you take a step back and think about it you can’t break it down any further.

Reaching Up relates to GOD
Branching Out relates to OTHERS
Growing Deep relates to ME

We want to support you in your journey by providing engaging worship experiences, meaningful ministry opportunities, and life-giving grow group gatherings.

Everyone can come to worship and everyone can get involved with a group. You don’t need to be a member or even a Christian for that matter. We want to help you begin growing wherever you are right now. Our goal is not only to help you find new or renewed belief in Jesus, it’s also to help you grow stronger in faith so that you can honor God with your lifestyle and show those around you what it means to follow Jesus genuinely.

This balanced approach to growing faith is often called “Worship + 2” around The Orchard. The idea is that we grow our faith by being involved with weekly worship plus two groups, one group to help us Branch Out and one group to help us Grow Deep.

Reaching Up means being involved with regular weekly WORSHIP.
Branching Out means serving in a MINISTRY GROUP.
Growing Deep means participating in a GROW GROUP.

Here is our invitation: Get involved by participating with Worship plus two groups and not only will you find new friends at The Orchard, your life will be changed forever.

It All Begins At Worship

Although we can experience God’s presence in many ways, Sunday worship is the foundation for your journey to Grow Stronger in faith and the primary way that The Orchard can help you.

It’s so important to make worship a habit instead of just an occasional spiritual happening. When we make Sunday worship a habit we benefit from continued well-rounded teaching, weekly opportunities to realign our lives with God, and connection with others who are on the journey of faith with us.

A commitment to regular participation in Sunday worship is crucial for tons of reasons, but here are ten really good ones.

1. 1. It’s the one place where everyone regularly experiences a single event together, making us connected as the Body of Christ.
2. It’s often the easiest place to invite a friend who is unchurched, dechurched, or non-believing.
3. It’s the place where we gain weekly exposure to Biblical teaching that we can apply to our lives.
4. It’s the place where we celebrate victories, share stories, handle defeat, and explain the needs of the whole church.
5. It’s the place where we have the opportunity to participate in Communion, cheer at baptisms, celebrate new followers of Jesus, and welcome new members.
6. It’s the place where we find rest for our souls in the midst of the battles, wounds, and struggles of life.
7. It’s the place where we extend our hearts toward God with songs of praise and find that God speaks to us through the singing.
8. It’s the place where we are able to take a step away from the demands of daily life and focus on who we are in God’s sight. We can then repent, celebrate, pray, sing, express thanksgiving.
9. It’s the place that we bring our offerings to so that God’s mission through The Orchard can be fully funded.
10. It’s the place where we see each other, catch up with friends, and feel connected to the larger family at The Orchard.

Of course, Sunday worship is not the only place that we worship God, but it’s the one place that we can worship God regularly with hundreds of other people. As we grow stronger we will also find ways to worship God through personal times of prayer, Bible study, and spiritual disciplines. We will also learn to worship God with our lifestyle as we grow in faith.

Weekly worship is not the goal of faith, it’s just the beginning and the foundation. We can’t stop with just worship.

 We Can’t Stop With Just Worship

One person said, “Going to church will not make you a follower of Jesus any more than going to McDonald’s will make you a hamburger.” Ha! How true. Pews across America are filled with people who are not growing spiritually because they are not doing anything with their faith besides attending church on random Sundays. Sustained spiritual growth comes when we flex our spiritual muscle a little bit. We encourage you to get involved with a Ministry Group or a Grow Group so your faith can grow.