Our Mission & Vision

Our Mission & Vision

(Preaching Outline)

1)      Biblical Mission and Vision

a)      We recently adopted a new mission and vision statement at LSCC.

b)      As a church, what is the mission and vision?  This is challenging.  I sometimes point out that it is fleshed out by all of scripture.

c)      What should we focus on?

d)      It seems reasonable to start with:  Matthew 28:18–20 (NASB) — 18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

e)      We could also focus in on Jesus: Matthew 4:23 (NKJV) — 23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.

i)        Paul would then be a disciple:  Acts 28:30–31 (NKJV) — 30 Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, 31 preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.

ii)      The Lord’s prayer is meant to be the driving passion of disciples:  Matthew 6:9–13 (NKJV) — 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

2)      The invasion of Christ’s kingdom or the escape of believers?

a)      Much of Torah is about things not conventionally seen as religious at all: labour relations, agriculture, welfare provisions, loans and debts, land ownership, and so on. It is not difficult to have an intense religious experience in the desert, or in a monastic retreat, or in an ashram. Most religions have holy places and holy people who live far removed from the stresses and strains of everyday life… But that is not the Jewish project, the Jewish mission. God wanted the Israelites to create a model society where human beings were not treated as slaves, where rulers were not worshipped as demigods, where human dignity was respected, where law was impartially administered to rich and poor alike, where no one was destitute, no one was abandoned to isolation, no one was above the law, and no realm of life was a morality-free zone. That requires a society, and a society needs a land. It requires an economy, an army, fields and flocks, labour and enterprise. All these, in Judaism, become ways of bringing the Shekhina into the shared spaces of our collective life.[1]

b)      1 Corinthians 1:18 (NKJV) — 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

i)        Jews seek a sign and Greeks wisdom.

3)      LSCC Mission & Vision

a)      Where we landed was on a mission and vision that gets to the heart of what we believe God is doing right now. 

b)      Vision: To restore human flourishing through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

c)      Mission: Becoming a community that restores the world by reproducing the life of Christ with imperfect people growing in grace and serving through the gift of the Spirit.

d)      Ephesians 4:15–16 (NASB) — 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

4)      What can you do to fulfill the mission and vision of LSCC?

a)      Nurture the Spirit and culture.

b)      Worship

c)      Pray

d)      Engage

i)        Maybe join the outreach committee.

ii)      Build Friendships

iii)    Reach out – the net.

e)      Own and live the vision and mission of the church.