SLT Vision Update

Hello and welcome to the Lighthouse Podcast. We hope today's message encourages you to live your life well. If you'd like to connect with us further, you can jump on our website at differentlight.com.au and click the connect button or it could be encouraged you to also support our work by clicking on the giving button. Thanks so much for listening. Fantastic, hey, well welcome to Lighthouse this morning and if you've never met all three senior leaders they're going to be up on stage today. Some of you have not been here before. This is your first time. I know I met a couple of people on the way in today that I've never met before. I just want to say a special welcome to you as well. I'm Josh. This is Elise. This is Andy. These two are married. I'm married to Talia and about the three of us lead this church together. So maybe three senior pastors is a little bit unique for you. But hopefully as the vision takes shape even today, a lot of that will make a little bit more sense of course as well. We've got a little bit of breathing space in our series at the moment. Just between last week we finished up our great series in Acts. We did prayer and fasting for seven days. We have today which is very much going to be a vision update on some of the things that are visionary in our church. And the next week we got our great friends, you know, Pastor Jolton, Julia, Abel as well. So I want to encourage you that it is a great time to be around, great time to get hold of messages. Of course, every message is podcasted Monday morning. So if you're traveling or you're away for work or whatever else it is, there's many different ways in which you can stay connected. But the best way to stay connected is with each other here in the room. That's a great place to be as well. And how good was it? Worshiping God this morning, being connected to Him as well. Our creative team. It was just a sweet sense of worship today. Wasn't there? That was lovely. It was so good. It was so good. It was so good. It was so good. So vision. When you hear the word vision, you might be thinking, well, is vision? I hear that word a lot. I'm not really sure what it is. And you know, lighthouse, one of our points of difference is by and large what we love to get around, what we love to empower, what we love to equip, what we love to champion is your vision, your God-given vision for your life. We do that fairly on the regular. We love to send you into what God's got for your life as well. But something that complements, I believe, our own personal vision, is also the church's vision that we're a part of. So we don't do this all the time. In fact, we never want to make it just about the church's vision in your life anyway. But we are going to take today, the three of us just to share a little bit about some of the vision on our church over the next 18 months. The best way to picture vision is I often think it's a holy discontent because we can be discontent. But when you add the word holy to it, all of a sudden, it starts to think, well, this could be a God-given vision. Have you ever had the thoughts like, I just can't bear the thought of that continuing? We've ever had something like this, a deep dissatisfaction with the current state of something. And just because you have a deep dissatisfaction about something, just because you might be discontent about something, just because you can't bear the thought about something, doesn't always mean it's a God-given vision. But I believe God gives us a mental picture of a new state or a desired state of that thought that you can't bear the thought of and gives you a hope-filled solution in the future to see that change, transform, grow, whatever else it might be. That's when I believe if you have a deep dissatisfaction about something, and God gives you a hope-filled solution for it, there's a good chance it's a God-given vision. And I want to encourage us in that today. The Bible also says in Proverbs 29-18 that without vision, people perish. Well, that sounds really grave, doesn't it? And it doesn't necessarily mean without a vision or without a vision statement. I would die, but often in our lives, I know I can have lived like this at different points that when I don't have a purpose in my whole life or whatever it's said, is it get a bit directionless? We, and all of us at different times, we could be breathing, but we can feel a little bit dead, can't we? The Bible also says that without revelation, people cast off restraint. And it doesn't mean vision is meant to control, but actually it brings an alignment. It brings a purpose to go, "When I wake up on Monday, morning, this is what I'm going for." Or when we get together in a church like this, this is what we're going for. And a sense of vision is a great thing. So let me set the scene today. We spent eight weeks talking about expansion moments in Acts. We spent seven days prayer and fasting, praying and fasting. So I want to say, make no mistake in faith. We are part of an expansion moment here, right now. You know our church, we've got a firm foundation. We've got, I mean, it's my perspective. We've got strong leadership. We've got good governance. I agree. We've got beautiful, godly people that gather every single week. We've got generous hearts. Last week we were reminded us how big our hearts are here at Laudhouse. But then also we have, we have pressure in our culture, don't we? We have pressure in our lives. We have a strain on resources, not maybe on church, whether it's our own personal, but we also have many testimonies. Don't we have people being changed by God's life within this church? We have a community hunger that we haven't experienced before I believe as well. So I want to say that we have a vision to grow and we are in one of those expansion moments. The three of us have been leading Laudhouse for the last three to four years. And so I would say the vision has like incrementally moved forward. But I want to say the next 18 months, there'll be a dynamicness to it. There'll be a quickness to it. It may feel a bit fast, but don't worry, it won't be forced. It may feel a little bit uncomfortable, but don't worry, we're not going to lose connection with each other. There might be some change around the place, but don't worry, that's the vision coming to pass in one of those expansion moments. And I just want to say, or at least invite you, we can do it. We can do it. We can do this growth moment. And when we look back after this 18 months, just like when I sit here now and think about the history of Laudhouse, we can say only God could have done that. You want to look back on your life, don't you say? There's things in my life that only God could have done. And there they's God given vision things. Our church, if you don't know, was established in 1969. Thank you, Pastor Joan. But we are focused on 2069. And that is a good thing too, because it's true God empowers us, us as leaders, us all as people here at Laudhouse, the decisions that we make in the present. The ones that shape our lives can also shape our family, our church, our community in the next 20 years or more as well. These aren't. These decisions, the ones that shape our lives aren't just a benefit to us, not just to make our life better, but actually to introduce a bunch of people in this community across the nation and the world to Jesus Christ. And that's the types of things that have been happening in the past and there are the types of decisions that when we make now, it affects what happens in 20 years time, how old you're going to be in 20 years time. I'll be 63. 43. 43, yeah, right, that's it. I have to do the maths. You got to do the maths. Okay, you'll be hot. 58, 59. That wasn't on the notes. But as I was driving in today, I was discussing with my daughter, who's 13, I said, how old are you going to be in, you know, she's going to be, it's not that funny, but she's going to be 33 years of age. And so maybe, or not maybe, some of the things that we're talking about today, if you're sitting here as a 10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old, these are the types of things that I hope you thank God for, that people in this day, may the decisions for you in those, in those future years and you're a part of that as well. I know I certainly thank God for different things that He helped me make a decision 20 years ago in my life. And also people in this church made decision that we're living in that benefit and blessing in our lives as well. And we want to make sure we do that too because God really wants us to be a supporting cast to what He's doing around this city. Jesus is saying, hey guys, hey, people at Lighthouse, come with me. Help me change this city, this community, this nation. We all play a part. We've been reading about it for eight weeks. You know, I could list off a bunch of people in Acts. We talked about, I don't know, I asked, who got a vision from God just sitting in his house going, go pray for that person. That person was Paul, a murderer of Christians, and now had met Jesus on the road to Damascus, and he didn't quite understand what was happening, but I don't know, I was just a humble believer, came alongside him and prayed with him and his eyes opened. Are we living in the benefit of someone like Anonais who just came along and prayed in faith for someone, I bettently because God, because now Paul, half of the New Testament, sent the gospel not just to where He was around, but also to the end of the earth that we are as well. We're living in that benefit. We're living in that blessing. Lydia, her life changed the way she did business. Dramatically changed. She opened up her home. It talks about an Acts 16, and the church in Philadelphia started from there as well. The operas helped to fund the vision that Luke was writing with Acts as well in Barnabas. He helped to encourage the vision, as well as we can see the effect over the whole globe of this gospel going out by individuals like you and me, just making obedient decisions along the way, we're all part of a bit of housekeeping for this morning. There's a prayer card on your seat. I wonder, as you're hearing us share, maybe what would be your prayer, not for your personal life, but for your church's life here, light house, in 20 years time. What would you look back in 20 years time and thank God for that looked different because he was a part of it? What would be your prayer for your church in 20 years time? We'll have time to fill it out later, but you can also, as you go, you can do that as well. You might have questions about some of the vision today. I just want to be upfront. We're not going to answer them in this environment here, but we will answer them. So you might want to text in questions, but we don't have time to get to them at the ends, but there's a phone number that's going to come up on the screen. You can text any question like clarification. Maybe you think there's other things, that is my phone number. And I did not bring my phone on stage today, so you can write all the prank questions. But that aside, I believe people have got very big faith-filled questions about our vision. And you can ask us anything on that. I won't even get back to it today. You know why? Because I haven't been able to chat about with these guys. We'll get back to you by the middle of the week. All right? So just don't write anything urgent on there. What's our starting point as a church? You might be like, well, how big is our church? You know, we've got over 500 people in our database, but we average across two locations, 433 people at our gatherings. 433 people gather across two locations. There's about three, we're not exactly, it's 338 on average this year at our station, includes kids as well. And it's 95 at our wallshare that includes kids as well. We've had 83 people for our new visitor cards or new belonging cards here as well. Many of those would be a family with some children as well. You might look around and thinking, are we growing here? Maybe not necessarily in here yet, but I'll tell you, there's rooms around this building that I am not in every Sunday and we are growing. We are growing many young families. And that's one of the reasons why too, we want to, in our beyond, continue to fund some of those spaces that would help make this more available and accessible for our congregation. We've got 10 baptisms happen this year already, we're believing for that again, if not more, throughout the rest of the year, dedicated three babies. You might want to know also, like what's our average man of giveers? What's our tired results first budget? What's the amount of connect groups we have? How many people have decided to start a relationship with Jesus? You can text all those things and we'll get back to you on that. I've got answers, but, you know, we're running out of time. So what's the vision picture for our church? If that's our starting point, where are we going? I believe we believe in the next several years, we could be a church of a thousand, but not just people, not just a crowd, but a thousand different lights sharing the light of Jesus Christ in the community. Imagine that. Imagine that. Even let's start not with church first, but let's start with community. A thousand different lights in our community. That happened together, not in two locations, but three, maybe even more locations, all under the one church lighthouse, but more importantly, all under the one God, Jesus Christ, worshipping the one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Well, what some of those might seem, over numerical, we believe there are the types of numbers that represent health and growth. So we are in an expansion moment. And there's some already in motion. And there's some that we are yet to see. But first, let's talk about some of those in motion, at least, the wool shed, our other location that we're not in right now, but we will be later today on Sunday. When we have started just in the last couple of weeks, our first community engagement initiative out of our wool shed church. And what does that look like and where's that going? Yeah, so exciting. We're able to launch the little lights play group. Now that is, it sounds like just a play group, but really it's meeting the need of isolation, and it's creating a space of belonging for people in our community. When Josh talked about having a holy disconnect, disconnect, discontent, that's what I'm looking for. I have a holy discontent to think about. Mums and caregivers in our community feeling isolated, feeling lonely. We're in a loneliness pandemic. And we want every person to find a space where they feel included, where they find sense of connection, where they find belonging. And so our little lights play group launched two weeks ago. And although that's only two weeks launched, it's been years in this, in praying for that space. And no many of you have been part of funding and praying over our wool shed, because we really want our wool shed church to be a place that is filled right through the week of connection and where it is a well of overflow from our church on Sunday, right through the week, being a space of connection for our community and finding a place of belonging for every single person. So little lights play group has begun. And I know in 20 years time, I love to think about those little lights that have come in so far. We've had 45 kids over those last two weeks, 45 little lights. I know it's going to continue to grow. And I think about those kids that are coming along and they're finding value and they're finding connection, they're finding community. And I know in 20 years time, thinking about those kids that will then be in their 20s, bringing their families to the wool shed, a place where they found connection. I think about those moms who, when they come along or those parents or those grandparents that come and find connection at little lights. I think about really how that could change their life forever. And when they find a place, I feel really passionate about it if you can tell because I think about our friends, I know who really are looking for that connection and community and how it can change your life when somebody finds that and knows that it's a place not just a friendship but actually a faith base that will change their life forever. So that's what I really excited about. Fantastic. And you might even think, well, yeah, and we've been having our wool shed location there for a long time. We bought the wool shed in 2009. Maybe some of you helped see that happen. And we're living in that now. And now we can continue to expand upon that as well. So thank you. Thank you for your part of that. Speaking of connecting to a community, one of the things in motion already, one of our key parts of our vision this year is to elevate these roles of chaplains in our community. Not just qualified chaplains, but even every single person here at Lighthouse having an opportunity to think and act and be trained as a taste of what chaplaincy could be in their life as well last week. And I won't label the point again. But we would love to invite 80 to 100 people to our plus chaplaincy in September, 25th and 26th. If you remember, we had the big heart on stage. And what was the thing we needed to grow? Because we all got big hearts. Big ears as well, not big mouth, not big heads, but big ears. We need bigger ears so we can respond to people and what they're saying. And we can be those sought after people in our community. That's what makes the difference when we've got 1,000 people in the future throughout our communities as well. Andy, write your set it before. Teachers lounge. Teachers lounge. Is that for like school teachers? What is teachers lounge for? So when I learned to read and write, like where I really learned to read and write, it wasn't just in the classroom, but it was actually when my teachers, Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Hawkes, Professor Paul Porter, they'd take time outside of the classroom to have a coffee or to invite me into their space and talk me through what I was needing to learn. And it was actually like a learning process together. And so when we talk about teachers lounge, what we're talking about is an environment and gathering here at Lighthouse that's not just the classroom, that's not just giving head knowledge about the Bible, but being formed by the Bible. This information is useful, absolutely, but it won't necessarily form you. So the teacher's lounge is a place where we can gather around the text together and become the people that the Bible is trying to make. You don't do that by just having knowledge about the Bible. And the reason why that's so important for us to think about as we grow is because my holy discontent is that there should not be one Christian out there that feels like they need to outsource their understanding of God and Jesus and what he's done to somebody on a platform. Why? Because you have the text in your hand. And for those who believe you have the Holy Spirit in your heart and mind. And so you have everything it takes. Jesus didn't come just to rescue you from sin and rescue you from sin and rescue you from sin. He came to rescue you from sin and recruit you into his purpose. And that extends far beyond just the person at the pulpit. It extends into the homes and the hearts and the minds and the workplaces and the sports teams of every individual who believe. And so the teacher's lounge is about becoming the kind of people that the Bible through the power and action and the Holy Spirit is trying to make so that we can go out upon our Lord and Savior's command and make motorcycles who are equipped to become the people, the Bible and the Holy Spirit are trying to make. Who can then go out and become the kind of people that the Bible and the Holy Spirit are trying to make? Who then, you get where this is going, right? This is the power of the Kingdom of God. Is it multiplies through disciples who make disciples and we're sitting in a room full of them? So no one in here in 18 months' time will need to outsource their ability to make a disciple. You'll have it. You'll be formed into one. And the teacher's lounge is one of our endeavors to do that through creating not just head knowledge about the Bible, but the ability to interpret it, to imagine its world so that we can learn how to apply it to our own. It's going to be a fantastic journey. It starts in two weeks. It starts 12 o'clock here at the station as well. And a lot of the themes of the teacher's lounge will be built on what has been shared on this platform. But you can go for a greater depth as well. What's the name of the teacher, Professor Paul Porter? Professor Paul Porter. If you've got a professor in front of you now, I mean, I teach. That's like a flex, isn't it? You know, like, I'm a professor and I teach. That's awesome. Hey, speaking of innovative gatherings, we've started over the last couple of years, this gathering called Greenhouse, which is before our Sunday gathering here, and specifically put on as a connect spot for our marketplace leaders, maybe entrepreneurs, maybe people that are breaking and pioneering, new ground in different community leadership spaces. Perhaps you are a small, large, medium, business owner. That's what Greenhouse is for, because we actually believe that market, people in the marketplace are one of the most unreached people group in the world. Yet, they have such a dynamic vision for their life. And if you interact with what God has for your life, who knows the kingdom expansion that could happen as well? But so often, maybe even as a marketplace leader, a person of faith, you might be out there feeling like you're a bit alone at times. I've got staff under me. I need to make the right decisions. I'm trying to keep my family together. I'm trying to be connected to God. I'm trying to do, who else feels like this? Well, there's a good chance that there's some people in this room that live that world as well. Those feel those feelings as well. And if we can put everyone in the same environment, pray for one another, share what God's doing in our spaces and spheres of life, that's when we believe that we really start to validate the ministry that is on your life. And what God has called you to do throughout the week as well. You have about 40 people on our Greenhouse database, if you like. And anywhere between 15 and 20 people gather on a Sunday morning, once a month, and we have that hour together. It's very simple. You bring a coffee, and we have some discussion things to talk about. And we pray for your vision here. Maybe a little bit of vision for the church as well. And I just want to say, if that's you, you know, I'm a person in business. Maybe you're just a soul trader. You own a business. Maybe you've got ten staff. Maybe you're breaking ground. Maybe you've got these entrepreneurial thoughts for the future. Maybe you're studying something in the future that you want to be inspired by other people in the church. You're welcome to that. The Greenhouse is not an exclusive group. We are one person that's just joined Greenhouse for the last couple of months. And they were driving in. It was their first time they ever came. And they drove in. And just they're trying to establish a better legacy for the rest of their life. And they just drove in saying, "God, just give me someone to talk to." Yet we also have one of our other Greenhouse leaders, someone who's been around our church for a long time. They were driving in saying, "God, I'm available. Show me the person to talk to. Talk about the small decisions that we make. That can affect change over five, ten, twenty years. And can impact the legacy for God." And we know the inner story. There's no coincidence. Those people sat next to each other. Those people found each other. Those people are now catching up in between Greenhouses, and mentoring, and disciplining. Isn't that cool? Isn't that great? When we expand, we need to expand our team. So at least what the strengthening of our team look like, and that expansion membrane right now. It's very exciting, isn't it? To be part of an expansion moment. As Josh mentioned earlier, we've had over 80 people join our church this year. That's not just visitors, but that's like joining, filled out the hello form. You know, they're part of our church. Over 24 new families as well. So in order to strengthen that, we don't want people just to come, feel like they're sitting next to someone, but we want you to feel like you're part of the lighthouse family. And so in order to do that, we've put a new connect pastor on this year. Nick Farrell is out in the fight and seeing him waving to me out there, listening. Why would we give him a cheer? Welcome him to the connect pastor role. Because today is actually his first Sunday in that connect pastor role. Very exciting. And so Nick's role will be to strengthen the team to really help you find your next step of faith, to help you find community connection and really be part of this family here at Lighthouse. And then we've also been able to put on pastor rage, move to become out young adults, and our youth pastor. So let us give a big cheer to rage. [Applause] And as Josh also mentioned in the intro, we have our youth at the moment, is growing and it's growing across our locations as well. But these guys are the church of the future. And so we need to position our team to be able to strengthen our youth, to be able to see our church with what it's going to be in 20 years time. It's going to be really strong because we're pasting across generations, the church of the future. So really exciting. Fantastic. Thanks for that. We have about a month ago. We launched what was called our Beyond Giving. This is something we do every single year. Something that was so grateful that our church has a plan just beyond the walls, just beyond the tour month we're in right now, to fund and resource vision, to see things expands, not just here at our own church, but across our local community, across our nation and across our globe. That's where we're up to, but I know you can't read that. So that's going to be sent out to you this week as well. And I just want to say thank you so much for each and every, you know, but I wanted to show you the level of detail that we're measuring, our projects and where they're all up to. I think there's one big snapshot. So as a church already, although it doesn't give heaps of detail on the individual projects, the slide you couldn't see does. But overall towards our $240,000 goal, this is just five weeks in now. We are already given 79,355,57 people have said, I've heard from God, I want to be generous and they've given it. And I just want to say thank you so much. That represents about 33% of the goal. And then there's what we call pledged. So people maybe have started a monthly amounts, and they've indicated that they're going to give that monthly amount, a weekly amount for the rest of the year. Or they've said, you know, in September, October, or I'm going to give $1,000, I'm going to give $10,000, I'm going to give 20 bucks a month starting in whatever it is. You know, we've had people that have given under $10. We've had people that have given over $25,000. And I just want to say the miracle of beyond is not that one or two people do it all, so everybody can do something. So I just really want to encourage you that you might go, you know what, I can be a part of that black gap right there, because we're 65% there. But you know, I just think when I think about being accountable for our vision and beyond and what we're doing, I just want to say, I want to be like, hey, as a church, we're 100% there. In fact, there's an overflow. We can fund things even better as well. So I want to say great start, and I want to say thank you. I know many of you have even sold something in your house to make this happen as well, because we challenged people to think about what could they go without for 12 months to help fund all those projects like that. More detail to come this week, but wanted to give you an update five weeks in. Andy, people matter most, don't they? Like projects, star-being, strength, and buildings, you know, grassroots, that's all cool. But people matter most, don't they? It's true, man, it's essentially linked to what we're here for. Because we love people, and they matter most to us, and all those beyond projects. They're about creating the kingdom of God, making the kingdom of God available to people so that people can experience the fullness of their life that God has for us. Just recently I was having a coffee with a friend, and he was telling me about how his wife hadn't read the Bible ever before, and they were saying goodnight to each other, and she was like, all right, what do you want me to read in here? And he said, "Well, James is my favorite book, and so he opened the book of James together and read it out loud together." And at the end of the fourth chapter, his wife just turned him and said, "This is like written just for me." That's what God does. That's how he speaks to us through the word, and then another in a Bible study I'm in, one of the guys is a great friend, but become a great friend over the last two years. And he is just a life for God. Every time he reads something, his faith beams, and he's talking about the vision and the ministries that God's got prepared for him to do, and the potential to lead him, and he's just excited about the difference he's going to make in the world around him, and how that's connected to his family coming together and his whole past being redeemed. And it's a beautiful thing. If you hear a week or two ago, Lacey's baptism is so special to see Lacey get baptized and make a decision for herself to follow Jesus with her life. There's beautiful things happening around here, and all our work, our resources that we're shooting, it goes. into the opportunities to tell our community from this room and beyond. People matter most to us. So you've heard things like, well, this connect groups, there's teachers lounge, there's greenhouse, there's little lights, there's beyond. These are all things that are in motion now that you can be a part of, that you can join, that you can volunteer, you can help to fund if you want. So often, again, this is not about what you can do for us. This is what we can do for the body of Christ as it expands out into the community nation and world. And maybe you want to boil it down again. I want to do something around the place. How do I contribute? How are we part of that? Anything that we've mentioned today? That's the types of things that are rolling, that are moving, that have a bright future in vision as well. So you can join in on any of those things, but there are some expansion moments ahead, things that we can't yet see. And these things are up ahead. Andy, at least one of our beyond projects and one of the investments we've made both in prayer and finance is into the nation of Cambodia and into across content to Europe. But we've been there, we've got connected, we're relational with the leaders there as well, but it's not going to stop there, is it? What's happening in that space next year and ahead? Absolutely, we're just driven to reach further than the needs we have just within this room here. Like we've got to reach further than beyond ourselves. And I think that when I get to heaven and I get face to face with Jesus and he says, "Hey, what did you do with the last thing I told you?" Which was go to the ends of the earth. Wait, wait until you've got the Holy Spirit. Well, check, I've been baptising the Holy Spirit. Thank you Jesus. And then go to the ends of the earth from Jerusalem, Judea and this expansion. So we got to the ends of the earth right. The gospel reached New Zealand. We got there. Green tick. And so I think if I got to heaven and Jesus said, "So what did you do with what I told you?" Well, I was almost at the end of the earth Jesus. So when you got to me, it was sweet. I just sat down and tweeted on my thumbs and enjoyed church on a Sunday. Or we could say, "Well, you know what, Jesus? It had such a profound impact. I thought we'd go and head back toward where it started and start seeing your kingdom expand from where we are at the ends of the earth back around the globe again, just in case we missed anyone the first time." And so we are committed to seeing the good difference Jesus is making here at Lighthouse. Go beyond us to the ends of the earth. And the ends of the earth are, for us, the opportunities God's brought to us is Eastern Europe and Cambodia. And my prayer is that he will continue to bring more. Next year, we're so passionate about this and we're so passionate about believing that God has a purpose for you and that maybe you're sitting there and he's nudging you going, "Yeah, I'm up for that. I'd love to see a bit of that. I'd love to see what Lighthouse is doing in Europe and Cambodia. Well, next year we want to go. We want to go to Cambodia with a team and we'd love to go to Europe with a team as well. And get on board and send a team of encouraging, spirit-filled, excited, talented, qualified, helpful people to go and serve what God is doing in those places. Catch that. Not to go over there and tell them what they're doing wrong and tell them how to do church better to serve the vision that God has given them to see his kingdom go forward in their community. And to let them know that there's a tribe, there's a crew in Australia that believe in you and we've come to psyche up and support you. So we're pretty pumped about that, about seeing what God can do. Not just in us, not just with us here in Wollongong but through us to Cambodia, Europe and even further. The other war is expanding. Our vision is to transform the other war with both the power of God and innovation. So even our current vision space, if your like, is growing. So therefore we also need to think about and believe for growing in a number of locations here at Laudas. And to plant more churches, maybe not, well definitely helping out the overseas but also planting more churches in this region, in the Ilarwara. And we certainly have started beginning to pray, prepare, plan for a new church location in the West Dapta area, Kempla Grande area, Stream Hill, Wongawilly, these types of suburbs, new suburbs because they're growing and they're growing fast. And I live around one of those. I walk past, many of you know I run past, run past, drive past, people all the time and not everything is as it seems. Many people, particularly, I mean you could say this across Australian society but many people have everything they want but like the one thing they really need. And where I feel like our church can be a great blessing is to people moving to those homes, people walking just down the street in those areas to say well hey there's a local church right near you, that's going to help teach you the Bible, worship God together, share in communion, have great kids programs for your kids and all those things. And I think we're well placed to do that. We're not quite there yet in the sense of saying well this is exactly what we're doing. There are some of those plans written down but we're just stepping through the proper discernment processes with our board, our pastoral exec, we've produced high level you know budgets and what it looked like to resource something like that. We've taken some time to pray and discern about this, we've asked you back in February as well to continue to pray and discern about it but one thing is we do want to know whether there is an interest among people here to see that happen. We don't always want it to feel like well this is a good idea from us or it's a even it's a God idea, is it a God idea of our church? So in September there'll be an open invite for people in our church by the way who are interested to think about what that church plant could look like even if you don't live in that area. Maybe just want to understand it, ask more questions, whatever it is. We're not going to bypass our members here and start public interest nights. That can attract people perhaps even from other church, we want to see if it's in the heart of this church as we expand and grow into those areas and quote it, "Sod it by that." Imagine those houses that aren't yet built yet. Imagine who's deciding to buy that or rent that, just thinking, "Oh this would be a nice place to live," or "This is a convenient place to live," but little do they know that lighthouse is thinking about putting a church near them, how that could transform their life and trajectory for the future as well. At least when I say creative academy, what does that mean? Oh, sounds exciting. It's based creative community hub. It sounds awesome. I want to be a part of it, can I? Well, maybe not yet. We'll see where it goes. We're really excited. Over the last few years, we have been really establishing Mouchette as a church and that's been a focus for us as a team. We've seen it grow at around 40% in just the last year and it's a really strong church that we want to then see discipleship happen through our building into our community. And so little lights is just the start. We've been able to start a community program there and now we're really looking to fill that building right through the week. And one of the exciting parts of that is I sit in the cafe there and I work from that space. I see the amount of families in the area come through the building as well as we're seeing some beautiful creatives in our church that have a real passion for creativity and using their gifts. So we're excited to pair those things together and pilot a creative academy starting at the Mouchette in mid next year. Yes, it's very exciting. This will begin as classes for mums and buds or preschoolers where they can come in and it will be values based. And I think that's really needed in our community to have creative classes with beautiful values that's coming from a faith based community. So to start preschool classes, mums and buds classes and our aim is that'll move to preschool at so primary high school and maybe Josh, maybe even some adult hip hop who knows what would happen. Dad's hip hop. Yeah, dad's hip hop. Yeah, yeah, dad's hip hop. That's what if that's what's needed, we'll work on it. I don't have a holy discontent about that. So maybe that's not a good idea. See it? Yes, do you know that's the creative academy started. Wonderful. Our station location right here. We don't have a date of like when we'll have a new building here. But we certainly hope in the medium term future that we have a new home here at Lighthouse here at the station. That is certainly our tent. We haven't made any decisions around that wood that mean that we need to share with our broader community at this moment, but we certainly will when those times come. But our strong desire at the moment is have a new home here. You know, because we need a new home. But I was also reading a document about some broader Wollongong planning by the way. And would you believe it? We need a new home. And I read this statement that says Wollongong needs a new front door at a station. So I thought, well, we provide the new front door to Wollongong. What a great way to gateway to Wollongong right here at the station. And I remember sharing that in a meeting with some planners saying, well, you need a new front door that us build a new home. And that's just it stayed there for then anyway. But who knows where that could go. But they liked it. They liked it. And well, we think a transformational piece of infrastructure that really inspires hope across our community. We are not a mega church and it's like, let's pack A thousand of people in this building, we need an auditorium of 3,000 people. We're not that type of thinking when it comes to what our space could look like. But we are applying mega thinking to what this building could be for a church that has a community, a different church that could be something that Australia hasn't seen before in the terms of how it collaborates with different faith-based, Christian faith-based groups as well as their own church here as well. But also something that inspires hope across our city, maybe even something on the front of our tourist brochure in Wungong in 10, 20 years time, is saying that's a place I want to come and visit. Who would have thought? They're the types of things that we're sharing and thinking about in our station property council as well. Texas says questions. I mean, you know, new front doors, new homes, they're called Creative Academies, Dad's hip-hop classes, third locations, global missions for people mad at most, don't they, Les? Amen. People mad at most. And as we talk about programs and buildings and all of those things, really what we hope you hear the most is that you matter. Can I remind you today that you were made with purpose? God says in the Psalms that you were created, God created you in a most-being, knitted you together in your mother's womb. You were created with a purpose. And our hope and desire is that everybody can find their purpose here at Lighthouse and that you can be reminded that when you come together in a big group of people like this, that actually together as a family, that we can now work that purpose together. Every single person matters here. And so we hope that as you come and you're a part of this with us, we hope that Lighthouse feels like a few different things as we go. And we hope that people feel as they're traveling with us in the next 18 months. I hope that we feel like we're well established, that we've got deep roots. I landscaped my front yard about two years ago. And everybody in the family got to pick their signature plant for the front yard. And I'm glad to tell you that Makaya, Asha, Audrey and Alisa's plants are all going great. But God had a lesson for me. The tree that I planted, it went amazing. Big, thick, leafy green. It was my favorite one to look at. But about two months ago, the inward leaves started going brown. If you know anything about gardening, you know, if the outward leaves go brown, that's all right. But if the inward leaves go brown, or something's wrong. The inward gets worse and worse and dry. I didn't, I watered it, I fed it. I tried to get this thing, I aerated the roots. And eventually when it was so dead that it wasn't going to survive, I had a deep, I had a closer look at the roots. And they had not grown any more than the day that I planted it. For whatever reason, maybe it didn't like the soil, maybe it was a sick plant to begin with. But the lesson that the Holy Spirit spoke to me said, "Handy, you know, it is possible to grow outwardly at a rate that your roots can't sustain." My prayer is that we become a church that is deeply rooted to be able to not just sustain but to flourish outwardly. And that this wonderful vision and growth that God's put on this church, this group of people, bearing in mind, it's not Joshua Lee Sinandie's vision, it's Lighthouse's vision that the Holy Spirit's given us as a faith community that we are stewing is that we become the kind of people who are deeply rooted in their faith in Jesus Christ. So filled to overflow by the Holy Spirit that this thing we get to do together for the time that we get to do it is an absolute joy. And that our church flourishes into its community with deep roots firmly established. God closing, let me read you this from what Paul says to the church at Ephesus. "I pray that out of God's glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, down in the deep roots, so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in his love may have power together with all of God's holy people to grasp how wide, how long, how high, how deep is Christ's love." I pray that we would continue expanding as people, that we would become bigger and bigger in heart and with depth and distance, why? Because God's Holy Spirit is growing us to become bigger people as we put our faith in him. We volunteer our talent, our time, our energy, our thought, the vision of our life into what God's doing through his church here at Lighthouse. What do you think guys? I'm up for that and I hope it feels exciting for you. I hope it feels a little bit uncomfortable. But you're also always not like uncomfortable just for like a discomfort safe, but actually that the next 18 months feel a little bit uncomfortable, but you always know why it does. And you feel like there's a sense of like, "Oh, we're on mission together." So I hope you feel connected, but it's not just like it just stays here, it's like we're on mission, like comrades together on mission. I hope it feels dynamic. I hope it feels a little bit, or we always will be a safe place for all the right age, groups and all those things, but there's a discomfort that we're growing, we're stretching this change and might not look all the same all the time, but we're okay with that because we know why and we know the vision is coming along. So I hope it feels fun for you as well. It's got to be fun, hey. Life's got to be fun. Church has got to be fun. So I hope those are the things that it feels like over the next 18 months, inconvenient, fun. I mean. Who's up for that? It's my favourite kind of fun. One person at the back, thank you. Thank you. Oh, it's a really, thank you really. My prayer is that we feel empowered. We're not in it alone. I spoke last week about the Holy Spirit that empowers us with inner strength, like Andy mentioned. So we have this Holy Spirit. We're not in it by ourselves, but we have bold and courageous faith for all God has for each and every single one of us. So I'm excited to journey this together because we're in such a dynamic season. Are you excited? Yes, we're excited, aren't we Andy? So excited. That scripture that I read out, if you'd caught the first word of it says, "And." Are you listening? And I pray. Pray. Pray is a fuel for us to be able to connect with God in the Holy Spirit. And we're going to spend some time in prayer right now. In fact, you've got a prayer card on your seat and I want to encourage you to ask yourself this question. God, what kind of person do I need to become in order to see what you want to get done through this community of faith over the next 20 years? What do you need from me, God? You know, God is so gracious and he's so tender and compassionate and he speaks to the needs in your life and the needs in your heart and the circumstances you're in, he does do that. And he also anticipates that you would lean forward and offer yourself into his work as well. And so for the emphasis of the focus of our prayer time now, we'd extend a bit beyond just what God can do in us to what God can do through us. As he lifts our eyes and lifts our chins and raises our hope that we actually go, "You know what God? I believe that you'll do those things in my life." And I am putting my hand up. I'm putting my heart out there. I'm putting my skills out there to see what you want me to contribute to over the next 20 years here at Lighthouse. So maybe if you need a question at the top of your prayer card, it could be this, God, what do you need from me for the next 20 years? Who do you need me to become? What do you need me to do? And I want to invite you to write that into the prayer card. Maybe if you want to begin in a bit of a process, you could think, God, what are you going to do? What are you doing in me? What are you going to do with the people around me so that you can do something through us in with through if you need a bit of a framework to think through it? So just take some time. The band's going to lead us in that worshipful space, which Rachel correctly said before worship causes our eyes to lift, causes our perspective to expand. The guys are going to lead us in that. And we're just going to create space for you to pray. God, what are you going to do through me? We're going to collect those and we might read a couple at the end and we'll be doing the same thing as well as the Holy Spirit kind of unites us and draws us into His purpose. So go ahead, take some time to pray, to think, to imagine, to listen. And jot it down on your cart then. Thank you for listening to the Lighthouse podcast. We hope this message brings inspiration and encouragement to your day. If you want to check out any of our other podcasts or the work that we do or when and where we gather, jump on our website at differentnight.com.au. Catch you later. (upbeat music)