First Assembly of God - Harrisonburg, Virginia: First Assembly of God Newsletter

1310 Garber's Church Rd. | Harrisonburg, VA 22801 | 540.433.8687

First Assembly of God Newsletter March 2010

Helen Keller was once asked, "What would be worse than being born blind?" She
replied, "Having sight without vision." What a profound statement from a girl who was born into this world deaf, dumb, and blind. Everyone ends up somewhere in life. A few people end up somewhere on purpose. Those are the ones with vision. The most practical advantage of
vision is that it sets direction for our lives, much like a road map. Vision provides the push through the problems and the energy for the effort. Vision is that elusive thing that dares to dream big dreams about the future. It has been called hope with a blueprint. Vision has a way of ignoring those who say it can't be done and does it anyway.

The question I would like to pose to you is this: "Do we as a church have a vision, and if so what is that vision?" I believe that our vision must be "Spirit born, Spirit fed, and Spirit led" to accomplish anything. How does someone get a vision? By looking at God. Once we understand how awesome God is, we will not hesitate to believe God for great things. God help us to have enough faith in God to believe for miracles to become everyday occurrences.

There are a lot of factors that influence our service for God which we have no control over; our background, our age, our giftings, etc. However, there is one thing that we do have control over, how much we choose to believe God. A fifth grade Sunday School class was asked to go home and count the stars as part of their lesson for the following week. They came back with various numbers. Some said 100, some said 1000, and some said a million. Finally the teacher asked a little boy who had said nothing, "How many stars did you count?" He replied, "3". The teacher asked "How did you only see 3?" He replied, " I guess we just have a small backyard." How big is our church's backyard?

The vision that I as your pastor have includes the following five points. I ask that you pray over these, and ask God what role do you play in making these a reality here at First Assembly. It will require all of us taking ownership of this vision for it to happen, but we can do it if we all do our part.

First, I dream of being a church that uses relevant Bible exposition, contemporary and traditional music, and the creative arts to connect both Christians and non-Christians with God and give them hope for their lives. Bible exposition is simply systematic teaching from the Bible, explaining what the Bible means and how it applies to our lives. The creative arts refer to the use of drama, multi-media, and other artistic expressions to draw us closer to God in worship.
Second, by renewing our vision for prayer by expressing our hearts to God. I believe that God wants our church to be a church where our passion for God and God's purposes inspires us to believe Him for the impossible. God desires for our church to be filled each week with a constantly expanding multitude of growing Christians who are learning how to walk in daily intimacy with God. Our ministry needs to flow from our knees bent in prayer. As it's been said, "Prayer doesn't prepare us for the battle, prayer is the battle."
Third, we need to renew our vision for service by using the gifts God has given us. The way we fan the flame of our spiritual gifts is by using them. The flame loses its blaze through the lack of use, and gradually our gifts become glowing embers. We fuel the fire when we use our gifts, and overcome the spirit of timidity. I dream of a church where our members see themselves as God's ministers and are sacrificially investing their gifts, talents and resources to make God's vision become a reality.

This brings us to our next point of renewing our vision for outreach by testifying about Jesus. How many times are we tempted to hide our witness about Jesus inside our hearts and our churches, rather than allowing it to flow into our words and actions? Relationships are the primary mechanism for sharing our faith in Jesus. I dream of our church being attended by hundreds of unchurched people every week who are in the process of discovering a dynamic relationship with Jesus. May we become a church that strives to remove every barrier that keeps unchurched people from understanding and responding to the good news of Christ.

Last, we need to renew our vision for nurture by responding to God's invitation to a holy life. By nurture, I mean focusing on growing into spiritual maturity. We can do this by being a church that provides a constantly expanding network of care groups, where Christians are growing into wholeness and non-Christians are discovering Christ.

There is always tension between our vision and the way things are. This is because if vision only described the status quo, it wouldn't be a vision. So the disparity between vision and the status quo creates tension, like a rubber band that has been stretched. Often we're tempted to let this tension pull the vision down to the status quo, to soften the vision and make it more palatable to the way things are. Instead, we should let the tension pull the way things are closer to the vision, creating the necessary changes in our lives needed to pull us toward what God has for us.

I believe God wants to pull us closer to our vision this year. He wants a congregation of renewed vision for worship. prayer service, outreach, and nurture. He calls us to let the tension between this vision and the way things are to stretch us, to pull us, to excite us, to fan the flame so we once again burn bright. This vision isn't just renewed by hearing a sermon or reading a book. Our vision for worship is renewed by actually worshipping; our vision for prayer is renewed by actually praying; our vision for service is renewed by actually using our gifts to serve; our vision for outreach is renewed by actually testifying about Jesus; and our vision for nurture is renewed by actually responding to God's call to a holy life. There is no substitute for action, for doing what God has called us to do.

— Pastor Jeff

BUSINESS
ADMINISTRATOR
NOTES

photo of business administrator Steve Parsons

If you have not yet filed your 2009 tax return, and you made charitable donations to earthquake relief in Haiti, you might be interested in the following news from the Internal Revenue Service. A new tax relief law allows people who contributed to charities in 2010 providing earthquake relief to Haiti, to take a tax deduction for the contribution on their 2009 tax return rather than their 2010 return. This means, that if you so desire, you can choose to receive an immediate tax benefit, rather than having to wait until you file your 2010 tax return next year.

Certain requirements apply:

Only cash contributions made to qualifying charities between January 12 and March 1, 2010, are eligible. This includes donations by text message, check, credit card or debit.
The contributions must be made specifically for the relief of victims in areas affected by the January 12 earthquake in Haiti.
You may deduct these contributions on either your 2009 or 2010 tax return, but not both.

In addition, the general rules about tax deductions for charitable contributions apply:

You must itemize your deductions on Schedule A; those claiming the standard deduction, including all short-form filers, are not eligible.
You must keep a record of any deductible donations you make.
Contributions to foreign organizations generally are not deductible.
Make sure your donation goes to a qualified charity. Most organizations, other than churches, eligible to receive tax-deductible donations are listed in a database available under Search for Charities on the IRS.gov website.

We commend you for your level of giving to this important humanitarian effort. Thanks to your generosity, our church was able to send $10,000 for earthquake relief in Haiti. If you plan to claim your donation to Haiti on your 2009 tax return and need a copy of your giving report, please notify me or Shirley and we will provide it to you.

— Steve Parsons