Vision Sunday 2018
Vision Sunday

Transcript

Good morning, church. Take a seat, everyone. Hey. We have a different kind of service. This is not our normal service today.

If you're visiting for the first time, it's a good time to visit because you'll be learning a little bit more about WCC and where we see God leading us over the next few years. But you won't be seeing a normal service, so you have to come back next week to see something more normal. I don't know what a normal service is, but this one's not normal. And it's also a weekend. We're calling it vision Sunday, but it's also a time of celebration because we just turned 26 years old, 19 years, 19 years portable.

What does that mean? That means that we rented schools. We rented Forest Hills Middle School for 15 years and met there. We'd set up and tear down every Sunday. Then we rented community Christian School for four years, set up, tear down every Sunday.

Kind of lived out of a trailer. We rented different spaces around town. And then in 2010, we bought the old regal cinema, which is what we're in right now. And we remodeled several parts of it. Parts of it we still haven't touched, haven't remodeled.

But since 2011, we moved in here the first weekend, the first Sunday in May 2011, been having church here ever since, in this old movie theater that now is right across the street from the hospital. We started saying, we're the hospital church because people come in, we're like the ER. People come in, kind of beat up by life. And that's where we've been. But we can't live in the past.

We can't continue to talk about, well, that's where we've been. We have to look to the future. And where's God leading us? What's God got in store for us? Because the best is yet to come.

And we want to continue being faithful and letting God lead us where he would. And so we're calling it vision Sunday. It's a time to just dream together a little bit. And several of the leaders, many of the leaders have been meeting since June and talking about, okay, what would it look like three to five years from now for our church to really start impacting Wilson in a doubling kind of way, a way that's double the size we are now? And what would that look like?

What would we have to do to believe that? And what kind of moves would we have to make to see that happen? Because healthy things grow, and we want to be a growing church. Growing not just in number, but also in depth with the Lord. And so we've been meeting together and coming up with a strategic ministry plan that includes what to do with the campus, what to do with the facility.

Now, the facility is just a box. We know that probably better than any other church because we were portable so long. We know the church is not the steeple. The church is the people. And so we know that well.

But where do we go from here? And by the way, your pastor who started this journey, I think I was 32, something like that. And I was one of the oldest guys in the church then and all along the way, I guess I'm not the oldest guy in the church now, I don't think. But this year I turned 60. Okay.

Can you all believe that? And so I've been at this for 26 years, along with many of you who have been on the journey with us. And so I'm just dreaming. Like, I want to finish well as a church. I want to finish well as a pastor.

I don't want to say, let's kind of tone it down here a little bit. No, let's believe great things for God and think God sized dreams, things that we could never accomplish in our own strength. That it would require God to move miraculously in our lives, and that it would require us to be so unified and so in love with God, in love with each other in order to see them happen. So I don't have a lot of bells and whistles today. I started earlier in the week.

I came down with some kind of creeping crud, man. So that's why my voice sounds like this. And I've been really sick this week. And I'm like, that's perfect, Lord. Go ahead and remind me just how weak I am before vision Sunday.

I've got these great expectations, and I was going to have a lot of bells and whistles, but I think the Lord just wanted me to just speak from my heart to you. So I've got a couple of tinkles. I don't have any big bells. I got a couple of little things to show you, but mostly just speak from my heart that I believe God's got some things in store for us, and I want to go on this journey with you. The longer I'm at this, the more important it is to me that I get to do it with you and that we get to do it together.

And I'm glad. First of all, he calls us to Jesus, and so we're right with Jesus, and then he calls us to each other. So let's talk about it vision Sunday. Why is it important to even have such a day? To have such a day where we try to put into words what the vision is?

Well, here's a book you probably don't read that often. Habakkuk. Habakkuk. Two. Two.

Yes, it's in the Bible. And the prophet Habakkuk said, the Lord answered me, write the vision. Make it plain on tablets so he may run. Who reads it? And so when the Lord gives you something, you spend time with the Lord.

And for us, it was spending time together with the Lord, with several team players and reading God's word and going, okay, here's where we've been. Here's what God's called us to in the past, but where's he calling us now? And what's he doing in Wilson and in eastern North Carolina and in the world? And how do we join him there? And so praying that, and then trying to write it down so that it's plain.

And then others, when they read it, they can run with it. In other words, we can run in the same direction. We're not competing. And so this is the purpose of what we're attempting to do today. I'm going to use two passages.

As I said, it's not a normal service where I'm not doing a normal sermon, where I'm really unpacking in depth. But I want to look at two great passages in the book of Matthew. Matthew has two great statements. One is the great commission. The other is the great commandment.

Now, in the Great commission, Jesus tells us why we exist as a church. And in the great commandment, he tells us what it looks like to really love God and to love each other. And so I want to look at those two passages, and then I want us to work this out together as we talk about where God is leading us. So, first of all, the great commission, it's in Matthew, chapter 28. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Here's the thing. We don't cast vision absent our master. He's the one who's already given us our marching orders.

And so vision for us, then, is how to carry out the marching orders in our time and place and culture, et cetera. And so here's what he says, he says, make disciples. So why do we exist as a church? We exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Why does this church exist?

We exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ. I remember back in 1991, I was talking to some people about planting a church, and I had people ask this question, why do we need another church? Why do we need another church? Don't we have enough of those already?

And the thing is, I didn't think of the church. I felt called to it, but I didn't think of it. God had it in his heart and the church was his idea. And it's the bride of Christ. It's the most powerful institution on planet earth.

It's more powerful than the government. It's more powerful than any state. And listen, being involved in making disciples is being involved in the purposes of God. And so he says, we need the church because the church is what God has chosen to be his disciple, making people. So why do we exist?

If someone asks you, why does WCC exist? I want you to be able to say, we exist to make disciples of Jesus. That's why we exist. There's a lot of things the church can be involved in. There's a lot of good we can do.

And we want to do good. We want to feed the hungry and clothe those that need it, those that need housing, those kind of things. These are things that we want to do good. But that's not why we're here. We're here primarily.

Primarily listen. To make disciples. To make disciples. Why are we here? To make disciples.

We just got to get that. And anytime we get our eye off the ball a little bit on that, then we're missing it. So making disciples of Jesus. So every week when I'm praying about how to preach, even for vision Sunday, I was talking to the team, like, I'm afraid to give up a Sunday to talk about where we're going as a church, because what about that one person that comes to church that Sunday, that I missed an opportunity to tell them about how they could become a disciple of Jesus? There's just something in me.

That's what caused me to leave the corporate world after being in the corporate world for twelve years and to plant this church. There was something in me that still burns in me after all these years, and I hope it's burning in you. I think that's why he called us to be together, that wants to see people far from God come near in the name of Jesus. We're in the disciple making business, people. That's why we're here.

And so I want to double down on that. Where do we see ourselves going in the next three to five years? We're going to make some more disciples. We're going to make a whole lot more disciples, because I'm looking at you now, and I'm seeing you as disciple makers. And so that's how we're praying together.

Why do we exist? To make disciples? When I was in the business world, one of the leadership gurus that I studied was Peter Drucker. Peter Drucker had two famous diagnostic questions for leaders that were running big businesses. He said, the first and most important question to ask yourself is, what business are you in?

And the second is equally important, how's business? Or as I've heard some say when I was still in the corporate world, working in the southeast, how's business? And so the first question is, what business are you in? And so this is not a business. This is the church.

But if we were to ask Peter Drucker's question of this church, I think the right answer is, we're in the disciple making business. And then the next question is, how's business? Well, let's look around and see how our disciples are doing, because you are us and you are the disciples we are making and what quality are you? So we would say, okay, let's say we're a factory, and raw product comes in, people far from God. They get saved, they come to Jesus, and then they walk out of the church and go out back into the world.

And now they have heart change, and they're changed. And so that's how I think. I think, like, how can we be the place where life change happens? How can we be the place where we invite the Holy Spirit to be here with us in such a way that it stirs people's hearts? And so that the music, the setting, the atmosphere, everything we've prayerfully planned for, knowing that we're human and we fail.

It's not perfect, but we're prayerfully planning for a place where people can become disciples of Jesus Christ. So that's what we're talking about. In the book of Mark, chapter 16, verse 15, Jesus says, go into all the world and preach the good news to everyone. Make no mistake, that's the church's job.

And let's not lower the standard. We've been called to change the world.

Did you ever watch that cartoon pinky in the brain? You get up every morning, what are you going to do today? Take over the world. That's what we've been called to do in the name of Jesus, letter B. We exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ who have a growing.

Now I'm writing a sentence, and I want to pause there and look at Matthew, chapter 22. This is the great commandment. We've read the great commission. This is the great commandment. Jesus is answering the question, what's the greatest commandment in the law?

And he said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

As I look at this passage, I think it tells us something about the quality of the disciple that we've been called to grow. The quality of the disciple that we've been called to grow. If you look at it, you'll kind of notice there's three kind of directions that love is to go here. First of all, love for God with all your heart and all your mind. And then there's love for your neighbor as yourself.

And so there's these three directions of love if you look at it there. So I want to deal with the first one, which is the vertical one, which is the right one to start with. Heart for God. We exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ who have a growing heart for God. We exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ who have a growing heart for God with all your heart.

How can you do that? How can you love God with all your heart? I mean, don't you need some room in there to love somebody else, to love something else? How can you love him wholeheartedly like that? I think the only way to do that is to get a heart transplant.

You have to get a new heart. You have to have a new heart, and you can't do that. In the book of Ezekiel, the Lord spoke to the prophet Ezekiel, and he said, I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.

Friends, that's what we need. That's the first step. So making disciples who have had a heart transplant from Jesus, a new heart, a new spirit, changing the world one heart at a time, not politically, not through any other fashion, but one on one, one heart at a time, people coming to Jesus. This is the vision of the church that comes from Christ and how do we live it out? So we want to be a church that is growing disciples who have a heart for God, heart for God.

Now, how do we do that? How do we do that? I was looking at Mark, chapter twelve, and in that same place, Jesus was answering the question, what's the greatest commandment? He says, love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And he adds the word strength in that gospel.

And I was thinking of those four words. Loving God with all your heart. Loving God with all your heart. We want to be the kind of place that we can be passionate in what we do have zeal. We want to grow disciples who have passion for God, who burn for God, not just like lukewarm, but on fire for God.

Now, how do we do that? Well, we can't do it without God's help, but that's the kind of place, someone's been visiting our church recently and they told my wife the most wonderful thing. I don't think they realized what they had told her, and she reported it to me. And they said, they've been coming for a few weeks. And they said it's the most free that we've ever felt with being able to express our worship and also to really hear God's word expounded in a way we can understand.

And I was like, wow, God, thanks. That's what we've been trying to do, to try to be that place. That's the right balance between passion and word, between wood and fire, if you would.

The right mixture. That's our vision. All your soul so that people. So all your heart, all your soul so that's affecting your spiritual life, all your mind, so that we have the kind of heart for God that affects our mind, so we know God better, and with all your strength, so that we serve him with our offerings and our generosity. So I've thought through some objectives with our team.

We've been praying. Okay, what would be some objectives of how we could develop disciples who have a heart for God? We plan a sermon calendar for the year, and we have to kind of do that because we have to think through how do we share with our people the right diet of things to learn during a year. And so guess what's starting next week? What's in your chair?

Right. So living in Babylon, we're going to be going through the book of Daniel, twelve chapters, twelve Sundays. So we're going to be going through the book of Daniel, not a light book, kind of deep book. And so we want to do expositional preaching here, where we go through books of the Bible, because you need that kind of meat. But we're also going to do topical series here.

So we'll do a parenting series. In the summer, we're going to do. In the early summer, we're going to do a series called Psalms for the Soul. Because we want people who are struggling with depression or discouragement or grief or these kind of things. There's a psalm for every place that you are.

There's 150 of them. We're going to do several weeks psalms for the soul. In the fall, we're going to do a New Testament, a ten week series through the first five chapters of the Book of Romans. So that's just some of the stuff that's coming. Why am I telling you this?

Because I want you to get a vision for why we do the things we do and the purpose. Why do we do to make disciples of Jesus Christ who have a heart for God and we want to build their minds. Now, you have two cards in every chair. I want you to take those, and I want you to help us make disciples. You be a disciple maker, too.

Now, here's the way you could start using these cards, and this will be easy. Just like when you're at the drugstore or you're going to get to your hair appointment or wherever you're going, you just put them, can I put these at the counter? Just put them at the counter like that. And that's a passive way, and that kind of breaks you in. If you're afraid to talk to people, just kind of put it there passively.

So that gets the word out that we're out here trying to reach people with the gospel. But the best way is to invite. You got two cards, so invite two people. Invite two people before next Sunday to come to this Daniel series. And so here's one of the dreams we have for you this year.

Here's our dream for you that this year you would invite someone to church, and we're trying to give you tools to do that. Who plugs in and comes to Christ and sees genuine life change in their life? If every single person in here would take that on as their 2018 dream and their vision, wouldn't that be amazing to just say, I want to invite one person this year to come and join us at church. And so we're trying to give you tools to do that. We're going to keep doing that.

Some other goals that we have some other objectives for this year is to put more testimonies in our services. So we're training people to give their testimonies. And what we want to do is videotape them and put them in the service to encourage people. We're going to take a break from our twelve week study on this because Easter hits right in the middle of it. And so Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, we'll pull out of Daniel for those two weeks and we're going to do just a wide open palm Sunday.

We haven't done this in forever, where we actually have palm branches. And we're trying to visualize, okay, how do we get the kids to come down the aisle with palm branches? And we're just going to do a real straight up Palm Sunday service. And then Easter weekend, we'll do four services, two Saturday night, two Sunday morning, and invite the whole world and just try to basically blow the place up. That's what we're going to try to do that weekend.

Just try to get as many people in here to hear the gospel that weekend. And just beautiful music and egg hunts for the kids after each service like we've done the last couple of years. So we're going to keep some of those things. We're going to keep doing some of those things. We want to grow in generosity.

When we talk about heart for God, we have to talk about giving. And so we want to be a church that's known for its generosity, known that we're a giving church, not a taking church. And so we started the Dave Ramsey series last Thursday night. And so we want to keep teaching people how to get free financially so they can be more free to give and more free to take care of others. And so we want to do that because we know one of the main reasons that people say they can't give is that they're in debt.

We want to help people get free so that they can be more obedient to the Lord. We also want to be a church that just constantly thinks about generosity. And one of the things that I would say to you that would help us, and I'm talking to members and attenders now, if you're visiting, don't sit and worry about where you're sitting or whatever, but members and attenders, one of the generous things you could do is by choosing your seat with visitors in mind and also be willing to listen to the ushers if they suggest you sit somewhere. That would be an act of generosity on your part. Because here's what we're visualizing, that our church is growing.

And in order to do that, and you're going to see it before this service is over, we have to maximize every seat. So there are 214 of these seats. Okay. You look at the row you're on. And so, like, I'm looking at this one.

That one has six vacant seats, that one has five vacant seats, that one has four, that one has three. And so here's the thing I've noticed. People love the toosies. The toosies are full all the way up to the nosebleed, right? And what's going to happen when we get so many people coming to church and they come in, they can't find a seat because we took all the aisle seats and all the toosies because we're not thinking about them, we're thinking about us.

So I want you to think about, how can we have a culture? How can we make disciples who have such a heart for God? That generosity is one of the marks. So generous in how they give financially, generous in how they park their car instead of taking the best parking place. They leave room for guests and where they sit, just thinking through all these things, how can we grow disciples like that?

I feel like the Lord wants us to fill this room. In order to do that, we're going to have to squeeze in. Now, here's the second heart for each other. So we exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ who have a growing heart for God and heart for each other. Now, where do we see that heart for God's obvious.

We've already talked about heart for each other. So to love our neighbor as ourself. So let's just look at that as ourself. The assumption is that you would love yourself, but let's apply it to the corporate church who's ourselves. Well, we're the body of Christ, and so we are to love one another.

And so this is the realm that we want to grow. Disciples. The gospel of John says this. This is Jesus speaking. He says, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you.

You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you're my disciples if you have love for one another. And so we want to be the church that's marked by this authentic fellowship, that we love each other, we're unified with each other. And so this is the vision that we want to continue to grow. I think that's where we've been, but we want to double down on it and just continue to be marked by that.

So what's that going to take? What kind of objectives do we need to set in order to be that? Well, one is to be authentic in fellowship. So we're trying to repeat this missional statement constantly to ourselves and to one another. This is a new statement, and you'll see it on the last page of your bulletin notes.

But this is the invitation to people. But it's the way we want to think about how we're inviting people. Come as you are. And be forever changed by the love of Jesus. Come as you are.

Come just as you are. I don't have church clothes. Yeah, you do. Look at that pastor. He looks like he just rolled out of the bed.

Come on. Come just as you are. Yeah, but I got to clean this up. I got to fix that. No, you don't.

Come just as you are and let the gospel change you. Let the love of Jesus change you. So that's the kind of missional church we want to be. And so to have a heart for each other, loving each other in such a way, we have to make room. We have to be a church of hospitality.

We have to be a church that has a culture of hospitality that says, I'm going to let people come here, and they're not going to quite be ready to be here yet, but it's going to be okay. I'm just going to let them hang out. They can belong before they become. They can get a seat at the table. And I'm not going to judge them because they hadn't got it straight yet.

So I want us to continue. That's where we've been. But can we double down on that one and just make room for people that are far from God? And it's going to be messy. It's okay.

Jesus is working on you, too. And so we want to make room for people. A church of hospitality. So we create an atmosphere for every person that sets foot on our campus, that they're welcome no matter who they are, no matter what color their skin or what kind of car they drove up in, or if they had to walk to get here, or whatever condition, no matter how young or old or single or married or whatever situation they're in, you're welcome here. Come on in.

But be aware of this. You can come as you are, but get ready. You're going to get changed. So we're looking for people that would come and be part of us that, yeah, we want you to come as you are, but we don't want you to stay as you are because we don't want to stay as we are. We want to become more like Jesus.

We're making disciples of Jesus Christ, a church that practices the three minute rule. That's another visional goal for this year. A church that practices the three minute rule. You know what the three minute rule is? Three minute rule is right when the last note of the song is sung and the benediction happens.

Here's what we tend to do. Let me run and talk to my best friend. The three minute rule says, before you can run and talk to your best friend, you have to take three minutes and talk to someone you don't know. And you're like, oh, man, man, I don't like to talk to people I don't know. Well, just think about how they feel.

Maybe their first time. They don't know anybody. So the three minute rule is get out of your comfort zone for three minutes. First three minutes of the church when the service ends.

This is another way just to break out and be more hospitable as a church goal. Here's another visional goal. Every member of the church in a community group, in a community group, it's one of our small groups, meets in homes so that they are growing together in Christ. That's where real life change is happening, is in community groups. So if you're not in a community group, I want you to really be praying about, why are you not in a community group?

That's what's really happening. And our dream for this year is that we would launch three to five new community groups in 2018. Three to five new ones I want you to be praying about is that you. Are you supposed to help us launch three to five? Because the new community groups grow faster, they attract more people, and then they kind of get stuck because they like each other and they want to hang out.

And that's great. That's perfect. But the new ones are the ones that attract new people. So we want to launch new ones. We want you to do life on life discipleship.

138 people did life on life discipleship with us last year. It's a 21 session, takes about a year to go through. If you meet every other week. Man, I'm telling you, the reports I'm hearing from people that are doing life on life discipleship, it's just really changing people. It's not that the material is so great.

We wrote the material, but it's not that the material is so great. It's the whole point of one life, spending time with one person and walking through the scriptures together and walking through life together and so doing that. And so our dream this year is by the end of the year, 300 people will have been involved with life on life. We've taught it in Uganda. We're getting ready to teach it in Guatemala this summer.

We're already using it in Indonesia. The Crem family have gotten all the copies and they've started translating it into Indonesia. It's not the material, though. It's the thing I keep telling everybody. It's not the material.

That's not the secret. The secret is one person spending time with one person. That's the Jesus way of doing discipleship. Here's number three. Heart for our world.

Heart for our world. So we've said, love God, that's heart for God as yourself, love your neighbor. As yourself, that's heart for each other, and then love your neighbor, that's the person, that's not you, not connected to you. That's heart for our world.

Jesus gives us a strategy in Acts, chapter one. He says, when you receive power, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and ends of the earth. So Jerusalem for us, that's WilSon in Judea, we could say that's eastern North CArolina, SamaRia. That's People near us, but not exactly like us.

So that could be PeoPle who were different from us, different culture some WAy, and then ends of the world. So that's the strategy. Start at home and then move out. And so we want to be that kind of church, want to continue. Jesus says to his disciples in John, chapter 20, peace be with you, as the father has sent me, even so, I am sending you.

And so I want you to think about that. Every one of you. You're sent. The Lord Jesus says, as the father sent me, I'm sending you, I'm sending you, I'm sending you, I'm sending you. And I want you to be doing what?

Making disciples. And here at WCC, we're defining it like this. We're saying we exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ who have a growing heart for God, heart for each other, and heart for our world. Do you see where we're getting it? It's straight from the lips of Jesus, and we're defining what business we're in and how's business by are we making those kinds of disciples?

That's the vision. Now we're talking about how we work that out. So now on heart for our world, how do we work that out? We have to be sacrificial in our service. We have to be willing to serve.

Now we have two services now. And you might be thinking, well, it's because we can't get everybody in here. And that's true. We can't get everybody in here now. There's too many of us.

And so there's only 214 seats, and the place would overflow if we tried to have one service. But that's not why we started two services. We started two services before we needed two services. And the reason we started two services is so people could attend one and serve one. We call it one stop shopping.

You could be discipled and have your heart for God stretched in worship and singing and preaching and giving. And then the other service, you could have a heart for each other and a heart for your world by being a teacher or serving as a greeter or on a tech team or on a worship team, just so many different teams. And so we launched the second service originally to give people space to do both like that. And so we're looking at our Rocky Mountain campus, which is not quite big enough to really have two services yet, but we're looking in the fall to launch the second service there for the same reason, so they can have a ten one serve one there. So I want you to be thinking about that.

Are you serving? There's some opportunities coming up. We'll be doing the Hope station food drive again this year. For the last few years, we've raised tons of food. Hope station says that we're the biggest contributor of food.

In the spring that they have. We'll be doing the whirly gig festival again this year. We're looking at doing back to Barton again this year. We haven't done that in a couple years. We want to be a church that's intentionally evangelistic, a church that has an invitational culture.

Well, that's back to these invite cards. But not just that, but to be a church that's constantly inviting people. We read in statistics that still the number one reason that people will ever attend a church is because they were invited by a friend. Short term missions, we want to continue doing those. Guatemala team is the biggest it's ever been.

This year, I think they're taking 22 people this year. And so we have a dream as a church that every member will go on a short term mission. So if you haven't gone yet, we're going to keep on bothering you until you do, because here's what we believe. It'll help grow you as a disciple who has a heart for our world. Why?

Because we're making disciples. Do you understand what we're doing here? Have I mentioned we're in the disciple making business? And what kind disciples who have a heart for God, a heart for each other, and a heart for our world. And so we want to go on a short term mission trip and then see what God says to you, because things happen when you leave town and you go somewhere where you're not responsible for a long list of things and people are telling, okay, well, I want you to do this now.

And you find out, man, I have gifts and spiritual gifts and things I didn't know I had. And so we've gone to Uganda, Indonesia in the past. We're looking possibly in the future at a trip to the Czech Republic to visit a family that we support there. But who knows where we're going this year? It's Guatemala kids fest.

It's one of our biggest outreaches, one of the biggest things that we do in our city, because here's the thing we've noticed visionly, the best way to reach people, at least in eastern North Carolina, that we've learned, is to reach their kids, because there's nothing like parents getting questions from their kids. Hey, mom, mom. Hey, dad. Can you take me back to that church? And so we want to be that church that they go, can you take me back to that church?

And so kids Fest has had a lid on it for the past few years that we really couldn't get bigger than 200. It was largely based on the number of seats in this room, but it was also based on the number of classrooms, and we didn't have the capacity to be any bigger. And so we want to knock the lid off of that this year. And I'm going to tell you a little bit more about how we're going to do that in just a second. But my desire, my dream, here's a bhag.

You know what a bhag is? It's a big, hairy, audacious goal.

2018 bhag. Big, hairy, audacious goal is to double the size of kids fest, which means we need double the volunteers, we'll need to double the everything. And it's already like VBS on steroids, but it's going to have to be, how do we do that? We're going to need more capacity, more volunteers. And so in terms of capacity, let me show you this.

Maybe I can get somebody to help me. Blake, would you come up here? I see some people running to help me now.

Thank you. I was going to get Blake because I saw him there and made eye contact with him. So pop this next item up. Now, this is something we've been working on since the summer with a company called the Oster company, and we've been working with them on a strategic ministry plan. And a lot of what I've been sharing with you is the new way we're describing how we're making disciples.

But then we also recognize the implications if we're going to dream into the next three to five years of how to reach more people in our community. We have to do some things to our campus. We have to do some improvements to our campus. And so if you're trying to figure out this thing, like, man, what am I looking at? I'm standing right there.

Okay, so that's where we are. These are the four back theaters that are in the back of the building, the current building right here. And so right here, I'm standing. And you're sitting out here somewhere. Okay, so that's that space right there.

That's the current worship space. And so what we're looking at doing is, before July, we want to do phase one. That's that room right there. We call it the multipurpose room. But if you've ever been in there, it's the most terrifying experience because half the lights don't work and the heat system doesn't work.

So you can see your breath in there at this time of the year, and you go in there and you can barely walk, there's so much stuff in there because, did I tell you? We're 26 years old, and if you go in there, you're going to think we should start a TV series called the hoarding church, because there's just stuff in there. I don't know. It's just piled in there of just stuff and stuff. And so before we can even do phase one, we got to get that stuff out of there.

And you don't want me on that team because I'm kind of sentimental. I told Jonathan Mentor he'll have to be in charge because he's not sentimental at all. He'd be like, let's throw it away. But I'll be in there, like, looking at something and go, man, I remember we did that back in 1995. I helped build that right there.

And so everything in there, I know where it came from and why we have it and probably don't need it anymore, but we need to clean it out. And what we're going to do is, before July, we're going to build eight spaces in that space right there. And so that's within the building that we already own. And we'll have to put new HVAC system, new electrical, and it'll be the new K through fifth grade space. And we're going to furnish it with brand new furnishings.

Everything brand new. Because we started, we first moved in here, we got used furniture from other churches, and we just did the best we could. But we're going to do everything top notch right here. And there's some stuff about it. If you're looking at going like, what's that?

Well, that's for future use. Whenever we get out of here, we can have an entrance that comes in there. But for now, we'll have to leave that wall up. But anyway, it'll be like K first, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th. An extra room and a storage room.

And so we're going to be doing that. And then outside, we're going to be building a top notch, age appropriate playground. It'll be fenced in and it'll have a playground for K through fifth grade. And we wanted it so it was facing the parking lot. That's the parking lot out there.

So that when people pull into the cul de sac over here and pull in, they'd be like, oh, and really making that the first move that gets us started because the first stuck place in our church right now is we need more room for kids because I don't know what you all are doing, but it's bringing a lot of kids with you. That's the outcome. And some of you must be driving in a bus. There's a lot of kids. We have a lot of kids.

And so this expands our kids space and it gives age appropriate classes to each age group. That's phase one, phase two. We don't know the timing of phase two, phase three, phase four. We don't know when that is yet, but our dream is next three to five years. But I'm saying, bhag, that's done by July.

Phase one. Why? Because I want a bigger building. No, listen. Have you heard the story of us being portable for 19 years?

That how long we've waited for God to move? We have not done things unless God has led us here. And everything that's happened here has been a God story. And so why would we do this? Because we run out of room and we can't help any more kids.

And I don't like that. I can't keep doing this job if I can't keep reaching more people. Because that's why my heart beats. That's what God's done to my heart. And that's what I'm praying he does to your heart, too.

Because there's more kids. There's more kids. And so we're going to build this. This is not going to be one of those Lowe's wood kits that we could build ourselves. This is going to be one of those top notch like you see in professional parks.

Why? Because we want it to last for 2030 years and we want it to have a wow factor. Okay, so that's phase one. Phase two would be what's in blue? Phase two would shift.

We currently have church offices in this area, plus nursery. We would shift offices across where the current classrooms are and we would expand. So those of you that know that this is new, this part of the building is new, we would expand the nursery area. And so it's going to have its own bathrooms and then specific rooms that are all shaped just for nursery. And then at phase two, we'll build another outdoor playground that's just for toddlers because you don't want them playing in the same playground with K through five.

So there'll be an outdoor playground. And then this little feature right here is one of those, like McDonald's, Chick fil A, two story, all glassed in indoor playgrounds. So that when you pull in the parking lot, you'd see that. And it's got a little kitchenete, a couple of tables and a bathroom. Because what we had in mind here is because we're a community church that people maybe would be sitting in the drive through at Taco Bell or something like that.

And they'd be like, man, look at that playground they got because it would be all glass sticking out the front of the building. And so they could come over here and we'd say, yeah, you can reserve that for your child's birthday party or whatever. Don't have to be a member of the church. And it would just be a feature that we offer to the community and to our members. Why?

Because we're trying to reach people so we can make disciples. And one of the things we've learned is kids in this community, it's a way to reach people. So that's that feature. This is a new coffee shop that we would probably not build till phase three. New bathrooms, widen the ramp, remove the current bathrooms and move them over here.

This is a new youth area, which is in the current room right over here. Okay, so that's phase two. Phase three is a building out in front. So this is the new building. So this is a current.

What we already have, but we're remodeling. This is a new building. And so this would be a full court gym size, but with flat floor seating and a permanent stage. A permanent, full functioning kitchen where you could come in right here and go in here and have a seat. So we could do banquets.

We can do all kind of things. We can play full court basketball. But this would be our new worship space. So you have to get to phase three to get out of here. This is where we are.

And we're stuck in here in this skinny little room with people sitting back here trying to get as far away from me as they can.

But we build this, and this is about a 550 seat auditorium gymnasium. It's called a gymnatorium, I guess. And this is this huge lobby that would connect to the current lobby. So this is all lobby because we want places for people to hang out with, couches and things like that. A new coffee shop right here is an outdoor patio with a baptismal, a permanent baptismal built with a fountain feature.

This is a covered porch, a covered entry. And then in phase four, we finally got out of here, and we're here. Then we turn this into the K through fifth grade worship space, which is then they can go through here. So you come in here, you check in, and they worship together, and then they go into their classrooms. So that's all k through five.

Now, at the finish, this is youth. And then these are flex classrooms. The youth can use them, but anybody can use them. And they all have these flex doors. So that could be one big room, or it can be up to eight rooms, or as few as three, and that we can use for all kind of different classes.

So that's the next three to five years with God's help. Right. So, next slide. Yeah, so this is kind of like what it would look like on the property. There's the cul de sac.

There's the Holiday Inn. Up here's Taco Bell, our number one reason that people are visiting. We actually have it on the connection card. How did you hear about us? Taco Bell.

But here's the current building. And here would be the new building out in front. And then we're looking at redoing the parking lot and putting in some grass features and stuff, because the parking lot is in pretty bad shape. And so this piece will be mounted on the wall in the foyer starting next Sunday. So you can go up and press your nose right up against it, because I know it's what you're wanting to do right now.

And just kind of think about, well, what did he say and what was that? And these are some elevations of what it might look like if you were standing in the parking lot. Looking at it. Okay, so looking at your bulletin, you'll see on the last page a little summary. It says that our purpose statement is we exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ who have a growing heart for God, heart for each other, and heart for our world.

That's going to be our new way of describing ourself. It used to be celebrate, connect, contribute, right? But we wanted a fresh, new strategic ministry plan that was easy to remember. You think you can remember it? Heart for God, heart for each other, heart for our world.

And we want you to think about, that's the kind of disciples we're trying to grow to be. And we want to make disciples of Jesus Christ who have that. And then our vision statement is saturated in eastern North Carolina with churches of Christ followers who have a heart for God, heart for each other, and heart for our world, because heart change equals world change. And so, in the next three to five years, on top of expanding and working in Wilson, we want to continue to grow our rocky Mountain campus. But we also want to be prayerfully asking God to show us who the next church planting team is for the third campus.

Okay, now, can we do this? No, we cannot do any of this. It's too much. It's too big. But God can do it.

And so we got to be praying right now. Who's feeling called to help us plant the third campus? Because some of you, many of you went and helped us plant the Rocky Mountain campus that's now up and running. And they're preaching the same kind of sermon right now up there. Right?

And so, who would be part of that? And so we need more musicians, more singers, more preachers, more teachers, more and more and more. And there's room for you. And then here's the mission statement. And I want to close with this.

Come as you are and be forever changed by the love of Jesus. Come as you are and be forever changed by the love of Jesus. And that's also my invitation to you. And as I said earlier, if you're a first time guest, this is not our normal service. This is the time of the year where we could take kind of a break.

It was our 26 year anniversary and tell our church what we've been studying for the last six months and how we're going to lean forward into the future. But if you're a first time guest or been visiting for a little while, here's my invitation to you. It's the invitation from Jesus. Come as you are and let Jesus change you, because that's what we're doing here? What we're doing here is we're letting Jesus do a work on our hearts.

So I want to pray for you and then give you a chance to respond. Lord Jesus, thank you that you give us dreams and visions to do things that are way bigger than us. Lord, thank you for the journey. I'm just thinking about that song my mom used to sing. Lord, I wouldn't take nothing from my journey now, Lord, I'm thankful for even every bump in the road now.

I'm thankful for 26 years. I'm thankful for these people looking out at these people, Lord, just the love that you've given me, my heart for each one of them. And, Lord, I pray we would stay on the journey together and see the things you've put in our hearts to do together. And, Lord, I pray for that person this morning that might be far from you that came in here struggling. And I pray right now, Lord, that you'd speak to them, and even in these final songs today, that you would speak to them through the music and through the words.

And if it's you, my friend, that needs to come to Jesus, would you do it right now? Come just as you are. Stop holding back. Just come and pray with me. Pray.

Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. I've made a mess of my life. I've got some problems. I'm come just as I am to you, Lord Jesus, I believe you died on the cross for me and that you were raised from the grave, that you live today. Come and live in me.

Make me the person you want me to be. He's ready to do that. And others are here, you know, Jesus, and you're here this morning, and you're thinking, what's my part? Well, that's what I hope you're asking. I pray, Holy Spirit, right now, would you show us, show every member, every attender, maybe even a first timer that's here right now that says, I want to be part of that.

Would you show them their part? Show them how to be part of what you're doing in the world, Lord, help us to be what you call us to be. In Jesus name, amen.