THE VOICE OF VISION
September 25, 2016
Sunday J. Adu
Today is a special day in this church. It is vision day. The wisest man who ever lived once said:
“Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish; but he who keeps the law [of God, which includes that of man]—blessed (happy, fortunate, and enviable) is he.” Prov.29:18 (Amp)
The word “perish” here does not mean physical death, but lack of lack of purpose, direction and lack of significant progress.
God does not want his people to perish, and that is why he raises visionary leaders to lead His people according to His will.
So, the purpose of the Vision Day is to rediscover and communicate our purpose, recapture our vision, convert our vision to mission, present the current state of the church, make prophetic projections for our immediate future, fellowship together, have fun and reach out to our community.
Every church is driven by something. There is a guiding force, a controlling assumption, and a directing conviction behind everything that happens. It may be unspoken. It may be unknown to many. But it is there, influencing every aspect of the church’s life. Permit me to mention some of them as itemized by Rick Warren in this book, “Purpose Driven Church,” pages 79-83
1. By Tradition: In the tradition driven-church, the favorite phrase is “we’ve always done it this way.” The goal of a tradition-driven church is to simply perpetuate the past. Change is almost seen as negative, and stagnation is interpreted as “stability.”
2. By Personalities: In this church, everything revolves around the pastor and (or) some key leaders. The problem is that the personalities-driven church comes to a standstill when the personality dies, leaves or has a moral failure.
3. By Finances: in this church, nothing seems quite as important as finances. The most heated debate is on money and how it is spent. While good stewardship and cash flow are essential for a healthy church, finances must never be the controlling issue. The greater issue should be what God wants the church to do.
4. By Buildings: Building-driven churches build beyond their capacity to pay for it, and then become financially strapped. They are unable to fulfil their ministry task because the mortgage becomes the number one priority.
5. By Programs: In a program driven church, all the energy is focussed on maintaining and sustaining the programs of the church and goal shifts from developing people to just filling positions.
6. By Events: You can tell by their calendar that the goal of that church is to keep the saints busy. As soon as one event finishes, another one starts. People are running from meeting to meeting to meeting. Event-driven churches wear people out. Event-driven churches also tend to be crowd-driven.
7. By the Unchurched: In an honest attempt to reach unbelievers for Christ and be relevant in today’s culture, some churches allow the needs of the unbelievers to become their driving force. While we must be sensitive to the needs and hurts, and interest of seekers, and while it is wise to design evangelistic services that target their needs, we cannot allow seekers to drive the total agenda of the church.
8. By Biblical Purpose: To build something that lasts, it must be built on God’s purposes. Churches that last are not built on program or personalities or events. Church that lasts—that are healthy and growing—are built on God’s purposes.
Our mandate in this church is “Building Strong People” and we do that by committing to the five purposes of the church.
The mandate is holistic, intergenerational, multinational and multicultural. It is also global in dimension (Dan.11:32b; Col.1:28-29; Acts 1:1; Is.2:2)
Action Points:
I. The Rediscovery of Purpose Driven Biblical Paradigm.
We want to study and upgrade our purpose driven structure.
“The GOFAMINT’s statement of purpose embraces the basic and major functions of the church on earth, namely, Outreach, Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Service – all these, when put into action, make the church effective, active and get recognized in the community and the world at large…The GOFAMINT’s Statement of Purpose stands as her vision to which every member should subscribe and be committed, and vigorously pursue to achieve its aim and objective…GOFAMINT is a purpose driven church aimed at raising purpose driven people.” (Pastor E.O. Abina)
“To preach the word of God and bring people into membership of God’s family; to teach the word of God to enhance freedom, promote Christian maturity and bind the people to God for service; and to live the word of God to demonstrate the new life in Christ to the world, and ensure security of the believer.”
Our Purpose Statement consists of:
· The Vision
Ø The Preach the Word
Ø To Teach the Word
Ø To Live the Word
· The Core Values:
Ø Outreach: To preach the gospel to all mankind – Mk.16:15
Ø Fellowship: To share Christ’s Life together and incorporate people into fellowship – Eph.2:19; Heb.10:25
Ø Discipleship: To educate God’s people to grow into maturity – Matt.28:18-19; Eph.4:11-16; 2 Cor.13:9
Ø Service/Ministry: To serve God’s people and our community – Rm.12:6-8; Gal.5:13
Ø Worship: To celebrate God’s presence – Jn.4:23-24
· The Process – The TDP.
Ø Class 001 – Life Foundation Class
Ø Class 101 – Membership Class
Ø Class 201 – Maturity Class
Ø Class 301 – Ministry Class
Ø Class 401 – Mission Class
Ø Class 501 – Worship Class
Ø The classes are about progressive transformation and not just for information. So everybody is enjoined to participate in it.
· The Target
Ø Community – people that live within the driving distance of the church.
Ø Crowd – People who are regular attendees. Those that show up on Sundays.
Ø Congregation – people who have completed 101, committed to membership covenant, baptized, joined our fellowship.
Ø Committed – People who have completed maturity class 201, committed to maturity covenant to tithe, attend Sunday school and small groups and have a quiet time/regular personal devotion.
Ø Core – People who have completed class 301, committed to the ministry covenant and are serving in ministry.
Ø Commissioned – people who have completed mission class 401, committed to the mission covenant and participate in home and foreign missions.
Our goal is for people to move inward as they go through the Transformational Discipleship Process under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
· The Product
Ø Christians that are genuinely born-again—that have turned away from sin and turned to God.
Ø Christians that are secured in their identity in Christ.
Ø Christians that are growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ø Christians that are no longer “need-driven” but are “spirit-led.”
Ø Christians that are STRONG and POWERFUL.
Ø Christians that are committed to winning souls for Christ.
Ø Christians that are committed to serving wholeheartedly according to their SHAPE.
Ø Christians that are turnaround agents wherever they are.
Ø Christians that are Christ-like in everything.
Ø Christians that are heaven-bound.
Next Step:
Know where you are on the journey and take a step forward.
II. Plurality of Leadership
“The New Testament clearly says that the church should never be run by single personalities even if they are strong leaders or godly individuals…the church ultimately should be in the hands of plurality of godly people…the nomenclature is not as important as the descriptive commandment in the New Testament that there should be plurality of godly people overseeing the affairs of the church...Also in the New Testament, there is the pastoral role-a functioning day-to-day role of getting things done. The highest value in the two bodies is CLARITY.” (Bill Hybels)
“Plurality of leadership provides an atmosphere for true division of labor. The workload is lightened in a team leadership structure…” Apostle John Tetsola
As a church grows, so the leadership must grow. As the church grows, so the leadership system must be changed from a sheepherder mode to a rancher mode. We bless the Lord for how far we have come, but a this stage, we must make a shift from sheepherder mode to a rancher mode –Leading through leaders.
Today, we are installing leaders that have served us over the years as Associate Pastor and Assistant Pastor respectively to move the leadership nearer to the people, provide on-time pastoral care, create an empowering culture, set up and maintain the church systems.
INSTALLATION
III. Chosen Generation Presentation:
Our mandate in this church is intergenerational. The scripture says, One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.” Ps.145:4
We bless the Lord for what He is doing through the Chosen Generation Ministry. This makes our retention rate above 95%. God is raising turn around agents through the ministry in the marketplace, and we know that the ministry is set to move from glory to glory. We want to give them a little time to share with us some vital information about the ministry and how we can partner together to make the path of our children smooth in life and in ministry.
PRESENTATION BY BROTHER GBENGA ATILOLA
IV. Building Project:
We bless the Lord for where are on this project. Although we have some challenges on the project since inception, we believe that God has given us a breakthrough.
· The Vision renovate 3808 building is still ongoing. Our primary vision is to have a larger place in the nearest future where we can minister to the total man, operate without any limitation and also accommodate the great harvest. The purpose of this vision is to provide well-furnished children, youth, office and multi-purpose hall facilities for this place.
· We presently have $131,520.00 in cash at the bank.
· We hired a contractor, but we could not continue with the company because of competency concerns although the bank was ready to loan us $500,000.00 for the project. He did the roof of 3808 and the face board for 3812.
· We are now working with a new architectural company. The floor plan has been drawn, and we are told that the process of approval would take two months. After which, we would now find contractors to bid for the project.
· We know that the Lord has given us breakthrough on this project.
IV. Finances
We bless the Lord for providing for Himself in House of Hope, and we want to sincerely thank you all and particularly those that are very faithful in paying their tithes, giving their offerings proportionately and also contributing extravagantly to the work anytime there is a call. As a church of financial transparency, the income and expenses statements for the Month of January to June would be posted on the bulletin board as from today for a week. You are free to have a look at it and should you have any question, kindly see the church accountant or any of the leaders.
I know that this is a $1M church if all are 100% faithful and by His grace and your cooperation, we are getting there.
As I travel far and wide, and I study more, I discovered that majority of churches come up with a budget, allow members to give towards the budget part from their tithe and offering. This makes the church to have more than enough to attend to the Great Commission. We are getting there too.
V. Ogunmakin Project:
The G.O. announced that the convention next year would take place at Ogunmakin. To make this a reality, members of GOFAMINT in Nigeria would be giving their first fruit (their full salary) in January 2017.
We have an acre of land purchased by GOFAMINT North America as delegates house, and we have been given the opportunity to develop it to taste. We have been given a very strategic place that is close to the auditorium, and it is very imperative that we start the project in earnest.
We hope to earmark $100,000.00 to start the project. Just as the people in Nigeria would be sowing their first fruit, we want to encourage those that pledged the partnership seed to redeem their pledge latest by January 31. So, we could dedicate a third of the amount to handling the project without raising any additional fund. I desire that every member of this house would work towards this. By faith, we believe that we could start the foundation in November this year all things being equal.
We have raised a taskforce of seven to handle the project. There are:
1. Pastor Tosin Oladapo – Chairman
2. Pastor Amos Olatuja
3. Pastor Samuel Adusi
4. Deacon Sotande
5. Sister Abimbola Adesina
6. Sister (Dr.) Faustina Balogun
7. Pastor (Dr.) Olubunmi Oni (Advisor)
VI. Ministry of Prayer:
1. Fasting & Prayer: Since Jesus said this kind of things do not happen except by Fasting and prayer, the leadership would like to encourage every member of GOFAMINT North America to fast at least a day a week for the work preferably and collectively on Friday. Also, we encourage as workers to observe the last three days of every month as day(s) of fasting and prayer.