This week, as a church, we went to see Hillsong United’s documentary release “The IHEART Revolution: We’re All In This Together”. It’s a project that was several years in the making and the purpose of the film was to talk about worship, injustice and the Church. It is a film that we wanted our church family to see because it carries our heart for Vantage Church.
The vision statement of Vantage Church is to build a large and thriving church that grows engaged, passionate and mature disciples of Christ by challenging mind-sets, caring for and empowering people and raising up generations of believers who are committed to being the hands and feet of Jesus.
Everything we do as a church is to bring about this vision. Vantage Church is a church that doesn’t seek to be served. As a congregation, we shouldn’t be asking “what can I get out of this?” but rather “what can I do to be a blessing?” For too long, there has been a lot of selfishness within the church… people attending, critiquing and analysing church. Seeing the church as place they go to have their needs met. And there lies the problem… the church isn’t a place. The movie theatre that we meet in each Sunday isn’t our church. Our church is you. You ARE the church. And you know what that means? It means that when you leave church on a Sunday, you can’t leave God at the door and go about your week without Him. You, as a believer in Jesus, ARE part of His church and God is with you wherever you go.
The church is all about bringing Him glory, through everything, in everything. John 4:23-24 says “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” This passage isn’t talking about the 20 minutes we spend singing to God in our services. It is talking about sacrificial lives that are spending their time, energy and breath to bring God glory wherever we are.
The IHEART revolution highlighted many destructive and sobering situations happening across our globe. All of these issues break the heart of our God because there are hurting, lost people involved. And it is easy for us to sit in our comfy, movie theatre seats and watch the big screen and then walk away, having been inspired or challenged or both. But unless we act, it’s all in vein.
There are hurting, lost people on our doorstep. We don’t have to go very far at all to find them. They live in our communities, we work with them, and our kids go to school with them. And yet how easy is it for us to get complacent, to take our first-world living for granted and go about our lives with our head in the sand? Jesus came to this earth and made the ultimate sacrifice for us. He died an excruciating, humiliating death and took the sin of the world on His shoulders so that we didn’t have to. He conquered the grave – the power of sin and death – so that we could be reconciled to Him and have a relationship with Him.
On thanksgiving, we talked about how as a church we are called to be generous people who live lives of gratitude. We defined gratitude as a feeling in the heart, an expression in words, and a giving in return. I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ has been good at feeling it in the heart and has even been good at expressing it. But we haven’t necessarily been very good at giving in return.
The Church is God’s solution to the problems facing humanity. He has given us everything that we need, through His spirit, to minister to the broken and hurting. Vantage Church is one of many bodies of believers that are in Toronto and we are a church that stands for truth and righteousness, a church that is passionate about making everyone feel a part of the family and above all, being a congregation known for their love of God and their love for people.
We are not perfect and we have a long way to go. We have a big vision and in our early days as a church, our vision far exceeds our resource. The theme of our first launch service was ‘We’re all in this together” and we truly believe that. It is going to take each of us being wholly committed to the vision to fulfil what we’re called to do. If you call Vantage Church home, what can you do to become more committed to seeing the vision of Vantage Church come to pass?
Perhaps you just need to commit to being in church every week, making it one of your non-negotiables in life. As you get connected to the family and are continually filled up by the teaching of the word and worship, you will be able to give to others out of the overflow of your life. There are thirsty people everywhere and without a full cup, you cannot quench their thirst.
Maybe you need to start contributing financially. The reality is that without people that understand the power of giving, our church cannot do what we’re called to do.
Maybe you need to have a conversation with your neighbour or colleague about church – they could just be waiting for an invitation to come.
Whatever it is, I pray that you would be searching your heart. Don’t walk away from the IHEART film unchanged. God commands a blessing where there is unity…. We are all in this together and with each of us moving forwards from strength to strength, united in our love for God and actively being the hands and feet of Jesus, our city will never be the same!
Tags: church, family, God, heart, Hillsong Church, injustice, Jesus, passionate, Vantage Church, vision, worship
Amen. God is working in the world right now to let us know that we can’t continue to look at social justice in the same way we have been in the past. He wants us to search our souls and see each other as absolute equals, giving value to all human life, regardless of its origin or difference from our own. We need to begin seeing each other as family. God’s family. Brothers and sisters all. Struggling through life on this planet together, with everything in common; as opposed to how we are separated. We need to remember our basic beliefs and follow them. We all ask “what can I do? I’m just one person.” but we forget that Christ was one person, and He changed everything. He makes all things new. Praise Jesus.