What are your hopes and dreams for First Christian Church in 2009? WHAT? I can’t hear you…oh well, I guess I will share with you what I hope and pray will take place in 2009! Before we do that, can we take a quick glance at the past 3 years? In the past year (2008), we baptized 12 people, in 2007 – we baptized 13 people and in 2006 we baptized 13 people. Those numbers show we are changing lives and they are pretty consistent, but I think we are headed for greater transformation in us and in the lives around us by an extraordinarily active Holy Spirit.
So what are my hopes for FC2? What is my prayer for FC2? First, my prayer is that we never look at people as numbers! The last thing a person wants to feel is that they are a number and we don’t like being treated that way either. Secondly, my prayer is that we don’t treat people as a project. People aren’t projects! We should treat them as we have been treated by God – with unconditional love.
I believe two things are stirring in our community. (This is nothing profound, and it’s nothing new.) I believe that one (evil) is pulling people away from what is best [A HOLY GOD] and the other (Holy Spirit) is revealing a God [a compassionate, gracious and forgiving God] who is extremely in love with HIS creation specifically in this community. You can see evidences of these stirrings through many lives in our community. Tragic deaths! Teen pregnancies! Substance abuse! Marital infidelity! Divorce! All of these mentioned (and many more evil desires) are rampant in our community. Why? We also see: changed lives, people becoming more and more like Jesus, marriages strengthened, freedom from addictions, purity. All of these mentioned (and many more things that please God) need to be rampant in our community. There are definite evidences of both workings in the community.
Due to this belief, my final prayer is that we as a beacon in this community will continue to be contagious disciples that draw more and more of HIS children into the relationship in which God is calling every one of us. I am reminded of Romans 10:14 (MSG) “But how can people call for help if they don't know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven't heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? Church, we have an obligation to this community that God has placed us in as disciples of Jesus. We CANNOT JUST PUT THE BLAME ON THE SCHOOLS. WE CANNOT JUST BLAME THE PARENTS. WE CANNOT JUST BLAME THEM ALONE! If we must put the blame somewhere we should blame sin and its destructive path! We must realize it is about a spiritual oppression on and in the community where we live. We must accept the fact that we have the answer and therefore we MUST be faithful to that answer to speak it and live it and also share it.
I believe that if we are serious about sin and serious about loving sinners, the number of baptisms will more than double! I think we can win more people for Christ this year than the ‘average’ of the last three! I believe that we CAN AND SHOULD baptize more people in the year 2009 not for the sake of accomplishing a task, but to live out our beliefs in a gracious God. But in order to do this, we have to live on purpose for HIM. This means I MUST make changes and so MUST you! Will you dream with me about 2009? Do you believe it can happen? Will you join me in 2009 and seek out our friends who need to make a decision for Jesus as their Christ and help them to discover who HE really is? I pray so! Let’s get even more serious about who we are and how we live. Let’s truly live out the disciples faith!
