The very last day of the year almost demands that we look ahead.

Whether we actually do it or not, the idea of New Year’s resolutions are so ingrained in our culture that we find ourselves at the very least thinking about the year ahead, and wondering what we’ll try to accomplish.

So as a community, as a church, as a group…it seems natural for us to look forward. It’s a natural time to remind ourselves of our vision and our purpose, of what we really are about as a church.

What will we aim for in 2007?

I think one of the most important responsibilities I have as senior pastor is to keep us focused on who God is leading us to become.

What are the benchmarks for us? In the bible, I think the description in Acts chapter 2 of the early church and what it did in its first days of Holy Spirit power serves well. More specifically for us, our vision statement-printed each and every week on our worship folder-is another anchor .

I hope it’s not surprising that I see all kinds of connections between those two things, because our vision at NFC is to be like the early church, to be faithful to God’s call and to radically change the world.

Would you look at both of these with me? Turn to the back of your worship folder, and open your bibles to Acts 2 verse 41 (page ____ in the bibles in front of you).

Let me ask you to read the first line of the vision statement out loud. (“a growing community”)

Thanks. In Acts chapter 2, after Jesus’ disciples did what Jesus asked and waited and prayed in Jerusalem, they are all powerfully and visibly touched by the Holy Spirit of God. People in the room see tongues of fire from heaven; some start speaking praises to God in all kinds of languages; people from all over the world gathered in Jerusalem hear Peter preach powerfully.

And the church of Jesus Christ was born! 3000 people were added to their number that day. This first summary of what the early church looked like begins very similarly to our vision statement: new people make it a growing community. The early church is a community like we envision our community becoming, one where we grow both in number and AS a community, growing in relationships with each other.

Notice carefully that in the early church, those people who are being added to the church are new believers in Jesus Christ.

There are many ways a church can grow in numbers in the 21^st century in America. Marketing to and drawing people who already follow Jesus is the easiest way to grow in numbers. It’s much harder to grow because we, prompted and empowered by the Holy Spirit, go out where people are gathering and invite them to understand what it means to follow Jesus Christ and invite them on that journey with us.

It’s much harder, but that is exactly what we desire. That is exactly what we are striving for.

I’m grateful for many ways that I see Newberg Friends as a growing community. The Young Adult class and the Agape Class in particular have done a great job of building relationships and community with new people, people who now consider NFC their own church. Listening Life groups have provided an important place to deepen relationships and community. I’m so glad for that!

And I am fervently praying and planning for ways to allow God’s Holy Spirit to empower us to be a community that helps introduce people to Jesus!

Would you read the second line of the vision statement with me? (Listening to Christ)

This is perhaps the most distinctive part of our vision statement, the one that is most uniquely “us”, as Newberg Friends and as Quakers. We make it one of our highest priorities to listen to Jesus, to assume that God really does still speak today and that we need to listen to him and obey.

Open worship and silence are probably the most obvious ways that we strive for that; but there are others. Look at Acts 2:42. Teaching and relationships with others and prayer are all ways that we listen to Christ as well.

God speaks in so many ways! God speaks in silence, yet it takes practice on our part to get better at discerning his voice. God speaks through the bible, yet it takes effort on our part to read it, to study it, to make it a part of our lives. God speaks through the circumstances of our lives, yet it takes a commitment on our part to be with others in community so that we can help each other see past our blind spots, so that we can name God’s activity for each other in really important ways.

Without listening to Christ, without our intention to do that in a variety of ways, we cannot be the church God intends for us to be.

Read with me the third line of our vision statement. (changing in the Spirit)

The greatest hope and the greatest warning for us as a church may be that it is only God who can truly change who we are as people.

More than accomplishing a list of good deeds, or having good intentions, or doing good things, following Jesus is about God’s forgiveness and power truly re-creating us, truly changing us, conforming us to the image of his son Jesus Christ.

Our greatest hope is that because Jesus died and was brought back to life, we can experience an actual change in how we act and feel as people.

The early church showed that change so vividly! Peter, who a couple of months before denied he even knew who Jesus was, now boldly shouts out in Jerusalem the hope of forgiveness through Jesus and the need for repentance. People are shouting praises to God in languages they don’t know.

In verse 43, “Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.” They turn into people who give freely to those in need!

These kinds of things don’t happen just because we have the right plan. They don’t happen because we summon up our willpower or print a really cool brochure.

These ONLY happen when the living and powerful Spirit of God grabs a hold of us and changes us from the inside out!

Have you thought about how radical these words are that we have in front of us each week? We want to be people who are changed, healed, shaken, and re-directed by God’s Holy Spirit!

We want to go beyond being a good organization or a healthy church. We want to set the world on fire because we ourselves have been healed and set on fire by God’s Holy Spirit!!

Those of you who have been around for awhile may have noticed that I’ve spoken many times about our need to reach out, to serve, to make a difference in our world. And that is completely and totally true.

But I never mean that to be separated from the whole picture of our vision statement. I never mean that to take the place of our tremendous need to be changed by God’s Holy Spirit, to be forgiven and reconciled and re-born and re-created constantly and consistently by Jesus Christ.

Our last line of the vision statement is “Living Out Love.”

And it truly is the result of the other three lines. Our service, our activity of loving and serving our community and our world come out of our listening to Christ and being changed by the Holy Spirit.

That’s what happened in the early church, in one big, self-perpetuating cycle. The community grew, they listened to Christ, they were changed by the Spirit, and they lived out love. And that led to the community growing, and the cycle started all over again.

This cycle we see in the early church is our vision and our goal for Newberg Friends. The whole vision, all four lines of the statement, are woven together and cycle together.

God’s power and God’s power alone makes that cycle turn over. We have lots of power to block it, to stop it, to keep the cycle from moving forward. But we have no power to make it actually happen. Only God, only Jesus can make our vision a reality.

Our vision as a community is simply a reminder to place ourselves in God’s hands so that God’s power can be released in us.

I may be guilty of not saying that clearly enough over the last few years, and I want to be sure to correct that in the year ahead.

We do want to be a growing community, listening to Christ, changing in the Spirit, living out love. But it is only God who can make us that kind of a church. It is only God who can truly enable us to reach out to our community. We are utterly and completely dependent upon God’s touch on us as a community and us as individuals.

I think, though, that God is MORE than willing to pour out his Spirit on us!

I’m beginning to think of the vision statement like I think of spiritual disciplines. What am I tangibly doing as an individual to give God the opportunity to work in my life?

We’re going to take a little break from the teaching component of worship.

After worship in giving this morning, I’ll be asking us to help each other live out our vision. If this is who we say we want to be as a community, then we need to find ways as individuals to live out this vision as well.

How can each of us choose to put ourselves in a place for God to change us, heal us, and use us?

I’ll ask us to share with each other some practical ways to make each line of the vision statement a part of our lives. What ways can we experience a growing community? What are some practical steps to help us listen to Christ? How, tangibly, have you put yourself in places to allow God’s Spirit to change you? And how have you lived out love?

Let’s ask God for wisdom. Let’s ask God to speak to us and to help us teach each other.

[prayer]

Worship in Giving

Sharing

Take each statement one at a time. How do we put ourselves in position for God to work in each one?

In order to not block what God wants to do, in order to give God the opportunity to make the cycle of this vision move forward, I think it’s important for each of us to intentionally pursue each line of the vision statement. Not to do it under our own power; but simply to recognize that being too focused on one or two of the items is one of the ways we block God’s power from keeping the whole cycle moving forward.

Message, conclusion

At the risk of copying JFK, I want to conclude today by saying this:

Ask not how the church can live out this vision statement for you, but how you can live out this vision statement in your life!

That’s sort of a “well, duh!” way of saying that the only way our community, our church, will be able to be who God is calling us to be is for each of us as individuals to allow God to change us.

Our job as pastors is to equip God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. We work hard to provide opportunities for each one of the lines of our vision statement to happen.

But I think what’s most important is that each of us lives out each of these lines in some way…and that doesn’t mean all of them have to be an officially church sponsored function. Everyone needs to be a part of a growing community, but perhaps that isn’t an official NFC small group. Maybe it’s just some friends who meet for lunch. Everyone needs to listen to Christ, whether in a listening life group or on your own at home, etc.

As each of us asks the question, “What am I intentionally doing to build community? To listen to Christ? To be changed by the Spirit? To live out Love?” we give God the opportunity to shape us into the people and the community he intends for us to be.

This isn’t about building “Newberg Friends Church, the Brand.” It’s about becoming the body of Christ as we are meant to be.

I also want to share a leading I have had.

I’m still deeply committed to outreach. I’m still deeply committed to all four of the lines of this vision statement and how they work together.

But I’ve been feeling God’s prompting to emphasize the middle two, listening to Christ and Changing in the Spirit in 2007.

God calls us to be both/and Christians: BOTH saved and changed by Jesus AND serving our world, not either/or. I’ve spent a lot of time emphasizing serving and reaching out as God has led, and now it seems important to remind us of the internal life, loving and being loved by Jesus. It’s the heart of it all.