Listen to Pastor Osborne's Vision for FBC

On Sunday night, January 8th, Pastor Osborne presented a vision for the future of Faith Baptist Church. He began by challenging us to focus on three incredibly important thoughts.

1. Do we really believe God is in control of the universe?
2. Do we really believe God truly loves us?
3. Do we really believe God will take care of us?

Listen to Pastor Osborne’s Vision for the Future of FBC.

Read more posts by Pastor Osborne:

• The Ox and His Dirty Stall
• A Specific Vision for Faith

A Specific Vision for Faith (by Pastor Osborne)

In my last article, we looked at Church Growth and God-Honoring Vision.  Today, I want to pick up where we left off.

So, what then is the vision for FBC?  What do we pray about and seek God's direction for in the next 10 years?

We seek to glorify God by building His church through preaching, teaching and exhorting the blood-bought devoted followers of Jesus Christ to passionately obey God's Word in every area of their lives.  We must be consciously aware that we are always in the presence of Holy God.  Every thought, word, action, attitude, and motive is open before God and will be judged by Him.  Living like that will cause both spiritual and numerical growth and God's church will be built according to His plan.

Faith's 100 & Faith Baptist Mission (FBM)
Under God's plan of the local church we believe God wants His church to impact even the remotest regions of the planet.  Faith Baptist Church attempts to follow that mandate through its Faith's 100 Mission Program and Faith Baptist Mission.  Faith Baptist Church will continue to send missionaries 100% supported all over the world. We will also assist other churches in sending missionaries through FBM.  As FBM grows it will require a President, a financial administrator, an administrative assistant, and a mission secretary.  The Mission accepts the responsibility of teaching churches how to be a genuine sending agent of the Gospel.

Christian Education
Every set of parents has to make a choice before God of how their children are to receive an education.  Some parents choose to homeschool and some choose to send their children to a Christian school.  I believe Faith Baptist Church can assist both groups by providing a Christian school from Pre-K through 12th grade which will challenge every student to reach for their intellectual potential while developing Godly character.  I believe God will give us the ability to put together a school that has the potential of hundreds of full-time campus students and thousands of homeschoolers and on-line students.  I believe we can put together a school that will compete with secular schools academically, artistically, and athletically.  With a strong financial foundation we can offer this service to families at affordable tuition rates and fees while at the same time paying our teachers well.  In order for us to stay focused we will not open the school without a financial foundation of at least one million dollars.

Seminary
The deepest form of discipleship is being trained in the Word of God at the highest levels.  I believe Faith Baptist Church can create a seminary with the brightest minds and deepest thinkers as its lead professors.  This seminary will have two tracks which include both academics and practical living.  The seminary will offer both higher degrees and certificates so any adult can strengthen themselves in God's Word.

Faith Village Tower
God has given us a property that will allow us to build an independent living facility for senior citizens.  We would offer a safe and beautiful place to live overlooking both Spirit Lake and Lake Sears.  The tower would offer seniors a church campus, Bible studies, fellowships, and a place to live out their retirement years.  They could continue to serve God and could create new friendships that in Christ will last forever.  The tower would be a non-profit organization under the ministry of Faith Baptist Church that would produce revenues for future ministries all over the world.

Faith Coffee Shop (FCS)
At the front of the campus on the corner of Crystal Beach Road and Highway 540 would be the Faith Coffee Shop.  It would offer quick and easy drive-through service.  FCS would serve the entire community, hire FBC people, and help fund Faith's 100 for years to come.  You can drive through or come inside and read your Bible, a book, the paper, or visit with a friend.  It would also house a large conference room for private meeting.

What does all of this look like?  On the 23 acre site across Crystal Beach Road on Spirit Lake we would see four buildings:  a new church auditorium, Faith Village Tower, the high school and seminary building, and the coffee shop.  Around the whole property is a walking path which would take you by the lake and through a quiet garden where anyone can come and commune with God.

If you want to hear more about this vision and see what it may look like in the years ahead then come to a vision service on Sunday night, January 8, 2012.  Pray, believing that God can do the impossible.

The Ox & His Dirty Stall (by Pastor Osborne)

Solomon wrote "Where there is no ox, the stall is clean." Clean stalls are great. They look good. They smell good. They can even become the pride of the builder and the envy of stall spectators. However, without the ox, not much work is going to be accomplished. There lies the problem. An ox in the stall is going to get messy and those messes have to be cleaned up. We cannot expect the ox to do it.

Church Growth
Church growth is measured in two areas. First, there is spiritual growth. As God's Word is preached, taught, and modeled to God's people and as God's people apply and practice what they are seeing and hearing from God's Word, spiritual growth is the result. Second, there is numerical growth. As God's people grow and become genuinely excited and passionate about their God and what they see Him doing in and through their lives - they cannot help but be attractive to many others who want God to do the same thing in their own lives. Numerical growth is the result.

People Make Messes
Everyone wants spiritual and numerical growth. But, when it happens, just like the ox in the stall, pastors in pulpits and people in pews make messes. All those messes have to be cleaned up and that takes time, effort, energy and a strong faith in our all-knowing God.

There are some in the church who say "I'm out of energy. We don't need anymore growth and we surely do not need anymore messes to clean up. Let's accept things as they are and settle down." There are others who simply 'like the way things are now,' and would say "we do not need any more changes." There are still others who are afraid of more people and the cost involved of facilitating those people and their spiritual growth. There are also those who want to move forward, reach as many people as they possibly can, and trust God for the wisdom and energy to clean up the messes.

Pastors and Churches
This is one reason why God gave Pastors to Churches. Pastors are to lead God's flock with biblical wisdom and articulate a vision that will guide the church to both spiritual and numerical growth. Pastors clean up the messes. They do all of this so that both the church and the community know that God is alive, working in the lives of people, and receiving all the credit for His work.

The central theme of the Bible is "God receives all the glory." Therefore, articulated and excited vision for the church is ultimately for God's glory. If it is for any other reason, then eventually it will be exposed as worthless human reasoning and that vision will collapse. That is not to say that God-honoring vision isn't redirected as time passes. Of course it is. That does not mean that God has changed, but our knowledge of what God is doing over a period of time does change, and we need to respond to that knowledge.

God-Honoring Vision
The question then becomes, "What is God-Honoring Vision?" To answer that question we will start with what it is not. God-honoring vision never emulates a man or a group of men. When an individual or group want to promote themselves or in some subtle way give themselves the credit for what God is doing - they must get ready for an eventual collapse. The greatest thing in all the world is to be a tool in the hand of God. However, we must consciously be aware that God does not need us to carry out His plan. His plan will be carried out with us or without us. I simply desire to be one of His sharp tools that He can use to do whatever He want - whether I like it or not. That is why God wants obedience to His word more than personal sacrifice. He receives all the glory.

So what then is the vision for Faith Baptist Church? What do we pray about and seek God's direction for in the next 10 years? Come back to the blog on Monday. I will try to break it down in bite-sized chunks.