20/20 Vision for Lord of Life
Excerpts from Pastor Peter's April 17/18, 2010 sermon "20/20 Vision":

20/20 Vision. Why that name? The year 2020 is ten years away and 20/20 is not just good vision, it’s great vision. And greatness is what I desire for our church. We are a really good church. In all honesty we could probably coast along doing good ministry for the next ten years. But if you’re going to coast, you can only go downhill. The reason for a 20/20 vision for the next ten years is to move us from good to great…


What we have done is write seven ends policies for areas of ministry we believe are vital to our growth.


The FAITH FORMATION ends policy is the centerpiece of all the ends policies. If people of all ages don’t grow in their faith we will not only have failed in Faith Formation, but I think the other ends policies will fail too. But if we succeed in faith formation, I believe the sky’s the limit for Lord of Life. 

There is much that we do very well in this area but the REVEAL study we undertook last year showed that our spiritual practices are not at the level we want.

 


Watch Pastor Peter's entire 20/20 Vision sermon

That is why by 2020 we are going to work towards having our people engaging in hourly prayer, daily Bible reading, weekly worship and regular service.  Those are absolutely fundamental practices for the Christian life.


WORSHIP is the second ends policy and while we rated high here on the REVEAL study we can be so much better. I know many of you travel or have work commitments on the weekends, but I want to be clear that if you are in town you need to worship.


We also need to do a better job of making worship active and experiential.


Let me also say that we are going to continue to be Lutheran. While the music or other elements may change, we will make no apology about keeping our worship firmly in the Lutheran tradition.


CARING COMMUNITY is the third ends policy and it is more something you can feel, then something you can describe. We’ve got a great start on this one.  We’ve given out over 2400 prayer shawls. You cannot imagine the impact these shawls have on the recipient. But here is something we forget---you can’t imagine the impact a prayer shawl has on the person who makes it. They see themselves differently. That’s what service can do.


We currently have a great care minister program but this is the vision: that by 2020 we are ALL care ministers.


LEADERSHIP is a very important ends policy. Leadership development serves many purposes. It is good for the leader as they grow in their faith. It is good for Lord of Life in that all of our ends policies will need leaders if they are to be accomplished.


The OUTREACH ends policy relates to our activity beyond our church doors. It is inviting others to faith and it is serving others in Christ’s name. We are pretty good at this already with mission involvement close to home and all around the world. But we can do a lot more.


The CULTURE OF GENEROSITY is the sixth ends policy and this is again about an attitude. We are going to learn how to be more generous with our actions, our words, our time and YES more generous with our money. We live in a culture that is often self centered, but that is not the way of Christ. As a church we need to have an attitude of gratitude.


I have a vision of the day when we have all the money we need, to do all the mission we can see. 


Our final ends policy relates to CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT. We have 31 acres of land. We need more parking right now. We will also begin planning for a 20,000 square foot expansion for the north side of the building. We also have a vision for a chapel and finally for an expanded sanctuary and Fellowship Hall by 2020.


Our 20/20 vision has different components but it is firmly in the tradition of our 1978 Charter statement which reads in part: we are a community of people called together by God’s Holy Spirit who confess Christ as Lord. We will strive to educate, comfort, aid and spread the word of love in Christ’s name. We will be a serving church in the name of Him who came as servant of all. It is a GREAT vision. Now it’s time to go to work.