Vision: The Church's Life

Vision: The Church’s Life

Poverbs 29:18

It started like so many evenings. Mom and Dad at home and

Jimmy playing after dinner. Mom and Dad were absorbed with

jobs and did not notice the time. It was a full moon and some of

the light seeped through the windows. Then Mom glanced at the

clock. "Jimmy, it’s time to go to bed. Go up now and I’ll come and

settle you later." Unlike usual, Jimmy went striaght upstairs to his

room. An hour or so later his mother came up to check if all was

well, and to her astonishment found that her son was staring

quietly out of his window at the moonlit scenery. "What are you

doing, Jimmy?" "I’m looking at the moon, Mommy." "Well, it’s

time to go to bed now." As one reluctant boy settled down, he

said, "Mommy, you know one day I’m going to walk on the

moon." Who could have known that the boy in whom the dream

was planted that night would survive a near fatal motorbike crash

which broke almost every bone in his body, and would bring to

fruition this dream 32 years later when James Irwin stepped on

the moon’s surface, just one of the 12 representatives of the human

race to have done so?

How did he accomplish this? Vision. A clear vision is

what will propel us as people and a church. It gives

purpose, it gives meaning. It points us to the place that

God wants us to be.

When I first came here to be your pastor, if you

remember, I preached vision over and over. What is it?

How do we get it? What do we do with it? Churches

that fail, do so because a lack of vision. Why are we

here?

Vision puts everything in perspective.

It drives us in the good times and sustains us in the bad.

All we have to do is look at Joseph to see what vision

will do for us.

Remember Joseph received a vision..........

He was then sold into slavery, then put into jail for

something he did not do. Did he give up on God or quit

the church because things were not going as he had

planned? No!

He held onto that vision he sought after that vision, and

eventually in God’s time, he was lifted into position for

what God had called him to be.

Vision: the capacity to create a compelling picture of the desired

state of affairs that inspires people to respond; that which is

desirable, which could be, should be; that which is attainable.A

godly vision is right for the times, right for the church, and right

for the people. A godly vision promotes faith rather than fear. A

godly vision motivates people to action. A godly vision requires

risk-taking. A godly vision glorifies God, not people.

One of the things that I have to do is as the pastor is to

make sure that the vision that God has given to this

church is known. Everyone who belongs to this body of

believers should know why we are here. Now I did this

this last in a message and it is listed in the bulletin every

week. (Look around you, we have so many new people

that God told me preach the vision again. It must be

working!)

And I believe we are on the threshold of something so

wonderful and powerful from God. Columbia City is

about to be hit with a dose of Pentecostal power and

everyone will know who and where Victory Christian

Fellowship is.

Our Mission:

1. To Reach Columbia City and the world with the

life changing gospel of Jesus Christ.

Matt. 28:19, Acts 1:8

It is easy to determine when something is aflame. It

ignites other material. Any fire that does not spread will

eventually go out. A church without evangelism is a

contradiction in terms, just as a fire that does not burn is

a contradiction.

We are called to reach this world for Jesus. If you have

given your heart to the Lord then his command to you is

to witness. In other words just tell the world who Jesus

is and what he has done for.

Too many Christians think it is the resposibility of the

pastor to reach everyone. The pastor is supposed to

reach the city, the county, the world and when you have

time my whole family too. God gives all of us the ability

and power to witness

Lieghton Ford was speaking at an open-air crusade in Halifax,

Nova Scotia. Billy Graham was to speak the next night and had

arrived a day early. He came incognito and sat on the grass at the

rear of the crowd. Because he was wearing a hat and dark glasses,