we have a vision.

The other day, someone asked Chris what his vision for the church was. His initial response was that he wanted to see growth-- people getting saved their lives having been truly changed forever through Jesus. 

I know that Chris speaks all day long (teaching math at his job) and preaches for 45 minutes three times a week in service and Sunday school as well. That’s a lot of talking for someone who usually doesn’t talk that much. Most the time, he would prefer not to talk at all. He's more of a doer. 

So that was his basic answer, but he decided that he couldn’t just leave it at that. 

What he said, in essence, was this: 

It doesn’t matter if our church remains at 50 people for the rest of our lives as long as my wife and kids love me and are really saved and serving God. What I am doing will have more impact on the world for Christ than you can imagine. My kids want to do something for God, they evangelize their teammates, friends and coaches all the time on their own, they pray for neighbors and nations on their own, they want to go to prayer and read their Bibles, and they love going to church. I may never have a church of more than 50, but my wife and kids are going to heaven. How do you know that there isn’t a megachurch in one of my kids? How do you know that there aren’t 5 or 6 missionaries and pastors or pastor’s wives in my kids? I know it to be true because I’ve seen it with my own pastor and his children. What good would it be to have a huge church, but my kids backslidden and my wife bitter at the ministry? I wouldn’t sacrifice them on the altar of ministry. I’ve seen too many pastors whose kids are not serving God. Someday I will stand before God and He will ask me first about the covenant I made with my wife before Him and my stewardship of the children He has given me. What strikes me most about our mother churches is not their numbers, but the fact that there are multiple generations of the same families serving God together in those bodies. They have hundreds of people who have been there for over 20 years. We want those people here. 

our oldest and our youngest