Each One Win One

God gave Moses a vision for His people...to lead them to freedom.

God gave Nehemiah a vision...to see the Temple rebuilt...

and God continues to give a vision to people called of God to lead a Church.

B. I am not simply your pastor because the Church voted and asked me to be the pastor...

I am your pastor because God called me to be your pastor...

He has appointed me to serve Belleview Church of the Nazarene...

When the invitation was given to come and interview for this position...

my wife and I prayed extensively about it...

before you voted...the people were in prayer...

and God answered that prayer...

Kay and I felt the power of the Holy Spirit burning within us after we had interviewed with you...

we felt like that it was God’s will...

and we continue to feel that way...

And as your God-called pastor...God has given me a new vision for His Church in Belleview COTN.

C. Our Mission will remain the same..."Loving God...Reaching Families...Making Friends"...

That God-given mission won’t change much year to year...

it is global in scope...

it is what we are about...

it defines us...

We exist to love and service and worship God...

we exist to reach out to families...

and we don’t just want to get folks in the door...

we want to make them our friends...

that is our mission...

D. Our VISION is the method that we use to accomplish the mission...

last year, our vision was Christ First....

Each letter in "Christ" stood for something...

Christ

Holiness

Revival

Intercessory prayer...

stewardship...

and Togetherness.

We had used the space shuttle theme to "launch" the theme each month...

but with the disaster of the space shuttle columbia...

I felt that out of respect for the crew...

that we back off the shuttle theme..

but we focused on some important things each month...

things like those already mentioned...

but also including a study of the last days events...

and others.

3. And now, in 2004 God has given me a new vision for Belleview Church of the Nazarene

A. And as I shared it with the Church Board...

together we have worked out a plan for accomplishing our mission of...

Loving God...Reaching Families...Making Friends...

in 2004.

It can be summed up in the Words "Each One Win One"

B. One day, during the last year...

one of those faithful people that I mentioned earlier...

that kind that are always here...

always working...

always helping...

the people that are the life’s blood of the church...

She asked me, "Pastor, what can we do to get new people in church...

we’ve lost so many families....

how can we replace them"

Those weren’t her exact words...

but that was the message...

and I could tell that the situation was of great concern to her...

I don’t remember the answer that I gave her that day that she asked the question...

but the real answer is coming today...

in this message...

C. Under normal circumstances...

if a church lost 1 faithful, working, tithing church member...

it would hurt...

but we have lost over 20 people like that...

and most churches would be happy to gain just 1 faithful, working, tithing family in a year...