In past Vision Forwards I’ve shared reasons behind adding a third service and moving towards expansion. This past Sunday we had our largest attendance ever and the interesting thing was that most of those present were a part of us. Yes, there were some guests. But what it showed was that if we all showed up every weekend we would be bursting at the seams.
Some may enjoy seeing and talking about numbers and size increase. Others may not. Either way, I’ve tried to steer us as a congregation towards an understanding of our growth as “growing a big people in Christ”. I’m seeking to set us on a trajectory of “growing a big people, not a big church”. Like all growing families, you have to not only maintain your home but at times make upgrades. Create more room. Add an addition. Tear down and remodel.
As we embark in a few months on a capital campaign to raise funds for a new and final expansion of our building, we cannot afford (in any sense of the word) to build for the sake of building. We must see that what we are about and what we are about to embark upon is not strictly for us nor by us. And it’s not solely for this moment or season.
There are two words that come to my mind and stir my heart as I think forward to our expansion: One Elim.
Past, present, future — we are One Elim.
PAST — We are one church with those who have gone before us in the past. We are united to them and they to us in the death and resurrection of Christ. We are one body. One church. We have been called with them into the salvation of Christ and the kingdom of God. For what purpose? To build Elim Grace upon the gospel of Jesus Christ and to faithfully serve God in the gospel of His Son within the boundaries of our dwelling. We are the generation previous generations prayed for and to whom they faithfully entrusted a calling from God.
PRESENT — We are the present generation God is calling to serve. He is equipping and empowering us to walk in His plans and promises. We are those born and born again for such a time as this. The call to us is, again, to “grow a BIG people in Christ”. Big in His grace, mercy, love, faithfulness, generosity, courage, faith, hope, joy, power — in everything He gives for life and godliness. We are not living for ourselves. Serving for ourselves. Building and expanding for ourselves. We are not living for the moment without giving thought to both those who have gone before us and those who will come after us. We are One Elim, a part of something larger than ourselves. Something eternal not temporal.
FUTURE — One day we will be “those who have gone before us”. I have asked our current elders to consider and to remember that it is their privilege and their responsibility to hand off their eldership to the next generation. We cannot assume that there will be a new generation of elders. We have to pray and to work towards that. We must take joy in the part we have to play now and the part we have to play in the generation to come. The same goes for me as Senior Pastor. I am always praying and keeping my eyes and heart open for who the next pastor of Elim Grace will be.
Our young families are also our future, the next generation. But not only them because they are young in age. Regardless of age or generation, the great joy and task, the vision and the mission, is to pass along the gospel of Jesus Christ to others. To commend the great works of God we have seen to those who haven’t yet.
JESUS IN EVERY GENERATION
As we build and expand with steel, wood, and concrete; as we build with blueprints, machines, and tools; we build in the Spirit of God. We do more than amass numbers. We enter into God’s good and eternal plans and purposes for His people, His treasured possession. We are at once part of something past, present and future. Jesus who saved us and called us, He lives forever. And because He lives forever, He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. And because He lives forever and never changes, He forever lives to build, to purify, to fill, to send His church. He forever lives to advance His kingdom on earth. He forever lives to save by the power of His gospel.
So, again, as we embark on a capital campaign and expansion, we must know and feel that it’s not strictly about us nor for us. It’s a part of a long and ongoing process God has begun from eternity that includes us. My hope and prayer is that we will want to be a part of what He is doing now and what He wants to do in us and through us tomorrow.
Dear Elim Grace, we are One Elim — past, present, and future generations. We do not live for our own generation, but we live for Jesus. For His will, for His fame, and for His glory in every generation.
One Elim. This is the vision that will carry us forward. Together.
Pastor Jonathan