The Mission And Vision Of The Church

The Mission and Vision of the Church

by Benny D. Horn preached on 04/21/02 at A.B.C.

Introduction: When I was a young man, for several years I made a living building houses. Through the years, I have drawn house plans, I have done framing and finish carpentry, and I have acted as the overall building contractor. I always hired subcontractors to do things such as concrete work, electrical, plumbing, etc. There are many different decisions that have to be made in building a house, and it takes many different skilled workers to build a house. Jesus said, "For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?" So to simplify all this, I would break it down into 2 parts. The first part is the easy part. First, the customer comes to us and says he wants to build a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with a 2 car garage and covered porches on the front and back. He may say that he wants it to be no more than 2000 square feet, because he knows that is what he can afford. Ok, now we can call this our mission. Our mission is to build this person a house based on these specifications. But how to do that is not given in our mission. Now the second part is a little more complicated, but it isn’t really, once we get a vision of how we are going to accomplish our mission. Our vision will lay out the details needed to reach the goal of completing the specified house. In other words, our mission is our desired goal that we want to reach, and our vision is a more detailed plan of how to reach our goal.

Prayer

Read Text: Matthew 28:

19: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Comment: This is what we call the "great commission". When churches try to come up with a mission statement, this is it. Basically our mission is the "Reach and Teach". This is our mission. First we are to reach the lost, and second, we are to teach the saved. Our mission is to reach people for Christ and teach people to be disciples of Christ. All else should revolve around these 2 things.

Now we all can agree on that, I think. But the vision of how do we do that is going to be unique to Angus Baptist Church. What works for one church may not work for the next church. So we need to catch the vision that will allow us to do these 2 things and do them effectively.

I. Prayer: Jesus has given me strong convictions that prayer has to come first before the church will be strong enough to face the forces of hell that will come against her as souls are saved.

Mt:21:22: And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

A. Prayer for conviction and repentance in the church.

1Pt:4:17: For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

B. Prayer for salvation of the lost and rededication of the backslidden.

Mt: 21:13: And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

If we don’t come together and pray for the lost and backslidden of this community as well as the world, then all of our efforts will probably be in vain. We may be making His House a den of thieves by trying to steel the glory away from God. Why? Because without prayer it will be us doing it instead of Him.

II. Passion: Jesus has placed and will continue to place people in the body to carry out the Father’s will in Angus. I want to ask you this morning, "What is your passion?" Pray about it. The church can vote you into a slot and tell you how to do your job, or you can come to me and tell me what you are passionate about, and I can plug you into whatever will fit into our vision to make our mission happen.

I Cor: 12:4: Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

5: And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

14: For the body is not one member, but many.