The Vision of Thomasville Road Baptist Church · 12/01/2020 · This is our new mission statement...

THE VISION FOR THOMASVILLE ROAD BAPTIST

CHURCH

A Sermon by Dr. Jeremy Roberts

THE VISION FOR THOMASVILLE ROAD BAPTIST CHURCH

PUBLISHED BY DR. JEREMY ROBERTS

Copyright © 2020 Dr. Jeremy Roberts

Preached at Thomasville Road Baptist Church, Tallahassee, FL

12 January 2020

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of

Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved.

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THE VISION FOR THOMASVILLE ROAD BAPTIST CHURCH

Praise God for the many wonderful things God has done and is

doing in the life of Thomasville Road Baptist Church. Today, I hope

you will walk away having “bought into” a vision for what the future

may hold in our faith family. Please note this is not an exhaustive

vision. This is the general direction we are going, but there is

not enough time to talk about every little detail of every ministry in

this vast church.

Allow me to begin our time together by taking a look back at our

church for a brief moment.

Past

Sakajawea carried a baby on her back all the way to the Pacific

Ocean, and somehow that baby thought he discovered America. We

The Vision of Thomasville Road Baptist Church

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didn’t get here on our own; we stand on the shoulders of others.

In 1948, First Baptist Church of Tallahassee decided to start a

mission in what is now known is mid-town. Four years later,

Thomasville Road Baptist was constituted as an autonomous church.

Now, for 68 years, Thomasville Road has been sharing the Good

News of Jesus Christ.

In 1964, the church caught fire. In 1978, we moved from mid-town

to our current location. In 1989, we moved into this Worship Center.

Our baptism records go back to 1980. From that year to the present,

we have baptized 1,773 people.

The church peaked in both attendance and baptisms in 2004. We

averaged 1,150 that year, and had 67 baptisms. 2016 was the year the

church brought in the most money. The overall receipts were

$3,993,074, and the general budget receipts were peaked in 2018, as

we brought in $3,486,965.

God has surely blessed our wonderful church.

Dr. Jeremy Roberts

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Present

Presently, our church family is a wonderful body. I know many

pastors around the country who crave to get to pastor such a church.

We are reaching many people for Christ in a number of unique ways.

Think of the amazing things God did in 2019:

• 19 people were baptized.

• 133 people went on mission trips to places like Greece,

Senegal, France, Connecticut, and Atlanta.

• $3,161,395 was given to our general budget.

• $3,785,638.82 is the total amount of money given to our

church.

Attendance Details

• Average Sunday Morning Attendance: 819

• Average Small Group Bible Study Attendance: 803

Plateaued

• We have been plateaued or slightly declining for several years.


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• Look at this graph, marching quarter-by-quarter from 2016 to

the present.

We are very clearly a loving church, and it is a place where there is

excitement in the air. We do, however, need to keep in mind, some

adjustments need to be made as we move into the future to remedy

the decline and experience growth.

Future

As we progress into the future with a fresh vision, we need to have

clarity as to what exactly we’re called to do. When you boil it down,

we need a simple phrase to explain what a New Testament church

does. This leads me to the following. We, as Thomasville Road

Baptist Church, are adopting a new mission statement. Are you ready

for it? Helping People Find and Follow Jesus.

Will you please say it with me?

If you affirm this as our new mission statement, would you please

just give a hearty “amen?” Amen.

Dr. Jeremy Roberts

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This is our new mission statement as a church. Everything we do will

point toward this mission to help people find and follow Jesus.

• Helping

We equip the saints for the work of the ministry. The church is

responsible for resourcing the church in order to see greater growth.

Ephesians 4:12–13 says, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry,

for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith

and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of

the stature of the fullness of Christ,

We want to make sure we are intentional in providing resources to

you that help you grow.

How will this be done?

o Spiritual Discipline Emphasis

o Family Ministry


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o Overall Children’s Ministry Refreshment

§ I am asking you in advance to be patient and

flexible as our children’s ministry, in

particular, is going to need a pretty significant

overhaul to make sure parents and children

alike are more properly resourced. I don’t

know what that will look like, but after

analyzing our children’s ministry empirically,

anecdotally, pastorally, and parentally, I know

it is time for our children’s ministry to have a

fresh approach. This approach will need to be

clarified before we hire a children’s minister.

• People

This word is all about our mission field.

Acts 1:8 says, 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon

you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria,

and to the end of the earth.”

As you ponder our mission field, think about cultures, sub-cultures,

etc. For example, within the youth ministry, there is the culture that

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teens uniquely have here in Tallahassee. Subcultures would include

people who are into sports, or music, or fashion, etc. They’re all

people within various cultures and sub-cultures. Our church is

responsible to help people.

Where are we to help them? Our respective Jerusalem, Judea,

Samaria, and the ends of the earth.

We are already an extremely missional church. We will continue to be

one. We will continue to be on mission in Greece and Senegal. I will

tell you one key place where we will begin having more of a missional

emphasis, and that is New York City. New York has a population of

8.6mm. We will soon have a few from the church go up there to pray

and explore what we will do in New York, and then we will begin

having consistent mission trips there and will begin partnering with

solid church plants there.

Another area of helping people is something as simple as loving

people who come to our church. We are going to have a much

heavier emphasis on intentionality of making people feel welcome.

From the moment they Google “church” here in Tallahassee, to the

time they come within 100 yards of one of our two entrances, to the

time they enter the parking lot, we will be more intentional. We need


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to have a full-fledged parking lot greeting team, and Josh Blight is in

charge of putting this team together. After people park, they will then

come inside one of our buildings and be greeted. Once folks come

into the Worship Center, we will have more greeters strategically

stationed in here. If you would like to be a greeter, whether in the

parking lot, at the doors, or inside the church, please text the word

“Team” to (850) 724–9494, or email

[email protected], or see him after the service. This

will help us focus on reaching people.

• Find

This is all about evangelism. I once was lost, but now I’m found.

Matthew 28:18-20 says, 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All

authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make

disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded

you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Some ways we will seek to evangelize our community are:

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o Tailgate Sunday (February 2, 2020)

§ Tailgate Sunday is on Super Bowl Sunday.

Charlie Ward, former FSU Heisman trophy

winning quarterback and point guard for the

New York Knicks, is preaching. Everyone is

encouraged to wear your favorite football

team’s jersey. Our Small Groups will each

have a tailgate tent set up on that day, and

Small Groups will compete against one

another as to who has the best tailgate. The

campus will be decked out with a football

theme, and it’ll be fun. This is a prime Sunday

to invite friends to come to church. The

Gospel will be clearly explained at the end of

our services, and it is a prime opportunity to

invite your lost friends.

o Life Action

§ In the fall of this year, we will have a group

called “Life Action” come here to our church,

and they will lead us in a “new school”

revival.

o Pray for Lost People by Name

§ As I mentioned last week, we will have a more

intentional time of praying for lost people by

name. We have a chalkboard set up in the

lobby, and you are encouraged to write down


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the names of people who don’t know Christ,

and we as a church will pray for them.

o Keep Track of People with whom we Shared the

Gospel

§ As I also mentioned last week, this is a

“different” kind of idea, but we are keeping

track of people with whom our church has

shared the Gospel by putting a ping pong ball

in this jar, with their name on the ball, every

time we witness to someone.

o Pray and Go

§ Pray and Go is basically an unimposing way

for us to go door-to-door in the

neighborhoods near the church. Training will

take place before we do it, but the basic

concept is that we will have maps prepared to

let people know where to walk. In groups of

three to five, we will walk in front of a house,

state a brief prayer to the Lord for that

person, then put a door hanger on their

doorknob that simply says we prayed for

them, and if they have any specific prayer

requests, how they can contact us. Along the

way, some people will inevitably be outside or

walking on the sidewalk, and you can seek to

have a Gospel conversation with them.

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o Goal: 100 Baptisms

§ We baptized 19 people in 2019. I believe and

pray that our church can make a huge leap

and baptize 100 people in 2020. I really

believe we can do this. It will take a lot of

intentionality of evangelism, but I believe we

can do it if we catch fire for evangelism for

Christ.

• Follow

This is all about discipleship.

Mark 8:34 says, 34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to

them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross

and follow me.

o Wednesday Nights

§ We will continue to have Wednesday night

ministries. For adults, specifically, we will

have a heavier focus on deep Bible teaching to

disciple our church. We will no longer call our

Wednesday night ministry “ETCHED”

because it is a confusing name. We will simply


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call it “Wednesday Worship.” Most of you

here do not come to church on Wednesday

nights, and you are missing out on a good

time. If our church is going to grow in greater

discipleship, we need more engagement on

Wednesday nights.

o Small Groups

§ We are an on-campus Small Group church,

and we will continue with that model. If

Christ is our foundation, the Small Group

model is our backbone. If you are not

currently in a Small Group Bible Study, I

encourage you to find one.

• Jesus

This is all about the object of our worship—Jesus.

John 14:6 says, 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

Our musical worship ministry will continue to be a blended style. We

are praying the Worship Pastor Search Committee will find God’s

person to lead the worship ministry, and in God’s timing, He will

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provide us that person. I do want to make it clear that the direction

of our worship ministry will continue to be blended. Let me also

make this clear, however: Everyone here has an opinion on what a

worship ministry should look like. Let’s all agree together that we will

be accepting of the fact that although music may not always be our

personal preference, we are trying our hardest to develop worship

services around the presence of God.

Prayer and fasting are also big parts of our worship. We will

occasionally have nights of prayer and musical worship, where all we

do is pray and sing to God. We will also have a church-wide fast, and

I will get into that more in a few weeks. Speaking of prayer, if you

don’t know about our prayer room, you need to know about it. We

have a special room just for prayer. It is in the lobby of the

Fellowship Hall. I encourage you to go in there consistently and have

some special time of intercession.

Avoid Vision Killers

As vision is being cast, sometimes there are things that can kill a

vision. I think it’s important to address a few of them:

• Clutter


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Considering we have a campus of over 100,000 square feet, we have a

lot of space where we can put things. Unfortunately, our campus has

too much random stuff sitting around that doesn’t necessarily point

toward the vision. Instead, it is just cluttering space.

None of us like clutter. We don’t like clutter in our lives. Often, it

involves holding onto things from the past of which you need to let

go. Something I love about our new mission statement is that it will

help us to de-clutter our calendars. For example, someone may say,

“Could the church have a gingerbread cookie contest?” Well, no,

because it has nothing to do with helping people find and follow

Jesus. I love gingerbread cookies, but they do not point toward our

mission. That kind of stuff adds to cluttering the focus of the church.

There are also issues of actual physical clutter:

o Names on Stuff: As I have walked around the church,

I have noticed there are quite a few classrooms, things

in random spaces, etc., that have peoples’ personal

names on them. You may think, “Well, it’s no big

deal. I’m just leaving this thing in my classroom.”

What is happening is that a lot of people are doing

this, and it is cluttering the church.

o Personal Possessions

§ I encourage you to not store personal

possessions at the church or in your Small

Group room. Multiple classes use most of our

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rooms, and our church is too cluttered due to

a lot of people storing or keeping personal

items at the church. It has gotten out of hand,

and we need to become more tidy. A way to

think about it is this: If there is something

sitting around the church, including your

Small Group room, you need to take it home.

I request every Small Group to look through

your classroom and make sure you take any

personal possessions out by the end of

January. Soon, we will have a time of de-

cluttering the campus, but before we do it, we

need our church members to take home their

personal items.

• Lack of Cleanliness

Something I personally observed, as well as heard in all ten of our

Prayer and Listening sessions, is that our campus needs to be cleaner.

We are going to have a cleaning crew come here to do a deep clean,

and our janitorial staff is going to be re-trained. In addition to all of

this, your help is needed by cleaning up after yourself. If you see trash

sitting around, pick it up. Flush toilets. Throw trash in waste baskets.

This is the Lord’s house. If you wouldn’t throw trash on the floor in

your house, then don’t do it in the Lord’s house.


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• Inconsistent Attendance

Church attendance is not as consistent as it used to be. That needs to

change. Our church is not competing against other churches. We are

competing against SPORTS, TRAVEL, and LESS DISCIPLINE.

Make consistent church attendance a higher priority. Come every

Sunday and every Wednesday. Make it your rhythm and routine. It’s

good for you and your walk with the Lord.

• Dissension, Disunity, Judgmentalism, and Gossip

It is not your job to walk around after church and ask people what

they think about every little decision made around here. Your job is

to help people find and follow Jesus. Speaking about people or

decisions and critiquing everything is awful. Can I just be forthright

with you about something? I had to change the welcome cards

because of this. My first few Mondays here, I would walk into the

office and have a stack of cards from people commenting on their

opinions of the previous day’s worship services. People would say

they liked a certain song or decision or sermon, or that they didn’t

like one thing or another. Basically, every Monday, I would read the

judgmental thoughts of a whole stack of the church. From what I’ve

learned, this has been going on for a long time. This is not normal,

and I couldn’t take it. God didn’t call anyone in our church to treat

the Sunday morning service like they are Simon Cowell on American

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Idol, critiquing a bunch of stuff. I had to create a welcome card for

guests that lacked space for people to write extra stuff because I

couldn’t emotionally take being judged thoroughly by stacks of

people every single week. This is a judgmental spirit that is a vision

killer. If you’re a person who does this, or you go into hallways, or

Small Groups, and you do this, I encourage you to remember

Matthew 7:1, “Do not judge or you too will be judged,” and stop it

right now.

• Lack of Generosity

Our church has 834 families represented. 353 families gave $2,000 or

more (42%). 480 families gave something (58%). Most families in our

church are not tithing, and it is hurting our opportunity to flourish in

fulfilling our vision. If you’re not giving, you’re missing out on

experiencing the blessings of generosity. Try tithing today!

• Lack of Servanthood

We have 265 weekly volunteers in our church, and we have 1,370

teens thru adults in our church. This means that 81% of members

who are teens through adults are not serving anywhere in the church.

If we are going to fulfill this vision, we need to double that number.

If you are not serving anywhere in the church, in a few weeks we will

have a volunteer fair to show you all of the opportunities we have for

you to serve.


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Renovations and Debt

In The Furious Longing of God, Brennan Manning tells a remarkable

story about professional golfer Arnold Palmer.1 Years ago, Palmer

was invited to play a series of exhibition matches in Saudi Arabia.

The king was so impressed with the golfer that he offered him a gift.

Not realizing that gift-giving is central to Saudi hospitality, Palmer

politely declined. The king was extremely displeased, so Palmer

reconsidered: "Well, how about a golf club? A golf club would be a

wonderful memento of my visit here." The king was delighted.

The following day, a messenger delivered to Palmer's hotel the title to

a golf club with 36 holes, trees, lakes, and buildings. According to

Manning, the moral of the story is clear: "In the presence of the king,

don't ask for small gifts.”

In order for us to more fully help people find and follow Jesus, we

need to do a few things in the next five years, through the Holy

Spirit’s enabling power:

1 Brennan Manning, The Furious Longing of God (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook Publishers, 2009), 110.

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• Next Five Years

o Develop a Counseling Center

o Expand our Sports & Fitness Ministry

o Start a Community Garden

o Build a Media Suite & Launch a Strategic Media

Ministry

o Build a New Building that Includes a Large Lobby

o Thoroughly Remodel Our Worship Center

More specifically in 2020, we have a big goal before us. I believe we

need to raise $1,000,000 above the budget to remodel some things

immediately. We are not doing a capital campaign. We are not even

going to have a name for this. It’s simply us having a building fund.

Over and above your tithe, I ask you to join me in giving to the

building fund.

• This Year—Raise $1,000,000 Above the Budget

o Of the money we bring in, 5% will go toward debt

reduction

Here are some things we will remodel in 2020, if the Lord provides

the funds to do it:

o Fix the Exterior Sign, Along Thomasville Road


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o New Exterior Signage Around the Campus

o Pressure Washing the Exterior

o New Website & Enhance Web Presence

o Lobby

o Worship Center

§ We will break our Worship Center remodel

into two phases. This first phase will be done

in 2020. We will at least get new paint, new

carpet in here, some new lighting on the

platform, a fresh look on our stage, and figure

out the most cost effective way to address

having fresh seating, whether it be covering

our current pews, or looking at other options.

o Fellowship Hall

§ We will not do this for every part of our

remodel, but specifically for the Fellowship

Hall, we are going to do this ourselves instead

of hiring someone to do it all. We will remove

wallpaper ourselves, paint it ourselves, then

we will have new flooring put in there, and a

little bit of media for the Fellowship Hall. We

will have a few work days where our members

will bootstrap and come together to make this

happen. I think we can do this in the next few

weeks or months.

Dr. Jeremy Roberts

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As we seek to raise $1,000,000 above the budget, we will have a

church-wide fast in February, and more information will come out

soon. We will have four big giving Sundays, where we will seek to

bring in large amounts of this $1,000,000 goal on the following dates:

• February 23

• June 28

• September 13

• December 13

Conclusion

In conclusion, I believe the greatest days for the future of

Thomasville Road are ahead of us. Now, we must pray that God

would make it happen. We must be a church that helps people find

and follow Jesus. If you’ve never followed Jesus, then today you need

to make sure you do it. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. You

can be saved today.

The biggest opportunity to respond to this vision message is to do

the following:

• Make sure you have received Christ.

• Make sure you are in a Small Group.

• Be a part of our Pray and Go strategy of evangelism.


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• Pray that God would bring revival to our community, church,

and your personal life.

• Pray for God to clarify in your heart where you should serve,

and be ready to sign up for a place to volunteer at our

upcoming ministry fair.

• Make sure you are tithing, and in addition to that, give over

and above to the building fund.

• Come forward and pray in just a moment for our church to

do whatever it takes to help people find and follow Jesus.

Would you do your part to buy into this vision, and begin right now

by praying for it? Bow your head, pray with me, then come forward

to the altar and pray.

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ABOUT THE PREACHER | DR. JEREMY ROBERTS

Dr. Jeremy Roberts is Senior Pastor at Thomasville Road Baptist Church, Tallahassee, FL. With over 2,600 members, Thomasville

Road is a thriving inter-generational church in the heart of Florida’s capital city. Additionally, he serves as an Adjunct Professor at Liberty

University and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Roberts has a D.Min. from Liberty University. He and his wife, Charity, and their two daughters, Autumn and Lily, live in the Tallahassee area.

Connect with Dr. Roberts online:

Instagram: @JeremyPRoberts

Facebook.com/DrJeremyRoberts Thomasville Road Baptist Church: ThomasvilleRoad.org

The Vision of Thomasville Road Baptist Church · 12/01/2020 · This is our new mission statement...

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