“A New People for a New Building”

Isaiah 43:18-19; Acts 20:28; 2 Corinthians 3:18

1. I want to talk about vision this morning. My New Oxford American Dictionary defines vision as – a mental image of what the future will or could be like. I want to share with you my mental image of what our church future will or could be like.

2. My vision for our church in 2007 is to become a new people for a new building.

3. what I want to do now is unpack for you what I mean by a new people for a new building. I want to begin by talking theology – the theological basis of a new people for a new building.

a theology of newness – Isaiah 43:18-19
1. these words were written to the people of Israel who had been exiled in Babylon for 70 years. They reveal God’s heart & ways.

2. forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. God does not want us to live in the past or be weighted down by the past.

3. see, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. God is a God of new things. Lamentations tells us that his mercies are new every morning. Revelation tells us that we can expect a new heaven & a new earth.

4. our God is a God of newness. God wants us to trust him to do a new thing in our church.

a theology of the Church (people) & Trinity – Acts 20:28
1. as a pastor I return to this verse over & over again. I think this is one of the most important verses in all of the Bible for understanding the church from God’s perspective.

2. ownership – the church of God. The church is God’s church NOT mine or yours.

3. sacrifice – which he (Jesus) bought with his own blood. This is the death, crucifixion of Jesus on the cross. Jesus died and shed his blood for the church.

4. delegation – of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Leadership of God’s church, purchased with the blood of his Son, is delegated to Christ-followers like me by the Holy Spirit.

5. what I want you to hear is that the church is the love of God’s life. Father Son & Holy Spirit are committed to its success & are wrapped up in its identity.

6. if the Triune God is all-out committed to the church, then to be followers of Christ is to be all-out committed to his church. Is the church the love of our lives?

a theology of transformation – 2 Corinthians 3:18
1. this word ‘transformed’ is a key word in the writings of Paul. The Greeks used it to describe the formation & growth of an embryo in a mother’s womb. Paul uses it to describe our inward formation into the likeness of Christ.

2. 2 Corinthians 3:18 – we are being transformed into his likeness.

3. the Holy Spirit is the one who transforms us into the likeness of Christ. Transformation is the finger of God unleashed in our lives via our James 4 life – submission to God, resistance to the devil, drawing near to God, confessing & repenting of our sin, humbling our selves.

4. I have a number of ‘duet’ CDs that I enjoy listening to – Emmylou Harris, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles & Tony Bennett. I’ve noticed a few things on all 4 CDs:

1st Emmylou, Frank, Ray & Tony lead the songs – their duet partners follow them

2nd their duet partners conform their singing style to Emmylou, Frank, Ray & Tony – not the other way around

3rd they accomplish together what they can’t accomplish alone – beautiful harmonies & parts

5. transformation into the likeness of Christ is like singing a duet. Christ leads & we follow him. We conform our lives to Christ’s – he doesn’t conform his life to ours. Christ enables us to do with him what’s impossible to do by ourselves – sing the beautiful harmonies & parts of the gospel story where we live, work, play & worship. This is transformation.

Summary
1. God is a God of newness; the church is the love of God’s life – Father Son Spirit; our goal is inward transformation into the likeness of Christ.

2. these theological truths form the foundation for a new people for a new building. We will become this new people by committing ourselves to 5 pursuits: Scripture, prayer, leadership, mission & a debt-free building.

Scripture: the pursuit of the Scriptures for life transformation & church renewal
1. the Word of God has been God’s primary means for life transformation & church renewal for the past 2000 years. Scripture has turned individual lives, families, churches, communities, and even countries upside down.

2. I have this prayer taped to the inside cover of my Bible – copied it out of the Book of Common Prayer:
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ.

3. hearing, reading, marking, learning & inwardly digesting the Scriptures is how we become a new people. Intentional exposure & humble submission to the Word of God.

4. 3 venues in which we can pursue the Scriptures for life change. Read your Bibles individually. Study them with a group. And hear the Scriptures preached on Sundays as the community of faith.

prayer: the pursuit of prayer for life change & church renewal.
1. prayer, like Scripture, is a non-negotiable. The 2 go hand-in-hand.

2. story 1 – Ray Pritchard, former pastor of Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, IL. Early in his time at Calvary Memorial the church was plunged into crisis over worship issues, theological issues & church direction. In the midst of this Pritchard spent a few days teaching at a mission station in Central America.

There in the jungle, far removed from the controversy at church, Pritchard had a powerful experience of the Holy Spirit. He pictured the church with a large black cloud hanging over it. The Spirit said to him that the cloud could only be lifted by prayer.
He came home & shared that with the church & people started praying. It was the turning point of his 16 years in Oak Park.

3. story 2 – David Graf of ADF, told us this story last fall during his site visit. In 1995 a small Alliance church of 50 in New Jersey received a new pastor. He began praying with his board every day. The only thing they prayed was for God to “do something” in their church.

When David Graf visited them in 1999 he found 15 separate prayer groups. 1 group of men & 1 group of women met every weekday morning at 6am to pray – some people drove 40 miles 1 way! God began to “do something.” People came to Christ. People were healed. Lives were changed. New churches were planted. This all started with prayer & was driven by prayer.

4. what would happen if our church made that kind of commitment to pursuing God in prayer? I’ll come back to prayer in a few minutes.

leadership: the pursuit of strengthening & expanding our leadership team
1. by leadership team I primarily mean the pastoral & ministry staff, elders & Governing Board members. A word about structure & people.

Structure
2. expectations. Our elders have just implemented a new document for the pastoral staff. This document addresses work & performance standards. They have clearly outlined what is expected of us. I believe this is going to make for a stronger & more effective pastoral staff.

3. bylaws. Our current bylaws need to be moth-balled. We are working on a revision that I hope to bring to you for approval this year. The revision will clearly define our leadership structure & free up leaders to be involved in the equipping of others for ministry.

People
4. as our current leadership team grows older we need to make an effort to identify & equip new & younger faces for leadership. New blood, new ideas, new perspectives minced together with wisdom & experience.

5. thinking of the New Testament, I would love to see a leadership team made up of Pauls, Timothys & Barnabas’. Pauls are experienced leaders (often older); Timothys are inexperienced leaders (often younger); and Barnabas’ are a combination of both. Leadership that transpires in a culture of coaching & mentoring.

6. I think we need to do a much better job of affirming & utilizing our women leaders.

7. stronger leadership will help us to become a new people for a new building.

missional: the pursuit of participating in what God is doing in our church, community & world
1. right now I’m in the midst of working my way through a 535 page book by Christopher Wright called The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. Wright’s thesis can be summed up like this – instead of the Bible providing a basis for mission, the entire Bible is generated by & is all about God’s mission.

2. God’s mission is to restore all creation to himself. This means caring for people in their spiritual, physical, social & emotional needs. This means caring for God’s creation itself that according to Romans 8 will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God!

3. to be missional is to participate with God in what he is doing in calling, bringing & wooing people to himself. We participate with both our actions (feeding the hungry) and words (telling others about Christ).

4. God is a missional God. As we get in step with his mission we can be assured of his transforming work in our church.

5. the Spirit of God brings us to Christ for salvation. In doing so we are brought into the church, His Body. As His Body we are called to penetrate our community with his love, compassion, justice & joy. And beyond that, we are called to take his love, compassion, justice & joy to the whole world. That is what it means to be missional.

building: to pursue the construction of our new building without going into more debt
1. youth center. Can you picture the new building & how God wants us to use it? Can you “see” what’s going to happen? Kyle is going to come & help us “see” the youth area!

2. October 22 – the Canby Community Concert series has already reserved our facility for a concert! I see community people flowing into our building, welcomed by CAC people who give directions to the worship center & bathrooms. I see a full house of people, comfortably seated, impressed by the sound & lights system, excellent acoustics. I see musicians equally impressed by the sound & light system. I see people who have a positive experience in our facility who pass the word onto others. I see someone from the concert with a personal need 6 weeks later who stops by the church & asks for help.

3. the great hall. This is what Kim calls the foyer area. 2500 square feet of new space making the new & old buildings one. I see a coffee bar, smell the coffee & taste the coffee. I see tables & chairs set up. I see people on a Sunday morning sitting at these tables with a cup of hot coffee talking, sharing, laughing & praying with one another. I see old friends re-connecting & I see new friends being made. I see this area becoming the relational center of our church. I see this area acting like a safe place for new people, a middle ground between their home & the worship area or a classroom. I see this area as the most-used part of our facility. I see God touching people in the great hall.

4. as you will hear tonight at the Annual Vision Night meeting, even with $430,000 cash in hand for Rising from the Ashes, if we are going to reach of goal of building debt-free, we are going to need to raise that amount plus a huge chunk more in the next 8 months.

5. I believe this is possible. I believe we can do it. IF. IF what? If we pray like never before, give generously & give sacrificially.

6. if we pray like never before. I am calling the church – all of us – to come together twice a month to simply get on our knees before God and ask him for his miraculous provision of this money. The 2nd Saturday morning of the month @ 8am & the 4th Wednesday night of the month @ 7pm.

7. the 2nd Saturday has already passed us. The 4th Wednesday is February 28, at our Ash Wednesday service! God wants to make us a new people for a new building by transforming our lives as we come together in prayerful dependence upon him for his financial provision!

8. scripture – prayer – leadership – mission – debt-free building