Weekly Sermons

Growing the Tabernacle

Read Haggai 1:1-2:9         Growing the Tabernacle              Let’s Pray!

The events we read about in Haggai happened in August of 520 BC., nearly 20 years after King Cyrus had allowed Jewish exiles to return to the Holy Land.

According to Haggai, God was upset with Israel as individuals and as a community for not prioritizing the things of God. Coming out of a time of upheaval, they had put themselves before God.

Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?            -Haggai 1:4

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.                     -Romans 15:4

According to Haggai, God is upset with Christians as individuals and as church communities who don’t prioritize the things of God over themselves.

God assured His people in Haggai 1:12 that as they worked for Him He would be with them in a special way!

The mission of the Tabernacle is to reproduce faithful and fruitful followers of Jesus Christ.

His lord said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”                 -Jesus in Matthew 25:21

“And the one on whom seed was sown on good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty and some thirty.”                -Jesus in Matthew 13:23

Teaching of Scripture

GOAL: 10% growth each year in our Sunday School through 2031, and go from 22 to 25 classes.

GOAL: Go from 18 to 25 other small groups meeting other times beyond Sunday morning by 2031.

Adoration and Prayer

Testimony by Anna Vogltanz as we add back Children’s choir this summer.

GOAL: Have the children’s choir sing 4-6 times a year on Sunday mornings, and participate in Christmas and Easter at The Tabernacle.  

Baptist Principles

“To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”                        -Ephesians 4:12, 16

GOAL: 75% of members have a ministry in the church by April 2024.

Evangelism and Missions

GOAL: Go over $200,000 in budgeted missions money for 2024.

GOAL: 75% of our members have a gospel conversation with someone before the end of 2023.       

Radical Generosity

Our Budget is $1,080,000 for the year; Need $270,000 a quarter – 1^st Quarter giving was over $290,000! Church growth experts recommend 3-4 months in reserves and investments; we have over 11 months in reserves and investments.

GOAL: By next April, 50% of members giving on 5^th Sundays like today for building upgrades.  

Nurtured Partnerships

GOAL: By end of 2025, have regular mission trips in country and overseas that involve children, youth, young adults, median adults, and senior adults as individuals and as groups (YAM, Forever Young, etc.)    

Age Appropriate Ministries

GOAL: Finish preschool indoor playspace area by end of summer 2023.

GOAL: Hire a Full Time Church Children’s Ministry Leader by Fall of 2023.

Congregational Love and Encouragement

Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds.                                                                                                                -Proverbs 27:23

We have 290 Active Households here at The Tabernacle; there were 310 households when I came.  

GOAL: 300 Active Households by April 2024. People need the Lord, and people need a church home!

Leadership Development

Current Board of Directors: Don Bingham, Richard Chivvis, Duane Adams, Tyler Haley, David Thompson.

Goal: add 2-3 Board members by end of 2023.

Excellence and Fun

GOAL: Dramatically improve WIFI coverage throughout the church in 3 phases over the next 3 years.

GOAL: By April 2024 have the foyer bathroom project completed.

GOAL: By end of 2023 address insulation and heating and cooling needs in our gym.

Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not nothing in your eyes?                       -Haggai 2:3

God does not want His people living in the past but serving in the present and looking forward to their glorious future with Him – the best is yet to come!