9/15/24 Vision Sunday

Introduction

The word vision in corporate America

sets the tone and direction for an organization

The vision statement has become the buzz word in leadership circles

and it is on constant repeat in most businesses

because the saying in leadership goes, “Vision leaks”

In other words for any leader to have success they must constantly be retelling the vision of the company

In church settings though, the word vision can have all sorts of perceptions

and most of them are negative

Questions arise like, “Should a pastor really have the vision for the church?”

Isn’t this the church of God?

Doesn’t the vision come from Him and we just follow that?

To which I would say “amen!”

Honestly the mission and vision of the church hasn’t changed

since Jesus gave the great commission before He ascended into heaven

Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV)

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

I could spend the entire time talking about his one verse

Because in my understanding

This is the mission of the church

It’s labeled the Great CO-mission for a reason

God has invited us to work with each other to accomplish making disciples of all people groups

So let’s just say amen and go home

To help us as a church remember the Co-mission of the church

We created it in simple statements

Introducing people to God

Developing follower of Jesus Christ

Deploying them into the world

So that’s the mission, but what about vision?

let’s take a moment and define what a vision is

so we can all have clarity about this

Definition of Vision

Proverbs 29:18 (ESV)

18 Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint

I’m not a prophet or the son of a prophet

I’m not claiming to be a prophet

A prophetic vision is one that God gives to a specific person or people

for a specific reason

In the Old Testament most of the visions given to the prophets were all about correcting sin

That’s not the vision we are talking about this morning

However, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater

The principle behind this is

if there is not clarity for what the mission looks like

people will do whatever is right in their own eyes to try to accomplish the vision

Example, Jesus said to make disciples, what exactly does that look like in best practices?

Does that mean Bible study?

Does that mean outreach to the community at laundry mats?

Does that mean serving food to the homeless?

Does it mean small group accountability?

Is it reaching children, adults, seniors

maybe all of it?

This is where vision comes in

It helps to focus our efforts to accomplish the commission that Jesus gave to us within our local environment.

Let’s look at another verse

Habakkuk 2:2–3 (ESV)

2 And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.

3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.

Again, this is a prophetic vision

But there is another principle here that I believe we can apply

God may give a people a vision or a mission

and if it doesn’t happen with a generation

God’s mission for those people doesn’t change

He may allow a group of people to die off and start with a whole new group of people

but the mission and vision doesn’t change, just the people.

It all depends on how obedient to the mission that group of people are

There’s a whole church in the end times that Jesus is speaking to

The church at Ephesus has begun to do things

that aren’t wrong, but aren’t the vision and mission of Christ either

So Jesus sends a warning to the church

Revelation 2:5 (ESV)

5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

The vision is the long range plan

It’s the end goal of what the leader of the organization wants to see it become

It’s more than a 5 year goal or even a 10 year goal

it’s the end game

at the end of the game, the end of the road

this is what we should look like

If you want to know God’s vision for His people?

Revelation 7:9–10 (ESV)

9 After this I looked (vision), and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,

10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

It may look like this

Every Nation, Tribe, People, Language

So God’s vision is to have every tongue, tribe, people, and language

all gathered together worshipping God together

The mission, making disciples of all nations, ethne, people groups is how we get there

That’s the vision and mission for all of God’s people

That’s what an organization might call a BHAG

A big hairy audacious goal

It’s so huge that it is impossible to accomplish without Jesus

And it’s impossible to accomplish all by ourselves.

That’s why there are multiple churches and followers of Jesus

because each church and follower has their own part in accomplishing the mission and vision of God

So what is our job to find the vision for this local community of believers

Vance Pittman - A church planter once said it this way

Vision is seeing God’s activity in the world and showing other people how to get in on it. - Vance Pittman

So that’s the job of the church

Where is God at work and how can we be part of it?

Henry Blackaby said it also in his Experiencing God study

Watch to see where God is working and join Him there - Henry Blackaby

Over the past 12 years begin at Riley’s Creek, that’s what I’ve tried to do

Vision and Mission are not about finding something new

It’s connecting with where God is and has been

Where We’ve Been

I’ve said on a recent Sunday evening I am a journaler

I started journaling because

it allowed my to get out my emotions on a piece of paper

without having to go postal on people.

I then began journaling to improve my walk with Jesus

and I spoke about that the other night

so if you want to see how I journal, watch the video

We need to take a brief perspective of where as a church we’ve been

So we know what to correct

to see how God has been able to work through this body

and how to grow in our relationship as a church with Christ

We could just keep maintaining what we have

We could just be the same ole country church we’ve always been

and when we do, we keep the traditions and other things

that were started before we got here

and may never know the reason why they began

I was sharing in our staff meeting last week

about why we have a Thanksgiving service on Tuesday nights

It started because when Pastor Herchenhahn was here

we had the Thanksgiving service on Wednesday nights

at the time we didn’t have Sunday evening services

The office is closed on Wednesday

but we came in just to have the service that evening

Also, there were a lot of people traveling on Wednesday

to get to family for Thanksgiving on Thursday

I made the suggestion we have it on a Tuesday night

rather than Wednesday and he agreed

We no longer have Wednesday nights

and we now have Sunday night services

so the question came up

why can’t we have the Thanksgiving service on Sunday night instead of Tuesday

That sparked the conversation about

why we have had the Thanksgiving service on Tuesdays

after we figured it all out

We decided it would be better to have the Thanksgiving service on Sunday night

These are the things we need to look at as we go back and see the history of the church

History of the Church

The history of Riley’s Creek is simply defined as

Where has God taken this church in the years of it’s existence

and why do we do some of the things we do

and have some of the things we have

are we functioning and operating on traditions?

Or are the things we do primarily scriptural?

Are there things that we do that need to stay in place?

or are there things that need to happen that need to be updated or released

I believe that God plants a church in a community

for specific purposes that may change over time

as the community changes, so does the specific work to accomplish the commission of the church

It wouldn’t do us much good to start an urban ministry here in Rocky Point

unless all of a sudden

high rise buildings began to be built around the church

We have other responsibilities based on our context

I’m not going to give a full history of the Riley’s Creek Baptist

You can read it for yourself

we actually have history books that were printed for the 200th anniversary ten years ago

The bullet point version of Riley’s Creek is

this church was founded in 1814 by a circuit preacher

that was traveling by boat and felt led to start a church in this area

Since that time God has been at work in this area

How can you tell God has been at work here at Riley’s Creek?

Buildings and furnishings have been donated

land was donated

ministries began and spread throughout the community

after 200+ years, the church is still here

and I’m not just talking about the building

The church was able to be involved in many opportunities

We helped to build the Matthew 25 Center in Burgaw

We helped to be part of the missions house in Wilmington

Our church is rich in helping with NC Baptist Disaster relief projects

We are usually the first church to get called when a ramp is needed for someone in the community

The members of this church enjoy a debt free property and building

We even have had people to donate to the church

because they felt we were a missions minded church

we are actually considered a growing church

the average church in the US congregation wise averages at 65 people.

So God is blessing

Now times haven’t always been the best

as with most churches, Riley’s Creek is full of people

and people are naturally sinners

and sinners tend to sin

But what God can do with a group of willing sinners is amazing

even in spite of what we try to dismantle

God continues to build and use the remnant faithful to Him

Where We Are

Technology

This is a much different time than 210 years ago

when the church began in 1814

It wouldn’t be until almost 1925 that electricity was being installed in homes

111 years after the church began

maybe 1950ish before televisions were placed in homes

maybe 1980’s before computers were in homes

The internet wasn’t a thing until around 1993

The phones we have in most of our pockets have more technology in them

than the 210 year history of this church has ever seen

Society

Not just technology but society has changed

Self checkout, drive through windows and fast food

automobiles that drive themselves

You can now order anything from around the world and have it at your doorstep in a matter of days

and have your groceries delivered to your door in a couple of hours right here in Rocky Point.

Houses no longer have telephone connections in them

Now they have cat 6 cables to run internet

fiber optic lines now carry more information faster and more reliably to your homes

A type writer made it’s way to the Smithsonian Institute Museum

and was replaced by a keyboard and a screen

No more white out is needed

I can preach from an iPad and not have to worry about not reading my own notes

Culture

In 200 years where have we come culturally?

We now have legalized gambling, alcohol sales, all kinds of smoking devices

We’ve been fighting about the rights of the unborn since the 70’s

We have legalized marriage between all sorts of people

School shootings, sending rockets into space, electric cars, and AI are all normal events

Politics hasn’t really changed much in 200 years

we’ve just become more sensitive about it since social media and a 24 hour news cycle

The prince of the power of the air is ramping up his efforts to distract Christians from their true command to go make disciples of Jesus

and have instead began making disciples of a political candidate or a news media outlet

We’ll talk more about that next week when we start a series on relationships

Riley’s Creek

What about as a church?

A few years ago I felt we were figuratively standing on the border of the promised land

and arguing over a “vision”

Somebody’s personal vision rather than seeking what God wanted for His church and His vision

deciding if we were going to take a 40 year trip around the wilderness

and in essence maintain what we had always done in the past

or if we were going to trust God and walk across the river

I’m happy to say that the church decided to trust God

and decided to trust God by taking on a Yankee pastor that was totally unprepared

and completely green when it came to being the senior pastor

and we together are still trusting God two years later

However, remember what happened to those people on the other side of the Jordan River

They had to fight for their land

they had to trust God when he said

Joshua 1:3 (ESV)

3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses.

Even when it didn’t make sense

or even when the way was tough

God said to have courage

and for the most part they did

They didn’t do everything right

but they were able to acquire most of the land that God had promised to them

and then they got comfortable and forgot about God

You can read about it in the Bible beginning with Deuteronomy and go to the book of Malachi

So where are we today?

well, we are right where God wants us to be

It’s entirely up to us if we are going to step forward and claim what is already His

or if we are going to retreat and wish we were back in Egypt

I believe we need to move forward and trust God

Where We Are Going

Since God’s vision is to have every people group gathered around the throne in heaven

and His way to get there is to make disciples of Jesus Christ from all people groups

How do we focus all that into where we are?

Well I’ve had the privilege to see where God is working and how we can get there

I believe we have three areas we can focus

Community, Country, and the World

The question we need to ask about each of these is

How can we accomplish God’s commission for these

and what is the best use of our resources to do it?

Much of this is still under the microscope with various teams within the church

but let me give you some snapshots of where we could go

and what it might look like

3 Areas of Focus

World

How can we accomplish God’s commission for the world?

and what is the best use of our resources to do it?

We live in a first world country

with almost 31% of the worlds wealth right here in the US

per adult salary we rank 2nd in the world

Now some may say that’s impossible

have you seen what I make a year?

I would challenge you to go out and visit a third world country and see just how wealthy you really are

Because we are among the wealthiest countries in the world

we have a responsibility to use our resources to help the world to find the gospel of Jesus

there are over 3000 Unreached People Groups

A people group is anywhere from 38,000 to 1.8 million people

just averaging those numbers together comes to about 1 million people

times 3,000 equals the number of people that do not have a Christian within their people group

By the way the number is about 3 billion people without the gospel

How can we accomplish God’s commission for the world?

and what is the best use of our resources to do it?

by multiplying our efforts

We can go to reach one people group

and the church made the decision earlier this year to reach the Jains

This is a people group in South Asia that have about 1.8 million people in it

You can walk down the halls of the church and see all kinds of pictures of South Asian culture

and see a wall with just the Jains on it

At the very least we can pray for them

for the missionaries in the South Asian area

but we can also do more

we’ve set up a discovery trip in February next year

to establish contact with IMB missionaries and cultural leaders

with a goal to go back twice a year to help cultivate the ground in that area

and reach these people until they are reached with the gospel

discipled into Christ

and start indigenous churches on their own

We can’t go everywhere, but we can multiply our efforts

we already do that through missions offerings like the Lottie Moon Offering

and the Annie Armstrong offering

We also have at least a tenth of budget toward supporting missions efforts in

Hungary, Zambia, Mexico, Cuba, Turkey, England, France, Ireland, Coute D Voir

and we partnered with Wrightsville Beach Baptist to start work in Uganda because I saw God at work there

This is another place we can place our efforts to go

and share with a majority Muslim village that we built a well for water

and we’ll get to go next year and have earned their ear to share the gospel

Country

Did you know that 57% of people under the age of 40

were born outside of the United States are now living here?

57%

over half of those living in America are not from here

This is an incredible opportunity

We can go to the world without ever needing a passport

How can we accomplish God’s commission for our country?

and what is the best use of our resources to do it?

We already support the North American Mission Board

to help revitalize plateaued and declining churches within the US

and support church planters also in North America

We support other missions efforts all across the US

through our supported national missionaries like the Smiths and Brian Palumbo and the Rivenbark family

We have our disaster relief teams ready to go

in the event of some catastrophe

there are several people that are trained through NC Baptists

to go be part of a chainsaw crew, cook food, or just pull out flooded structures

all doing this with the opportunity to make disciples of Jesus

We are working on an opportunity to work with a church planter up north in Boston

God is at work in the Boston area through North American Mission Board church planters

This will allow us to not only lend a hand to those that need help

both financially and physically

but will also provide training for us to be able to

possibly learn how to plant churches even within our own community

We have another opportunity to partner with two ministries in the Northeast

The first is a partnership with Coats for the City

God is at work through Kure Beach Baptist doing this project

This is a simple as bringing coats to the church

and a we choose to either hand them over to a sister church to take to New York

Or go and and bring our coats to hand out while we are there sharing the gospel

in predominantly Muslim neighborhoods of refugees from around the world

Even just reaching our own state

We have two unreached people groups per month that appear for prayer

most of these people we don’t associate with North Carolina

people groups like the Persian Farci or the Han Chinese

even the Jains that live in Cary, NC

At the very least we can pray that churches would adopt these people groups

and begin to search out and share with them

We are praying for a church that would search out and find the Jains in Cary

that we can partner with them and begin work to reach them an hour away from our home

Another way to reach our state is to help poorer communities during Christmas time

God is at work with Wrightsboro Baptist Church as a sending church for this project

This year the church will partner with them and other NC Baptists

to do what is called Appalachian Backpack Outreach

Similar and in place of Operation Christmas Child

We get to help kids in our own state in the Appalachian area

by collecting specific items and putting them into backpacks

and then again, either delivering them to a sending church in the area

or take them to the churches in the Appalachian area to deliver to the kids

Community

How can we accomplish God’s commission for community?

and what is the best use of our resources to do it?

It is no secret that I have a heart for missions

But missions is not just defined as going across the world to share the gospel

Missions happens in our own neighborhoods and communities.

And our efforts here have a a multi faceted approach

Reaching the large community

We support local missions agencies like Pender County Christian Services

Matthew 25 house, a place for families to stay while they visit their loved ones in the prison

Safe Haven - a place for women of domestic violence and abuse to stay

FCA - we currently house the regional office in our church

and support the regional director financially

That means we are in the counties of Pender, Columbus, Brunswick, New Hanover, and Onslow

The Tierney family who were just here

are reaching UNCW, Cape Fear Community, have a college study in their home

we are a part of that ministry

Reaching the local community

Our Vacation Bible School was able to touch over 50 kids that don’t belong to a church

and we’ll continue to reach out to those families that came to invite them to be part of other events

God is at work with Burgaw Baptist Church and us through

Pender Sports Ministry feeds close to 19 athletic teams each week

and over 2000 students in middle and high school receive a snack, devotional and prayer

through the efforts of Pender Sports

We’ll also be returning to our Angel Tree programs

We will collect gifts, wrap them up, and give them to deserving families within our own community

This year we’ll add to our schedule a free health screening outreach

On November 2 the NC Mobile Health Unit will come onto our property

We’ll offer blood pressure screening

BMI Screening

Diabetes testing and education

Wellness counseling

Bouncy Houses and an opportunity hear the gospel to all that come

as we try to reach our community by providing the need of health screenings

We are also looking at reaching our Hispanic community specifically

To start we are sending people to get ESL certified to begin classes here on property

with the hopes of reaching the Hispanic community around us

by teaching English as a Second Language using the Bible as a textbook

You can join me in praying for a Hispanic church to partner with to reach our Hispanic community

and a Hispanic church planter to evangelize, disciple, and grow a church here in Rocky Point

Inviting the local community

There are a lot of proposed houses to be built in this area

Things keep popping up about the number

the point is at some point they will be here and how do we bring them in

We’ve already started to make updates to our internet presence

In soon and future days we’ll update our streaming presence online

We’ve discovered that the first touch for a church is the video presence

people will watch and join based on what they can see from their computer before ever entering the door of the church.

We’ll have a new church app and website online

There will be midweek podcasts available

so people can still learn and grow in the middle of the week

without having to make another trip to the church building to do it

this is the first touch for almost everyone that comes to the church

Tonight we’ll vote on taking the next step

when they drive up on campus and see a new digital sign

It reaches a new generation of people in our community

and shows we are trying to stay up to date even before people enter the building

It will be able to communicate all the events as people pass by

rather than just one event per month

we can communicate several events each day

bible verses, sayings, correct service times, etc.

We have been working diligently making the campus new guest friendly

without changing who we are

we’ve added some signage on the walls to help people get to places

including bathrooms

There are signs for visitors to park close to the sanctuary doors

there are two big ribbon banners to show people where the doors are

Coming up

We’ll be looking at removing the closet wall in the vestibule to create more room

this will allow missionaries that come to have a place to set up information

it will have a place for us to showcase some of the history of the church

it will also allow a place out of the way of people trying to leave

that pastoral staff can meet and talk with people that have questions they need answered

Way down the road

We’ve been trying to revamp what we have with the resources we have to try to make the campus more inviting

You may be saying, isn’t our campus more inviting already?

What could be more inviting than to have to search for the main entrance to the building

or to have to walk past me every Sunday to use the bathroom

To have to wheel a disabled person around the building to come in the back entrance

to get soaking wet while dropping people off when you arrive.

Here’s an idea for a solution to all those and make it a little more inviting to those that want to come

An idea is to build a building connecting the two existing buildings with a covered driveway

The new structure will be level to the front door to allow for wheelchairs to come through without a special ramp off to the side or having to roll around to the back of the facility

It will connect Clark’s Landing Loop with the parking lot with a covered drop off area to be able to drop people off under cover in inclement weather

The building will allow for a larger vestibule entrance area that can display missions, ministry, and history.

A place for parent with small children to escape out the back if they need to

a place to allow for a secure entrance to the children’s hallway and check in stations

including storage, rooms for security, and bathrooms in the back.

Even farther down the road

An idea to build a building called the Missions Center

a place to house and feed disaster relief teams when hurricanes come to the area

and to house our church disaster relief equipment

a place to hold missions conferences to educate those in the area

To house missionaries that are here on furlough

missions teams that want to serve in this area

a place to have some fellowship and recreation also for those in the area and for our local church

This will be a multi purpose building that will have a large are in the middle

probably for sports, or large conferences

The area will be surrounded by rooms

The rooms will be for groups to stay in during mission trips and events

disaster relief. The Baptist Men will have it’s own garage for storage

A large kitchen for preparing meals for large groups and conferences

a couple of rooms that are similar to a hotel room for missionaries to come and stay during their furlough

All of this is to help invite the community to be part of our fellowship

And to show the community what the vision of God looks like in practical real ways

There are no time lines for this

and these are ideas, not set in stone

but it’s a direction, a focused local vision of God’s greater vision to reach the world

This is so that we can all be headed in the same direction

to accomplish the same Commission

for the same larger God vision

of every nation tribe people and language

worshipping at the feet of Jesus

Let’s take as many as we can to see Jesus with us

If you want to join us in this effort

come find me at the end of the service and I’ll help you discover what your next step is.

It’s going to take more than who is here to do all these things

which is why we God needs us to make disciples of Jesus.

Not to grow this campus

but to grow His Kingdom.