Church Vision May 2026
Church Vision • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Good morning my friends! If you are able, would you stand as we read scripture?
Hear the word of God, the great commission, from Matthew 28:18-20
Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 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 everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Pray with me. go ahead and have a seat slide
Directions when traveling have come a long way. A few weeks ago, Ariana, the kids and I got to get to the hills on a brief little vacation, and we were staying an AirBnB in Hill City. Technology has come so far, that I didn’t even know the address till the day we left! Was I lost? Not at all - I plugged the address into Mr Iphone, and it took us, step by step, turn by turn, right to the driveway. It even recalculated the route after we detoured through the badlands! It sounds crazy - but I really didn’t have to consider the directions on how to get there. I just followed the GPS. It’s almost impossible to get lost.
It wasn’t too many years ago when MapQuest was the hottest advancement - and while it was useful, it was so much more difficult. Do you remember this? MapQuest would give you directions to the location, but then you had to print them out - on real paper! The first page would be a map, and the rest of the pages would be step by step instructions of how to get to your destination.
You hit a detour - good luck. You miss an exit? Better turn around. Wanna add in the badlands - your rolling the dice.
But still - we had directions. Which made it difficult to get lost!
Before that - there were road atlases! I remember one being a vehicle we had growing up, which was just maps with the different high ways.
And before that - if you didn’t know where you were going, you had landmarks and verbal directions - crazy. And there weren’t always cell phones then, either, so if you got Lost, you had to pull over and find a pay phone, and you’d need to know their number!
All of these methods for directions though have a common theme - they show you the way to get from where you are, to where you are going, and help with steps along the way - all to make sure we don’t get lost along the way.
There’s quite a danger when we are on a journey of getting lost, of getting sidetracked, going off course. What helps us stay on track is a point of reference, directions, mapquest, a map, to make sure we are still headed the right way.
Today, we are pulling over the car and looking at the directions and the map. Our regular Rhythm as a Church is to take the first Sunday of the month to talk about our Church Vision. Why?
Because: Our Church is on a journey. Well, let me scratch that - The Church, the people of God, are on a journey - we’re on a mission with God to make disciples of all the nations, to baptize and teach and to do it all in the authority and the presence of Jesus.
And in for our local Church, We’ve taken this language and as we’ve prayerfully contextualized it - we say that we want to partner with God to increase the Spiritual temperature of South Eastern South Dakota by being fully focused on God and his Word, fully formed by the Spirit in Community and Fully Engaged with Christ on mission.
We could call this our vision statement - but it’s more than just that, for these words are actually the directions our church uses for discipleship.
And that’s what I want to discuss today: if we know the goal of the Church, how is our Church working towards accomplishing this mission.
So I want to remind all of us about what we do, what our processes are, and then share what this fall is shaping up to look like. God is up to good things!
This is so important to make sure we are all aligned in the direction were going. I confess, as a pastor and leader in the Church who spends all day thinking about this stuff, that sometimes I THINK I communicate things much more than I actually communicate things! That’s a key reason we try to do this kind of thing so often.
Because God is doing good things, he is expanding his Kingdom, he’s calling his children deeper, he’s reaching the lost, and he’s using us! That’s what God does, he uses his Church, which is his bride, his family, his body, to do the work!
For so many people, faith and church is viewed as a thing we go to, the pastor or the program does the work, like the organization drives the vehicle, we nap in the back, and over time we wake up where we want to be.
But if we were to compare the church to a vehicle - it’s a lot less like a luxury camper, and a lot more like the cars in the flinstones (image slide here) you remember that one? The family had their feet running underneath the “car?”The Church is powered by the Spirit of God using all of the people of GOd. All of us need to get in step with the spirit, in unity, so we can be effective and reach out destination.
So when it comes to our directions, what we are doing, where we are going, We have to be specific for our Church AND for every believer.
We are going to look at the mission of the Church, our Church’s rhythms, and then I want to share about what God is doing in Centerville, Hurley, and beyond.
Let’s zoom out first, beyond just The Seed, but for every believer and Church, you could take from the words of Christ, and He give people a high level mission: this is for everyone from a 10,000 ft view:
Love God, Love Others, and Make Disciples. slide
We get this from Matthew 22, and Matthew 28, which we read at the beginning.
So what’s the goal of the Church? We want to love God, Love Others, and make disciples.
Now these are all intimately connected, so let’s break that down
How do we love God? How do we demonstrate our love for God? We could give a lot of answers to this that are probably pretty good: but Scripture actually is really clear about this, think of John 14:15
“If you love me, you will keep my commands.”
Or 1 John 5:3
For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden,
Loving God at it’s core is obedience to what he says - well this means we need to know what he commands, right? And all of this is initiated by God himself. God reveals himself and his will, and empowers us through his spirit to be made new and obey. We love because God first loves us. He initiates, we respond in faith.
And there are other elements to Love of God. I think of praise and worship and sacrifice and adoration - all that matters and is a part of it - but at it’s core, obedience and submission are the foundation.
We need to love God - with everything that we are and we have. We bring everything into obedience to His way.
And then - we need to love others. Jesus tells us what this looks like in the sermon on the mount:
Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Love your neighbor the way you want to be loved. Know them, serve them, listen to them, pray for them. BE THERE with them through the good and the bad.
Proximity, closeness, understanding - all of these are in the umbrella of love and relationship. Despite what we may like to believe, humans are made for community. And to say we love God, without loving others demonstrates our lack of love for God. God COMMANDS us to care for those around us, especially those who are the most destitute.
If we say we love God, but we don’t demonstrate this without loving the people around us, we are fooling ourselves.
But it doesn’t end just with hugs. The Goal of the Church is obedience to God, caring for our neighbors, and making disciples.
Back to Matthew 28:18-20
Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 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 everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Disciples are followers of Jesus. That means we need to preach the gospel, and encourage people to repent and follow the way of Jesus.
And a disciple isn’t just a convert - it’s someone who is in the family of God, demonstrated in Matthew 28 by baptism, which is considered the introductory rites into the family of God, and then teaching them to obey. Which leads back into loving God.
Now in each of these, loving God, Loving others, making disciples, we could flesh out a ton of examples of what all this looks like.
But again, this is the 10,000 foot view of what each believer in Christ is supposed to be about, and what each Church is supposed to be about.
But what about for us? What about for you?
How does our Church participate in this mission to love God, love others, and make disciples?
Two weeks ago we talked about how most people have an unintentional process of formation for themselves. We talked about how so many people think they’re going to just stumble upon holiness and sainthood - but sanctification, while it’s a work of God, requires us to keep in step with the Spirit. We work out our salvation with fear and trembling. And as we walk with Christ, over time, intentionally, he works more and more in and through us. But most people remain in the unintentional world.
The same is true for most Churches. Churches want to help people love God and Love others and they want to make disciples, but so often there isn’t an intentional plan! We just throw worship and sacraments and programs at people, and see what sticks. And the results are disastrous! Our culture is evidence of poor discipleship in our local churches. And it’s all with good intentions but lack of a real plan.
We don’t want to do that. We want to partner with God. We want to see his kingdom come here on earth as it is in heaven. We want each of us to be made more and more in his likeness.
And we want it to be Simple.
So what does our normal rhythms look like?
Our Language is the plan:
Fully Focused, Fully Formed, Fully Engaged,
Fully Focused on God and His Word. He is the source of life and truth and light. This is our Sunday Morning Service. It’s a weekly Rhythm in which we worship, study his word, practice baptism, communion, and encourage each other. IT’s the natural gathering point and entry point for most people. It’s foundational and pivotal. We want everyone to come to Church and participate in worship.
Our second step is Fully Formed by the Spirit in Community. We believe that transformation happens in the context of Gospel community. When we allow others to see what’s going on inside. While Sunday may be the foundation of discipleship, it’s smaller contexts over time that the Spirit seems to work best. Throughout the year we host community groups for this specific purpose. You could put Youth Ministry in this as well. While in the summer we don’t have formal groups - we do host grills so that we can continue relationships and pray for eachother and encourage each other.
Community groups aren’t for the “super” christian - they’re pivotal for our discipleship process.
And the third step is Fully Engaged with Christ on mission. This has two branches - one is where people start serving at Church regularly and meaningfully. The second is in each of our lives, wherever we find ourselves doing life with God in the world, and we invite others to join us on the next Sunday. This then let’s the new people come on sunday, then take the next step to get plugged into groups, and to serve!
This is our simple model - and it’s intentionally simple! And Truly, when we commit to the Lord over time, participate in Sunday, join a group, and serve others in the church and beyond - friends, life change does happen. The prove is sitting around us. Sometimes life change is dramatic and quick, but for most of us, it’s piece by piece, little by little, over the years.
We believe that as we do this, as we build our lives on the foundation of Christ, and with rhythms that ground ourselves in him, we will See the Spiritual Temperature of southeastern South Dakota increased.
These are the directions, my friends.
What I want to invite you into this morning is prayer, and engagement.
This last year has been amazing, through baptizing many, growth of our church, a thriving youth ministry, a mission trip to Jordan, a core team forming for a church plant in Hurley. COmmunity groups are growing deep - mens breakfast just exploding. And the quiet prayers and love that happens around peoples tables. This is amazing!
It’s also been a difficult decision. A long standing missional outpost of our congregation was the Coffeehouse, which as many of you were involved in prayer, closed at the beginning of March. We officially moved out of that space this last week.
This led us into a season of transition and prayer. What is God up to and what is he calling us to next?
To cut a long season of prayer really short- I want to share with you what I think God is calling us to in this next season.
Faithful Obedience.
I kept praying and asking: what’s the next big thing your calling us to, and felt God push me to stop chasing the next big thing and to be faithful in the little things. What is happening here is amazing and is worth our attention. We need to be excellent and faithful in the little things.
What does this look like? Well, I want ot make sure we are helping people be fully engaged with Christ on mission thorugh service. We have an incredible mission oppurtunity every single Wednesday night here. Youth ministry has been incredible *share more here*
For years as I’ve prayed over this area and how to best reach people, God has brought to my mind the phrase: the kids and students hold the keys to the people’s homes and hearts.
Friends - as our culture continues to slide into post-Christianity and immorality, how do we push back? Through loving the next Generation.
So I have a bold idea for this next fall: let’s bring back Wednesday Church Night. Growing around the country, especially in our region, Wednesday Night was Church night. Where there were prayer groups, Bible Studies, kids ministries and awanas, and youth groups. But as time has gone on, and especially since Covid, those have ceased.
I believe we need to bring it back.
I think Wednesday nights where we intentionally disciple kids, students, and adults will increase the Spiritual Temperature of Southeastern South Dakota.
Imagine with me: what if in this space, Wednesday evenings, we host a community meal to anyone who is hungry all for free will donation. Then, whoever is here is invited to worship. We sing songs with kids, students, and adults, and then imagine we split off into kids ministry, student minsitry and adult disciplehsip. We have this space, hopefully a new office space just down the street, and maybe someones home. This would allow us to be formed by the Spirit in Community, and engaged with Christ on mission as we invite people into love and community and truth!
This would then allow Sunday mornings to be all about Prayer and our worship service.
I truly think this is something we need to pursue.
But that leads us into my next ask:
How can you be engaged with Christ on Mission?
Things like a Wednesday night ministry, missions, and more do not happen without the greater Church getting on board. We need your help, not just to serve, but to help us steer and plan and engage with Christ on mission.
The Church is a priesthood of all believers. It’s when the Spirit of God falls on the People of God to empower them to work with God.
If we want to be faithful to what God is calling us too, it takes everyone chipping in as they are able and gifted.
So we are going to start a robust group of teams.
Let me go over them:
Kids/Youth Wednesday Planning Team
Compassion Team
Mission Team
Hospitality Team
Connection Team
Worship, Sound, Tech Team
Set up Team
Prayer Team
Hands and Feet Team
Counting Team
There is more - but all of these are to help us be fully focused, fully formed, fully engaged.
Would you prayerfully consider how you can engage with Christ and serve Christ, the Church, and your neighbors? I’m going to have sheets so you can sign up if your interested, but I invite you to pray about how you can engage as we follow Christ.
So What?
Christians and the Church are supposed to love GOd, love others, and make disciples.
How do we do that? What are the directions so we can all pedal our car together?
Fully Focused, Fully Formed, Fully Engaged.
Sundays, Wednesdays (or when your groups meets) and as we serve others.
And what is the destination? the kingdom of God in south eastern South Dakota. We want to partner with GOd to increase the spiritual temperature of south eastern south dakota.
And guess what? IT’s happening share about Hurley, the groups etc
This summer is a rebuilding summer for us. If you are interested at all in hearing more about any of these teams We will have these sheets, and we want to connect with you!
So what’s the plan?
Fully focused, fully formed, fully engaged. In Centerville, in Hurley. In our homes, in our church. Until Christ comes back.
