This Sunday is Vision Sunday at ReChurch where we give thanks to God for His blessing upon us over the last year, and look to the new year ahead in faithful expectation Part of Vision Sunday is presenting our new budget which is a combination of “seed for bread” and “seed for sowing”. “Seed for bread and seed for sowing” has become an important motif for us as a church describing our deep sense of how we need to steward our finances. It helps keep us focused. The motif is based on 2 Corinthians 9:10-13.
2 Corinthians 9:10-13 (NIV)
“Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.”
Our new budget will be based once again on “seed for bread and seed for sowing” – but with a difference this year. The new budget is aimed at lifting the “seed for sowing” component to our highest level since coming to Frog Court. In those initial few years here, nearly all of our budget was “seed for bread”. But this cannot continue if we are serious about harvest – we need to have more “seed for sowing”. Last year I brought a series of Sunday messages focused on the harvest and how we were coming into a harvest season. I could sense the imminence of the harvest – its readiness, its ripeness, it is there for the taking. These messages encouraged the church. On Vision Sunday 2024 I cast before the church some preparation steps to prepare us for bringing the harvest. Two main objectives for the year were presented. The first, to consolidate and expand our healing ministries – prayer ministry, healing rooms, deliverance ministry and so on. The long history of ReChurch’s healing ministry needed to expand and touch the community more. And so we have beefed up Healing Rooms, we’ve expanded the prayer ministry reach, and we have seen more deliverance ministry, too – people set free of demonic bondage to live a joyful life.
The second objective, was to intentionally shape a strong and rich disciple-making environment at ReChurch where we were all on the same page as each other when it comes to understanding discipleship and living it out. And so we embarked upon the Nuts & Bolts of Discipleship in our Connect Groups, and we chose a slow burn approach that would bring about a permanent culture change. We want to be a disciple-making church, not church goers, and this requires of us a deeper faith walk commitment. Our disciple-making culture has really taken root, but we are not there just yet. There is more to do. Many in our Connect Groups can now speak to practically anyone about The Fall into Sin, God’s Worldview, the Atonement, what is Salvation and, more recently, what it means to be Born Again. We are slowly and carefully building a disciple-making environment so that we can do the one main thing Jesus commanded us to do – make disciples.
Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV)
[Jesus] “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
This is the Church’s ONE JOB. And we are taking this seriously. But here’s the exciting thing. We are now more equipped for the harvest. Yes, we’ll keep building our healing ministries and expanding their reach and, yes, we will continue to shape and deepen our disciple-making culture at ReChurch, but hey, we are ready for serious harvest investment.
Recent research by McCrindle Research has discovered that despite the statistics that show a continued decline in church attendance across the nation, deeper research has revealed a distinct undercurrent in the unchurched population of many searching for meaning, purpose and truth. “Many are turning to Christianity in unexpected ways”, says Mark McCrindle. The research has discovered many reasons why this is happening, and why there is a spiritual openness among youth we have not seen before.
The Spirit of God is doing something in Australia!
Look at this from the recent McCrindle:
“Undercurrent of Faith Report: “More than 784,000 Australians identified with Christianity in the most recent Census (2021) who had previously identified with no religion, and similar numbers have been moving towards Christianity between each Census for the last 20 years. The most common reasons Australians change their religious identity to Christian are because they feel a spiritual connection or sense of divine presence that draws them to Christianity or because they find personal meaning and purpose through Christianity.”
That is a stunning piece of evidence-based research! And, I believe it confirms what we are seeking to do at ReChurch. From the worship environment to the healing ministries, to the disciple-making culture, to the way we fellowship together in unity, a sense of the divine presence of God is crucial. We seek, in all that we do, to host the presence of God. We are learning to do this better and better, not as some programmed thing; no, we suspend any programming and make way for His presence in all things. His presence transforms lives, His presence draws the sinner with grace and mercy, His presence gives hope, His presence is life-giving. We will continue to learn this aspect of our worship, because people far from God as seeking Him, and don’t realise it.
We are more than ready for the harvest, we are confident of these things! It is time to gather it in – with energy and without further delay! We are as ready as we need to be, and the rest we will learn as we go, just as the apostles learned as they went from the day of Pentecost when 3000 people came to faith and onwards. The chaos of that first day! The sheer, glorious, joyous chaos! I wish I could have seen that. This Sunday we will unfold a little more of mission vision for which we have been preparing. As we forge into harvest with some of the new strategies presented, prepare for glorious, joyous chaos!
All of this means that the whole of the ReChurch family, from the oldest to the newest, is hereby invited to join Operation Mobilisation – everyone doing something, which is what happens in every healthy family. “Operation Mobilisation – Everyone Doing Something”.
The harvest is near.
People are coming.
We are ready as we need to be.
Join us (nice and early) for Vision Sunday 2025.
Ps Milton
[Sources: “An Undercurrent of Faith”, research report from McCrindle Research.]