Vision Sunday – Targeting 2012

Series: Preacher: Date: February 5, 2012 Scripture Reference: Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18 – Jesus said, “All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Me.

19 – Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

20 – and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

I am told that classical concerts given by famous cellists almost always begin in the same way. The artist walks on stage to the sound of deafening applause. He’s dressed in a tuxedo with tails. He bows, sits down on a concert chair and takes his cello in his hands…spends a few quiet moments to prepare himself…and then beautiful music begins to fill the concert hall.

This is the same routine followed in 1992 by, Vedran Smailovic, the principal cellist of the Sarajevo Opera…only this time his concert was not in a beautiful concert hall. No—it was on the street of the neighborhood where he lived—a street that had become an open war zone.

If you remember your history then you know that in the early ‘90’s the former Yugoslavia had become embroiled in ethnic strife. As a result the beautiful city of Sarajevo, with its rich traditions of theater and art, had been given a new name. People referred to as: “Europe’s capital of Hell.”

Let me explain why Vedran decided to play his cello in that hellish place. At 4:00pm on May 27, 1992, as a long line of people waited patiently for bread in front of one of the last functional bakeries in Sarajevo, a mortar shell dropped in their midst, killing 22 people instantly. Vedran heard the blast and looked out of his window to find flesh, blood, bone, and rubble splattered all over the area. He was 37 at the time, and was widely recognized as an exceptionally talented cello player. Before the war broke out, Vedran had been occupied with his involvements in the Sarajevo Opera, the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra RTV Sarajevo, and the National Theater of Sarajevo, as well as playing the festival circuit and working in recording studios.

As Vedran gazed out his window that horrible day in May he felt understandably enraged by what was happening around him—and powerless to do anything about it. After all, he was neither a politician nor a soldier. He was just a musician. How could he do anything about the war? Surely all he could do was stand by and watch people die, fearing all the while for his own life.

Smailovic spent the long, dark night that followed the bread-queue massacre, deep in thought. The next morning he made up his mind that he would do something, and that something would be what he knew best—he would make music. So every day after that, at 4 pm—the same moment that mortar shell exploded—Smailovic would walk to the middle of the street, where the massacre had occurred. He would be dressed formally, as for a performance. He would sit on a battered camp stool placed in the crater made by the shell, his cello in his hand and play his music. All around him, mortar shells and bullets would continue to fly but he would play on regardless. For 22 days—one day for each of the people who were killed—Smailovic played in the same spot at the same time…4PM. He played to ruined homes, smouldering fires, scared people hiding in basements. He played for life, for peace, and for the possibility of hope that exists even in life’s darkest hours. Asked by a journalist if he was crazy to be doing what he was doing, Smailovic replied: “You ask if am I crazy for playing the cello? Why do you not ask if they are not crazy for shelling Sarajevo?”

Smailovic continued to play his music of hope until December 1993. He played in the rubble of bombed out churches and in graveyards. He had decided he would “offer a daily musical prayer for peace.” And as his story began to filter into the press, he became a symbol for peace in Bosnia.

An English composer, David Wilde, was so moved by the story that he wrote a composition for unaccompanied cello, simply called “The Cellist of Sarajevo,” into which he poured his own feelings of outrage, love, and brotherhood with Vedran Smailovic. In 1994, celebrated cellist Yo Yo Ma played Wilde’s piece at the International Cello Festival in Manchester, England. Vedran’s story has become a best selling book. A movie version is to be released this summer. In other words, the music Vedran played those 22 days in that horrible place—that music was HEARD. It made a difference.

I read Vedran’s story for the first time on Monday of this week after my daughter Becca told us of a concert she had attended at Wheaton College that featured another musician—one of my favorites—Sara Groves. Ms. Groves has written a song inspired by this incident entitled, “Why It Matters.” As I heard Becca recount the story behind the song and then investigated it further, I couldn’t help but see a parallel in our lives as grace-driven Christ-followers. You see, in a very real sense we live in a war-torn hellish world—a world that is filled with people who are dying from their woundedness…wounds caused by the disease of sin. We live among people who are desperate for hope. And as followers of the Christ, we have been commissioned to share the joyous news that God sent His only Son to save us and bring us peace. Sharing the beauty of this message—the GOSPEL MESSAGE—makes a difference. It is a message that matters. Listen to Sarah Groves’ lyrics:

Show me the love that never fails
The compassion and attention
Midst confusion and dissention
Like small ramparts for the soul
How it matters

Like a single cup of water
How it matters

I bring all this up today because I feel burdened to make this particular purpose of our church—our grace-driven desire to “reach in the name of Christ”—I feel led to make it our primary focus for 2012. This year I believe God wants us to do all we can to do a better job of telling others about the love of Jesus—the love that never fails. I believe He wants us to find ways to share the only message that REALLY matters in this fallen and falling world of ours.

Last year was our year of “becoming.” We felt God saying that our goal—our target—should be to do all we could to grow into the kind of Christian He wants each of us to become. And we’ll always strive to BECOME more like Jesus. In fact, I’m preaching a series of sermons on Ephesians in the belief that this will help us continue to strive to grow spiritually. But, the natural consequence of BECOMING more like Jesus is TELLING, TELLING everyone we can about the life and death difference He makes in each of our lives. So…I want us all to think of this year as the year of TELLING. That’s our 2012 vision in one word.

Now I have to be honest and say that, as a pastor, I get a little frustrated when it comes to vision casting. Many times it feels like every year I’m dangling a carrot in front of your eyes and if the carrot is appealing enough…then we move toward it. I’m sure this is just my flawed impression and not your true feelings but I have to say there are times when I feel like I’m pressured to come up with something exciting every year, in order to MOTIVATE people to get on board. Maybe I’m being a little “holier-than-thou,” but that doesn’t feel right to me—in my mind we should be faithful to do our best to fulfill God’s purposes whether it’s exciting or not. We should serve Him in season and out of season.

While I’m on ths subject I also worry that if we’re not careful vision-casting might get us headed in the wrong direction—make us work toward the wrong KIND of goals. I can relate to David Platt, pastor of Brook Hills Church in Birmingham, Alabama who addressed this subject in his new book Radical Together. It’s a long quote but it’s applicable so listen. Platt writes,

When I became a pastor I devoured books on how to determine and communicate a vision for my church. Pastors I respect declared, ‘Decide how BIG you want your church to be, and go for it, whether that’s five, ten, or twenty thousand members. Envision what your church campus will look like five, ten or twenty years from now and start working toward it. Dream about how your worship services can become more innovative. After all, Provers 29:18 says that “…where there is no vision, the people will perish.” At first this seemed to make sense, but over time I found myself getting nauseated by all the vision talk. Setting and reaching goals is important of course. But were my sights really supposed to be set on bring a large crowd together in a cool environment where they could hear terrific music, see killer graphics, and then listen to me talk live or via video? If this was to be the vision of my life and ministry, I decided then I should perish. So I sat down with members of my church and we prayed asking God where He wanted us to fasten our attention in the days to come what He wanted us to work toward with all our hearts. As we prayed the answer became obvious. The only possible vision for the church of Jesus Christ is to make known the glory of God in all nations. This vision must drive us because it is what drives God. Far more than we want stuff for the church, crowds at the church, or activities in the church, we want to know, love, honor, and praise God. And we want all people to do the same. We want to see God glorified by people everywhere because God wants to see Himself glorified by people everywhere.

I don’t think he heard me, but when I read that I gave David Platt a firm “AMEN!” because my prayers have revealed the same principle. Our goal is NOT to build massive campuses or grow to mega-church size. When we think like this we have let our vision become corrupted by the world’s way of measuring success. No—our primary vision—is the vision Jesus gave us before He ascended to Heaven. Our vision must always be driven by our experience of God’s grace…grace that drives us…compels us…to tell others about our Lord…grace that makes us want others to put their faith in Christ. Of course, if that makes it necessary that we build a huge campus—great—but we must not put the cart before the horse. Our goal is to simply find way to TELL as many people as we can about the love of God in sending Jesus to die for our sins. All the other purposes of our church support this one.

So, as I said, improving on that goal will be our primary target this year. This is what I want us to AIM for. Okay—how will we do that? What do we need to know to do a better job as a church when it comes to TELLING?

(1) First, we must remember that telling begins with SHOWING.

People won’t listen to our telling unless our relationship with Jesus SHOWS in the way we relate to one another and to the people around us. There’s no way around it. To TELL we have to SHOW. So, if it helps, think of this as our “SHOW AND TELL” year…a year in which we learn better how to walk the talk in that we have to nurture a loving fellowship. We also have to minister to people’s needs in the way that Jesus did when He was here in the flesh. In other words, our faith has to SHOW such that people SEE Jesus in us…and in that SEEING hunger to know Him themselves.

Now—don’t get me wrong. We have a healthy fellowship here at Redland and I’m so very thankful for that…but I feel led to remind you that we must guard our fellowship. I know I’ve said this before and I don’t mean to harp on it but we need to protect and nurture the sweet, sweet, spirit that we enjoy in this place. This is a vital principle of outreach. And I’m also thankful for the way we show our faith by helping people with their physical needs. We minister to our widows. We provide Christmas gifts for orphans and give to the ministry of Baptist Family and Children Services. We man the MANNA food bank and St. Martin’s Soup Kitchen. We give generously to Deacon Benevolence and work to help local Crisis Pregnancy Centers raise funds.

We provide free space for Centrepointe Counseling so that people can have easy access to a Christ-follower who is gifted and called to treat emotional wounds. Jim Mitcham and his crew ministers to people in prison. We send Medical teams to the D.R. to help the sick and construction teams to build churches and homes. In years past we’ve helped Habitat for Humanity build homes.

I’m saying that we’ve done a fairly good job at SHOWING our faith…both in our relating and in our doing—but I want us to keep on doing that.

The point I’m making is this has to become part of our mind set around here. If we are going to win the right to be heard…if we are going to get opportunities to TELL people about Jesus, we first must SHOW them Jesus in the way we treat others. If it helps think of it this way. If our faith doesn’t SHOW…we will never get to GO.

With that in mind here are some of the things I would like to see us do in the coming year.

First, I want our fellowship team to work with me in scheduling events that give us plenty of opportunities to BE together and deepen our friendships as a church family. The more our church grows—the more important this kind of thing will be. So, for example, we haven’t had a church-wide picnic in a while and I want us to schedule one. I will also set up at least one of our regularly scheduled business meetings so that it is built around a post-Sunday morning worship potluck. In my mind this will be a “two-fer” in that it will generate fellowship and will also increase our business meeting attendance, giving more of us a chance to hear reports from staff and committees as to all that is planned for coming months. Knowing all that is going on in each ministry area will naturally strengthen our fellowship bonds because it will make us feel more like a team.

I want to encourage the development of more fellowship-builder events like “Rumpus in the ROC” and the soon-to-start Volleyball game night and the senior adult exercise group I’ve heard talk about. I mean, the ROC is a perfect relationship builder! Let’s use it as such. Speaking of that, in about a month we’ll begin having our midweek fellowship meals in the ROC and I am so grateful to Alan Kaufman and his team for making that happen…not to mention the generous givers who have provided the necessary funds.

Here’s a couple other things we’ll be doing this year when it comes to building our fellowship.

First, I want us to add to our staff in two ways.

We have enjoyed Mary Ann’s excellent leadership as INTERIM children’s ministry director but the year she promised us is almost up, so we need to get to work replacing her with a permanent person. We’ll talk more about this at next Sunday’s business meeting but I feel led to continue to make this a half-time position. In coming years God may lead us to expand it to full-time but for now I believe our Lord wants us to keep this position as is. This position is a necessary one for us to have and…as both Jennifer and Mary Ann have shown us…it is doable in a half-time format….at least for now.

Having a person leading this ministry not only helps keep our fellowship healthy—it also gives us a point person when it comes to helping us minister to the children in our community. And loving children is a VERY Christlike thing to do. It shows JESUS’ love in a tangible sense. It meets needs and draws people to this church better than anything we do. We’ve seen that over and over again. For example, it was AWANA that brought C.F. Thomas and his family to Redland. It was VBS that brought Antonio Velasquez and his family here.

Here’s another more recent example. The first day of UPWARD basketball games a young boy living within eye-sight of the ROC saw what was going on, walked over here, and asked if he could play. Wendy said, “Sure!” He is now playing on an Upward team and has brought a friend to do the same. Both boys are also coming to FUEL. We have an opportunity to reach out to their families because we provided ministry to these two kids. I’m saying we NEED someone as a point person in the children’s ministry area.

But, I also want us to begin prayerfully thinking of ways to bring on a staff person to run the ROC itself. Don’t get me wrong. I love our REC committee. They have done and are doing good work but in my mind we need a staff person to head up the ministry of this four million dollar facility. Committees by their nature are slow no matter how gifted and hard working their members are. We need a ROC point person with staff-level authority to move more quickly in starting programs. So—once we find Mary Ann’s replacement—I will ask for your approval in charging our personnel committee with the task of finding us a rec director. I know we don’t have funds for a salary at this time so I’d like us to develop a job description for a volunteer staff person. I’m thinking there must be a retiree out there with a passion for TELLING others about Jesus…someone who embraces our vision for the ROC…someone who is looking for a God-given adventure for the next chapter of his or her life…and will be able to step in and lead our REC/OUTREACH ministry to grow to the point that we can hire a full-time person.

Believe it or not, another thing that will happen this year that I think will strengthen our SHOWING…something that will foster healthy fellowship…are our new BY-LAWS.

You’ll get a copy in the mail soon and we’ll discuss them at the specially called business meeting March 4. On March 19 we’ll have a special class in the chapel during the SS hour for anyone who still has questions. Then, we’ll vote on March 25 and after that we’ll begin to LEARN to use this new tool Charlie Brinkman and his committee have given us. By the way—I have NEVER seen a committee work so hard and so long and in such a devoted manner. With all their experience they could hire themselves out to churches as consultants on by-law writing. All kidding aside, they have come up with an excellent document that I believe will serve the people of this church well for many years to come. A couple warnings though…in order to foster healthy fellowship, we must remember that we obey things like by-laws in ways that we honor the SPIRIT of the law. After all, by-laws were made for man and not vice versa. Don’t get me wrong. I firmly believe these by-laws will enhance all we do…but if you’re like me…it will take time to absorb them…and we need to patiently give each other this kind of time….time to learn how to build into our schedule developing a ministry plan…finding the right people to serve as purpose leaders, etc.

(2) Okay…enough with the SHOWING. Let’s talk more specifically about the TELLING.

What are we going to do this year to help us TELL more people about Jesus?

First, we are going to continue to sponsor mission trips. We’ll head back to the DR next January to work with Pastor Carlos and with the help of Kevin and our young people in July we’re going to help Ocean City Baptist this summer. I’m convinced that GOING places like that not only obeys Jesus’ command to take the Gospel into ALL the world—it also equips us to be better skilled at evangelism right here in our local mission field. On top of that trips like these strengthen our fellowship. They build relationships and makes our unity more healthy and appealing to lost people.

And, speaking of our LOCAL mission field—as I said earlier, this year I want us to strive to do a better job at telling people in our community about Jesus.

To do that—to reach our community—we need to understand their unique needs and interests—or to borrow a word picture from Rick Warren, we need to more clearly see our “target.” This is vital because as Warren puts it: “Can you imagine a photographer shooting pictures without taking time to focus? What deer hunter would stand on top of a hill and shoot randomly into the valley without taking aim at something? Without a target our efforts at evangelism are often only wishful thinking. Of course it takes time to focus and aim, but it also pays off. The more your target is in focus, the more likely it is that you will be able to hit it.”

So—to do a better job of TELLING, we have to first discover what types of people live in their area. Once we understand our God-given mission field, our “aim” will be better! Warren says, “The Bible determines our message, but our target determines, when, where, and how we communicate it.”

If thinking of our community as a “target” makes you uncomfortable then let me point out that evangelistic “targeting” is a Biblical principle. For example, the Gospels were written with specific target audiences in mind. Matthew was written to appeal to the Jews. Mark was thinking of reaching the Gentiles when he wrote his gospel account. They had the same message…but their style was different. Paul refers to this strategy in 1st Corinthians 9:19ff when he says,

“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the Gospel.”

This concept of targeted evangelism is also built into the Great Commission itself. We read a moment ago that Jesus said we are to make disciples of ALL NATIONS. But this word in the Greek literally means “all people groups…” And, each of the unique people groups needs an evangelistic strategy that communicates the Gospel in terms that their specific culture can understand

The biggest example of this principle was in March of 1995, when Billy Graham’s Puerto Rico Crusade was broadcast simultaneously in 116 different languages to audiences around the world…over one billion people. They all heard the Gospel in languages music, and testimonies that targeted their particular group.

Okay—how do we do that here at Redland? How do we learn more about our “Derwood target?” I’m borrowing from Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose-Driven Church.

A. First we study the DEMOGRAPHICS of our community.

We try to find out what TYPE of people live in our area. We’re talking about age, marital status, income, education, occupation—things like that. Warren says, “If you are serious about having your church make and impact, become an expert on your community.” And he’s right.

B. Next we need to learn about the CULTURE of our community.

This refers to people’s lifestyle and mind-set…their values, interests, hurts, and fears. And this is a very important part of knowing our mission field better. Quoting Warren once again, “No missionary to a foreign land would try to evangelize and minister to people without first understanding their culture.” We must do the same. We don’t have to AGREE with our culture but we do need to UNDERSTAND it. The more we know about the people, the easier it will be to reach them. You see, one of the major barriers to church growth is “people blindness” —being unaware of social and cultural differences between people and therefore planning our outreach “blindly.” A popular PEANUTS cartoon shows Charlie Brown practicing archery and instead of aiming at a target he would shoot an arrow at his fence. Then he would walk over and draw a target around wherever his arrow struck. Lucy asked him why he’s doing it that way and he said, “This way I never miss.” This is the same logic behind many churches when it comes to outreach. They shoot arrows of good news into their community and if they happen to reach anyone they say, “That was our target all along!” Well, we can’t do that. To be effective in REACHING our neighbors, we need to GET TO KNOW our neighbors.

C. Finally we have to learn about the SPIRITUAL needs of our community.

We must determine what the people in our area know about the Gospel…how many attend church…which church—things like that.

Okay…once we’ve collected all the information on our community, we can create a composite profile of the typical unchurched person we need to reach. And I’ve done that for you this morning. With the help of a Ministry Area Profile prepared by our state convention in 2010 I have access to data taken on our specific target area. Think of all this as a description of “Redland Ron” or “Redland Rhonda” but for time sake we’ll go with RON.The information in this profile concerns people living within a five mile radius of our church. I know people come from farther than that but it’s a good starting point so here goes:

There are 242,009 people living in our “target area” but this number is expected to grow by 4.6% within the next three years….so our local mission field is growing. About 20% of the households are considered “traditional affluent” — and that’s a high percentage—not surprising if you look at the typical home size. However, the other 80% of the population is very diverse economically. Many struggle to make ends meet in this high-cost-of-living county of ours.

The population in our target area has also very diverse RACIALLY. About half are Anglos like myself but the rest are a large variety of ethnic groups with Hispanics being the largest. In fact, in coming years Hispanic and Latinos are projected to be the fasted growing people group in our target area. AGE-WISE most people are on the young side—between 29 and 49 years of age…but there is a growing segment of elderly. The overall EDUCATION LEVEL in our area is extremely high. Nearly half have graduated from college—which is twice the national average. When it comes to SPIRITUALITY—only about a third are strongly involved in their faith. Nearly 40% say they have no faith system at all.

The profile report lists four of the main concerns of families in our area. In order of priority the are:

  • Time for recreation or leisure
  • Dealing with social injustice
  • Caring for aging parents, and
  • Personal health

Okay—with Redland Ron in mind here’s some of the things I want us to do this year that will help us do a better job of “hitting our target” when it comes to TELLING them the story of Jesus.

First, this will be the year of our beginning to learn to use the ROC as a tool for telling. No more, wondering when contractors will be done. No more permitting delays. This year ROC ministry will happen. And, as you can see, RON will be VERY open to that. He wants a place and time for recreation and leisure. Much of ROC ministries will happen naturally as people feel led to start things like Rumpus in the ROC or Senior Adult walking clubs or cooking classes. But this year things like that will begin and we need to be willing to just jump in and help!

Then, starting in September, to help us be better equipped to TELL the people in our community about Jesus—40% of whom have no understanding of faith at all…we are going through a church-wide campaign called, THE STORY. This will involve us going through the entire Bible in 31 weeks. Max Lucado’s church has followed the lead of several missions organizations and condensed the Bible into 31 stories. We’ll read the book together—one story per week—and I’ll preach on it. I’ve always wanted to preach straight through the Bible! We may also offer a more in-depth study of The Story in Sunday School. Mary Ann and Kevin, and Roger are evaluating the curriculum to help us decide….but the idea is for us to get VERY familiar with the STORY of God reaching out to fallen man….the STORY of His sending His Son to bring us home…the STORY we are commissioned to tell to the people in our target area. I would also like us to use our summer adult SS Mass Class to offer training in personal evangelism to hone our witnessing skills. Charlie Brinkman has some curriculum that I think would be perfect for this. And—we will continue our weekly worship TESTIMONIES—but this year I’d like to hear more people tell us their STORY—their pilgrimage…how they came to Christ. Remember, the better able we are to tell our story—the more opportunities Jesus will give us to share it with people who have never responded to HIS story. I also want us to replace our plans for a BLOCK party at the ROC with targeted events like—a HEALTH FAIR that might provide flu shots, BP screenings, immunizations, and information for people. I’d like us to find ways to target people in our community who can’t afford healthcare. We can use some of the lessons we’ve learned by doing medical clinics in the D.R.

And then, I’d like to challenge people in our congregation who speak another language—especially if it’s Spanish—to start a SS class for that particular language group. You could work with Jim Burke and his ESL team to find people to invite to SS and then encourage to stay for worship. Remember our target group is very diverse racially but that’s okay because God has helped us to be a diverse church. He’s given us people who speak the languages of our community.

Okay—that’s it. That’s our target for this year. I hope my words have generated excitement in your souls…I hope God has used this message to fuel your passion to be involved. If so, as is our custom on Vision Sunday, I’m going to ask you to take the insert in your bulletin, fill it out as you feel led, and walk forward in a moment and lay it on the Lord’s Table…as your public commitment to be a part of the vision for this year.

If you are our guest and you are looking for a church home then you came on the right Sunday because you have heard exactly what we are going to be doing as a church—and, if after hearing all this, you feel God leading you to join us, then we invite you to walk forward and ask to move your membership here. Others of you attending this morning may not be Christians and you are seeking purpose and meaning in life. That is only found in a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We invite you to make that decision this morning and to share it with us. Won’t you come as we sing? Let’s all respond right now as God leads

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