As we unpack our next 3 years’ vision, let us see what vision is all about. Andy Stanley says, “Vision is a clear mental picture of what could be fueled by the conviction that it should be.”
So what do we see?We see CityLife as a church who encounter God and discover His purpose for our lives. We see a church where disciples of Jesus Christ are developed, activated and multiplied. We see a creative church, a faith-filled people who creatively communicate the timeless truth of the Gospel to allow people to encounter and respond to God.Through this journey of encounter, growth and investment in others, we see a church of increasing influence across communities, cities and nations. We see a church who set “no limits” on what God can do through us – we are CityLife Church!These will be our 4 focus areas, but today we will focus on:
ENCOUNTER Read Nehemiah 1:1-6
As we read this passage we can clearly see that it was revelation from God, encounter with God, that made Nehemiah to weep, fast and pray. Out of this experience came a change. We all need encounter with God and God wants to touch every person. We can see many examples of divine encounters and how it changed people’s lives, just remember Zacchaeus, blind man at the Jerico, a paralysed man brought to Jesus.
So we want expectantly pursue an increase in the life and activity of the Holy Spirit so that we are built and transformed in our discipleship journey through faith-filled experiences of God’s presence, grace and power. And we will expect God’s unlimited power to move in our lives and lives of our relatives and friends. We will see no less than:
• 750 First Time Commitments
• 900 Water Baptisms
• 900 Holy Spirit Baptisms
• Life Group Involvement – more than 65%
We cannot do it without prayer and fasting. Mark Batterson says
“Prayer doesn’t bend Gods ear it touches His heart.” So, we believe that establishing a good rhythm of prayer and fasting will bring up the spiritual temperature and raise up a level of expectation of what God can do. So next three years we going to have:
• Church-wide 21 days of Prayer & Fasting (March)
• 1 day a month Church-wide prayer and fasting focused around specific themes
• Establish 40 Prayer focus groups
DEVELOP“Potential is God’s gift to us what we do with it is our gift to God” Mark Batterson
Nehemiah, after encountering God, realized that to accomplish his vision of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, he has all these building stones. Although the wall was destroyed but the same stones could be used again. He had to bring some extra force, but mostly it was done from within, from what they already had.
As you read the passage, you can see that the main idea is not in God’s gracious hand but about US doing it together: “let us rebuild”, “let us start rebuilding”, “so they began”.
We can achieve what God wants to do in and through this church only together. We will inspire a new commitment to be disciples who make disciples. We will provide new training and equipping opportunities to enable people to develop their character and capacity, and to release their potential.
We have developed the spiritual health check that you can do together as a group and realise what is the next step on your development pathway God wants you to take.
Discussion Questions 1. What other encounters of people with God in the Bible you can think of?
2. Please share your personal experience of encounter and how did it change you or your circumstances?
3. Participate in a Spiritual Health Check on citylife.church/survey
4. Make a decision of your next step and share it with the group to be accountable.
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