This is an important week for our church as we step away from the regular schedule to do something a little different. Basically, this week we are going to daydream! Yes! You remember sitting in school when you were young and looking out the window. Your mind drifts to other places...somewhere exciting.
This Sunday, we are going to do some dreaming about Valley. Before we ever held a worship service, a core group of folks, most of whom are still with us, would get together and dream about a church that would make an impact for God's kingdom. We didn't know how long it would take or even how we would get there, but we put some of these dreams on paper. WE CALLED IT OUR 2o20 VISION. We asked the question: WHAT DOES GOD WANT THIS CHURCH TO LOOK LIKE IN THE YEAR 2020?
You can only imagine some of the ideas and thoughts that floated around. I want to share with you the document produced below, and some of my thoughts behind them. Consider this an opportunity to be reminded of our dreams (or for many of you, be exposed to this for the first time). By sharing this with you now, you will already have a solid context for what we will talk about this Sunday.
So, in WHITE is our document...the RED is my comments!
Our Values & Purpose Statement:
We exist because we have encountered the Gospel and have been exposed to our Savior, who has called us not only into His kingdom but also into His Mission, which is to be taken up only for His glory.
The first question you need to ask is WHY DO WE EXIST? Why start a church? Valley exists because we have all been exposed to the GOSPEL, to Christ. That means we are called into His kingdom, but ALSO to His mission to make disciples. The Bible outlines clearly in the New Testament that the BEST way to share the GOSPEL is through the church, and when a need for a new one arises, then we should plant one.
I would also point out that I am a man enslaved by alliteration...that is why you will see a lot of words that start with E. Sorry! I just took what everyone said and used words that would be easy to remember!
Therefore, the Gospel compels us to express our love for God through worship and following Christ.
This is a simple, but important statement...basically, the Gospel calls us to action in two ways. One way is our regular Sunday worship, but ALSO a daily, personal walk with Christ. The point is that we are a church gathered on Sundays, yes, but ALSO, we are still a church scattered the rest of the week. Both are vital components.
The Gospel also compels us to love one another and others beyond our doors, our community, strategically engaging them with the Gospel through personal relationships, opportunities of mercy, community partnerships, missions, and church planting.
This is the "mission" part. We don't exist just to hide in a holy huddle but to engage the world around us in the hopes to expand Christ's kingdom, both through relationships and strategic engagement. This is giving ourselves away to the community and world.
The Gospel compels us to structure our philosophy around the idea of creating environments in and around our church so that all we encounter are also exposed to Christ.
THIS IS THE "HOW". We do not want to be driven by programs but by relationships. We cannot guarantee that someone we encounter will meet Jesus or even follow Him. Frankly, that is God's business, not ours. But, we can be faithful to the "mission" by creating environments where these things can happen. This can be everything from a welcome feeling to new people at worship to small groups, mercy opportunities...even the Block Parties or just going to dinner or a movie. We want everyone to feel like they have room to spend time with one another and build relationships.
This next section is vision-specific...
2020 Vision
Resource Church
• Not _____ but _______
Not SIZE but IMPACT...we spent a lot of time talking about how BIG we wanted to be. We realized that was the wrong approach. We might be 1,000 people one day and not make as big an impact as we might make as a 300 member church that has planted 2 other churches. We decided to not care about size but care about impact.
Leader-Making Church
• 4x4x2020
– 4 _________ & 4 _____________
• 222 Leader Development
We think a huge way to make an impact is to raise up leaders. We want to send FOUR members into full-time ministry during the next 9 years. We also want to train FOUR new pastors (staff additions) and send them off to lead new or other churches. We have to be willing to send people away. The 222 leader development class will be offered every year to train all our people into being better leaders in their home, church, workplace, and community.
Disciple-Making Church
• ____% are involved in discipleship at some levels
Our goal is that 70-75% of our people are "FOLLOWING CHRIST TOGETHER". You will hear more on this one this Sunday.
Community-Oriented Church
• Everything we do is geared towards engaging and serving the people in and around the community of Madison…the __________ does not exist for ______ but the ______ exists for the ____________.
This is another one we will spend some time on this Sunday. The idea is that the COMMUNITY does not exist for the CHURCH, but our church is here to serve the community. We have something incredible to give them.
Well, I hope this helps the discussion a little for you this Sunday. I encourage you to be a DAYDREAM BELIEVER!
In order to accomplish many things, we must focus on one thing…
FOLLOWING CHRIST TOGETHER
