Journey or Destination
I came at One Life a lot like Joel Benson (see his blog entry). I wasn’t sure just what the change entailed, how much it cost or the details involved. I left heel marks I’m sure. I was looking for a detailed package with the vision completely laid out. I was afraid of saying yes to something that would be fully defined later. It was sort of a blank check to me. Then God started working on me to see the vision for what it is. This is a vision of how we can implement part of our five year strategic plan. This puts specific actions to some of the goals identified in the plan. It’s not a blank check. As specific portions of the One Life initiatives are fleshed out, they will go through the approval processes we have in place for governing Immanuel. We have four excellent initiatives for implementing our strategic plan. We are committing to pursuing these things and raise the necessary funds to implement them.
God is already using these initiatives in our lives. The more I look at them, the more I see the tremendous impact they will have on our lives and the lives of folks we don’t even know about right now. Raising the money to implement them is not the destination. This is really a journey. Take a look at what this will mean in two years. We will have much more space and renovation of our worship space. We will have interaction among us where we live, know more of our neighbors and live in closer Biblical community. Somewhere out there right now is a foreign ministry leader who will come to live among us, share his experiences, give us a glimpse into the life of the church in another place and we will have opportunity to equip him for greater work in that place. In two years, we will be closer to implementing another church campus. The committee we have representing a cross section of Immanuel will have some time to research the concept and learn from other churches who have gone on before us in this area.
Now think where we will be in ten years. With the normal turnover in our congregation, there will be a lot of Immanuel members at that time who will think this is the way Immanuel always looked. We always had these ministries. They will not know what our church facility looked like before the construction. Just like those who have gone on before us with far reaching vision to give us what we have today. Ten years from now, our members and leaders will be working to further Immanuel’s ministry from the base of facilities and ministries we provide here. God will work in their lives just as He is doing with us now. Hopefully, Barbara and I will be a part of the congregation then as now.
What we have now is an opportunity to grow in impact. We have an opportunity for God to use us as a church and individually, to stretch us. As long as we live, we have not arrived. Likewise, until the Lord returns, Immanuel has not arrived. Neither of us is complete and all that God intends for us to be. Thank you for sharing the journey with me.
Scott Faught
IBC Elder