“The mission of Pacific Open Bible is to use all methods and means to help the local church be effective in fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.”

Let’s talk vision by Gary Emery [regional executive director]

Vision originates in the heart of God.  For Isaiah his vision was of the Lord, “high and lifted up and his train filled the temple.” For Jacob it was the “stairway to heaven.” For Ezekiel it was “the wheel in the middle of the wheel.” God gave a vision and it carried those men through their lives. The church was started with Peter’s passionate retelling of Joel’s vision, “the young men shall see visions…” Solomon wrote, “Where there is no vision people perish.” Habakkuk’s instruction was to “Write the vision, make it plain so that he may run who reads it.”

Visions are like kites, they fly high in the clouds and yet have to be tethered to the ground. I have learned that God puts visions and dreams to fly high in our hearts but unless they are tethered to reality they never really go anywhere.   For most of us pastors there is enough work for us to do that it would be easy to forget about vision and just hack away on our “to do” list.  Besides, who wants to hang a vision - target out there for people to shoot at? Isn’t it a bit safer to simply keep the machinery running? Probably, but I would die if my life were reduced to that (and so would you). God has called us to something greater than maintenance. We are people of vision. We get to live in the dynamic tension of flying a God-breathed vision while tied to the day to day reality of leading a church.

Making Disciples
It is my conviction that the church that Jesus envisioned was strong, healthy, and ruthlessly committed to His cause. The church was designed to be robust and effective. The normal state of the church should be one of life, growth, vitality, and missional effectiveness. Sadly that “normal” church has become the exception rather than the rule. It’s time for that to change. Our world is seeing great advances in the Kingdom of God, but outside of some
notable exceptions, the church in the United States is not growing. One recent study took a long look and calculated that church attendance in the United States has declined 60% in
the last seventy years. The Pew Resource Forum’s most recent survey identified Oregon and Washington as the first and second most secular states (with California also in the top ten).  (Hawaii is the only state in the United States where church attendance is on the rise.)I would love to tell you that Open Bible Churches has been the great exception to the rule. But that would be a lie. In the past our churches Right now, were more likely to be in a state of decline (or recline) than in an incline.

BUT THANKS TO THE LORD AND SOME COURAGEOUS PASTORS THAT IS STARTING TO CHANGE.   Pacific Open Bible is completely committed to helping our churches stay focus on making strong disciples.  We really have no choice!  The Great Commission requires it, the condition of the world begs for it, and the call of God upon our lives demands it.  So here it is…

Vision for Making Disciples: To see 60% of our churches maintain a growth rate of 5% per year for three years. The focus of our growth will be conversions (rather than transfer growth). We want to accomplish that goal by April 2014.

Our vision is both deep and wide. 

• We want it go deep.  We want to see the culture, the very soil, of our churches become focused on reaching lost people and are willing to make whatever changes (of course within the boundaries of Scripture) to make that a reality.  We are not looking for shallow quick fixes, emotionally-based responses, or cheap gimmicks.  We want our hearts to burn with the compassion Jesus has for lost people and then use our leadership influence to make whatever changes are needed to cause the church to fulfill the passion of His great heart.
• We also want it go to wide.  We are not content to have a few of our churches thriving while others struggle.  We are looking for 60% (would that it be 100%...but we need to start somewhere!) of our churches to sustain regular growth over time.  I realize that 5% per year for three years doesn’t sound like much, but when you have been stuck or going backwards, 15% growth over three years is definitely heading in the right direction.

To facilitate this vision we recently launched a Church Health Commission led by Terry Reilley, Mark Wood, Gary Hebden, and Gary Khan.  Together they are developing and overseeing a strategy to make our churches healthy and outward focused.  Already forty of our churches and pastors are working with the Church Health Commission to bring change, health and growth to the churches they lead.

Church Planting
As our churches become healthy and grow they will be more able to further the Great Commission through planting new churches. You have seen the same stats I have.   Newly planted churches tend to be highly focused on evangelism and discipleship. When we plant churches we multiply our Kingdom effectiveness. We also give opportunity for young leaders to step into the church planting jungle.

Vision for Church Planting: To plant fifty-five new churches in the next 10 years.

This is a more ambitious goal than one might think because initially our primary focus must be on helping our churches become healthy rather than on church planting. Church planting works best when healthy churches are able to “give birth” to new churches that
grow inside their womb. Churches are living things. They are birthed, not manufactured.  Every birth is a supernatural event. Some of these churches will be Ethnic others will be Anglo. Some will be birthed by a mother church; some will be “missional extensions” of existing strong churches. Still others will be planted cooperatively by several churches working together. Most of these will be led by our young leaders who will venture out in teams to design and build new churches for the 21st century. Again, as our churches get
healthier and more focused on mission, church planting will is a natural, planned outcome. 

To facilitate this vision we have put together a Church Planter’s Commission led by Chris Hansler, Vaughn Wood, Aaron Sutherland, and Mike Nortune.  These pastors are all successful church planters who are passionate about seeing our young men and women plant great churches.    Already we are seeing nine brand new churches planted.  We are well on our way!

Missions
I recently met with Vince McCarty (Director of International Ministries), his board of directors, and the Open Bible National Board of Directors. We shared a faith-filled day wrestling with the issues and opportunities around the world. I want you to know the leadership of Open Bible is ready to consider new and different global opportunities and strategies. Vince McCarty is particularly impassioned to raise up a new and larger generation of young Open Bible Missionaries. God seems to be giving us new and fascinating
strategic partnerships around the world. When we step back and take a big-picture “Kingdom” perspective, we will see that perhaps the greatest opportunity for our churches to be effective in fulfilling the Great Commission is by sending and supporting more missionaries. We understand there is more to all this than simply sending more money, but for us to have a clear, measurable focus let’s start here:

Vision for Missions: To reverse the downward trend in Missions giving and see missions giving in our Region increase 25% by April 2014.

VISION- The Big How, the Big Now
Our Mission will not change, our Vision will grow and expand over time, but the “how” piece (strategy) will always be subject to change.  We are looking for the best ways to make a difference.  In Open Bible we are all committed to the same overall mission but each Region is empowered to create whatever strategy and structures they believe will help accomplish the mission.   We have intentionally aligned our mission exactly with the National Open Bible mission to “make disciples, plant churches, and send missionaries.” 

The time is now!  The clock is ticking for all of us.  Heaven and Hell are real places.  We desperately want to do all we can now so that on the DAY we stand before the Chief Shepherd He will be pleased with our stewardship of His Great Commission.

For that DAY,

Gary Emery
Pacific Open Bible