Sherwood sets new ‘Vision,’ releases DVD

ALBANY — Sherwood Baptist Church Senior Pastor Michael Catt once talked to the Sherwood congregation about “reaching the world from Albany, Georgia.”

That mission is continuing.

Building on its commitment to be a Great Commission church, Sherwood announced “Vision 2020,” a multi-year, $20 million campaign designed to broaden the global reach of the church, on Tuesday.

The vision has been in the works for several years, a news release from Sherwood’s public relations firm said. The plan will target missions to unreached people, broaden local mission activities as well as expand and upgrade the church facilities.

“It takes courage to make a bold step, but God has called us to be courageous,” Catt said. “Our vision is to meet the need in our church, in our community and in our world. We don’t want to rest on what we’ve done in the past. We are committed to developing and expanding our ministry in our own community as well as planting churches in strategic cities in America.

“We will also increase our involvement and investment in foreign missions. In the nearly 60-year history of Sherwood, this is the broadest ministry plan we’ve ever undertaken.”

With half of the Vision 2020 funding drawn from a $10 million giving campaign, proceeds from Sherwood Pictures, the church’s moviemaking arm, will match member giving dollar for dollar. The effort will encompass a wide variety of ministry activities that meet the need in three main areas, the first of which takes a global approach by expanding the missions ministry of the church.

In the last two years, Sherwood has called two individuals to oversee local, regional and national missions. Vision 2020 will allow the church to adopt an Unreached Unengaged People Group (UUPG) and an Unreached People Group (UPG). The church’s Unreached People Group will be the nation of Cuba.

Additionally, the campaign will expand the annual ReFRESH Conference ministry from two to six gatherings a year by 2020.

In the community, Vision 2020 expands Sherwood’s local ministry activity both in terms of ground covered and services offered. In 2011, the church was given the old 60,000-square-foot Coca-Cola plant located on Pine Avenue, which has already been used for Operation Christmas Child. Hundreds of man hours have been donated by volunteers to bring the facility up to date.

The campaign will also allow the church to continue to improve the facility, do a needs assessment and begin ongoing ministries to the community.

In the church, improvements will be made to the children’s, preschool and youth spaces. Vision 2020 will include expansion and upgrade of education, fellowship, youth and children worship and community spaces to accommodate the church’s growth.

With planned groundbreaking on facilities improvements in summer 2012, the construction projects should be completed by spring 2016 with any debt retired by 2020.

This announcement came on the same day that Sherwood Pictures’ fourth film venture, “Courageous”, was set to hit stores nationwide on DVD. The box sets cost $25 for the DVD version, and $35 for the Blu-ray/DVD pack.

While the movie can be found anywhere DVDs are sold, there is an exclusive collector’s edition available only at Christian bookstores — which offers more than two hours of special features including the “The Making of Courageous,” a Casting Crowns music video, outtakes and more.

For additional information on Vision 2020, including a complete list of affected ministries and the costs involved, visit http://meettheneed.sherwoodbaptist.net.