Vision & CV Overview
We’ve been going through a series since September on our vision and core values (12 sermons). As we finish this series, I thought it might be helpful for us to step back, see how all the pieces fit together in the big picture, to see the forest from the trees.
Our vision and core values are on our website, under “About Us.”
To ignite a Gospel-spreading movement through multiple local congregations in the greater Philadelphia area and the world, so that individuals, communities, and cultures are renewed in Christ.
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The Gospel is the engine of our church that empowers transforming ministry deep and wide.As we’ve looked at Colossians, Paul had a fiery passion for the Gospel. He is amazed and gripped by this message that God accepts us because of Jesus. And being accepted, we are united with Christ, adopted into the family and given a home in heaven.
It is not the story of how good people tried harder and became better people. It is the story of how hopelessly sinful, selfish people were forgiven, accepted, adopted, and loved by a great and gracious God. God is the giver, we are the receivers. The Gospel is the story of all that God has, is, and will do for us.
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We are move sinful than we realize and more loved than we can possibly imagine.·
We no longer live by effort or performance. We abandon hopes that we can ever be good enough and put our hope in God. We trust His promises and experience His grace.·
We don’t “live to get,” we live “out of having already received.”I was recently talking with a brother who has struggled with a pornography addiction. One particular Saturday he gave into the temptation, and as he came to church the next day, he felt miserable and ashamed. He was unable to worship. In his mind, he wanted to take a bat and beat himself up, perhaps to beat the lust out of himself. Then, the bat turned into a whip. And then he heard a voice saying, “I’ve already done that.” I’ve already taken the punishment! He lost it. He was broken by the grace and Gospel of Jesus.
The Gospel is not a story about how we’re always pure and good.
The Gospel is the story of how we’re not good, not pure, but we’re loved and accepted anyway. It is the story of unconditional, undeserved love. We’re not trying to make ourselves good enough. Christ has already paid for our mistakes and given us His righteousness.
The Gospel focus of the Christian life is not on purity, it is on believing we’re loved when we’re impure.
When that Gospel breaks into our hearts, we become a humble, thankful, and worshipful. Jesus, you are so gracious, too kind, too wonderful.
As we’ve been talking about the Gospel, I’ve been encouraged by people who’ve said, “I see more and more how performance-driven I am, I see how I’ve been focused on me trying to make myself better. I’m beginning to see more of my sin and how my selfishness taints everything I do. I feel I’m just beginning to understand what it means to live by grace, to live in the Gospel. I’ve got a long way to go.”
But at least we’re going! Yes, we all have a long way to go. But I believe we better see the Gospel road we’re called to travel, and we want to travel this journey together, helping each other see and experience the Gospel.
Get a group of these people who believe and have been transformed by the Gospel and put them together.
They have a different way of relating with one another, a different kind of dynamic and culture.
There is authenticity & transparency—we can talk about how we fail, sin, make mistakes. We don’t have to hide or minimize our sin. We can acknowledge our shortcomings because the Gospel says we’re sinful and that we’re loved. It’s okay if we’re impure.
There is openness and unity—we don’t exclude others. There’s no self-righteousness or superiority. There’s an acknowledgement that we’re all in the same boat: sinners who need Jesus.
There is forgiveness and reconciliation—we can forgive others. We don’t have to demand our rights or demand repayment. We who have received so much can give and forgive.
This group of Gospel-believers then recognize that the Gospel includes becoming part of God’s family. We’re saved out of our sin and guilt and saved into the people of God. That’s part of our salvation. [diagram] There’s a new identity: not just I am a child of God, but we are the family of God, the church.
We also realize that our salvation includes spiritual gifts. Every member of this family is given spiritual gifts, everyone is made to do good works, made to be useful, made to be needed teammate in this family.
If we really believe that is what God has given us, that empowers us to serve, to be a blessing. We serve not to be good enough, we serve because we’ve already been made good enough.
I was talking with someone for our new campus and found out that he was a trained sound engineer. He has both an engineering mind and a musical feel to help balance and mix the sound of the different instruments and voices on a praise team. I told him how important that mixer person is and what a difference good mixing makes for the praise team. I also shared how his gift could make such a difference in our praise ministry.
This brother recognized that (1) God had gifted him and that (2) there was a need for him. That’s the Gospel: God has gifted us and we are useful, even needed in this body. And if you believe that, you usually don’t just watch, you feel empowered to be the blessing God made you to be.
Then you put that group of Gospel-believers in a neighborhood, and they become a city on a hill, a light in the darkness. They don’t look down on the poor or weak but identify with them. The Gospel makes us realize that spiritually, we’re just as poor and weak as anybody else. And in finding so much love and grace, are freed to share the abundance of Christ to others. There is overflow.
In fact, it becomes very organic and natural that we want to bless others. We believe the greatest thing we can give is the Gospel, that others can find Jesus.
These Gospel-believers see more and more implications of the Gospel. That it doesn’t just apply to struggles with pornography or transparent relationships. It changes our worldview, it changes how we see sex, money, business practices, research, environment, the arts, leisure and entertainment, etc.
I heard an account of a woman who made a pretty big mistake on a project at her work. She was really stressed and realized that it was possible she could even be fired. But to her shock, she found out that her manager took the blame, even though it wasn’t his fault. Again, she was completely shocked, because this never happens in the business world. Why would he voluntarily take the hit when it wasn’t even his fault? When she found out, she asked her manager, and he replied, I believe that is what God did for me. Jesus took the blame for me, and that changes the way I see people and how I lead/manage. The Gospel changes our business practices, how we lead and manage people.
It changes research, arts, education, marriage & parenting—it changes our culture.
That is part of the Gospel too: God is not just saving individuals and the church. He is redeeming all of creation. There is a holistic impact of the Gospel to all of life.
This outward flow is reflected in our core values
Gospel, Gospel-Worship, Gospel-Transformation
This is the engine, the core—the Gospel changes our lives
Gospel-Community, Gospel-Centered Local Church
What happens when you gather a group of these changed lives.
The Gospel isn’t just to saved individuals, but God desires to save a people for Himself, to created a new humanity, a new society
Gospel Compassion & Service, Gospel Spreading, Gospel Cultural Renewal
Then the Gospel moves us outward, not just to save more individuals, but also to change the very society we’re a part of, to be the salt of the earth
To ignite a Gospel-spreading movement through multiple local congregations in the greater Philadelphia area and the world, so that individuals, communities, and cultures are renewed in Christ.
The strategy to see this happen is through launching local congregations. Multi-site church.
This happens most effectively launching and maturing communities of believers who live out the Gospel in their contexts.
Starting new congregations has been shown to be the most effective way to see people come to Christ.
We believe churches are the most effective means of raising disciples. Churches are disciple-making organisms. Hospital heal physical ailments, schools provide education, churches produce disciples.
And we’re taking our first steps as we launch a new campus in the suburbs and re-launch our WP campus.
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The Gospel is the engine of our church that empowers transforming ministry deep and wide.It is the Gospel that fuels the whole thing. [Diagram]
Explosion internal in personal transformation
Explosion upward in worship: love for God
Explosion outward: inner circle, community
Explosion outward: spreading, mercy & service
Explosion comprehensive: cultural renewal (2 axis, all of life, more people)
We don’t just want results, we want Gospel-results.
Please do not see the vision as a collection of separate pieces. It’s not that we just want authentic community and evangelism and worship and compassion for the needy. We do want these things, but more specifically, we want it to be the fruit of the Gospel.
We can get evangelism that a result of duty and obligation.
We can get compassion for the need that’s a result of human kindness.
We can get some kind of transparent community that’s a result of re-socialization.
That is not our vision. Our vision is Gospel-driven. We want Gospel-evangelism, Gospel-community, Gospel-compassion.
Our vision flows out of the conviction that
the Gospel isn’t just how we start the Christian life, it is how we live the Christian life
we can produce nothing of spiritual value by human effort and performance. True spiritual fruit is the result of the work of Christ and our faith in Him.
We must see Jesus.
That becomes the focus of our ministry. We need to help each other see Jesus and what He does for us.
Scripture is given, not to tell us what to do, but to display Jesus.
The ministry of the HS is to help us see Jesus.
The worship we offer is the gut-response of seeing Jesus.
The humility, compassion and boldness we want come from seeing Jesus.
The evangelism we want is eye-witness accounts of those who see Jesus.
The Gospel is the story of who Jesus is and what Jesus does.
We believe this is Jesus’ Mission
In our vision, we see a picture of Jesus:
It is God’s desire that people worship Him, love Him, adore Him, celebrate Him. That’s not a Renewal idea, that’s God’s call and purpose.
It is God’s idea that through Jesus, our lives we be transformed and freed at the core. God is in the life-healing, life-changing business.
It is God’s desire that there we enjoy true, authentic, honest, loving, caring community. God is building a people who are known by their love for one another.
It is God’s idea to make a people for Himself, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people given spiritual gifts and made to do good works. God is making His church.
It is God’s idea that through His people the poor would be cared for, the hungry to fed, the defenseless would be defended. His people would be a light, a foretaste of heaven on earth.
It is God’s desire that more people see Jesus and find transformation, hope, love, and joy in Him. It is God desires to draw more worshippers into his church, more children into his family.
It is God’s desire to remove the affects of the curse and restore our broken world to how things are supposed to be, so that business, marriage, education, medicine, literature, the arts, etc. are all in Shalom, completeness.
This is God’s mission, God’s great redemptive work.
Ultimately, this vision is not accomplished because we work so hard to accomplish it. It is accomplished because this is God’s mission, and God will not fail.
We are first the recipients of God’s mission, the recipients of His ministry. We see Him doing these things in our own lives. We’ve found hope and security and love and joy.
And now, we’re invited to partner with Him, to join in His work.
Prayer:
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Thankfulness & Praise for all that Christ has done for us: sinners loved completely.·
That this Jesus does change our community, our worship, our compassion and service, our culture.·
That we can share this Jesus with our Community Groups, with our CCNF’s, with WP and PM.