Field of Dreams

John chapter 4 verse 34. Jesus says, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet 4 months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the field, that they are white for harvest.

In one of the great sport films of our generation, a movie called Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner is a is a farmer who hears voices who tell him to to build a baseball diamond on his on his cornfield. And he's told that doing this will somehow bring back some important event in his life. Now in the movie, Costner does this and as he does, many of the great old time players come back and appear and play on his, on his field. One notable individual, Shoeless Joe Jackson, appears. And eventually, the team brings Costner's father with them, who had died previously.

And this ultimately leads to a reconciliation between Costner and his dad, which is really at the heart of this, of this story. Now the pivotal idea of the movie is expressed with a phrase that has since become popular, if you if you build it, he will come. Right? We've changed that to, If you build it, they will come. But originally it says, If you build it, he will come.

This was said in reference to the building of the baseball diamond out of a cornfield in the middle of nowhere, in order to prepare for the sure coming of these mysterious beings from the past. Now since this movie came out years ago, many have used this phrase to express the notion of of stepping out in faith on a project, or on an assignment, or a task, or a mission. Now in the film, only Costner and his family could actually see these mysterious ball players. Only they could see the dream. Everyone else thought that they were crazy for turning the cornfield into a baseball diamond.

I suppose this story struck a chord with me at a certain level because it reminded me of so many bible characters who saw a vision and toiled at their own fields of dreams, despite the ambivalence and opposition they faced from their contemporaries. People like Noah and Abraham in the Old Testament. Great saints like Paul the Apostle and John the Apostle in the New Testament. These were building something here on earth guided by a heavenly vision that only a few people could actually see. You know, in many respects, we are the inheritors of that heavenly vision.

We are, in effect, building something concrete in this material world, fired by the vision of an other worldly kingdom. We serve a Lord that no one can see. We persevere in a task based on a promise that was given long ago. We give up our lives here in order to have them begin again in another place and another time. Now for you and I, this church, this plot of land here, this space, this is our field of dreams.

And this morning I want to share with you the vision that I see for our task in the months and in the years to come. The vision that I see is of a congregation that others emulate as a pattern for holy living, spiritual and numerical growth, effective service and dynamic worship and evangelism. I see groups, not only from the churches of Christ, but from other churches coming here to learn how to practice authentic New Testament Christianity. I envision Canyon View regularly sending groups of our members in different stages of life as mission teams. Not just college students who are mission teams, but older people, and younger people, and married people, and single people, and single again people together as mission teams to different locations in the city, and the county, and the state, and beyond, to plant new congregations.

And in this vision, I see our congregation actually communicating the gospel and teaching God's word 24 hours of every day, every day of the year, using every media resource available until the return of Christ. I see a church that makes a difference in the lives of not only its own members, but also a true and visible impact on the conscience of this city and of this state. This vision of mine is filled with a glorious church that is beyond just being ready for the return of Christ. It is eager and even hastening the return of the Lord. And I see all of this in my mind's eye as clearly as I see the sun.

As detailed as if I examine the watch I wear on my wrist. As surely as Jesus is the Son of God, this church exists waiting to be built. I am not a prophet, and I claim no miraculous ability, but I am convinced that if we build this church, all the things that I have spoken of will come to pass. Now, the dream, the vision, that's the exhilarating part. But actually, building the church that I speak of is more difficult, but possible.

Allow me, therefore, a few more moments to explain in practical terms how to realize the vision that I have just described to you. Now, I don't want to oversimplify what is a complex process, but there are really only 3 steps in reaching the vision goal of which I have spoken to you thus far. Step number 1, in realizing this vision, is called maximizing. Maximizing. This is the step that we are at now.

It is the step that most congregations get to and remain at indefinitely. Maximizing is reaching your initial potential based on the resources that you possess. For example, if you have a building and a staff that can minister to a 150 people when every single pew is full, when every space is used up, and all the ministers are working at full throttle, you have maximized. Well, at Tanyons View, we will have maximized when several things have been accomplished. First of all, when our leaders are fully trained and effectively using the ministry system that has been put into place.

Secondly, when new members are carefully integrated into the body without losing people from neglect or poor ministry management. When we stop losing people because we neglect them, we're starting to maximize. Thirdly, when we have fully expanded our facility to include a new auditorium, yes Martha, a new auditorium that will seat 7 to 800 people, and we are offering multiple services on any given day, especially on Sunday. And fourthly, when we have a highly effective small group ministry responsible for ministering and training Christians for leadership, for evangelism, and for service. When every member knows what and how to do their ministry, and this campus is fully built and used, we will have maximized and we will be ready for step number 2.

Remember, I told you, most churches only get to step 1, they never get to step 2. Step 2 is called multiplying. You maximize, you multiply. When we know how to build a congregation from the ground up, then we need to repeat the process somewhere else. We need more congregations in San Diego.

I read a report several months ago that projects that the county of San Diego will grow by a 1000000 people in the next decade. We need more churches. Once we've maxed out our own facility and land, we need to systematically plan and establish and help grow others where none exist, and do it with our own members. Not recruit from colleges, not recruit from elsewhere, our own members will be sent out to plant churches. In a congregation of 2,000 people, let's say, it's possible to select and train and equip a 100 people to plant churches in this city and throughout the state.

Once we know how to multiply members in our own local congregation, we will know And we will have the resources to effectively multiply churches here and elsewhere. I mean, just because no one else is doing it, doesn't mean that we can't do it. In Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 to 20, Jesus gives us the commission to do the very thing that I've explained, and he promises us that he will be with us if we take on the task. If the Lord is with us, then who can possibly be against us? Us?

Step number 3. Step number 3 is mentoring. There are only a few churches that I've ever heard that have reached step number 3. This final step happens when we succeed at step number 2. In other words, when people come to examine and copy what you are doing, then you know you have succeeded at step number 2 because success breeds imitation.

I believe that the true value of arriving at step 3 is that success would give us an opportunity to actively and purposefully teach others, not just teach other individuals, but teach other churches. We could minister to our members and provide training for leaders of other congregations so that we could contribute to the building up of the entire body, not just the local body, but the entire body of Christ. Churches who succeed at arriving at step number 3 are leaders and are able to influence for the good the brotherhood of believers for the glory of God. I've seen one Step 3 church and it wasn't in North America, it was in Haiti. It was in Haiti, where the church in Haiti that had been planted there grew so strong, and so filled with zealous leaders that they were going around not converting individuals, they were converting churches.

The Baptist churches, the Methodist churches, and all these others would invite these people in to find out, What do you have that we don't have? And they would go in, and they would study with their leaders, convert their leaders, and then have wholesale conversions of the churches. Yeah. You say, Wow. You know, our problem is, we think we're the center of the universe, but we're not.

We're not. Someone has to leave, why can't that someone be us? These three steps are the marker points along the journey laid out in the future vision for this church. And I hope that this brief presentation you have, that you've been given, you've been able to see what we can build here and what it'll mean when we do. Now the question that someone may ask is this, Yeah, we see and we understand what you proposed, but where do we begin in order to make this vision a reality?

And I'm so glad you asked that question because I happen to have the answer in the rest of my sermon. It just worked out that way. In order to go from vision to dream to reality, we need to follow a very specific course. The same course that others who have reached these goals have followed before. First of all, we've got to pray for it.

We need to ask God to give us this vision. We need to seek it's accomplishment in fervent prayer. We need to get away from, Lord, give me this, give me that. And start saying, Lord, give me a vision for the future. We need to knock on the door of heaven until every opportunity is given to us to realize our dream.

Jesus said that all things are possible for him who believes. Mark 9 verse 23. And the first step of belief is prayer. 1st step of belief is prayer. We see it, we can explain it, we know it is right and good and according to God's will and purpose.

If we don't have it yet, it's because we've not asked for it. And so I say to you, begin to pray for it brothers and sisters, and God will give it to us if we ask him. Secondly, we need to work for it. Work for it. We need to let everything we do be done in order to make each step happen.

Wherever you serve, whenever you share your faith, whenever you invite someone to church, whenever you teach the Word, whenever you suffer some indignity, or trial for Christ, let it all be done with the purpose of taking us to the first, or second, or third step. Work like a woman or a man who knows exactly why and what you are building. Ever wonder, what are we doing here? We come here every week, what are we doing? What's the vision?

Work and pray and serve like you know what the vision is. You've been shown the final design. Work towards that goal and don't waste your time or energy on things that don't contribute to this vision. We have one vision. We are one body.

Let us work with one purpose and that is the realization of this vision in Christ. We gotta pray for it, we gotta work for it, and we need to give to it. You know, a few weeks ago the elders announced that the budget, you know, for 2,002 what the budget would be. And last year it was $9,000 a week, and this year it's $12,500 a week. And they explained that the increase was due to certain repairs, you know, like in the parking lot, we just gotta fix up that parking lot, and we've hired a full time involvement and outreach minister, and we're putting more money in for evangelism.

And that kind of explains the difference. The rest pays for everything else that it's always paid for. Repairs, salaries, all that kind of stuff. But you know what? The budget is not about money.

The budget is about hope. That's what the budget is about. It's hope described in numbers. The budget represents what we hope to do this year. For example, we hope to attract and to keep the very best ministry and support staff here at Canyon View.

And I wanna tell you what a wonderful month or 2 it has been for our staff. I mean, when Barry and Karen arrived here, what a, what a breath of fresh air that they brought with them. Enthusiasm and experience. When you can marry enthusiasm and experience together in the same manner, what a blessing it is to have Barry and all the talents that he brings to the table with us. All the experience that he has in church work, he will be exercising here on our behalf.

And John Jones, I don't talk about him very much. We talk together, but I don't talk about him very much. But did you know, here in California, he's the go to guy for Young Adult Ministries. Do you know that? When somebody wants to know something, when somebody wants an expert, a pioneer, they go to John Jones.

He's our guy. He's on our staff. We got him here. And we've assembled the most effective support staff, Jane Harris. She's dying now because I'm mentioning her name from the pulpit.

And I've got the goods on her. Boy, I tell you, I can tell you stuff. But could we find a more loyal, a more effective, experienced church worker? She knows it. She was gone one day.

She had jury duty. She was gone one day, and oh boy, we sure felt it. And we've hired Jessica Clay. All I can say about Jessica is that she gets it right the first time. You guys who are employers out there, you know what I'm talking about, right?

She gets it right the first time. A Peg Fuel, support secretary. Always there, steady, when we need it, when we've got big, big projects. And when we find the 4th member of our ministry team, our youth and family minister, we're still looking for that man. We have a profile.

We've had a lot of applications, but they don't fit our profile. They don't measure up. When we add that fourth man, our staff, our ministry team will be as good as anyone out there, any church, big or small. That's our hope. We hope to maintain the finest facilities.

We hope that we will provide outstanding service and ministry to our members, and to our community. We hope that we will reach out dynamically with the gospel more so than ever before. We hope that we will do glorious things to honor the Lord, and to leave a glorious legacy that the next generation will build upon to be a step 3 church. See, in the past, every generation has simply built upon a step 1 church. It's all it's done.

It's gone round and round on step 1. Nobody has brought it to the next level. And I'm saying in our generation, we need to do that because there needs to be a pattern for that, there needs to be a template. Somebody's gotta do it. And I'm saying, we can do that.

We can be those people. When you give, and how much you give, reveals the degree to which you actually see the vision, and consequently, how great is your hope. Every time you write your check, you're saying, This is how great my hope is. I don't want to preach about the budget, how much this cost, how much that can be bought for. Somebody else can crunch the numbers for you.

I wanna talk to you about what I see, What I see is doing now, and what vision I have for us to do in the future. And I pray that you will see it too. That's my prayer is not, Lord show me the vision. I've seen it. My prayer is, Lord show them the vision that we can all see the same thing.

So I pray that you will see it too. And I will know if you have captured a glimpse of the vision because each week, your giving will reveal what the eyes of your hearts really see, and what the eyes of your hearts are truly focused on. And I'm not worried because I know that the numbers don't lie. They will reveal the extent of our vision for good or for bad. For now, we're working at maximizing our present resources and that will require us to meet and exceed $12,500 a week.

So, brothers and sisters, set your hearts and set your minds to the task, and adjust your prayers and service and giving accordingly. This we must do because we have seen the future, and everyone is called to begin the great journey. In the meantime, I invite you to consider what your own response needs to be this morning. Are you one who needs to give his or her heart to Christ in repentance and baptism that he might purify you? Is that what you need?

You see a a sinful heart, and what you want is purity? Or are you one who needs to give your hands to Christ and enter into a fellowship of service with this congregation by placing yourself under the leadership of our elders? Or are you one who needs to give the Lord your hope by renewing your commitment to sacrificial giving, and sacrificial living, and sacrificial serving? Whatever your need, please let the Holy Spirit guide you into the proper response as we stand and as we sing our song of encourage. We stand and as we sing our song of encourage.