What is a Vertical Church?

Vertical Church Conference 2018

What I learned about ministry and chicken wings...

Main Idea: If we want to see God we need to do everything we can to experience everything thing God has for us

We need to seek 3 vertical values

(1) We seek Vertical Transcendence for our hearts ()

Isaiah 64:1 ESV

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence—

Isaih 64:1

A cry to God - O that you

A request for the personal, real, life changing presence

Omnipresence versus Transcendence in the OT and the NT

The heavens being rent as God eagerly desires to be in the midst of His people

that the mountains - the obstacles, problems, difficulties in our lives

We desire in every service to seek the transcendent presence of the Lord. We are not charismatic -this is not an emotional, look at me, God is a genie in a bottle and we’re going to let him out experience. This is when I am at my lowest. I am at my most desperate, I am empty or cold or dispassionate or struggling with my identity in Christ and God comes and meets you during the worship, during the teaching of his word, during a time in our service where God’s word and God’s Spirit intersect with you and you alone.

We are not anti charismatic. God is able to heal, he is able to do a miraculous work in your life. He is able to do more than we could ever ask or imagine.

How do I experience the transcendent presence of God

I humble myself, I prepare, I participate, I lean in, I surrender.

Twice this week I was hit hard - the first time DJ McKie and the rain and the pastor

(2) We seek Vertical Power for our vision (John 5:1-15)

John 5:6 ESV

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”

John 5:

38 years a cripple and Jesus asks, do you want to be healed? Really?

Bethesda - house of mercy

God is not going to give you a vision according to your power. God gives you power according to His vision.

Do we want to see God work in this place? Do we want to change after all these years? Will we pick up our bed and say we’re never going back?

The second time I was hit hard was when I was listening to Pastor Emil from Birmingham preach from . And that leads us to what should be our third desire:

(3) We seek Vertical Transparency for our relationships ()

we seek genuine, transparent relationships that help one another to become everything we can be in Christ.

1 John 1:7 ESV

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

We impress others with our strengths but we connect with each other through our weaknesses

When Emil said these words, when he reminded me that we can never truly be without sin, that we need to be transparent and genuine in our struggles I was hit hard.