Vision and Strategy
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“To create better everyday life for the many people.”
Ikea
earth's most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online
Amazon
to move with velocity to drive profitable growth and become an even better ________ serving more customers delicious food each day around the world.
McDonalds
To always deliver the '______ experience' to our customers. The ______ Experience. We will take you on a journey, your own voyage of discovery. You will come to discover how special it is to belong to the _______ family. You will experience our traditional hospitality, warmth and fun.
Nandos
Follwoing Jesus Together: Passionatly, Courageously, Increasingly
GCWP
Almost every company has a vision statement and then a stratergy behind it to deliver it.
Without those 2 things no-one really knows what they are trying to acheive as a company or organisation.
Although in Nandos case, I’m not sure they know what they are delivering even with a vision statement!
Most of life requires vision and stratergy.
You’ll be hard pushed to think of anything you do in your own life that you don’t have some sort of vision and stratergy for.
It wont be written down or even thought about, but you’ll generaly have a goal and a plan to get there.
It is, unsuprisingly, the way in which God operates, and it is therfore the way in which he has designed us human beings to operate.
Start with ourselevs.
You go to work becasue you aim to earn a living, to care for your family, to provide and to suceed at life.
Your vision is therefore survival or even to thrive, and your starergy is to get a job and keep it. So you get up on time, you have travel arrangements in place etc.
You might aim to have a relaxed and lazy Saturday - so your vision is to relax, and your stratergyy might be to deliberatly not plan anything that day!
You have a vison for what your boby looks and acts like and we make a stratergy for diet and fitness accordingily.
And when we don’t have a vision for our boidies, we tend to get into bad habits.
God is the same.
He had a vision to create a humnaity who would bring glory to himself.
in order to bring glory to himself.
so, he developed a stratergy.
so, he developed a stratergy.
He created a world,
populated it with people and gave us his son Jesus as a loving sacrifice for our sin.
He planned it,
He saves us,
So we give him the glory.
All of life requires vision and stratergy.
A vison of the final goal,
And a startergy, a plan of how to get there.
Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint;
but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.
Everytime you get in the car you have a vision of where you want to get to, and a startergy. a route to get there!
The one whose walk is blameless is kept safe,
but the one whose ways are perverse will fall into the pit.
prov 28
2 years ago we launched a new vision statement for us as a church.
Those who work their land will have abundant food,
but those who chase fantasies will have their fill of poverty.
Following Jesus Togeteher, Passionately, Couragously and Increasingly.
That’s our vision - that is, in an ideal world, what we are as a church.
And With the addition and changes in staff
in Septemeber just gone, with Tim joining us as Asst. Pastor,
And Adam as Pastor in training.
And now Esther leaving us for a church plant in Barkingside -
incidentally, an advert is out at the moment for a new Childrens and youth worker, but normally chidlrens and uyouth workers move around in Spetember, so we might have to have a little gap.
So an advert is out at the moment, but normally chidlrens and uyouth workers move around in Spetember, so we might have to have a little gap.
But, with all these changes,
The question we as elders have been exploring this last year is how do we use our resources to move towards this vision.
And so that is what we are launching today.
We’ve actually been trialling it since september, and so far, so good,
so now we’re just taking today as an oppertunity to share with you all how we are stratergising to serve the purposes of God here at GCWP.
And to do that, we’re going to look at what Jesus says about vision and stratergy for his church,
and hopefully we can see how we are trying to allign oursleves with that.
Practially for each of us here,
I trust it will inspire us to see how we can all be part of Jesus’ vision and stratergy for the church as well.
There are many passages in the bible that can be used to look at what Jesus and the apostles intended for the vision and stratergy of the church,
but probably non better than here in .
In the first half of Ephesians Paul has unfolded the eternal plan of God with its goal, or vision if you like, of summing up all things in Christ.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter to the Ephesians A. Unity, Diversity, and Maturity within the Body of Christ, 4:1–16
In the first half of Ephesians the apostle has unfolded for his readers the eternal plan of God with its goal of summing up all things in Christ. His direct appeal in chapter 4 is based on the foundation of their being reconciled in Christ and made part of God’s new humanity.
Jesus is the one to be glorified and the means by which everything is acheived.
Now in chapter 4, Paul shows us how Jesus himself expects the church to operate,
behave stategically is you like, in order to acomplish that greater vision.
But he also gives us church level vision first.
So, that’s our first point,
1 - Jesus’ Vision for Us.
1 - Jesus’ Vision for Us.
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
eph 4 11-
Jesus has given us certain people with certain responsibilities and gifts, apostles, prophets, evangelists etc - (that ‘s his stratergy that we will come onto in a minute) to acheive His own vision for the Chruch.
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
His vision for the church is quite simple: from the end of v12
eph 4 11
‘so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.’
To put it even more simply,
Jesus wants his church to be united in faith and knowledge of the Son of God - which we find a good explanation of in v2-6 if you look back at that:
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Unity in faith therefore has to have much todo with being united in love becasue of our shared faith in Jesus the Son of God.
And United in the knowldge of the Son of God has to be, to be in agreement on core doctrines and theology.
In other words, Issues of the bible that affect peoples salavation, the examples Paul gives are
One Lord - reminding us we must hold to the truth that salavtion is only available in Jesus the Lord,
One faith - no other ideologiy or religion or idea will do - there is only one faith.
one Baptism (representing our trust in the death and resurection of Jesus for salvation
One God and Father of all- showing we hold a doctrine of One God, there are no others, and any distraction from him would be idolotrous. He is the Father of all, the creator -there is no other lilke him!
We might disagree of other aspects of theology and doctirne at times - but we must hold fast to what are often called Gospel Issues - Issues that threaten salvation if we do not hold to them.
Jesus’s vision for the church then is,
A loving unity with each other
And
An intelligent unity around core Gospel issues
I trust that is all refelcted in our own Vision statement,
I trust that is all refelcted in our Vision statement,
SLIDE - Vision statement
Following Jesus ‘Together’, - so, we’re united in love, a family, in our faith and walk with Jesus.
Following Jesus ‘Together’, - we’re united in love, a family, in our faith and walk with Jesus.
The other words pick out more details:
Passionatley becasue we believe Jesus to be the only way, and God is worthy of all praise and worship - he is the one and only God.
Courageously becasue we will not compromise on Gospel issues, even in a culture that is uncomfortable with the gospel.
and Increasingly becasue we love to both grow numnerically as we spread the good news of Jesus,
And becasue we love to grow in maturity to be more like Jesus through the knowledge of the Son of God in his word the bible.
So, that’s Jesus’s vision for the church,
A loving unity with each other
And
An intelligent unity around the core Gospel issues
I wonder why you come to church, and what you think it is all about?
Well that is what we’re about.
Loving unity in our faith in Jesus,
and
Intelligent Unity as we grow in knowledge under the teaching of the bible.
Or as we say:
Following Jesus Togeteher, Passionately, Couragously and Increasingly.
So now we’ll move onto Jesus’ stratergy for his church, us, to acheive this great vision.
2 - Jesus’ Stratergy
2 - Jesus’ Stratergy
Have a look at v11 and 12 again:
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
Jesus’ stratergy was to provide His people with people of different responsibilities - or ‘offices’ as some churchs call them,
so that all aspects of attaining the vision are acheived.
The first 2 offices mentioned are ‘apostles and prophets’.
These Paul says earlier in Ephesians are the foundations of the church.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
and
In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
And of course we have the work and words of the prophets and apostles forver with us in the Bible today.
They are our absolute foundation,
which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.
with Christ the cornerston - the one who holds it all togetehr and fulfills it all in himself.
Some of the churches starting up across the middle east at the time Ephesians was written would have met some of these prophets and apostles.
Some of them would have been planted by an apostle,
such as Paul who is writting this letter.
But many would have never met an apostle,
but simply would have known they are indepted to the foundations they have put in place.
They are the churchs that most reflect our situation today.
And they are the churches who exists and are sustained by those other 3 offices that Jesus has given the church.
Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers.
Evagelists were those continueing the work of the apostles in preaching the gospel to those who have not heard it!
Jesus gives the church evangelists to keep pushing outwards as churchs into our community and social networks and acros the world
to save people from hell for heaven through Jesus!
This is the area of responsibility we have asked Tim to have and I’ll show you how shortly.
Pastors is a little trickier to work out here - as this word is only used just this once in the NT.
But it alligns most closely with the other NT passages speaking about elders, overseers and shepherds.
SO, Jesus gives his church pastors or elders to shepherd the flock into what we have already talked about, fulfilling the vision of unity in faith and unity in the bible.
You’ll have received an ‘Elders @ GCWP’ handout today that explains what we believe the NT expects of elder’s.
So I really encourage you to read that and be praying for the elders here in that role.
And thirdly Jesus gives the church teachers.
The NT makes it clear that all pastors (or elders) are expected to teach - it’s their primary role to authoratiitvly guide the church by teaching the word of God.
The NT makes it clear that all pastors (or elders) are expected to teach - it’s their primary role to authoratiitvly guide the church by teaching the word of God.
But, there are also others who will be gifted at teaching the word,
but are not nesscicerily pastors or elders.
For example, many of you here will teach in Sunday School, Ignite or Roots. That is a hugley significant role,
it’s an office from Jesus,
given to the church, through you, to equip the church for unity in Faith.
Others will teach in home groups or at breakfast meeting or the odd sermon as well - although typically that’s reserved for elders.
v11 -
v11 -
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter to the Ephesians 2. Diversity in Unity that Leads to Maturity, 4:7–16
The New Testament contains five such lists (Rom. 12:6–8; 1 Cor. 12:8–10, 28–30; Eph. 4:11–12; cf. 1 Pet. 4:10–11) which between them number more than twenty different gifts, some of which are not particularly spectacular (cf. Rom. 12:8). Each list diverges significantly from the others. None is complete, but each is selective and illustrative, with no effort to force the various gifts into a neat scheme. Even together all five do not present a full catalogue of gifts.
The specific mention, first of all, that Christ gave apostles and prophets corresponds to the earlier references in 2:20 and 3:5 (see the exegesis above) to their foundational role as the authoritative recipients and proclaimers of the mystery of Christ (note also their appearance first in Paul’s list of 1 Corinthians 12:28). Because of the mention of evangelists, pastors, and teachers, many modern commentators have concluded that the apostles and prophets had passed from the scene by the time Ephesians was written and had been replaced by a second generation of ministers. But this conclusion is unnecessary. Evangelists, pastors, and teachers exercised their ministry during the apostles’ time and subsequently, and were no doubt the church workers whom most of the readers had encountered. Many did not know the apostle Paul. It was his fellow-evangelists through whom the gospel was proclaimed outside Ephesus, while towards the end of his ministry the term ‘pastor’ or ‘shepherd’ was used alongside ‘overseer’ and ‘elder’ to describe church leaders (cf. Acts 20:17, 28, where ‘elders’ are ‘overseers’ who ‘pastor’ the flock). (Note particularly the example of Epaphras, through whom the congregations at Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis were founded: Col. 1:7–8; 4:12–13.)
Jesus gives to his people people gifted and able in these areas to strategically move the church towards His vision.
Evangelists -
Evangelists -
But they do capture the overidng structure for a church.
preaching the gospel, continuing the work of the apostles - growing the church numerically
We don’t have to be a church of clones,
And what are they supposed to do?
Jesus gifts, even leaders within the church, to be different.
Pastors
Pastors
And look what his aim is, v12
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter to the Ephesians 2. Diversity in Unity that Leads to Maturity, 4:7–16
The term ‘pastor’ is used only here in the New Testament to refer to a ministry in the church, although the related verb ‘to shepherd’ appears several times in this sense (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2; cf. John 21:16), and the noun ‘flock’ is used of the church (Acts 20:28–29; 1 Pet. 5:2, 3). Pastors, whose functions are similar to those of overseers (cf. Phil. 1:1) and elders (cf. Acts 20:17, with 28; also 14:23; 1 Tim. 4:14; 5:17, 19, etc.), exercise leadership through nurture and care of the congregation. They manage the church (1 Thess. 5:12; Rom. 12:8), and are to be regarded in love ‘because of their work’. The imagery of the shepherd, which was applied to God (Gen. 49:24; Ps. 23:1; 80:1; 40:11) to denote the way he cared for and protected his people, as well as to leaders (both good and bad) in Israel (2 Sam. 5:2; Ps. 78:71; Jer. 23:2; Ezek. 34:11), comes to be applied to church leaders as those who carry on Jesus’ pastoral ministry. He is the Good Shepherd, who cares for God’s flock (John 10:11–18; Matt. 18:12–14; Luke 15:3–7; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 2:25; 5:4). Leaders in the church are exhorted to be ‘shepherds of God’s flock’ (1 Pet. 5:2; Acts 20:28) who pattern their pastoral ministry after Christ’s example.
to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter to the Ephesians 2. Diversity in Unity that Leads to Maturity, 4:7–16
All pastors teach (since teaching is an essential part of pastoral ministry), but not all teachers are also pastors. The latter exercise their leadership role by feeding God’s flock with his word
You thought for a second you had an easy life - well I’m not an evangelist, pastor or teacher - I can sit back a relax!
Unlucky!
That stratergy is in place to mobilies the entire church body to ‘works of servce’.
What type of works are we talking about?
Work that build up the body of Christ! The Church!
You are here in this church to serve in whatever way Jesus has gifted you, to build up the church.
And while sometimes it’s easy to think that there are only a few specific roles that are ‘really important’ that is not the view of the NT.
Here is s stratergy given by Jesus that recognises different roles or offices,
to equip the church to operate in all sorts of different ways and responsibilites,
that ALL - as one united Body.
Serve to build up the church!
There are actually 5 lists of gifts that God gives to people in the the NT,
none are supposed to be exhustive lists and all togetehr they number more than 20 different types of gifts.
The point is then,
you are here to play your part in the body to fulfill the great vision of Jesus for his chruch!
you are doing it to fulfill the great vision of Jesus for his chruch!
If you are a gifted at welcmoing people with a smile, you are doing that for Jesus,
for the gospel, so that the church is built up!
If you have your neighbour round for coffee every now and then in the hope you can invite them to church or even talk to them about Jesus -
you are doing that to build up the church - you’re doing it for Jesus.
It doesn’t matter if you
preach,
help out in Diggers,
clear away after the service,
go door knocking,
do some administrtaion for the church,
serve refreshments,
empty the bins,
play an instrument,
bake cakes,
decorate the hall,
you are an essential part of the body,
and it’s all for the building up of the church.
You are significantly valuable and important.
And so that is what we have tried to refelct in our new stratery:
Recognising the different general areas of minisrty that we ought to be involved in according to Jesus’s stratergy for the church,
but also ensuring we are equipping each of us to play are part well.
SLIDE of the new stratergy
Here is the new stratergy then:
You shoud have a print out with more detial - but let me summarise them now for you.
And before I start - it’s worth saying we already do much of this,
but this is our way of sturctyring oursleevs to be even more effective.
So, Tim is responsible for Engage and Evangelism.
But it’s not his role to do all the engaging and evangelising.
That role belongs to many of us here.
So the Enage minisrty will look at effective ways to love the community around us,
so that we can draw a crowd from the community who are preared to listen to the Gospel.
So Tim will need those of you who are already involved in our commmunity,
who love caring for people,
or being enagaged with community projects,
local sports clubs,
businesses even.
To draw a crowd to pass onto the
Evangelism ministry,
who will find relevant and accessible ways of telling the gospel to those who will listen.
Adam and I are responsible for the establish minisrty.
We’ll speciifcally be looking at uniting the congregation in both bible teaching and fellowship.
Preaching,
home groups,
chidlrens and youth groups,
but also encouraging a helathy and vibrant family fellowship feel.
The other aspect of Establish is also to establish new Christians
- those passed onto us from the Evangelism minisrty - in basics of doctirne and theology for the sake of unity.
But those 3 minitries as I’ve said, require you to be involved - as many of you already are.
So I’ll be also heading up the Equip Ministry,
seeking to equip us for work’s of service that serve back into these minstry teams.
So, if you want to be better at evangelsim,
We’ll look to help you there.
If you want to be better at hospitality,
we’ll look to help you there -
perhap Lynn DT can run a cake baking course!
If someone is recognised as being gifted as a teacher,
we could look to equip them to preach.
And so the list goes on.
And the final Ministry is Enlist.
This is to recognise that for some people,
full time gospel work is something to pursue.
So this minsirty is in place to think about how we can encourage peopel to consider a career in ministry,
and this ministry is inplace to support those who are partners with us in the gospel.
So, Rick and Esther will not be forgootne by us as a church,
becasue we will seek to care for them through the Equip Minisrty.
This minisrty will support Adam as he continues to study at Bible college over the next 3 year.
It will help us support and get more involved in our overseeas mission partners as well.
What I hope is that you will see this strataergy as a very exciting way of getting involved in growing our church for Christ.
You don’t need to memorise it,
for the most part you can be fairly oblivious to it if you like!
But know that we are making evry effort to structure ourselves around the most biblical and stregic model we can think of at the moment,
in obedience to Jesus’ vision for us as a church.
I hope there are things I’ve said that you think -
Yes - I want to help with that,
Or I’m going to find out more about,
Or I’d love some trainign in...
These are exciting time for us as a Church.
We have more staff to oversea the organisation of these things,
More resources and contacts and relationships then ever before.
More people sat on these seats each week.
And I for one am excited about serveing Jesus with each of you as we move forward.
And more of you involved in works of service that ever before!
By God’s grace, let us pray that we these coming years,
move closer and closer to our vision to bringing Glory to God.
through Follwing Jesus togetehr,
Passoionatley,
Couragously
Increasingly.
Increasingly.
Let’s Pray.