Dwight's message was a stand-alone (not a part of a series). It was called Present Future. He talked about the mission and vision of NewPointe and it was scud-a-licious. Scuds were flyin' all over the place with several people taking a direct hit. Are you ready to read some of them? Here they are:
- What could God do through you if you were totally surrendered to him?
- What could God do through NewPointe if we were all completely surrendered to him?
- Why do you want to be healed? To pursue the American dream? To see your kids grow up? That's not a good enough reason.
- The reason we should ask God to heal us is so that we can fulfill our mission here on earth.
- Our mission? To lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
- Jesus didn't wait for people to come to him...he went to them.
- The church has become so inward focused that we've forgotten what we're supposed to be doing.
- Why don't we have adult Sunday School at NewPointe? It's because you don't need to come and sit in yet another room and listen to yet another lesson. We're kicking you out to serve.
- 'Church shopper' says this: "We're looking for a church that meets our needs." Do you see how incredibly selfish that statement is?
- The church does not exist for you. We are the church and we exist for the benefit of those outside the church.
- If you don't want to be a part of a church that's growing and leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ then you have my permission to leave.
- Jesus Christ was never marginalized. You either loved him or hated him but you couldn't ignore him.
- Most people think 'going deep' means acquiring more knowledge. No...going deep means becoming more like Christ.
Dwight gave us three things that we can count on happening at NewPointe in 2008:
- We're going to break the rules
- We're going to believe God for the impossible
- We're going to redefine "deep"
He concluded by sharing some church wide goals that we've set for the next two years. By the end of 2008 we want to:
- average at least 3,000 in weekend attendance
- have at least 300 small groups
- see 1,500 people serving regularly each week
- send 500 people on work/mission teams
- help 1,000 people complete FPU and/or Crown
- Determine locations and start two satellite churches
Impossible? Yeah...apart from God.
3 comments:
Goals for 2008 sound great and are very noble. Should we not set a goal on how many people we would like to see accept Jesus as their personal Savior?
Paul, great question.
People accepting Christ is THE number one goal. That's why we do what we do. The other goals are mile-markers that help us know we're making progress toward that goal. The difficult thing with setting a goal for conversions is actually tracking it. We rely on stories and baptisms to demonstrate how God has changed lives. Since our approach is to take the weirdness out of attending and accepting Christ, short of asking people to come forward, raise thier hands, sign a card, etc., it's just tough to track. But rest assured, it's THE goal. It's why we do what we do. The others are there to aid in the process...and they're easier for us to track.
We have the same goals this year...not conversions numbers...while we want lots, but small groups, baptisms, more leaders, etc. Those things show real change in people.
We're almost afraid to put a number on conversions....we may stop as a church if we reach it.
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