Visions & Dreams

By Bill Crews, NWBC Executive Director

“Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17b KJV)

It was the dawning of a new day, the public launch of a new way for the advancement of the kingdom of God. There was such evidence of the presence of God that the sermon by a fisherman attracted a large crowd. The response to that first gospel sermon was miraculous and overwhelming. The Holy Spirit did his work and thousands were saved and added to the church. Kingdom visions and dreams became a reality.

Facing the growing lostness of the Pacific Northwest and our world, we desperately need “young men who will see visions and old men who will dream dreams.” I believe God is building a fellowship of leaders, young and old, who passionately long to see God work His miraculous work of salvation in the neighborhoods, villages, towns and cities of the Northwest.

We are beginning this month the second year of the Strategy for the Renewal of the Northwest Baptist Convention. Our Regional Teams have visited all of our churches and engaged in developing regional strategies to carry out our mission of “encouraging and empowering the churches of the Northwest Baptist Convention toward a spiritual vitality that results in a growing Gospel witness and in the continuous planting of healthy, reproducing new churches.”

Toward that end, the Strategic Leadership Team, working with the regional teams, pastors and other ministry leaders, has developed four overarching goals for 2011 that focus on evangelism, church health, church planting and leadership development. These four goals rise from the strategies developed by the Regional Teams in the field and will be implemented by these Regional Teams. I wanted to share these four major goals with you and ask you to pray for the teams as they “encourage and empower” the churches of the six regions to see these dreams come true.

NWBC Ministry Goals for 2011

Believing our mission is to encourage and empower the churches of the Northwest Baptist Convention toward a spiritual vitality that results in a growing Gospel witness and in the continuous planting of healthy, reproducing new churches, we are committed to the following major objectives in 2011:

Spiritual Vitality

Through ongoing contact and support, we will see at least 25% of NWBC congregations engage annually in an intentional assessment of the spiritual vitality of their congregation and develop a specific response plan for the enhancement and growth of the spiritual vitality of the congregation.

Church Planting

We will involve 100 existing NWBC churches in partnerships that will result in the beginning of new communities of faith that will result in a net gain of 35 new congregations in 2011. This will mean there will be 485 churches in our convention at the end of 2011 (8% net gain).

Evangelism & Church Health

Believing church health and evangelism are two sides of the same coin, we will believe we will experience the following growth:

Baptisms: Our churches will baptize the equivalent of 10 percent of the average worship attendance of 2010 (This means our goal will be to baptize 3,115 new believers in 2011);

Worship attendance: Weekly worship attendance will increase by 10 percent to 34,290 in 2011.

Small group participation: Our churches will experience a 10 percent increase in small group participation ( 37,848 average Bible study/small group attendance in 2011);

Impact outside the church: Our churches will see an increase of 10 percent in ministry activities outside the local church (8,306 community/mission activities in 2011).


Leadership Development

Through direct and indirect projects, we will see a 10 percent increase in the number of pastors, church staff and lay leaders involved in effective leadership development activities.

These are challenging goals, all focusing on penetrating the lostness of the Pacific Northwest and the world. I know you will join us in seeking the face of God, asking Him to do through us what we cannot do on our own.