I shared the following with our church at the conclusion of our annual business meeting. If you attend FCC or not, this is for you wherever you serve in ministry;
We have to rally behind the vision. We have to commit to it and give ourselves to it if we are ever to see it come to pass. God has given Frenchport Church a vision to impact generations for a lifetime. God has birthed in my heart as the pastor a vision to reach the people of our area. The Word of God must be taught and modeled in such a way that people can understand, apply and share it. That is the only way generations will be impacted, is through the Word. God is calling us to love the unlovable and reach out to the lonely, lost and hurting. God wants us as a church to take the position of the lowest servant just as Jesus did by washing His disciple’s feet. Jesus said that a servant is not above his Master…Jesus is our Master and our Lord and how can we sit idly by and not serve with passion and urgency as Jesus did? We serve God best by serving others if we are to make an impact. That is part of showing our faith in God by our works. People have a dead faith because it is lacking works and if we are to ever do anything more than play church we have to DO what we have been talking about!
I am calling on the people of Frenchport Church to arise out of your slumber and apathy and follow me as I follow Christ! This vision is too big for me to accomplish alone but it must be accomplished….NO….it WILL be accomplished! We cannot sit and wait for something to happen; we must go and make something happen! I need more than your vocal support in this hour, I need more than your words of affirmation and encouragement…I need your hands and feet! I need your sweat and your tears! I need your loyalty and dedication to what God has called us as a church to do!
I am calling forth creativity and ideas to begin to spring up in our church along with the passion and determination to see those things through. We don’t have time for excuses…and it is not time to pull back or take a breather! It doesn’t matter how old or young you are, how long you have been saved, the question of the hour is, “What are you waiting for?”
I am calling on our church to rise up as a collective body with a purpose. Where we move together with such a purpose we aren’t concerned with what things don’t fit our liking but how can we serve the Lord through serving others? I am talking about a servant’s heart that sees a need in the local body and fills the need without being asked. I am calling on you to quit looking at what you have done and start asking yourself, “What can I do now? Where am I needed now?” and rise to the occasion without need for excuse or justification of why you shouldn’t serve. We need to quit looking at all of the reasons why we cannot do something and “suck-it-up”, and pull together to see our church pull through the hard times that would try to knock us down and out. That may mean that you may not feel particularly “called” to a certain area but you serve anyways because your heart is for the Lord and His Church and His people, and you recognize, a vessel doesn’t get to choose how it is used, it “gets” to be used of God. Jesus wasn’t called to wash feet but He did it because there was a need, and He was a servant and we are not above our Master.
We have to rally behind the vision and the leadership that God has put in place if we are going to see change. Change is not solely placed upon the shoulders of the leadership but is something that ALL of us hold the keys to unlocking. This simply means that if you have been supportive, you “amp-it-up” and take it to the next level. If you have been “ho-hum” in your dedication to the vision and purpose, you need to make up your mind. If you haven’t been giving, step up and give! If you haven’t been serving, step up and serve! If you have been a casual attendee or casually involved…step it up and let’s see God take our acts of faith and do what He wills through our dedication! Use the tools that we have given you! Begin to pass out those invite cards and tell people about the great things God is doing at our church and start to invite people who may not know God or who have been away from Him!
We will not be the church God has called us to be if we don’t step up and do the things He is calling us to do…and do them together, with passion…BUT the vision must go on. If we don’t decide to step up, the vision is burning too hot to be stopped, it will burn on. I refuse to let the fire burn out! God’s Will must be accomplished…you and I have to make the choice, “Are we going to do what it takes to see it through?” I pray you answered “YES” and that it is more than words.
We are going to have to go to the next level in our prayers, our fasting, our worship, our hunger for the Word, our faithfulness in our giving financially and of ourselves, our faithfulness to God and our faithfulness to our church. We have to be pro-active in our faith and not wait for something to happen and be re-active. We need to step it up in faith…right now!
If we just want to sit by and wait for something to happen while we play church, we are wasting our time and we will slowly crumble into yesterday. Impacting every generation for a lifetime is more than a slogan on a sign or business card…it is who we are as a body. It is what we are all about, and we are committed to that purpose, no matter what the cost. I want to see us genuinely loving people no matter what their soci-economic status, their race or even how they may appear. If we are going to make an impact we have to look past people’s faults and how they are “not like us” and love them and go beyond what is comfortable to show them we care. That is what Jesus did…He went beyond what was comfortable by washing feet, being spat upon and dying on a cross….for me. For you. For the people of Smackover, Camden and the surrounding areas. Someone needs to love the meth-addict, the drunk, the one in jail, the poor, the abandoned, the abused, the one who is bitter and angry, the misused, the hopeless, the fearful, the widows, the single parents, the addicted, the rejected….they are in our city, in our towns and neighborhoods and they need the love and truth of Jesus Christ.
This is so much bigger than Derik Armstrong. This is so much bigger than anything we could do on our own…this is our mandate for such a time as this! Jesus’ return is approaching faster and faster…there is no time for us to play games. It is time for us as a local body to get serious and committed to the vision God has for our church now more than ever before!
Declaring such bold statements may offend some and motivate others BUT it is what MUST happen if we are ever going to be the church God has called us to be. There is no other way, it no one else’s responsibility. I am calling on you to rally behind the vision, rally behind me as your pastor and commit to serving God, this local body and people like never before.
-Pastor Derik Armstrong
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