VCLC 15th Anniversary Sharing
Logos from 15 to 20
Author: Rev. Owen Leung
During the youthful stage between ages 15 to 20 our life is full of youthful vitality and exuberant physical strength, which is also the time when we start exploring and pursuing dreams. These are the colorful days of life! Logos has now reached the end of her 15th year. At this moment when we are entering our 16th year, from a developmental perspective, Logos is at a verily youthful stage—on the one hand, she is no longer a baby church, but on the other hand, she is not yet an old historical establishment. It is at this stage, Logos must explore ways to face the road ahead. In this article, I am willing to share with you briefly my views on Logos’ future development. Hopefully, by doing this I can stimulate brothers and sisters to a unified vision which will keep us in steps and in one direction.
Establishing a development program for a church of Jesus Christ is no easy task because each local church possesses a different set of characteristic and internal culture. We cannot generalize it. The Bible, therefore, becomes our best source of reference in which we can find useful biblical concepts or framework that can help us in achieving the task. The household of Abraham in Genesis in the Old Testament happens to be a good one. Abraham being the father of faith, whose household of which he is the head is very helpful to be used for this purpose. The church is also a God-centered spiritual
household. Therefore, I will use Abraham’s household as a blueprint for my intended purposes of setting a church development plan. Let me start with the number 318.
The number 318 is the number of Abraham’s domestic servants led by him for the rescuing of Lot, his nephew and his family from the enemies (Genesis 14:14-16). These servants of Abraham were not only faithful and brave; they obviously had good military trainings that enabled them to fight victoriously in battles. The church likewise needs a group of faithful and brave servants who are trained to be God’s effective fishers of lost souls. Let me employ this number to formulate a development plan for Logos.
3 Core Values:
- Revere: The fear of God is what sustains a church; the lack of it turns other values unobtainable (1 Peter 2:17).
- Respect: Respect for among Christ’s disciples is indispensable because it is a moral character derived from love. It is a concrete manifestation of love. We must respect one another: Believer or seeker; male or female; old folks or young lads; Chinese or non-Chinese; people who share the same views or having different thoughts, we must learn to respect each other. By practicing it, we are practically demonstrating the truth of Christ’s love (1 Peter 2:17).
- Reach: The Great Commission says we are commanded to bring the gospel to all nations. The Bible clearly shows God desires men to be saved by obtaining knowledge of the truth of God (Matthew 28:19-20; 1 Timothy 2:4).
1 Mission:
- Logos will continuously evangelize the Chinese community in Vancouver west side (Joshua 14:12).
8 Church Characteristics (Taken from the Natural Church Development):
- Empowering Leadership
- Gift-oriented Ministry
- Passionate Spirituality
- Functional Structure
- Inspiring Worship Service
- Holistic Small Groups
- Need-oriented Evangelism
- Loving Relationships
In addition to the above concepts and framework of development, Logos, regardless of the building situation, must continue to grow in all aspects:
- In the next 3 years, we seek to complete the construction work of the church on Granville Street.
- In the next 5 years, we aim at increasing our congregation from about 100 people at the present to at least 300-318 people (around 25% annual growth).
- In the next 5 years, the number of full-time workers will increase to at least 4:
- Senior Pastor (responsible for the overall pastoral needs and administrative work)
- A full-time Assistant Pastor (to assist the senior pastor for shepherding the English congregation and its development)
- A full-time Assistant Pastor (dedicated to shepherding and the development of children’s ministry)
- A full-time Administrative Secretary (to assist the senior pastor to handle administrative work of the Church)
- In the next 5 years, the total attendance of all of our prayer meeting participants will increase to at least 50% of our congregation.
- In the next 5 years, regular givers with offering number will reach at least 80% ofour congregation to support the church in her ministries and the paying down of the mortgage.
- In the next 5 years, the number of people participating in the church fellowships or groups increased to more than 60% of the total population of the church.
Brothers and sisters of Logos, as your pastor, I deeply understand that Christ is the Head of the church whose guidance we all must follow. Lord willing, we will be able to do these things. Let us be united and keeping in steps with the Lord in the next 5 years in order to witness his wonderful work in our midst. In closing, I surrender this plan under the Lordship of Jesus Christ who can and will enable us to achieve these goals.