Our 2024 Vision is “Growing a BIG people in Christ”. We aim to be a people big in the grace, mercy, love, goodness, and faithfulness of Jesus Christ. But we are not “taking up” Jesus into who we are and what we do. We are not adding Him to our lives and plans. Rather, in His salvation He has taken us up into His life and His work. We no longer belong to ourselves but to Him who loved us and gave Himself up for us. We no longer live in and for ourselves, but it is now Christ who lives in us.

Another way of putting this is that the kingdom is here. Through being “born again from above” God has transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. The kingdom of heaven came in the flesh of Jesus and now remains in our midst through the abiding presence and power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus the disciples saw and touched God. In the church the world sees and touches Jesus. Or, better said, in the church the world sees and touches Jesus who is alive and dwelling in the midst of His church. Apart from Him we can do nothing. But in Him all things related to His kingdom, will and purpose are possible. This changes everything.

Not all things that grow will grow big. Yet everything that grows will change. A seed. A baby. A family. A friendship. A marriage. A disciple. A church. A ministry. Two things are true. All things created and given life by God change and in God there is no change purposed, designed and directed that He cannot complete. 

The kingdom of God means change. It causes change. To be brought into the kingdom of God means, first, that we must change. We are apart from Christ unable to see or to enter the kingdom. But in Christ we become new creations. We are made new in heart. We are transferred from darkness to light and from death to life. Transformed we are now able to enter the new realm that is the kingdom of God and of heaven. We are given a new life and, therefore, new purpose, meaning, and significance.

To be brought into the kingdom also means, second, that we become agents of change. Under the authority of Jesus, the kingdom advances to save, to rescue, to heal, and to restore what sin, death and the Enemy have marred and destroyed. The kingdom of God means both that we are and that we bring a heavenly change in and for this world. God intends His kingdom to spread everywhere, to grow everywhere, to bear fruit everywhere. You have been set apart, called, and sent by Jesus for this purpose. So what does this mean practically??

In all the places we live, work, play, and rest there the kingdom of God has come. Then and there we demonstrate in word and in action the kingdom of God to the world. Being citizens of heaven on earth means that the world sees in us what life in the kingdom is like. They are to see what friendship, marriage, sex, family, work, finances, education, politics — what everything looks like when it is under the dominion of God. Our lives become fruitful in the truest sense. The kingdom of God brings life and life abundant. It is a world of beauty and splendor beyond what we could ask, think or imagine. And, yet, what no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor the heart of man imagined, God in Christ has begun to break in upon humanity. We, dear disciple, are the first fruits of that new redeemed humanity—the kingdom.

When Christ returns He will bring a new creation and world with Him. It will be a new heaven and earth in which we will rule and reign with Him as it was always intended. It will be a new material world in which we will work with our hands and enjoy the fruit of our labor. A world in which we will hug and be hugged. A world in which there will no longer be any tears or pain or suffering, because sin and death will be vanquished forever.

But in the meantime, Elim Grace, we are a “royal nation,” a city set on a hill in Oswego County. We are set here on purpose and with a purpose. We are as the kingdom of God to be not passive but active. 

I have a vision of a people who start change. I have a vision of a people:

– who start generational change in their families, workplaces, and neighborhoods. 

– who start businesses, faith-based organizations, and ministries seeking the good and prosperity of their city

– who start to foster and adopt children at a rate that astounds Oswego county 

– who are in the system without being affected by the system, who change the system from within—the systems of education, medicine, economics, politics, family and human services

– who stand as a model of what the kingdom of God looks like on earth when a people humble themselves to seek God, surrender to God, proclaim His excellencies, and are continually filled with the Spirit

I have a pastoral vision for a people who start change that makes a lasting difference. 

I have a vision of a BIG people, not a big church. That said, I recognize that we may become a big or bigger church in size. I’m not anti-big church; I’m anti a place and a people where the glory of Christ does not or cannot abide. And that Elim Grace, is what I give my life for: the glory of Jesus Christ alone. 

Let’s become a big people—a people big in Jesus. A people through whom Jesus is big. In 2024 let’s not seek to be a great people who do things for God. Let’s seek to be a people who do things for a great God.