State of the Church Address
In case you haven’t been keeping track, today my 1yr anniversary here at RH. Anniversaries are important, and I bet if I asked Larry, he’d let me have the day off.
One guy told a friend that he had celebrated his 20th wedding anniversary by taking his wife to Australia. His friend said, “Wow! That’s pretty impressive. What are you going to do for your 25th anniversary?” And the guy said, “I guess I’ll have to go back and get her.”
- Thank you so much for this past year. It has been a tremendous joy and blessing to be a part of this wonderful church family.
- And if it’s alright with you, I’d love to spend another year with you + a whole lot more after that.
- Greatest job; get to spend time with best people in world and talk about Jesus; only work 3 hours week
In 1789, George Washington became the 1st president of the US. In January of the following year, hestood before a joint session of Congress and delivered the first State of the Union Address. Since then it has been a pretty regular event done almost every year. The address typically reports on the condition of the nation, it talks about the things that were done the previous year, and about the plans for good things to be done throughout the next year and beyond.
This morning I want to do the same thing. I want to share with you what I call the “State of the Church Address.” And I want for us to begin by (first) looking back at this past year and noticing several good things that have happened in our church family here at RH.
But first let me clarify something:
§ not what I’ve done, or you’ve done, or we’ve done
§ instead it’s all about what GOD has done
§ it’s about the work that HE is doing in us and through us (and maybe sometimes in spite of us)
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Philippians 1:6 “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 2:13 “For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
Hebrws 13:20-21 “Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
God is the one doing His work through us. It’s not about us; we’re not the ones who deserve any credit.
2 Timothy 2:21 [God’s plan is for us to] “be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.”
2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves.”
And so as we look back at this past year, the question is NOT, “What have we done?” But rather, “What has God done?” How has God used us? And what has He done through us?
§ Let me remind you it was back in December of last year that we first talked about God’s Purpose & Vision for His Church
§ We then spent several Sunday nights together talking about it, and we prayed for God to help us to know His will
§ ... that we would know, NOT our own ideas and our own vision, but to know His purpose and His vision for this church
And I truly believe that God answered those prayers. I believe He showed us His purpose, He showed us His vision, and He brought about His plan and His will for this church, and He did His work through this church.
So let me remind you of some of those things...
God’s Purpose
We studied and prayed about it, and just like the people of Israel wrote God’s word on the places where they gathered (doorposts and gates), we too believed it to be important enough to write these things and display them as a constant reminder of what God seeks to do through us here at RH.
It’s written on the banners here on the wall of our auditorium, and it’s written on our church website.
Our PURPOSE (God’s purpose for us) is to REFLECT God's love to our Lord in worship, to SHARE God's love with our church family, and to TAKE God's love to the world around us.
God’s Vision
Our VISION (God’s vision for us) is toMagnifyour Lord through dynamic and heartfelt worship and daily devotion and obedience, toMaturein Christ through the help of God's Holy Spirit and diligent prayer and Bible study, toMotivateone another to love and good works through uplifting fellowship and involvement of every member in faithful service, and toMinisterto our world and community through helping to meet both physical and spiritual needs.
Then we prayed to know specific things that God wanted to do in and through us...
1. (I’ve been saying over and over ever since) God is going to send people to us. Which is why we’ve spent a good bit of time learning about what God would have us to do with those people: assimilating new members into the family, being committed to caring...
As we look back, God has indeed been sending a lot...
- 10 people baptized into Christ (God washed them clean and thru His Holy Spirit they were born again)
- While lost few families moved, also had 19 different families ask to place membership with this family for a total of 42 new people added to our number
- Our total membership a year ago was just a little over 200; now it is 245!
- But again, we’re not ones to get credit for all this.
- As Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians 3, some of us will help do the planting and some the watering, but “God is the one causing the growth.”
- Colossians 2:19 The body of Christ “grows with a growth that is caused by God.”
2. We determined, with God’s help, that we should continue to be involved in doing mission work in Africa. 2 weeks from today is our meeting with Dorian Flynn. Dorian has dedicated his life to spreading the gospel to people in Swaziland, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.
In addition to the financial help we at RH give to help make that work possible, we also help to provide for the physical needs of the poor in Africa by contributing items like clothes, shoes, and linens to send to them.
From time to time you’ll see empty banana boxes piled up in the back of the auditorium, and there are several downstairs right now. Every year, with your help and God’s help, we fill about 400 of those boxes and send them across the ocean to people who have so little and appreciate so much whatever they receive.
3. We also believed God would have us continue to help feed low income elderly folks through giving to Brown Bag of Columbus. Over the past year, with God’s help, we have given over 4000 cans/boxes of corn, green beans, and macaroni and cheese. Plus, as I announced last week, we recently contrd $1155 to further help feed those who truly need that help.
4. Back in January several of you felt led to suggest that we ought to help people in our area who are homeless. And it wasn’t long after that we became involved in a program called Valley Interfaith Promise (aka VIP), and God started sending us families that needed food and shelter.
And God has worked through a whole bunch of folks here at RH to be a part of that ministry, and we’re thankful that that is one of the ways that God is working through us to be a blessing to people who really need His blessing.
5. Another suggestion was that we get involved in some way in a jail ministry. Since then we have learned about several different ways that we can help folks in that situation.
One of the ways we have been involved is a program called Bridge the Gap, a program for ex-offenders who have just been released from jail + need a lot of help + encouragement as they start again.
I’m thankful for those folks here at RH who have a passion to be involved in this important work, and God is indeed working through you to make a difference in the lives of people who truly need God working in their lives.
6. We talked about wanting to use our facilities here for more activities that would involve other people from the community. And so this led to our involvement in American Heritage Girls.
Several of our women and girls here at RH are involved in that. This not only is a blessing to our folks here at RH, but it also provides an opportunity to reach out to people in the community around us.
7. We also recognized that IF God was going to give us growth, then we’d need Him to also raise up from within us more leaders. Thankfully, He has done just that.
We have been blessed to have Richard Goldman step up as a deacon in charge of our children’s ministry. One of the things we discussed last year was the need for a new and improved nursery here in our building.
With Richard’s help (and the help of God and others), we now have a very nice nursery that is truly a blessing to families with young children. Those parents are very pleased when they see the quality and cleanliness of our nursery, and it tells them that they and their children are very import ant to us.
We are also glad to have David King as a new deacon in charge of communications. David already is working on several good ideas that will benefit the work here at RH and make our congregation and what God is doing in this congregation even better known throughout the Columbus area.
Our eldership needed to grow also, and we’re thankful that Dennis Dye recently joined Stan, Tony, and Jerry in the spiritual leadership of this church family. We are immensely blessed to have such quality men who are willing to lead and shepherd the flock here at RH.
God also in His wisdom provided a wonderful new job opportunity for Derik who for several years has touched so many lives through the campus ministry at CSU. But also in His wisdom, God provided Will Borin to take over this important work.
This is an issue that we talked about and prayed about a lot this past year. I confess that I was one of those folks who thought maybe we should NOT continue the C4C ministry. But over the past couple of months, I have seen the work that God is doing through that ministry, and I’m so glad that God showed us the way that HE would have us to go.
So we look back at all the great things that have been accomplished throughout this past year, and we should all thank God and praise God for His work that He has chosen to do through us.
What is God’s Vision for Next Year?
I don’t know all of that right now. But I am confident that God will show us the way...
A year ago we did not know what would happen throughout the year. But God did! A year ago, God already knew exactly what He was going to do!
And guess what? As we think about this next year, what we’re going to do and where we’re going to be... God already knows that too!
And I can hardly wait to see all He has in store for us.
I do have few ideas of what we might see in next year...
- We already have planned a mission trip to Zimbabwe next summer (2013)
2. One of our long-term ideas from last year is to have a Fundamentals of Faith class (for newcomers and new Christians); very likely we’ll have soon...
3. Also from last year: training class for men (young + old) to learn about songleading, giving devo talks
4. We have a lot of young adults (age group growing); want to provide more classes and activities for them
5. Marriage class series or seminar to help some of our families who are going thru serious struggles
6. Find new youth minister who will be passionate about helping our young people and our parents
7. Do more to reach more, both unchurched and others who need a church home (website, billboards, create TV ads, lots of possibilities here)
8. Improve and expand our greeters ministry to better serve our visitors and make them feel welcome and important (pamphlet “Discover the RH Difference”)
9. Speaking of being important, elders + I working on program like “No Child Left Behind” but instead a commitment of care to all our members
10. Prediction for next year: we’ll set attendance goal of 300, and we will meet that goal! Do you believe we can do it? We can if God wants it to happen.
Regardless, whatever the details are, I have no doubt but that God has a great vision of what He desires to do in this church, and that God can do whatever He desires to do...
Ephesians 3:20 “[God] is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.”
God can indeed do great things through us, and if He has called us to do great things, then He will provide all the power and strength we need to do His work.
1 Peter 4:11 “Whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
So how do we go about planning for this next year? I think the way we did it last year worked out pretty well, don’t you think?
In recent class on the Holy Spirit, I showed how early Christians sought to be led by HS and to know will of God. The Bible shows that they would pray, study what God had revealed in Scripture, talk about it, and then they would reach a conclusion they believed to be according to God’s will on the matter.