VIsion Sunday

Introduction

Newton’s first law of motion / The law of motion:

An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion will stay in motion with the same speed and direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

Why New Years can be a helpful time. An unbalanced or outside force that gets us to move.

New Years Goals:

Not just arbitrary goals - all get me closer to where and who I want to be.

Likewise, as the pastor of this church, I bear a responsibility to guide the vision of this local body.

So we are going to take today to explore our vision statement.

We exist to make disciples growing together in Christlikeness.

Have A Vision!

If…then… Conditional statement.

IF: Vision / Prophetic Vision = A word or instruction from God.

THEN: The people go crazy. Run wild. Water that has no barriers or a tree that is not pruned.

But...

IF: People guard the instruction from God

Guard = to keep in. Torah explanation.

THEN: You experience happiness.

If you want to find blessing, find it in following Scripture.

Find happiness in following Scripture.

Scripture provides the direction or guardrails for the church.

Keeps us on mission and also keeps us from getting involved in things we don’t need to be.

This is where it comes back to our vision statement.

We exist to make disciples growing together in Christlikeness.

Start at the end…Christlikeness. Jesus is our example.

Then the central word: Disciples. Not converts.

And three imperatives:

Disciple = Learner

Make Disciples

Evangelism

Grow Disciples

Discipleship

Together Disciples

Community.

Concentric Circles

I: Worship service; WOW / Youth Wednesday Nights; Fall Festival; VBS

(Sharing the Gospel, Follow-up, More invitations)

II: Small Groups / Sunday School; Bible Studies; Evangelism

(Baptism, Membership, Intentional relationships)

III: Teaching, Committees, Missions, Leadership

(Growing in knowledge, Growing in desire)

IV: Discipleship; Personal Devotional Time