Hey, good morning, everybody. It’s good to be with you. Welcome to the Broward Church for those who are brand new. Welcome to the Broward Church for those who have been here for 30-plus years, for some of you, for 40-plus years. I want to tell you a little bit about what you just walked into. Today is a day that we talk about the future of this congregation, this church. We’re going to talk a little bit about where we’ve been. We’re going to look briefly at our history and the impact that God has had through many of us. Then we’re going to talk about where we’re going, where we’re going overall and where we’re going more specifically in particular in 2024. We’ve entitled this lesson today, Picture this. The idea behind the title highlights our intention to help all of us see where we’ve been and also help all of us see where we want to go. That’s the point of our talk. But first, let me address the bright elephant in the room. Let’s talk a little bit about the stage and the design. Amen. Yeah, please. I know walking in after a week away, things look, let’s just say, a bit different.
Let me give you some background. Let’s start with this beautiful white wall. Two weeks ago, aesthetically, things were dark. We had what we call a black box stage where it is black. You might remember that we did that primarily because during COVID, we were trying to film and we had live stream services, and God really blessed that. I’ll talk about that more a little bit later. But the more we spoke to you and the more we prayed and the more we considered who we wanted to be as a congregation, the more it became clear to us that the black box field isn’t really us. Sunday services for us aren’t a performance. They’re a participation of a community together dedicated to worshiping our Lord. We thought that our esthetic should match the culture we desire to have, a culture of participation, a culture of, as the scriptures say, we sing to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. And so we wanted to brighten things up. I contacted a bunch of the guys in the church and asked for some help laying down the floor and building a white wall. I just wanted to say a huge thank you to Mario Moreira, to Tony Fernandez senior, to Ben Perez and then to Noelle Saunders for her design eye.
So Amen. Hand for them. Now let’s talk a little bit about the screens. In 2018, we purchased new projectors. These projectors have served us really well for the last six plus years, but they were failing. I know you know they were failing because many of you reached out to me telling me the screens were failing. We prepared in 2023 to purchase new projectors, but as we were pricing projectors that had the technical capability required for our uses and for our buildings and for our new bright esthetic, it became clear to us that really we needed not a screen, but a video wall. Video walls, as you might expect, are expensive. The media team here, alongside our two deacons who work in the tech side of this church and some staff, we just resigned. We were to the idea that we were just going to wait. Let’s just wait. Now, a few months ago, a light was blinking in the auditorium. I called the vendor who replaces our lights, I have to tell you one additional detail, that vendor is Cassandra’s dad, my father-in-law. When I told him that we needed a new light, he said that he would be willing to come and replace all of our lights for free.
Then he talked about our ministry. He talked about the church that God had built through all of you and how proud he was of this community, even though he doesn’t attend this community. See, my father-in-law goes to a lot of churches, installs tech stuff all over America, and he looked at us and saw that this congregation is just different. Then he explained how he had been so blessed that he wanted to be a blessing to our church. It’s a little bit like Abraham, right? You’re a blessing… You’re blessed to be a blessing. So on that phone call, as he was talking, you can tell that his offer was growing and growing. And he offered not only to replace our house lights, but also to help us with our bright new aesthetic so that we can open the shades again to redo the lighting, to redo the lighting on the trusses, both the front trusses and the back trusses, and then to donate a portion of the video wall and come and install it for free. And on the call, I said, yeah, Amen. And on the call, I said, wow, I have to talk to some people to get approval.
And then we talked and we agreed. And so he came in on Sunday. He worked all through the week up to Wednesday. He worked really around the clock. And so here we are here today. And so I just want to publicly thank him. I want to thank Peter, Alicia, Chris, and the whole Springtree team for their great work. Isn’t it amazing? That’s the story of the stage. Our hope is that over the course of the next few months, we were going to continue to emphasize this culture of Sunday services focus on the sacred and on community and on participatory worshippers that elevate our King, who is Jesus Christ. Okay, now on to the main event. I’m so excited about today. I’ve literally been thinking about this service for the better part of eight or nine months. If I’m a little bit antsy and I go too quick, I apologize. But that’s just me. You’re experiencing me. We’re going to start our discussion today by talking a little bit about the journey, the history of this Jesus community. On October 30th, 1972. You guys can run it, yeah. The West Side Church of Broward was incorporated.
A mission team from Lexington, Kentucky, was sent to bring the gospel to this growing area of South Florida. The mission team was led by a man named Vaughan Reeves, and he had their sight and they had their sight set on saturating Broward County with the good news about Jesus Christ, and God blessed it. The West Side Church of Broward had helped convert many people in those first couple of years, and so the church grew from very little to about 40 in the first two years. As the congregation grew numerically, they began to look for a building. In 1976, four years after its planting, this community built a building on Hiatus Road in an area called Plantation Acres. I talked to one of the founding members of the West Side Church of Broward, and they told me that Hiatus Road was basically in the Everglades. Hiatus Road in the Everglades. They said, we wanted to call our church Swamp Church of Christ. The building being built was followed almost immediately by a name change. They went from the West Side Church of Broward to the Plantation Church of Christ and new leadership, a man by the name of Richard Belmore.
During this time, a young up and coming church in Gainesville, Florida had begun to explode, a church called the Crossroads Church, and our history would forever be tied to theirs. As many of the members of the Crossroads Church would come home for summer or come home after college and make the plantation Church of Christ their home church. There are actually some people in this congregation who were baptized in that congregation. People like, Oh, back up. Back, back, back. You’re spoiling it. Go back. Okay, good. All right, good. Okay, no, can you go like a bunch back or do I want to do it? All right, close your eyes, everyone. All right, that’s good. Yeah, it’s good. Cool. Thank you. We’re back. People like Pam Stern were converted in Gainesville, Florida. Yeah. And Carol Fitament and there’s so many others. These young brothers and sisters, they came with a new zeal and they longed for a different type of church than the church that they had spirits all over the place. The Plantation Church of Christ began to look for new leaderships. In the summer of 1979, Bruce and Robin Williams were hired out of the Crossroads Church.
I talked to Bruce, and he shared with me the stories about so many of you. He talked about the people. He talked about the little building in Plantation Acres. He told me that the baptistry was under the stage. So when they wanted to baptize somebody, they had to move the podium. They would flip the stage open, they would baptize somebody, then they would close the stage and then he said the stage would be wet. He talked about the work that was done and all the people that were converted by those college students. He talked about the cultural diversity, how the church was not just white, but was black and Asian and so many other races. In the time of radical tension and racial tension, in the backdrop of all of that, God had built a community, a diverse community, and it was incredible. Many of my heroes were converted during that time when the church was the Plantation Church of Christ. Here are some pictures. This is Bill and Jenny Hayden, Art and Debbie Colson, Richard Boll, the Mefoods, Chuck and Kerry Steele, Joe and Jamie Vogel, Bob Owens and many, many, many more. He talked about one man in particular who was his campus intern, Richard Rodriguez.
Talked about how he had trained Richard and had worked with Richard and he loved this church so much. Now, during those initial years in South Florida, the church really began to explode and many, many, many people became Christians. The church planted, built a new building because they outgrew that little house and plantation acres. This building would be built on a small country road called Orange Drive, miles away from the big city in a place called Davie. It’s the building you’re sitting in today. In 1986, eight years after Bruce arrives, the church would build this amazing building and then changed the name of the church to the River Grove Church of Christ. And finally, this small church had its home. In 1987, the Williams moved to San Francisco. In 1988, there was a new leader that came to lead this congregation, a man by the name of Sam Lang. Sam and Jerry brought a broader vision of what God can do. And to speak to that vision, the church once again changed its name from the River Grove Church of Christ to the Miami Fort Lauderdale Church of Christ. They had big dreams, big aspirations. And for four years, God did some extraordinary things.
Us. The story goes that many, many, many, many, many people were converted during that time. But there’s one month in particular where 99 people were baptized in one month in this congregation. Some of those 99 are still sitting in this room. Sam Lang had a dream, and the staff here had a dream of planting a church in Miami. They planted churches all over, but one significant planting was a church in Miami. What the story goes that many of the members who were in Broward sold their homes and moved to Miami to help plant the church that we now call the One Miami Church. But Broward planted that church. Those times for so many in this room are remembered with such fondness. Now let’s talk about the years between 1992 and 2003. I don’t have time to go through all the details surrounding this time as leaders changed every few months. But here are a few highlights. In 1992, Sam Lang was replaced by a man named Phil Lamb, and the church once again changed its name to the South Florida Church of Christ. The church in the 90s could be categorized… It could be categorized as a time of challenges, of trials, of growth, of adventure, and certainly of hardship.
I know many of you were in the church during that time, and everyone who lived it has a different feeling when they process that time. But let me just say what I believe to be the most striking thing is that with everyone I talk to explain to me this idea that God used this time to humble men, to save souls and to reclaim his church. During that time, this building was sold to pay for missions, and in 1998, Phil was replaced by a man named Andrew, G, and Barbara. But by 2002, he had also resigned. In 2001, we appointed elders in this congregation. For the first time, we had a man named John Rush and Tom Cohn. When Andrew resigned, he left a congregation who was led by these two amazing elders. Now, what’s amazing about all of this portion of history is this, during those years, from the ’70s until 2003, God used this church to spread His message all over the world. This church has directly planted or has partnered in planting churches all over the place. I started counting, and I counted about 21 different churches, and I’m sure I missed a few, but what was clear is that by 2004, this church really needed to steady the ship.
We allowed the elders to really lead and guide this church back to a healthy place. In 2006, the church had begun to see itself not just as the South Florida Church, but as the Palm Beach Church, the Broward Church, and the Miami-Dade Church, those three separate regions. We started working to have a facility that could be our full-time facility. Now, the search committee looked for buildings all over the place, thought about planting, or rather thought about building new buildings, but it became clear that there was only one place that could be their home. It was this building. In 2005, we purchased this building back and had our very first service back in this building in January 2006. During that time, God did some amazing things and brought in some brand new leadership. God raised up John and Barbara Porter to help oversee the work of this ministry to breathe new life into this congregation and to emphasize the next generation. I came in, when I came in, it was 2007, and John was leading this church. I am forever indebted to the work of John and Barbara Porter. God then raised up by John and Barbara Porter, a couple named Marcus and Amy Overstreet, who appointed deacons and appointed elders and then, hello, and then appointed me and my wife as evangelist and ministry leader in this church.
They decided, Marcus and Amy decided that they wanted to have a new adventure. And in 2016, they began to look for a church that they can partner in either planting or helping to grow. And so they joined a mission team in Edinburgh, Scotland. And a search began in 2017 for new leaders. The elders and you at that time and trusted the future of this community to Cassandra and I. And this time we changed the name of the church one more time. Here’s what I didn’t know. I didn’t know that everybody who became a leader changed the name. If I would have known that, I would not have done that. Amen. I’m just going to tell whoever does it next time not to do it. The name was changed to better reflect who we want it to be that our mission really is Broward now. We’re focused on this county. Before I go into the modern history, I’d just like to editorialize a bit. I wasn’t around during 90% of this history. I only read it in books and interviewed people who had been around. But what I noticed was that during those times, there have always been a group, a remnants of people, core group of disciples who did not build their faith based on a leader and did not build their faith based on a name of a church building and did not build their faith based on the style of worship, but instead they decided to build their faith on Jesus Christ.
Those who are here today, they love this church and they want the same thing for this church that the founders of this church wanted. They want to see Jesus’s identity being all over this county. In 2017, I was asked to be the lead evangelist in the church. I was empowered by the elders and empowered by so many of you. We came up with this axiom. We wanted to be a church not for ourselves. This axiom, this name was supposed to become our identity. We wanted to not be about a man, not be about this church in particular. We wanted to be about everyone who was out there and about Jesus who was our King. God, over the last six years, has done some extraordinary things. He has grown this church. We’ve sent out missionaries. We’ve been innovative and I believe that God has allowed this church to recapture Jesus’s heart for its community.
Then came March 13th, 2020. I don’t know if you remember March 13th, 2020, but I certainly do. I was sitting at my house and I got a text from one of you, I think it was Stephen Mitchell saying, The schools are closed on Monday.What are we going to do about church on Sunday? I called, it was a Friday, I’m sorry. I called the elders and I said, What are we going to do about church on Sunday? We pretty much unanimously decided at that time that we were not going to be able to have in-person services. In an hour, this church pivoted from in-person ministry, which was our bread and butter, to fully online. God was able to use this community in some amazing ways. Friday, we announced that we were not going to be meeting and we were going to instead film a service in person. Shane Peterson and Fernando jumped on the bandwagon and said, hey, we’re going to make this thing work. Before the day was out, we had our first service filmed. I want to say what the title of the service was because it’s very funny to me. We were doing the Book of exodus, as you might remember, that had already been predecided. And the title of the sermon, which had already been predecided, was “Days of Darkness”. And for a year, in some ways we lived that way, apart from one another in days of darkness.
But we were ready to go for our very first live stream Sunday on Sunday morning at 10:00 a. M. Our service became the Sunday service for thousands upon thousands of people. More than you even know, churches tell me all the time that they used our Sunday services for the better part of a year. The Broward Church was their church. God did some extraordinary things during that time. I want to just mention something about that. During that time, we decided that we wanted to write new music, that we wanted to engage in more creative endeavors. We wrote some of the songs. One of the songs we sang today, the Song of Our Father. Remember that song? Song of our father. It’s an upbeat, enjoyable song because of all the struggles that were going on during that time. A couple of months back, I got a text from my friend, Tony Singh. He said this to me. He said, hey, bud, I am at the bedside of a dying brother, and the song I am playing is the Song of My Father. What a blessing you are. This brother who was dying in Ottawa said that his favorite music was the Broward Church music.
And so as God was taking him to be in glory, he wanted to listen to the songs that we had written. This was the next text I received. Eric is now in paradise. He passed on from this life to the next early this morning as we were listening to your songs. I told Jason this story, and Jason said, That’s enough. I don’t need any views. I don’t need anything else. This is enough for me. I just want you to know that God used this church. When we came back together, you rallied around us. You rallied around us and you said, Hey, we’re going to rebuild this thing together. Last summer, our dear John and Pat, or this past summer, our dear John and Pat decided that it was best for them to move and to be with their grandchildren. I was in an elders meeting, and as I was talking to the elders about what to do next and where to go, I had these plans about how we were going to use their funds and hire more people and all these things. Tom Hattaway stopped me and said, Tony, this is awesome, but we need direction.
We need a future vision. We need to know where we’re going. What we had built was great pre-pandemic, but we need a post-pandemic plan. I thought, you’re 100% right. We began a journey in figuring out where we wanted to go as a church. I didn’t want to do it alone, and so what I decided to do was to meet with so many of you. I met with 100 disciples, 15 different groups. I asked you to help me paint the future of this church, to give me inputs about what you would do to reshape our church. I listened to you and I was amazed by a couple of things. The first thing I was amazed by is how much the people in this church love this church. I was amazed by how you want to see this congregation become a better reflection of Jesus’s heart. I was amazed by how impressed upon your heart the mission of Jesus was. I was amazed by how much you valued the next generation. I got the inputs. I decided that I would take them, that I would synthesize your thoughts, and that I would work with the elders and the staff to develop something that we can look, that you would love, that we can look towards the past the future, and more importantly, something that would honor the heart of Christ.
I want to present to you a little bit about where we’re going. I’m going to talk first about vision, then mission, and then some areas of focus. Let me begin by reminding you of the vision of this church. This is Philippians 3. This is what it says. If someone else thinks they have reason to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. This is the apostle Paul speaking. Circumcized on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew, a Hebrew of Hebrews in regards to the law, a Pharisee, as for zeal, persecution the church as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. Paul is addressing the church in Philippe, and he looks over his history. He looks over his perfect religious pedigree. He talks about his pride, his national pride. He explores his qualities that would allow him to be qualified to lead his own life, to be free from all other people, to decide what to do. He says in verse 5 that he’s a Hebrew of Hebrews. He’s a student of history. He’s a scholar of the Bible. Verse 6 says that in terms of zeal for God, he is so zealous that he’s willing to do whatever it takes to obey the law.
He says, I have anything that anyone would ever dream of having. I have it all. Paul has money. Paul has education. Paul has popularity. Paul has a good salary, probably a good home. I have it all. Then he makes an interesting turn, verse 7, But whatever were gains to me, I now consider loss. Whatever God had credited to my account, I now consider nothing. All of that stuff, my religious prowess, trash. My zealous adherence to the law, garbage. All of it is nothing. Why, Paul? Why is it all considered nothing to you? I have lost it all, Paul says. Why? For the sake of Christ. I cashed in all of my chips for one thing, Jesus Christ. What is more? I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord. For whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage that I might gain Christ. My education, my hopes, my dreams, my plans, my understanding, my history, my own righteousness, I look at them and I see them as trash compared to knowing Jesus Christ. Paul looks at the landscape of his life and says, Look, it’s all garbage.
Now all I want, Paul thinks, is Jesus. All I care about is the pursuit of knowing Jesus. All I care about is being like Jesus. All of Paul’s hopes and dreams have been replaced by being like Jesus. I want you to see that. All of Paul’s life is being replaced by being like Jesus. Paul will later say, Christ is my life. Then he continues, Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet having taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God took hold of me. He jumps into this illustration about a marathon runner. If you have been a Christian for a while, you know that Christianity is a marathon, and he’s pressing, striving towards a single goal. What’s the goal to be like Jesus Christ. He’s not distracted by anything else or anyone else because he has a race to run, a goal to achieve, a goal of knowing and being close to Jesus Christ. Paul’s mission makes him single-minded. Paul wants to be like Christ. Paul wants to be with Christ.
Paul wants to understand Christ. Jesus is the only person that Paul desires to be close to. I want to just make a little note here because it’s something that you have discovered also. If you’re in this room, you have discovered likely what Paul has discovered, which is that Jesus is the only person that actually can lead your life, so you might as well give it to him. This is Paul’s feeling. Paul’s intense about it. He’s not distracted, he’s not confused. If you were to ask Paul what his vision statement is, it would be very simple, Jesus. Then he says, and then you might say rather, Well, what about church growth, Paul? Don’t you care about that? Don’t you care about planting new churches? Don’t you care about appointing elders? Don’t you care about reaching the lost and healing the broken world? I bet you Paul would say, Of course, I care about that. But I make sure I put first things first. Jesus is first. My goals are second. Jesus’s dreams are first. My dreams are second. First things need to be first. If you’re like me, you look at that text and you think, wow, Paul, that’s amazing for you.
That’s so important that you would do that. Then Paul just says something that should blow your mind. This is what he says. Okay, look, all of your stuff is garbage. That’s what he says. All of my stuff is garbage, except for knowing Jesus. That’s what he says. Then he says this, all of us then, who are mature, should take such a view of things. The more you mature, the more simple your vision becomes. The more you mature, the more everything fades. I don’t need riches. I don’t need more. I don’t need to be original. I don’t need to be creative. I don’t need to be someone who’s praised. I don’t need to be the one who is glorified. I don’t need to be the one who is known. I don’t need to be needed. I don’t need to be the smartest person, the best looking person, the most powerful person, the leader. I don’t need to be important. The more we mature, the more our faith should say, just give me Jesus. I want to know Christ. I want to be caught up in knowing Christ, and I don’t want to be caught up in what the world is offering.
I’m just saying all of us should be pursuing that idea. When we talk about what we’re doing as a Vision Sunday, typically what happens is on a Vision Sunday or a Sunday, or a Sunday, we’re talking about the future. The person coming up on stage talks about their plans, and they say, This is what I want you to buy into. I think that there’s a place for that, and that’s fair. But when I talk about vision, I’m saying something that supersedes all of that stuff. I’m talking about more than just our plans and more than just our hopes. When I say the word vision, what I’m saying is this church exists to please Christ, and everything else is just an adornment to that wonderful idea. Jesus already has a vision for this church, and it’s our job to identify it and make it known. I don’t want to beg God to be the visionary. I don’t want to beg God that he would achieve all of my goals. I want to beg God that he would allow me to achieve his. You may think that doesn’t sound like direction. You’re right. It’s more like a correction.
It’s like corrective lenses. It’s about making sure first things are first. When we say our vision statement, what we’re declaring is simply this, Jesus has the final say in this community. We’re going to have plans. We’re going to have lots of plans. We’re going to share all the plans, but I don’t want you to get it twisted. Those are just plans. Christ already has a vision. We have this line that we’re saying that we’re repeating over and over again. It’s this line. Back up. Yeah, we’ll do this now. Sorry. We’re saying this idea that we want to, we exist to fulfill the vision of Jesus. I want you to see this little map here. It’s actually in your pamphlets there. This little map is supposed to highlight this idea that we exist, we want to be people that saturate Broward with the vision of Jesus Christ. Does this make sense? Okay, here’s the question. The question becomes, how do we do that? How do you actually do that? Well, because you see the blue dots, you see how they’re not yellow? Those are us. Those are just normal folks. They’re just people. How does the world be saturated with the vision of Jesus?
What I have discovered, because you have discovered it, so many of us have discovered it, is that Jesus has always used people to impart his vision in a community. It’s this idea that we are supposed to be lit on fire so that we can help the rest of the world achieve the vision of Jesus. Does that make sense? That’s the idea here. We exist to fulfill the vision of Jesus. I want to talk to you… I want to talk to you then a little bit about mission. We start with vision as the overarching idea. What it says is this is our objective. Our objective is very simple. We want the whole community of Broward County to experience Jesus Christ. Is that fair? Is that lofty? Yes. Is it too big? Probably. But that’s what we want. That’s what we’re after. We want to fulfill Jesus’s vision in our community. The question is, how do we do that? That leads to a question about mission. Mission is how we will achieve our vision. This is our mission statement. Every disciple, I’m going to say that again, every disciple, not one, not two, not just the preacher, not just the guy who is the community group leader, every every disciple needs to be involved in what Jesus is trying to do.
How are they involved? Well, they’re readied, which means they’re prepared, which means they’re going, all right, I’m ready, I’m empowered. Then empowered to discern, that means understand the world and then to what? Shape the worlds. How are we going to fulfill the vision of Jesus? It’s you. I don’t have some big program. I’m not going to be like, Well, here’s what it is. It’s this video series that we’re going to launch and thousands of people are going to be convinced. No, no, no, it’s you. It’s you. It’s you and it’s you and it’s you and it’s you and it’s you. Here’s what we’re saying. Everything we’re trying to achieve in this church begins with the everyday, average, you and me member. We can’t do anything unless you’re in it. It reminds me, though, of the way that this church has grown. I want to share with you four quick stories because the Broward Church has always been about the people. Do you guys know who this is? This is Stephen Brevet. Barbara Brevet and Marcia Brevet, who are faithful members of this congregation, I want to talk a little bit about Barbara Brevet’s husband, Stephen, who was reluctant to come to church for, I don’t know, 42 years.
But for 42 years, Barbara, the family prayed that God would work a tremendous miracle in the life of their husband and family member. Their faith, their steadfastness, their discipline, and their willingness to keep praying and praying and praying and praying and praying and praying and praying achieved for Stephen some miraculous thing. One day, he decided to walk through the doors of this building and his heart was completely changed. He gave his life to Jesus and his life was transformed. Now, this is your brother in Christ. He prays for your family. He prays with his family. This is 42 years of average members praying every day for their relative. This church has always been about the people. I want to share with you a story of someone just a little bit younger. This is Emily Vogel. Emily Vogel, her parents were Joe and Jamie Vogel, who were baptized in the Broward Church when it was still called the West Side Church of Christ in 1979. Emily’s parents traveled all over South Florida to strengthen churches and to also help plant Miami. But eventually they landed back in the Broward Church and became pillars here in this community, deacons of this church.
Growing up all along, Emily saw her parents’ sacrifice and their love for this community. Emily studied the Bible and was baptized as a young teenager. Many single women studied the Bible with her. Beth Owen, Summer Pierre Lewis. They poured into her life and mentored her. When she was baptized, and when she was baptized, she served in the ministry. She went off to college, and when she came back from college, she was wondering what she was going to do. I said to her, Emily, God through this church has done so much for you. What are you going to do for it? She decided to come on staff and to work with our teens and then eventually to work with… She told me she was going to be here for one year. She’s been here for five years, and now she pours out her life for our single women. The single sisters had poured into her, helped her become a disciple, and now she pours into single sisters and helps them become a disciple. It’s an amazing thing. This church has always been about the members. I’m going to talk about Richard Bull. Richard Bull was invited to a soul talk in 1980.
He was baptized on October 29th, 1980, and he knew his life was forever changed. Richard went from a shy, introverted kid to maybe the most extroverted, evangelistic, disciple we have in our church. Richard was baptized as a college student and now has become a pillar in this church and has poured into so many of our lives. Again, Richard doesn’t have fancy titles. He’s just an amazing disciple of Jesus Christ. This church has always been about the people. A more recent story that this is Stephen Machado and Michelle Machado. Stephen and Michelle were engaged to be married and came to visit the church. They decided that they wanted to give their life over to Jesus. We study the Bible. They made many, really challenging decisions. They decided, you know what? They wanted to give their whole life to Jesus Christ. They decided to move out their homes and to live in separate homes until they could get married. God honored those decisions and obviously helping them get married, but also helping them become disciples of Jesus Christ. They studied the Bible. They became Christians in 2022. That’s only a year ago. In 2024, next year, they’re going to be community group leaders in our church.
This church has always been about the people. It’s about the people. It’s about you and it’s about me. It’s about us, average members. I say us, average members because all of us are average, just newsflash. There are no extraordinary people among us. There’s just a bunch of people who want to see the vision of Jesus take place in this world. You and I. You and I. The goal, the mission statement of the church is that every member is ready and empowered to discern and shape the world. It’s our job as a church to help set you on fire to do that. How do we do that? Well, we have to pick some areas to be focused in on. Back up. We have to pick some areas to be focused in on. I’m going to invite four different people to come up here and share about some of the areas that we’re focusing in on in 2024. The first person is going to be Joe. He’s going to talk a little bit about how we’re developing our members so that you can be empowered to shape the world for Jesus Christ. Then we’ll have several other people share after him.
Amen. I’m down to one hand, so I’m juggling here. So as the Broward Church strives to fulfill the vision of Jesus, one thing we learn is that Jesus considers every Christian to be a priest. Did you know that about yourself? In 1 Peter 2:9, the Bible says, But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. You and I are priests.
In the sense that we are the salt of the Earth, and the light of the world. We represent Jesus by being the people who carry the gospel message to a world that desperately needs Jesus. The perspective of every Christian is a priest has been called the priesthood of every believer. Since we represent Jesus to the world, the Broward Church has an objective of equipping its members to grow more and more prepared to be good priests. This coming year, we are taking three steps in this area so that our members can be better equipped. First, we have started Thursday evening Bible training and equipping midweeks. These take place here at the building in six-week series. And in 2024, we have scheduled five of these six-week series for Thursday midweeks. Classes will include choices in the area of Christian lifestyle or family and personal growth or straightforward, deep Bible study. To coincide with these midweek classes, we have developed a team of Bible teachers who are meeting on a regular basis for training and feedback to promote their growth as teachers. The next six-week series will kick off on Thursday, January 11th. The second step in this area of the priesthood of every believer is to offer meaningful service projects throughout the calendar year.
Every quarter of the year, the Broward Church engages in a congregational service project. In February, we have the foster care fundraiser called Walk for Kids. In April, we have Spark Academy, which encourages academic progress for underprivileged children. In August, we have our back-to-school drive, and in November, we have our HOP month. By the way, this last month, our 2023 Hope Month, exceeded our objective of members serving over 900 hours of community service with 965 hours. And we had a goal of 300 members being involved, and we had 326 members. Our third step in this area of the priesthood of every believer is a new program that will debut in the summer of 2024. We want to offer our members a way to find the gifts that God has given you. We are developing a process where you can evaluate your own strengths and your own interests and how to use those gifts to glorify God and impact the lives of people around you. We will have more details on this program of personal reflection and evaluation of your God-given gifts as we get closer to the summer of 2024. Each Christian has the wonderful and important responsibility of being a priest representing Jesus to the world.
Our objective in this area is to help our members grow and become better equipped in this area. Next, Mike Degree will share about the area of our small groups ministry, which we call community groups. Although Mike and his wife, Alana, are on vacation, Mike has recorded his objectives in this area on a video. So let’s watch that at this time.
Good morning, everyone. Good morning, everyone. For those that don’t know me, my name is Mike Degree, and I’m so grateful to share about one of our strategic areas of focus. The strategic area of focus I’m sharing about today is building Acts 2 communities. In the Book of Acts, we catch a glimpse of the vibrant and tight-knit nature of the first believers. Acts 2:42-47 says, They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, into prayer. Everyone was filled with all at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. The first century church understood that it was devotion that made this dynamic community possible. There was an intensity and frequency that made their community unique. They met daily, they cared daily, they won souls daily, they searched the scriptures daily.
The Christian faith for them was a way of life in community together. And the reason I bring this passage up is because this passage provides us with a picture for how we, as a church, are deciding to function and thrive. Our aim is to build communities that are devoted to God, devoted to His word, and devoted to one another. As a member of this church, you play a pivotal role in the formation of this community. We invite you to join in with enthusiasm, knowing that your involvement is grounded in the timeless truths of scripture. With that in mind, we have two objectives as we strive to build Acts Two communities. The first objective is to provide comprehensive training for our community group leaders. In this season, we’ve been working so hard to develop our first Community Group Leaders manual. Our manual is a leadership resource that we are providing to our current and future leaders. In this manual, there’s expectations for our leaders. We communicate the five goals for our groups. There’s leadership resources, ideas for methodology, and so much more. We are so excited about our manual. In addition to our manual, we’re providing ongoing leadership training that can be accessed right now called Small Group Circle on our Broward Church YouTube page.
In this training, you’ll find topics like how to lead a Bible discussion, how to care for your small group, how to persevere as a leader, how to develop new small group leaders, and the list goes on. Our desire is to be a support to our leaders and help them be as effective as ever as they lead their groups. The second objective is to establish 10 community groups in each of the 10 districts of Broward over the next five years. We realize our mission extends far beyond the walls of our church. So this objective is all about helping our groups to be missional, to multiply, and to draw people all over Broward County into the community of God. In addition to making room for people throughout the county, this initiative allows for the intentional and prayerful development of new leaders for our groups. This is so exciting for us, because when more disciples are equipped and empowered for leadership, we not only see God’s kingdom expanded, but we also see a legacy of discipleship that multiplies beyond our groups. Again, I feel so thankful and privileged to be a part of what God is doing here in Broward, our hope is that our community becomes a powerful instrument for God’s grace and transformation.
I’m going to invite Josh Mayes up to share about our next strategic area focus, mobilizing every disciple to make disciples. Thank you.
So much for listening. Amen. Good morning, church. My name is Joshua Mayes, and I lead the Singles Ministry here. Let’s go undivided. Yeah, let’s go. Undivided. As Tony was saying before, we exist to fulfill the vision of Jesus Christ. I’m in love with that statement. As a church, this is our creed, this is our motto, and this is our purpose. His vision is for people to have peace in their hearts and to also bring peace on earth. His vision is for families to heal, but to also help the whole world become a family. His vision is for people to know His plan, but also to carry it out. In church, that is what we are here to do. God’s kingdom is all over the world, and we share the same vision and mission. But God’s expectation for us is to fulfill His vision right here in this county. Broward is not just our home, but our mission field as well. In every mission field, there needs to be troops, soldiers, support being shown to help fight that war. In church, scripture says, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and against the authorities and against the powers of this dark world.
We must be active and prepared in such matters. The area of focus I will be speaking about today is mobilizing every disciple to make disciples. Matthew 28, Jesus gives his marching orders in some of his last moments, and he says, Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Surely, I am with you always to the very end of age. When we say this line, mobilizing every disciple to make disciples, we are echoing what Christ has already said. God’s intention was for every disciple to participate in the making of other disciples. That looks like every disciple being knowledgeable of the word. It looks like every disciple giving financially to the mission. It looks like every disciple being courageous. It’s every disciple praying, fasting, and pleading with God for other souls. All of us need to be prepared to give and answer for what we believe in. Church, the world needs to hear this message and they need to hear it from you. I have many inspirations when it comes to the mission of God, but many of you here and outside this room have inspired me in this place.
Many of you have been praying for your children for years and years and years. You have reached out to your neighbors, your coworkers. There’s campus students who have been spending hours evangelizing at colleges. Disciples have been willing to lead Bible studies and church. That is what mobilization looks like. You may think that it needs to be more impressive, more extravagant, but it doesn’t. It’s just every member doing the simple things. It’s every member inviting those around them to church. It’s every member leading a Bible study. It’s every member having conversations with the loss about their faith. It’s every member being bold and compassionate for a lost and hurting world. Church, as we take on the mission, we need to train. Ask yourselves, am I equipped for the mission? Do I feel prepared? Do I feel confident? And church, we want to get ready together. Amen. Amen. We want to make sure that you have everything that you need in order to be prepared to share the gospel with others. In order to fulfill this portion of Christ’s vision, here are two training objectives for 2024. Number one is to equip every member to engage in Bible studies.
Now, how are we going to do that? We have two practicals. We have our midweeks, which have come back. Let’s go midweeks. In our midweeks, we’re going to give a class called Discover Training. This is a training aid in which you can come and sit, ask questions, dive into the training grounds of how do we share faith effectively. Having conversations with our family and friends is not always an easy task, and every person is different. But this class, it equips you and able to not just know the scriptures, but to ask deeper questions and to really get to know this person on another level, but most importantly, communicate the gospel effectively. Midweek is where you can receive some training. Another place or another thing that we’re going to be handing out next year is called our Discover Handbook. Now, some of you already have the first version, but this is 2.0 or 3.0 or something like that. But it looks amazing up here on the screen. Again, it’s another resource where you can be in your own quiet times, in your own times with God, and to be able to read through it and prepare your sofa the mission.
You can look forward to these two things in the beginning of 2024. We’re going to go ahead and put out some specific dates and details on how to receive these resources and how to attend, but be looking forward to it. The second objective of this year in which I’m very, very, very excited about, is the rejuvenation of our Singles and Campus Ministries. Let’s go. For years, the engine of growth in our church was through the Singles and the Campus Ministry. We have many plans on how to continue to build these ministries out, how to help our people mature, how to inspire this generation of people. What I can tell you today is that we are getting focused. We’re dreaming, we’re praying, we’re doing all that we can, seeking advice to figure out how could we help our generation and the next and the next and the next stay in the mission of God. We hope to be working on these plans for the next 5-10 years. We have many more ideas like how can we get 1,000 disciples committed here in Broward? How can we forge a modern evangelistic culture? But what we could really use from you is your prayers and your participation.
This vision and this mission is the most important journey that we will embark on in our life. I’m going to say that again because it’s so true. This vision and this mission is the most important journey we will embark on in our life. I pray that God blesses this work and that our hearts remain pure in the process. Let’s fulfill the vision of Jesus together. Amen? Amen. At this time, I want to go ahead and invite up DeSondros.
Since the beginning, mankind has existed to reflect the image of God. For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. As image bearers, we desire to make Christ known to the masses so that they too can enjoy fruits of intimacy with God. Jesus states in Matthew 5, You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. My segment this morning is on Broward Church becoming a beacon in Broward County. As mentioned before in Matthew 5, Jesus tells us that we are the light of the world, a city on a hill. This imagery creates the tension and the understanding that there are lost people, sojourners wandering around in the dark. The church is intended to be a beacon of light, cutting through the darkness, drawing people to safety. In a world that’s hungry for inspiration and thirsting for purpose, our collective ability to become a beacon for Broward County is an incredible opportunity that was gifted to us by God.
But it’s of great importance for us to know that it’s not just an opportunity, it’s also our responsibility. Those of us who are disciples of Christ have traded in our hunger and thirst for inspiration and purpose for hungering and thirsting for righteousness. We were led to the beacon of light being the church. So in many ways, all of what Joe, Mike, and Josh shared are personal ways that we can be a beacon. But what my area focus hones in on is how we can do it as a community. So there are four objectives that we have in particular to deploy some specialized ministries in our church for drawing people into the communities so that they, too, can embrace the light of Christ. The first objective is to utilize Broward Worship as a bridge to introduce our mission to the unfamiliar. Broward Worship is the music team that we have here at the church that writes original music, and we use this to cement what we know about God into our hearts through song. The objective that we have surrounding the Broward Worship team starts with releasing new music yearly. We’d continue this objective by using social media as another tactic to spread the message of Christ with Broward Worship as a front runner to reaching many.
We all yearn for revival, and song serves as a vessel for this revival. But how do we know this to be true? Well, at the birth of Jesus, there was a new song. And at the introduction of the prophets, there was a new song. At the beginning of the monarchy of David, there was a new song. As we try to grow the church, we aspire to include new song because God usually ties new songs to new revelation. The second objective is to foster a next-generation investment culture through our Kingdom Kids and our BCA program here. BCA is our school that runs Monday through Friday on the west side of our building, and in the same part of the building during the Sunday services, the Kingdom Kids program takes over. Jesus takes time to highlight children, so as we strive to fulfill his vision, we too want to highlight our next generation. It’s our desire to develop BCA into a leading program of elementary education and early learning. We want BCA to have influence in Broward County for the next generation of spiritual leaders and world changers, evangelists, community group leaders, elders, and all of the like.
Our hope is that the Kingdom Kid program could be the same. We want to continue to invest in our children, in your children that come here on Sundays to demonstrate our commitment to the church’s future. The third objective is to redesign our worship services to better guide believers in their posture towards God and allow for deeper fellowship. From service order to lighting to stage design and all that’s in between, we want to put together services, like Tony said earlier, that reflect who we are as a church. We believe that this will help our services to highlight even more of the great qualities of our church family so that those who find our community can echo the thought in 1 Corinthians 14:25 saying, Truly, God is among us. We are the light of the world. Being a beacon is a commitment to uplifting our king, fostering a culture of collaboration, and much to our main point here, revealing the splendor of Christ to the county of Broward. Picture this, Broward Church becoming a beacon for all of Broward County. Thank you very much, Church.
I know there’s been a fair bit of talking, so just stick with me for the next five minutes or so. I invited Cassandra up to just share the significant role that women’s ministry plays in our church. I don’t think it holds away.
Luke 8:1-3 lists three women who followed Jesus along with the disciples. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna. Women played a pivotal role in the early church, serving as deaconesses, funding missionary efforts, and opening their home to Paul and other apostles. Women have always been valuable to Jesus and to the ministry of the Gospel. I am so thankful to be part of a congregation with women who have similar qualities and characteristics, godly women, ready to give, serve, and even teach. There is much being said about the roles of women today, but what we know is certain is that Jesus highlighted and valued women. Though we know each role is different, it is no less valuable. I’m thankful for the women we have on staff from many different life stages: single, married, young married, et cetera. We believe in making an investment in women’s ministry. As Joe mentioned earlier, there’s a group of teachers that were formed in order to train and to raise up the next group of Bible teachers. I am so proud to share with you that we have two women in that group. Yeah, that’s amazing. It’s our first time. They are being trained to properly handle the scriptures and to teach it in a compelling way.
Titus 2 shows us that women teaching women is a role, and we want to do it excellently. We will actually get the chance to hear from these women because in January, we will be having women’s midweek classes where we will study out women of the Bible. I’m really looking forward to that. It’s going to be so encouraging. Awesome. Another exciting thing we have coming up next year is so long overdue. It’s been four and a half years. We are going to be having a women’s retreat. That will be August ninth through 11th. It’s actually on your sheets under the Save the dates, and that will be in Key Largo. Again, please save that date. You are not going to want to miss it, August ninth through 11th. Thank you. Thanks, baby.
The men have a men’s retreat, and they go to like a shanty. We live in like a shed and the women go to Key Largo, and they’re on the beach. It’s sad. Man, we’ve presented you so much. I know so many words were said. Let me just… Oh, no, back. Okay, so many words are said. Okay, so many words are said. Yeah, you can go. Thank you. So many words are said. But I just want to do a quick reminder. We have a lot of great plans in 2024. But really, the first things first, right? Christ leads this church and we think that there are some amazing objectives that we have for you in ’24. We hope that God will allow us to achieve those things to really inspire this church to become who it ought to be. There’s one thing left to say. In 2024, we’re looking towards a groundbreaking on an expansion in the building. Bca has been growing and has been doing an amazing job educating the next generation, and they’re looking for some more room to grow. The plan, as of this moment, is to allow BCA to expand into our admin wing and then to expand the building so that we have a proper lobby where we can have actual separate classrooms, that we can have more space to fellowship after services, and then to have our offices that are currently in our admin wing on the second floor.
I wanted to show you a little bit of the concept design for that facility. Oh, a. We’re hoping that next year we’ll be able to break ground on that facility. What’s amazing about it is that as BCA expands and grows and continues to become financially viable, it’s amazing to see how God can allow that partnership to both help us not only spiritually, but also financially. I’m so excited about all the amazing plans we have in 2024. I love you guys. We’re going to invite the elders up here to close us out and say a prayer.
Morning, family. I’m Tom Hattaway. This is Joe Stern. We’re part of the elders here. You’ll know that one of us is missing, excuse me, but he is with us, actually. Monty Strickland, he is online. Monty. Monty and Marcy are with Marcy’s mom who’s in the hospital and they’re worshiping together. Wow! What a morning. I know some of you may have tuned in to hear the word of God preached. What you heard and said is a vision that Jesus has for us here in Broward. It starts with all of us doing our part. But I am so grateful. Joe, I, and Monty are so grateful for the diligence and the dedication that Tony and Cassandra have for God’s word. You can see the influence of that through our staff. We have people come from all over the country to want to be on our staff because of Tony and Cassandra and their love for God’s mission. Hopefully today you got a little bit of a vision of what does it mean to look through the eyes of God? Well, it starts with all of us doing our part. It starts with us being in the Word and then not just being the Word, but putting that Word to practice.
Let’s pray. Father, thank you so much for this morning. Thank you so much for allowing us to be in your family. Father, I know that this time of season, so many people think of you. So many people think of helping others. But it should be seasonal. It should be every day. We pray that with this vision that Tony Cassandra have for us, Father, that starts with their dedication of understanding Your Word and helping all of us to be obedient to Your truth, that we really can be a blessing, that we really can make a difference here in Broward, that we can really see all those blue dots covering the whole county. Father, we do our parts. I pray that each one of us thinks, What is my part? For some of us, it may not be nothing more than just prayer, diligent prayer, daily prayer, maybe serving the poor, maybe serving our brothers and sisters. But it starts with all of us doing that part. Father, thank you so much for times like this where we can think about you and your death on the cross and how the bread represents your body and how the juice represents your blood.
That we remember that throughout the week, not just on moments like this, because it’s a daily walk that we need to have and a daily charge of doing our part. Thank you so much for your patience and mercy. In Jesus’ name, we pray and give thanks. Amen. Amen.