Getting the vision

From last time (Geoff’s sermon)

Nehemiah - • Waited• Mourned• Fasted• Prayed

(Nehemiah 1:4)

Do you believe God has a plan for you / us?

Rely on what you know of God• Character– ‘Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome

God...’– ‘...who keeps his covenant of love...’– ‘Great is your faithfulness’ (Lam 3:23)– constant despite our own ups and downs

• God wants to communicate– but we are still human– our own ideas and desires intrude– we put up blocks – that what sin is

Where does St James’ Taunton fit in?

Christianity:Knowing GOD personally

through Jesus Christ

As part of the Church in TauntonWe seek to know Christ better,and to make him better known

We do this through varied and lively worship,

learning to apply God’s word in the Bible, and being filled with his Holy Spirit

Five years ago...

In order to allow for growth, several things were needed:

Please could you just help

me?

Hey, we’ve got a great

idea!

Please could you just help

me?

Hey, we’ve got a great

idea!

Let me give you some of these and we’ll do it

together

• Sharing of oversight (‘episcopé’)– needing more people who realised they were

‘leaders’ and who were equipped accordingly• Growing Leaders course, involving lots of prayer and

discernment by the 35 who attended

– a look at the published church growth literature• a strategy group convened

– overseers / coordinators appointed• pastoral, administration, worship, teaching, children

and young people, outreach• and others within these fields

– people who could get things implemented

• or else the vicar is the one holding all the balloons, with no scope for more...

– overseers / coordinators appointed• pastoral, administration, worship, teaching, children

and young people, outreach• and others within these fields

– people who could get things implemented

• or else the vicar is the one holding all the balloons, with no scope for more...

Like Nehemiah, we need to• Wait– rather than rush into our own plans

• Mourn– for those who do not have a living faith in Christ

• Fast– God’s plans may involve us going without our

own pet schemes

• Pray– align our wills with God’s

Where might God want us in another five years’ time?

Some things we KNOW are God’s plans:• ‘Your kingdom come’• ‘Your will be done on earth...’• ‘Go and make disciples... teach...

baptise...’• ‘I have sent them into the world’• ‘You are the salt of the earth’• ‘You are the light of the world’

So his plan will involve us all

Individually and corporately

To be focussed outwards on those not yet part of God’s kingdom

Another Growing Leaders course?

Refine the structures to meet changing times?

Starting outside the ‘church’?

Please will you pray?

Exciting – God really does have a plan!

Believe it!

Hear his call for you personally as well as for his church

His plan will be for our own good as well as the growth of the Kingdom

Next time: how to discern what God’s vision entails...