State of the Church 2025
State of the Church • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 7 viewsReview of 2025 and Vision Casting for future
Notes
Transcript
[LAUNCH VIDEO]
Announcements
Good morning. Welcome to Southern Hills Baptist Church. Thank you for joining us today.
If you are a first-time guest with us, you will find a Connection Card in the pew rack in front of you. We would appreciate it if you would fill that out and place it in the offering plate. That gives us a record of your visit and allows us the opportunity of reaching out to you this week to answer any questions that you might have.
Online giving is available at our website, southernhillsbc.com. By clicking on GIVE, it will take you to our giving page where you can easily give by electronic check or credit card. You can also give during our offertory time or in the box at the info table. If you are a guest, please know that we do not expect you to give. Our members and regular attenders provide for the ministry of the church
LOTTIE MOON UPDATE: We are finishing up our Lottie Moon campaign. This is our special offering each year for the International Mission Board, which funds more than 3,500 missionaries in 155 countries across the globe. The convention’s goal this year is $21M, of which every cent will go to missionary support. Our goal is $21,000 this year. And, as of this week, we have raised almost 80% of our goal. We still need about $4,000 to hit our goal. If you haven’t given to Lottie Moon yet this year, please be praying about how God would have you give. We still have special envelopes on the info table or you can just write Lottie Moon on your giving envelope.
See bulletin for Calendar Updates
If you are a guest with us, know that this is our weekly Family Worship service. Our children will remain with us for the entire service. We do have a nursery available for children under 4 just down the hall if you would like to use it.
Please stand as I read our Call to Worship.
Call To Worship
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Opening Hymn
Scripture & Prayer: Roger Edwards
Song #1
Offering & Prayer
Song #2 (King of Kings)
Lord’s Supper
Please be seated.
(beat)
We have just finished Advent and have come to the Christmastide season. Christmastide is a time of celebrating life. We celebrate the life of Jesus, but we also celebrate the new life that this season offers for us. For it is only by His incarnation that we have an opportunity to experience new life. While Winter has come and the plants have gone dormant, new life is blossoming in the celebration of Immanuel—God with us.
This week, we will close out one year and step into the next. It offers us a time of rebirth and hope for what is to come. Many people will make New Year Resolutions. So, as we reflect on Jesus’ life and death this morning, let us be reminded that we only have new life because of His life and death. And let our resolution be clear: that we will give entirely of ourselves this next year to follow to One who gives us new life.
We’re going to continue our reading about Jesus from the book of Mark. Today we will continue in chapter 15:
And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
At this time, I am going to have our ushers come forward. If you are a follower of Jesus, in that you have accepted Him as Savior, bowed to Him as King, and been baptized in obedience to His commandment, we invite you to participate with us. In just a moment, we will pass the plates. Please take a piece of bread and a cup and hold it until we take together.
Pass
Instruction from Jesus: Read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Prayer of Blessing on bread and cup
Song #3
Pastoral Prayer
World - Nigeria attacks, Wars
Country- Flooding on West Coast
State- Winter weather
City- Heartland Community Church
SHBC- Mission
Introduction
If you have your Bibles with you this morning, please turn with me to Romans chapter 12. Get it ready and we will get to it shortly.
We have just wrapped up our Advent Series. Next week, we will return to our series on 1 Corinthians called Practical Church. But today, we focus on closing out 2025 with our annual State of the Church address.
[MAIN TITLE SLIDE]
For half of those here this morning, you may not have noticed much change this year. But for the other half—for those of you who have been here for more than a few years—it might seem to you that a lot has changed over this past year. And so, today, as we look at the current State of the Church, I want us to look back on the last year and see how far Southern Hills Baptist Church has come over the last 12 months. And then, after we celebrate God’s faithfulness to us and all that He has done this year, we will look to the future as we see a glimpse of what is in store for SHBC in 2026 and beyond.
[TITLE SLIDE]
In my address to you a year ago, I had only been leading the church for 6 months. The changes up to that point were very minimal as I wanted to be prayerful, intentional, and methodical as we moved forward in becoming a healthy church once again. We talked about what healthy churches looked like and saw the need for healthy local churches throughout Northwest Iowa and the United States.
As a reminder, we said that healthy churches love Jesus and their communities, that they seek after holiness, they pray often, and that they reflect the community around them. I have always found this to be a praying church, but I think that in the last year, we have made strides to fight for holiness in our lives and to look for opportunities to reach those within our current sphere of influence.
But it was clear to me that we needed more foundation-building before we were ready to go out to the community and the nations. We needed to build a culture of discipleship and hospitality within our own church family. And I think that we have made strides in those areas. We now have more church members engaged in welcoming and getting to know our guests, hosting them for meals and fellowship, and trying to get them plugged into Life Groups and opportunities to serve.
[POINT 1 SLIDE]
Review of 2025
So, as we begin to review this past year, I want us to celebrate the wins. We should rejoice in thankfulness at God’s mercy and faithfulness to us. But let us also humble ourselves as we look back self-critically and see where we can improve and how we can be more faithful in 2026.
Coming into 2025, our focus had been on seeking after holiness. We had been trying to bring the church to unity by lifting every member’s eyes to King Jesus. In January, I presented three new areas of importance that we would target for the year.
The first was to reincorporate our children into the life of the church. We transitioned from Children’s Church to Sunday School and brought our kids into worship with us. The idea behind this was simply that, for years, the “big C” church had been segregating the kids for a variety of reasons, but there were none that we found valid. Instead, the fruit of this was that our kids were growing out of our Youth programs and leaving the church for good.
Why? I believe that it was for two reasons. First, kids didn’t understand what church was all about. We took them away from their parents and entertained them in another part of the building. And second, the kids never got the chance to serve in any capacity in the life of the church body. When they graduated, they didn’t know where they fit in the church. We hadn’t made church their family. We hadn’t discipled them.
And so, if we are going to raise our generations to follow Christ, we need to show them. They need to see their parents engage in worship and they need to be given opportunities to serve and integrate into the body.
Jesus understood this. He rebuked His disciples for keeping the children away.
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
Our children must become part of our community. They must learn to be a disciple by watching and engaging everything that we do as church family. For when we pass, these children will take up the mantle and make disciples of all nations. It is our duty to make sure that they are prepared. And the warning is this: that if we do not disciple our children well, the world will do it for us.
And for these reasons, we have begun celebrating Family Worship each week. We welcome the noise and the minor inconveniences that may come, because “to such belongs the kingdom of God.” These noises are not distractions; they are the sounds of a church family coming to life.
Our Family Worship time is the launching point for parents to disciple their kids all week. It is a place where all believers can be encouraged by one another; where we bear one another’s burdens and speak life to those who are despairing.
This Fall we relaunched AWANA after a 15 year hiatus. Every Wednesday night, we now have 30+ children learning the Bible from adults and we have 20+ adult volunteers learning how to disciple children. And in addition to that, we have a nursery and Youth and an Adult Life Group where the parents of these children can come and find community and learn about the Word of God.
“Children are a heritage from the Lord.”
We must continue to be intentional in discipling them and incorporating them into the life of the church.
[POINT 1 SLIDE]
Our second focus in 2025 was proper worship. We learned that God has prescribed in Scripture a way that He desires to be worshipped. And when we stray from that for our own comfort or entertainment, we make corporate worship about us. And so we agreed that we would build God’s kingdom rather than our own; that our focus would be on faithfulness to God over attracting people into our building.
We fully understand that we cannot win the lost to an upside down kingdom if our church services look like the world. I cannot trick an alcoholic into becoming sober by giving him more alcohol to get him in the door of the clinic. There must be a fundamental change in his heart and his desires. And the same is true for the lost. Sinners will only desire the upside down kingdom of God when they see that it is wholly different from what the world offers.
And so we built out a robust liturgy that elevates prayer and scripture reading and the Lord’s Supper in our Family Worship services. Those are the things that draw us together as the body and God continues to bless us with His grace.
I hope that you have found these changes to be life-giving to you. I’m happy to report that I have had no negative feedback about the change in liturgy.
Lastly, we attempted to focus on Life Groups this past year. I had mentioned that this would be a moving target for us. This emphasis will continue into 2026. While we did see growth in this area, there are still many of our members who are not involved in Sunday School or a Life Group.
In an effort to be in the community and make Life Groups more community-centric, there are some preliminary plans to launch a group this year in both South Sioux and in Hornick. I also hope to begin growing some of our Sunday School and context groups this year as we have the opportunity. So, please be praying for that. Pray that God would provide us with gifted teachers and that we would see greater involvement.
Let’s finish with analytics. And as we look at these, I want you to see this for what it is. We should not be hyper-fixated on numbers, but I want us to get excited by seeing the growth that God is giving to our local church body:
[ANALYTICS SLIDE]
New Members in 2025: 20
Q4 2024- Average attendance of 78 per week
Q4 2025- Average attendance of 102 per week (31% increase YOY)
High was 125
Median age July 2024- 61
Median age YE 2024- 53
Median age YE 2025- 50
(Sioux City median age is 33.8)
YE 2024 Life Group Attendance- 40%
YE 2025 Life Group Attendance- 55%
Formula is Total Attendees / Members
Giving changes- Approx 22% increase in giving YOY
Budget increase was 13.6% YOY
These are all fantastic things for us to celebrate. These metrics tell us that our church is growing and getting healthier. And we hope to keep stimulating growth in the areas of holiness, faithfulness, unity, and discipleship. And we will do that in 2026 by focusing on two key areas.
The first of which is covenant.
[POINT 2 SLIDE]
Covenant
Earlier this year, I taught through Church Membership, where we discovered that belonging to a local church body is more than just being a part of a social group. The writers of the New Testament describe the church as a body and as a family. Indeed, Paul writes that—as the body—we no longer belong to ourselves, but to one another as we collectively make up the body of Christ.
Look at what he writes in Romans 12:
[PASSAGE SLIDE x3]
For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; (/) if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. (/) Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
The church isn’t a collective group with similar interests. We don’t get together like a book club to socialize and discuss interesting points in our non-fiction book. We don’t pay our dues by showing up each week for the benefits of friendship and potlucks.
No. We are softened by the fire of Scripture and hammered together by the difficult circumstances that we endure from the consequence of sin in this world. The Master Craftsman molds us into one body, where each member is devoted to Christ—both individually and collectively—and we pick up His banner and chase after a singular mission: to make disciples.
We are made one with each other in the same way that husband and wife are made one in the Lord: through the bonds of covenant. When we become members of a faithful local church, we pledge ourselves to Christ and His body.
A church covenant can be informal or formal, but it is always at least implied in local church membership. And while formal church covenants and the faithful practice of church membership have fallen out of favor for the purpose of removing barriers to worldly church-goers, covenantal membership remains uncompromisingly biblical. A faithful local church must practice membership to properly convey the gravity and symbolic nature of belonging to the body.
Years ago, Southern Hills Baptist Church had a formal covenant. In fact, one is plainly written in our Constitution. This is what it says:
READ THE CONSTITUTION
The reason that we went through the Church Membership series and are now working through 1 Corinthians is for us to understand what it looks like to be the body. We need to understand it thoroughly and practically. We need to understand that when we come to Christ, we give everything up for His will in our lives. We put to death our desires, our passions, our selfishness and sin—all to be made new and chase after the mission that He sets before us.
We must count the cost of discipleship and we must make clear the cost to those who would desire to join us in the cause of building God’s kingdom on earth.
And so, because of all of those reasons, we will reinstitute a formal Church covenant later this year. Our current members will need to prayerfully consider the seriousness of entering into this covenant before we sign together. And those who are joining the body in the future will sign prior to being admitted to our church family.
For no honest person will be able to say that Southern Hills Baptist Church isn’t guarding the holiness of Jesus’ local church.
We will covenant together for the immanence of Christ. We will covenant together for the glory of God. And we will covenant together for the mission of the church.
[POINT 3 SLIDE]
Mission
As discussed, our mission strategy has been very limited since I have been here. And that was purposely the case. We, as a small local church, needed to first come together as a body and as a family. In the last year, we have grown closer through fellowship and communing together in the Lord’s table. We have learned to begin thinking missionally, to welcome guests appropriately, and to give hospitality to those in need.
Our inward focus was to help us see the need for a solid foundation before we went to the community. It was to help us see the need for and desire holiness before we went to the nations. For if we go to the world, dressed as the world, we have nothing of worth to offer. Let’s look back to Romans 12 and pick up Paul’s letter where we left off:
[PASSAGE SLIDE x3]
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. (/) If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” (/) To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Paul is writing to the church in Rome—the heart of the Roman Empire—and to the people who are in the very epicenter of Christian persecution under Nero. Does he tell them to hide? To seek self-preservation for the sake of the gospel?
No. He tells them to be different. To love their enemies and show hospitality. To give honor to the one who seeks to bring you pain.
Church, we are called to mission—to live in a place hostile to the gospel—and to endure it with peace and love for the sake of the lost. And, as the assembly of Jesus Christ, we engage the mission without fear. Remember what He told the disciples:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Jesus has conquered the enemies of God—our enemies have been defeated—and God has given Jesus all authority on heaven and earth. As a believer and subject of King Jesus, you have been given power by the Holy Spirit to fulfill the mission: to make disciples of all nations, to baptize, and to teach. This is a commandment for every follower!
And how long are we called to this mission? Until the end of the age. Until Jesus comes again, we are to go. And here, in Greek, where it says “go therefore,” it doesn’t just mean that we need to go to the nations on missions trips. It means “as you go.” As we go to work, school, shopping—we make disciples. No follower gets a free pass on the mission.
The church-at-large needs to put off this idea that we are just supposed to go overseas, and if you can’t go, you give money. This is one of my biggest frustrations being in the Southern Baptist Convention for most of my life. We have a fabulous International Mission Board which supports over 3,500 missionaries and allows them to stay in the field making disciples. But our communication stinks. Our churches feel so disconnected from the field.
But this year, Southern Hills Baptist Church will be more connected. We will communicate better with our missionaries and with you, not only giving you updates as to what is going on overseas and at home, but giving you opportunities to serve in missions contexts in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I want you to recall what Jesus told His disciples as He was leaving in Acts 1:
[PASSAGE SLIDE x2]
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. (/) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
Notice that Jesus tells them that the Holy Spirit will come in power and enable them to be witnesses as they fulfill the mission. Where are they to go to fulfill the mission?
Everywhere. The disciples of Jesus are commanded to take the mission to the end of the earth.
But I want you to notice where it starts…
(Beat)
It starts in Jerusalem. It starts at home. And it works its way from there. Out to Judea, then to Samaria, then to the end of the earth.
For us, that would be starting here in Sioux City, then to Woodbury County and Northwest Iowa, then to all of Siouxland and to North America, and then to the ends of the earth.
Church, we aren’t just called on mission to go overseas. Every one of us is called on mission every day no matter where we are or where we are going. Your workplace is the location that you are on mission. Your local coffee shop is where you are. If you are a stay-at-home mom, your home is your mission place.
Make disciples. Anywhere and everywhere.
But, that being said, I want to give you opportunities to serve in other mission capacities: local, national, and international. So, with that, let’s get into our short term vision for 2026:
[VISION SLIDE]
As I go through these opportunities, please be praying about where God may be leading you to serve this year. I will be looking for champions to help with each of these ministries. If you feel called to a specific ministry, please speak with me in the next few weeks and I would be happy to get you plugged in.
Local Budgeted Support
SHBC Food Pantry
Community Service Projects
Her Health
Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF)
College Ministry (Navigator’s)- Northwest Missouri State
Visiting January 11
Mitchell Hospice House
Other Opportunities
Gideon’s International
The Gospel Mission
Warming Shelter
Siouxland Soup Kitchen
Foster Care/Adoption
There will be other opportunities to serve this year with VBS, Block Parties, etc.
[VISION SLIDE]
National Budgeted Support
Chicagoland Community Church (3C)
Visiting March 22
Corridor Church- Milford, IA
2 additional church plants
Mission trip to Chicago August 10-14, 2026
[VISION SLIDE]
International Budgeted Support
Josh & Jen Armstrong- Spain
Dan & Tammie Olsen- Turkey
Moses & Beth Mivedor- West Africa
Visiting January 25
These are the areas that we are looking to engage fully beginning this year. Again, if you have interest or feel like God is calling you to help locally, nationally, or internationally, please speak with me.
It is our goal to raise up Pastors, Church Leaders, and Missionaries, not only for our own church, but for Northwest Iowa, North America, and the World. If you feel like God is calling you—by His Spirit—to be a Pastor or a Missionary, please grab me and let’s chat and pray about it together.
This Fall, we hope to launch a Pastoral Residency program to raise up more Pastors for the purpose of sending them out to plant churches and revitalize dying churches.
That being said, we turn to our Long-Term Vision.
[VISION SLIDE]
Explain Project 30 by 30
Move Missions budget from 18% to 30% by 2030
Plant 3 churches by 2030
New Church Plants or Replants
With all of that in mind, I have updated our mission statement:
[MISSION SLIDE]
At Southern Hills Baptist Church,
Our mission is to seek holiness as we covenant together as a faithful local body of Christ and to engage in the Great Commission by making disciples in our homes, our communities, and around the world.
This next year, you will become very familiar with our updated mission statement as well as the mission teams that we are supporting locally, nationally, and internationally.
Application
I will do my best to expose you to the things that are going on with our missionaries and to give you opportunities to serve.
I ask that you would be prayerful in seeking God’s will in your life and ask Him where He would have you serve.
As we engage in the mission—in discipling our children, loving our neighbors, showing hospitality to strangers, bringing justice into the lives of widows and orphans, and living missionally every day—God will be faithful in growing our church family and raising up new Pastors and Leaders and Missionaries so that we can be effective in growing His kingdom in Northwest Iowa and to the ends of the earth.
As the psalmist calls us to in Psalm 96, we will “say among the nations, The Lord reigns!”
[PREVIEW SLIDE]
Next week, we will get back to our series on 1 Corinthians. Appropriately, our topic will be the workers in the field that God provides. So, let us close with reading Luke 10:1-9:
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
We must pray earnestly that God would send out laborers for His harvest, and that He will use us to do so. We will make disciples and raise missionaries this year.
So, member of Southern Hills Baptist Church and follower of Christ, how will you commit to reaching people and making disciples in 2026?
Invitation
If you are here this morning and you are not following Jesus, “the kingdom of God has come near to you.” Don’t leave here without knowing Him as your Lord and Savior. Come and talk with me after the service.
CLOSE IN PRAYER
CLOSING HYMN
CONGREGATIONAL BLESSING
