2009 | THE MISSION OF OUR FLOCK



2009 | THE MISSION OF OUR FLOCK

COLOSSIANS 1:1-18

SUNDAY, 7 JUNE 2009

2ND STREET COMMUNITY CHURCH

GREGG LAMM, pastor-teacher

.PPT 1 …

Good morning friends. Each June I take one Sunday to share with you the Ministry Plans for the coming year and how they’re directly tied to 2nd Street’s Mission – which is To Become More Like Jesus Christ By Loving God, Loving People, And Serving Our World. I can’t believe that a whole year has gone by and that I’m beginning my fourth year here with you, but the calendar doesn’t lie, so here we are.

.PPT 2 … OUR MISSION STATEMENT …

To Become More Like Jesus Christ By - OUR GOAL

Loving God, - OUR LIFE OF SURRENDER

AND WORSHIP

Loving People, - OUR LIFE TOGETHER

And Serving Our World. - OUR LIFE OF MINISTRY

AND SERVICE

And so, as your pastor-teacher, I need to ask you … if this is the MISSION of the church you call “home” … how is this also YOUR MISSION? How is this what you’re valuing, what you’re pursuing, what lights your fire, and what makes life worth living? Is this MISSION shaping the priorities of your life?

I love how the Apostle Paul shares his heart for this with his friends living in the Greek town of Thessalonica, and who’d made the 1st century Christian church that Paul had planted there, the church where they were learning more about Who Jesus Christ is and how being in relationship with Him shapes our lives and our destinies …

.PPT 3 … FIRST THESSALONIANS 4:1 (NEW CENTURY VERSION)

1 Brothers and sisters, we taught you how to live in a way that will please God, and you are living that way. Now we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live that way even more.

Next Sunday we’ll have a vey important annual, all-church potluck, at which time we’ll have a chance for you to ask questions about the Ministry Plans and the Ministry Funding Plan (which will be passed out next Sunday morning).

Know that we’re committed to continuing to provide strong and growing programs related to the teaching of God’s WORD … programming for Children, Students, and Community Groups … discipleship programming that will help us grow into the character of Jesus Christ, and outreach and service programming that will help us be Jesus Christ locally and in the world.

But for right now, because reading aloud through all these MINISTRY PLANS doesn’t make sense, I’m going to cover some of the highlights in terms of what’s changing this next year in our life and ministry of 2nd Street. And then we’re going to go to COLOSSIANS 1:1-18 … and spend a few minutes there …

.PPT 4 …

▪ 2nd Street will always remain committed to the verse-by-verse teaching of God’s WORD on Sunday mornings, and here’s the blueprint for where we’ll be going in the coming year …

I’LL BE TEACHING through Jesus’ Seven Letters to Seven Churches in REVELATION 2-3, then through The Old Testament book of PROVERBS, and then I’ll begin The New Testament book of EPHESIANS.

In REVELATION 2-3 we’ll focus on Jesus’ heart for His church … who we’re to be, what we’re to value, and how to make course corrections in our individual lives and in our life together as a church when they’re needed for us to stay true to our Mission and our calling.

In PROVERBS we’ll spent about six months with the practical instruction

God has for us in many areas of life, including …

▪ knowledge, understanding, and wisdom

▪ finances, work, priorities, and temptation

▪ the glory and the misery of human sexuality

▪ relationships, friendship, and evil and it’s influence on us

▪ integrity, honesty, love, mercy, and issues of justice

In EPHESIANS we’ll spend about a year on the supremacy of Jesus Christ in our lives. God’s design is that you and I can learn to live a life of power and victory! This letter from Paul has so much to teach us about the Holy Spirit-filled life. As we study it verse-by-verse we’ll focus on …

▪ overcoming the grip of sin and Satan’s plans

▪ learning to integrate the WORD of God into our everyday lives

▪ being equipped to be consistent witnesses for Jesus Christ

▪ discovering and living into God’s designs for us

.PPT 5 …

▪ Add local outreach support for Newberg Habitat for Humanity. We don’t want to just connect with the needs of the poor in other countries, but with the poor in our own city – helping them move toward the dream of home ownership. Two new houses are beginning soon on Main Street, just before the curve where 240 begins, and we want to participate with the building of these homes over the course of several Saturdays in this coming year. ($1,200)

.PPT 6 …

▪ Add Director of Equipping and Serving to 2nd Street’s paid staff (8 hours a week). This position has yet to be opened (but will be in August). The person in this position will help 2nd Streeters understand how their spiritual gifts, their personalities, and their life experiences are connected, and how God will call them out of the center place where those three things overlap one another – and then to find a place to serve in 2nd Street, or outside of 2nd Street. I see this position as a Mission-Critical next step in our maturing as a flock that is seeking to grow in the character of Jesus Christ so that we can live out the will of God inside and outside the church. ($4,600)

.PPT 7 …

▪ Add local outreach support for Prison Ministry programs at Oregon State Penitentiary, and the Federal Prison in Sheridan. There are three 2nd Streeters connecting with and being prayerful about participation in established and new ministries at these two locations. And we will support them in this ministry because it’s something Jesus would do if He were physically here on earth – which of course He is, through us. ($1,200)

.PPT 8 …

▪ Add Worship Arts Director Intern position in preparation for Linnea Brooks’ retirement in December of 2010. ($3,000)

.PPT 9 …

▪ Expand the Newberg Community Celebrate Recovery Ministry paid leadership from one 10 hour a week position (Linnea is filling this position), to two 10 hour a week positions. ($6,250)

.PPT 10 …

▪ EXPAND overseas Missions support by investing monthly into Matt and Gayle Denham, 2nd Streeters who in July 2009, begin two years of service as English Teachers in Rwanda, Africa with EFM Friends Mission. ($2,100)

▪ EXPAND overseas Missions support by giving a one-time support of $1,000 into Johnny Kaye, a 2009 HS graduate, and 2nd Streeter who in July 2009 plans to begins one year of service as an English Teacher in Rwanda, Africa with EFM Friends Mission. ($1,000)

.PPT 11 …

▪ PLAN AND OVERSEE a 2nd Street-wide SPIRITUAL GROWN assessment in the Fall of 2009 of how people within the flock are maturing in their faith, taking on more of the character of Jesus Christ, and thereby being equipped to live out the will of God more consistently.

So as you can see, we’re expanding programming and support in ways that will both help the maturing of our flock, and the level of ministry and service of our flock. I’ve asked Eloise Hockett if she’d share with us about being involved at 2nd Street this past year has made a difference in her life …

.PPT 12 … GREGG INTERVIEWS ELOISE HOCKETT …

How has your relationship with Jesus Christ and being part of 2nd Street this past year made a difference in your life? And what part of living out our MISSION has God been dealing with you most on?

Given where we’re at in our economy right now, none of your church staff will receive raises or cost of living increases this year – although we did have to include increases for the rising costs of medical insurance coverage. The complete PROPOSED MINISTRY FUNDING PLAN will be available for you download off the ELDERS page of 2nd Street’s Website on Wednesday of this week, or you can stop by the office and pick one up, and it will be emailed to everyone in the church who has given us an email address – and it will be handed out next Sunday. But as is stated on the first page of the MINISTRY PLANS booklet you were given this morning, our PROPOSED MINISTRY FUNDING PLAN is just a 2.2% increase over the PROJECTED GIVING towards this year’s MINISTRY FUNDING PLAN.

In March we gave you the opportunity to read through and consider signing our first annual, Commitment of Belonging. We’ve had 103 of them turning in so far, but I’d love to see that number go up. It’s a document that lists our Mission statement, fleshes out some of the meaning behind it and inside of it, and invites people to consider making an annual commitment of Belonging to 2nd Street … to become intentionally yoked to our Mission and our Values, and then to head together (with God and one another) in the directions our common Mission takes us.

If you haven’t seen this COMMITMENT OF BELONGING, there are some on the Community Center table this morning. Please take one with you, read it this week, and then, if you feel led by Christ to sign it, do so, and then bring it back with you next Sunday and then please stay (or come back) after the second service for our all-church potluck and business meeting, at which time you can turn it into me, or one of our other elders. We’ll be done with our business meeting no later than 2:00.

If you’ve never been to one of our all-church meetings, then please, plan to join us. They’re a great time of conversation, fellowship, discernment, and decision-making, as we seek God’s will together, and then courageously follow Him.

In the past three years our average Sunday attendance has grown by nearly 100 people, and your support … with your time, your energy, your spiritual gifts, your money, and your prayers, of 2nd Street’s MISSION has also grown exponentially. And as your pastor-teacher, I want you to know how deeply encouraging this is to me.

Each month, there are new people coming into first-time relationships with Jesus Christ, and many others growing and maturing in their commitment to follow Jesus Christ with undivided hearts and minds … learning to make Him THE RULING PRIORITY of their lives.

Three years ago 2nd Street’s Ministry Funding Plan was about $270K, and this year the proposed Ministry Funding Plan is about $382K … and it hasn’t gone up over $100K because those of us on staff have received huge pay raises, or because we’re spending thousands of dollars on extravagant staff retreats. Our Ministry Funding Plan has gone up because our vision for how God wants to use us as a church to be the hands, the feet, the heart, the voice, and the presence of Jesus Christ in our city and around the world, has deepened, widened, and matured.

We’re supporting more local and foreign ministries and missionaries than ever before … and we’re supporting short-term and long-term missions more than ever before … and TOGETHER, WE’re Learning how to not just go on a missions trip, but how to live life as a MISSION TRIP. We’re feeding the hungry, we’re serving the poor, we’re studying God’s WORD with passion, we’re reaching out to those in jail, we’re seeking new ways to mature as disciples of Jesus, we’re valuing our children, our students, and our life with one another, we’re committed …

.PPT 13 … OUR MISSION STATEMENT …

To Become More Like Jesus Christ By Loving God, Loving People,

And Serving Our World.

I’m excited about where God is continuing to take us this next year as the flock called 2nd Street – and it’s a humbling adventure to continue shepherding our flock into the very center of God’s will for us. I’ve asked Ryan and Lisa Backman if they’d share with us about their involvement at 2nd Street this past year …

.PPT 14 … GREGG INTERVIEWS RYAN AND LISA BACKMAN …

How has your relationship with Jesus Christ and being part of 2nd Street this past year made a difference in your life … and helped you become more like Jesus Christ?

Praise the LORD that we’re a flock of Christ-followers, who not only have a MISSION, but who is ACTIVELY ENGAGING AND LIVING OUT THE MISSION GOD HAS ENTRUSTED US WITH.

I want us to take some time now to look at COLOSSIANS 1:1-18, because it’s here that the Apostle Paul describes the church he prayed that the people who made up the church in the Asia Minor town of Colossae would become. And I believe that Paul’s words describe the flock that 2nd Street is seeking to become by living out the MISSION we’ve been called to.

Most Bible scholars believe that Colossians 1:15-20 came from a poem or a hymn in the early Church that described what Christians believed about Jesus. And while this can’t be proven, count me in as one of the believers in this theory. Listen closely …

.PPT 15-19 … COLOSSIANS 1:1-18 (NEW CENTURY VERSION)

1-4 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am an apostle because that is what God wanted. Also from Timothy, our brother. To the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ that live in Colossae: Grace and peace to you from God our Father. In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because we have heard about the faith you have in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all of God’s people.

5-6 You have this faith and love because of your hope, and what you hope for is kept safe for you in heaven. You learned about this hope when you heard the message about the truth, the Good News that was told to you. Everywhere in the world that Good News is bringing blessings and is growing. This has happened with you, too, since you heard the Good News and understood the truth about the grace of God.

8-10 You learned about God’s grace from Epaphras, whom we love. He works together with us and is a faithful servant of Christ for us. He also told us about the love you have from the Holy Spirit. Because of this, since the day we heard about you, we have continued praying for you, asking God that you will know fully what he wants. We pray that you will also have great wisdom and understanding in spiritual things so that you will live the kind of life that honors and pleases the Lord in every way. You will produce fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God.

11-14 God will strengthen you with his own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient. And you will joyfully give thanks to the Father who has made you able to have a share in all that He has prepared for His people in the kingdom of light. God has freed us from the power of darkness, and He brought us into the kingdom of His dear Son. The Son paid for our sins, and in Him we have forgiveness.

15-18 No one can see God, but Jesus Christ is exactly like Him. He ranks higher than everything that has been made. Through His power all things were made — things in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, all powers, authorities, lords, and rulers. All things were made through Christ and for Christ. He was there before anything was made, and all things continue because of Him [He is holding all things together]. He is the head of the body, which is the church. Everything comes from Him. He is the first one who was raised from the dead. So in all things Jesus has first place.

.PPT 20 …

In vv. 15-16 we read that Jesus is the exact image of the invisible God. The word translated image is the Greek word eikon, and it clearly expresses two ideas …

1. likeness, as in the image on a coin or the reflection in a mirror.

2. manifestation, with the sense that God is fully revealed in Jesus.

Here’s what Bible teacher and New Testament Greek scholar A.T. Robertson (1863-1934) wrote about the words Paul wrote in v. 15 …

.PPT 21 …

If Paul meant that Jesus was merely similar to the Father, he would have used the ancient Greek word homoioma, which speaks merely of similar appearance. But the stronger word (eikon) used here proves that Paul knew that Jesus was God just as God the Father is God. It means that Jesus is the very stamp of God the Father.

And gang, this is what God is calling us to be to one another, to people who are in relationship with Jesus Christ, to people who are not yet in a relationship with Jesus Christ, to people who live near us and around us, and to people who live in distant places. Jesus demonstrated and lived out the character of God the Father to those who came across His path, and He’s calling out to us to follow in His footsteps.

Jesus Christ created everything. He took the plans of God the Father and breathed them into life. This is what we read about in GENESIS 1-2, and in PSALM 33 … that Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, the second member of the Triunity of God, is the One who created the stars, the planets, the Earth, and everything in it with the words of His mouth.

And Jesus Christ, this One we serve, this One we follow, this One we’ve surrendered our lives to, this One we’re committed to becoming more like in our thoughts, in our words, in our deeds, and in our priorities … Paul tells us here in v. 17 that He’s the One who is holding all things together.

The writer of The New Testament book of HEBREWS says the same thing in a different way when he writes in HEBREWS 1:3, that “Jesus Christ upholds all things by the word of His power.” Bible teacher David Guzik writes about what Jesus Christ, Creator God is holding together …

Comets have vapor trails up to 10,000 miles long. If you could capture all that vapor, and put it in a bottle, the amount of vapor actually present would take up less than 1 cubic inch of space.

The star Antares is 60,000 times larger than our sun. If our sun were the size of a softball, the star Antares would be the size of a house.

If the sun were the size of a beach ball, and put on top of the Empire State Building, the nearest group of stars would be as far from it as Australia is from the Empire State Building.

A star known as LP 327-186 is a so called white dwarf star, and it’s roughly the size of the state of Texas. And yet it’s so dense that if a cubic inch of LP 327-186 were brought to earth, it would weigh more than 1.5 million tons.

There are more insects in one square mile of rural land than there are human beings on the entire earth.

A single human chromosome contains twenty billion bits of information. How much information is that? If written in ordinary books, in ordinary language, it would take about four thousand volumes.

Jesus, God’s Son, the Creator of the universe, the Earth, and everything ever created … He is the One we worship, the One we adore, and the One we surrender to. And it’s the reality of Who Jesus Christ is, and the kind of creative, sustaining power He has, that should lead every one of us here this morning to take the opportunity to ask and answer two very important questions …

.PPT 22 …

1. If Jesus Christ is holding me together right now, am I in rebellion against Him, or am I in submission to Him?

2. When I look at my life like right now, do my words, my thoughts, my actions, and my priorities reflect the character of Jesus Christ and the life of a person who is at peace with God, or the life of a person who is in rebellion towards God?

I’d like to share a video clip with you from a man from Atlanta, Georgia named Louie Giglio, who two years ago planted a church with worship pastors Chris Tomlin and Matt Redmond. Three years ago now, while teaching at a nation-wide conference, Louie shared something that really connects with what I’ve been talking with you about this morning with relation to who Jesus Christ is, and why He’s the One we need to know and base our MISSION on …

.MPG OF LOUIE TALKING ABOUT “LAMININ” (8.4 MINUTES)

Oh glory to God for the sustaining power of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ created all things, and He has always held the universe together. As God, He was holding all things together, even when He was a baby in the manger (cf., HEBREWS 10:5).

ScientifiC LAW has to be enforced, and science can’t enforce the law. It’s divine law that does the enforcing, and Jesus Christ is the One who enforces it. And neither can science guarantee any laws. Science observes scientific laws, but Jesus Christ is the only One who guarantees and sustains them.

Science makes assumptions that these scientific laws will always be in place. But God’s WORD tells us in SECOND PETER 3:10-12 and REVELATION 20:11 that one day all these laws will be gone– and that Jesus Christ will be at the helm when it happens.

Many people today try to line up the WORD of God with science. But gang, it’s science that has to line up with the WORD of God, or else stand in error. The universe is made and sustained by the WORD of God, and Jesus Christ holds the universe together for the sake of His church, and for the furthering of the MISSION He calls us to.

All things are being held together by Jesus Christ! You. Me. And our church. And so do you see why it’s so supremely important that we draw near to Jesus Christ, that we all choose to make His destiny become our destiny … His plans, our plans … His life, our life … His MISSION our MISSION? To try to become a church that’s committed to anything less would be folly of the highest order. Oh friends, do you see it? And so our MISSION will and must remain …

.PPT 23 … OUR MISSION STATEMENT …

To Become More Like Jesus Christ By Loving God, Loving People,

And Serving Our World.

In PHILIPPIANS 3:12, the Apostle Paul writes these words, which express his goal, and his aim. Let’s join him in this quest to hold onto the One who is holding onto us …

.PPT 24 … PHILIPPIANS 3:12 (NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION)

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Let me close by reading the past couple paragraphs out of the Ministry Plan booklet you received this morning … and give you a preview into part of our what we’ll talk about further at our all-church meeting and potluck next Sunday … and then when we gather together for another meal a month from now on Sunday, 14 July.

I’m excited about the spiritual and numeric growth we’ve experienced together this past year, but myself and the other 2nd Street elders believe that the many limits of the facilities we’re currently using at The Newberg Armory, are limiting our ability to fully live out our Mission as a flock. And so beginning this month and next we will begin a church-wide conversation with God and one another about what God’s next step plans are for us in terms of facilities.

2nd Street has been “building a church” for a long time, but is God now calling us to “build a building” where we can live out our Mission in ways more rooted and grounded? Come and be involved in these very two important conversations about this beginning in an introductory way at an all-church potluck and business meeting on Sunday, 14 June, and then continuing in a fuller way at an all-church lunch and business meeting on Sunday, 12 July. At our 12 July gathering, lunch will be provided.

I hope that you can be part of both of these important luncheons, business meetings, and conversations. We’re in this together; and as each of us continues to be part of 2nd Street, surrendered to God with prayer, faithful, and expectant hearts, God will lead us. Of this, I have absolutely no doubt. Godspeed.

I love you. What a privilege it is to be your lead pastor-teacher here at 2nd Street. Thank you again for trusting me as one the earthly shepherds of your spiritual lives and for believing in and supporting the MISSION God is calling us to as 2nd Street. God is leading us; of that I am sure. And we are following Him, that is our passion. And we will keep following Him, that is our resolve. His Mission, our Mission. Together.

.PPT 25 … NEXT SUNDAY … JOHN 20:11-18

COME PRAYING AND EXPECTING!

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