Vision for Mission

Earlier this month in my sermons I shared with you Biblical importance of “seeing.”  Blindness is contrasted in the Scripture with Vision.  One of Jesus’ parables used the image of blind leading the blind, and both falling into a ditch.  Apostle Paul spoke firmly to believers in his day that it is devil who darkens our understanding, who blinds our sight (2^nd Corinthians 4:4).  Apostle Peter challenged believers that if they are not willing to look at the big picture and have a balanced all-inclusive wide-ranging faith, then they have forgotten their salvation and short-sighted to blindness (2^nd Peter 1:5-9).  The verdict to Laodicean final days church is “blind” and the message is to get cure, to be able to see (Revelation 3:17).

I shared with you the importance of Vision among the leaders.  Greek term episcope, is translated as supervisor, overseer, bishop – all implying Vision, Seeing – it is the word for eldership!

What do you see ahead?  What is your vision of preferred future?  How far do you see?

For the last few months our elders had been grappling with a common shared Vision for our church as we come to meet together.  I had met with a Leadership consultant Andre Thomas on the same subject.  He asked me a question that caught me by surprise: “What is the culture of your church?”   Hmm.....What is our culture?  Our values reflect our underlying culture.   What are those values?  A year ago the Board of elders produced a document “Towards becoming a Prevailing church” outlining those values.  Was it for real, or was it only wishful thinking? What’s on a paper but not in our hearts is not really a culture.  Just like the Law of God, when it is on the stone, outside of us – at best it leads to legalism of trying hard to act out.  It is not until the same Law is in our heart, and we act from within those values that we could claim the Culture of the Law.  Same with our church’s Vision, a statement on a banner, a write-up in the document is not it, until it is internalized in our dreams, in our hopes, in our heart.

Allow me to share just a few fragments of my vision of a preferred future for our church:

·         Our church services, sermons, teaching events are broadcasted online, marketing our product beyond our walls

·         Home-churches in various parts of the city where groups meet weekly to converse about spiritual lessons of Sabbath worship, to nurture new believers and to support each other socially, emotionally, materially

·         School of Ministry where people are taught Biblical Doctrines, Spirituality, Mission and are equipped for Ministry continually

·         Loving community where everyone know each other’s business and helps one another to endure in love until Jesus returns.

You could call it “Church without Walls”

Removing Hindrances, Praying for the Holy Spirit

This week we had been praying for Revival and Reformation.  A series of church outreach events and activities is not enough to keep new people coming to church. We should focus on transforming the life and the conduct of the local church.  Have you been transformed?  How has our congregation had been transformed over the past few years?

Unless the local church has been totally transformed, all the programs and strategies will be in vain. Local church members should strive to model the traits they want to see in new comers.

ENVIRONMENT!   Think about this one word!  The influence of the local church environment on new members cannot be underestimated. Just picture our church as a fish tank, public campaigns and other forms of evangelism are “catching” fish to bring them back to our "tank." If the tank is contaminated, it doesn't matter how well we feed the fish or how much we lecture the existing fish to accept the new ones. Our concern is often the most obvious -- those fish that die in our tank, or who leave the church. But that's just the beginning. We should be as concerned about the fish that don't die but learn to adapt to the contaminated tank, carrying poisons within.  It is urgent to address the environment.

New members, like children, learn much more from what they see and experience than from what they have been taught. In the same way, life must be modeled for new believers. Paul puts it well: "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ" (1 Cor. 11:1). A transformed local church will not just teach new members, but will model the life for the new members.

Here are few suggestions for a transformed environment, and its practical implications:

·   Befriend new members, and old. How can we make friends with new members if we're not already friends among ourselves?

·   Show love. We can't show what we don't have -- if the "tank" is contaminated with strife and hatred, that's all we can offer.

·   Involve them. We can't get them involved unless current members are already involved in church activities.

·   Visit them, but don't forget to visit the old member who lives on the street next door, too.

·   Disciple them, but show discipleship to the rest of the church as well.

·   Expect high standards of living from them, but model that behavior in the church.

The transformation of the local church into a loving family, the foretaste of heaven, is our biggest concern. One of our church co-founders attests  "A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs" (Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, March 22, 1887).

We need more than revive our mission and programming, we need to be revived as people, then mission will be a never-ending reality, a warm environment filled with smiling, loving and caring people.  Not by our might, but by the Holy Spirit power we will have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, loyalty, gentleness, unselfishness.  Partner with us,to be ambassadors for loving church.

«SO WHAT» FACTOR: Why do we Pray?

Have you ever ask yourself “Why do I pray?”  English word prayer etymology is derived from Latin root «precarius», related to precarious, meaning shaky, insecure, uncertain, unsafe.  Is our prayer limited only to such situations, when the world is crumbling around?

In words of last century’s theologian Thomas Merton “prayer is an expression of who we are...we are a gap, an emptiness that calls for fulfillment.” Philip Yancey in his book on Prayer asks “Does Prayer change us, or God, or both?”  Does your prayer work?  Does it work the way we think it should?  What difference does it really make? Apostle Paul says that prayer is the result of Holy Spirit searching our hearts and prompting us (Romans 8:26)

We come to our regular mid-week prayer meetings to teach each other to pray.  A child cannot learn language in isolation, as proved by the terrible cases of children locked for years.  If prayer is the language with the Divine, communicating with completely other, then the community and listening to others communicate is the best learning ground, learning by “osmosis.”  How fluent are you in the Prayer Language and Grammar, or are you “tongue-tied”?  Should we even learn to pray out-loud, or is there a mystery in silence?   Could it be that the conscious prayer is really “tuning in” to the conversation already going on deep in our hearts?

Great promises are offered in the Bible to people “if they PRAY.” But what about all those unanswered prayers, whose fault?  What if two people are praying contradictory prayers, who should God listen to with fulfilment?

This week we come together to pray for each other, to pray for friends, to bring others and pray for them.  Prayer is the greatest social act that the human being is capable of, because when we pray for someone else, we connect with them in the spiritual realm.  We can connect through prayer with whole nation, communities, ethnic groups, the earth, other living creatures, which we would never be able to do physically.

Do not censor your prayer, as God sees into our hearts more clearly than we do.  Just speak without limit, with no boundaries to God.  That is all He requires, for through speaking with us He is changing this world.