Notes from New Life’s Partners Vision Night – March 30th 2017

The following is a transcript of the message shared by me at New Life’s Partners Vision night on March 30th 2017. This video is available on youtube – but there’s something about having a written version – so here it is in full.

God Bless

 

Partnership Meeting – March 30th 2017

Church Vision presented by Pastor Luke Taylor

Vision Of the Local Church

I’d like to start by looking at our Church’s Vision and Mission Statement. Because everything we do is tied into these things. They describe who we are and what we do.

Any vision we have refers to these.

Our Mission is to:

Go and make disciples of all in Teesside, the surrounding area (and of course the nations), baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that Jesus has commanded us. We must go in the power of His Holy Spirit just as He promised that He is with us always, to the end of the age.

(Taken from Matthew 28:19,20)

This is what we are about at a church. We are here to reach the lost – to disciple people and teach them obedience to all Jesus commanded.

We are to pursue The Holy Spirit and His power and presence.

We don’t look to save without discipling – because that just creates weak Christians who don’t follow anything Jesus commanded – because they’ve never been taught it. People who don’t know what they’ve received when they were saved.

You end up with people who think they are saved, when they are not – or people who think they are not, when they are. Either way – somethings not working.

We also don’t look to disciple without saving – that makes a church insular and ineffective.

And we do it all chasing His presence and in His power and authority.

Our Vision:

2 Peter 3:9 says: The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Therefore it is our Vision that none in Teesside and the surrounding area should perish, but that every man woman and child shall come to repentance and faith in Jesus. Through preaching the gospel and working with other Christians in the area, it is our heartfelt desire to see this goal realised.

God’s desire is EVERYONE. Therefore our vision has to be for everyone. Anything else is aiming too low. We don’t want any person in Teesside to perish.

Everything I will be sharing is to further these aims. To reach the lost – to disciple people.

Reaching and teaching. Sowing and Growing.

Amos 3:7

“For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.

When God is wanting us to do something – he tells us. He speaks to His servants.

Amos was a prophet and he was communicating to people that his message was from God – that God is not silent about His plans – that He communicates them.

He did to His prophets, He did to the Apostles and He continues to do so through those with whom He can given the care of His church to.

This is a good thing. He doesn’t make us guess what He wants. He tells us.

That’s where Vision comes from, prayer, hearing from God as to where we are going. As leaders of the church we are responsible to take time to pray, listen and look for God’s leading for our direction.

We don’t get it from management books – or at least we shouldn’t. We don’t get it from good ideas – or at least we shouldn’t.

A church should never base it’s vision on a leadership book or copying a strategy from another church.

They may be good to read to gather ideas and learn from others – but they cannot be the source of vision.

That’s vision from the flesh.

We get it from time with God.

We don’t get the whole picture – but as we obey He continues to lead and reveal.

And there’s times that requires a step of faith when the whole picture has still not been revealed.

I want to share where I believe the Lord is leading us as New Life Church and the step of faith we are going to take.

What I want to share – I’ve certainly questioned myself a lot on. Is this something God is saying, or something others are saying? And it’s good to question, because you look for answers.

I only want to follow God’s will and that means I have to be diligent to find out what that is.

Please note as we go through this, it is not my intention to be negative about any other church or any church model. The question is not what has God said to another church, or group of churches. But what is God saying to New Life?

I believe Local church should be local.

Why? A Local church impacts it’s community. A local church is easy to invite to. A local church is part of the town, not disconnected from it.

A local church is a place that you feel a real part of, rather than a visitor to an event.

A local church is embedded rather than detached.

Mega churches may have their place. In large cities they make sense.

But in Teesside they do not. We cannot try to take the city model and apply it to our towns and our area.

I do have concerns on the large church model:

In a large church, people can very easily become attenders rather than active members.

The aim of building a community has to be the opposite of that, where the aim is for everyone to contribute and be active.

A large church draws people from a wide area – it becomes a consumer choice than God placing you in a church.

Instead of looking at where God has placed you, you end up making a choice based on your needs and preferences.

John Bevere struck a chord with me when he said that “you don’t get to choose your church” and I think there is a lot of truth to this. 

For me to go to a city church, well it’s not local to me and moves me outside of my community.

I understand there are many of us, who are part of New Life who travel to be here.

This is not a criticism of you doing that, but it brings to me the question…

How can we look to be more local to you?

The City church model does work very well in its environment, but I am convinced that there must be another way for local churches to operate.

Whilst big youth based churches are a great thing to have, they can leave older people feeling like they are not a part of it.

Church is community and it must strive to be as multi generational as possible. Church is family and local church is a family church.

Church is not a meeting, or an organisation, or a business, or a club although at times it does look like all of these things.

Church is the physical body of Christ on earth, living through his followers. Church is all about people, if it’s anything.

And the main elements of Church are about how it relates to people and how its people relate to God.

I believe that aiming for New Life to be a Mega Church in the traditional view is not what God wants for us.

Please understand my heart on this. It’s not a lack of vision for growth.

Sometimes when you say “I don’t want to be a mega church” it sounds like saying “I don’t want us to grow”. Not the case.

I believe New Life Church Teesside is going to grow and will continue doing so more and more.

I believe that we will reach every area around Teesside and the surroundings and that we have good reason to see this growth – we have something good with New Life.

We have something as a church worth seeing spread. I believe we shall see the lost coming to God in great numbers. If I didn’t believe that I wouldn’t be here.

But I believe the way to do that is not through trying to fill one building with thousands of people.

Because even that barely makes a dent on the area and becomes a magnet for Christians to travel to rather than a force for change locally.

It makes church an experience instead of a community.

Here is the way we need to think: 

“More not Huge” – the way to grow.

I don’t see 1,000 under on big roof – but 1,000s reaching out locally – worshipping locally – making an impact locally, but doing it united as New Life Church, Teesside – one vision, one mission and one body.

One oversight – not separate – One Church – but local around the area.

Not extension services – but locally planted congregations or assemblies impacting their towns. That is how I believe we, as New Life will grow and increase our impact right throughout Teesside.

Luke 14:28

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

We know where God is leading, but we sit down and work it out – look at the process and what it will take.

Let me present to you the plan. This is not a plan for HOW we grow, but what we grow into and the way we best use that growth to reach Teesside. The HOW – well that’s the great commission and taking it seriously.

Also bear in mind:

Prov 16:9

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.

We can plan and we can do it according to what we are hearing God saying – but ultimately God establishes our steps and if we need to change the plan because God leads another way, we do so.

But here is the plan laid upon my heart:

• Each town reaches out where it is. Through members personal evangelism and Life groups and any way we can. Where you live – you seek to reach.
• Our monthly outreaches will take place in different places throughout the year. The Life Groups will be organising outreach nights in the town in which they are based.
• If the great commission is important to us as individuals then wherever we have people we will see growth – that’s a given.
• Growth is not the aim – reaching the lost is the aim, but when we reach the lost successfully we grow.
• As a group of believers form in an area – we look to ask if a work or an assembly can be established in that place.
• We’d be looking for 15-20 people in an area committed to serving a work there.
• Without that, nothing will take place (unless the Lord leads that way – in fact you can apply that to everything I am going to share).
• 15-20 people. That’s probably 2 good sized life groups operating in that area.
• As well as that we need a key person – a person who will Pastor the work. You may have the group but not the overseer – then it won’t work.
• There needs to be someone, chosen by the leadership – that will be the gift ministry in that work.
• If we don’t have the right person, the work doesn’t start yet.
• Although can I stress, where there are believers reaching out in an area there IS a work going on… if not in the sense of establishing a formal assembly – there is WORK happening and that is GOOD.
• Even when we have this person – I need to feel it’s God’s time to start. Until then, nothing will happen.
• Seaton Carew is a great example of this. We started with Pastor Cliff wanting to see something established in Hartlepool. As a leadership we agreed it was right and he gathered a group of people to establish this with him.
• Then, as we did with Seaton we’d establish that group for prayer. They will meet regularly as a group – in the area in which the plant intends to be – and prepare and pray.
• When the time is right – this group launches out on a Sunday night and starts to build. For Seaton this took 9 months. But who knows how long it will take each time? It must be allowed to develop naturally.
• I’m not going to say this is when a church is planted – because that happens when a bunch of believers get together – that initial group… that’s church. But at this point a congregation gets planted.
• They start to meet on a Sunday night and come to Billingham on a morning. That connection with the morning meeting is extremely important in this stage.
• It keeps the growing work fed. It connects those who get saved in this early stage connected to the wider body.
• That connection is vital. Of course, you won’t get everyone coming on a morning, much as I’d like to see that – I know that won’t happen. But it’s vital that we build it into people’s mindsets from the off and continue to keep it as the desirable thing to happen.
• We then look for it to grow. In time it establishes it’s own prayer meeting, it’s own work reaching out into it’s area. It builds up a group of local believers.
• In time other things will develop. It will establish a Sunday morning – it will establish youth work, outreach to the community – it becomes a part of it’s local community.
• It doesn’t stop being part of New Life, but it develops.

Healthy things grow. Also, by that logic, if there is no growth we must never be afraid to step back and prune if need be.

How long does this take? Who knows? it will be different each time – but we are talking in terms of years.

But I am convinced this is the way God wants us to grow and to build something that is not a mega church but a locally effective church. Strongly rooted throughout the area.

One that will differ in each location to meet the needs of it’s community but is united in purpose and vision.

Not small congregations – this isn’t an excuse to be small, but a couple of hundred here, a couple of hundred there. Leading to several hundred here and several hundred there.

With the same mission – every man, woman and child in the area.

Saying this…. and doing this…. well saying it doesn’t mean anything without doing it.

In every step of faith there is an ouch moment. The “are you sure” moment. It wouldn’t be faith without those moments.

That’s when you have to get out of the boat.

Stockton Launch

And we have reached one of those steps of faith moments now. Let’s just start with a little background:

In 2008 we came into partnership with a church in Ragworth, Stockton. We had many ups and downs in those early days – relocating out of Ragworth into Elmtree Community centre two years later in 2010.

    

We then found and by God’s grace successfully purchased the building on Parliament Street for an excellent price.

And on the 1st September 2013 we had out first meeting in our new building.

We have been building the Stockton work for 9 years now. 

There are some things that never happen until you set a date. It’s like when you are engaged…. until you set the wedding date you are not really heading towards marriage in a practical sense.

I felt God gave me a word when considering all of this:

Acts 8:1-3

And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.  Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.  But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

When I first read it, I really felt God saying – don’t be like the early church. It took me a while to get this… because we all want to be more like the early church, surely?

But I think there was something amiss…

Acts 1:8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Then in acts 8 we hear that the persecution scattered the church throughout Judea and Samaria – the first two places Jesus said they’d take the gospel after Jerusalem.

As for the ends of the earth – well it’s not until later that we see the first Gentile convert.

We are probably looking at 4-5 years before they started going to Judea and Sumaria – then another 5 years before the first gentile converts and the outer ends of the earth comes into focus.

The council of Jerusalem where they finally discussed Gentiles coming into the Kingdom and what law applied to them was not for another 10 years after that!

4-5 years before they first go. And it comes through persecution. 

And it jumped out at me – do you think it was always God’s plan to use persecution to get them to go? No. I don’t.

I don’t think persecution was God’s preferred method of getting the gospel out. They had been seeing great growth for nearly 5 years – and they had still not gone out.

When God tells us to go – we need to go.

If we don’t His plan won’t be altered – but maybe it comes about in a more painful way than it could have.

I don’t think God wanted to use persecution to make them go – but that’s what it took.

And here’s something amazing – he used Saul to do it!

Saul – a man who was an enemy of God a man who one day would advance the cause of the church – is doing that very thing here!

God is using Saul before He’s even saved to get the church to go! Whilst we were still enemies, Christ died for us! And Christ can still use us to benefit His church! Amazing!

The schemes of those who are against us… God can use them to further His church.

Anyway – the question kept coming to me. Why had they not gone? Why did it have to happen this way? What held them back?

They were not the disobedient types. They were not lazy. They were doing great things for God. Why had they not gone? And you know what? I can think of loads of reasons.

They didn’t want to spoil what God was doing at that moment. They were not ready yet. They wanted to get some more momentum behind them… lots of very good reasons.

But I believe they should have gone already. Before the persecution.

What’s the big deal, we may ask. It was only 5 years. Good things take time.

I can’t get away from thinking they went too late. That God didn’t originally want it to happen through the dispersion.

There is a lesson we need to learn – not just  for the church but in our own walks:

If you focus only on maintaining what you have, you’ll not step into what you should be claiming. In fact – you need to risk what you have to move forward.

When God wants you to go – you will go. It can be at the right time in the right way, or it can be delayed and be more painful. But you’ll still go.

I personally think, that they’d delayed. And without the persecution God knew they’d find other reasons to delay.

And I believed God has said to us, it’s time to go.

It’s time to take a step of faith. Even if we don’t feel ready – even if we have 100s of reasons not to, it’s time to step out.

So… lets do that:

• This August, September, October and November – Stockton will have, once a month – a morning meeting. They will be in the first Sundays of those months.
• 6th August, 3rd September, 1st October, 5th November, 3rd December.
• In December they will meet 3 more times as we celebrate Christmas – so also on  17th December for a Carol service,  24th December Christmas Eve special and New Years Eve – 31st December.
• Then in January we will officially launch Stockton into weekly morning meetings – starting on the 14th January.

This will mark the first time we have taken this step and launched a new morning meeting. I thank God for all the work that He has been doing in Stockton and I’m very excited to see where He is going to take us.

This is a huge step. It’s an important step. And if this is the future of how we grow; a step we need to take. Even when it’s an “ouch” moment.

How is this going to look? Well first let me emphasise something very important:

• This is not a parting of the ways in any way, shape or form. Don’t think that it is.
• This is not about separation or disunity as a body – this is about facilitating healthy growth. This is about building the Kingdom more effectively.
• This is something that I want to see happen more and more as the years go by.
• Stockton are still New Life. Still in the same vision and leadership.
• This is not about separation. This is about increasing our reach and capacity. This is about enlarging the place of the tent.
• On a morning they will be following the same Sermon Series as Billingham, with variations on topics at times but the same theme.
• The preaching team is the same preaching team – but they are going to be busier… please pray for us and pray God will increase us! We are essentially doubling the workload of the preaching team.
• The people who preach at Billingham will also be preaching at Stockton and visa versa.
• Every week in Stockton on a morning there will be communion, just as there is in Billingham.
• The meetings will take the same form as Billingham – Praise and Worship / Teaching / Communion.

All three of those are equally important. All 3 are essential components of our morning meetings.

Now what does that mean for unity? For the wider body and for you? Well, let me look at this step by step.

First, I’m asking you to commit to a location on a morning – either Billingham or Stockton. There may be the odd week that going to the other may be needed, but by and large please don’t ping pong between the two to fit your mood or the person preaching.

We aren’t planting to give you a choice of where to go, but to impact the local area.

Unite Meetings

What about unity and feeling part of the overall?

This is very important and something we cannot lose. We are one family. One church. One body. The Partners night we had last October was a great night – because it was ALL of us together. Just as tonight is.

Key to maintaining this unity will be this: On the first Sunday of every month, we will have what we will be calling our “Unite” Meetings.

On these weeks, there will be no other morning meetings – but one together.

To begin with it means that there will just be no meeting in Stockton, but as we grow that will apply to every other place too.

To begin with, everyone will meet in Billingham on those mornings. And in each location people need to understand that it’s not a morning off but a morning where we come together as one.

These Unite Meetings are key to maintaining our sense of unity and purpose together.

There will come a time, when as we grow this may not fit in our Billingham building. Won’t that be wonderful? Then we will meet somewhere big enough to accommodate everyone – like Billingham forum – or even somewhere bigger in time!

Our first Unite meeting will take place on the 7th January – the week before the official Stockton weekly launch.

It’s also one church partnership – you are not a member of Stockton, or Billingham, or Seaton – when you Partner you are a partner with new Life as a Whole. – so Partnership Events like this one we will also be together and crucial for unity.

That’s 14 times a year we all come together.

Stockton Life Group

As part of keeping together in one vision – when we start morning meetings in Stockton I’d like to see at least one, but ideally 2 Life Groups established out of our Stockton Congregation.

This will not take the place of the School of Ministry – that will continue, so the Life Groups may choose another night. The life Group leaders will of course be part of the same Life Group leaders training meetings that the rest are.

This is, or course dependant on finding the right people to lead these groups and the homes to have them in.

Billingham Launch

It’s easy sometimes for Billingham, as our hub and looking out to plant… well it’s easy sometimes to forget Billingham itself.

Around 9 years ago we stopped having an evening meeting in Billingham. For a number of reasons – one of which was a lack of attendance. The other was to help support the works in Stockton and Redcar.

Restarting it was always going to be a challenge. But for the last few years I’ve had a desire to see something happen here on a night too.

I’m delighted to say our youth team are currently putting a once a month youth meeting on, which will be a springboard to a family outreach meeting and to launch a regular Sunday night in Billingham.

We won’t take the youth meeting away, but build around it on the weeks they are not meeting. As for when – I’d like this to happen during the same time we transition into mornings at Stockton – so at some point between August and January.

Billingham is our base. Neglect the base and the tower topples. On a night we will be seeking to reach the local community with the good news.

On that note I’d also like to say – by the end of the year I’d also like to see Billingham Church move out of the family centre.

Where? I don’t know. And that’s partly why I’m saying I’d like to see, rather than The Lord Has Said.

There are a few options and I’ve asked some people to look into them. There are 3 specific ideas to follow up.

1. We thought the library was dead. But… recently there has been a slight hint of a pulse. It may be that there is an opening there where we can use the space without it cost anything like it would have to buy it. And that’s certainly worth looking into.
2. The old low grange building. How can this building be best used? Rather than knock it down and build something new – which is very expensive… – there is a way we could have a staggered expansion of this place. The land just behind the side wall is as big as this current hall.
3. Something else that we don’t know about yet.

  

I don’t know which one it is, but I know this year I really want to see some movement. It’s time.

And it doesn’t need to be a 1000 seater, because that’s not where we are heading – well, not in one place.

Incidentally there are some interesting talks going on right now over a permanent place in Seaton Carew – but it’s too early to share.

Summary

More places – not one huge place.

This is a structure and a plan for growth.

Will it work out as I see it? Well that’s in God’s hands. I’m just being obedient to what I believe He is saying.

When does a work get a Sunday morning meeting? Is it after 9 years? Is it at a certain number attending? No… Is it because people going want it? No… Is it when it gets a building and the people want to use it? No…

It’s when the vision and mission of reaching the lost and disciplining people is hindered by that meeting not being there. That’s the stage we’ve reaching with Stockton.

Everything is about seeing the vision and mission forwarded for the glory of God.

And that’s something we decide as a leadership – something that I, as senior leader have to agree to.

I am certain we will make mistakes along the way. But we must go when He says go. We must.

Will all future plants look like Stockton?

No – there’s been 9 years of development in that. I wasn’t the Pastor back then, so clearly anything that starts now is going to feel different to that – and that’s ok.

I want to see a replication of what God is doing here, because I believe it’s good.

And for some reason God is positioning us as a church. Not because we have something better than other churches – but I do believe we have something good that can make a difference.

I believe this is a church where we do not compromise the importance of the word of God.

As long as I have any say we will never preach little sermonettes or do life lessons or motivational speaking. The day we start tickling the ears…. we are done.

And this is a church where we believe in Spirit led worship – and the power and relevance of the Holy Spirit for today. The day we sideline the power of The Holy Spirit and His presence amongst us… we are done.

And we NEED to stick with that and see that in every place we plant. Word and Spirit.

There’s nothing new under the sun, but this is not a style of planting I’ve ever really come across. I’m sure someone is doing this, but this isn’t something we’ve taken from any place and tried to make our own. This is what I believe God is saying to us.

I know plenty of places that have campuses or extension services. That’s common. That’s not what we are doing. We are looking for churches that are indigenous, local and complete – yet connected and united.

Now that means we don’t have an example we can look to and get ideas from.

That means we have to trust the steps of faith and be prepared to get it wrong as we find our way. We don’t have an example to follow – we have to find the way.

I can see the destination. The route… the route we need to find. And that’s something God will reveal as we go.

But I believe this is the right structure for us and the right structure for Teesside. 

This is not about building an empire for new life – it’s about building the Kingdom of God. That’s the goal.

But this IS just a structure. Having a structure does not bring growth – but it allows us to channel it and cope with it.

Growth comes when the church get’s busy with it’s purpose. I’m sure most of the life groups have now done the 3 fold purpose of the church: Exalting the Lord, Edifying the Body, Reaching the lost. When we allow these things to be our focus, when God’s people get serious – growth comes.

A structure doesn’t do that. Getting serious about God does that. When the church gets right, deals with sin, prays, seeks God… that’s when revival hits.

That leads me to one last announcement:

Re:Vive Conference

On the 22nd – 24th September we will be having out own special conference weekend: The Re:Vive conference.

I don’t like the word conference, but for now I can’t think of a better one.

It will be like a weekend away, but we won’t be going away. That way everyone can afford it. 

So it’s like a retreat without retreating. Alan mentioned the other day at the leaders meeting – why do we call it a retreat? Surely we shouldn’t be retreating?

So it’s not a retreat – it’s an advance. Or a conference… I will find the right word.

That will take place in the local area – so that we don’t need to say anywhere overnight. Location TBD – where over the weekend we will worship together, have some focused teaching and break through as we head into this new season in the life of the church.

The cost will be announced soon, but it’s going to be cheap – we will just need to ensure we cover any venue hire and food that will be provided.

This will be a time for us to come together for a whole weekend – to worship, to grow, to be challenged. It will be open to people who don’t come to new life, but that’s not the focus. It’s for us.

It will be a great time of refreshing ready for the expansion and hard work to come.

These are exciting days. And as the Lord leads – let’s believe that we shall see Teesside Transformed!

I believe over these next few years we are going to see God do great things in New Life – we have been called to Teesside for such a time as this – and it is a huge privilege and a pleasure to run this race with you all.

He is good! His plans for us are good! HIs plans for New Life are good! And I cannot wait to see them unfold.