This message was directed primarily to those who call Vision their church home. However, feel welcome to read about our vision for he coming year.
As Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthian church comes to a close, he challenges his readers to examine or test themselves. The test is this; he asks if they recognize themselves as people in whom Jesus Christ is truly present. Don’t just drift along comfortably on a second-hand experience of Christ, but take a close look at yourself and your church. Don’t take for granted that you or your church are where you need to be, but really examine where you are.
Why was Paul advising the Corinthians this way? Was he thinking, examine yourselves and you’ll probably find that you’re all doing a great job? No need to change anything, just keep doing what you’re doing? Highly unlikely. Implicit in his advice, is the idea that the Corinthians still had a ways to go in their journey. In other words, they still had a lot of growing to do.
When we read the Bible, especially the passages where Paul criticizes his churches, it’s easy for us to feel a sense of superiority. Living on the other side of the story, we assume Paul’s advice doesn’t apply to us. It only applies to these early misguided Christians, those wacky Corinthians. If Paul’s advice has any contemporary application, we relegate it to other Christians and other churches.
Although Paul did not have you or I or Vision Community Church in mind when he wrote this letter, the challenge of his words still extends to us in our context. So for those of us here at Vision, Paul stills says, don’t drift along comfortably on a second-hand experience of Christ, but take a close look at yourself and at Vision. Don’t take for granted that you or Vision are where you need to be, but really examine where you are. In other words, Vision still has a lot of growing to do.
Vision has come a long way in eight short years. We have grown from about eight adults with no experience starting a church and who weren’t quite sure what we were doing, to a place where over one hundred people come each Sunday. Beyond that, there are about two hundred people for whom this is their church home. We have grown from a portable faith community that had to set up and tear down each week, to a church with three buildings and a campus. We have grown from a loosely-defined entity that needed outside support to supporting ourselves.
So it would be tempting to feel as if we have arrived and settle down, in other words drift along. The other temptation is to settle for a second-hand Christ experience. Now that we have this beautiful traditional building, to move back toward resembling a “traditional” church. We could dress up more on Sundays, refinish the pews and turn down the band. Neither is an option if we are to truly grow.
That’s why in the coming year, we will be focusing on a theme of A Growing Vision. Growing as individual followers of Jesus, and collectively as a church, is what prevents us from drifting along in a second hand experience of Christ and continually re-imagines us as a people in whom Jesus Christ is truly present.
When I talk about A Growing Vision, I’m talking about far more than attendance and income charts whose right side is inclined higher than the left. Growing Vision is about holistic growth.
First, Growing Vision means growing inwardly and deepening our journey as followers of Jesus Christ. Our commitment to being a welcoming community of radical hospitality means everyone is welcome here at Vision, no matter where you are in life. You don’t have to have your act together to walk in door, but our hope is that through the God you encounter here, you would start getting your act together. You may walk in here broken, sick and even dysfunctional. But we don’t want you stay that way. Through growing as a disciple of Christ, the broken places of your life can be healed, put back together and probably even rearranged . Likewise you don’t have to believe the right things to belong here, but through your first-hand experience here, we hope you come to believe the historic Christian story, although we are quite generous about how you hold the truth of that story.
One of my jobs as the pastor of Vision is to make this a safe space for you within which those things can happen. One space for that is your own personal life and developing spiritual disciplines to practice each day. There are a wide variety of ways to experience prayer and scripture in your daily life. Another space is in a Vision Group where you can grow with others. Every Sunday you are welcomed into the transformational space of worship and Communion.
Additionally, Vision has always been a place where you didn’t have to leave your brain at the door. We have always valued deep theological reflection and believed that people are not looking for simplified easy answers, but that they can handle challenging new theological ideas. This year, we are adding even more opportunities for intellectual growth by bringing in guest speakers to dialogue on a variety of topics.
Growing Vision means growth for you personally and your personal growth in turn grows Vision. They are connected.
Second, Growing Vision means growing Vision outwardly, in the number of people who come here and participate in the life of this community. I realize many people look upon that idea with some disdain. Church growth programs have received a bad rap in recent years, often deservedly. However, in my experience, much of the criticism of church growth has come from those who have failed at it. Often, their lofty criticisms of those who seek to increase church attendance really masks their own sense of bitterness. While I agree there is nothing so shallow as gimmicky techniques to get butts in the seats, there is also nothing so selfish as keeping your experience of Christ and your church to yourself.
So I am immovable and unapologetic about my commitment to growing the number of people who participate in the life of our church.
A few years ago, in the midst of a town-wide debate about development in Warwick, I heard a pastor say a something very wise. Everyone thinks this town is great he said, but the problem is that everyone wants to be the last person to move into Warwick. Such snobbery and selfishness is bad enough in a town, but it is deadly in a church. There can be a fine line between a small group and a clique, or between not being gimmicky and being unwelcoming.
In the coming months, Vision will be making a concentrated effort to invite new people to come here. Beyond that, we will also be inviting those of you who are already at Vision to participate more deeply in the life of the church through intentional hospitality and invitations to serve. In order to both connect with new folks and provide new spaces for internal growth, we’ll be adding new and experimental times and forms of worship in the coming months.
Inviting new people to join us on the Vision journey actually gives those of us who have been here for years an opportunity to grow. There are people out in our community who have something to offer us. They may just be the person God wants to use to change you and me. When we don’t actively seek to bring in the stranger, we may actually be shutting out God from the life of our church.
Growing Vision means growing Vision outwardly by those who come. It also means growing by those who are sent.
Third, Growing Vision means growing Vision missionally. Missional thinking is the corrective to a church becoming too inward-focused or becoming just about growing numerically. Many churches just focus on either bringing in new people or reaching out in mission. But the two are not mutually exclusive, they are complimentary. I would argue that they are indeed one and the same mission.
Over the years, Vision has done a lot outside the walls of our church. Just this past Christmas we raised $6500 for the Advent Conspiracy and to drill a new well in a developing country. Over the past two weeks, our special collection for Haiti has raised over $1500. As great as these things are, being a missional church is much more than giving money. It is more than the popular cultural model of donating to a charity. A missional church like Vision actively participates in what God is doing in the world and God is doing a lot.
In the coming year, Growing Vision missionally will mean more than writing bigger checks. So we are looking to partner with those who are willing to publicly partner with us and work together for God’s project of reconciliation in the world. This partnering extends beyond programs that address things like poverty and hunger. As Christians, we believe in an incarnational faith, that God came into the world in Jesus Christ. As such, we don’t make the distinction between the sacred and secular. You see that every week here in our worship through our inclusion of so-called secular music and movies. You see it in our Vision Voices music series which has brought incredible music to our community. In 2010, we’re going to take that even further.
Creativity has always been a core value here at Vision, and now that we have our own dedicated space, we will grow this into a more creative space. Centuries ago, the church was considered the center of the visual arts. At Vision, our dream has always been to recover that role in our culture. So in the coming months, you will see this space transformed into an art gallery of sorts. We’ve already begun the process of inviting artists and sculptors to exhibit their work on these walls. These art installations will be constantly changing, sometimes even reflecting the themes we’re exploring in worship at the time. In the future, we’ll even have events in which we create pieces of art ourselves. We will be reaching out to our surrounding community, inviting people to gallery openings and film nights. All of this is part of Growing Vision missionally, of extending our mission beyond these walls and transforming people’s lives through encounters with not just justice, but beauty as well.
Growing Vision means growing Vision missionally.
Fourth and last, Growing Vision means growing financially. Yeah, you knew that was coming. We talked a lot about that last week, so I’ll be brief. Consider this, our stewardship and commitment to Vision is what makes all this growth possible. At first glance, that may not sound so surprising. After all, of course it takes financial support to grow outwardly or missionally. However, I want you to give some thought to how Growing Vision financially relates to Growing Vision inwardly. Our generosity grows us, not only as a group, but as individuals. As you become a more generous person, it will transforms you inwardly and spiritually, I can promise you that.
Growing Vision means growing financially.
I’ve outlined a vision that while specific is very open-ended. It has room for..well..growth. That growth has room for you. I want this Growing Vision to capture your imagination. As we wrap up this series on Re-imaging You, allow this Growing Vision to shape how you can be re-imagined into the image of Christ. Paul challenged the Corinthians to recognize themselves as people in whom Jesus Christ was truly present.
This Growing Vision which God has given us will re-imagine you and all of us together as a people in whom we recognize that Jesus Christ is truly present. Re-imagine your self in this Growing Vision.
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