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I am excited to spend some time talking about our future in part 7 of this vision series. Our vision frame all comes together to paint a picture of the future. We know that our future will ultimately be determined by God and that the future He has for us is far better than any picture we could paint for ourselves. However, we believe it is wise to humbly seek after a God glorifying vision. Today, we are going to begin outlining our five legacy lanes. These are the five areas of influence that we believe God wants us to focus on. There are many great ways a church can be involved in impacting the world for Christ. These are the five ways we believe God is calling us to make an impact.  The above picture is our "vision frame" for more on this, check out the first post in this series. If you'd like to view a larger picture of the frame you can do so by clicking here.
If you haven’t already please read the rest of our vision series before you read this post. The vision frame works together to make this future a reality. We will finish out this series by looking at each of the five lanes in greater detail, but in this post I want to simply introduce you to the five lanes and the 32 by 32 vision. The legacy lanes Lane #1: Ascent Church The first legacy lane is Ascent church. We are a part of the mission field here in northwest Oklahoma. We are a family of servant missionaries and an important piece of our legacy we leave should be through our church. We have a vision of being a sending church. We want to raise up children and youth with a passion for God’s mission and send them out to fulfill their calling. A large part of our vision here in northwest Oklahoma is to revitalize dying or dead churches by starting a network of connected churches in towns of 1,000 to 10,000 throughout the region. We believe that through a network we will be able to provide excellent church experiences and accomplish more on the mission field together for a fraction of the cost. More on this next week! Lane #2: Local community We want to be a blessing to the communities we are a part of. In fact, our goal is that it would be impossible to live in northwest Oklahoma and to not encounter a gospel saturated person (rep)resenting the love of Jesus to them. We will love without strings attached. The people in northwest Oklahoma should love our presence even if they hate what we believe. We will primarily bless our communities through being individuals that are committed to (re) & (rep) presenting Jesus in our everyday lives. On a corporate level we will seek to partner with organizations already doing amazing work in our communities instead of trying to start our own things. Lane #3: State missions We are a church plant being funded and supported by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (BGCO) and we want to be a part of supporting other churches like us through supporting the BGCO. Also, through giving to the BGCO we will be (rep)resenting Jesus as the funds will be used to fund disaster relief, the baptists children’s home, and various other amazing causes throughout our state. We also have a heart to train and support individual planters throughout our state. We want to start a residency program and train up future Oklahoma planters. You might one day be a planter in Oklahoma or going with one of our Oklahoma planters to help start a life giving church in another part of the state! Lane #4: National missions This is where the legacy vision actually started. Taylor and I thought we would be called to plant a church in one of the 32 SEND cities as identified by the North American Mission Board (NAMB), but God has made it clear to us that Ascent will be a part of planting churches in those cities instead of actually being a plant. We have this crazy God sized vision that we would be able to plant 32 churches in all of the 32 SEND cities by the end of our time at Ascent. That’s over 1,000 churches! Can you imagine how cool it would be to be a part of a legacy like that? In addition to planting in those 32 cities we will also support mission partners like the Association of Related Churches (ARC), NAMB, and SOMA church planting. Lane #5: World missions Through our partners around the world we hope to be a small part of assisting the global Church in her mission. We will invest money into partners dedicated to both (re) & (rep)resenting Jesus. We don’t just want to send money though. We pray that we would raise up world missionaries to send out from within our own body! 32 by 32 vision We can sum our whole mission effort up as a local church with the 32 by 32 vision. This vision started with our heart to plant 32 churches in each of the 32 SEND cities, but has since spread throughout all of our legacy lanes. The vision is simple, but will only become a reality if God blesses us in amazing ways and I believe He will! Our vision is that over the next 13 years, by 2032, we would see each of the following goals realized. Lane #1: Ascent Church
Lane #2: Local community
Lane #3: State missions
Lane #4: National missions
Lane #5: World missions
Teamwork makes the dream work If you are wondering, the 32 by 32 vision is going to cost us around $11,712,160 dollars above our general operating budget over the next 13 years. That should cause you to gasp a little bit. Is it possible? No. That is why we need God to show up and the way He always does that is through His people! So, over the next 13 years here are three ways we will all need to come together to see this vision become a reality. Pray This won’t happen without the Holy Spirit. We need His power and wisdom desperately. Give We will need everyone to give all that they can. God isn’t interested in the amount. If we all faithfully obey the Holy Spirit and give an amount that stretches our faith I have no doubt we will see this dream become a reality. Go Everyone who calls Ascent home will go. You will go on mission in your everyday life with your missional community. You will be asked to go on short term mission trips to help with our state, national & world mission partners. You may be called upon to go be apart of a new campus in a different community. You might be stirred by God to move so that you can be a part of a new church plant in Oklahoma or across the United State. Who knows, God might even call you to become a church planter or world missionary. It will look different for all of us, but we will all go. Let's get started! I hope this excites you as much as it does me. This gets my blood pumping just writing about this. If we even accomplish half of this by 2032 can you image the legacy it will leave? I have no idea what God will do through us over the next 13 years. It may be similar to this or completely different, but I sure am glad I get to be a part of it! I bet you are also. Thank you for taking time to read this and the rest of our vision series. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or by emailing me at pastorblakefarley@gmail.com. Pastor Blake
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