SundaySermon
What is your vision for the church?
by Ptr. Vince Alcaide
Scriptural Reference: Nehemiah 2:1-20

Do you have a vision for your life?
As a church “Do you have a vision for this church?”
What is your vision for this year 2007? We must discover God’s specific vision for not only His church but also for our own lives.

I am very much disturbed and very concerned of churches that meet week after week and yet have no vision and plans how to bring lost people to Christ. If you lose your vision , you know what happens? YOU CEASE TO BE AN EFFECTIVE WITNESS FOR CHRIST ! We should not be contented to allow things to stay as they are. Nobody wants to see the Church lose it’s vision. Do you ? The Bible says in Proverbs 29:18 "Where there is no vision, the people perish:

I want us to spend our time today focusing on "vision"

1) What does it mean to have a vision from God?
2) How do we get a vision from God?

God has an incredible future planned for this church if we will only pursue His vision for us.

I. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE A VISION FROM GOD?

The word "vision" in Hebrew means “ divine communication”.
This means that if the vision is really from God, it will really come to pass and is guaranteed of success.

1) God reveals His will and His plan by vision

2). God opens our eyes, hearts and minds by vision
George Barna define Vision for the church as a reflection of what God wants to accomplish through us to build His kingdom.

In other words: VISION IS THE PICTURE OF WHERE WE ARE GOING.
Many churches today are having this struggle. They have yet to discover why they are doing what they do. It’s either they don’t have any vision or they cannot determine what is God’s vision for them.

How many of you here knows Helen Keller? Yes she was born blind, but she had vision.
Do you know that when a reporter asked her “ is there anything worse than being born
blind?” She answered “ It is to have sight and yet have no vision in life”. I see

II. 3 STEPS TO DETERMINING GOD’S VISION FOR THIS CHURCH

1. DISCOVER YOUR PURPOSE (1-5)

In our passage today, just to give you a background, between chapter 1 and chap 2 of Nehemiah, there is a four-month gap (Kislev and Nisan).

In chapter 1, Nehemiah is burdened about Jerusalem but he has no specific plan.
In chapter 2, he has a plan firmly in place. What happened?

Discovering the Purpose is the first and biggest issue of vision. The major question that must be answered here is: What does God want us to do? God wants Nehemiah to rebuilt a wall that had been torn down for over 70 years (v5)

What is the purpose here at Jesus the Rock Fellowship?
My guess that your answers will likely include preaching the gospel, evangelizing the lost, discipling the Christian etc. There are over 485,000 identifiable churches in the United States. I believe that God has a purpose for each and every one of them.

TAKE NOTE: If we cannot state the purpose of this church in a single sentence, we have not yet discovered our purpose.

Characteristics of a Good Purpose Statement. Remember the acronym KISSSS
KISSSS—Keep It Scriptural, Simple, Sharable, and Short!
JTRF church, Discover your Purpose

2. DEFINE YOUR TARGET (11-16)

The most controversial and misunderstood part of vision is defining the target. If we were in business we would be asking: “Who is our customer?” - Who do we want to reach? - Who are we already reaching?

NO CHURCH REACHES EVERYONE.
We need to see each other not as competitors, but as TEAMMATES.

ILLUSTRATION : I will show you that Defining Our Target is also what the apostles did in doing their ministry

1) Paul – his target is the Gentiles
”I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry” (Romans 11:13)

2) Peter – his target is the Jews
”On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews “(Galatians 2:7)

3) James – his target is the persecuted Jews
”James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.” (James 1:1)

4) Jonah – his target is Nineveh
God told him to “ Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."(Jonah 1:2)

How to determine our target :

A. Define The Target Geographically
Most church’s immediate target is within 5 to 19 miles around the church. That means the target driving time will be 15 to 20 minutes

B. Define The Target Demographically
In order to effectively minister, we need to know as much as we can about the people who live in the area. By understanding the people, we can understand their particular needs and how we can minister to those needs.

C. Define The Target Spiritually
The Unchurched New Christians
Unchurched Christians Mature Christians
The methods to minister to the Mature Christian would be different with the Unchurched.

3. DECIDE YOUR STRATEGY (V 6-9; 17-18)

Here is another point in which we make many mistakes.

We try to define our strategy before we define our purpose and target. Therefore we should evaluate every program and ministry annually according to whether they are accomplishing our purpose or not.

VISION NEVER BECOMES A REALITY WITHOUT ACTION !
A vision without a task is ONLY but a dream.
A vision with a task is the hope of the church.

CONCLUSION :

My challenge to you is this :
What do you see for us as a church?
What is the church vision statement ?
Why do JTRF church exist?

We cannot accomplish much for God’s kingdom and not know the right answers without asking first those questions.

We must take the time to Discover our Purpose, Define our Target, and Decide our Strategy—in that order.

BLURRED VISION LEADS TO BLURRED RESULTS
SPECIFIC VISION LEADS TO DYNAMIC RESULTS

George Barna says that 3/4 of all churches in America have either plateaued or are on the decline. Most are dying and not knowing what to do in order to turn things around because of lack of vision.

After hearing this message, I hope you will commit yourself today to pursuing God's vision for your place in this church and expect Almighty God to move in such a mighty way!