A Church With A Simple Identity And A Simple Mission

by: Gary L. Hutchens

   We live in a high-tech culture.  Information, along with the ability to communicate that information instantly, is power.  The internet, email and text messaging are commonplace tools used by young children in grade school.  Cell phones are so multi-dimensional as to be accurately described as also making phone calls.  Our entertainment systems would have seemed like science fiction in the 1950’s or 60’s.  Hundreds of television channels available 24 hours a day via cable and satellite dishes.  Movies on demand, DVR, home theaters, game boxes, virtual reality…

​   So, what is the place of Christianity in such a culture?  Are we too sophisticated to need God, Christ or the church?  Is the ancient Bible relevant in our high-tech age?  Every generation has thought itself more sophisticated than those that preceded it, only to be outpaced by the next generation.  Technology is peripheral.  It is not an entity in itself, it is simply a tool to serve people in their lives, always being refined and then replaced by the next technological development.  The wheel was advanced technology when first invented.
   People need a sense of purpose and direction.  We need to know who we are and why we’re here.  There’s no denying that we’re moral beings, and we need a moral compass.  Technology alone does not fill that need.  When we’ve tried all there is to try, we ultimately find ourselves faced with a basic need for God in our lives.
   The Sunny Slope church of Christ is a church with a simple identity and a simple mission.  Not a mega-church, we’re a church where everybody can get to know everybody else.  Not a denomination, we’re committed to be the church everybody reads about in the Bible, nothing more and nothing less.  Indeed, the Bible is our only creed book.
   The mission of the Sunny Slope church of Christ is to help people learn about God by teaching the Bible thoroughly and accurately.  Many churches, if not most, no longer teach much Bible.  Preachers tell stories, they speak of social issues, but they don’t teach much scripture.  As a result, most people know little about what the Bible really teaches.
   When people visit Sunny Slope, they hear the Bible taught in a straightforward, easy to understand manner that makes sense for their lives.  They learn about the authority of God’s word for them personally.  It’s amazing how excited people get when they realize, maybe for the first time, that they can really understand the Bible and that it makes sense!
   Too many churches have turned worship into “a show” designed to entertain those in attendance.  But worship is supposed to be primarily an expression of our adoration for God.  At Sunny Slope, worship is simple, clear-cut, Biblical, straight from the heart.  Everyone takes part, everyone sings.
   In maintaining our simple identity, and pursuing our simple mission of teaching the Bible, we try to take full advantage of the technological tools available to us.  We sponsor a weekly TV program, In Search Of The Lord’s Way, Sunday mornings at 8 AM on Cox channel 13.  We produce a half hour radio program, Search The Scriptures, on KCRO (AM 660) aired locally four times daily. Through our website, www.churchofchrist.com, we provide a host of free Bible teaching resources.  We send out Bible courses all over the Omaha area, across the country and around the world, all for free.  We have an extensive jail ministry.  Every sermon is recorded and available on CD, and approximately 5000 are distributed every year free of charge.  Our mission is to teach, and we take that mission seriously.
   Everyone is always welcome at the assemblies of the Sunny Slope church of Christ.  If you are visiting with us, be assured that you are welcome, and that you are wanted.  Please speak to us if you would like to study God’s word, or if we can serve you in some other way…