Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 <silence>
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Well, good morning, V Church. Good morning. Good morning. All right, so, um, if you're new, even if you're new in the last year, I think this could be the perfect Sunday for you to be at. Uh, next Sunday we're gonna be jumping into Reju back into the book of Leviticus. Um, but one more week until that, um, what we're gonna do this morning is we're gonna have a pretty candid family discussion about the past, present, and the future of Village Church. And so some of you we're expecting Leviticus one more week. Um, but this is gonna be really, really important for us to, to talk about. So, uh, here, here's a, an image that shows you an overview of a church's lifecycle. And so I want you to notice that you have the, you have a launching, typically a grows, you'll have momentum and growth, and, and it gets you a place in a church's lifestyle or life stage, sorry, or cycle where you kinda have to make some decisions that are a little bit more challenging and, and you gotta steward some of that growth.
Speaker 1 00:01:04 And then typically what happens with any organization, with any human being, with any living organism, um, they end up moving over the curve. Uh, there's more maintenance, preservation, life support. And then what we find in America and all over the world is that churches die all the time. Now, one of the most interesting things about the lifecycle of a church is this right side of the bell curve. Uh, maintenance, preservation and life life support can happen for 30, 40 or 50 years before a church would actually close its door. Now, if you found yourself in the maintenance or the preservation or life support, are there ways to relaunch or restart the life cycle? And the answer of course, is absolutely, but no matter where you're at in that bell curve or the life cycle, it's typically gonna re require pretty significant decisions from, from the church.
Speaker 1 00:01:54 Now, here's what's interesting about lifecycles. Not always, but typically the lifecycle starts over when you have a new senior pastor. And so typically that is a big decision that tries to bring the bell curve back to launch momentum, sustained health, et cetera. So sustained health is one of the most dangerous places for a local church. I'm gonna tell you why, because it feels great. And what's interesting is that if you don't make some strategic decisions in sustained health, what comes next? Maintenance. Preservation, life support. And it is our impulse to preserve things the way they are if they feel good, right? And so, as, uh, leaders, we have to have like regular conversations. The moment something feels really good, we have to make sure that we're actually willing to do whatever it takes to make disciples, which is the mission of the church, say Menville church, right?
Speaker 1 00:02:57 So if something is inhibiting disciple making, are we willing to make shifts that allow us to actually facilitate that purpose? Now, the next image, uh, the next, uh, image looks at the lifecycle of a church, um, through the lens of human development. So you have birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, maturity, empty nest retirement, old age, death, same kind of thing. But, but this actually does, is it shows you that in each life stage, some of the strategic decisions that you have to make when you're in this life stage Village, church currently lives in this adolescent stage. Adolescence is really hard. How many of you would love, if you've been through this stage to go right back to the beginning of it, very few people, the body grows quickly, the growth is usually a bit awkward. Um, good things happen in growth, which is wonderful. But also if you ever notice, like there's some kids, like they leave school in like May, and they come back in, um, August or September, and their pants fit, but now they're capris, you know that.
Speaker 1 00:04:00 And you're like, oh, what, what happened? And all of a sudden you're like, oh, things are different. And, and in adolescence, identity reinforcement is vital, right? So if the church is an adolescence of local church, this local church is an adolescence of all the core values. We have our heart values, like we are a disciple making church, and we are a family. And, and no matter what happens is we get out of adolescence and then transition into adulthood. If we lose the essence of who we are, then, then we fail. We don't want to do that. And so identity reinforcement is one of the most things that you can do with an adolescent. Who are you? What is your last name? What are our family values? What is vital? What is non-negotiable? Now, when I was entering into adolescence, I'm not gonna show you any pictures of myself, but my mom sat down and she gave me this book.
Speaker 1 00:04:50 How many of you have ever heard of preparing for adolescence? And I'll never forget, I was in my bedroom. She gave it to me, and it was the beginning of a handful of very intentional conversations. She handled it wonderfully. And, and my response was like, mom, I'm not gonna read that book. And then the moment she left, I was like, ah, reading every single page. And I was like, yes, that is so helpful. Like, oh, that makes sense. I had three older brothers. I didn't know what things meant. I didn't know what I was experiencing. And, and so what you find is like good parents, good leaders, they coach you through adolescence because most people have never gone through adolescence, right? But most organizations have not gone through adolescence. Most local churches haven't gone through adolescence. And so processing and talking candidly about what are the things that are gonna happen, what does this actually mean?
Speaker 1 00:05:35 We, we need to buy you new pants. I know they're your favorite pants, but you're not allowed to wear Caprice to school. So we're gonna do something different, okay? So adolescence, it is a challenging for sure, but good and God ordained experience, it is a challenging, but good and God ordained experience. We, we don't use puberty blockers for adolescence. We walk into it because this is God's will for the growth of the human body. But we see that churches also have this, there are decisions, really strategic decisions that we can make or not make if we want to avoid the realities of adolescences. All right? Let's take a step back and, and what I wanna do is I just wanna talk through some v church statistics so you can kind of understand where we were, where we're at, where we're going, um, if you want to take notes on this, but this is gonna be a bit of information for you.
Speaker 1 00:06:33 But, um, I just want you all to be aware of this. So between 2010 and 2019, uh, we grew around no less than 19%, but around 20% every single year. Like some of the fastest growing churches in America are like 10, 12, 15%. But because we were much, much smaller, it, it didn't have that, but it was, it was like every year it's like, oh, who are you? Who are you? Who are you? And then we were able to bring in new staffing and new, new volunteer leaders and, and people serving in different places. And Village Church has handled it supremely well beyond anything I could have actually imagined. So if you came to this church anytime since 2010 and you were welcomed in, it was because we were talking through and coaching our body about how to be open and welcoming to whomever God might want to bring into this place. So 2018, we grew by 36%. It was a huge year. And, and, and typically, here's what happens when you grow your giving lags your growth by a year, every single year, our giving, we're always like, we need more money because it's grown. And so the giving lags by about a year, and then staffing can lag between one to two years as you catch up, save the money so you can afford to staff your church. So between 2020, you guys remember what happened then? Voldemort, <laugh> be you, I'll name it, COVID happened.
Speaker 1 00:08:10 It was really hard to measure, um, numerical growth just because it was all weird and challenging. But between 2020 and 2022, our budget, uh, almost doubled. Our staffing doubled. And we used that season to catch up. And, and I'll be honest, I was very curious when Covid was gonna be over, what was Village Church going to look like? Because what we did see in Covid is new faces all the time. But again, in those years, it's really hard to quantify and, and and to measure. And so one of the things that we also saw in Covid, and I praise God for this, there was no church split, a village church, um, the body and the leadership, like we had to make really hard decisions like all of you had to do in your personal lives. And yeah, there was a bit of tension, but we came outta Covid working through stuff without a major departure of people, and I think more unified church to body.
Speaker 1 00:09:07 And there was such an appreciation for the challenge of the decisions that we had to had to make, remember, like masking and this and closing and where do we all that stuff. Like your patience given the various views in this church was unbelievable. And when I would hear the horror stories of other churches, I I could just sit back and say, God, thank you for the patience, the kindness, the, the, the spirit of village church wanting to keep the main thing, the main thing as opposed to the secondary and tertiary things. It was beautiful to watch. And, and I just so, so appreciated it. Now, since January of 2023, we're kind of getting our bearings on things. And if you received an email from me about, hmm, six weeks ago, I think ish, you saw this stat in there, but since January of 2023, we're gonna call this the post covid era.
Speaker 1 00:09:57 We've grown by 30%. And you hear this, and that is January numbers compared to summer numbers. So typically what happens in a church is if you're in a season of growth, you go like this, and then summer plateaus or dips. What happened here is it went, and then summer went like this. So coming back into the fall, which is, this is kinda the first Sunday of fall, we're stepping back and we're like, we don't know what's coming, right? We don't actually know what's going on. So village kids, we need to just process this village kids. Uh, in, in, in August one week, they had over 180 kids nursery through fourth grade. There's a lot of kids, right? That is, that is actually like more kids bigger than the majority of churches in America. And that is just our children's ministry. And, and so I was told, do not preach another Song of Solomon series. Whatever you do, don't do that. So I'm like, not gonna do it to the chagrin of all of our young adults.
Speaker 1 00:11:00 Um, over the last year, our worship production teams, they've been parking offsite trying to make as much space as possible. Uh, a few of the weeks I wasn't preaching, I would come in and I would, um, look around the parking lot. And one week there was three open spots at the 9:00 AM in between the services. It was absolute insanity. And, and so here's kind of like where we're at. We are out of parking space, foyer space, sanctuary space, office space, v b s space, bathroom space. There is one male and female bathroom for all of you on a Sunday morning, f y i bathroom space, storage space, kitchen space, and introvert space, <laugh> facts. So we're, we're officially the kid whose pants turned into Capris over the summer, <laugh>. Now I wanna, I wanna pull back even these numbers a little bit more because, um, there are some really wonderful nuances in the numbers.
Speaker 1 00:11:54 So yes, people have moved from outta state into Illinois, and some have come to church because they moved. I wanna say, I'm sorry, but you know what? I do love the people, although the taxes are hard. So yes, some people have changed churches. And so the way we describe Covid, it's like if you take the majority of churches and Christians, you throw 'em all up into the air in the Chicago world where they're gonna land, we don't know, right? Um, and so the remarkable stability of those who call Village Church home, going into Covid, uh, if they have not moved outta state, the vast majority are still here. And there have been people from other churches coming, but this year has been a little bit different. We have seen more people who are newer to church, who are not Christians, searching newer to the Bible, newer to faith than we have ever seen before.
Speaker 1 00:12:47 And we have one of the most wonderful privileges to steward every one of those souls as a local church family. And I want you to hear something, okay? If you are in that category, number one, we were all there at one time, whether we were kids or we were adults, and we are indebted to the faithfulness of so many men, women, and students who walked with the Lord, created spaces for us to engage and transformed our life. So if you hear anything in this message that might even imply that you are an inconvenience, you are not. We love you. And because we have been the recipients of such kindness when we were young, spiritually, we wanna make sure that you are loved and cared forward. Well. Now, if Village Church is your home, can you just give me a hearty amen to that statement? Amen.
Speaker 1 00:13:42 Amen. So for those who do call Village Church your home, let's, let's talk. The rest of you just kind of eavesdrop a little bit, but we're gonna have some candid conversations. You and I, you don't get to choose what God asks you to steward, but you do get to choose whether or not you will steward it. Just let this sit for a minute. You, you and I don't get to choose how many talents, biblically speaking, not like what I'm good at. Biblical talents, the things that God asked us to steward. We don't get to choose what he gives us, but we do get to choose whether or not we are going to steward it. If we learn anything from the parable of the talents, here's what, here's what I've been learning, that God is determining now what he will give us later to steward. So it, it became, uh, clear to me these past three years that Jesus is not just watching our leadership, although I think he is just got a monocle on our leadership, watching.
Speaker 1 00:14:42 Will we have integrity every step of the way? Will we love, will we be transparent? All these things. He's not just watching our staffing. Are are we living above reproach and loving and serving and making disciples and facilitating environments where people can meet Jesus and grow and, and the saints are being equipped for, for the ministry. He's watching the entire body. He, he is testing regularly our body, will we steward the things that he gives us. And what we have seen over and over again is that V Church, I'm just honestly so proud of you. I'm so proud of our elders. I'm so proud of our staff and our church body because over the last three to four years, you don't see a ton of it. But the amount of unbelievable heartache and difficulty, transition, culture challenges we've had to face, and you have been unbelievable and amazing.
Speaker 1 00:15:32 And this is just me being maybe a little bit preferential, but if I were Jesus, I would look at this church and go, they're really trustworthy. The way you have stewarded the word of God, the way you have stewarded, shepherding, the way you've stewarded the gospel, the way you've stewarded community, the way you've stewarded this building, this is not a, an I thing, it's not a staff thing. It takes the whole church to make the whole church function. Amen. And so I, I'm looking at this next season, I'm like, God, our church has proven itself to be really, really faithful. But I, my my only ask is please don't give us more than we can handle because there are, there are limits. So about four years ago, our leadership felt a pretty significant burden to address some of these things. So we planned what we do annually or most years, uh, it's called our vision dinner.
Speaker 1 00:16:16 And we get everybody together and we talk about the vision of the church. And in 2020, in February, we were so excited because we were two days away from our vision dinner and we were gonna launch Village Church West. 'cause we have a Village church east in Carol Stream. And we had about 150 or 200 people coming from west of the Randall Corridor to a village church. And we were so excited because we wanted to launch us two days away. And we were also gonna start a capital campaign to kind of address some of the major challenges that we have in this facility. And we had to cancel it. It was one of the most disappointing two days of like, I think the whole decade.
Speaker 1 00:16:55 Now though, we live in a post covid world, everything has changed. I'm actually very grateful looking back that we didn't launch that only to have to pull back because the post covid world has changed everything. It, it, it has changed everything from church attendance, how and when and where people attend church planting, church engagement, tithes, offerings, fundraising, staffing, cultures, staff health, and so much more. So what I wanna do is a couple things this morning, um, this is not gonna be the most linear sermon on the planet. My goal is more to just bring you into the big conversations we're have having. Um, I wanna I wanna give you a paradigm of church engagement. I wanna open up Ephesians four, and then I'm gonna give you some really practical. So whats, so I wanna share with you this morning the three stages of church engagement.
Speaker 1 00:17:43 As we look at these stages, um, what I want you to do is I want you to just self-evaluate. I want you to look into your own heart. I want you to ask, God, where am I? And then, God, where do you want me to be in the season of, of life? And as we look at the three stages of engagement, none of them are necessarily bad. But there are a couple that if you live in them for too long, then they can not be the best. So, uh, the illustration that we want to use is we wanna use the metaphor of a traveler for the sake of illustration, we are all traveling to Paris, France together. Sound good? Anybody really wanna go to Paris? We're gonna go this morning. It's gonna be wonderful. Three of you raise your hands. Apparently there's something going on over there that makes us a little hesitant.
Speaker 1 00:18:22 All right? Stage number one, we're going to Paris. And stage number one is called the tourist. And the tourist is on vacation. You heard Paris was amazing. You saved your money, you took the risk. And, and, and here's a key indicator that you might be a tourist in your local church. You get 10 times more than you give. Someone usually cleans up after you, serves you, nothing is expected of you, but politeness. But even when you're not, people put up with it. There's a staff that is hired and trained to serve and help you with whatever you want within, within reason. So in the local church, people can stay tourists for far too long, three big reasons. People stay tourists, number one. Um, we, we found that many people actually just have a lack of basic training about the church. Why did God make the church?
Speaker 1 00:19:17 What's God's heart for the church? What is the mission of the church? Why is it vital? And, and and essential? Like, and so it, it's very striking that many people stay there because they don't know that it's not okay to stay a tourist for more than a little while. Uh, a second reason people say tourist is there's a lack of love for the church. Um, maybe the church you go to, uh, maybe the church you've been at, they, they've been largely uncompelling. You don't really see the point of it. You hear the point of it, but you don't actually see the fruit and how it's actually transforming people's lives. That's, that's actually very, very possible. Number three is a lack of healing from the church. Maybe the church you grew up in was just mean to you. Maybe there have been some Christians in your life that have been mean to you or just inappropriate. Or maybe you have some church hurt from church leadership. Disappointments. All of this can, can kind of freeze somebody, um, to being an indefinite tourist. And, and I think we would all agree that there is something that the local church is special enough and important enough that just being a distant tourist who flies in and flies out is probably not God's heart for you long term.
Speaker 1 00:20:26 Stage two is the renter. Paris was amazing. You went on a vacation, it was lovely, it have a job that's virtual and you're like, I think I'm gonna live there 'cause I can work from anywhere in the world. And, and one of the things you love is that it's, it's indefinite, but it's not permanent. Like you can get up and you can leave kind of at any time. It's an experience. And so you, you rent, you wanna keep your options open, but have the feeling and experience of permanence. So somebody asks you, where do you live? Paris, where do you go to church? Village church. But, but you're not all in, you know that. And, and you're trying to keep your options open. Here's a key indicator that you're, you're possibly the renter in renting. You get as much as you give. And, and don't get me wrong, like the renter gives, but not, not too much because renters don't overinvest and build equity for their landlord.
Speaker 1 00:21:20 And if anybody rents right, you're like, yeah, why would I fix something so that my landlord can profit off of it? And so you, you have this notion that it's not permanent. I'm not all in. I get it. And there are a handful of reasons that people stay renters. Uh, the first three that we saw on the tourist, for sure. But lemme add a fourth one. There's a lack of permanence in your life. Like you might be in college or getting your master's or doctorate, and you know that you're not gonna be in one place for very long, or, or you might be dating somebody who lives further away. And you're like, I know that we're gonna get engaged and move. And so why plant myself? Why give myself roots if I know that I'm actually not gonna stay in this place? And I, and I wanna just give you a little tip.
Speaker 1 00:21:59 Somebody taught me a long time ago, Michael, wherever you are, just be all there. Wherever you, you're here for a year. Just, just dig in, be faithful for a year. You're here for three years. Be faithful and dig in. Because what's interesting is the amount of times people think there'll be someplace for one to two years and it ends up being 15 to 20, don't waste the year everywhere you are. Prove show faithfulness to the places that God plants you. Stage number three, this is the owner. You're buying a home, you're building a family. You're laying down roots. And here's the key indicator that you are an owner. You sacrifice when needed without expectation. You do what needs to be done. Village Church has had a an amazing history with a ton of owners so that when we say there's a leak, you just go fix it because that's what owners do.
Speaker 1 00:22:59 If there's a need, we say, I'm in. What do you want? We figure things out. And your kid needs braces and it costs six or $7,000 owners, you know, like hopefully you have an ownership principle with your children, <laugh>, hopefully. And you're like, I'll figure it out, right? And, and, and so owners just have a different view on their own personal happiness because they're willing to sacrifice for the thing that they, that they own. And, and people stay owners for a handful of reasons. Number one, they're trained really well. There was some pastor, some spiritual leader in your life who taught you the purpose and mission of the church. And when you heard it, because the Holy Spirit is in you, you were like, yes. Like the local church is valuable to the heart of God, therefore it's valuable to me. Somebody loved you really well.
Speaker 1 00:23:41 It might have been a community group leader, a small group leader or a pastor or someone, a a a and people grow a heart for the local church when they are loved really well, particularly in their, in their lowest seasons. Here's another one your heart is aligning with, with God's heart. And even though no local church has been perfect, but as you open up the word, as you kinda get to see the, the nature of the church, God is slowly aligning. All of us have consumer hearts. He's aligning our consumer hearts with his heart for, for the local church. Now, let me just help you figure out which one maybe you are. All right? The difference between an owner, renter, and tourist. The owner says, I have to fix that. The renter says someone should seriously fix that. And the tourist says, why hasn't anyone fixed this yet?
Speaker 1 00:24:28 See it. The way we approach challenges and problems sort of reveals where we are. Now, again, this might be your third week here, and you're like, yeah, I'm a tourist. I would be a tourist if I was three weeks in someplace. I have a lot of questions that I need answered. I'm not saying being a tourist or a renter is bad. In fact, sometimes you need to do due diligence before you relocate your entire life to Paris. Amen. But there does get to a point where the design of God for the human soul who follows Jesus, is to be connected to a local church where they love, give, serve, engage where they own. Alright? Over the past 20 years, there has been a massive redefinition of the concept of active church member, or we'll call it owner, okay? So this might be a little surprising for some of you, but I wanna show you this.
Speaker 1 00:25:25 Tom Rainer, he's, he's a, a, an expert on all things church structure. You name it, the dude's an expert on it, but he had some really interesting things to say. What I want you to know about what, what's being said here is this is pre covid. Okay? So now we gotta put on our number hats for a minute, okay? About 20 years ago, a church member was considered active in the church if he or she attended three times a week, okay? That was, uh, eighties, nineties, early two thousands. Today, a church member is considered active in the church if he or tens, three times a month. That is pre covid I numbers. Now let's talk about mid covid and post covid. Okay? So here's what you would find before Covid, the average person who loved Jesus would go to Sunday Church, 2.6 times per month.
Speaker 1 00:26:13 If you were in a larger church, it got down to about 1.5, 1.6, or 1.7 times per month. Village Church lived right at this 2.6, right? So like, if you have a thousand people in your church, whatever percentage of that, that's about how many people were in your church. So pre Covid, we had about 600 people, kids, students, adults on a Sunday morning, which means there were probably roughly about 900 people before Covid, who would call Village Church their home. And those numbers proved out to be pretty consistent as we kinda looked at the state of village church, where people were going, giving, serving, et cetera. Okay? Now let's emerge out of Covid. So remember, 65% on any given Sunday, right? That's 65% of your church, 2021. In any given Sunday in America, you're about 35% of your church. In 2022, you're gonna be on average between 40 and 50% of your church on a Sunday morning.
Speaker 1 00:27:09 And in 2023, it's looking more at about a 50 to 60% of your church who actually attend, who would call it their home. Um, of all the people that are there, it's about 50 to 60% of the people who actually would call Village Church or any other conservative church, their home liberal churches. It's a whole different statistic measure. But this is talking about the more conservative church going into C O V I D. We had just under 600 people on a Sunday in 2023, we entered it with about 600 people on a Sunday. But remember, those are now, it's a, it's a smaller percentage of a bigger number. And then going into the summer, we've grown by 30%. So I want you to start catching what is actually happening here. The church is continuing to do this, and we have the privilege to steward this.
Speaker 1 00:27:59 One of the things that I think is really important as we consider the owner tourist renter paradigm is to ask this, this question, is my heart toward my local church aligned with God's heart? I want, I wanna show you the three primary metaphors that the scriptures use to describe God's heart for the local church. Number one is family, the family of God. Number two, it's his bride, the bride of Christ. Number three, it's his body, the body of Christ. Why does the scripture use these as the primary metaphors for which God views and relates to the local church?
Speaker 1 00:28:33 Because these are the most deeply personal and emotional human experiences. You mess with my family. I'm sorry, what? You mess with my bride? I'm sorry, what? You punched me in the face and mess with my body. Do you see how personal that is? Most men would rise up and go to war if someone threatened their wife or their children. If somebody comes up to you in a bar and punches you in the face and they mess with your physical body and then start disrespecting you, like, there is this impulse, it is a deeply offensive thing to do. Any of the above, right? And so God uses these analogies, I believe, to show us the level of emotion and commitment and protective heart and love that he has for the local church. This is one of the reasons why if you're reading the, you're reading the tourist, the renter, the owner, and you're like, I think I'm a tourist.
Speaker 1 00:29:20 Maybe I'm a renter that that's fine for a season. But inevitably what we want to see is our hearts aligned with God's heart for an imperfect group of people. Let's be clear, this is God's heart for the local church. And the local church is filled with sinners. And yet somehow we have to step back and say, this is my local church, a whole bunch of sinners. I I think God gets grieved. He's emotional in scripture about things that happen in the local church. We get grieved. That is a normal human experience, but his heart is as if this is his body. This is his family, this is his bride. These metaphors communicate passion and emotion, affection and devotion to an imperfect group of people. And this is my heart. This is what I want for myself. God, give me your heart for your local church. Would you give each one of us your heart for your local church? All right, now, open up your Bibles, Ephesians chapter four, if you would, I'll put it on the screen as well. We're gonna be verses uh, 11 through 14.
Speaker 1 00:30:29 The Apostle Pauls write to the church in Ephesus. Uh, Ephesus is a city and he's writing to their local church. You'll find almost all the New Testament letters, by the way, are written to local churches. And so here's what he says. It says, he gave the apostles and the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers. These are the leaders of the church. So if you are in church leadership, we'll say you're a community group leader. You are a ministry director, you are a staff member, you are an elder, you are a, a deacon, whatever it is, like all leadership has been given to the church. And it says this in verse 12, to equip the saints, by the way, in scripture, who's a saint? Any person who's trusted in Christ. So if you're here and you've personally trusted in Christ, God has instituted a local church with leaders to equip and to ensure that the saints are doing something very specific.
Speaker 1 00:31:19 It goes on and it says that they're to equip the saints for the work of ministry. And I wanna be really clear, not spectatorship, but work. And this is good work. And, and here's the thing I love to tell people. You are in ministry, paid or not, it doesn't matter if you're a saint, God has called you to a local church, whether here or somebody else, somewhere else. And in that local church, no exceptions by the way, you have a work to do. And, and, and so he goes on and he says this, all right, well, like what is the work? And he says this, for the building up of the body of Christ, meaning the body of Christ, our expression of that body is this local church. And we need help. I need help. You need help. We need to be built up. And who is it that builds the body up one another by the power of Christ?
Speaker 1 00:32:23 And, and so Michael, how long do I do this work of ministry till I'm, I'm tired? Verse 13 says this, until we all love it attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. I I'll be honest, we're not there yet. Village church. So we have a work of ministry until we're dead or Christ comes back. Do do you see the all inclusive statement here? It's not like, well, you do, but you don't. If you have been saved, if you are a saint, then God has a local church for you. And if you're in a local church, God has a ministry for you. He loves you and it's good work. Not all work is bad. Some work is wonderful. Okay? So, uh, somebody might say, and I love that Paul anticipates this question, so what if I don't do it?
Speaker 1 00:33:20 Like, what if I just kinda sit back and don't do anything? And then, and then he shows us the stakes in verse 14, so that we may no longer be children. And then I want you to watch this, this metaphor tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Here's the, here's the idea. It, it's it's of a, of a child being tossed off the boat and the waves are crashing and they're trying to get breath and to get life because in the boat there is a safety and protection in the local church, but off the boat it is winds of doctrine and cunning. And it is for their death and they're being tossed to and fro. And so what we have the opportunity to do is to ground people in Jesus, the living word in the Bible, the written word.
Speaker 1 00:34:14 And we have the ability and to do this together. And his implication is, if you don't do it, then the, the, the unfortunate repercussion might be some people not being able to be built up but tossed to and fro succumbing to every wind and idea and doctrine and cultural mantra out there. And we have this joy and privilege to collaborate together, to protect and love, especially those who are, who are young in the faith. As you kinda pull back, there's a principle here that, that I wanna call out. It, it takes the whole local church body to equip the whole local church. And, and this is just kind of a general, a general principle. And again, some of you are like, I don't know what you're about to ask me, but I'm not excited about it. And I'm here to tell you we're about to, I mean, if you won big, so up with a, with a few different like applications here.
Speaker 1 00:34:59 Um, but guys, if the Lord asks us to steward something, it's good, it's okay. And if it takes work, there are some things that when you work hard for them, are 100% worth it, right? And I believe that whatever the Lord is doing in village church with the souls that he's bringing with the 180, that's just the ones who attend. That's not the total roster of nursery through fourth graders. That we have a village church. Um, and more like this is a really beautiful, awesome opportunity. Here's my so what, number one, what's the only so what? With a few different applications, stewarding the current work, the current and future work of ministry that the Lord has given our local church will require the whole body to jump in.
Speaker 1 00:35:49 So since Covid started, there has been a really well-intentioned but pervasive, um, struggle that we, we've seen grow in village church. And it goes sort of like this. Um, if I kind of pull back for a season, they're gonna be fine. They'll be fine. I'm gonna stop giving, it'll be fine. Um, things are tight, thank you. Inflation, everything's more challenging. If I just pull back, they're gonna be fine. There's enough people here, it's gonna be okay. In pre covid, I, that actually worked because at any given time you could have maybe 5% of the church in a place where they were like, I'm just kind of tired, I need to pull back. But we saw in Covid that that would go up to 30, 40 or 50%. And so what we came to, I think it was, was it 2022? I don't know. Well, 2021 two, 2022, I think it was 22.
Speaker 1 00:36:34 Our giving went from 28,000 a week down to 21,000 a week in like almost no time because money was getting tighter and life was getting harder. And then we came back and said, Hey, village Church, here's the trend. And guess what you did responded incredibly well. Then the same thing happened again this year, right? And we sent you an email and the village church has been responding incredibly. And so what we see here though is that we're kind of in a season where kind of this thing like, ah, if I just kind of pull back, it's gonna be fine. There's enough people doing that that we sort of have to just resist this. Um, and, and lean in. Alright? So our growth is demanding a handful of strategic shifts. And so what I, before I sing any of them, I just <laugh> none of these will be surprising.
Speaker 1 00:37:19 Uh, I wanna just pray for all of us that we can hear from the Holy Spirit before we kinda like go right. All right, father, if it's from you, we want it. If it's not, don't resource us. We want only what you want, when you want, how you want it, period. Kill ego, kill ambition, kill anything that is about anything other than making disciples. Bringing you glory and honor and creating a loving, unified church that brings the gospel to the world, that makes disciples help us. God, we love you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Uh, at least four strategic shifts. Number one, we need to move to three services to create space. Uh, starting on 10 29. Um, our new service times are gonna be 8 15, 9 45, and 1115. We have avoided this for over a year. And here's the deal. As moms and dads, are there things that you do that you don't want to do?
Speaker 1 00:38:21 Yeah. Uh, but then you do them and you realize, oh, it's not so bad <laugh>. So things tend to be more like dreadful on the front end, looking forward to something than once you kind of get into them. And so you can imagine the amount of work we're doing behind the scenes to kind of just prep for this. And, um, and I, I think about our Sunday production and worship teams, they get here at six 30 in the morning as is don't leave till 1:00 PM or later as is. And so this even just kind of blows all of their commitment up. And so like the amount of people willing to love and serve blows my mind. Blows my mind. And so I want you to kinda see that. Now, some things about this, the services are gonna have to get a little bit shorter. So if you already come to the 11 o'clock service, you're gonna get out at the same time.
Speaker 1 00:39:05 Um, if you're willing to go to an early eight 15 service, like God bless you, I'll be here. The worship team will be here. Um, and we'd love to worship with you. When we went to two services, we had a 10 o'clock service. And this was, it was like two thou, 2013 or 14, I forget it was a while ago. Went to two services and 40 people came to the 9:00 AM service. And there's like just a couple people in here, right? And people said the people will never send their kids to a 9:00 AM service. It's too early. We're all used to 10 o'clock. Like that's what it's gonna be, 11 o'clock's too late. And, and now our 9:00 AM service of which people are like, nobody's gonna go, it's too early. And what you realize is you sort of just acclimate. And then here's what we've been learning.
Speaker 1 00:39:45 Parents get their kids out in like to school by 7:30 AM eight 15 to church is not the end of the world, right? And then if you don't want that, go to 9 45 or 1115, it'll be fine. But, um, we've learned that like initially that early service, whatever it is, it's, it's usually a slow go. And we're okay with that. I can tell you though, if there's 30 of us for a while, we need to create space. We need to create parking space in foyer space. And if you're an introvert, it's gonna be the service for you. Lemme tell you, <laugh>, you're gonna get my best sermon. My first one's always the best 9:00 AM Learn this <laugh> strategic shift number two. We, we need over 100 people to start regularly serving on Sunday mornings. Guys, listen, just to meet our current needs, there are a lot of people doing twice as much work as they should.
Speaker 1 00:40:32 And, and so we're just kind of come around to say, guys, we just need this to shift. We, we need to do something different here. And so, again, as we've told you about financial needs, we have, we put it before you and, and you've responded so well. And so I just want you to kind of process your own space. Um, this is kind of like our, our sink is broken, right? And like, there's 10 people watching and one person fixing. And we kind of all need to go to work here to figure out, um, how to love these kids. Well, and I, I wanna say this 'cause it's so important. Our commitment, especially with our kids and students, is disciple making, not production and programming.
Speaker 1 00:41:08 One of the challenges as the church grows, you get more consumers and renters and, and tourists, right? Who start going. And so the quantity of humans there begins to be more of them, but less volunteers. We are not interested in building a program-based children's or student ministries. It's not our goal. We'd love to have, uh, one leader for every three to five students and kids. And so that means that this notion as we grow, we have to grow with intentional volunteer engagement. Now you might say, I wanna be a kids' leader. I wanna be a student leader. And we might say, not the right season for you. And you just gotta really trust our instinct on that. Uh, we might have to re put you someplace else. Like there's actually a protocol. We don't let people serving kids' ministry to them and go into the church for a certain amount of period of time.
Speaker 1 00:41:53 And then we do background checks, which is what you want us to do, right? Villa Church, yes, you do. So we, I mean God bless our children's staff, they're unbelievable. Making sure that every single person back there is vetted and our kids are absolutely protected. Now what we've done over the last month is we've gone through every single Sunday facing ministry, and I'll show you those in a minute. But, uh, we've updated all of the onboarding, training, every single communication so that anybody who wants to serve in a ministry, uh, I'm gonna show you this in a moment, but you have one next step to take if you're at all interested. And we are ready to respond to you in two to three business days, get you what you need. And we already already have a handful of ministry trainings set up over the next two months.
Speaker 1 00:42:37 So you can start jumping into those so that by the time October 29th comes every person who wants to serve, we help you find the right place. We train you well so that you can have everything you need to be able to serve God's people in that place. I all I know is if I'm gonna serve, I don't wanna lose, I wanna win, I wanna play by the rules. I wanna, I wanna have all the resources and tools I need. So we are committed to getting that for every single person who wants to jump in. So what we've done is we've created a Sunday serve page. You can find it everywhere. You can find it on the hub vco b.org/hub. That's sort of your access point to everything. You just go to our homepage, vco b.org, there'll be a link to it there. Um, we have new Boltons that we have made and they have QR codes on there.
Speaker 1 00:43:20 Um, and so when you go out, you can actually see those. Just take a picture of it, it'll take you right to the Sunday serve page and uh, you can fill out any of the things you're interested in serving in and then they'll respond to you within two to three business days. Just so you know what we work Sunday through Thursday. So if you turn it in on a Friday or a late Thursday night, it probably won't be till Sunday or Monday until they respond. So here are the specific needs and I wanna just make sure you're crystal clear. Aware Cafe, call them our drug dealers. Just kidding. But, um, it's a bad joke. I know. They're like, we're gonna take that off the livestream. No, we need four more baristas. We need, uh, at least. And if you don't know how to make coffee, great, we'll train you.
Speaker 1 00:44:01 We actually have everything we need to train you so that you can love and serve. Now, if you're like really grumpy and curmudgeony, don't go do that. And if you hate coffee with a passion, stay away. <laugh> our production team, these are the guys who are all behind the scenes. So you might be like, I don't wanna be front facing. I don't wanna be out there and I don't wanna be that guy at the sound booth. 'cause when something goes on, everybody looks at Scott and says, what have you done? Right? But we need, uh, at least six more. They do the pro presenter, they do cameras and we'll train you with everything you need. But then we also need four more audio engineers. I don't think we can train an audio engineer from like zero to hero, but there are a bunch of people who have some basic audio engineering for front of house and livestream.
Speaker 1 00:44:42 And so if you are all interested in that, we need more people to be, to be there. We need 25 more greeters, which is the best job in the world. Did I ever tell you guys, if I wasn't the senior pastor, I would be like full-time professional greeter. That would be like my dream job to oversee the welcome Nadine as like my dream job. Basically that's like security. Um, we need eight more people, um, who have, who are security minded, um, who love the church. You do have to be a member to be on the security team. Kitchen and hospitality back there in the kitchen. You know, feeding 6, 7, 800 people a week is a lot of work, <laugh>. Um, so, but it's awesome. Their community and love back there and their work is amazing. And so if you're at all like interested in being in the kitchen, they need help.
Speaker 1 00:45:29 And then we need people to bring food. Uh, as many as are willing, you do it one time every six weeks and, uh, you want to buy something at the store, you can bring in. If you wanna make some awesome bacon and sausage, we're, we're gonna celebrate with that as well. Uh, five, six leaders are five, six. Man, these kids are awesome. They're so much fun. And so like, if you're interested in working with younger kids on Sunday morning, um, we need, uh, at least at least six more leaders on Sunday morning. Um, this would be one of those ministries that's a little bit more of a commitment. And then if you double have the time, our five six program on Sunday night, um, you could jump in there as well. But Sunday mornings and then children, I thought this was the best way to say it, we need a million more.
Speaker 1 00:46:09 Um, I don't know how to tell that. Like guys, we are, we are running like two churches in this place. One back there on a Sunday morning and one in in here. Um, there are so many opportunities to serve. And so if you like, pray about it and you, and you know, you might say to the Lord, I don't want to, it's okay. When we own something, we do what needs to be done. And, and we, we want so badly to make disciples of this next generation. And it is one of our highest priorities as a church. It's a sacred time with these kids. So if the Lord might be leading you there, have at it, go to the website, everything you need is there. Jump in, sign up, pray about this, and you can do more than one. That's crazy. It's possible you can actually do that.
Speaker 1 00:46:54 Strategic shift number three. Now we're gonna fly. We need more people generously giving to our general fund. Here are some 2023 numbers. Our weekly need is 31 4 43. And then you can watch Q one, Q two, Q three, that goes down. Um, you responded really well, but year to date we're averaging 28,000. Um, our year to date deficit okay, is about $101,000. But we have pinched and, and been so frugal so far that are, we're actually down because of lower spending only about $7,600. But there are a lot of things that go undone when we don't spend the money we budgeted. And the ministry has continued to grow. If you saw my email, we grew by 30%, um, numerically and giving decreased by 25%. So yeah, um, you can see some of our account balances here. So if you're wondering how much is in the bank, it, the issue is not actually our savings, although we do need to have more in savings.
Speaker 1 00:47:53 The issue actually comes down to we need a significant more amount of money on a weekly basis just to sort of make things run the way they are. So, um, people have like a weirdness when we talk about money. I think it's one of the most spiritual things we can talk about rather than manipulate you and guilt you, I'd rather just tell you what's going on and then you can go pray about it and make a, a decision that is, that is good between you, you and the lord. Here's some money facts that people don't tell you. I know this is logical, but nothing happens without money. Literally every second we're getting charged electricity and it takes a lot to run any church at all. And thank you inflation again, because now it's getting more expensive. Here's a really crass number, but it's true so that people can kind of quantify what church actually costs.
Speaker 1 00:48:42 It costs about $2,000 per year per person for village church. So if you have a family of five kids, right? That's $14,000 a year is what it actually costs. And what I love is that there are a ton of people, college students, kids can't pay for themselves, right? There are some people who are just struggling, they don't have a job. And for every person who cannot make the money and meet the Lord has been faithful to raise people up who give so far and above and beyond it is mind blowing. But here, here's the deal. Um, this 28,000 averaging a week, our budget was 31. Um, we need, there's about two more staff positions that we do not have right now and that we need to begin moving forward with. And we need over the next two years, if nothing changes in this church, like not one single extra person comes, we need to be about $45,000 a week in giving because of the increased cost of everything.
Speaker 1 00:49:37 That's just like the reality. And so we will always, always live within our means. Um, but the real cost to kind of move things forward and to not overburden, um, is that finally number four, here's the, the last shift. We need to begin fundraising for an expanded parking lot, new sanctuary and new foyer space. Those are a couple years out, but the fundraising begins like asap. And so you, over the next couple months, um, you're gonna hear way more about this, but I'm not gonna preach on that now because that's later. And what I wanna do is just encourage you with a really simple cheesy illustration. Years ago I was in New Mexico with, um, one of our former pastors who passed away, his name is Pastor Tim Andres and Pastor Tim Andres love him with all my heart. And we, it was one of the weirdest moments, but we were at, um, we were in New Mexico and he got all of these kids together.
Speaker 1 00:50:32 We were doing a V B S for like a hundred Navajo kids and he gives everybody a packet of jello on the first day. And we're like, why aren't you giving us jello? And uh, and he said, listen, I don't know what mold the Lord is gonna give us this week. I don't know why kids are coming. I don't know what it's gonna look like. All I ask is that you fit into whatever mold God brings and you be jello this whole week. And so we were all like, all right. And it actually gave us this visual. We're like, yep, didn't see that coming, but you know what, we're gonna flex and adjust because that's what jello does. Whatever mold the mold maker gives the jello fits and it's delicious. So my encouragement is, let's figure out in this next season how to make disciples engage, own, and be jello as things you're gonna change on a regular basis.
Speaker 1 00:51:24 Amen. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, love you so much and thankful for this local church body. What a, just honestly, it's just such a, a privilege and joy to open up God's word weekly. The fact that we can teach through Leviticus and, um, talk about really hard cultural things and meet each other in the deepest, most painful parts of our life and love and care and serve. We can have conversations like this. I, I'm just so thankful. God, would you do what only you can do? Um, we really believe that if it's your vision, you will fund it. Whether it's people and servants or money or something or whatever it is. God. And so Lord, um, even as We are kind of trying to figure out what all the details look like in the future. Would you fund your vision for this church and would you move in each of our hearts? We love you and we thank you. We pray all of this in Jesus' name and for his glory. Amen. Amen.
