Vision Sunday

Mission

The Mission of Journey summed up as E3 is Encountering God, Engaging Together, and Empowering Change. We have done a fairly good job so far of promoting this and putting it in front of people.

Our missions tells us how we operate. What do we do, why do we exist?

We want to Encounter God, we want to Engage together, and we want to Empower Change. We do want to become a Jesus people, who love each other, and are changed and become agents of change.

Mission is good and vital. We have to know why we exist and what we want to be. But we also need to know what we want to see.

What is Vision?

Vision answers: What do we want to see?

It moves us from identity (Mission) to action and outcome.

We need to know who we want to be and what we want to see.

Side note I would encourage you to do this in your personal life, your ministry, your job, your family, or whatever. Really ask and pray into who do I want to be and what do I want to see.

Vision:

Our vision is to:

To be a people who abide, follow, and make room for Jesus and the Gospel

Definition:

The vision is essentially about Discipleship and community.

We want to be a people (a community):

Journey is known for our community and our goal should be to expand community and have isometric growth (growing while keeping proportion).

To be a people means being in fellowship with each other and inviting others into the community.

We want to have a wholistic approach to church and ministry.

Jesus says, Matthew 23:23

Matthew 23:23 CSB

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These things should have been done without neglecting the others.

We do not pick and chose the commandments of Jesus to obey. We love internally and we love externally. We do not say I will love the people inside but those outside can fend for themselves because,

Colossians 1:21 CSB

Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions.

So we are always calling people into the family of God both here at Journey and wherever they may be. This is why we do things like write devotionals for the Bible app, go on missions trips, and enter into the community around us.

We are first a community, a people.

1 Peter 2:10 CSB

Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

God has called us into relationship with Himself and others. Just like we spoke about with the Trinity we have been invited in and now welcome each other.

This is a long quote but worth it,

The church itself is not made up of natural "friends." It is made up of natural enemies. What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything of the sort. Christians come together, not because they form a natural collocation, but because they have been saved by Jesus Christ and owe him a common allegiance. In the light of this common allegiance, in light of the fact that they have all been loved by Jesus himself, they commit themselves to doing what he says—and he commands them to love one another. In this light, they are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake. - DA Carson

We are not natural friends but because of Christ and the fact that we belong to Him we love each other.

Peter understood this although he forgot it once.

Acts 10:34–35 CSB

Peter began to speak: “Now I truly understand that God doesn’t show favoritism, but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

This did not happen Jews stayed in their lane and Gentiles stayed in their lane. and God said no!

God brought Peter who was a Jew to the house of a man named Cornelius who was a gentile. He wanted Peter to understand He was building something new, something bigger than Peter could imagine.

1 Peter 2:10 CSB

Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Who Abide:

We want to be a people that Abide in Christ. Jesus says in John 15:4

John 15:4 CSB

Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.

Abiding in Christ both as individuals and corporately is where we will find all that we need to do what Jesus calls us to do.

We spoke about this a few weeks ago but in short abiding is about staying connected to Jesus so we can produce fruit and become the people He desires us to be. It is about beginning, identity, and desiring Jesus and the things of God. If you missed that message I would recommend you check out the podcast or you can go to our Bible App page and read the 3-day devotional.

Follow:

We want to be a people that follow. Jesus says in Matthew 4:19

Matthew 4:19 CSB

“Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.”

Our job is to Follow the risen Lord. We are to follow Him where He leads and trust Him for guidance. We do this individually and corporately as a people.

Ruth 1:16–17 CSB

But Ruth replied: Don’t plead with me to abandon you or to return and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.

This is to be our attitude towards Christ. We follow Him wherever He goes. He is the Lord and we follow Him. Following Jesus is the best hardest thing you can do. Because so often He does not tell you where He is going or where He is taking you. He just says follow me.

Hebrews 11:8 CSB

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, even though he did not know where he was going.

We want to know where we are going, but Jesus wants us to have faith that He is leading. That He is guiding. So we follow. Often we do not understand and that is OK. We are not called to understand everything we are called to obedience.

In my life for 20 years now when Jesus brings this verse in front of me I know that things are about to get shaken up. Because it is always an invitation to walk in faith into something He is doing.

We are called to say “Yes Lord I will Go.”

Our job as disciples, as followers of Jesus is to walk with Him into what He is leading us into.

Make Room:

Jesus says in Revelation 3:20

Revelation 3:20 CSB

See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:19

1 Thessalonians 5:19 CSB

Don’t stifle the Spirit.

Peter says in 2 Peter 3:9

2 Peter 3:9 CSB

The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

God says through the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 43:19

Isaiah 43:19 CSB

Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.

We as a people will make room for Jesus, the Spirit, People, and the Future. We want to be receptive to the things of God, who He is bringing in, and where He is leading. To make room is to have faith in God’s plan.

If we are following Him we will make room for Him.

That is just how it goes. Sometimes when we are following Him, He calls us to some crazy things. Some wild things, some things that make no sense on the outside but internally you know that you know that you know He is saying do this.

I have some sunflowers growing outside my kitchen window. I did not plant them the birds did. We have a bird feeder and the birds drop seeds. Julie and I started to notice things were sprouting up and growing. We had a choice to make.

We could pull it up or wait and see what is growing. We chose to wait. We could have removed the sunflowers God was giving us because they did not look like sunflowers. They just looked like weeds. But we chose in that moment to wait and see.

How often is God doing something and we pull it out by the root because we don’t understand?

How often do we miss out on beauty by rushing and getting in God’s way?

So much of making room for Jesus and the Gospel is about faith. It is about hearing from God and then acting on what you hear.

People often ask, How do I know I am hearing from God?

There are two primary ways we hear from God

The Written Word (Bible)

Learning to hear His voice.

God’s Word is His will for you.

2 Timothy 3:16 CSB

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,

If we want to know how to be the person, the people He calls us to be we find this in His Word.

If you want to hear from God, open your Bible.

So many people talk about God talking or not talking without ever opening their Bibles. It is already in there.

Do you want to know how to be a better spouse, open your Bible.

Do you want to know how to be a better parent, open your Bible.

Do you want to know how to manage money better, open your Bible.

Psalm 119:105 CSB

Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.

He often gives us enough information for the next step.

We also learn to hear His voice, and often, so often we only know after the fact. To learn to hear His voice is about wanting to obey, wanting Him to lead, and trusting that you are hearing from Him.

Sometimes we will get it wrong but I believe that if we are reading and desiring to trust and obey He will reward our faith even if we missed it a bit.

Only moving ships can be steered.

Journey Culture & Core Values:

Cultural means relating to a particular society and its ideas, customs, and art.

Collins Dictionary

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

Carey Nieuwhof

Mission, Vision, and Strategy are important but as Carey Nieuwhof points our culture triumphs. We can desire to be certain type of people, to do certain things, to want certain things, but who we are will always win. For this reason, we need to always give attention to our core values and return to them regularly.

People are the Priority

Faith

Authenticity

Lead in Love

Intentionality

Holy Discontent

In all that we do from worship to kids and everything in between we desire to be a people that embody these things.

I believe God is calling us a people to something amazing, and it is not up to me and the rest of the staff or the leadership team to make it happen it is up to all of us together to do this.

I served in kids last week because their was a need. Julie served in kids because there was a need. April and Tori served because there was a need. Gracie with her one leg served because there was a need.

We need people serving in kids, students, prep, tech, first impressions. I want people to see the biggest smiles and receive the biggest welcome when they come in! This happens because we see a need an fill a need.

Our vision is

To be a people who abide, follow, and make room for Jesus and the Gospel

This is it, this is what I believe we are called to see.