GOVERNING PRINCIPLES

Throughout the journey ahead of us, the following principles and considerations will help guide and influence our planning and decision making:

A. God’s Provision: We trust and believe that God will do immeasurably more in VICTORY FELLOWSHIP than we could ever ask or imagine. Our commitment is to put our trust and faith in God alone and not in our planning or works.

B. Our Purpose: Church planting provides the most effective means of reaching the lost. In all of our planning and programming, we will stay focused on our core purpose to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. Additionally, we will strive to help all of our people at VICTORY FELLOWSHIP to value and appreciate the importance of church planting, and to experience first hand the excitement of seeing God at work doing miraculous things.

C. Our Values: Our values define what is important to us. Our values shape who we are, what we do, and how we act. In all things, we will strive to model and live our values.

D. Faith: A new church plant challenges us to step out in faith beyond our current comfort levels. God’s blessing and provision in the early stages of VICTORY FELLOWSHIP is abundant. In response, we need to take big steps of faith. In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus told the parable of the talents. The servants who were entrusted with much were faithful and thus were blessed with even more. We recognize God’s blessing on VICTORY FELLOWSHIP and will strive to be faithful with the abundance He has poured out on us.

E. Prayer: We recognize the power and absolute necessity of seeking God’s direction at every stage of this process. Proverbs 16:9 says, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” We will make prayer a priority.

F. Relationships: Establishing, building and nurturing relationships with God, with one another, and with the Community will take priority in all we do. We are committed to love each other (I Corinthians 13), not to a product or process.

G. Excellence: We will strive for excellence in all that we do. Excellence honors God. We desire to eliminate barriers between Christ and the unsaved. Our commitment to and demonstration of excellence will draw unsaved people to be more receptive to hearing and considering the good news of Jesus Christ.

H. Genius of the “And”: Transition into a building will enable us to reach more people AND improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of what we do. Conventional wisdom teaches that you can have either quantity or quality.

I. Planning: Planning is a means to an end, not the end. We will always seek first to be lead by God without being constrained by our plans. We will use planning as a tool to help us join God in what He is doing and to accomplish what He is calling us to do. Planning will help us coordinate our limited resources to move us from where we are to where God wants us to be. Our plans will serve as a guide to help focus our efforts and will be updated to reflect where God is leading us.

PEACE ON EARTH

We live in a world where people build walls that separate themselves from one another.  After spending his career keeping the United States out of even more wars, diplomat Francis Meehan observed, “Men are at war with each other because each man is at war within himself.”  Since the year 3600 BC the world has only known 292 years without war, computing to fifteen years of war for every year of peace.  There have been 14,600 wars killing four billion people. The value of property destroyed would pay for a wall of pure gold 97.5 miles thick and 33 feet high completely encircling the globe. In the 65 years since World War 2, there have been 140 wars killing 180 million people.

Martin Luther, said “Peace if possible, but the truth at all costs.” At Christmas we remember the song of the angels, “Peace on earth, and good will toward men.”  But ever since Cain killed his brother in a fit of rage, humanity has been marching toward Armegeddon.  Why this fatal attraction to war?  In James 4:1, the half-brother of Jesus asks,   “What causes fights and quarrels among you?”  Why do our homes become battlefields?  Why are there fights on school playgrounds?  What causes road rage and church conflicts?  Why do we cry, “Peace, peace!” even as we stockpile weapons of war?   Today, in Isaiah 9:6, we come to the fourth title for the child who will carry the government on his shoulders: “And he will be called “Prince of Peace.” ” Verse seven adds, “Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end”  Here’s the fourth and final principle of our advent series: There can be no peace between people unless there is peace within people. There will be no peace within people until they are at peace with God.

There is only one warrior who wages truly just war.  Isaiah says of him in verse seven, “He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with  justice  and righteousness.” Revelation 19:11 says of him, “With justice he judges and makes war.”  No one else, no matter how holy their cause, can ever say they fought an absolutely-just war with purely-righteous  motives.  In James 4:1&2 the half-brother of Jesus gives the reason for most fights:   “Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?  You want something but donít get it.  You kill and covet, but you can’t have what you want.  You quarrel and fight.  You do not have because you do not ask God”

At the heart of all war are covetous hearts.  James would say that nations march off to war, and tiny tots fight over toys in the nursery, for the same reason:  discontented with what they have, they lust after and seize what belongs to others instead of asking God to supply their needs.  Winston Churchill revealed his covetous heart when he saw war as a means to advance his political career.  When Europeís best young men were being butchered in World War 1, he wrote in a letter to a friend,  “I think a curse should rest on me because I love this war.  I know its smashing and shattering the lives of thousands every moment and yet I cant help it I enjoy every second of it.”

MISSION

Jesus gave his disciples a mission recorded in Matthew 28:18-20 thus:

“All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

This is not an easy mission. Jesus begins by telling us that he has all authority, and he ends by promising us that he will be with us always.  But we will have to do our part too.  This requires  fully devoted followers.

THE VISION

Jesus shared the Gospel message of the Kingdom of God in three and a half years in a very securely ordered world.

The Roman world was securely ordered and Rome was brutal when that order was violated. There were chief priests and scribes and Pharisees. There were countless rules and regulations. People knew their place – like it or not.

Jesus preached,

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’ but I say to you, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”

Jesus told stories about the kingdom.

A landowner hired employees for his vineyard. He paid those who started 30 minutes before quitting time exactly the same wage as those who had worked from dawn. How orderly is that? In another story Jesus said that a powerful man invited his close friends for a great feast. When they didn’t show up, he brought in the homeless, the drunks and the gang members. How orderly is that? In another story Jesus said, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” How orderly is that?

People of the Movement

Early Christians were known as “people of the way” – people of the movement. A movement: that’s how the Methodist Church began in Great Britain.

John Wesley, Charles Wesley and a handful of highly disciplined disciples of Jesus were determined to live as Jesus had taught his disciples. Both were priests of the Church of England. However, most of the people to whom they preached and who formed the early Methodist classes, bands and societies were people with little economic, religious or political power. Responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, the Wesleys sought to help people become the whole persons that God intended. They made Christian faith simple and practical. “Do no harm. Do good. Attend to the ordinances of God.” A movement called ‘methodist’ was born.

The Movement in 1800s

It was a similar story in this brand new country called the United States. According to Dr. Nathan Hatch, a Methodist historian at Notre Dame University, the American followers of John Wesley could boast no more than four ministers and three hundred lay people in 1771.

The church was threatened with extinction during the Revolution. However, between the end of the Revolution and 1850 – seventy years – the Methodists achieved a virtual miracle of growth, rising from less than 3% of all American church members in 1776 to more than 34% by 1850.

Methodists were famous for their ability to move.

Responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, they moved physically. Circuit riders traveled west and south with the wagon trains. They transcended lines of race and class and language. Methodists empowered ordinary people to express their faith in Jesus Christ. Methodists were known as a church which “moved with the spirit.”  By 1850, nearly one out of five Americans was associated with the Methodists. Someone has noted that Methodist was the most extensive national institution other than the Federal government.

The Movement in 1900s

Fast forward to my lifetime.  By the time I was born in 1973, The Methodist movement of John Wesley was becoming less and less well known for responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, or being a “movement,”  and better known for its great, strong and mighty institutions and agencies.

Those institutions and agencies brought permanence and stability in a world that had experienced the chaos and insecurity of a Great Depression and two great wars in a half century.  Functioning like mighty, well-oiled machines, they were created to endure, to order the church and to offer Christ’s ministry forever. Southern Methodist denomination, a remnant of that “movement” continue to bless the church and the world. It does good works in education, mission and ministry to the poor. I am proud to be a Southern Methodist and desire to continue to support and maintain the Southern Methodist denomination and its programs.

The Movement in 2000s

In my early years of ministry, I believed that my vocation was the faith development of the children, youth and adults in our congregation. My thoughts changed when Joyce and I found ourselves pasturing a vacant church building. We began to think about our neighborhood and community of Dallas, Texas as a mission field. Since there was no one to “come,” Joyce and I had to “go.” “Missionary church planting movement” was birthed in our lives.

Thank God for instituitions and programs which bring stability, order and good works. Thank God for the people who envisioned them and whose generosity supports them. For all their sacrifices, I can think of no better word than “gratitude.” I am truly grateful for  our Southern Methodist denomination and programs being passed on to my generation.

However, the foundations laid in the 19th and 20th centuries need to be lifted up as the platforms with which we launch the new initiatives of the 21st century.

It is time we become a movement. It takes a movement of the Holy Spirit to spread the gospel message. I believe  we are ready to become a missionary movement.

BEYOND 2008

Take a moment and imagine Victory Fellowship in 2017.

Can you see a functional SM Church in Dallas, Texas? Can you see a ministry with 3 Outreach Centers recruiting, equipping and supporting church plantings? Can you see a ministry with 7 daughter and/or network churches? Can you see a ministry with 12 apartment and house churches? Can you see a missionary movement with 70 Summer Missionary Interns trained and sent? And can you see a ministry with 3000 Souls won and equiped for every good work?

In Acts 2:12 – 13 we read; “And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, what meaneth this?” Others mocking said, “These men are full of new wine.”

Dear friends, we live in an age, a Pentecost like season, when everyone knows that everything is changing at a speed of a vioent wind, at the speed of wildfire,  and we cannot comprehend it at all. Like those present at the Pentecost, our heads are spinning, and we cannot make heads or tails of it all. We are living at exponential times. Information technologies, populations, jobs, cultures, the church are all shifting at lightning speed. Lyle Schaller implies that if the 1950s return, the denominational mindset will be perfectly positioned to reach the world.

1950s will not return. So what do we do now? I believe the answer lies in the recovery of Spirit-movement. A spirit movement rushes in the edge of people’s needs and hunger.

I believe God is calling us to repent and pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Transformation begins with repentance. We must die to self and be raised to new, transformed life in Christ Jesus. John Wesley got it right when he said, a movement that will transform the world must begin with the movement of God within heart and soul of the individual.

When Peter’s compelling sermon compelled the pentecost crowd to ask “So now what do we do?” He did not hesitate in responding “REPENT! Repent so that your sins may be forgiven. Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

IMAGINE 2017

We cannot imagine 2017 without repentance.  We must REPENT.

We must turn to God before we turn others to God. We must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and we must receive the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we do not go out into the world powerless.

SO WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

We must enter into a season of repentance. It is time to turn back to God. It is time to pray fervently for the gift of the Holy Spirit who alone will clothe us with full armor of God.

I know this repentance has to begin with me.

For me I must repent of my tendency to be more of a planner than a prayer warrior. I cannot tell what parts of your lives; work and witness need to turn back to God. I confess that I have often focused on growing disciples by osmosis rather than by leading persons to new birth in Christ. I confess that I often depend on my own cleverness, methodologies, and strategies rather than being fully dependent on God’s hope and call. I repent of my tendencies to blame others, systems and even our beloved denomination.

And so I pray, Lord God, gentle my desperation, soften my fears and soothe the knots of my anxiety. Help me take responsibility for my own contribution to our decline and loss of evangelistic fervor. Lord reshape me to be an agent of hope and healing. Help me always to remember that transformation begins with me.