As you know, we’ve set aside several weeks this summer to study the Psalms and this morning I want us to begin our look at next year’s VISION by reading a couple excerpts from that ancient songbook. First look with me at the 143rd Psalm—a Psalm where King David asks God for guidance. I’ll be reading verses 7-8 and 10:
7 – Answer me quickly, Lord; my spirit fails. Do not hide Your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit.
8 – Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in You. Show me the way I should go, for to You I entrust my life.
10 – Teach me to do your will, for You are my God; may Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
Now, hear what God has to say IN RESPONSE to requests for guidance like this. I’m reading from Psalm 32:8 where God says:
8 – I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My loving eye on you.
The sailor in this picture is using a sextant—and I am certainly NOT an expert on this device but I do know that it is primarily a tool of navigation. You see, a sextant can measure the angle between any two visible objects—something in the sky like the sun or a star—and the horizon. When coupled with the time that angle was measured, individuals like this sailor can then calculate a position on a nautical or aeronautical chart.
I first learned about sextants when I was reading some of my favorite books—those novels written by C. S. Forester back in the late 1930’s—books in which Forester described the life of a fictional British naval officer during the Napoleonic wars named Horatio Hornblower. How many of you have read those books or seen the BBC movies that were based on them? Great reading! I wish Forester was still alive to write more!
In his great little novels Forester tells of Hornblower’s life—from the beginning of his naval career to the end. His readers learn that, like pretty much everyone else in the British navy back then, Hornblower started out as a lowly midshipman and as he progressed in rank Forester taught us a lot about life on the high seas in that part of history.
As I said, I remember how Hornblower and his fellow midshipmen had to learn to use trigonometry to learn navigation. They had classes every day on ship taught by the captain. I also learned that in those days British sailing ships constantly checked their course by using a sextant Several times a day Hornblower and his fellow midshipmen would take sightings and, based on the results, the ship would adjust its course.
I remember in one novel, Beat to Quarters—which by the way was made into a movie starring Gregory Peck—in that story Hornblower was captain of a 36-gun frigate named The Lydia. Great name, wouldn’t you agree!? In that story Hornblower was ordered to take his ship from England, across the Atlantic, south around Cape Horn and north to the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. He was to make this long journey without ever coming in sight of land because this was a secret mission and the British Admiralty did not want to risk Hornblower’s ship being seen by the enemy. Since Hornblower was a skilled navigator—since he knew his trigonometry and was VERY GOOD at using the sextant for mid-course corrections—he was able to accomplish this astounding feat of navigation, arriving at the exact place at the exact time specified on his orders. Of course this is just a story but I’m sure there were real live naval officers in that day and age who were just as skilled in navigation as Forester’s fictional character.
And mid-course corrections weren’t only done back during the Napoleonic era. Even in our day and age, navigators on land and sea—or the Garmins and Tom Toms that are programed to do this job—constantly check and re-check their course. I remember how Apollo astronauts navigating from here to the moon had to make midcourse corrections on their journeys through space, igniting their engines for exactly the right amount of time and in exactly the right direction to get them where they needed to be.
I bring all this up because I’d like us to think of today’s vision sermon as a midcourse correction of sorts. You see, with PRAYER as my sextant, and am using this VISION SUNDAY sermon, to suggest some things we need to do to “stay on course” with God’s leading for us as a church in the coming year. Now—if you’re thinking, “Didn’t we just have a vision sermon?” You are correct. We did. You are not experiencing “double vision.” Eight months ago I shared with you that I believe God was leading us to make SERVICE our emphasis in 2013. Tapping into the creativity of Pastor Kevin, I said we’d give this emphasis a THEME: “second nature.” I said that this year our “course” would lead us “down the road” of doing all we could to help develop this aspect of our walk with Christ, such that it became second nature for each of us to help people in need. I told you this was a great phrase for us to embrace here at Redland because our purpose statement says that one of the things God’s grace drives us to do is, “…care in the NATURE of Christ.”
In fact, let’s stop and read our PURPOSE statement together. Take your bulletins and let’s read in unison. “Redland Baptist Church is to be: a GRACE-driven church for a GRACE-needing world, where people: Grow in the love, Reach in the name, Affirm in the body, CARE IN THE NATURE, and Exalt in the glory…of Christ.”
Now—the reason I’m preaching a SECOND vision sermon so soon after the first is because I’m re-aligning this important part of my annual preaching schedule so as to better lead into what is happening in the next calendar year. From now on, if the Lord tarries, VISION SERMONS will always be in the fall. I must confess I kind of dreaded this change because I feared it would force me to vision cast before I was ready—before I had time to prepare—but as I’ve prayed about this God has done what He always does. He has calmed my fears. I mean, just like King David, I asked God to “…show me the way we should go,” and God has answered. He has “…counseled me with His loving eye upon me.” As a result of this “sextant of prayer” our Heavenly Father has helped me to see that there is much more to do in this “second nature” vision than could be done in twelve months so we’ll continue along that “heading” in 2014. With that in mind I’d like us to think of today’s message as a mid-course correction of sorts. I want us to look back at how far we’ve come since this past January and then, based on our “spiritual navigation” thus far, chart our course for the NEXT 16 months so that we stay true to our “second nature” course.
(1) Let’s begin by LOOKING BACK AT OUR JOURNEY SO FAR.
You may remember my telling you eight months ago that when churches are outward-focused—when they seek to meet the physical and spiritual needs of others—those churches tend to grow. As Philip Yancey puts it, “In a paradox of faith, the one who shares love comes away enriched, not impoverished.” And Yancey is correct. Focusing on the needs of people OUTSIDE our walls makes us happier and healthier INSIDE these walls. The simple fact is, growing, happy churches are churches that look outward to the physical and spiritual needs of the community and world around them. This kind of grace-driven maturity draws lost people to Jesus—which leads the church to experience both spiritual and numerical growth. But for churches that don’t strive to serve others in Jesus’ name, the result is just the opposite. George Barna says,
“Churches usually die from the inside out. Death is largely due to an inward focus, rather than an outward concern. Churches that grow are focused on addressing the needs of the have-nots in the world, whether what they did not have was a relationship with Jesus Christ, physical health, emotional wholeness, or other desired aspects. Growing churches were not content to let missions support simply relate to the giving of money.”
Well, we’ve seen that truth proven here at Redland because—I think due to our focus on others—we have had tons of unchurched families visiting our campus this year. Here’s a quick report in that area.
One of our greatest draws for the unchurched was our biggest mission trip—and I’m referring to RBC camp—a camp that gets better every year. This summer our camp drew an average of 175 yellow t-shirt wearing children every day led by 100 “second-nature-focused” RBC staffers. 38 of those kids—representing 24 families—did not have a church home. A great FOLLOW-UP for RBC Camp this year was Lori Ferguson’s plan to “take RBC Camp on the road” so to speak by hosting a Backyard Kid’s Club in a neighborhood. This year David and Becky McGaffin allowed their home to be the “pilot project” of this plan—and it worked BEAUTIFULLY! I was able to visit the club one night and was amazed at the McGaffin’s hard work and planning. They did an AWESOME job. Becky reports:
“At our backyard VBS, we grew in numbers each night. For our Thursday night presentation to the parents, where we had a dessert fellowship (with desserts provided by Redlanders) we had 24 kids. 19 of those kids are unchurched. In this backyard VBS, both the kids and the parents were able to hear the Bible stories. We had amazing Redlanders come and lead music, crafts, and the Bible story. It was the highlight of my summer.”
Now, that’s saying a lot because Becky had a lot going on this summer! She was heavily involved in RBC camp as one of our directors. PLUS she led three weeks of SPORTS CAMP, which drew even MORE unchurched families to our campus. We are working on cloning Becky!
Our REC MINISTRY, headed up by Kyle Kilgore, was also very effective in reaching out to unchurched people this year and we see this proved in several rec events. For example, we had an AWESOME Upward year—and our commissioner, Wendy Callahan, is already hard at work planning for next year. Speak to her if you’d like to be involved. Our “open gym nights” have proven to be great “second nature” ministry tools, drawing an average of 17-35 unchurched young men to play basketball on Mondays or Thursdays, showing them that we care enough to provide a safe place for them to play. Sue and I have enjoyed getting to know these men—and I’m sure other RBC Monday or Thursday night volunteers would say the same. By the way these young men have repeatedly told us how GRATEFUL they are to us for letting them come to the ROC to play ball.
As you saw in last week’s SOWER we just finished an amazing first season of a men’s basketball league that grew out of our open gym nights. We had 38 men registered in this league and 29 of those men do not attend Redland. 18 came from our open gym basketball nights and 11 were invited by friends, presumably the friends who attended those open gym nights. Isn’t that awesome!? Here is a picture of the winning team.
Our open VOLLEYBALL night is growing as well. In fact, my Buddhist barber commented that his daughter has been coming to our ROC to practice with her volleyball team. I believe her team is coached by our own Richard Carter and they used the ROC in the hour prior to open volleyball for a few months this year. I’ve never had much success getting my barber to talk about the Lord but the ROC drew his family onto our campus—and that’s a start!
Perhaps the highlight of “second nature rec ministry” was this summer’s BLOCK AT THE ROC party. I agree with the report Pastor Bobby gave in that I was VERY impressed with the planning—and the hard work of so many Redlanders of all ages. As you can see in these pics, in spite of the rainy weather, we had a great day. People enjoyed the fire trucks, the info booths, the games, the food—both the free meatloaf samples given out by Nancy Faulconer—and the food vendors who brought their trucks. People enjoyed the music of our orchestra and that of “The Ben Spencer band.” They flocked to our clothing sale and school supply sale. And they ESPECIALLY enjoyed the Hot Air Balloon rides. I’d like to see us do a BLOCK PARTY like this regularly—at least every other year. Through this event we were able to meet 130 unchurched people from 49 families.
So—to summarize—this SECOND NATURE theme fleshed out in things like RBC camp and rec ministry—has resulted in our ability to touch LOTS of unchurched families and individuals. And perhaps because of that, we have had LOTS of growth—a lot of additions. Since this time last year we have had 55 people join our church family. Thirty of those were coming by profession of faith. Nine of those professions of faith were by children, seven by teens, and 14 by adults. I think those kind of results are surely at least partially tied to this emphasis because the more we develop our second nature, the more we look at people through Jesus’ eyes, the more passionate we become about both SHOWING them and TELLING them about God and His great love.
And speaking of SHOWING God’s love to people, I think the most tangible thing we’ve done in this area is through our SHINE THE LIGHT PROJECTS. If I count correctly so far Redlanders have done 23 such projects—spending about $3800—which is just a little over a tenth of the $30,000 that was given for this project. And the projects have been wonderful! You’ve done little projects like giving money to a fellow college student who had financial need to big projects like helping furnish a shelter for women who had left a life of sex-trafficking. You helped a family whose home had burned. You provided gifts for a Romanian war veteran who was being treated down at Bethesda. One of the most inspiring projects—from my perspective—was done by one of our shut-ins: Jane Wardwell-Hicks, who lives in a Medicaid facility and noticed some of her fellow patients needed toiletries. Jane is shining her light even from her hospital bed!
I don’t know if you realize it but our SHINE THE LIGHT project made the news. It was the cover story in Baptist Life Magazine a few issues back.
I have LOVED hearing the reports of these projects—and so has the family who provided these funds. I asked their permission to continue the project one more year and they said: YES! Please do! SO WE WILL! To help stimulate you to continue these projects, I’ve asked Ryan Harder and Paula Huang to share about a project their SS class teamed up to do. They have some pictures of their project that will show on the scene as they talk.
LUNCH FOR DAY WORKERS TESTIMONY
Isn’t that a cool story?! I know every member on that team was blessed by helping those men. I say that because I did a project myself and received a blessing. Through a church member who wishes to remain anonymous, I learned of a single mom who was having a hard time. Four of us teamed up and we were able to get her $400. I met with her to hear her story and give her the check—and I have to tell you—it felt so good to help her in a tangible way. So—get in on the blessing! We still have over $26K left and 16 months to spend it! Do a project! Application forms are on the back table. If you have questions give me a call!
Okay, that’s a quick look back at our “second nature journey” so far and I hope you can sense that I’m pleased. God has been good to us!
(2) Now based on that, look forward with me to the journey ahead—a journey that includes some things we’ll do next year, some “mid-course corrections” so to speak.
First, I’ll continue to do my best to preach and teach so as to equip you to develop your second nature of service. During my sabbatical that begins September 30, I’ve enlisted members of our pastoral staff—and church members as well—to lead you through a sermon series on THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT, a study I believe will help us all produce Christlike attitudes and actions more habitually. Then, on Wednesdays this fall, Pastor Bobby and I are facilitating the study of two excellent “second nature” books. I hope you’ll join us! We just started a study of Max Lucado’s new book on grace. I have copies for sale today if you’d like one. And then, beginning October 23rd we’ll look at Richard Stearn’s book, A Hole in the Gospel . Stearns is the head of World Vision so he has a lot to say about “second nature” things. After the first of the year, I’ll lead an expository sermon series on the epistles of John—and will be planning other sermon series in 2014 on this emphasis.
We’ll also continue to do the thing that I believe MOST stimulates second nature growth: mission trips both here and abroad—weeks in which we focus 24-7 on helping others. In addition to local “mission trips” like RBC CAMP, we’ll be going back to Ocean City next summer to work with Lynn Davis in the Central Atlantic Leisure Ministry. After hearing David’s sharing I’d like us to pray about returning to Morocco as well. And we are going back to the D. R. to work with Pastor Carlos—but this year we will do a different sort of trip. Instead of things revolving around medical missions—we’ll focus on ministering to the children who live in and around Hato Mayor. You see, several years ago Pastor Carlos was able to purchase a camp ground on the outskirts of that town. It has cabins, a pool, a baseball field, and more. In the fact-finding trip Daniel Adams and Larry Michael took a few weeks back, Pastor Carlos told them he would like us to come January 11-18 of next year and run a 3-day camp. Hundreds of kids would attend. We’d do Vacation Bible School and Sports Clinics…and perhaps do some medical stuff there as well but focus on the kids. We’ll also send a construction crew who will build two homes for families in need and we’ll lead a “pastor’s school” where we will provide training in the spiritual disciplines for those under-shepherds who work with Pastor Carlos.
But that’s not all! Stay-tuned for other “second nature” projects that I hope we will be able calendar. For example, I’m looking into the possibility of our adopting a school in our area helping the teachers and students in tangible ways—and we are thinking about starting a monthly worship service at Brooke Grove Rehab—things like that.
Another very important “mid-course correction” involves becoming more aware of our potential for helping children who need foster care. With that in mind, I asked Pastor Kevin to record a video in which he tells us more about that. We’d have him here live—but he’s performing his brother-in-law’s wedding today.
VIDEO TESTIMONY ON FOSTER CARE BY KEVIN FREEMAN
Here are a couple more “mid-course corrections” that I think we need to make in order to stay true to God’s leading. First, I want us to challenge more of our younger couples to become involved in service ministries like being an usher or working on the fellowship committee—and especially serving at the welcome desk. I agree with Dorlene Harper, who heads up the work of that important team, and sees this need. Dorlene says, “Jim and I have been concerned about the lack of young couples, young people in general, on so many of the visible committees. Our Welcome Center is manned by almost all people in the Senior Citizen category. Just thinking visitors coming in might get the idea that we are an “older” church. I would love to get some younger blood into this area. They are the future of the church, and we know they are very busy with hectic schedules, but 15-30 minutes a week, once every three months, is not too much to ask.”
Now—there is nothing wrong with being “older” but as I said I agree with Dorlene! We need to more young couples and individuals involved. Let me mention a few more things and then we can “sail on.” In 2014 I will put together a team to help us look at revising our constitution—specifically our statement of faith. From its beginning Redland has used the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message—but as we were revising our by-laws a couple years back we noted that it calls for “closed communion.” In other words, it does not support the idea of non-church members sharing communion here at RBC and that just doesn’t match up with my convictions in this area. Communion is for all Christ-followers. As I tell visitors whenever we partake of The Lord’s Supper, “If you are His, this is yours.” So, we’ll be looking at that next year.
Another thing I want us to pray about concerns staffing. The 2-year funding gift for Kyle’s position as part time Director or Recreation draws to an end next year. And as it does I’d like us to pray for God’s leading as to what to do next when it comes to continuing that staff position. I will be asking God to guide us here—to counsel us in the way we should go. Is it time to hire a full-time, rec-minister or some combination? Do we continue with a part-timer?
Now—I don’t want to make you uncomfortable—that’s the Holy Spirit’s job—but for us to do all these things I’ve mentioned this morning, we must make a serious “mid-course correction” in our GIVING. And before I talk about that let me say how impressed I am at the way you give to special offerings. For example, this year we exceeded our goal and as a result won a special award for our gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering. Our church is in the top 12% of all SBC churches. Understand—the SBC claims over sixteen million members—and our giving to Lottie Moon was in the top 12% of per capita giving—pretty cool! You also give generously to other special needs like the crisis pregnancy center and Operation Christmas Child and Baptist Family—so that’s not the course correction I refer to. I’m talking about your tithes—vital gifts to the budget that keeps this local church running. We have to do a better job there. That kind of giving must always come first. I mention this because so far in 2013, we are $61,000 BEHIND when it comes to giving verses expenditures. That means in paying for the ministries God has called us to do—things like RBC CAMP and OPEN GYM BASKET BALL and BLOCK AT THE ROC and paying utilities and the mortgage and salaries—in doing all these things God has called us to do we have spent $61000 MORE than has been given—$61,000 more than your tithes—and the only reason we have been able to stay afloat financially is because God has blessed us with a good sized savings account. But at this rate, it won’t last long. So we have to change the course of our giving—in order for us to stay true to the course that God has set. In encourage you to talk and pray together about this as a family.
As we come to our time of invitation I’d like us all to bow our heads and ask God to tell us what “mid-course corrections” we each need to make to be in the center of His will. So let’s do that—every head bowed—every eye closed—every ear tuned to the WHISPER of the still, small voice of God. Here are some things ask God about as you pray. Is He calling you to join us on a mission trip or to serve in SS or AWANA or RBC Camp or or ESL or in our Rec Ministry or Kairos or at the Welcome Desk or any of the things we do here? Is God calling you to consider being a foster parent? Has he laid the idea of a Shine the Light project on your heart? Has He asked you to trust Him enough to bring the whole tithe into His storehouse? Is He leading you to join this church—working with us—journeying with us on the course He has set? And the most important question: have you come to the realization that you need Jesus in your life—lovingly guiding you through life? Pray about these things and in a moment I’ll close our prayer. Then, as we stand and sing, I invite you to respond publically or privately as God leads.
SILENT PRAYER
Father God, Like Your servant, David, we need Your guidance. Show each of us the way we should go, for to You we entrust our lives. Teach us to do your will, for You are God; may Your good Spirit lead us on level ground. I ask this in JESUS’ name—AMEN
As we stand and sing, come as God leads.