Every week our news bulletin says this:
Our vision is to build a church that honours and glorifies God; built on biblical principles; teaching biblical truth; influencing its community; where personal relationships are deep.
Our purpose is to love people into a deep and growing relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Our heart is to share God’s heart for the marginalised and oppressed
Those are pretty demanding words. What they say is that we are a church that refuses to settle for anything less than God’s best. We will do everything that we can in order to fulfil his purposes and plans for our communities.
Each year we renew our covenant with God to build a great church based upon a great commitment to the great commandment and the great commission. To live out the significance and importance of those words; to be a living echo of the prayer Jesus taught the disciples to use: Your kingdom come, on earth as it is on heaven.
Last year we took another big step towards those dreams by setting a budget that without God’s help, is beyond our ordinary means to meet. We set what one pastor describes as Big Hairy Audacious goals. Employing another full or part-time staff member; developing new streams of ministry through counselling services and well-being groups; getting more involved in our communities by serving on committees and councils; reaching more people in more ways through things like servant evangelism and Ordinary Attempts.
In 2008 we do not want to let these goals slip away unnoticed as if having established them was the end of the process rather than its beginning.
We need to examine closely our vision, values and purpose. We need to ask ourselves what don’t we understand about them, what scares us when we think about them, what excites when we reflect on them.
For me, the thing that scares me most is the thought of failure. The thought that all this time and energy and effort and tears and prayers will eventually come to nothing, may count for nothing.
What excites me is the opportunity to do something with my life that will make a difference in eternity. To live a life that matters. I may not see the full extent of the difference God makes through my life, but I’d rather that than come to the end of it knowing that I didn’t even give it my best shot.
So I’m asking you, do you want the same thing? Do you want to live a life that matters. I know how scary and risky it can look, but isn’t it worth it to make a difference?
The Journey ahead
We have a journey still to make. The image of a journey assumes two things. Firstly we have come from somewhere. We have left some things behind to strike out in a bold new direction. Secondly, that we are going somewhere different. Perhaps a third assumption is that we have not yet arrived!
As a church we are on a journey. Some of the landmarks are familiar. The gospel remains the only hope of change; the church remains God’s chosen vehicle for bringing that message of hope to neighbourhoods and communities.
But some things change. The Wixams will begin to grow this year, Shortstown, already having grown, will grow again. Even Cotton End has some new residents as the redevelopment in Wood Lane takes shape.
God is going to do some extraordinary things in these new communities and we should not be willing in any way to miss out on being partners with him in those things. If we do then we surely condemn ourselves to the inevitable decline we see in too many churches across our nation.
Let’s not allow that to happen.
Breaking new ground
We can all play our part in the journey ahead. We can all in some way contribute to fulfilling God’s great commission. We can all be involved in breaking new ground, crossing new barriers for the sake of the kingdom.
We can pray. Put it on your list to pray for:
Opportunities, personally, to connect with new members of the community
The new people who will move into our area through the new developments
One home, one living room from which we can begin to connect with new communities
Join us as we begin to pray more regularly for the Wixams
Come and prayer walk the area
Consider becoming part of the group that will establish a bridgehead into the new community at the Wixams
With all of these things there is a price to pay. A price in time, in effort, emotionally, and financially.
The question isn’t: “Is there a price”, but “What price are we as Cotton End Baptist Church willing to pay to see these dreams, this vision become a reality?”
Conclusion
I know how big and hairy and audacious our goals are, I know they are scary to consider sometimes, I know they can seem so far out of reach that it’s hard to imagine them ever becoming a reality. But I also know that God promises to go beyond what we can see and imagine.
To close I want to go back to the simplest of questions that I’ve asked tonight.
Do you want your life to count for something in God’s kingdom?
If the answer is yes, then what price are you willing to pay for it?
