Vision Casting Message
Congregational Meeting 1/31/10
The following is a transcript of Pastor Craig Parker's talk at the Congregational Meeting on Jan. 31, 2010 regarding BridgeWay's Multi-Site Strategy...
Jesus was always speaking in metaphors. One of them is
found in Luke 6:43-44: “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a
bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit.”
Using Jesus’ metaphor of the tree, in the next ten minutes I am
going to not only give you the history of BridgeWay for the past
ten years, but also the vision of BridgeWay for the next ten years.
Plus, I will do it without saying the words BridgeWay or church.
Think I can do it? Ten minutes: Ready, set, go.
Ten years ago, all we had was a seed. The seed was
planted in the ground. We fed and watered it, but God caused it
to grow, and it became apple tree. But if you look at the metaphor
in Luke chapter 6, Jesus tells us that if an apple tree is healthy, two
things will always, always, always happen. First it will grow, and
second it will reproduce. And that is what the apple tree did.
Our vision for growth was to transplant the apple tree when
it had grown too big for the pot we had leased. We would raise
a lot of money, and build a new pot that was bigger. But the more
we pursued our vision for growth, the more we realized that we
were no longer trying to grow an apple tree; we were now trying
to grow a banana tree. And a very expensive banana tree at that:
seven million dollars! But look what Jesus tells us in the metaphor,
“A tree will be recognized by its own fruit.” God did not call us to
grow banana trees; he had called us to grow what? Apple trees!
Our vision for reproduction was to find seeds from other
trees and plant them here in the ground. We would plant seeds
everywhere, in the hope that they too would become apple trees.
But the more we pursued our vision for reproduction, the more we
realized we were no longer trying to reproduce apple trees; we
were now trying to reproduce orange trees. While the genesis of
the idea was good, at some point we had gotten off the pathway.
But look what Jesus tells us in the metaphor, “A tree will be recognized
by its own fruit.” God did not call us to reproduce orange
trees, he had called us to reproduce what? Apple trees!
As we were trying to figure out our vision for growing and
reproducing the apple tree, something happened: We stopped
growing and reproducing. It was not because we couldn’t figure
out our vision, but because the apple tree had become unhealthy.
So we asked God to do whatever it takes to make our apple tree
healthy again, and as a result of that prayer we are spending 27
weeks hearing, reading, studying, memorizing and meditating on
the book that will help us to become healthy again.
But, do you remember what Jesus told us? If an apple tree is
healthy, two things will always, always, always happen. First it
will grow, and second it will reproduce. Once again, that is what
the apple tree is doing. After the past three to four weeks, it is
again obvious that the pot we leased for the apple tree will soon
be too small. The question now is, “How will the apple tree
continue to grow and reproduce?”
Our vision for growth and reproduction is to start once again
with a seed. But along with the seed, what if we took a slice of
apple and planted it in other places? Does anyone here live in
Indianapolis? What if we planted a slice of the apple there? Does
anyone here live in McCordsville? What if we planted a slice of
the apple there? Does anyone here live in Noblesville? What if
we planted a slice of the apple there?
The miraculous thing that God does when we plant a slice
of the apple in places like that, is that there will now be apple
trees all around. Not banana trees. Not orange trees. But apple
trees, that not only look like, but are like the first apple tree. Why?
“A tree will be recognized by its own fruit.”
Multi-site is the strategy BridgeWay is adopting to
accomplish Jesus’ vision for growth and multiplication of his
church. Rather than growing a mega-church (i.e. the banana tree)
or reproducing other churches (i.e. the orange trees), BridgeWay’s
strategy will be to grow and reproduce ourselves (i.e. the apple
tree) on multiple sites, leasing facilities (i.e. the pots) rather than
building them.
The Apple Tree: Our church located at multiple sites.
The Apple Slice: Our resources of people and finances.
The Apple Seed: Our DNA of mission, vision and values.