Romans was written to a young, budding church in a strategic city far removed from the birthplace of Christianity. The church in Rome was made up of Jews who were too prone to legalism and non-Jews (gentiles) who needed instruction in scripture and theology. The Romans needed grounding.

The Corinthian letters were written to a very enthusiastic young church that was prone, in her passions, toward division and ecstatic extremes. The Corinthians needed curbing.

The Galatian letter was written to a church that was giving in to bad, legalistic teaching. They needed scolding, correction and ultimately, freedom from the bondage of legalism.

The Ephesians needed a clearer sense of identity and unity as a body. The Philippians required only encouragement and affirmation. The Colossians needed a clearer understanding of Christ and instructions for holy living. The Thessalonians were given a picture of eternity and a call to stand firm.

Each church had a unique corporate personality, along with assets and deficits. While individuals benefited greatly from these written sermons which have become our scriptures, they were written for entire churches with collective applications as well as personal ones.

So I say that, unapologetically, we're going to be talking about us during the month of January. Yes, we'll be talking about God, but specifically about how God is shaping this local church for the purposes of Christ. And yes, there will be plenty of personal applications and more than enough food for devotional thought. But if we learned anything during 40 Days of Purpose, we learned that the Christian life of worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and mission is not simply a "me and Jesus" reality. We live and love and serve in a community, and we impact the world more effectively when we're in concert with each other.

Over the years, I've learned that church life flows in seasons - actually 5-7 year cycles:

1. Visioning
2. Initiating
3. Thrusting
4. Living
5. Evaluating
6. Revisioning

Our first season began over six years ago when the church leaders developed a vision while the search committee was looking for a new pastor. The vision took the form of a pastoral prospectus - a document describing where God was leading the church and the kind of pastor who would fit the emerging vision. Here are some samples from that vision statement:

1. Worship - balanced and improved experience, through enhanced worship programming, presentation, systems and increased worship staff.
2. Mission - a more outward orientation toward the community and the world, with more people involved in short-term mission and local mission involvement.
3. Building - Renovation to enhance programs, accommodate more people, and improve navigation.
4. Evangelism - more welcoming to visitors and better assimilation of new people.
5. Discipleship - develop ministries that reach young marrieds and singles.
6. Various other things to sustain or initiate.

After God forcibly transplanted my family from a situation we thought to be idyllic, and after many months of adjustment and observation and relationship building, the elders and pastors packaged the vision together in a strategic plan called Above and Beyond. The plan included a few staff changes, a large-scale capital campaign, an aggressive remodel of facilities and numerous steps toward becoming a more welcoming and outreaching church. Kevin was hired. Greg was hired. We remodeled everything but our worship center, and started on the sanctuary. We gave our mission giving and involvements a huge boost. We also suffered hardships together, and have walked through the sadness of national tragedy and now international tragedy, and, and I feel, learned to love and trust each other more deeply. We've welcomed literally hundreds of new people, with the largest growth coming among families with small children and youth, and among singles.

Some specific visions went unrealized or only partially addressed. Others were realized and then some. Our current team of pastors and elders spent a lot of time reflecting, with thanksgiving and realism, about what God has done in His church (SFC) over the last long season. In my opinion, God has been very good to us.

Let me pause and say that today, I'm on unfamiliar turf. This is the first time that I've pastored into a second leadership cycle. In our first two churches (in southern and northern California) my family was called away at just about this point in the revisioning process. By all appearances, that's not happening this time, thank God. The new vision has taken form and my family is blessed to be able to live into it with you, God willing.

So let's talk about this new season of life together, and our sense for God's vision that will drive it. The new 5-year vision began to take form a year ago. A team of about ten lay people came together from various elements of church life. They were commissioned by the elders. They solicited a lot of input from thoughtful church members and from the pastoral staff. They included me generously, and I think I gave them a generous amount of freedom so that this process could be very inclusive and not pastor-driven. There was a lot of prayer.

At the same time, two other groups were meeting. A church growth and expansion team was meeting to address two joint concerns - our commitment to growing God's kingdom and the limiting nature of our property. Also, a sanctuary renovation team continued to plan and execute the gradual improvements in this room.

The outcome, after a year of prayerful visioning, is very exciting to me, to the elders and to the many who've had a part in the visioning process.

Over the next four Sundays, we'll be talking and praying about living purposefully together in the next several years. Allow me to give you a brief overview and then we'll pray some more.

The key word is transformation. We'll be asking, over and over, for God to change us as individuals, growing toward Christlikeness. We'll also be asking God to help us transform the church. There are aspects to our collective personality and style that we feel led to celebrate and preserve. These are six specific areas where we feel called to pray and prepare for transformation.

1. Prayer - All of us pray. Some pray a lot. We want to know what it's like to be a church characterized by prayer as a first priority.
2. Outreach and evangelism - we've seen some notable improvements in this realm, but believe that God wants to stretch us even more to love more people and become more comfortable and committed in regards to sharing our faith. We want to transform the world around us.
3. Baptism - and other celebrations and passages. We're starting to be more intentional about our rites of faith and our expressions of commitment. We need more experiences like the one we had in November.
4. Leadership development - we're learning together how to mobilize for some significant efforts. It's time now to organize significant learning environments for leaders to be intentionally developed for ministry in the church and mission in the world.
5. Stewardship - so many hard questions to ask in a community so rich in resources, living in a world so ripe with needs. We've made gains, but acknowledge that we are woeful unachievers in this regard.
6. Expansion - The Great Commission calls us to think and live with an expanding view of God's kingdom. Our property has become a tight shoe for a growing foot. We do not feel called to relocate and we dare not stunt the growth of God's work. So we're thinking in more specific and broader terms about how our church can touch more lives in this area. Today, let me tease you by saying that I'm absolutely thrilled about possibilities in this area.

Expansion is really the second big piece of the plan. Transformation, expansion and, finally, continued renovation of this room until it is both highly functional in the modern sense and quite beautiful in the classic sense.

Well, that's the preview. Over the next few weeks, you'll have as much written information as your appetite dictates, including small group discussion questions and opportunities for dialogue with church leaders. Early next month, we'll construct a way to gather a vote of confidence, and God willing, a sense of shared enthusiasm.

How long since you told your spouse, "I really need you?"

How long since you told a friend, "I'm not too proud to tell you that I need friends like you. Please stay near me."

How long since we've really told God, "Without you, I'm undone. I'm nothing. I'm dust. Please hold me and never let me go. I thirst."

We receive more than presents and help.

The Bible teaches us, most pointedly, to receive correction and to receive Christ. To receive the gift of salvation and to receive the Holy Spirit.