Vision Sunday
‘THE PURPOSE OF CROSSROADS CHURCH’
Albert Lea, MN
Vision Sunday Introduction
March 27, 2011
‘The Purpose of Crossroads Church is to prayerfully introduce people to Jesus, grow them to be like Jesus, care for others, minister to others, and to glorify God.’
The service is very different today. It’s our Vision Sunday.
We want to sharpen our focus of our vision to help you see clearly where we are going as Crossroads Church, according to God’s Word and our faith.
So fasten your seatbelts for an exciting ride.
1. A remarkable feature of this Purpose Statement is Crossroads’ focus on others. The emphasis on “people” and “others” and the conspicuous absence of a focus on “ourselves” declares that Crossroads exists for others.
William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1940’s, said, ‘The Christian Church is the only cooperative society that exists for the benefit of nonmembers.’
If people want a church just to satisfy their religious tastes, Crossroads is not the church for them.
2. “Prayerfully introduce.”
We recognize right up front that we cannot effectively introduce people to Jesus Christ as Savior by our own persuasive abilities or charm.
Jesus quoted the prophecy of Isaiah about people’s spiritual deafness and blindness: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.’ (Matthew 13:14)
We cannot open spiritually blind eyes or unstop spiritually deaf ears to see and hear the truth about Jesus Christ. This is why we pray.
Alfred Lord Tennyson said, ‘More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.’
We depend on the power of prayer to reach people with the truth of God’s love to a lost world through Jesus Christ.
3. It’s not enough just to introduce people to Jesus Christ. We grow them to be like Jesus.
We must make sure that people grow to be like Jesus here.
The Apostle Paul explained how this is done: ‘We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching every one with all wisdom so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.’ (Colossians 1:28) The word “perfect” is teleios in the original text. It means “mature, complete. That’s what it means to grow to be like Jesus. That’s our purpose.
4. Our purpose as a church includes a commitment to care for others, minister to others.
The Bible is chock-full of commands to Christ’s people to excel in this. In the letter of James in the NT we read this, ‘Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.’ (James 2:15-17)
Crossroads Church has a reputation of a ministry of compassion in the Albert Lea region and among the nations. Our vision sees this ministry growing larger.
5. The apex of our purpose as Crossroads is to glorify God.
When we speak about the glory of God we mean his incomparable excellence, his perfection, and his awesome majesty. In heaven where God is worshiped by the angelic beings his glory refers to the radiance of his being.
The Prophet Isaiah wrote of his vision of the Lord God being worshiped by the seraphim in heaven, ‘And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”’ (Isaiah 6:3)
When we say that our purpose is to glorify God we mean that by our words and our actions—with all we are and have—our goal is to honor God.
· Crossroads exists for others. In reaching out to others we glorify our awesome God and Savior.
‘The Purpose of Crossroads Church is to prayerfully introduce people to Jesus, grow them to be like Jesus, care for others, minister to others, and to glorify God.’
This is the engine that drives our ministries as a church. This is the lens that clarifies our vision.