Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: It's good to see you this morning. Welcome to Village Church East. It is my privilege to get to share with you from God's Word today. We're gonna start a new series today on the church. If you hadn't caught that this morning, that's what we're gonna be doing. And we also have a very cool thing over the next two Sundays. We actually have two Sundays worth of baptisms coming up. So we're gonna do a baptism today and a baptism next week, which is very, very cool. And the Lord's really been moving in our midst and working among us, and I'm grateful for that. So. So we're going to do this series on the church, and today you'll be really grateful that you're here because we have a very important thing to bring to you, actually, during our service today that you'll get to hear as we go through.
But as we. Before we get there, I just want to talk to you a little bit about the church. How many of you enjoy doing family photos?
Okay. All right. Helen, does one person. All right. How many of you dislike doing family photos? Okay. Probably because they, like, look like this. Right? All right, so I've got a couple of family photos that we can look at this morning. Here's one.
Sometimes you regret the choice of clothing that you do. Yeah, that's an unfortunate family photo. Here's another one. This is an interesting one. And maybe you're into Star Trek, but wearing the gear for your family photos. Of course, Christmas is always a good one to try out new family photos. You might regret that when you grow up, kids. But yeah, so there's one. And here's another one. And I think I saw Darren in this next one. If you look carefully, can you be. No, not that one. The one after that. Now, Darren, that's not you. Darren, just forward to the next slide. There. There you are.
Is that you, Darren? When you were younger, are you in one of those outfits? No, no, no, that's not. Darren, I'm just kidding. No, no, no.
Yeah.
Every one of us has family photos that we're proud of and mostly that we're not.
You're always wondering, like, where do I stand? What do I do? Who do I stand behind? Should I create another row? I don't want to be in the front.
Yeah. These are always awkward moments that we go through when we deal with family photos. Did you ever consider, like, the church is God's way of building a family?
It is, actually. God is very interested in building families. God is very Interested in the idea, families. It is his idea to begin with. You could say that from the very beginning of time, God was building a family.
And a great picture of the family is the church. And so for the next two Sundays, we're going to talk about why does God want a church? What does it mean to be a part of a church? What's God's plan for me in the church? And the main passage I'm going to be using is Ephesians 2:19. We read it this morning and here it is on the screen again. Let me read it for you. So then this is talking to those of us that follow Jesus with our lives, that have been decided to be Christ followers, who have accepted him as our Savior. And we know that Scripture makes it clear that, you know, if we get hit by a Mack truck, we're with Him. We are in heaven when we die, we are Christ's. He has forgiven us of our sins. We are sinners, and he has washed us clean. For those of us that are in that category, you immediately start belonging to this thing called the church. Now, the church exists throughout time, beginning actually before the foundation of the world, and it will go through the end of time. The church is God's family. Now, this began way back in the Garden of Eden. And God wants us to know that when we become a part of his family, washed by his blood, the blood of Jesus Christ runs through our veins. So it's not like Jarvis's. All have Jarvis blood. That's my last name. Now, we all who follow Jesus Christ, we have his blood flowing through our veins spiritually, we become a part of his family. That's why we call. Nobody ever did this. You may not know this, but do you know the Lord's Prayer?
How does it start?
Nobody ever prayed like that in Jesus Day. Did you know that? Our Father Jesus did something brand new. We're so used to saying it, it just flows off our tongues. But nobody called God Father.
And the reason we call him our Father is because he is the Father of the spiritual family that we belong to.
Ephesians 2:19 says this. So then you are not no longer strangers and aliens, but you are. And this is so good. I gotta get you to read it with me. You are what?
Fellow citizens with the saints and members of the.
You are members of the household of God. Now let that sink in for a second.
You are members of the household of God. You are fellow saints.
Sometimes we get that a little confused and we think to ourselves, well, there's Saint Snufflepagus I don't. I can't think of any Saints. Sorry. There's St. Paul. St. Paul. There's all these different saints that we can think about. But if you know Christ as your Savior, you are fellow saints. You are a saint. Can you believe that? You're walking around, you are a saint. That's hard to believe, right? Because I know some of you and it's hard to believe that. But you know me.
We are fellow saints. We are part of the household of God because God calls us his family. He started building this relationship way back in the Garden of Eden. God loves relationships. Do you know why God loves relationships? Because God exists in a relationship. We call it the Trinity. The Trinity. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. A three in one all.
A singular God in three different persons. They exist simpatico.
You can see them. You can see this Trinity. As early as Genesis, God said, let there be light. And the Spirit of God hovered on the waters. And then in Colossians, it says that Jesus created all that there is. Nothing was created that he didn't create. And so you have this perfect symbiosis. Symbiosis, whatever the word is, of three and one.
And then when God created us, he created us in his own image. And when God created us in his own image, we call that imago. Who cares about that? But that's what it's called. When you're created in the image of God, you are created for the desire for relationships.
Because you mirror who God is. You reflect who God is. God loves relationships. God created us to have a relationship with Him. And because we're created in the image of God, we have to have relationships with one another. What's the worst thing you can do to somebody who's in prison? And they've been the very worst prisoner that they can be. And they must be disciplined. You take that prisoner and you put him in isolation.
Why do you put him in isolation?
Because it's the worst thing you can do. We human beings created in the image of God are meant to have relationships. Your relationships might not all be good.
I have relationships that are not all good.
But I am created to need relationships.
God has relationships with himself, God has relationships with us. And we are meant to have relationships with one another. The problem is sin entered into the world. And when sin entered into the world, it destroyed the the part of the image in us that has wonderful relationships.
And those relationships got twisted. Sin never created anything. Right. Sin only takes what God created and messes it Up.
Relationships is what God created, and sin messed it up. How do I know that? Because you struggle in your relationships with your speech.
Right. You go to any marriage conference, I guarantee you all of the workshops that they have, there will be at least one, probably more, dealing with communication. Do you know why? Because we really struggle with our speech.
Everybody does. We even have words for it. You must bite your tongue. Yeah. It's very common for us to let this little guy go. James 4 says, this thing is empowered. Like the Energizer Bunny has batteries. The energizer battery powers the Energizer bun. You know what powers your tongue? The fires of hell.
Yeah, I'm not making that up. You should read it. James 4. You wonder why you have to bite your tongue. It's because it is empowered by the fires of hell. It says it right there in Scripture, so we have to bite it. Why? Because sin destroyed our ability to use our speech to build relationships. Instead, we use our speech to break relationships.
Our thoughts became distorted. We can't control our thoughts. Our relationships became distorted. Instead of having a relationship, I love wedding days because on wedding days, I get to stand there and I say, okay, there's a guy and there's a gal.
The gal is wearing white, beautiful. The guy, he's just trying to look the best that he can. And he's standing here.
Though they do their vows. Never, never have I done a wedding that included the word if.
Think about it.
Never have you ever went to a wedding. Well, I hope you haven't. Because if you have, it's not a proper wedding. Weddings don't include the word.
The guy says, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part. If you do the same.
Right. Never works that way. Right. It is a covenant made one way from the guy to the gal. And then the gal, she says it to the guy.
Richer for poor, until death do us part. I give you my life. Whatever it is. There are no ifs.
And then comes the honeymoon.
And then comes a year later in marriage. And suddenly there's all these if.
Well, she's being not a fair person. And so if she were better. If she were better, I would be better. But it's her fault that I'm the dork that I am, right? So we insert all the ifs. See, the wedding day is a great picture of what creation was meant to look like.
A relationship with no ifs, but sin comes in. And so now our relationships turn from. Instead of covenant, they turn transactional.
I'll do this if you do this, I'll do this if you do this, I won't do this if you don't do this.
This is never meant to be what it is.
And if it gets too bad, they turn into abusive relationships. And every one of us knows what it's like to be in some kind of an abusive relationship. We know this because we live in a sin plagued world.
Sin arrives and it brings us isolation, it destroys our relationships, it messes up our words and our thoughts. We become transactional in our relationship and selfish in our relationships.
And if it gets too bad, what do most people do when you get into a relationship with a group of people or even with one other person and it gets too bad?
You run.
You run. I always, I've been a pastor way too long and one of the things I've noticed is that when somebody gets into bad things, the first thing they stop doing is coming to church because they don't like to be in relationships that remind them of who they should be versus who they're turning into.
And so unfortunately, most people run. It reminds me of a great movie I watched called Lord of the Rings. Do you remember Lord of the Rings?
I also read the book Gollum. Gollum was one of the characters in this. And if you don't know the story of Gollum, Gollum was actually a normal looking, as normal as that can be, human being. And then he started covent coveting this ring and he stole it from his best friend. And over time he turned into the creature that you see up there on the screen. He stole the ring from his best friend and knowing what he did, he destroyed that relationship. And all the other relationships around him would be destroyed once they found out what he did. He ran to the caves, he ran to, he got into the darkness and his whole appearance changed.
Instead of living in the fellowship of the Shire. You remember the Shire, Everybody's dancing around, you know, they're all balloons and rainbows and unicorns. Instead of that, he runs to the caves where he's all by himself, he's isolated. And this is what sin has done to many of our relationships.
So what I want to tell you and what I want to brag about this morning is the church.
Because the church restores what sin destroyed.
Look at this verse in Ephesians 2. I'll read it for you again. We've already read it. I'm going to read you actually. Three chapters, three verses out of here.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom that's in Jesus. The whole structure, the church, being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for the Spirit, into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Holy is the opposite of sin affected, or let's say sin infected.
Holy is something without sin. Sin infection is what breaks holiness down. That's why we say God is holy. He has no sin in him. We are holy because he makes us holy. We have sin in us, but we are able to confess that sin and why he washes us off. I want to tell you. Let me just clean this up. When you go to heaven and you stand before God, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, do not use the I pronounce.
Use the third person pronoun. When God says, why should I let you into heaven? Make sure your answer starts with he, not I.
Why should I let you into heaven? Because He, Jesus died for me. Because he promised me I would be welcome. Because he has promised to forgive me my sins and he has made me holy. Always use he, never use I.
Some people are going to get to heaven. They're going to try and get in with the I pronoun. It will not work because I helped this old lady across the street. Because I, you know, I was a good husband now I was a good wife because I was a good worker and I gave away a lot of money. The I's will never work. Always use the He.
In the church, Jesus restores what sin, destroyed, what was taken away at the Garden of Eden. Well, humans became selfish. We struggled with generosity. Humans became angry. We struggled with forgiveness. Humans became rude, struggled with their tongue. Humans became lazy, they struggled with work.
Humans became hopeless. And they struggled with purpose in life. This is no way to build a relationship.
Build a relationship on selfishness, anger, rudeness, laziness and hopelessness and see how far that relationship will go in the church. Jesus changes all of those things.
Sin ruined any hope of us having a good relationship in our lives.
And what gives us the ability to have better relationships, to have redeemed relationships, because God promised us through Jesus to give us the Holy Spirit. Let me give you this verse. In John 14:16, Jesus says, I will ask the Father, your Father, my Father. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper. That's the Holy Spirit Spirit, to be with you forever. Even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him or knows him. It doesn't believe that the Holy Spirit exists or can do, or the Holy Spirit can do anything.
But you, you who follow Jesus Christ, you who follow me, Jesus says, you know him, for he dwells with you and he will be really good. What is it?
When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, Acts, chapter 2, the Holy Spirit began to dwell in us. And now the church is the living embodiment of the presence of Jesus Christ.
Because of the Holy Spirit. If you have a relationship that just stinks right now, I want to make you a promise. If you give it to the Holy Spirit and you allow the Holy Spirit to change you, not the other person change you, you will find a way to stand and enjoy and cope with that relationship. The relationship may not change, but the Holy Spirit will change you so that you can adapt and you can be Christ in that relationship. That's what God promises to the church of which we are a part of. You don't fix relationships by trying harder. You fix them by being filled.
And if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you're promised pretty amazing things. Relationships that change. Ephesians 5:18 says this. Don't get drunk with wine, for that's debauchery. But be filled with what? Church.
[00:17:16] Speaker B: Oh, I love it.
[00:17:17] Speaker A: Be filled with the Spirit. What will happen then? You will address one another. Now get this. This is pretty good. If you are filled with the Spirit, if you're part of God's family, if he lives in you, if he is your Father, you will be able to address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord in your heart, giving thanks all, always. How often do we give thanks, Church?
[00:17:44] Speaker B: Always.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: And for everything. To God the Father. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Submitting to one another out of reverence for Jesus Christ. You see, when the Holy Spirit fills you, your speech changes.
Do you see it there? You speak in godly tones. Your attitudes change. You give thanks for everything.
Your song changes.
You sing and make music in your heart. Your desires change. You are filled with God's desires and not your own.
And your ability to submit changes. Who likes to submit?
When you're part of God's family, you submit. You want to know why? Because that's the image of God.
That's the image of God at work.
We just came through Easter. You remember what Jesus prayed before he went to the cross?
He prayed, father, take this away from me. Remember that, Father? I don't want to go through this, remember?
And he said, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done in some way. And I can't theologically explain this to you, but Jesus submits to the Father, and in our relationships, we submit to one another as well. This is life in the church. So, church, you can have healthy relationships again. Now, that is a great thing to say, and I know that there are some here that may not believe this, but if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you can believe this. All right, I'll say it again. You can have healthy relationships again. You have a lot of bad relationships in your life. So do I. So do I. So do I.
They're hard to maneuver in. You have to live in them. They're hard to maneuver in, but you can. Even in those bad relationships, you can have health in those relationships again.
It's hard to believe, isn't it?
I can have healthy relationships again.
I can.
Because what sin broke internally, the Spirit rebuilds relationally.
I want to give you a few verses because I know you're probably sitting there thinking to yourself, craig, I can't have healthy relationships. I want to give you. I want to help you here. All right.
These are just a few I picked off the top of my head.
There's so many more.
Because of Jesus, we can be forgiving. Ephesians 4, verse 32. Look at that one. I'm not going to read it. You can read up forgiving one. Okay. Because of Jesus, you can be forgiving. Here's another one. John 13.
Because of Jesus, you can be loving.
All right. Amazing. Jesus said, as I have loved you, you can love one another. You have the power to do that because of the Holy Spirit. Because of Jesus, you can be peaceful.
There's probably some relationships in your life. There are some in my life that are really hard to find peace because we definitely don't agree.
But according to this verse, even in those circumstances, I can have peace. Why? Because Jesus was constantly dealing with people that he didn't have peace with. And he says, you don't have that kind of peace in yourself. But if you accept me as your Savior, you will have nothing. Some peace. But you will have my peace.
My peace I give to you. I don't give peace like the world gives.
Because of Jesus, we can be controlled by him in every aspect of our relationships. Look at Galatians 5. 22. The fruit of the Spirit. This is, if you know the Spirit of God, if he lives inside of you, you have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, all of that. It's not you get to choose one or two of them. It's a package deal.
Because the Holy Spirit lives inside of us as the church. This can be you, even in those relationships that are really hard to maneuver.
Because the church number two is where relationships are rebuilt.
Again, I take you to Ephesians 2. You're no longer strangers and aliens, fellow citizens with the saints, members of the household of God. The church is not a place you attend, It's a place you belong to. It's not a place you go to, it's something you do.
Ecclesia is actually the word for church in the Greek, who cares? But it's a really interesting word because ecclesia means assembly. Do you know what the Hebrew word in the Old Testament for assembly was?
I bet you do synagogue.
Synagogue. It's synagogue. But synagogue. So Old Testament, synagogue, New Testament, ekklesia, same idea.
And listen to this. The word ekklesia, church family, occurs 114 times in the New Testament. 114 times. How important do you think that is to the Lord?
114 times.
It's not a building, it's an activity. Church is not somewhere you go to. It's something that you do. In the Old Testament it was episynagogy. And in Hebrews 10, verse 24, listen to this. It says, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more, as you see the day drawing near, don't you feel like the day is drawing near these days?
Yeah, so do I.
I feel like that.
So according to this verse, if you feel like that day, the day we see Jesus is getting closer and closer, you should definitely be in the church. You should definitely be doing church. Meeting together, Synagogue, don't neglect synagoguing. Meeting together.
It's not if you meet together, it's when you meet together. And the third point is this.
I love the church because it's where God rules.
It's where God rules and we let him.
You turn on your TV and it is very difficult sometimes to see where God rules. True, in the church it should not be difficult to see.
Christ Jesus, verse 20 is the chief cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together, grows into a holy temple to the Lord.
In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place by the Spirit of God. I love that because it is an ongoing relationship.
You are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. The Church is a primary point for relationships to be redeemed. God restores broken relationships by placing us into his family and allowing us to function with within that family. That family is the Church, the kingdom of God.
This is basically the idea of where God rules.
This is also in the Lord's Prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom.
Did you hear it?
Let this be a place where God rules in our world. It's hard to see. He still does. He still does. But sometimes it's hard to see in the Church. It should not be hard to see.
God rules in this place.
Paul dealt with Rome. It was very difficult to see God in charge in Rome. Rome tore apart families.
It stole money from the poor. It separated the free and the slaves. It distinguished rights and gave rights to certain people and no rights to other kinds of people. The kingdom of God is like none of that.
The kingdom of God is where God rules. This is what the kingdom of God looks like in Genesis Galatians 3. 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free. There's no male, there's no female. For you are one in Jesus Christ. This does not say anything about your sexuality and it doesn't say anything about your citizenship. That's not the point of this. The point of this is in the church, we're all equal. That's why sometimes when we do communion, I stand down here, you can't see me because I'm in the dark now. But we are all in the same sinking boat.
It is the love of Jesus that went to the cross and shed his blood for our sins so that we could all, including me, be saved from our sins.
The church is a group of people gathered together for one purpose. To live out God's redemptive purpose for his glory. That's why it says we are being built together. It is a building process and it never stops.
So let me tell you about VCE Village Church East.
In November 2016, Village Church east started in a backyard. Actually, this wasn't November. This was in the summertime.
This is my backyard.
And we sat around with a group of people that started thinking, hey, we might like to start a church.
You saw the video already this morning.
That idea turned into meeting together in 601 at Village Church of Bartlett.
This is one of our meetings that we had.
It was a side room to the side. We met on Saturday nights and those were awesome times. We grew together. We started learning how we could serve together.
And we Had a vision for starting a church the next year. In March 2017, we went through another growth milestone and we moved to Fountain View Athletic Center. That's right up the street here in Carroll Stream. And we did setup and tear down. And that was a lot of work, right, Chris and the rest of everybody. I mean, it wasn't a one man show.
Darren was on the. I mean, we had people show up at 6 in the morning and they set that thing up. We did church for seven hours a day on Sundays, tore it down, had the whole bottom area of Fountain View. It was awesome.
And then came another milestone in April 2025. One year ago this month, we moved here.
This is our first service. You can still see that we're not exactly out of the building mode yet, but this was our first service. Do you know what service this was, everybody?
[00:27:55] Speaker B: Good Friday.
[00:27:56] Speaker A: It was a Good Friday service. That's right.
We met on Good Friday and that's what it looked like. And I said, okay, it can't look like this on Easter, so you got one day to clean it all up.
And we met on Easter. I don't have a picture of that, but that was awesome. And now it is one year later and we've been in this place and this place has become our home. And we are grateful that the Lord has moved us.
We're grateful to be in Carol's stream. We're grateful that you are part of this. We're grateful. We're still doing baptisms. We're still seeing the Lord move.
But In April of 2026, we have another change.
And this you get to find out about right now. So I'm going to invite the elders to come on up to tell us about this change coming up. For those of you that don't like change, which is most people on the planet, bear with us because we have a change that we would like to share with you about what God has been doing in our church and through our church. So I asked the guys to come up here and share this platform with me today so we can do a good job of explaining this.
Okay?
We have been serving with Bartlett for nine years.
They launched us.
We have done ministries with them. Especially at the beginning. We did. You remember the egg hunts that we. We used to do. And we used to do a lot of the men's groups with them, the women's groups with them.
Our youth group was joined with them at one point.
We kind of. You guys can sit down. You don't have to stand.
We did a lot of different Ministries with them financially. They came beside us and helped us a lot. But over the last eight years, we have kind of become independent.
There's not a whole lot of things we do with them anymore. In fact, they now have begun using this facility for some of the things that they're doing.
And so they had a men's conference over here in February. It was awesome. We had a lot of folks over here.
And so right now, we have our own ministry directors, we have our own youth group, we have our own ladies group, we have our own men's group. We kind of are standing up on our own.
And over the last couple of months, a conversation has developed about what we will look like in the future, what will our relationship be like with Bartlett. Is it something that we want to hang on to, or is it something that we need to reconsider so that we can move faster, further, more maneuverability on our own? And as you know, you take away red tape, you can move a lot faster. And not saying that there's a lot of red tape with Bartlett, but some of the things that we do, we do because we are connected with them. So a lot of the slides, a lot. A lot of the background stuff that you see goes actually through what we call the directional team, or central services. And that's what connects both of our churches together.
So we've been talking about what we. Is this something that benefits us? Can we do this on our. Can we do better on our own? And we have decided over the last month, we've been having some pretty serious conversations, and we have decided to break away from Village Church of Bartlett and become our own independent church.
Now, if you had asked us eight years ago, nine years ago, nine years ago, what would it look like nine years from today, I would not have been able to answer that question.
We had an idea of what it would look like, and we knew that we wanted to plant independent churches.
You know, this because a lot of churches that are connected to a larger group of churches don't have a pastor that preaches every Sunday. They have a screen up front that you watch the other pastors preach. So we've never operated with that kind of a mindset. So nine years ago, we couldn't have planned ahead for what it would look like nine years later.
But right now, nine years later, it looks like we are standing on our own. We are an independent church. We are functioning really well as we even move to this new building. And we've become a place that continues to maneuver and work well together. And so we have talked to Bartlett, they've talked to us. And I need to tell you this also, this decision is mutual.
When we went to talk to them, they had already actually been talking about it and it turned into like a 10 minute conversation because the Lord had moved in both of our hearts to say, all right, you guys can do more faster on your own.
And so we are making plans to break away from Village Church of Bartlett.
We don't know when that's going to happen. My guess is it's probably going to be close to September. We'd like to be able to have our own, our own entity, which means our name will change as well.
A lot of the things you'll see that are been in the background are going to be changing because we'll become our own independent church. We are our own church, which is a feather in the cap. It's pretty amazing. But again, nine years ago, if you had asked us what's it going to look like nine years from now, wouldn't have been able to answer that question.
But as it stands now, this seems to be the direction that we feel the Lord is directing us to go. And Bartlett feels this as well.
So a lot of you folks probably don't even know Bartlett, but you've heard about them this morning because we want to make you aware of our background and how we began. And so now I've asked the guys if they would come up and give you a little bit more information about how this decision came to be and what it's going to look like moving into the future. So take it away.
[00:33:40] Speaker C: I suppose it was a little foreshadowing with the video that was played at the beginning of the service that as we were talking about the history of this church, it would work into this announcement that Pastor Craig just made.
I personally, speaking for my family, Deb and I began attending the Village Church of Bartlett back in the mid-90s. We have a long history there. That church was God's mechanism. God's use of that church is how Deb and I came to a saving faith in Christ. We walked in unbelievers. And I know we have that testimony out here with the people who are in attendance this morning of coming into vce.
But that church, Village Church of Bartlett, has changed my life, changed my family's life, and completely set us on a trajectory that we would have never gone. Apart from that, I had the great honor of becoming part of leadership, becoming a deacon in Bartlett in 2002, which ultimately led to my appointment as an elder in 2012, somewhere between the time the Village east became into existence and moved out to Fountain View, I then decided that I would take my office of elder and transfer that to Village Church East. But having said all of that, I wanted to just give you a little background here. In 2014, we, as the elder team in Bartlett, undertook the redrafting of the constitution, the governing document that controls right now, both Bartlett and Village Church East.
At that time, we decided that in order to accommodate the growth needs in Bartlett and our vision for the church, we built into that document this idea of multiple locations, church plants.
That's going back, like I said, to a period of about 2014.
It took us four years to completely draft that church constitution, and we finally implemented that in 2018.
In fact, if you ask our attorney, a very capable Christian legal firm, they would say this is the most complex church constitution we've ever developed.
So we came into existence under that document at that time.
We talked about it before we adopted the constitution. We said, we want to plant new churches.
At that time, the elder team that was in place all agreed that we wanted to put no limitation on those churches as to whether or not after they were planted, if in fact they were desirous and in a position to go independent and move out on their own, we wanted to fully allow for that and permit that. That was part of the vision of the church back in 2014, drafted into our constitution, which was adopted in 2018.
The elders in Bartlett and the elders here in VCE as we work together on this transition, we thought back to those days, and obviously the purpose of Village Church east and Village Church Bartlett is to serve the Lord not just through the means of our locations that we're in, but the Capital C Church, the Church of Jesus Christ that is in place all over the world. So it's not a matter of a property decision of being there or being here or which building you're going after.
Serving the greater good of glorifying God through our ministry.
In working with the directional team, which I've had the.
Had the blessing to sit on the directional team since 2018 with the appointment of the congregation or the appointment of the constitution, there was this directional team, which was a level of elders that were over both the Carroll Stream location and the Bartlett location. I had the privilege of serving on that committee, and we talked about this day coming. And whereas this may come as a surprise or even a shock to you, we expected this day to come.
And we all along with all the ups and downs and everything, that village church east has encountered in their lifespan and the same situations that have gone on in Bartlett, we saw this day would at some point come.
So I just wanted to communicate to all of you that our relationship with Bartlett has never been stronger. We have the full blessing of the elders in Bartlett. We have a complete consensus and unity of the elders here. And we're looking at this as an opportunity for us, as God has uniquely put us in our ministry field here in Carroll Stream, that we can concentrate specifically on the needs of this church, those in this room, the needs of the ministry that comes out of this wonderful building that we're in. But we can also expand ourselves in the mission field that God has put us in with a level of more effectiveness and a level of not having to necessarily do everything in conjunction with separate church entity, but being able to concentrate fully on our own. And honestly, out of fairness to Bartlett, they are absolutely growing out of their building. Their biggest. Bartlett's biggest challenge right now is trying to figure out where to put all the people, and they need to concentrate on that, and we need to concentrate on the things that are going on here.
But I can't go any further by not mentioning that we, the four of us, would not even have considered this as an option if we didn't have all of you, the faithful servants that are a part of this church. If God had not brought us to a point where we felt that we could go independent, either through leadership or through our great ministry directors or through the service of all of you, we wouldn't be having this conversation, and the service would probably be winding down about now.
But because of all the unique opportunities that we feel God has put before us, both in the community and the abilities and the resources that he's given us, through those people who are in attendance at this church, we can say we right now, the four of us, have no fear or trepidation of making this move. We're so excited about it. We're excited about bringing you all in on this.
This announcement, like I said, may come as a shock, but in the weeks to come here, you will hear more and more about opportunities for service, how you can help. We'll be forming up teams and committees to help out in all the different areas connected to this transition, and that will all be communicated to you.
So my goal in just having these couple minutes to talk was just to let you know that this was not a surprise. We're not under duress. There's no hard feelings. It's a blessing that Bartlett has given us. And truthfully too. We would not be here without Bartlett. They have supported us financially, they've supported us with resources.
We were absolutely seeded out of the strength of their ministry and their ability to start us. And we will forever be thankful for that.
But we would not be here without all of you. So thank you very much and thank you for your support in what we're doing now.
[00:41:42] Speaker D: Thanks, John. And for my part, I just want to say I am super excited about this and these guys know it because as we've been talking about, I can't contain myself. This is like the excitement I felt when we first came to VC east and I found out it was a set up, tear down church. And I said, wow, this is amazing. I might never get a chance to be a part of something like this ever again.
It's like the excitement I felt when we renovated this place.
You know, lots of churches, they'll just hire it out and somebody else will do it. We got to do it ourselves. And I was so excited for that. And now this is the next thing and we may never have a chance to go through something like this again. It is a gift of God that he has brought this opportunity to us.
I was also thinking a lot about this series that was recently done on management. Being good servants, being good managers of what God has given us.
And this is what I took away from that, is that faith needs to become trust. And this is a chance now for faith to really become trust.
I've heard all these messages about Jesus feeding thousands of people with a few loaves of bread and two fish and casting out demons, right and instilling trust in his disciples.
Most of all, he rose from the dead.
Now I'm not just hearing the sermon, we're not just hearing it now, we're in it. And now this is a chance to really be a part of it. And I love that. I think what God wants to do is just take what we have heard in the Word and challenge each of us to trust him in a new way and to see this as an opportunity. And it is a wonderful opportunity.
John was just talking a little bit ago about Bartlett and Space. You know, here's an opportunity. A few months ago, they came to us and asked about using this space for a men's conference.
I mean, we were thrilled to be able to accommodate that and to be a part of it. So I think there's going to be other opportunities like that coming along. But more importantly, as we go through this transition, there's going to be a lot of new opportunities. New ministry opportunities. I know some of you out there, you have ideas for things that you've just been holding onto and waiting to explore.
This is the time. And as we go through this transition and there's going to be challenges along the way and a lot of things that have to be done, what a great opportunity it is for each of us to search our own hearts and see what does God want me to do? How is he calling me? How can I trust him in new ways?
And I think that's just so amazing. When Jesus fed the 5,000, those 5,000 people, more than that, 10, 20,000. They were all recipients of the blessing of Jesus feeding them. But it was the disciples who got the blessing of learning how to trust Jesus. Jesus in a new way that was unique to them. That's us now. And many people can go to church their whole lives and never have this kind of an opportunity to have their faith challenged in such a way, to trust God in this way. I think this is an amazing opportunity. It's a gift of God. It's like when the disciples came and asked for the donkey, and the owners of the donkey gave it up, right? And they got to be a part of what God was doing. This is a chance to be a part of what God is doing. So I'm so excited. I hope you all get really excited about it, too, and let's trust God and see what he's going to do. As Pastor Craig always reminds us from Ephesians, right? It's more than we can ask or think. It's something much bigger than even we can imagine. So I'm super excited, and I hope you will be, too,
[00:45:45] Speaker E: Darren, if only you had some enthusiasm.
The four of us, your elders, are sitting before you intentionally, and that's to intentionally communicate something to you. That has taken a long time and a lot of prayer. And we want to make sure that you understand where we are at.
In addition to prayer and conversations, we at this point can look you in the eye, the four of us, and say without a shadow of a doubt, we are totally unified with regard to this decision. There's no naysayers, there's no questions to be answered. Now we are going lockstep together, the four of us. And unity is a really important thing for leadership. Some of you may have experienced dysfunctional unity in churches and the past or whatnot, but I'm telling you that we are unified, and it's essential for any action for us to be this way. So you should ask, well, what does that unity look like? Well, I've got scripture for you. And I believe that every time you ask us a question, there better be Scripture backing what we're saying to you. So I take you to the book of Philippians, and I take you to chapter two and verse two. And listen, what Paul is doing, he's trying to tell this truth. Church, you need to get your act together in a way that will allow you to flourish. And you know what his theme was? Unity. So listen to verse two.
Paul says to them, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit and intent on one purpose. Do you hear the unity? It's sort of like they needed to hear it multiple ways, and they did, four different ways. So with this plan, this is where the four of us are right now that you need to hear. First of all, we are united in our minds, our intellects, our thought processes with regard to this plan. Second, we are united with the same love for each other and for the church and for you all the same united the whole congregation. And our goal is not to just lead you. It is to love you. And please pray for us in that regard.
What else? We are united in spirit. We all have the Holy Spirit in us, and we believe the Holy Spirit has been guiding us. We're just not on some detour or frolic. We're believing, we're walking steadfast with regard to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
And finally, we are united with regard to one purpose. And that one purpose is to lead you to the best sanctified. And now let me just break for a second. Sanctified means to be set apart for God's holiest and highest purpose. We believe that we have been set apart for that. And we are looking for ways to use you with us to advance God's kingdom through this church. And each of you, no one is a spectator. We love the fact that you will participate with us.
So I know that sometimes, if you're like me, when change comes, you wonder about expectations, right? What did pastor preach about last week? Expectations. I love the timing of this. And he's saying, well, of course I did it. They know that.
Nod, Pastor. Okay, so I'm going to leave you with this. It's what he has talked about today and what he's talked about, he talked about and what we want you to take home with you, as all of us have shared with you. And that's Ephesians 3, 20, 21. Now listen very carefully, please, now to him. That's God who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, you and us.
To him be the glory in the church which Pastor has preached about today and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. We are starting a legacy that will survive us. For the kingdom of God, can there be any greater noble pursuit?
So, people of God, we say as four of us, Amen.
[00:50:30] Speaker A: All right, thanks, you guys. Go away. All right.
So I am grateful I get to work with these guys. I'm grateful for their vision. We wanted to share that with you as a church, as a part of our main service, because we want you to be aware of what's coming, what's planning. I have one more slide and then I'm going to forego some of those last ones. We're going to go right to the baptism.
But here's my what now slide. All right, we'll call this the so what for today, we would love for you to take these three things home with you.
Number one, if you need more information, it will be coming over the next few weeks.
We are even thinking about a name for our church. We're this close to one that I would love, but there's a lot of red tape we have to go through.
So we are. We're picking out a name for our church that will identify who we already are, who the Lord has developed us into, and a name that would exemplify our hearts for Carol's stream. Number two, so ask any questions that you have. You can ask any one of the four of us.
Number two, we need all hands on deck. You've heard about that already this morning.
Please be willing to pitch in. Everybody's going to have something to do.
That's why we're doing a training tomorrow, tomorrow night. If you're thinking to yourself, I don't know how to work AV stuff, I don't know how to work audio, visual stuff, now might be the time for you to help us, help us out with this because we need all hands on deck. Some of those things get put into the computer from Bartlett. We're going to have to be doing all that on our own now. And so we're just going to need a lot of extra hands. And again, you don't need to know how to do anything. We have excellent trainers that will train you. So please think about coming to tomorrow night to that training. That would be awesome. We need people to help in our children's area. I don't know if you were here last week, but they Kept on coming and coming and coming out of the back. It was really cool. We had, like, all these kids up here singing, and we love the kids up here singing, but we need help with the children. We need help with av. So there is something for you to do if you would like to try it out.
We would love for this to be your time to shine. And number three, we need our income to be steady and consistent. Steady and consistent. Would you say those two words with me, please? Steady and consistent. Yes. We have never been about finances here, but the fact of the matter is, making a change like this is going to bring up some costs that we haven't even realized yet. We've tried to look ahead and plan ahead for what we're doing, but moving into this building last year ate away our financial cushion. And so we need to rebuild that cushion up. And so if you could be a part of that and help us with that, and if you are giving, please be steady and consistent in your giving. That will help us stay ahead of the curve balls that come our way as we continue to make this change.
All right, Those three things I love. We'll call those our. So what's. All right. And now we get to do something which is just awesome.
We get to finish our service. We usually finish with communion, but once in a while, we get to finish with baptism. And if you're not familiar with baptism, what baptism is, we always have a baptism class before we do baptism, because every one of us comes out of different traditions. Baptizing infants, babies baptizing for other different reasons.
And whoever gets baptized here at Village Church east, we'll go through a class so that we make sure they understand what they're doing.
Baptism at the bottom line is a.
Is a moment of belonging. It's literally a moment that you verbally share with those that are watching that you belong to Jesus Christ and you're a part of his church.
He is your father, and you are part of his family.
And baptism, it doesn't get you saved. You're already saved before you get to this point. You already saved before you get to the waters. This is a moment of proclamation. It's not a moment of salvation.
So all the people that are getting baptized this week and next week have already professed salvation in Jesus Christ. They already followed Jesus Christ, and now they want you to know that they follow Jesus Christ, and that's done through these waters of baptism. When the Philippian jailer came to Paul and he said, what must I do to be saved? Paul didn't say, get baptized. For God's sake, get baptized. He didn't. He said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That's the most important thing.
Baptism is just an awesome time when you get to see, in a visible way, a private decision in a public display.
Private decision that these people have made to follow Jesus is now made into a public display for you to celebrate with them.
So you're not watching at church. You're becoming a visible part of what God is doing in this world, and these two people are doing that as well. So I'm going to walk down here, and we're going to hopefully have enough light for me to be down here.
Oh, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
We have two people that are going to be baptized today, and both of them are from the same family.
So I'm going to introduce both of them. Come on up. Both of you, come on up. You need to see these wonderful gals. This is Jessica, and this is Madison. And Madison and Jessica are from the foster family, and they have lots of guests with them today. Right, right. Madison?
Yes. Do you want to introduce some of your guests that you have here today? Oh, yes, yes.
You will definitely need one.
It's on. It's Naomi and. Oh, wait, wait, wait.
It's going to be on.
Try it again.
[00:56:13] Speaker B: Hello.
[00:56:14] Speaker A: There it is. Yeah.
Okay, I'm ready.
[00:56:17] Speaker B: So that's Naomi and Christian. Christian, Dylan, Dad, Grandma, Papa.
[00:56:23] Speaker A: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay. All right. Right here. Grandma and Papa right there. Yes. Nice to see you guys. Is that. Is that on your.
Oh, sorry.
That's on your dad's side, right?
Yeah. Good. All right. And what?
Yeah, who else? Okay, that's Addison.
[00:56:48] Speaker B: Okay, that's Addison and Rose and Jacob
[00:56:51] Speaker A: and Ms. Lindsay and Anna and Mr. Fernandez and Arnolfo and Jack and Kelly and where's Abby?
[00:57:03] Speaker B: And Abby and Jonathan.
[00:57:08] Speaker A: Just filling up people out of names now.
[00:57:11] Speaker B: Any other Evangelina?
[00:57:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay.
[00:57:15] Speaker B: And people on there.
[00:57:18] Speaker A: Yes. Hello. Yes, welcome. All right, so Madison takes after her mom, so
[00:57:25] Speaker B: I don't want very long.
[00:57:29] Speaker A: We are so excited we get to share in this awesome day with you both.
Madison has overcome a little bit of apprehension, as everybody does when they go to this point, and she has already done a wonderful job of doing that by speaking into the microphone. So Madison, would you. No, no, I'm sorry. Jessica, you're first. All right, hang on a second. Jessica has helped us with our youth group for two years now.
[00:57:52] Speaker B: Sure. Sounds great.
[00:57:55] Speaker A: For over.
[00:57:58] Speaker B: Been a few. Yeah.
[00:57:59] Speaker A: Been a few years.
Jessica has been a wonderful part of our church. She served in so many different areas. My microphone's off, so let's just use this one.
She's already served in so many different areas, and the Lord has used your gifts in so many different areas. And you got to go on a mission trip with your own daughter, which is really, really cool.
And I've enjoyed getting to serve with you, Jessica, for how many years it has been.
And we call her house the Oasis.
And if you ever get to go to her house, you will know why. It's a beautiful place. And the kids, when we go over there, we get to spend some time at the Oasis. But they've opened their homes and they've opened their hearts to ministry here at Village Church East. And we have loved to get to know you guys. And now we get to baptize you from for the first time together as a church. So you want to jump in?
You get to go first.
[00:58:49] Speaker B: Do I have to read my testimony?
[00:58:51] Speaker A: Yes, you do.
[00:58:54] Speaker B: Actually, this is pretty warm.
[00:58:55] Speaker A: Well done. Yeah.
We have excellent helpers here.
[00:59:03] Speaker B: All right. Thank you for this opportunity. I've always known Jesus as my Savior. I grew up going to church and continued attending different churches the throughout throughout my life. But for a long time, I was still trying to find where I truly felt at home in my faith. When Diane Neal invited me and my family to vce, we felt at home right away and consider you all to be our family, which is why Madison went through many of you by name. Over the last five years. I began to feel God actively calling me to live differently, to trust him more fully, and to allow his.
His plan instead of my own.
By trade, I was a math teacher, and I was very comfortable in that role. I had no desire to go into administration, but over time, I kept feeling pulled in that direction. Eventually, I was faced with a decision that did not make sense on paper. I left the high school where I had spent 15 years to become a middle school principal.
Accepting the job came potentially with a pay cut. And it was not something that I ever wanted. Even my husband told me not to
[01:00:04] Speaker A: do
[01:00:08] Speaker B: made sense as I did not want to be a principal. I did not want to work in a middle school, and I certainly was not thrilled about a pay cut.
But I could not ignore the feeling that God was calling me to step into that role. And so I took a leap of faith.
That decision led to more moments of surrender. One year later, I was asked to return to that same high school to serve in human resources, something that I had Absolutely no experience in and intentionally or and initially tried to turn down multiple times. But once again I felt called to serve in that way. That he had stretched me that season was not easy. There were times when I struggled deeply and questioned why God would lead me into something that felt so difficult.
I spent many Sundays in prayer with Brent. Brent, where are you? Thank you for all of those prayers. He is the best person to pray with, by the way, asking for clarity and strength. Thank you Brent, truly for your time, support and prayers. Over time, through prayer, reflection and the encouragement of others, I began to understand that this was not about my plan.
It was about trusting his.
I've come to understand what it truly means to surrender, to let go of my expectations and trust that God will guide me exactly where I need to be. Even in a challenging role. I now see the purpose. I believe I was called to serve in this work, to lead with a Christlike spirit and to make a difference in the lives of others.
Trusting in Christ has changed not only my career path, but also how I live and lead my life and how I raise my family.
I felt called to serve in youth ministry even before my own kids were of that age. And I'm incredibly grateful to my husband who has supported me through every step of this journey, no matter how illogical my ideas may seem.
One of the Bible verses that resonates with me and reflects my journey is Proverbs 3, verses 5 through 6.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways. Submit to him and he will make your path straight. This verse reminds me that even when things do not make sense to me, I can trust that God is guiding my path. He Today is especially meaningful because I get to be baptized alongside my daughter.
Standing here with her is a reminder of God's faithfulness not just in my life, but in my family.
It is a reflection of what he can do when we trust him fully.
I believe God is perfect and I am a sinner. I believe that God sent His only son, Jesus to die on the cross for my sins. I believe Jesus rose again and is coming back.
My faith and my trust are in Jesus alone.
[01:02:54] Speaker A: All right, have a seat right there.
All right.
Jessica, that was an excellent testimony. This has been a lot time coming. I'm so proud of you and I'm so thrilled that I get to serve with you with the kids. You've done an awesome job already using your gifts. I can't wait to see what the Lord does with you from this point forward.
Both as a mom, as a servant at your work, and also as a servant here in our church.
I'm thrilled to be that this day, have you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior?
[01:03:29] Speaker B: I have.
[01:03:29] Speaker A: Based upon your faith and your testimony, I baptize you now, my sister, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
All right, my dear, you are next.
Now, the cool thing is Madison's mom gets to help me baptize her. So now you step on in here, if you. You wouldn't mind.
All right.
Madison is a brave little girl, and she has been thinking about baptism for a long time, and the Lord has put it on her heart, and now she's ready to take this bold step. So the question is, would you like for you to read your testimony, or do you want me to do it?
Really? Okay.
[01:04:22] Speaker E: All right.
[01:04:22] Speaker A: This is Madison's testimony. I'm going to read it in the microphone. I think it sounds better online. Okay.
All right.
From Madison.
I've grown up always knowing who Jesus is, and I've had the opportunity to go to church with my family and be a part of the youth group where my mom is one of the youth leaders. Because of that, I've been able to learn more about God and what it means to have a relationship with Him. I came to trust Jesus as my Savior during a really hard time when I was being bullied. In those moments, I leaned on him and he gave me strength to keep going and help me to take the next steps to get through it. That's when I really started to understand Jesus is always with me and I can trust him no matter what I'm facing. One of my favorite Bible passages is Philippians 4:13.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me because it reminds me that I am never alone and that he gives me strength even in the hard times.
Since then, trusting Jesus has changed my life by helping me want to serve others. I've had the chance to do this through missions trips. Yes, you have. Through missions trips to North Carolina, I've helped at a pancake breakfast, encouraging my family to go to church every Sunday. Oh, nice. That's why they're here.
One of my favorite memories was helping rebuild a home for a family in need and getting to celebrate my birthday there with my brothers and sisters in Christ.
I've been wanting to get baptized for a while because I felt called to declare my life is in the Lord and show that I want to follow Him. It also means so much to me that I get to be baptized Alongside my mom. Sharing this moment even makes it more special. I believe that God is perfect and I am a sinner. I believe that God sent his only son, Jesus, to die on the cross for my sins.
I believe Jesus rose again and is coming back. Do you want to read that last line?
Oh, sure.
[01:06:20] Speaker B: My faith and my trust are in Jesus alone.
[01:06:22] Speaker A: Very nice.
There you go.
All right. My dear Madison, you have waited for this moment for a long time. I'm so excited that you have followed the Lord's direction in your life and you have gone through with this, even though it was a very scary moment to do. You are a brave little girl and your faith is shining through. Madison, have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Yes. Based upon your profession of faith and in accordance with his word, I baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
[01:07:03] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:07:12] Speaker A: All right. I'd like to pray with these guys and then we're going to sing a song and that'll bring us to the end of our service. Father, we are grateful for these testimonies of faith. Thank you for these ladies that have given their lives to you, have already begun serving you and can't wait to see how you will use them in the future. This day is a monumental moment for them of public declaration of their testimony. May you create incredible soldiers of them for your cross and for your glory and for your kingdom. Do amazing work through them. I pray, continuing to do it. In Jesus name, Amen.
