Vision Sunday 2026

If you’re joining us for the first time this morning, we want to welcome you to Vision Sunday. This is something we do twice a year – mainly to pause and thank God for all that he’s done, celebrate some milestones and then grabbing a text in scripture to rally around as we look down the road.

Today, is the 5th Sunday, so we want to welcome all the children that are staying with us for the message today! I’ll keep things moving this morning for their sake, but I’m glad you are all here this morning.

We’re going to celebrate a few things from the last 7 years

Address where we’re at with the Building Project, and what the next steps are

And then I’ll wrap with some scripture that points us in the right direction as we move forward.

If you’re a first time guest with us this morning, you might walk away thinking, wow, these people talk about themselves a lot. You’re with us on a special day.

PRAYER

It’s crazy to me to think that as of this week, River City is seven years old. That’s crazy. Seven years ago, River City officially launched as a church here in Riverside. In the past seven years, we’ve had 6 weddings (including one last weekend) and one more coming up this summer; we’ve had 20 babies born (not only to those six couples); and we’ve had zero funerals. One of the ways to keep your church going is just nobody die, and you all have done very well at that.

Here’s the picture of one of our first gatherings here in this room – just show of hands, how many of you have been here since the very beginning, or least before COVID?

I don’t remember if we’ve ever done this, but I wanted to just say thank you for being part of the groundwork for where River City is at today. You were the first people to give of your time and your finances, and you were the first people to be ambassadors and leaders. There were parts of the gathering back then that were a little volatile as we changed directions a couple of times, we moved parts of the service around, and tried to figure out what worked the best. I’m sure there were times you walked in wondering which direction the chairs were going to face this week.

God gave you the grace to grow with me and the other leaders as we tried to find our feet in preaching and leading a church – something none of us had done much of before. So thank you for sticking it out for all seven years, and continuing to have grace and patience for us as we continue to grow in this. I’m sure the other elders and our wives would say the same thing, but I don’t think of that as a small thing.

The theme verse for us is 2 Corinthians 5:20 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”

That implies so many things, and I’ll just point out three.

It implies that on our own, we are NOT reconciled to God, that we are not in good standing with our Creator, and that we need to be! Now as we read the rest of scripture, we know that the reason we need to be reconciled is because sin has corrupted every part of us. We have chosen to rebel against everything God has established as his will in this world, from identity to sexuality to purpose and what is wisdom – all of it. As a result, we are enemies to God and need to be reconciled. That’s one of the primary messages that every Church should have at the forefront of every ministry or discipleship effort.

The second thing this verse implies is that we are not our own. We are representatives. We’re not first and foremost building an organization or establishing something – we are carrying a message that has been entrusted to us. If I say to one of my children, hey can you go tell mom that I’m going to be going outside for a bit, that child has just become an ambassador who speaks on behalf of me — but only with the information I’ve given. “Dad said he’s going to be outside for a bit.” That’s as far as that child’s authority goes. He has no more authority than what was said by the person he’s representing. Now if that kid starts spouting off a bunch of other stuff, and dad says you should also clean my room and all my clothes and make me snacks while I watch my iPad, all before he comes back inside – all stuff I never said – that kid has thrown off the ambassador role and taken something else on themselves I did not give them. You tracking? This verse calls us ambassadors, not kings or governors.

Thirdly, this verse implies that reconciliation with God is not something we accomplish on our own wisdom, it’s what’s done to us. Look at the verb choice there in verse 20: BE reconciled to God. You don’t work to be reconciled to God - you surrender. You allow God to work in you. When the apostle Paul was still Saul, and was attacking Christians and dragging them off to prison, Jesus showed up to him in Acts 9 and said Saul, you can’t keep kicking against the goads – in other words, “stop resisting me!” BE reconciled to God. Stop resisting him. Allow him to work IN you as much as he works THROUGH you. The posture we need to take, if we’re going to be reconciled to God, is one of surrender.

From day one, we wanted to use that term “ambassadors” for the people who serve around here, not “volunteers.” A volunteer just fills their time slot, and goes home. An ambassador is not just a place-filler on a spreadsheet or in Planning Center, but a representative with a message and a responsibility and ownership. So from the beginning, we wanted to call anyone who serves around River City an “ambassador.” It’s intentional. It means I represent Jesus in whatever role I’m in. If I’m on security, I represent God who defends the weak and rescues the perishing. If I’m on hospitality or greeting at the doors, I represent a God who welcomes sinners and doesn’t turn away anyone who is hungry and thirsty for the truth.

Something like 80% of you are serving in one way or another on Sunday mornings, which is like double the average church, according to Lifeway Research, but you don’t just serve here on Sunday mornings. You do things like minor repairs or maintenance in people’s homes, helping clean apartments, cutting up trees, helping people move, taking care of lawns, watching kids, making meals, attending funerals, hospital visits, the list goes on. I don’t have a number of how many of you pray with people on a Sunday morning, welcoming someone you have never seen before, showing up on a snowy morning to help the set up team, giving to the financial needs of others, hosting people in your home – I continue to hear people say, they’ve never been part of a church family that acts the way you all do. So thank you to everyone who faithfully serves as an ambassador, both in this building on Sundays and in the 6 days between gatherings with the people you work and live next to.

One of the upcoming opportunities we have to be the hands and feet and heart of Jesus this summer is through hosting Vacation Bible School, June 8, 9 and 10. It’s an opportunity to impact the children of Riverside 5th grade and younger with the gospel. Last Spring, we heard the testimony of someone who heard about Jesus for the first time at VBS when she was young, and gave her heart to him right then and there. So this is a powerful opportunity to be ambassadors that say “BE RECONCILED TO GOD!” in ways that kids can understand.

Now, we can put signs in yards around Riverside that say we’re doing VBS and we might pick up a few kids from the city. But the best marketing there is is a personal invitation. So pick up some postcards in the back, and invite families you know to come out this summer and be part of that.

Another thing that’s been exciting to watch over the past seven years is the spiritual growth of River City. Many of you have come to real faith in Jesus for the first time. Many have picked up a Bible and started reading it for the first time. Many have joined a Flourish Group or Discipleship Group and prayed out loud or confessed sin for the first time. Many of you, for the first time in your life, have told someone you are struggling and asked for help or asked for prayer. Many of you went from people who preferred to sit in the background, to now being leaders who are discipling others. Many of you have found freedom from generational sin, turned away from addiction, and stepped into the light.

And we know this, but it bears repeating – all the praise and glory and thanks for that kind of growth belongs only to the grace and mercy of Jesus, who continues to rescue and redeem and restore sinners. God continues to draw people to himself through the gospel. He continues to speak to us through his word. He continues to give spiritual gifts to those he saves. He continues to empower people for ministry, and continues to meet all of our needs.

And I know we only like to celebrate the good stuff and don’t want to talk about the fact that a lot of us are facing some real challenges right now in our marriages, in our friendships, in our finances, in our jobs, and that it’s easy to let doubt and fear and the hardships in life creep in and pull us away from walking with the Lord or begin to doubt his presence or his goodness. Sometimes we let old habits come back, or we start looking for answers in life outside of the word of God.

And if that’s you, keep showing up. Keep leaning in. Keep asking for prayer. That’s where we all need each other, where we need people walking alongside us that help us keep our balance and bring us back. We all need the transforming power of the gospel for our own rebel hearts, day after day, year after year, and no one is able to do this alone.

But I wanted to start off with celebrating the growth we’ve experienced, because all of that has happened while we continue to rent an elementary school as our primary gathering point. All of the ministry and growth that has taken place these past seven years has happened in living rooms, office spaces, coffee shops or backyards. God has been so good to us. So faithful to us. Even as we move into more conversation around building and land and having our own space, I pray that we never forget how much God has done in and through us before we ever had our own space.

Last time we talked about the land purchase and building was in early February after the second congregational meeting about this. The decision was to keep moving forward toward the original property, Schnoebelen, Inc, here kind of at the end of the street, but to make a final sweep of the city and revisit a few properties to our North. Here’s the long and short of it.

The 11 acre field directly north of the school is not for sale, and the 19 acres across the street sits at $50,000 an acre. With additional costs for grading the site, purchasing a pump station to connect to city sewer, along with all of the other utilities we would need, the property quickly becomes more expensive than the one we have been looking at without any building on it that we can work with. On top of that, the city has the right to keep that field available for development.

Secondly, at both of the congregational meetings around the Schnoebelen Inc property, it was suggested that maybe we wait for a foreclosure, but there are already three other parties that have expressed interest the property if we would choose to walk away from it.

So it seems clear to us as an Elder Team that the Schnoebelen, Inc property is the door the Lord has opened for us to walk through. I know the question could be asked - why do we need to move at all? Why not just stay here in the school? Well, first of all, we all remember COVID and how we are at the mercy of the school district every week we’re here… COVID or not. They have no obligation to allow us to meet here, and could decide at any point not to renew our lease. So there’s that.

Secondly, in having our own space we have the ability to say, we are here for the good of this city for good. We can really start to establish ourselves as a part of Riverside. A church that’s here FOR the city, not just IN the city.

I hope we never lose the activity of living rooms, coffee shops, and backyards, but this is about having the space where we can throw open the doors to a much deeper involvement with the city than we’re able to have here.

This is about having a place to reach the youth of the Highland School District, or the seniors who could benefit from some fellowship around a good meal – both of which we haven’t even been able to touch yet. A place for conferences and seminars that equip leaders and parents and teenagers. A place for community events and outreach; a place where restoration happens and hope is restored.

There is no question that this is a monumental task ahead of River City. There will be a lot of sacrifice required from all of us, but there will be a lot of sacrifice required of us if we stay here too. This is going to test us as a church in more ways than one. It’s going to put our generosity to the test. It’s going to put our grace for each other to the test. It’s going to test how tight of a grip we have on our personal preferences. It’s going to test us as Elders. It’s going to test our faith. So many churches have split over building projects that we are naive if we think we’re going to just skate through this whole thing from start to finish without any bumps.

I don’t know what the future holds for River City Church, I don’t know how the world is going to change over the next 5 years. It would be easiest to just hunker down here at the school and say, lets just keep doing what we’re doing. But what I do know is 2 Timothy 1:7 That “…God has not given us a spirit of fear, or timidity or cowardice – the kind of spirit that shrinks back and withdraws because we don’t know how the future will turn out – but he’s given us a spirit …of power, love, and sound judgment...”

A spirit of power that is able to do more than we can ask or imagine; a spirit of love that cares about others and worships God rightly, and a spirit of self-control, discipline, and discernment.

The primary mission of River City is to be ambassadors for the glory of God, to keep Jesus first in everything, and to live by the power of the Holy Spirit, until the people of Riverside can’t go a day without running into someone who eats, breathes, sleeps the kingdom of God.

All of that can happen whether or not we have our own building. All of those things can happen at the school, and God can and will be glorified at the school just as much as he could be in our own facility. He doesn’t need us to have a building in order for him to establish the kingdom of God here. As I said before, all the growth I mentioned at the beginning has happened without us being in our own building. For that reason, The building itself is not the vision, nor the fulfillment of the vision. It’s just a tool.

At the house where Jodi and I live, we have a tree right outside our bedroom window that we planted probably 20 years ago when we first moved in. It is a maple of some kind, the leaves turn fire engine red in the Fall, and it was a nice little tree for a while.

But then we started noticing something. One by one, branches started dying – and they were always dying on the same side of the tree. We’d cut out the dead one, or it would fall out in a storm or something, and yet, the next year, there’d be another dead branch.

So we had a guy come over and look at it one time, and he pointed something out that we hadn’t seen – or weren’t paying attention to. And that is that the roots of the tree were starting to turn in on each other. The roots were turning on themselves, and choking out the tree, causing the limbs to die one at a time.

The tree is killing itself.

Here’s where we are going to continue to need the transforming grace of Jesus for all of us. Jesus didn’t say the church should be known for our ministries or our leadership, he didn’t say we should be known by our buildings or our pastors, he didn’t say the world will know we are Christians by our music or our artwork, or even by our flawless doctrine. He said the world will know that we are Christians by our love for each other. The kind of sacrificial, pick up a towel and wash feet, the if-you-want-to-be-great-humble-yourself-to-be-the-servant-of-all, the “have this mind among you, that although he was God he made himself a servant” kind of love.

If all we’re driven by is the vision to have a better place for ourselves to meet, and we’re not driven by love for this city, we’re going to end up being more interested in dollars and cents and paint colors, and we will set ourselves up to fail from the beginning. If we are not driven by love for this city, we’re going to be more concerned about what it’s costing us than by what others will gain, and we will end up turning on each other, killing all the life that once made this gathering such a beautiful place to be.

The sacrifices we’re going to need to make are not being made so we can have a building. The sacrifices we’re making are so that others can find life. It’s not about us! It’s about the people who will come to faith in this building! In the same way a farmer plants seeds in the Spring so that there is a harvest in the Fall, you who were the first to attend River City planted seeds that have borne fruit in the culture we now have. In the same way, we that attend River City now are once again positioned to be planters. And every gardener knows, it’s not about the time or money it takes to plant – it’s about the harvest! It’s about yield.

Last summer, two groups of young children, probably ones that are in the room today, set up lemonade stands and gave the proceeds toward the building. The first additional funds that were given to the building fund were given by kids who are contributing what they are able. And it may not seem like $50 or $100 is much when we could be looking at $6 million till it’s all said and done. But let me show you something quickly.

The loan we’re taking out to pay for the land is $608,000. On a 15 year note at 5.4% that’s just under $5000 a month. Well, as a church with our current giving, we are able to double that every month. No additional giving. No fundraising. No lemonade stands, and the land is paid off in six years, saving us $180k in interest. Tracking?

Okay, stay with me. We have 92 households that consider themselves regular attenders. If all 92 households had the basic Netflix streaming at $10/month, and we all canceled it and put the $10/month toward the building instead, in one year we would have put $10,000 toward the payment, saved $4k on interest, and cut the loan by one month. If you add another $10/month to that, we’re cutting 3 months off the loan and saving $8 in interest.

I’m not telling you to cancel Netflix. All I’m saying is that the $10 makes a difference. The lemonade stand makes a difference, kids! Do another one this year!

One of the things coming up that will help make a difference as well is a plant sale on May 2. Some women from River City are saying, hey, let’s do what we can. So on May 2, they are taking over Hall Park, selling plants, crafts and handmade items – there will be grilled chicken and baked goods available, and all the proceeds go toward the building fund. Every plant sold, every baked good, every craft bringing us one step closer to having our own home where we can be a blessing to the people of Riverside. That’s the kind of creative initiative that will go a long way to helping get us into the new space.

So where do things stand today? As far as it depends on us, we are ready to close. God’s timing on all of this has been different than ours. But if we really believe in the sovereignty and control of God, like we preach every week, like our Genesis series keeps reminding us over and over, then we are right where God wants us to be. We are not behind or ahead of him – we’re right on schedule.

How long will it take us to get into this place? If no one increases their giving, if no one goes above and beyond, if no one

Currently we’re waiting on a decision from the city related to one of the adjacent properties, and and updated abstract based on their decision. So we still don’t know when closing would be. But we are working on putting together a capital campaign team to help spearhead the fundraising part of this. Those are the next steps there.

Lastly, I want to leave you with this today. If you have your Bibles, open them to Colossians 3:12–14 “Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful.”

Look at how outward this is…

Compassion. That’s a mercy you have for someone else.

Kindness. That’s a mercy you have for someone else, whether they deserve it or not.

Humility. That’s a position of considering someone else more important than myself.

Gentleness. That’s a mercy you have for someone else when you have the ability to be harsh.

Patience. That’s a mercy for someone else too, bearing with them, not being demanding when they don’t meet our standards.

Forgiveness. That’s a mercy toward someone else, where we don’t hold their wrongs against them.

And more than all of those things, put on love, which is where we empty ourselves for the sake of someone else.

Once all of those things are in place, now the only thing in the list that is about us happens. Let the peace of Christ rule YOUR heart. And be thankful.

Jesus sets the perfect example for us in all of these things. He had compassion for the crowds that were needy and desperate. He showed kindness in his welcoming of children, eating with sinners, caring for the sick and the poor. He displayed humility by not demanding what he was worthy of, but by becoming a servant; He showed gentleness and patience by choosing 12 guys to be his closest followers who had the wrong idea the entire time. He showed forgiveness even as he was being nailed to the cross, saying Father forgive them – they don’t know what they are doing. And he showed his unimaginable love by going to the cross. No one has greater love than this, that he lay down his life for a friend.

That’s what we’ll celebrate this Friday evening at our Good Friday Worship Night. The songs, the scriptures, the message will all be about the suffering Jesus experienced so that God’s righteousness would be on full display, and then Sunday we’ll celebrate the resurrection life that is in Jesus as we pick back up in Genesis 22.

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