I continue to be challenged this quote that I used when I shared with you our vision
“The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs”.        Vance Havner
……so how do we make a start and  “step up the stairs” of the vision God has given us?

Well what I believe to be step one may surprise you. I am convinced the first step in any new call from God is to make sure we do what we are already doing with excellence. Growth happens when we build on what God has taught us not alongside it. So we must greet with excellence, we set up with excellence, we will take a personal interest in making sure every guest feels welcome, we will attend to every detail of what happens at NLCF. Whatever task we have, large or small we do it to the absolute best of our ability….Why? Because we are doing it for Jesus!

Have you considered that when you greet someone at the church door on Sunday morning you do so as Jesus’ appointed representative for that morning. As you participate in preparing for our service it is because Jesus is planning to meet people there. Good enough just isn’t …. when we are doing something for Him. So let’s be sure to encourage each other towards the highest of standards because we want the very best for Him.
 
When we caught God’s vision for the birth of New Life six people stepped up to lead. They have given (and continue to give) their very best. They have taken risks and tried new things from carol singing, and video teaching in “ One Prayer,” to the introduction of a unique church family covenant. And the rest of us followed and did so really well! God has blessed in so many ways we have almost forgotten what it was like to be two churches. We have doubled our attendance, celebrated baptisms, and more than fifty people signed our covenant together. We have launched a brand new website and been blessed by two new staff in our office…….

But now we look to the future, God will be calling more people to step up, both to lead and to be outstanding followers. Many of us He will call to do both. He will be calling more people to participate in greeting teams, set up teams and fellowship teams. He will be calling people to run our resource and information table, coordinate our Missions involvement and our Servant Evangelism initiatives. And that is just the beginning!

Remember this; New Life Christian Fellowship does not believe in the “warm body method”! God has given YOU gifts; He will enable YOU to do amazing things with those gifts, if you let Him!  Do you know what they are? If so, I urge you to come and see me so we can seek God together as to how He wants to use them. You don’t know what your gifts are?…. Well we will seek God together and He will show us. One thing is certain when the gifts were distributed nobody was left out! (Romans 12:6)

One last thing, when God gave us a vision he gave it to us so He can fulfill it using US! Our call is to be His church not His spectators. So let’s step up the stairs together “holding our forks”* because we KNOW the best is yet to come.

*If you can’t remember this reference listen to Perry Noble’s message with which we finished “One Prayer”