New Year Starts with a New Sunday Series

Beginning this Sunday I'll be teaching a series that I hope uses the newness of the year to refresh us on what we are supposed to be doing as a church in 2011. The series is about "vision", and in it I'll be sharing God's vision for NHC.

The great chapters of biblical history began with a leader or prophet proclaiming God's vision for His people and the world.

• God told Abraham he would be the father of a great nation.
• Moses was told that he would lead God's people out of slavery and back to their home.
• David longed for Jerusalem to house the Tabernacle and later the Temple.
• John the Baptist cried out to "prepare the way of the Lord" before Jesus began His ministry.
• Jesus said, "I will build my church".
• Paul's passion was to take the Gospel to Spain.
  

Recently, through our Connection Groups I asked for your questions about why we do things like we do to reach people to discover life in Christ. Many of the questions showed me that our vision has leaked! By that I mean that we have had the same priorities and have been headed the same direction since 1996 (when we wrote down our Vision Statement), but many of us have forgotten why. And it's my duty, as lead and primary teaching pastor to keep the vision before us clearly and often.

God told the prophet Habakkuk to "Write down the vision and make it plain" to the nation. If we don't understand "why" then we can't know "how". Vision explains the "why".

So do everything you can to be at NHC the next six Sundays.

Rick