From time to time people who don’t know me will ask me the tried and true question, ‘What do you do?’ When I answer that I am a church pastor, I experience a range of responses. For example, if on the golf course, the questioner will immediately stop swearing!
The follow up question will often be, ‘Which church do you work at?’ As I tell them, ‘Newlife Uniting’, some will immediately be able to place one of our locations or, even better still, be aware of some of the ministries that our church has – like Newlife Care or Crossroads. But the fact is that others still have never heard of us and don’t know where we are. Then I will tell them our Robina campus is located on the corner of Markeri and Bermuda streets. And then the penny will often drop…
The person will say with sudden confidence, ‘Oh…you’re the church with the big red cross!’
Yes, we are.
We are the church that for 20 years has stood under a big, red neon (now LED) cross. So very Gold Coast.
From the earliest days of my time at Newlife these conversations got me thinking. While it’s really cool to have such a visual landmark to identify one of our locations, how much better still if increasingly as a church we are known for much more than a big, red cross.
And so on August 27, 2006 – seven and a half years ago – I stood before our congregation and cast a vision. Then in February 2009 on our first ever Vision Sunday, I recast that same vision with some minor updating. This then is that vision. As I read it I am in awe of the God who is able to do more than we ask or think – because so much of what we dreamed, God has done. To God be the Glory!
People of God, rather than being know as the church under the big Red Cross, I dream o a day when we are known more as the church…
Where hope is discovered and dreams realized.
Which speaks up for the poor.
Not just speaks - puts money where its mouth is.
Where a new family - people young and old, black and white, multi-dimensional, sometimes dysfunctional, always loving family gather.
Where people find healing and wholeness.
Where the spiritually oppressed are set free.
Without doors or walls or windows or any barriers, because nothing can hold what you have in.
Where people find new life.
Who has joined with other churches in breaking the spiritual siege that curses our city.
You’re one of the churches that’s turning the Gold Coast upside down and inside out…with God’s love.
God’s best for us is still to come. And so, I dare to hope. I hope…that in a future that unfolds before us:
Every month we will baptize those who the Lord has added daily to our numbers.
On Friday night, Youthstreet will pump with expanding numbers of young people from our local high-schools.
Children in our community will beg their parents to come to the church their friends are telling them all about.
We will have sent people to plant new communities, new churches in the growing margins of the Gold Coast – that we will be a church that meets in multiple locations.
We are sending dozens of leaders to serve in short and long-term mission in needy corners of Asia and the world.
We will all be giving of our time, talents and yes, our money, generously, sacrificially and proportionally.
That every square inch of this amazing site God has given us is utilized to its maximum potential with structures that honor God.
New Life Groups will be starting every week, new services every year, new ministries every time a vision is laid on the heart of one of God’s people in this place.
That we will be a community through which the:
Homeless find a home;
Lonely discover real friends;
Addicted are liberated into recovery;
Politicians hear the cry of the poor;
Gold Coast is seasoned with justice, mercy, grace and love.
I hope we will be known more for our worship, our witness, our service than for the fact we have a big, red, neon Cross.
I hope we will be a messy, unrestrained, unconstrained, joy-filled, faith-inspired, Jesus-obsessed, Spirit-led people who believe with every fibre of our being that our God is:
strong and mighty;
gentle and merciful;
loving and gracious;
faithful and true -
and that in and through him all things are possible!
I hope we will be a people who see God change lives and transform our world as his Spirit empowers us to serve.
I hope…we leave fire in our wake. I hope!
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