A Mission To Follow: Looking Ahead

An Introduction

During the candidation process, many people shared their desire to see First Baptist Church grow. Over the past year and a half, you had been waiting for God to answer your prayers for a pastor. Over the past year and a half, God had been working in my life stirring up the desire to move from missions to pastoral ministry. During that time, a core group of people grew in their love for this body and their love for the community of Randolph. I never considered myself to be a revitalization pastor. I don’t believe the word “revitalization” ever came up during the process, but everyone we interacted with had the similar goal of seeing FBC prosper. My wife and I were attracted to you because you have a love for people and a “help us get there” mentality.

Revitalization tends to be a part of the transition from one pastor to another because of the gap between one pastor leaving and another one coming. It is just a response to the difficulties that arise in the process. A lot of work and ministry needs to happen in the next year but that should energize us, not sap us. We were created by God to work! We should enjoy it.

Revitalization is also an opportunity to reshape our ministry out of a loving response to the needs of our community. Much of the work ahead of us is simply in response to COVID and the challenges of recovering from a pandemic. Honestly, I don’t think our country or community will ever go back to the way things were a year and a half ago. We need to ask ourselves, given our current culture, what do we need to do to actively love our community and invite them to worship with us? Many churches have spent the past year considering how to respond and reshape their ministries, so we are not alone.

Jeremiah 17 is connected to revitalization because we must examine our own hearts.

Archie has been asking us in Sunday school, which church do I represent? What are my strengths? My weaknesses? What would Jesus praise and rebuke FBC Randolph for if we were included in this list of churches?

We cannot do anything by our own strength. Whatever we do must be fully completed through God’s strength, in complete obedience to His word. Anything done out of pride will be doomed to fail and none of us want that to be the case for our body of believers.

The Mission of the Church

During the candidation process, God laid the book of Acts on my heart. I originally planned for it to be a 13 week series. Acts is the only book like it in the NT. without it, a vast amount of historical information would have been lost. Acts covers a transition to a new dispensation, the age of the church. Christ’s followers up to this point had never been a part of a church before. The apostles and early disciples faced all kinds of challenges and questions as local churches formed and sought to meet the needs of their own communities. “What is the Mission of the Church?” is a central theme through the whole book.

Acts and Ephesians are connected to each other. The book of Ephesians talks about “the mystery of the church.” I want to share a passage with you this evening which really sets us up to consider the mission of the church.

Ephesians 2:19–22 ESV

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

We are not of this world. We are ambassadors to this world representing a heavenly kingdom.

What is an ambassador?

What does an ambassador do?

What does an ambassador speak?

It is critical that all of us remember that our own comfort is a cultural lie we have bought into. As we delve into Acts, not just for 13 weeks, but for the next year, we will learn how to have a missional passion that sacrifices comfort to build an eternal kingdom.

We are not alone in this work. Apostles, prophets, Christ himself.

Preceded by martyrs. Stephen, the apostles, all the prophets.

Others have faithfully succeeded in times far more troublesome than we have faced. God gave them the strength to succeed.

We are being built into something beautiful.

Cathedral Illustration:

A cathedral was built as an impressive house of worship, a symbol of religious and civic pride, and a constant reminder of the power and presence of God and the church. Three things were important to the designers of a cathedral:

Height: To inspire awe, to get closer to God, to draw crowds and money.

Light: God is light, the windows, colors, and amount of light was designed to create a sense of awe and worship for the parishoners. Ornate decorations, colors, commissioned paintings, awe inspiring beauty.

Power: status of wealth and power (not necessarily good things for a Christian to aspire to) but it was also supposed to symbolize God’s power.

Cathedrals were not haphazardly built. They were carefully designed and built over long periods of time. Some cathedrals were completed after a few dozen years, but most took longer than that. Notre Dame took 182 years to build. Gaudi’s cathedral in Barcelona only took 133 years, and the Bristol cathedral took 688 years to complete. For them to reach heights that were never accomplished before, they needed to innovate through use of arches, flying buttresses, and techniques to make massive, weighty vaulted ceilings possible. The thoughtful design of the architects and quality workmanship has allowed many cathedrals to remain standing for well over 1500 years.

This year, my hope is that we will be dedicated ambassadors to the Randolph community.

Cathedrals are very beautiful, but God has been building something much more beautiful in the world since the days of creation. Paul tells us this is a work of God in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. To the world, they might not understand us, but as we mature to better please God, the world will hopefully see something beautiful and unique in the members of FBC.

People knew how to make mighty buildings that have lasted for over 1500 years but God knows how to build something that will last for an eternity and you and I get to be a part of that! I am excited to see what God has in store for us this year.

ACTS outline/worksheet