It is officially Spring! May not look like the Spring pictures from calendars and catalogs but new life is taking place even when we cannot see it. The Spring snows are so welcome as they are preparing the earth with all it needs for this new life. How awesome is our Creator! We, ourselves, are looking forward toward Spring, warm sunshine, green grass and leaves, and blooming flowers. We are ready to see all the newness of life. Something about this past winter was harder for us than normal. Maybe it was the bitter cold and lack of sunlight. Even in ministry we are looking forward to the “Spring” season. In the natural, farmers start planning and plotting out their fields and vegetable gardens when the snow is still falling. The focus of the planting plan is always the harvest. As we are planning our ministry harvest the Lord is showing what seeds to sow or plant for the crop He wants to harvest. Here is the harvest vision the Lord gave us. “Christ is our message! We preach to awaken hearts and bring every person into the full understanding of truth. It has become my inspiration and passion in ministry to labor with a tireless intensity, with his power flowing through me, to present to every believer the revelation of being his perfect one in Jesus Christ.” Colossians 1:28-29 TPT
The Lord is showing us we are to plant with purpose. The past few years with so much confusion and many distractions, it seems we have scattered seeds instead of planting in a garden plot of rows. There is a time to scatter seeds but also a time to plant with a plan and purpose. Part of the garden plot plan is unity, oneness and partnering together in the vision of Mtn High Chapel. This partnership is not with people but with God. God wants to partner with us. In Billy Epperhart’s book Run Your Race he shares how this was the plan from the beginning of time. God created Adam, placed him in the Garden with the purpose of working and keeping it. As God entrusted this job to Adam He was inviting Adam to partner with Him in the creative process. Adam was partnered with God to work in the Garden and partner with God in fellowship which was our Father’s purpose for creating mankind. He wants an intimate, close relationship with us.
Planting a garden involves work. Work isn’t a bad 4 letter word. God created work in the beginning to be peaceful and fulfilling. “Work hard and cheerfully at all you do, just as though you were working for the Lord and not merely for your masters, remembering that it is the Lord Christ who is going to pay you, giving you your full portion of all he owns. He is the one you are really working for.” Colossians 3:23-24 Partnering with God brings ownership. In partnering with Mtn High Chapel, you are partnering with God to work and fulfill the vision He has given for this ministry. Your calling from the Lord brings a connection to the partnership with Mtn High. God is our boss. We each have a calling and we submit to that calling and work to do His vision. Partnership is knowing where you end and where God begins. We are co-laborers with God. God gives the vision and all we need to fulfill it is do the work He has given us “Work hard and cheerfully at all you do, just as though you were working for the Lord” The plan is from God and our part is to carry out His plan.
This goes with the partnership of Mtn High vision as well as with our personal lives and our work. There should be no difference in who you are and how you work for the Lord on Sunday and with the rest of the week. All the same principals apply. Do it all as unto Him. He is your boss. Do all you do with joy and worship. Worship and work come from the same root word in many scriptures. Imagine if all we did everyday was with the attitude of joy and worship! That’s where His peace that passes all understanding comes from. Worship is doing what you were created to do, doing your calling from Him.
We are wanting those who feel their calling or desires from the Lord could work together with the God vision for Mtn High to partner with us. The Vision Statement for this ministry is: Our vision is to reach the rejected, hurt Believer that believes they owe God something and the unbeliever who doesn’t know God loves them right now as they are – went the Good News of God’s unlimited, immeasurable, unrestricted love for them. That they may experience grace, which nis God’s ability in them and know that there is peace between God and man. We want everyone to know and experience that God is a good God and know that God is not mad. We want to share this with our community, natin and world. We are a mission minded ministry. We desire to minister to the orphans and widows. Our mission statement is reaching the world with the message of His love, grace and peace and to present the Word of God in a way that will cause the hearers to trust, believe and receive from God. We want to tach and disciple so that each person’s determined purpose is to have a more intimate relationship with God. Then to equip each Believer with the truths to go forth into their world and share the Good News. We want to be a lighthouse on this mountain, a place of hope and love. Then that same light will shine around the world. The light of a lighthouse shines far and wide. There are many ways we accomplish this vision. We preach to awaken hearts and bring every person into the full understanding of truth. It is our intention that everyone who comes in contact with the ministry of Mountain High Chapel will experience love, enthusiasm and will be refreshed. We want them to leave feeling encouraged and full of peace and joy. We intend to accomplish this by having services that are real, relevant, transparent, uplifting and encouraging.
To fulfill the vision of this ministry we need partners to come along side, “all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication” (Acts 1:14), “Those who believed were of one heart and one soul;” (Acts 4:32). As a church family we commit to work together in one accord to do the work of the ministry, the vision. There is One God, One Jesus, one Holy Spirit and One Body. In that One Body we each do our part. Even as there are many parts in the ministry of a church family, each church family is a part of His Body. Each ministry is different fulfilling the vision God has given them. It takes the whole Body, every part to do all there is to do in this lost world. If your calling doesn’t fitly join together with this vision, we don’t expect you to partner with us. We are fitly joined together and each ministry that is preaching Christ, His love, His resurrection, power of His truth, the Word, is doing their part.
In this season of planting and looking at what we want to harvest, we have some plans. He is our Source and shows us the Resources He has given us. This past year the finances of Mtn High have struggled. As the Pastors, we have prayed, sought Him and learned from Him. He has given us some revelations and wisdom. We know He as our Source provides many Resources since His promise is to supply all our needs. The church family is a resource as everyone gives but the church family is not our only resource. We are to be flowing in abundance and we have not been. We want to plant different seeds to be a part of the harvest. Our greatest gift and resource is our physical church building. The Lord has given us words that this is an asset we have not utilized. One direction we believe we are to go is to create a wedding venue that could give us more finances to do what He has called us to do. If He calls – He provides. However, we have to use the resources He provides. This is a huge step in planting this garden. It will take physical work, diligence, creativity and some long hours to create a venue that can be used for that special wedding day and yet safe enough for children to play in. The gym was built with the purpose to be used for the community.
We are trusting the Lord in this, trusting His love for us. God cares about this ministry and vision and is going to work it all out for His glory. When we trust Him, we will find ourselves cooperating with His work going on in us and His ministry. Trust isn’t coasting along singing Kum Ba Yah, whatever will be will be. Trust is an active partnership that rises up out of our relationship with Him. As we trust His direction, we discover how to actively participate with Him in the work He is doing and not trusting our own efforts.
His work brings joy! His work is worship! Let’s work together!