Welcome to week #3 of our Fall Vision Refresh Series. Let's ... - Bitly

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To make room for the Chapel venue, and to enable Re:new to have room to grow ... move will help us regroup to go forward
Sermon Series: Fall Vision Refresh

Colossians 1:15-18 & Selected Texts “How God Seems to Be Leading Us”

Pastor Brian Long: October 1st, 2017 Big Idea: “Future growth sometime requires present consolidation."

Welcome to week #3 of our Fall Vision Refresh Series. Let’s review where we’ve been so far so we’re all on the same page as we step into today’s message.

Week #1 – In week one we looked at who we are and why we do what we do around our church. I reminded us that our church does what it does and has the priorities it has because it is the pattern and priorities we observe in Jesus’ life and ministry.

In short, we do what we do, because it is what we see Jesus doing. He connected with people, called them to follow him, he grew them in their faith and he trained them and sent them out to serve in his name.

That pattern and those priorities combined with the great commission in Matthew 28 which calls us to “make disciples of all nations” and the great commandment in Matthew 22—which calls us to love God with everything we’ve got and love others with everything we’ve got—leads us to a focused purpose statement that says: We exist to connect people to Jesus and help them grow to love and serve him. The three key words that help you remember our mission are: Connect, Grow, Serve.

Connect, grow, serve is how we make disciples of Jesus. This focus helps us maintain a healthy balance in the disciple making process—helping people get in front of Jesus in order to connect with him (We’re mat carriers), once they connect with Jesus we help them grow to know and love him, and then we help them become equipped to serve him.

This focus also helps us maintain a healthy balance in our church of reaching the unreached and nurturing to the reached. In everything we do, we have this in mind—reaching the unreached AND growing and equipping the reached. Finding ways to connect those far from Jesus and finding ways to nurture those close with Jesus.

We recognize we have to do this differently with different age groups and different generations.

For example: This need to “reach the unreached” and “nurture the reached” across different ages and generations impacts our approach to

worship. So we have venues/services that engage the more traditional languages of worship and we have venues/services that engage the more recent expressions of worship. Different approaches to reach different kinds of people! In Chapel for example we take a very traditional approach. Here in LIVE, our 8am service is a quieter, unplugged acoustic feel, our 9:30 and 11:00 are kicked up a notch or two.

Friends…it’s important to remember: One isn’t better than the other! It’s just isn’t. It’s never helpful to trash the traditional or curse the current. It’s just different approaches to reach and minister to different people.

I really appreciate what Dr. John Stumbo, the President of the Alliance said to all us pastors at our national gathering this past may in regards to worship styles, “God is always inspiring a new song in new generations to express many facets of his greatness. And we must not curse what God has blessed.”-John Stumbo, President of the Alliance, General Council Session, Columbus, OH. 2017

That is such a powerful statement because the reality is… some worship styles resonate and make sense to some people but not others. One style isn’t sinful, and the other more holy. The difficult thing is that worship preferences are very personal and vary quite widely in any given church. If we met everyone’s preference we would be divided up into 20 venues or more. It’s just not realistic. In a multi-generational church family like ours we must learn to understand and appreciate our differences. Now…last week in week two of our series, Mike Brill our missionary candidate in residence with us here at COTF reminded us that not only are we called to have part in reaching our community we are called to have a part in reaching the world.

Week #2 - As an Alliance church we are part of a Christ-centered, Acts 1:8, family.

• We will love (Again the Great Commandment we looked at in week 1 is reflected here).

• We will proclaim (we must share the gospel and invite folks into it and not slide into being a social justice organization)

• We will reach (The Alliance is focused on three types of people—

People lacking access to the gospel, people of all ages, and people on the move, refugees and those displaced through war or famine).

• Finally, we will launch, meaning we are committed to raising up and sending out new spirit-filled people who have the call of God on their lives to serve.

Now this week, I want to share with you some more specific future growth plans our Leadership Board and Pastoral Staff have been praying through and talking through over the past many months. Pieces of this seem very clear to us…but we’re going to ask you to join us in prayer on the timing and feasibility of other pieces of it. Let me explain what I mean.

Pieces of COTF Future Growth Plan Overall there are three primary components to future growth plan as we see it now.

a) The first component is our Unleashing The Future mortgage debt reduction effort. I have not talked about this since last spring so let me give you a status update. If you’re newer with us, our Unleashing The Future effort is a mortgage debt reduction effort we’ve been going after as a church family. Hopefully you’ve seen the banners posted at each venue. The Unleashing effort we’re involved in now is part two of the Unleashing effort. In part 1, in 20 months, God enabled us to pay off an original note held on this property in the amount of 932k.

Once that was done, we began rolling in the monthly payment for that note into our next mortgage note that is the residual from the three-story Education Center construction. In addition, many of you have joined us in this effort by committing some extra monthly dollars over and above your regular tithes enabling us to pay an additional average principle payment of 12-14K/month, above our regular payment.

Step by step we’re whittling away at this mortgage note. Since beginning this effort this past January, we have nearly paid down an additional 200k of principle.

This calling to reduce debt as quickly as possible remains a high value for us. We believe it is wise, not to mention freeing. Our debt-free dream holds promise for being more nimble to meet ministry needs, local and global missions efforts, and over all focusing of donated dollars into life changing ministry. We really believe staying focused on this calling is wise!

b) We also believe a second component of our longer-range growth plan will involve planting a church in our region in a location that lacks a healthy, Jesus focused Church. We are beginning discussions now with our district personnel who can help us discern the most appropriate approach, timing, and location. We want to be thoughtful and prepared to reach the folks that are predicted to move into our area with the new housing developments planned for our region. These are the first two components of our over all future growth plan— debt reduction, and church planting. The first is underway…and the second is off in the future. Now…let’s talk about a third component. This third component involves more immediate new initiatives.

c) Immediate initiatives to set the stage for future growth.

In order to set the stage for future growth we believe it’s time to fold our Re:new venue back into our LIVE venue services.

Re:new began as a venue in the space now called the Chapel. It was launched 11 years ago to provide additional seats for our 9:30 worship hour. 5 years later, we felt God calling us to start a more traditional worship venue. To make room for the Chapel venue, and to enable Re:new to have room to grow, we moved Re:new off campus in a plaza just over the freeway.

Now, 11 years later, our worship landscape has changed a bit and the Chapel is now serving the role Re:new served. At this point, we believe Re:new has served its original purpose well. It has now fulfilled its mission. The consensus among our team is that it now makes sense to fold Re:new back into our LIVE services to set the stage for our future LIVE and Chapel expansion.

In other words, we need to regroup so we can move forward! Folding Re:new back into our LIVE family will allow us to combine our resources of staff, volunteers and finances and help set the stage for future expansion.

The timing for this move will be the end of this calendar year. As usual, we will all join together for our Christmas Eve services and from that time on as we turn the New Year, Re:new will rejoin our LIVE worship services.

Now, let me offer some further explanation as to how we believe this move will help us regroup to go forward.

1. Currently our Chapel venue is near capacity at 9:30 and 11:00am each Sunday. The Chapel is our most urgent need to create more seats.

Research and experience has shown over and over once you begin to fill 80% of your seats your growth literally levels out. We have already exceeded that threshold in our two Chapel services with rare exception.

This is partly why we have modified our 8am LIVE worship style to accommodate any of those who might prefer chapel but have felt it is getting too cramped.

2. Now, our LIVE venue is in a slightly different place currently. The 8am service has plenty of seats available. The 9:30 and 11:00 services are more full, but still have seats available.

However, we are not currently hitting that 80% threshold yet. And even when our Re:new friends rejoin us, we will still have some seats available for new folks to attend. How long till we hit that capacity mark where visibly the room is full and new attenders no longer feel comfortable coming? It’s hard to say; probably 1-2 years.

All of that is to say there is room for our friends in Re:new to rejoin us in LIVE and help us set the stage for our future growth initiatives.

3. Ultimately we believe the best solution to the current overcrowding in Chapel and the predicted capacities in our LIVE services is to shift some venues around and relocate Chapel in this worship center and relocated LIVE into the Family Life Center. Picture a clockwise room shift {SHOW DIAGRAM}

LIVE

Now…as your digesting this concept…I need you to listen to me very closely… Some of you have an Chape FLC l immediate concern over how this type fo a move will impact your Sunday morning or midweek ministry.

Please hear me…this change will not be implemented thoughtlessly, mindlessly, and heartlessly, toward any current ministry. The needs of every ministry that is currently active are being comprehended in this change.

For example, our team is working tirelessly to make sure that AWANA, Sr. Nutrition, Student ministries, nursery, and our Library will continue to function freely and fully resourced. When this shift happens in the future, the set up for LIVE worship will be stackable chairs that will be pulled down allowing access to the AWANA circle and room for students to gather and Sr. Nutrition to continue serving the Seniors of our community.

Now…here is our dilemma we’re praying and processing through.

4. The Chapel needs space now. We’ve modified 8am LIVE to try to open up some options. And we’ve explored starting an 8am Chapel service. But, we know neither of these options are optimal because they are at 8am. Most have expressed that 8am is too early for them to arrive. We’ve even tried bribing you with breakfast, and 8am is still just too early for many.

So…the chapel needs optimal worship-time space a.s.a.p. In addition, according to our counts we believe LIVE will need the additional seating space within a year or two.

So, here is the dilemma.

As I mentioned, we are committed to our debt reduction effort in Unleashing The Future. But we are also committed to making sure we stay ahead of the growth curve, which means we are likely going to have to make this relocation shift of our venues BEFORE we have met our goals for debt reduction.

But this shift will require some modifications to the Family Life Center building. To meet in there on a regular basis the county and the Fire Department require certain modifications. So, it’s going to cost some money when we get ready to do it.

Here’s the problem:

1. Pressing pause on debt reduction to spend money on these modifications will lead to loss of momentum and perhaps failure of the Unleashing effort.

2. However, even more concerning to us is the cost in unreached lives if we don’t make timely moves to open up more worship space.

Loss of “Unleashing” momentum and loss of people are both unacceptable outcomes.

This is why we need you to pray with us. God knows exactly how we’ll navigate this challenge. We are praying and giving ourselves to the process of discerning that. We need you to pray with us.

Here are some ideas we’re kicking around to navigate this challenge.

1. In order to prepare for the costs of modifications on the FLC we will place the 5k/month saved on Re:new rent costs into a savings account.

2. Perhaps God will grow our church at a pace that doesn’t require expanding our worship space until the debt is reduced.

3. Or maybe God will help us reduce the debt faster than we imagine.

Three things I ask of you as we move forward…

1. If you know of people who are not here today or if the people you talk with have questions please, please have them listen to this message. I’d love it if they could hear it straight from their pastor.

2. Pray with me, our staff, and our Leadership Board. Small Group leaders, lead your groups through a time of prayer this week. The first two weeks of this series grounded us in the Scriptural foundations of our mission locally and globally. This week is practical application week. We’ve provided a number of ways for your groups to pray specifically for aspects of this transition.

3. If this transition approach hits you weird and you’re uncertain about it and you have questions, let me ask you to do this…make this a matter of prayer first…then if you still feel led to, come and talk with one of our pastoral staff or Leadership Board. Their pictures and contact information are on our website. Give us the chance to help you understand more about why our Pastors and Leadership Board have found consensus that this is the best direction at this time.

© Church of the Foothills 2017