Vision Sunday

Phil Qualls
Senior Pastor

This past Sunday we looked at 3 core values for our church that are biblical and simple. Gather. Grow. Go. I conducted an experiment last week: Did you know my 3 year old grandchild can remember Gather, Grow, Go and a senior adult, an elder statesman, can remember it as well? It’s simple and clear and describes the three dimensions in our lives that can make us an active and dynamic fellowship which God uses to impact our community.

Isaiah wrote that our desire as believers should be God’s name and his renown. The focus should be on him and when we gather to worship and to study his word our worship should be about his name and his renown. When that happens there will be a transformation in our gatherings! We will hunger and thirst for more of God! Can you imagine what it would be like if we gathered together on Sunday mornings and sought after him with all of our hearts and our souls? If our desire as the body of Christ when we gathered was for God to be glorified? There’s no telling what could happen!

As a fellowship we need to understand the significance of gathering. That when we gather rightly we then desire what God desires for the church. In Ephesians 5 God tells us that his desire for the church is that she would be spotless and holy. And he has given us the Holy Spirit to help us grow. As we study and teach God’s word our lives become transformed and we take our eyes off of ourselves and fix our eyes on Christ. Not only that, but we begin to love one another as a fellowship and community. Can you imagine what it would be like to be a part of a local church filled with believers that put others’ interests above our own?

Finally, we respond to God’s desire for the lost. Personally. Not just intellectually. God isn’t willing that any should perish, but that all should come to salvation. Can you imagine a body of believers with that kind of passion? We are privileged to be God’s representatives or ambassadors. We get to love our neighbors and associates. That’s what it means to go! To reach out to the nations and to our neighbors. To plant churches and to see those churches plant churches.

We’ve been able to be involved with church planting in New Hampshire, Fuquay Varina and Holly Springs. And that’s just a beginning! We’ve gone to Mexico, Ukraine, India and are excited to partner with IMB in reaching a city in East Asia in the coming years.

Would you be willing for a few weeks to trust God and to go on a journey with us? Ask God to speak to you and imagine what God can do through our church if we all lived three dimensionally! Gather. Grow Go.