Vision Presentation

Church Planting Presentation

My name is Nathan Law and my team and I are planting Renovtioan City Church.

Growing up in Houston Texas I wanted the American dream. As a young kid, my dad would actually drop us off at a random gym in Houston so that we could play basketball all day. I wanted to be a great basketball player and the fame, money, and beautiful wife that would come along with it.

My senior year I was well on my way to accomplishing this. I was going to one of the biggest schools in Houston and I was averaging 20 ppg, and on top of that, our team was winning.

I was waiting for Duke and NC to call me. But there was a problem. During this time a movie was made about me: It was called white men can’t jump. So in this story, I got one full-ride college scholarship offer to a school I had never heard about called JBU.

It was at JBU that a man asked me a question that changed my life.

Nate (QUestions)

The next week he would share the good news of the gospel with me and I would become a follower of Christ. Now I still did get the beautiful wife of the American dream.

PICTURE OF FAMILY

What is really cool about this story is that at the same time, God was changing the trajectory of my life he was doing the same thing with my wife Heather at Tulsa University. Heather played volleyball at TU and really started growing in her faith in college before we even knew each other.

Before I moved to Houston I was serving at FBC Paris. The Church was doing well, it was comfortable and it was at that moment that God called us to plant a church.

As we were getting ready to plant the church we announced to the church. Coming home Heather was crying. After we had made that announcement at church a lady had come up to her and said that is a stupid idea and how are you going to feed her family.

In that moment just like the disciples who had to leave their nets to follow Jesus, we left our nets and had nothing to go to but God.

Because God called us to plant RCC we were willing to put everything on the table. Not that is crazy for a single person but remember we have a few kids.

This calling to plant RCC came first and foremost as a calling from God.

Renovation CHurch-We are renovating our city with God’s blueprint.

When we say blueprint we are talking about two things:

His Message-The good news of Jesus.

His Method-Disciplemaking.

In America, our church has generally done a pretty good job at the message part but not such a great job of making disciples.

We have three values

We prioritize relationships over religion.

I remember I can think of over 6 people who tried to share the good news with me before I became a believer in Jesus.

Religion is why our young people are leaving the church.

A relationship with God is why people are coming back to God and plugging back into the church.

Since I have been back one of my old friends reached out to me. George-Share his story.

But this is not just me doing this we are equipping our people to do this.

2. We prioritize being a sending church over a seating church.

If we were in a room of pastors, and a pastor met a pastor they would ask how is your church running. What they are really asking is how many people go to your church.

Now there is nothing wrong with big churches. There is nothing wrong with small churches. But we want to be a church that brings people in so that we can send them out to live on a mission with God.

But we want to change the scorecard but we want to send them on mission.

IN the book of acts 39 out of 40 miracles happened outside the church walls.

Two of my favorite memories I have seen since we started related to this principle:

We were passing out door hangers for our Fall Festival and I went to one of our family's houses to do this. We go out praying, passing out flyers, and talking to people we come across. We also had some guys from our men’s Bible study there. When it was beginning to get dark and we were coming back we saw Michal’s wife Danni coming back, but Danni had their three kids with her they were walking and on Bikes passing out their flyers and were just so excited to be reaching out to their neighbors.

The other memory is this. We have amazing families at our church. I 1.5 years there are 3 families I can think of right now who have moved, I mean moved. One all the way to Alaska. When you lose a family when you are a church plant it is really hard. But you know what because we are a sending church each of these families is living on God’s mission because this was taught and shown.

3. We want to restore God's things over good things.

The American church has done a pretty solid job of getting out the message of God. Billy Graham is a great picture of this. We need to keep getting out of this message until glory.

God does not just want us to stop here. If that were the case when Brother Robert Baptizes you, he would hold you under just a little longer and send you straight to glory.

God has a purpose for all of us to be a part of, and it is a great purpose, that is why it is called the great commission. He wants us all to have a lifelong journey of growing as a disciple and making disciples. These are supposed to be interconnected.

Multiplication vision

Our vision is what brought our first couple who came with us to plant RCC.

If you want to recruit someone bring them to Torchy’s Tacos.

SHARE THE VISION

The message has to be spot on but so does the method.

This is what we want to do.

We want to make disciples.

We want to reach people for Jesus.

My neighborhood.

People are broken.

Double murder homicide.

Then we saw.

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”

― Charles Spurgeon

We want to grow as disciples.

We want to make disciples.

We get to be a part of God’s great plan.

When I think about this possibility I think about the Navy Seals.

Navy Seals in one sense can do what nobody else in the world can. Many church planters look at themselves.

But what I had to come to the realization of is that the Navy Seals do not exist without the Navy.

The navy seals need the people to feed them. The people behind the scenes.

Could you picture if the Navy seals finished a mission and there was no one to pick them up?

As Chuck Beam says this makes sense if 1+1 = 5.

This makes sense if God is calling us to it.

This makes sense if we will literally answer the very Jesus prayed-

Matthew 9:37–38 NASB95

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

If these things are in line we need to put our YES on the table.

But if these things are not in

“I despaired at the thought that my life might slip by without seeing God show Himself mightily on our behalf.” -Jim Cymbala

We have the possibility to see God do something mightily on our behalf here.