A vision is the direction that God has given for your ministry and life. At times it can be so clear that you can see it vividly in your mind and at other times it seems so far from reach. A vision given by God doesn’t disappear, it isn’t constant in the sense that there isn’t more to be revealed. As one grows in their walk with Christ and continually prays for God’s leading, the vision grows and more of it unfolds.
At this time, God has also revealed to me His vision for my life. Though I can’t say it’s the final draft as it is still continuing to unfold.
In a nutshell; Evangelism, Missions, and Church Planting.
I. Evangelism is defined by the initiation of presenting the Gospel message to those in the local community and also the world. This keyword also includes Leadership Development, Spiritual Maturity, and Discipleship. Much of which overlap, but for the sake of definition are presented. All Evangelism must end with Evangelism. It is in our preaching and presenting of the gospel that we develop future evangelists. Ephesians 4:12 “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” We are all called to be an evangelist in different levels. Whether that is to our family, friends, co-workers, city, state, nation, or the world.
II. Missions is ,in my own eyes, hand in hand with Evangelism. It is almost interchangeable, but not because we have separated the meaning of the two. When speaking of missions, we think about a foreign land and perhaps a plane trip or a 5 hour drive to a distant place. Though my philosophy of ministry is that missions and evangelism happens everywhere God takes me. Whether that is within 5 minutes reach to the Walmart across the street or half way around the world. Therfore, missions is evangelism and vice versa.
III. Church Planting has been a recent, 2009, vision that has grab hold of my heart. At this time, I believe and strongly sense a desire to serve the multicultural Christian community of English speakers. I see here in America an opportunity that is rarely seen in many other parts of the world to evangelize in one language to many social classes and races from all around the globe. There is an opened door opportunity here in the United States to evangelize and develop leaders who are multilingual. I have heard a sermon once that Sunday is the most segregated day of the month. This is a thing of the past. We have now been melted with one another in the American culture and can unite as one body via our common language and culture. Though I see the need for 1st Generation cultural churches, I also see a great need for churches for the 2nd+ generations of all cultures to have a common place of worship.
A. Reaching out to the unsaved and those who have fallen away from God. I will be using the Radius model for reaching out to the local community. Going house to house and block to block closest from the church plant location and moving outwards. Geared specifically for those who are unsaved and also those who are Christian, but are not actively attending a church. Moving 1 step and a time in a bigger circle until the proximity to the church is no larger then 10 miles radius. This will take the developing of lay leaders and evangelists within the new church community as we disciple and train. I see this as a tree which planted it’s seed in a central location and as it is being watered throughout the community the roots grow deeper and father into the community.
B. Tribal church is a word coined by my good friend Ken Shinzato. It is the concept that the early church was a very simple church and was more tribal then organized. We see the Romans, Colossians, Thessalonians and so on. They were churches in a given city and location. The people of this land gathered at this church. The centrality of the church location, I believe should be the center point of gathering new believers. As it is communal, when they see each other at the supermarket or gas station they are like a close knit community within a community.
I humbly ask for your prayers. By the grace of God, I believe a pioneering flame has been lit in my heart.
