Reservoir Release
"Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring — what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” -- James 4:13-15 (CSB)
Every time someone asks what my "vision for the church" is I feel a little bit like a kindergartner being asked what he wants to be when he grows up. I can only hope my answer might be taken with a bit more seriousness or belief!
It is a fair question and one we get asked a lot as a replant of a twenty-two-year-old church. We endeavored to fix organization issues with a new book of church order, we established a new elder council, we changed the name of the church to match our new identity as a body, and we have unrelentingly preached the gospel as the whole counsel of God from his word. So what's next? What does a little church of eighty souls look forward to, or labor toward?
Good question.
"If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that..."
I think I do have an answer and some sense of the Lord's will for us. Paired with the healthy marks of the church, when we grow up, my hope is that Reservoir Church is a seeding and sending church. Small, agile and able to raise up, equip, and launch missionaries and new churches and revitalize older churches.
I think of it as "Release." The healthy and useful reservoir is filled with clean water and in order for it to function as designed, it has to release what it has stored up. Communities don't thrive if their reservoirs never give out water. I hope we see the church in the same way.
Of course, I recognize the desire to grow a crowd. To need bigger facilities and refine a brand... my flesh would love that. Healthy churches are supposed to grow all the books say. But for us, if there is a healthy branch available, we want to plant it in new soil so that we reflect a kingdom priority and we see people believe in Jesus.
This good news of Jesus met us on its way to someone else, and we have been commissioned by Christ to proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sin in his name to all nations. We don't want to take this lightly and we don't want to miss the opportunities in our neighborhoods. So to that end, we will train, teach and implore each of us to share Jesus at every opportunity. We have nothing if we don't share the hope of salvation. And rather than hope the church will grow by adding dissatisfied believers from other churches, we want the few chairs we have to be filled by those meeting the real Jesus for the first time.
Evangelism is then paired with each individuals' purpose, the place and vocation the Lord has put them in. We desire to stir the body of believers to recognize their work as a sacred instrument meant to bring the peace of God to our city. This is the church as a creative minority in this age. A linked minority working together for the renewal of all things.
Then in both categories and in all of life, we desire to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Discipling each other with a bent outward. Recognizing everyone in the church has a kingdom role to play and making sure they have the arrows they will need in their packs.
There are many details and attempts to come down the road. I still don't know each step. But together, we will lean into "release" for the glory of Christ.
This is key, we are stricken with pastoral insufficiency by the grace of God. I am not a super leader or a valiant entrepreneur. We may need systems and areas of support I can't see. It will take all of us. From elders to volunteers in the special needs ministry. From deacons to small group leaders and everyone in-between.
So are you in? Are you willing to prepare the Reservoir for release? Maybe you will be the one we send, maybe you will be the one to take someone else's place when they go... all for the glory of Jesus.
We exist to know Jesus and make him known. Those rescued by Jesus reshaped into family for the renewal of others and all things. Let's go!
Every time someone asks what my "vision for the church" is I feel a little bit like a kindergartner being asked what he wants to be when he grows up. I can only hope my answer might be taken with a bit more seriousness or belief!
It is a fair question and one we get asked a lot as a replant of a twenty-two-year-old church. We endeavored to fix organization issues with a new book of church order, we established a new elder council, we changed the name of the church to match our new identity as a body, and we have unrelentingly preached the gospel as the whole counsel of God from his word. So what's next? What does a little church of eighty souls look forward to, or labor toward?
Good question.
"If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that..."
I think I do have an answer and some sense of the Lord's will for us. Paired with the healthy marks of the church, when we grow up, my hope is that Reservoir Church is a seeding and sending church. Small, agile and able to raise up, equip, and launch missionaries and new churches and revitalize older churches.
I think of it as "Release." The healthy and useful reservoir is filled with clean water and in order for it to function as designed, it has to release what it has stored up. Communities don't thrive if their reservoirs never give out water. I hope we see the church in the same way.
Of course, I recognize the desire to grow a crowd. To need bigger facilities and refine a brand... my flesh would love that. Healthy churches are supposed to grow all the books say. But for us, if there is a healthy branch available, we want to plant it in new soil so that we reflect a kingdom priority and we see people believe in Jesus.
If this Reservoir is meant for "release," how do we get there? I think we cling to Jesus and focus our discipleship in three categories:
- Evangelism
- Vocational empowerment
- Equipping
This good news of Jesus met us on its way to someone else, and we have been commissioned by Christ to proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sin in his name to all nations. We don't want to take this lightly and we don't want to miss the opportunities in our neighborhoods. So to that end, we will train, teach and implore each of us to share Jesus at every opportunity. We have nothing if we don't share the hope of salvation. And rather than hope the church will grow by adding dissatisfied believers from other churches, we want the few chairs we have to be filled by those meeting the real Jesus for the first time.
Evangelism is then paired with each individuals' purpose, the place and vocation the Lord has put them in. We desire to stir the body of believers to recognize their work as a sacred instrument meant to bring the peace of God to our city. This is the church as a creative minority in this age. A linked minority working together for the renewal of all things.
Then in both categories and in all of life, we desire to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Discipling each other with a bent outward. Recognizing everyone in the church has a kingdom role to play and making sure they have the arrows they will need in their packs.
There are many details and attempts to come down the road. I still don't know each step. But together, we will lean into "release" for the glory of Christ.
This is key, we are stricken with pastoral insufficiency by the grace of God. I am not a super leader or a valiant entrepreneur. We may need systems and areas of support I can't see. It will take all of us. From elders to volunteers in the special needs ministry. From deacons to small group leaders and everyone in-between.
So are you in? Are you willing to prepare the Reservoir for release? Maybe you will be the one we send, maybe you will be the one to take someone else's place when they go... all for the glory of Jesus.
We exist to know Jesus and make him known. Those rescued by Jesus reshaped into family for the renewal of others and all things. Let's go!
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