A Clear Target
About 350 years ago a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America. The first year they established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. The third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness.
In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway?
Here were people who had the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision. With a clear vision of what we can become in Christ, no ocean of difficulty is too great. Without it, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries.
It is a classic statement from the Old Testament and it is found in the book of Proverbs 29:18
“Where there is no vision, the people perish:” Proverbs 29:18 KJV
“If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.” Proverbs 29:18 The Message
It is hard to believe that it will be five years ago next Sunday that I stood on this platform for the first time. I had no intention of being the pastor of this church; I was only filling the role of interim pastor until they could find someone. Those were challenging and fun weeks for me. I enjoyed showing up and preaching, leading the staff and working on designing the services. It was fun because I had another life. I had a real job that I went to everyday. I had no responsibilities regarding Newark Church of the Nazarene except to show up and to guide the church and staff through a time of transition.
I will never forget when all of that changed. Six months later when I assumed the role of lead pastor and began making plans to move to the area, I began to look at this church and this community differently. All of a sudden, I felt responsible for casting a vision and leading toward a goal. It took a couple of years for that vision and purpose to evolve into a simple and understandable form. Today we want to spend some time reminding and clarifying who we are, what we believe and where we are going. Let me first and quickly share why vision is important.
George Barna: Vision for ministry is a reflection of what God wants to accomplish through you to build His kingdom.
Without a vision we are like a rock that has been skipped on the top of some lake somewhere and we and we have no way of guiding ourselves. We are at the lake’s mercy as to where we end up, as to how far we go, as to when we turn or stop. We have no control over our own lives.
Helen Keller was asked once “What would be worse than being born blind?” to which she replied “Having sight without a vision.” What a profound statement by a lady who was born into this world deaf, muted and blind.
The word vision means – sight, dream, revelation or enlightenment.
The word perish means – to die or to expire.
1. Vision is the ability to see: Awareness.
It is very important that everyone here has the ability to see the vision of this church. It promotes a sense of awareness about the church, the community and how we fit into it.
5th grade S.S. class was asked to go home and count the stars in the sky as part of their next S.S. lesson. They came back with various numbers. Some said 100, some said 1000, some said a million. Finally the teacher asked a little boy who had said nothing, "How many stars did you count? "He replied, "3". The teacher asked how did you only see 3? He said, "I guess we just have a small backyard."
We don’t want anyone left behind. It is critical that you walk out of here today with your eyes wide open regarding Newark Naz. We want you to be aware so that you can join us in the mission and fulfilling of the call that God has given us.
Vision is the Ability to see what others can’t. --Faith to believe what others will not. --Courage to do what others say can’t be done.
2. Vision is the faith to believe: Attitude
Steve Goodier says " Both the hummingbird and the vulture fly over our nation’s deserts. All vultures see is rotting meat, because that is what they look for. They thrive on that diet. But hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead, they look for the colorful blossoms of desert plants. The vultures live on what was. They live on the past. They fill themselves with what is dead and gone. But hummingbirds live on what is. They seek new life. They fill themselves with freshness and life. Each bird finds what it is looking for.
If you believe in the mission of this church you will have a good attitude about it. If you don’t understand it or have somehow missed it, you will be tempted to develop a bad attitude and maybe even fall away. You will only be as plugged in as you choose to be.
We invite you to believe with us that God will do great things for us in the future just as He has demonstrated in the recent past.
3. Vision is the courage to do: Action
When people understand the vision they have the courage to get involved. They don’t hold back their gifts and talents. Sometimes the call to action is so great they jump in and get involved outside of their gifts and talents. Ten years ago or so there was a great rush to get everyone in churched to identify their spiritual gifts. It is a good thing to know our giftedness but it should never limit us in what we do for Christ. A Christ follower is a surrendered person who offers both their strengths and weaknesses to be used by God.
In fact, there is historical precedent for God using the weak over the strong.
One summer morning as Ray Blankenship was preparing his breakfast, he gazed out the window, and saw a small girl being swept along in the rain-flooded drainage ditch beside his Andover, Ohio, home. Blankenship knew that farther downstream, the ditch disappeared with a roar underneath a road and then emptied into the main culvert. Ray dashed out the door and raced along the ditch, trying to get ahead of the foundering child. Then he hurled himself into the deep, churning water. Blankenship surfaced and was able to grab the child’s arm. They tumbled end over end. Within about three feet of the yawning culvert, Ray’s free hand felt something--possibly a rock-- protruding from one bank. He clung desperately, but the tremendous force of the water tried to tear him and the child away. "If I can just hang on until help comes," he thought. He did better than that. By the time fire-department rescuers arrived, Blankenship had pulled the girl to safety. Both were treated for shock. On April 12, 1989, Ray Blankenship was awarded the Coast Guard’s Silver Lifesaving Medal. The award is fitting, for this selfless person was at even greater risk to himself than most people knew. Ray Blankenship can’t swim.
We want you to have the courage to do something significant with your life for God. We are always going to offer places to serve through the church because for some of us that is where God will use us the most, but don’t limit His use of you to this church. God may have a plan that goes so far beyond our vision or our dreams.
Before we shift into the practical explanation of who we are as a church I need to answer a question that I was made aware of this week. I have known it and felt it for some time but I need to speak to it for just a moment.
The question revolves around why are we staying in this location and do I personally have something against large or mega churches. We are staying in this neighborhood to establish a credible church that connects to a neighborhood full of people with needs. In some ways the easiest thing in the world would be to move to a new and visible location and draw a congregation of solid middle to upper class families. We would be considered a strong church by our size and the appearance of our building. Here me very carefully, God has never been impressed by numbers. Just this week a man spoke to me about attending one of the largest churches in this country. His first words were, “They dedicated seventy six babies.” We are so quick to judge and embrace things that are big as being best. (We dedicated twenty nine babies one Sunday and the staff walked away saying never again. We want that experience to be personal not corporate.)
Why here? I want us to take the time needed to actually engage our neighbors in conversation and connection until we have provided them an opportunity to experience Christ. We are leading in that direction. A lot of what we do is being directed toward this neighborhood. Not all but a lot. Do I have something against mega churches? No, if that is the vision God has for a particular church then they better do it. It is not a model that I believe to be the most effective in the culture of today and especially for future generations. (See attached article at the end of this sermon.) Having said that, you need to know that I am not against growth. There are ways to grow that I believe grow people and not just numbers or buildings. It takes a little longer and it is a more steady growth but we do it with a commitment to our mission.
Our church mission: Leading people into a growing relationship with Christ.
NewarkNaz. 3Cs + 1
Celebration: We believe that to have an effective community we must commit to a time of weekly celebration. At these celebrations you will experience authentic worship and challenging Biblical teaching on issues that are important to you today. We are a church that is fluid…adjusting our methods along the way to more effectively be the Church to our community.
Community: We are a church that cherishes authentic community…providing community groups to foster genuine and transparent relationships. Community groups or small groups play an essential role in the care and development of a believer. We are a church that is constantly growing…knowing that none of us have “arrived” in our spiritual journey, but are here to spur one another on in our spiritual transformation.
Call: We are a church that sees the potential in people and facilitates them in discovering God’s design for their life and contribution to His kingdom. We believe that God’s design was for every believer to participate in serving and building the church. We are a church that is compassionate…about people with needs in our community and is actively looking for ways to serve others in our community and around the world.
Capital Campaign: We are calling and challenging you to step up and support the vision of our church. While I am very thankful for those of you who have stepped up and accepted the challenge to give there are many of you who have not yet joined in this vision. I must admit, I am somewhat baffled by that. The good news is it is not too late. Not taking care of this building and repairing it is just plain irresponsibility. I am tired of it sitting here looking like no one cares or that it has no life. Paving parking lots and replacing windows is not luxury it is doing things that bring this property up to a decent standard. (Restrooms)
NewarkNaz Eight Core Values...are the application of biblical truth through the unique personality of Newark Church of the Nazarene
Authenticity
As “a real place for real people” we believe we can’t be what God has called us to be if we play games with each other. Whether it’s what happens on stage, within our small groups, serving teams or in our homes, we need to be able to share our faults and weaknesses and not fake it. That’s authenticity, just being real.
Biblical Truth
Newark Naz is a place for people on every part of the spiritual journey, from those just investigating whether there is a God, to those who have made following Christ the priority of their life. This is a safe place for everyone. But safe doesn’t mean serenity. The Bible presents a dangerous message of life change. We don’t assume everyone believes, or even knows the Bible, but we do assume everyone who comes through our doors is open to exploring it. We believe the Bible is God’s inerrant truth and it is foundational to everything we do.
Culturally Relevant Communication
"Why did they do that?" "What does that have to do with church?" How many times have you heard (or thought) that after you saw something during a service here at Newark Naz? Maybe it was a movie clip or a secular song. Stuff that seemed to be the last thing you would have expected in church. Well, believe it or not, there is a reason for all of this. There is a method to the madness. Culturally Relevant Communication: is one of our 8 Core Values!
Newark Naz is a place that helps connect those who are spiritually exploring God’s love and truth. To do this, we’re committed to doing anything to help people connect God’s timeless truth from the Bible with their day-to-day life. We do not engage in anything immoral or anti-scriptural to do this, but we do embrace creative methods used in our current culture. The challenge for us is that the Bible was written a long time ago for people in another culture. The fact that we are in Newark, Ohio in the twenty-first century doesn’t change the message that God gave 2000 years ago, but it does mean that we need to do some work to connect it to our lives today. That’s what we mean by "Culturally Relevant Communication."
It’s nothing new. It’s the kind of thing the Bible referred to in Ecclesiastes 12:10 which says, "The teacher searched to find just the right words." In fact, it’s exactly what Jesus did. Whether it was stories about sheep and goats, vineyard workers, or a guy who throws a party, Jesus used the current language and daily life of those around him to communicate truth.
Doing Life Together
We aren’t interested in being a church where a lot of people get together for an inspiring service but never move beyond the casual arm’s distance relationships of an auditorium. We want to grow by really "doing life together." Community is knowing and being known, loving and being loved, celebrating and being celebrated, and serving and being served. The people who really grow at Newark Naz, are those who move beyond the auditorium through serving and/or being part of a small group, service team and building friendships in which all of these happen.
Excellence
We don’t believe in striving for unrealistic perfection. We do believe excellence is about bringing your best to God’s work and to life in general. Whenever we do anything as a church we want to bring our "A Game." Whether it’s our communication and music, how we hold babies in the nursery or how we take care of the building, we want it to reflect this.
Functional Structures
We believe that ministries are only valid when they are functional. Ministries that no longer support the mission of the church or are not functioning effectively will be reviewed and eliminated. New ministries will proactively be encouraged and affirmed to meet the changing needs of the culture and our community.
Growth
We don’t expect everyone who walks into this church to be a committed Christ-follower. But we do expect everyone who is around our community for any length of time to be growing. We expect every person to be moving closer to being the complete image of Christ in every area of life. When it isn’t happening we need to ask why. The answers aren’t always comfortable. In fact we often grow only when we are pushed out of our comfort zone.
Reproduction
Reproduction is about recognizing something that God has created and then going about being a tool when He reproduces that element in other places. Newark Naz wants to be a place where Christ-followers reproduce Christ-followers, leaders reproduce leaders and churches reproduce other churches. I am not going into it this morning but we are taking steps this summer that will allow us to grow and reproduce beyond the limitations of one building or one location. It will allow for more people to grow in their spiritual development and for more people to be involved in ministry.
Bruce Lee had a fighting style unlike any other because he developed it himself. The main part of his fighting style was aim 6 inches beyond your target. What a concept for Christ followers. It may feel like we are reaching beyond our comfort zone but the time is now for us to discover something new that God is doing and have the faith to believe that He will use us in this way.
Columbus’ diary at times seems to be very repetitive. Page after page simply says, "This day we sailed on!" We have done that for a lot of days as a church sailing on and now the time is right for us to discover and take some new ground for God.
As a church we need to respond to this in several ways:
Prayer
Community
Call
Commitment to giving of our time, talent and resources. (tithe) We need you to give like you believe in the mission that God has called us to.
I don’t want to look back someday on our time together and feel as though I didn’t seize every opportunity for God to use me and us as a church in the most creative and effective way possible.
IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER
(Written after she found out she was dying from cancer.)- by Erma B.
I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren’t there for the day.
I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.
I would have talked less and listened more.
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained or the sofa faded.
I would have eaten the popcorn in the ’good’ living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.
I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.
I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.
I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life.
I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn’t show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.
Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I’d have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.
When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."
There would have been more "I love you’s." More "I’m sorry’s."
But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute, look at it and really see it, live it and never give it back.
What is it that God is calling you to do? We have a vision for our church and you are no doubt a part of it but how will you let it play out in your life? Take a chance, live on the edge, let God help you see clearly that there is a great challenge that lies ahead. Henry Ward Beecher once said, "The strength and the happiness of a man consists in finding out the way in which God is going, and going in that way too.".
