Vision and Commitment Oct 2020

I'd like you to cast your mind back to the middle of march when I shared about the vision of the church, and had planned to talk money with you. But then we'd just had news that the coronavirus was now a threat to the country and we were likely to be 'locked down'. I felt the Lord say that we needed to focus on the vision of the church in the face of the new disease as it was, in mid-March.

Well today, we're going to explore the vision God has given us for our church, and I'm going to be real with you about the financial position. I'm all about transparency, and being a family means we're honest, and being children of God means we're hopeful to. Because God is in this with us, and he is calling us, and he promises to equip and provide for us.

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Let's remind ourselves of what our offering in the hands of God looks like.

Jesus on a mountain top preaches to thousands of people - it would cost half a years wages just to let everyone have a taste of bread. What is in their hands. A little boy has a pack lunch - and thousands of people are fed

Moses - having been let go by the Egyptians became aware that they were chasing them. He was faced with the red sea and a distant army of chariots. What was in his hand? He had a rod - God called him to lift it, the waters parted, and the sea moved? Exodus 4.1-4

I wonder what is in your hands?

Esther - was beautiful in human eyes, forced into a beauty pageant and chosen by the King to be his Queen. What was in her hands? Courage, status and a question. Approaching the king humbly she asked a question... and the Jewish people were saved

A little shepherd boy faced a giant in front of an army. What were in his hands? He had a stone and a sling. He fired. And David killed Goliath - 1 Samuel

What is in your hands?

Elijah speaks to the widow of Zarephath - he asks her to make him bread. She says its the last food she has, and he asks her to make it anyway. She’s about to die of hunger, and the prophet’s asking for food. What does she have in her hands? A tiny bit of oil and flour. But she finds that the flour and oil keep on producing, they never run out. - 1 Kings 17

Paul & Silas In prison - Acts 16.25 - unjustly condemned and imprisoned. What was in their hands? A song and a prayer. And God sent an earthquake, they had dinner with the prison guard, brought him to faith and stood up to the unjust authorities

Friends, throughout scripture we see a God of miracles who takes what’s in our hands and multiplies it

What is in your hand that God can use in a miraculous way?

Let's explore our passage this morning.

God has delivered the Israelites from Egypt and now they've settled in the wilderness. Their a nomadic people walking from place to place. And he now asks them to make him a dwelling place among them so that he will be with them.

God has asked for these expensive and time consuming materials,

What God wants is specific and there are many different ways to give

However, God asks for a freewill offering,

In this passage there is no command for every family to give. Aaron (only 3 chapters earlier) commands every family to give gold to create the golden calf,

The yarn is much less costly, yet the hours taken in crafting them is so valuable

God asks the people here to give what they can, olive oil may not have been as expensive as gold, but they were asked to give what they had, and critically to give it willingly.

Some brought the materials, others brought their skill, and everything was given willingly, because everyone wanted to see God dwelling among them.

The Gold & Silver particularly came from Egypt. Yes, the Egypt that enslaved them. These precious metals were thrown at them to get rid of them. Everything they had came from God and so they give back to God out of the gracious riches that God had freely given them.

And what amazes me here, is that the people are bringing it morning by morning. Just like God gave them the mana morning by morning, now his people are giving their gifts back to him, morning by morning.

And then something, that I've never seen in a church, happens. Moses sends out a new order that no-one is to bring anything else, and they have more than enough to complete the tent of meeting, enough to create this moveable temple.

Can you imagine me asking you to stop bringing your offerings because this work is done?

We see the most precious building fund going on here, and once it is created, the people had brought everything which is needed

Bezalel and Obihad were both specifically called and skilled to lead the crafting of the ministry of the people before God. It was all they were meant to spend their time on, while others brought their materials, time and skills, but perhaps could only give a certain amount of time to the task, in amongst their other jobs and duties.

To me, this looks like gathering a staff team of people who are paid to facilitate and help craft the mission of God carried out by his people.

They are crafting a place where God can dwell, so that people can meet God

We are crafting the same.

This is why we are church, this is why we exist. To facilitate a space where people can encounter the living God. - Isn't that the core mission of TANGO?

And I don't just mean inside this building, or even inside our buildings. We are committed to facilitating a space where God can dwell and where people can meet him. So new fresh expressions of church I believe are part of what God is calling us to do.

And it comes from us asking the Lord, what is in my hands, and being ready to freely offer that to him and to the church.

Up until this point God has given to the Israelites, Mana,

"God opened his arms and asked whether anyone would like to give to him. Through this marvellous invitation, God introduced the freewill offering which he uniquely received only on the basis of a hearts desire. This offering was for all who wanted to give of themselves to him, just for the simple joy of it. Free of compulsion, devoid of all urging, for those who wanted to give, God extended the opportunity."

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Vision

And what have we got in our hands as a family, as the community of St Mark’s?

As a leadership we’ve been exploring who we are and why God has called us together for this time.

And 6 areas sprung up which God laid on our hearts.

3 person focuses

1. Jesus

2. Each other (as in our church family)

3. and our community - not the community, but ours. Haydock specifically, but also the neighbourhood around Haydock.

And then we felt God give us three words of intentionality.

1. Knowing

2. Loving

3. Caring

These are interrelated and encompass the previous statements which are so important to St Mark’s.

But it’s helpful to set a bench mark, a statement which is easy to remember and quickly shows why we exist. Something which works for those who are believers and those who aren’t.

And so the statement we’ve chosen is

Knowing Jesus, loving each other, caring for our community

We believe that these things only come through living with Jesus

And let’s think about that phrase abiding in Jesus

John 15:4–5 NIV

4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Friends we are called to bear fruit. Not just have pretty leaves.

That’s both for us individually, but also in our life together.

We’ve adopted the Bishop’s rule of life. It’s not a rule like laws we have to follow, these are daily disciplines and callings from God which have been part of this churches DNA for the past 110 years of our existence.

That we are:

• Called to pray, read and learn

• Sent to tell, serve and give

This is nothing new, but I want you to think of it as a trellis.

In our daily personal lives, the call to hang out with Jesus in prayer, to hear what he says, and to study his written word through reading the Bible. And as his apprentices, we’re looking to learn more about following his way through studying together but also through taking leaps of faith.

And we feel Jesus closer when we naturally start sharing about him. That’s what our lent course is all about. Being equipped to share about Jesus and introduce people to him in completely natural ways. And of course we each take our roles in serving Jesus both inside and outside of the church. God is calling each of us to serve him and we need to obediently follow his call. And then the one we don’t like talking about. We are sent to give. Give of our time, our money, our energies and efforts.

I wonder, what is in your hands?

Last year I shared with you a vision. A vision of wave.

A year ago at the New Wine North Leadership Conference, I heard God whisper to me ‘are you ready’ and when I asked what for I felt him clearly say “for a new wave of my spirit bringing new believers. People who need much love, people who need me in their lives. People who are hurting, who are lost, who need much love and much grace”I felt him saying that he would restore the years lost to the church, but that he had no place for pride, the pride of an organisation. That we are called to be his children, and follow where he was leading.”I shared with you how that had been confirmed, and then over the year we had a number of prophesies among different groups also confirming the need to prepare. So we’ve been in a phase as a church of preparing. Within the church we have set up welcome and hospitality teams who are awesome. We’ve put a number of other structures in place to support more people on Sundays. More importantly we’ve allowed God space to prepare us. Since March, we've allowed God to show us new dimensions of his immense love and we continue to ask him how we continue to meet the needs of this our community of Haydock. Exploring his kingdom plan for the world, that he seeks to bring us all into that intimate relationship with him. The relationship we were created for above all others. Walking through his birth in Advent, through to the cross at Lent and his resurrection at Easter.

We’ve heard of his amazing plans for all who turn to follow Jesus, that

Ephesians 1:4–5 NIV

4 "he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as children through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will."

We’ve accepted his forgiveness and our identity as free children, released in his love to be his children, and his body on earth. That we are to be united.And we’ve been challenged about the way we live our lives. From unforgiveness, malicious talk, how we order our relationships, our attitude to those in authority over us, and our work ethic.Finally, we’ve enjoyed the equipping of the Spirit of God, through his armour and through his presence with us, and through the power of praying to a loving God who engages and changes our world for good.And that’s just us on a Sunday morning and in our small groups. We’ve also trained 16 leaders, equipped all our small group leaders, and are active in preparing for the next phase.In this next phase, we’re looking at our outreach groups. Those who provide spaces of meeting, of listening, of encounter across the week. Among a number of ministries are Smarties, our popular toddler group, Golden Oldies, our seniors meal, the source, the cafe which meets here, Cool club, which is our after school ministry and of course TANGO, our furniture project, shop and cafe. I believe we’re being called to be more intentional. Not just to serve great coffee and food, or provide affordable furniture, but to be even more effective in our caring for this local community. We know that each of these ministries has been impacted majorly by COVID-19, we are sad to see the Source cafe remain closed and some of our more socially oriented groups paused for the meantime.I wonder, perhaps we’ve been too happy with letting TANGO get on and ‘do the local mission’ of the church. With quite a lot of non Christian staff and volunteers in TANGO, we can’t just expect people to encounter Jesus. Under Gerry's leadership I believe we will see even more people knowing Jesus through TANGO as the Christians in our mission wing of the church are released to share their faith in loving and friendly ways.And that's not to say that our amazing Christian’s at work there haven't been sharing their faith, but what I’m saying is that we can’t just assume that Christian mission is happening just because TANGO is our mission project. Decline is part of TANGO’s current reality, but I believe that’s about to change.

This year at the new wine leadership conference I was given more pictures of St Mark’s and TANGO.I felt the Lord saying that this wave that we’ve been preparing for is about to break, and that need to be ready to ride it, welcome it and to step out. I felt him sharing that St Mark’s was to be a foretaste of heaven, like the starters to a posh banquet.I felt him lay on my heart that Jesus is calling us to action, to love Haydock like we never have before. To give more of our time and money, to lay ourselves before him and get out of our buildings. That working together, St Mark’s and TANGO can reach out to so many. But we need people to come alongside these ministries. People in Smarties, when it reopens, not just to help out but to connect with the parents and grandparents. People who are willing to give up time to ‘be present’ in our cafe. Listening and meeting all who come through the doors. But also getting out into the community and finding out what they want from us. Truly knowing our community, and I think that’s one of the first steps.We currently don’t have any youth provision at St Mark’s which is something which has massively changed since lockdown, in that from the generosity of a few in church, we're able to see a new Youth ministry born. I have a vision for a new outreach youth group which I’d love to explore with anyone who is interested.

And a phrase that’s been resonating with me throughout and since our study of Ephesians is

Ephesians 5:14b NIV

14 “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

It’s nice to think that we’re part of a friendly welcoming church. But there is more to St Mark’s than that. We have the potential to make a massive difference. It’s so easy to get caught up in the business of life and miss what God is doing, and I feel him saying ‘Wake up O sleeper, arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you”

It’s not just in helping people with their practical needs, but in introducing them to the one who created them, the one who loves them and the one who want’s to free them.

Sometimes we hold back because we don’t want to offend people. But brothers and sisters, the reality is that those who don’t know Jesus won’t live a life of freedom, or abundance, or have an eternity with him. It really is a life and death situation, heaven and hell are both realities, and God's heart is that all would accept his free gift of love. But people need to know to be brought on a journey where they are ready to hear that invitation from their loving Father.

In another ministry time, I saw the fire of God pour down upon TANGO like he did on the disciples at Pentecost and the fire of God lapped around the TANGO shed, not consuming it but filling it with his presence and his love. I saw the leaders and prayers of the church standing around worshipping and felt God saying he was doing something new through his Spirit.

Commitment

Friends if you want to be part of this amazing work and journey then we need to move our conversation to our time and our wallets.

Here at St Mark’s we’ve been running a deficit budget for a number of years and the reserves are running low. Without a change in our spending and income we have between 2 and 3 years left before we need to start selling our assests.

I know Andy wrote to members of the church family before I arrived, and as a new vicar with little financial understanding I haven’t mentioned it until now because I’ve been getting my head around it all. But I’m mentioning it now.

I set up a stewardship team who are supporting Verna our wonderful treasurer and helping me get to grips with our finances. And since lockdown, Aaron has worked with me and Verna utilising his former banking career to offer a financial review which will go to PCC in November. So let me show you what our projections are this year.

Show pie chart

Cost of ministry last year was £249, 460

Ending the year with a deficit of -£11,488

Cost of ministry this projected for this year is £247, 360

When divided by 170 people (which is just higher than our pre-lockdown weekly attendance) is £28 per person per week

So to break even, that would cost each of us £28 per week in total

In March (when I was about to share our deficit with you) our projected deficit was

-£41,860 (that's before adding gift day pledges which I was about to ask for in March)

Now, actually, some of you gave your pledge anyway and also with furloughing some of our staff, our projected deficit is less and stands at -£27,010

I share this with you because this is your church family as it is mine. And as part of being a member of St Mark’s we do ask that you follow God’s calling and give to your church community. I always find that where my money is, that’s where my interests are.

The Bible gives us a helpful guide of 10% of our income as a good level to giving, and it’s the figure I’d like to ask you to pray about giving to St Mark’s. And I lead by example on this one, having just reordered our own finances to give 10% to St Mark's and then giving to other charities on top of this.

I don't believe that St Mark's is a club I belong to. You are my church family, and I know I am called to give by God. And so giving is such an important part of following Jesus. But we need to bring what we have willingly.

So would you humour me for a minute or two as I’ve played with a few figures and come up with some comparisons to offer you.

If every member of the church was able to increase their giving by £5 per week, the price of a magazine, we would break even by the end of the year.

Imagine if every member were able to give an extra £15 per week, the cost of a meal out, we'd be able to resource a proper budget for Youth ministries here at St Mark's. We'd be able to enhance our existing ministries, develop new ones and get an HD camera for our live streaming. We’d also be able to invest more in our buildings, securing them for the future.

And…now just stretch the imagination here, if every member were able to give an extra £25 per week, say the price of 2 cinema tickets and some pop corn, we’d be able to fund even more schools work, support additional ministers, a caretaker for our buildings and a community development worker.

Thanks for going with me there. It’s frightfully unBirtish to talk about money, but do you know Jesus mentions money 22 times across the gospels which is almost as much as he talks about justice in the world. Interesting that.

This isn’t like getting an expensive subscription to a super holy netflix package, or a perfect golf club. No, it’s giving what’s in our hands to God willingly and letting him do the multiplication.

You may be sat here today thinking, I’m not sure I can increase my giving much. Maybe a few pounds. Then friends, offer that to the Lord. But I invite you to ask the Lord today to whether he’s happy with how much you give. Hear me, this is between you and him and I’m just wanting to open us up to the fact that God may be asking us to give more. Maybe it’s a refocusing of your current volunteering here in St Mark’s. Just about every team is low on volunteers, and we believe God is calling us to so much more.

Particular needs at the moment are

The sound teamThe visuals teamChildrenYouth teams

The best way to give to St Mark's is by Direct Debit, but there are so many options which can all be found on our website or you can give by cash. Don't forget that if you're a UK Tax payer, we can get 25% of every gift you give back. We recieved over £30,000 in gift aid last year so if you're eligible, please give us permission to claim gift aid on your offering.

But I was chatting with a friend the other day and we both agreed that we’re not sure how we’d give faithfully if we didn’t have a standing order set up to take it out of our spending accounts early in the month. It would easily get spent on something else. Standing orders also allow us as a Church to budget more effectively.

And giving isn’t only about money. Stan has put his skills to work creating garden furniture to raise funds for the church. Maybe God has gifted you a skill to put to work.

I’d love you to prayerfully consider these forms, and we would like one back from every person. Even if it is a tick to say you can’t give more. We’re family and everyone is welcome, and always will be. The forms will only be seen by Verna our treasurer and Carole our gift aid secretary, and if you fill one online, I will be sending the excel sheets to Verna, but won't be looking at them myself. They will be treated highly confidentially.

If you're online, I invite you to head to our webpage www.stmarkshaydock.org and to find the 'Vision and commitment page'. I'd ask you to engage with the questions from Beth Moore first, and then when you're ready between now and the 1st November, please look at your finances and give sacrificially what you are able.

So whether it’s a walking stick like Moses, some flour and oil like the widow, a question and some courage like Esther, a prayer and a song like Paul and Silas or a packed lunch let’s spend some time with the Lord asking him what is in our hands and what he wants to do with it.