The dawning of a New Year practically demands that we think about our life, set priorities, and make resolutions. I’ll stick with the same five I make every year and hope that finally I will keep at least one of them…

With all of this thinking going on, let me ask you to think about our beloved Church. We have been blessed of the Lord to be part of a wonderful group of Christians, and if we are not careful it will be easy to hope for more of the same!

Every Church, (including ours) can improve and I believe that the Lord not only wants us to be continually repenting and becoming more and more sanctified; but, HE wants all of us together as a Local Church to be continually repenting and becoming more and more sanctified as well.

First, our dreams for our Church must be biblical dreams. Our dreams should not be for our glory, but for God’s glory! I have often thought – and said – that I wish we were ten times larger than we are and that we were the smallest church in town… In the weeks ahead, I will spend some time giving more and more details about my dreams for our Church.

Again, our dreams for our Church should be big dreams. I have been blessed dozens and dozens of times by Pat Pajak’s preaching; and, one outline that has stayed with me is, “Dream Big, Work Hard, and Don’t Quit!” I remember him saying that it doesn’t cost anything to dream, so dream big!

As I thought about getting all of us to think about and dream about what God could do through us in the coming year, my thoughts turned again and again to my favorite passage of Scripture, Acts 2:42-47. As the Lord allows, I will preach from this passage this coming Lord’s Day as it gives clear images of what a Church ought to be and do.

In this passage, I see six specific things about the Church in Jerusalem that form the parameters of my dream. This was a Church of deep devotion, wonder-filled worship, unity, sacrificial sharing, rich relationships, and effective evangelism!

Churches do not get any better than that!

ALSO, please start reading and praying through Luke 19:28 through 24:49. These chapters are the focus of our 2013 January Bible Study on “The Last Week of Jesus’ Life.” We will take two Sundays in January (the 6^th and 20^th) and use both the AM and PM Services for this study.

There are sign-up sheets at the Welcome Center and I hope you will take a few minutes to sign-up so I can prepare the right number of syllabi for the study.

It is the joy of my life to serve Jesus by serving you! I hope to see you Sunday Morning with your Bible in your hand, a smile on your face, and your family and friends by your side…