Horizons 2026
Annual Vision & Partnership Meeting:
Meeting Location & Time:
Location: 159 Rochester Hill Rd. Rochester, NH 03867
Dates: March 29, 2026
Time: 5:30-6:30pm
Welcome to the TWELFTH annual “Horizons” Vision & Partnership gathering for The Commons Covenant Church.
“The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples – students, apprentices, practitioners – of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.”
― Dallas Willard, The Great Omission
What is it that we’re all about, anyway? What is it that we, as a church, are after? Why do we do the things that we do, in the manner that we do them? Certainly not because it is easy to do so. Or, even easy to understand most days… (Table Sundays, Gathering Sundays, Fifth Sundays… Who can keep track of it all?!?) Our model for ministry and community life is demanding, challenging to locate, impossible to quickly explain, not widely popular, and not what one would describe as financially “lucrative”.
So… Why do we do this to ourselves? Short answer: Discipleship.
“To make, mature and multiply wholehearted followers of Jesus.” This has been our mission statement since inception, and this remains our reason for being, and for doing. We’re not out to gather and foster a community of spiritual consumers. We’re not aiming at entertainment,“engagement”, or merely offering people a few practical tools for a more fulfilling life. Our aim is transformation; spurring one another into a whole new manner of living, in Christ.
We aim to be a people who are joyfully enlivened by his Grace, unmistakably empowered by his Spirit, and radically wholehearted in our love for both the Lord and for our neighbors.
Why? Because this is what the abundant, eternal life of the Kingdom of the Heavens IS. And, it also happens to be what the world around us, in all it’s overwhelming and heartbreaking need, most NEEDS from us. That those of us who are so bold as to bear the NAME of Jesus would be intentionally, actively, earnestly, wholeheartedly learning together to actually embody the LIFE of Jesus, by his Spirit; this is the great need of our world, and of our hour.
I love the GATHERING. I love to worship through music. I love coming together around the Lord’s Table. I love the preaching of the Word of God. But, AS a preacher, I am also specifically, fully cognizant of the fact that on average, only 5% of content received via monological teaching (i.e. sermon) is actually retained by any given listener. And frankly, for a person to walk away with only 5% of a biblical teaching, a couple of times a month, is simply not a recipe for life transformation. Altogether, GATHERING is an important, but ultimately insufficient vehicle for wholehearted, transformative discipleship.
Comparatively, content/information that is taken in via dialogue, conversationally, across a table rather than across a lecture hall, is retained at a 6x-10x higher rate (30-50%, vs. 5%) on average. Structuring our life together in the manner that we do - engaging the Word of God inductively, dialogically, and relationally first, in our TABLES/Outposts, followed by the corporate teaching and worship of GATHERING - we intentionally aim to give the Word and Spirit of God the most robust opportunity to lead, convict, and transform us in the light of the Truth of Christ.
Furthermore, on mission, our TABLES get us close to the ground as an invitational, “woven, neighboring and hopeful” presence in and for the places where we live and bear embodied witness.
Beyond mere instruction, or information, we also present ourselves to be transformed by Jesus through PRACTICES of discipleship and spiritual formation. Our TRELLIS “common rule” is an invitation into a shared framework for our life in Christ; time-tested pathways for spiritual growth that we can walk in together, and invite others into. And, when we are able to do all of this in the context of intentional, vulnerable, prayerful, mutual relationships of discipleship with 1-3 other brothers or sisters in Christ with whom we can share both the ongoing joys and struggles of the journey (“Discipleship BANDS”, coming soon!)… It is then that we will find that we are, in fact, “steadily learning from (Jesus) how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence”, unto His glory, our unfathomable blessing, and the very hope and salvation of the world.
In the words of the Apostle Paul I invite you now, as ever: “Follow me, as I follow Christ.”
- Pastor Chris
Meeting Materials:
A PDF copy of our Horizons booklet - including membership, leadership, financials and budget information - can be accessed via the link below.