Vision 2010

Friends,

I've been on vacation and wanted you to know what's on my heart for Northlake's future. So I'm including the message I gave yesterday on line. Some of the points I have pic's for and some I don't. Enjoy!

It’s good to be back from vacation . In two weeks Lord willing we’ll begin a new fall series from the Book of Acts. Next Sunday I’m going to give a really challenging message about how to live more simply so we can give more generously to the work of the kingdom. This morning we won’t be doing a typical exposition of a Scripture. Instead as we kick off our fall ministries I want to talk about what we sense God has called us to do over the next three years: about what we call Vision 2010. The message is sort of a huddle up as the new ministry season starts today. We want to make sure everyone has a clear and picture of where Lord helping, we’re going. I want to tell you what’s on the heart of our ministry leaders and what’s on my heart. I’d like to start with a story.

In the 1850’s near the height of the gold rush, San Francisco was awash not only in gold but in maritime prosperity from her new port. With her ocean going clipper ships, brawny steamers, and her speedy inexpensive ferries no one envisioned the need for any kind of bridge across the Golden Gate. There was no felt need. Even if someone had envisioned it, it surely couldn’t happen.

Ironically the idea of a bridge across the sea gate that led to the gold came from a crazy miner. In 1859 Joshua Norton, who had lost not only a fortune but his sanity prospecting, was the first person to suggest that San Francisco needed a great bridge.

Joshua Norton was not just a little off, he was certifiable. As one newspaper writer penned, “In San Francisco’s galaxy of eccentrics, he was the shining star.”

Once a respected business man, Norton had gone mad with his financial losses. In 1859 after years of living in seclusion, he emerged with an announcement, printed in the San Francisco Bulletin, which read that “at the request and desire of a large majority of citizenry of these United States” he claimed the office of Emperor of California and Protector of Mexico. In mock submission the citizens of San Francisco acclaimed him Emperor of California. He was given free meals, wore a military uniform and was routinely offered opening night tickets to the theater. As Emperor, Joshua Norton made numerous proclamations including abolishing the US Congress, firing President Lincoln, issuing Imperial Bonds, and even called for a unified world religion. While those didn’t happen there was one thing he insisted had to happen. On three separate occasions Norton ordered the construction of a suspension bridge to cross the Golden Gate. It took a while for the idea to catch on and it wasn’t until 1937 that the Golden Gate Bridge finally opened.

As you hear this morning’s proclamation and see how huge our vision is for the next three years you may think I’m certifiable but to be honest… I couldn’t be more excited about our God-given future. The leaders here are seeing things. We’re seeing bridges. We feel that God’s calling us into the bridge building ministry. That he’s asking us to build friendship, start connecting our lives and build bridges with our immediate neighborhoods, build bridges with our city and county and between Northlake and the world.



That picture as a bridge-building church came into clear focus last Spring when we prayerfully developed our new mission and vision we saw our future. Let’s take a moment and look at what we think God wants us to do.


NORTHLAKE COMMUNITY CHURCH


Our Mission: We are here to reach out with Christ’s love and gospel to the people who live in Whatcom County and to send missionaries and Christian workers around the world for the glory of God. That’s our calling. Here’s the vision of what that looks like.

Vision: Our immediate vision is to carry out the work of Jesus by creating meaningful connections and ministries that meet the practical, social and spiritual needs of people living in our neighborhoods near the lake. We will passionately live out our calling as Northlake Community Church.

That was based on good Bible and good missional thinking. The idea of bridge building and influencing our world comes right from the lips and heart of Jesus Himself.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells his followers how they can seek first the kingdom by telling them-

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do men light a lamp and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16 That is to say do good works. When people around you notice that you care by the way you serve your community they’ll want to know why you’re helping them. Good works lead to good will. Good will provides us a platform for telling people the good news. We show the change the gospel makes in our lives by serving others and then we tell them about the narrow life-giving way, about Jesus.

That mission and vision isn’t simply good Bible but that’s good missional thinking. Missional is a word we need to learn use in our vocabulary. Missional means we do church here in America with the same kind of thinking as if we were missionaries. We just happen to be sent by God to win Whatcom County and the world. Everything we do is missional. Everything is focused not just on winning the world but on winning our county, our city and our neighborhoods. From now on we ask two questions of every potential ministry. Will this help us become internally strong and or will this help us help us be externally focused.


Today there are essentially three kinds of evangelical churches. The truth is God uses all three believe me. But over the last year and a half as we’ve prayerfully hammered out preferred picture of tomorrow we’ve concluded that one fits the Bible and our culture better than the other two. If you’re wanting to board this ship you need to know what you’re signing on for and where we’re heading. So here goes. What kind of church do we think God wants us to be? There are about 350,00 churches in the United States and hundreds of denominations and varieties but if you boiled it all down, there are essentially three kinds of churches you could be a part of these days. There is the traditional church, the seeker church and the bridge building church. I want you to see what we’re not going to be as well as what we are wanting to become. Let’s look at each one. Each one has its own focus. For example:


The Traditional, The Seeker & The Bridge Building
Let me highlight what each is about…

The Traditional Church The Seeker Church The Bridge Building Church

Primary Focus:
Comfort church people Draw unchurched people Equip people to go into the

with the presence of Jesus to Jesus world for Jesus
Primary Goal:
Maintain programming Grow numerically Influence the community
Primary Direction:
In here Get them in here Get them out there
Primary Values:
Member care, tradition Life change in members Life change in members

predictability, sameness numbers, size, innovation, spiritual impact on community Outreach:
Little or none Evangelistic events Evangelism is by going out

(community is invited to come) serving and connecting with

the community
Long Range Outcome:
Low impact island living; High impact island living High impact connectedness

stranger in the community well known stranger well known by the community

(Proverbs 11:11)


We are becoming with Christ’s help a bridge building congregation.

I want you to picture, I want you to imagine what with God’s help will happen in the next 3 years.


Imagine.

A Grateful City

As we become an externally focused church we will be a greater blessing to our neighborhood, city and county. We want to build bridges from our world into theirs, offering Christ-like love with no strings attached. What if 5 other churches were to join us? Imagine doing this with other churches. Matthew 5:16, Gal. 6:9-10, Eph. 2:10,1 Tim. 6:17-19, Titus 3:8, 1 Peter 3:13, Acts 10:38

Elmer Towns and Warren Bird wrote a good book about what they see coming called, Into the Future. They write… “People today show interest in the truth of the gospel only after they’ve seen the relevance of the church and the credibility of Christians.”
And Robert Lewis in his book, The Church of Irresistible Influence describes how 100 churches in Little Rock Arkansas became bridge building churches. He writes,

“Our research demonstrated that the community was actually looking to churches for more involvement and wondering why they weren’t there.”
Imagine a city like Little Rock where the Mayor and Governor come to a Saturday gathering where 100 churches have spent the week working together to make the city better and each of them saying, we can’t afford to lose the churches of NW Arkansas.
Imagine a thankful city because a handful of churches let their light shine.

Imagine.

Making a Global Difference

What if we all prayed fervently and frequently for our missionaries? What if families and friends went on short term trips to the same place year after year so that some of your best friends were of a different race and lived on a different continent? What if focused our work? What if we adopted an Unreached People Group – that is some people who’ve never heard of Jesus and did what we could to get the gospel there, to them? What if Northlake were to live out her calling even more:-“Missions-It’s Who We Are?” And now let’s think internally as well.

Imagine.

Developing a Culture of Peace

What if the people in this room learned to manage conflict instead of running away from it? What if we cared enough to tell the truth in ways that didn’t slam or judge others, or silently ended long-standing relationships? What if instead of peace-faking we were known as the peace-makers?

Imagine.

Being more family-friendly

The single most effective way to make fully devoted followers of Christ is to give kids the chance to grow up in strong Jesus-loving families. What if we did even more to partner with parents helping them develop their kids into Christ followers?

Imagine.

Unleashing God-given potential

We’re finding out that the average church loses 10% of it’s population a year and we’re not talking about people dying. We’re talking about people leaving. Believe it or not the number one reason people leave a church of any size is that they don’t feel they’ve been challenged enough. The Christian life is intended to crescendo around each person finding his or her place in kingdom work. So what if Northlake were to help people discover what they’re really good at doing and coach them as they head from one chapter of their lives into the next?

Imagine.

Really understanding the Bible

In many congregations learning the Scripture is almost an add-on. For us it’s a priority. We want to teach people the Bible. We live in a day and time when people think Noah’s wife was Joan of Arc. People need Bible, period. Receive the implanted word, James told us so it will save your soul. We study the Bible though not to make us scholars but to make us all NT ministers. We’re not afraid to go in depth.

Imagine.

Devoting ourselves to prayer and worship

We know when we work we work and when we pray…God works. What if we believed that there’s more fruit out there for the asking? What if our prayers brought more of God’s power back into the ministry? What would happen then?



Imagine.

Having the Resources Question

What would happen if everyone at Northlake were managing God’s finances wisely, determining to live more simply and give more generously? Answer: We’d have all the resources we need to carry out the vision and build some amazing bridges. What if the financial glass were full?

Imagine.

Transformed Lives

What if--- what if we were to pray that God would transform the lives of 100 people whether they be our families, friends, neighbors and associates by 2010? And what if we were to pray that God would use us to reach out to disillusioned Christians who’ve stalled spiritually or fallen away?


Conclusion
Jesus begins his ministry by telling us the world will see Him by our good works. He only promises to let us in on a cause that’s worth everything we have.

I’d love for you to follow Him with all you have. I hope you’ll join us as we get into the business of building bridges.