Vision Sunday 2010
VISION SUNDAY 2010
Community
- The City is a community. We are not just a teaching center or a service to attend.
- We have been very intentional in building a sense of community since June 2009.
- I have emphasized to the leaders that we prioritized God before goals, people before projects and relationships before tasks.
- Community is a natural expression of our new life in Christ.
- Acts 2:44-47
- Eating together is one of the most common ways to building community.
o Stay back for coffee and cookies.
o Invite one another for lunch.
o Share a meal with another on a weekday.
o Be part of a cell.
- The Church is first and foremost a loving and caring family amongst whom the lonely and the broken find refuge, new hope and belonging.
- The fact is belonging precedes becoming.
I’ll like to present a vision statement that is still work in progress. We must understand that vision is progressive. It is dynamic and not statics. It evolves and expands. However vision sets the direction for our lives.
The City is becoming a God-loving, Spirit-empowered community that nourishes the whole family to live like Jesus IN the world, bringing social healing and cultural transformation through word and deed.
A God-loving Community
- The essence of our spirituality lies in our relationship with God.
- Jesus summed up the Old Testament in the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40)
- ‘ALL’ means ‘whatever it takes’, ‘whole, total and not withholding’, ‘completely taken up with, given to, and absorbed by’
o Loving God passionately (heart)
o Loving God personally (soul)
o Loving God purposefully (mind)
o Loving God practically (strength)
- My wife and I had the privilege of sharing a meal with Bob Sorge when we were pioneering the youth ministry in Cornerstone.
- Bob’s life has inspired me in many ways. I turned over to him and asked if he has any advice for a young pastor leading a youth ministry. He said ‘raise up lovers of God’
- That statement became a driving force in our lives for many years: the vision was to ‘Transform indifferent teenagers into passionate lovers of God.’
- Now that we have the honor of leading a church, that is still the passion!
I want to introduce a thought here: that is, we can’t love God unless we know God.
o Temporary infatuation is ‘loving God without knowing God.’
o Many of us admire God from afar. Some of us are flirting with God.
o True intimacy is ‘loving God through knowing God.’
o The more we know Him the more we love Him!
The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. Daniel 11:32
- That is our verse for 2010!
- We will be emphasizing on our personal time with God.
o Bible Reading.
o Bible Reading Plan: www.thecity.sg, iGoogle, YouVerson (iPhone App)
o Devotional Materials such as EDWJ, books that like Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, Experience God through Prayer by Madam Guyon or Enjoying Your Walk with God by Steve Douglass from Campus Crusade for Christ cultivate our hunger for God.
- Sermon Series: Facets – A Study on the Attributes of God
- Small Group Series: Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby
None of you can be strong in God unless you are diligently and constantly hearkening to what God has to say to you through His Word. Smith Wigglesworth
Demolition: The 1st step in spiritual awakening
- Anytime people get hungry to truly know the Lord, the Holy Spirit quickly puts a shovel and broom into their hands.
- We must first tear down the junk in our lives
A Spirit-empowered Community
- No one among us, no matter how gifted you are, can save a soul or heal a sick man.
- Luke 4:1,14, 16-18
o Jesus was filled with the Spirit
o Jesus was led by the Spirit
o Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit
o Jesus was anointed with the Spirit
- Acts 10:38
- Acts 1:4,8
o Instructions to the disciples: Wait until… You shall receive power!
o Remember Peter? Couldn’t keep watch in prayer for an hour, denied Jesus… Fearful to fearless, prayer-less to prayerful
o Remember Paul? He did not preach with wise and persuasive words but in demonstration of the Spirit’s power (1 Corinthians 2:4)
The key to Pentecostal POWER is Pentecostal PRAYER!
- The place of prayer is the place of power
- Acts 4:23-24a, 30-31
o What gains unbelievers’ attention and stirs the heart is seeing the gospel expressed in power.
o Correct doctrine alone isn’t enough
o The Gospel must be taught with the involvement of the Holy Spirit
- One of the earliest Christian books I read was Prayer the Key to Revival by Cho.
o It basically explained the reason behind the phenomenal growth of the church in Korea. It is prayer… All kinds of prayer: personal prayer, corporate prayer, prayer in the cell groups, prayer at the workplace, listening prayer etc.
There is no power like that of prevailing prayer, of Abraham pleading for Sodom, Jacob wrestling in the stillness of the night, Moses standing in the breach, Hannah intoxicated with sorrow, David heartbroken with remorse and grief, Jesus in sweat of blood. Add to this list from the records of the church your personal observation and experience, and always there is the cost of passion unto blood. Such prayer prevails. It turns ordinary mortals into men of power. It brings power. It brings fire. It brings rain. It brings life. It brings God. Samuel Chadwick
Fresh Wind Fresh Fire
o When Jim Cymbala and his wife Carol took over Brooklyn Tabernacle in the 70s, the church was in bad shape.
o Spiritually, financially, emotionally – you name it – it was bad!
o After continued months of growing weary and tired … Jim found himself very sick – and took some time off to get better.
o It was in that short time that God clearly spoke to Jim & promised him that:
“If you and your wife will lead my people to pray and call upon my name, you will never lack for something fresh to preach, I will supply all the money needed, and you will never have a building large enough to contain the crowds I will send in response.”
o As time passed, God has truly been at work in Brooklyn… the growth of the church and the Grammy award winning success of the choir was the overflow of God’s presence…
o When asked, Jim and Carol humbly respond that the formula is: prayer… that they wouldn’t be a new Testament church as stated in Acts 2 without prayer.
- Building ‘family altars’ once a week.
- Moving our prayer time on Sunday for more people to attend (8:30am)
- Furnace is our monthly church-wide prayer: 1st Friday
- Creating space for the Holy Spirit to move in our cells and services (gifts of the HS)
- Equipping our leaders and eventually the congregation to minister healing
- Home and hospital visitations
- Freedom and Wholeness Retreats
A Community that Nourishes the Whole Family
- I am absolutely convinced that when the family units are strong, the nation is strong.
- A nation is transformed when the families within the nation is transformed.
We are NOT a youth church. We are a Generations Church.
- We want to reach the young as well as the old.
- ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you and your household will be saved.’ Acts 16:31
- The City will facilitate opportunities for our Chinese Speaking family members and friends to hear the Gospel and we will partner with Chinese speaking churches to receive them when they are saved.
- To the young: when the gospel changes our lives, and when we start honoring our parents, they will be drawn to Jesus!
- Reunion @ The City + Christmas Event
- We will have a Mandarin Service one day, trusting the Lord to raise a team for that.
THE NEXT GENERATION
- 2 Chronicles 34:1-3
o Josiah was 8 (while he was in KZONE) when he became king, chose the right path and followed the right role model.
• We want our children to understand their royalty, that they are a royal priesthood, a peculiar people.
• We want to help them choose the right role models.
• Luke 2:52 Zechariah 8:5
o Josiah was 16 (while he was in YZONE) when he began to seek the Lord.
• We want our youths to be God-chasers.
• A generation that will seek His face.
o Josiah was 22 (when he graduates to AZONE) when he started a reform and brought revival and transformation to Israel.
KZONE
- Curriculum: First Look and 252 (Parents involvement: Lynette to meet you in Feb)
- Moving to level 8 with a space for up to 100 children.
- Buying van to pick up un-churched children every Sunday.
- Partnering with Teck Ghee Youth Center: March, June and 1 October
YZONE
- Establishing 6 core values: Authentic friendships, Family relationships, Healthy habits, Christian Integrity, Feminine Modesty and Positive Music.
- Launching a weekly youth gathering on Saturday in April: it will provide an environment for them to experience God and discover their callings.
AZONE
- Marriages are under attacked:
- Understanding and functioning in our unique roles as husbands, wives and eventually fathers and mothers. Supporting and resourcing our adults to thrive in their roles.
- Regular Marriage Enrichment Groups. The first one: 30 January.
- Possible Retreat in November
A Community that lives like Jesus IN the world
Acts 4:13 ‘These men had been with Jesus’
We do not have to look cool to win the world but we must look like Jesus.
- We must become Jesus with skin on in our world: tangible expressions of Jesus Christ.
- We are called to Imitate Christ: He must increase.
- We are to grow into the stature of fullness of Christ.
- We are predestined to be conformed to Christ.
- As leaders, we have a call to present every man perfect in Christ.
A Community that Brings Social Healing and Cultural Transformation through Word and Deed
God’s people have been called to live in and love the city.
- Jeremiah 29:5-7
- When Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem, he brought thousands of Jewish exiles to live in the pagan mega-city of Babylon.
- At first the exiles refused to move into the wicked city, settling outside in their own enclave, but God spoke to them through Jeremiah and gave them a startling mandate.
o First, he spoke to them of their actions toward the city. He told them to move in, settle down, raise their families there, and invest in the economy of the city (vv. 5-6).
o Second, he spoke to them of their attitude toward the city. He said, “Seek the shalom of the city.” (v.7)
o The word ‘shalom’ meant full flourishing-economically, culturally, spiritually.
o And most amazing of all, God said, “Pray to the Lord for it, for if it prospers, you prosper.” (v. 7)
- In short, God called his people to live in the unbelieving city and love it.
- They were to work for its health and prosperity even as they kept their own distinctive beliefs and practices.
- They were not to assimilate and lose their identity as followers of God’s word and law.
- But they were to use the resources of their faith to love their neighbor and love the city in which they lived.
We must be a community radically committed to the good of the city as a whole.
WORD (Ezra):
- Ezra recovered the Word for the people.
- Preaching, teaching and evangelizing in a way contextualized to the concerns and capacities of the people of the city.
DEED (Nehemiah):
- Nehemiah made the city safe and functional.
- Mercy and Justice! Holistic ministry.
- Safe streets, good jobs, decent housing, good schools.
Historian Rodney Stark says early Christianity spread so rapidly because the love and service of Christians amidst urban problems was so striking.
“To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as real hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachment. To cities filled with widows and orphans, Christianity offered a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity…I am not saying the misery of the ancient world caused the advent of Christianity…people had been enduring for centuries without the aid of Christian theology or social structures. I am arguing that once Christianity did appear, its superior capacity for meeting human problems soon became evident and played a major role in its ultimate triumph…for what Christianity brought was not simply an urban movement, but a new culture.
- Serve! Community Services: regardless of race, language or religion
- Adopting communities and seek to understand and serve the people in practical ways.
- Seeds of Love Projects
- Missions
How Can You Be A Part of the Vision?
1. Pray – the least you can do for us
2. Contribute – we need feedback and ideas
3. Give – the most practical way to help
4. Involve – be a part of the action