Our Vision (2)

Community is aided by a sense of place and a distinct identity; it is built by people in purposeful relationship with one another. 

When I originally wrote those words, I was preparing one of a number of submissions to developers and councils that I have prepared over the years.

Submissions to see if we could put together a deal that would see the church gain a facility and the community a place to belong.

Today I want to share with you a dream that has always been in my heart from very early on.

A dream I have carried since I was a young adult when I first got involved in ministry.

This dream has grown, developed and matured over the years.

I have always seen opportunities, opportunities where others may not have.

I remember as a youth leader at Stafford Heights looking across the road from the church to the shopping center and thinking, why are we here, shouldn’t the church be at the center of the community.

Ever since that day I have had an interest in how the church can become, or better still, regain its place as the center of the community.

Out of that has grown a vision.

Our Vision To become a multi campus church of regional significance with a global impact; known for glorifying God and bringing hope and healing to the community through acts of service, holistic care, education, mission and disciple making

Now for some of us here today, you can picture that in your mind.

For others you have never experienced church on that scale.

And I want to acknowledge that for you, this vision is probably a bit scary and you simply can’t see how we get from where we are to this being reality.

So I want to start by sharing a story, it is the story of our growth through two church building projects and how the Ripley Valley is a natural progression, even though the path is looking a bit longer than we first anticipated.

When Toni and I arrived in Tully in 1999, we arrived at a very nice brick home on a hill overlooking the town of Tully across the valley to another mountain.

It was one of the nicer houses in town, well kept and only a few years old.

The church had just purchased it, literally making an offer when we had visited as part of the call process a few months before.

Toni liked that house.

Within three months I swapped it for the squash courts in the middle of town behind the RSL club.

The squash courts were almost derelict.

There was water over the floors, the upstairs unit had vines growing in through the windows.

As a priority we converted the upstairs one bedroom unit and deck area into a three bedroom unit.

We moved in whilst demolition of squash court walls and cutting of windows in the unit walls was ongoing.

Did you know that squash court walls are core filled concrete, and so where the external walls.

We had a young child at that time.

The church had been meeting for years in a community hall, the church had always faced issues.

But under our leadership it grew, it had a place to belong.

And even though that ministry was ultimately very painful for Toni and I, it has a chance at a future that it would not have otherwise had.

In 2005 we commenced a church plant in Woodford.

We brought our first house, 110% financed by Baplink as we had nothing.

Within six weeks I had convinced Qld Baptists to purchase the timber pre World War 2 picture theater, in the main street, next to the post office.

It was almost derelict and was being used as an aluminium window and door factory.

We didn’t live in this one.

But a wonderful retired minister and his wife did, once we fixed the unit under the building up.

It put us on the map.

As I said the decision to make an offer was made six weeks after we started the church.

It took months to get the change of use approvals through council and we took possession of the property around Easter of the following year.

With a lot of help from mobile mission maintenance, visiting church teams, including from Ipswich and the incredible efforts of our congregation we took a building which was an absolute mess and turned it into a really beautiful church complex.

We official opened the building about 9 months after taking possession.

We completely rebuilt the downstairs unit and added a rumpus room.

We extended the mezzanine level to include three offices and a meeting room.

We put in toilets and a kitchen.

We reconfigured the shop front into two shops so that we could have our own shop and rent out the other.

The entire building was rewired and re plumbed.

The roof was replaced.

An awning was added over the deck.

And a car park built at the rear of the property.

But buildings are only a tool to facilitate ministry.

At the opening service I made a clear point that I would sell it all in a heartbeat if i thought it would aid the advancement of the gospel.

We set a culture, the building was and continues to be a fantastic blessings to the Woodford church.

But our vision wasn’t then and isn’t now about just having a place of our own.

Community is built by people in purposeful relationship with one another, it is aided by a sense of place and a distinct identity.

And that is what we set out to achieve.

And when it was time to move on ten years later our leadership specifically thanked us for the culture we had built.

The Lord was very gracious to us and again and again he has made it abundantly clear that our primary responsibility as church planters is to get the foundations right.

You have to build a culture that is truly about loving God and loving your neighbour.

A culture of disciple-making.

A culture of mission.

A culture of service.

A culture of relationship.

A culture willing to have a go and take risks and praise people for doing so.

A culture of honesty and integrity.

That is what the second half of the vision statement talks about.

To be known for glorifying God and bringing hope and healing to the community through acts of service, holistic care, education, mission and disciple making

You see the first part of the vision statement is about place.

A multi campus church of regional significance and global impact.

It is about the practicalities of being in a priority development area with a projected population of 120 to 130 thousand.

It is about being surrounded by other communities with massive population growth.

The first part of the vision statement describes the physical set up of what achieving our mission is likely to be.

It is about efficiencies and practicalities, even if we reach 1.2% of the population, which is the proportion of the population which the national census says are baptists.

Reaching 1.2% of the Ripley, Debbing Heights area, means a church of 1500 people.

But what happens if we reach more than that?

What about Springfield and White Rock?

Yamanto, Flinders Heights and other areas?

Do we just have one church and keep building bigger and bigger buildings.

Once you get over the 400 to 600 people auditorium it gets real expensive, real fast.

Or do we have multiple campuses with a central administration?

A vision statement describes what it looks like when you are truly achieving your mission.

That is why I would like you all to listen to last weeks sermon on our mission, the two link together.

We want to be known as a people who glorify God

Jesus commanded us to

Matthew 22:37 NLT

37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’

The highest purpose of humanity is to worship God, to ascribe strength and splendor to our creator.

We do that when our lives wholly and completely bring him honour in everything we do.

All throughout the Scriptures there is this consistent theme.

This is to be the desire of every Christian.

The vision of every church.

When people look at us, we want them to see God’s glory.

We want to be known as a people who glorify God.

Not ourselves.

Not some event or achievement.

But God alone.

We want to be known as a people who bring hope

Hope is only truly found in Christ

Matthew 12:18-21 quotes the prophet Isaiah. (Isaiah 42:1-4)

Matthew 12:18–21 NLT

18 “Look at my Servant, whom I have chosen. He is my Beloved, who pleases me. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. 19 He will not fight or shout or raise his voice in public. 20 He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally he will cause justice to be victorious. 21 And his name will be the hope of all the world.”

When people look at us we want them to see that we are secure in our faith and that our faith is build on Christ alone.

We want them to see that in Christ they to can have the hope we have.

Throughout Romans chapter 8 the Apostle Paul speaks of hope.

The hope that is Christ.

The hope that is secured through his resurrection and ascension

The hope that is with us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The hope that will be fully realized when Christ returns.

When people look at us we want them to see that this hope can be their’s as well.

We want them to look at this church and say, there is hope, because there Christ is real.

We want to be known as a people who bring healing

Healing can be many things.

It can be physical.

It can be emotional.

It can be financial.

Or relational.

Ultimate healing is healing of relationship with God.

But the reality of a fallen broken world is that so many people need all sorts of healing simply to get through life and to thrive as God originally intended.

If we are to be a people who bring the wholeness of the Gospel then we need to be a people who bring the wholeness of what life in Christ is all about.

Now I am quite sure that when Jesus spoke of abundant life in John 10:10, he wasn’t talking about some denial of the realities of the struggles of life.

John 10:10 NLT

10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

Because he spoke of those struggles often.

But we need to never forget that Jesus intended for our lives to be rich and meaningful.

In the sense of having purpose and being fulfilled.

It seems that in conservative evangelical circles we have forgotten this reality and focused almost exclusively on salvation.

We forget that throughout Scripture there is this constant theme of a life fully lived in relationship with Christ is also a life that is transformed in the here and now.

The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology speaking on John 10:10 says this

Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology An Identification of the Rewards

While emphasizing the future rewards, it is also well to remember that there are many good results that come to the faithful believer in this life, things that can be called “rewards.” Jesus said that he had come that his own might have life and have it to the full (

If we are to be a people who bring the whole Gospel to the whole person then we need to be a people who bring healing.

Healing for the body, mind and soul.

To become a multi campus church of regional significance with a global impact; known for glorifying God and bringing hope and healing to the community through acts of service, holistic care, education, mission and disciple making

The invitation today is simple.

Let’s not lose sight of the long term goal as we work day to day to deal with the short term.

Yes we are having to take a longer path than we original hoped.

But that doesn’t mean the eventual dream needs to change.