Mapping the Future - Romans 1:8-15

Introduction

On May 21, 1804, Captain Merriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark set off from St. Charles, MO on an expedition commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the recently acquired land of the Louisiana Purchase. Being adventurous sorts, they were thrilled with the assignment, but it proved far more difficult than they could’ve ever imagined. Perhaps, their greatest difficulty was the lack of an accurate map. On the other side of the Great Plains, the primitive map they had showed a single line, designating a mountain. It appeared to them as though they would go up one side and down the other, having smooth sailing to the Pacific Ocean from there. What they encountered were the Rocky Mountains with peaks over 14,000 feet tall. Even with the help of indigenous peoples, their trek would prove treacherous and take months to complete.

This morning, my hope is to draw for you a primitive map of where we’re going. I don’t have special revelation from God, and I can’t tell you this is exactly what it’s going to look like. On my map, the mountains will seem easy, and the dangers may look tame. But, let us be sure that it will be filled with hardship, difficulty, and peaks. That’s the nature of any expedition into uncharted territory. But, let’s also note that the Lewis and Clark Expedition were the first Americans to cross the Continental Divide, and the first to behold the beauty of Yellowstone. And, along the way, they drew a map to show the following generations where to go, what to avoid, and the beauty that makes the journey worth it.

God’s Word

That’s what I want us to do. I want us to embrace the difficulty of an uncharted expedition into the unknown together. And, I want us to do it, not because we’re adventure seekers or glory seekers, but because the Kingdom is worth it and our community needs it. I want us to do it so we can set an example for our kids as to what it looks like to cash in this life for the eternal Kingdom of Christ. I’ve mentioned to you that I foresee the Second Quarter as being a quarter of expansion. This morning, I want to get into more specifics and look at Three Aspects of Second Quarter Expansion: (Headline)

Kingdom “ambition.”

Romans 1:9-10 “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.”

Ambition in the church can be an ugly thing. It can lead to self-promotion and self-indulgence. Ambition can lead pastors and leaders to treat the church like their own personal kingdoms where they can seek esteem and make a name for themselves. We’ve all seen it, haven’t we? So, there can be — I admit there have been times for me when this is true — an allergy to any type of talk of ambition because we so fear the abuses we’ve seen. However, while we should decry selfish ambition in the church, we should be driven by a beautiful, self-sacrificing ambition for the expansion of God’s Kingdom. We should have an ambition to spread God’s glory not our own. Paul says that he’s praying here that he could “succeed” in finally making it to the Romans. That is, it’s his ambition to make it to Rome.

And if he makes it to Rome, he has specific ways in which he wants his ambition to actualize. I want us to take these as our own. Just as Paul lays them out!

To “edify” the Kingdom.

Romans 1:11-12 “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.”

Paul wants to go to Rome because he wants to make the existing church stronger. He says that it’s his ambition to “strengthen (them).” and to be “mutally encouaged” so that everyone is stronger. Do you hear the self-sacrificing nature of his ambition already? This isn’t about Paul’s platform. This is about the good of the church. Completely different from selfish ambition. I want us to have a similar view of the Kingdom as Paul does. As we talk about “expansion” and church growth, it can be easy to focus just on ourselves and on what God is doing right here. But, our responsibility is broader. Our responsibility isn’t just for a strong church here. It’s for a strong church universal. The stronger the churches, the faster and more effectively the Kingdom will spread.

I want us to be a church that is pulling for all of the other churches. That’s part of what it means to have Kingdom ambition. It means spending yourself not just because it benefits your work, but because it builds up and “strengthens” the greater Kingdom. We need a vision for that. Did you know that about 4000 churches close every year and only 1000 churches are started? That’s a net loss of 3000 churches every year in the US, and our communities don’t need less gospel witness, do they? Did you know that there are more pastors retiring than there are pastors accepting God’s call? What if we can help? (Andrew’s vision) What if God could us to partner with a church like East Tallasee Baptist Church? My friend, Brandon, just accepted the church as a replant where they will seek to build a team and then relaunch as an entirely new congregation. What if we could help churches that are struggling to fill their pulpits in Calhoun and Cleburne County with men who love Christ and his church? What if God raised up some of you as pastors and church strengtheners to revitalize dying churches? What if we could develop an internship that created a pipeline for ministers to learn how to minister effectively in a post-modern world? Y’all, we need to have an ambition like that. We need to be ready to increase the scope of our responsibility to include strengthening God’s Kingdom at large.

To “expand” the Kingdom.

Romans 1:13 “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.”

But, Paul makes no bones about his ultimate intention. He looks forward to spending time with them and strengthening them. He knows they will bring him even greater joy and encouragement. But, he wants them to recognize that he’s coming “in order to…reap some harvest.” That is, he’s coming for the purpose of bringing more people into the Kingdom. He knows there’s a harvest to reap, and it’s his ambition to take part in the reaping. That’s what Kingdom ambition looks like.

(Show ministry footprint map) (John’s vision) I like what John said: “When someone is hurting, when someone is broken, when someone afraid, I want their first thought to be: Iron City will help me.” That’s what Paul meant by “reap some harvest.” And, that’s what we mean by expansion. It’s to meet the world where they are — Rome and JSU and WPES and Honda — with what they need — the gospel. Let’s think of a couple of ways that could look. First of all, many of you know that I’m focusing my masters on Biblical Counseling. But, you may not know exactly why. For one, I was greatly helped by a Biblical Counselor. But further, I believe counseling is an untapped frontier for the gospel in our community. Never has emotional health been more at the forefront of people’s minds. Adolescent and childhood anxiety and depression are through the roof. Many mothers can hardly function b/c of the pervasive anxiety that never leaves them. Men are staying at work later or turning to video games or alcohol and drugs, trying to escape having to look themselves in the mirror. But, where there’s that kind of disorder, there’s an opportunity for the gospel. What if we could provide a service that bridged counseling with the local church? Can you imagine the impact? Can you imagine the in-roads to sharing the Good News?

Or, look back at our map from last week. We have pockets of people all around. What if the geography of all of this is telling us something? I don’t have the specifics or all of the ecclesiology worked out on this. I’m praying through and processing it. But, what if we planted a church in these areas? Or, maybe a campus of Iron City that could eventually become an autonomous church? What if we started groups there or could partner with a dying church in those areas in a way that enable a new work to begin? Do you see the potential for expansion here???

But, with Kingdom ambition must come....

Strategic “preparation.”

Lewis and Clark spent more than a year preparing for their expedition. Explorations on that scale don’t just happen. He gathered food, munitions, and supplies, and he trained his men to make sure they could survive the arduous journey ahead. The task was simply too important to let a lack of preparation and attention to detail to derail it. I believe the task in front of us is even greater. We’re not drawing a map for explorers. We’re drawing a map so people can be saved from their sins. And, we’re accountable to God for it.

Romans 1:13-14 “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

Paul plans to go, and Paul has a plan as to what he intends to accomplish when he goes. He’s “intended” to go for sometime, in fact. Because he sees work to do. That’s important for us to see as we look at the next ten years. Perhaps, you’d wonder, “Why do we have to make a plan? Why shouldn’t we just take it as it comes? Why don’t we just trust God?” Sometimes, we can have an over-realized spirituality that makes plans seem to be the opposite of faith. Preparation isn’t anti-faith. It’s not saying, “God might not; so, I better.” That’s not what Paul is saying with his plans. Preparation expresses faith. It’s saying, “God has given us a command and God will provide for us if we trust Him, and I’m accountable for how I respond.” You simply cannot live in the fear of God and not be drawn to a Spirit of preparation.

Because we’re accountable to God as our Master, I want us to have the best plan possible. There are two specific areas where I believe preparations need to be made if we’re going to maximize this time of expansion. We need...

An expanding “staff” for an expanding “mission.”

(Show projected org chart) The first preparation we need to make is for an increase in staffing. I recognize that working at the church is both difficult to explain and to understand. Let me try a few examples. If you were the administrator for a school that increased from 2a to 4a in enrollment, you’d recognize that it would important to increase your number of teachers so that classroom sizes can remain manageable. This enables teachers to not be overwhelmed and for students to get the personal attention that they need. It prevents chaos and ineffectiveness. Similarly, if you were managing a nursing home and that nursing home expanded to add a new wing of patients, you would likewise need to add nurses and administrative help. It’s not that you couldn’t make it with a barebones staff. It’s that your patients couldn’t get the attention and care that they deserve, and your staff would be pulled so thin they wouldn’t make it long. One more illustration. If you operated a business and you hoped to expand into a new sector, you wouldn’t jump in first and then hire. You’d hire ahead of time for the purpose facilitating your growth. None of these fit just right, but taken together, they help paint the picture of church work. Like a school, we need to staff so that we can keep our minister’s responsibilities at a manageable size so that both they and those they minister to can flourish. Like a nursing home, we need to increase the number proportionately to the people who need care so that we can prevent people from falling through the cracks. Like a business that hopes to expand, we need to hire for who we plan to have, not just who we have.

Vanderbloeman says that a healthy staff to attendance ration is 1:75. 1:90 is considered a very efficient staff. Above that, they say to start looking for stress fractures among your staff. Our ratio over the last year has been somewhere around 1:130. Our staff wants to stay, and we need to make sure they’re cared for as they need. So, here’s what a projected org chart could look like over the next five years, based upon an attendance increase of approximately 10% per year (last year, we grew by 23%). Hiring the green gets us to where we need to be right now. The yellow staffs us for growth. Our ability to properly staff impacts our ability to reach our community and strengthen our church.

An expanded “facility” for a strategic “context.”

(Show campus aerial view) The second preparation that I want to mention is facilities, and I’ll admit this one it tough for me. I’ve never been passionate about facilities. But, I am passionate about our missions, and I believe that our facilities are an obstacle to our mission. I want you to think about our specific context and who we’re trying to reach. Imagine that a single mother arrives with her three kids ages 12, 7, and 3. When she arrives, where’s the front door? Continually, we have people go to the building with the steeple thinking it’s the sanctuary. If she managed to find the visitor parking and the sanctuary without a problem, she has a 17 minute walk to get everyone checked in, if the process goes smoothly and there’s no wait, and she may have to walk through the rain twice on her way. That means that if she works hard to get three kids to church at 10:10, she doesn’t sit down in the sanctuary until 10:27. That’s half-way through the second song. Can’t you imagine her saying, “Why do I even try?” She hasn’t had a good experience, and she’s going to leave defeated, not encouraged. That’s an issue with our mission. Add into that the fact that our kids are suffocating and that our visual from our main thoroughfare doesn’t represent the excellence of our church. There are some people who we will not have an opportunity to minister to simply because our facilities don’t represent us well. So, what I want you to see with both staffing and facilities that this is about our mission, not just hiring people and building buildings.

Radical “submission.”

But, let’s be clear. Though we should make plans, those plans must be continually submitted to God. In fact, both our plans and our own joy are contingent upon our radical submission to God as a congregation.

We must...

Submit as “servants.”

Romans 1:9 “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you”

To be a “servant” is to live your life in such a way that your life is bent toward your Master’s will. So, Paul has plans and ambitions, and those plans and ambition are bent toward the cross. So, his greatest allegiance isn’t to his charts and preparations, but to God. It shouldn’t be lost on us that he’s had plans that failed before and that he won’t make it to Rome until his arrest. He prays with Christ, “Not my will, but your will be done.” I’ll be who you want me to be. I’ll go where you want me to go. I’ll do what you want me to do.” We should have plans and we should have ambitions, but the chief ambition to which all others must be submitted is our ambition to serve God. So, we say: “God change our plans however you see fit!”

Is that your chief ambition? Are your life and plans and ambitions bent toward the cross? That’s what this is going to require. A radical submission to Christ.

But, there’s a second way we must submit. We must...

Submit as “stewards.”

Romans 1:13-14 “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.”

You see, we’re stewards, not owners. That’s an important distinction for us to make. Why is Paul “under obligation?” The NASB translates that phrase as “a debtor.” But, it’s not because he’s taken or borrowed something from the Romans and owes it back to them. It’s because he’s been entrusted with something by God and is responsible to give it to them — the gospel. He’s a steward of God’s resources, and good stewardship requires sound investment.

Our church and our resources and the opportunities that we’ve been presented at this unique time in history are a stewardship from God, and the question remains: What will we do with what God has given us? In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a parable of a Master with three servants. He gives $5M to one, $2M to one, and $1M to the other. The men who received $5M and $2M invested what their master gave them so that his invested doubled! The man who received $1M dug a hole in the ground and buried it because he was afraid he would mess it up. When the master returned from his long journey, he called his servants to give an account for what he had entrusted to them. To the men who invested what He gave them, the Master responded, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” But, to the man that just buried his in the ground for safe-keeping, the master responded, “You wicked, lazy servant!”

Who will we be? We’ve been entrusted with the treasure of the gospel. Will we bury it in the ground of weekly religion for safe-keeping, or will we invest it in our community so that it will multiply? Will we be good and faithful servants or wicked, lazy servants?