In the Gospel according to Luke, Chapter 19 verses 11-27, there is a parable about a master who calls his ten servants and gives them ten minas. Each mina was equivalent to a wage earned after about three months of labor. This man gives them all the same amount of money and he goes away.

The first one took his ten minas and invested them and got ten other minas, and the master said to him, “Well done my good and faithful servant, because you’ve been faithful over a few things I’ll make you ruler over much.” The master gave him ten cities.

The second one invested his minas and gained five more minas and he got five cities from the master. What a wonderful thing! The master rewarded him.

The third one said, “Well, master, I knew you were a hard master and I took what you gave me and hid it in the ground in a napkin... and here it is. This is just what you gave me.” The master got upset and took his mina and gave it to the one who had ten minas.

There are several lessons that come from this parable, but most clearly I draw this important point - God showed me that God will bless you because you are fruitful. The servants who had shown that they knew what to do with their minas were the ones who got the extra minas in the end.

Conversely, the master took from the one who didn’t do anything and gave to the one who had done the most.

A couple of weeks ago, the Lord hit me with this thought. The Lord said you’ve got a wonderful church. You’ve got a church that has prayed for you, a church that has been faithful... you’ve got a church that’s not perfect, but trying to be perfect... trying to do the Lord’s work... trying to be righteous. The Lord said if you don’t do anything with that church you’ll be just like the man who took his mina and hid it in the ground and gave the Lord what the He had given you.

The Lord has given me a great church to pastor, but the Lord intends for me to do something with this great church! The Lord intends for us to invest our gift. The Lord intends for us to do something with what He has given us. The Lord is not appreciative of us just keeping ourselves safe and taking care of ourselves. The Lord wants you to bring more back. So the Lord is not going to be pleased with me if I spend the balance of my days just keeping the church as it is. The Lord wants us to do more. Amen.

This is the vision that I believe that the Lord has given me:

An Active Membership of 6,000

First, we are a church of about 8,000 members. We’ve got between 5,000 and 6,000 people on the roll. I believe that we have about 1,500 active members. That is, people who come to church regularly, who give their tithes, who give monies in the offering, who support their church and perceive it as their church.

I believe in the next five years that we should grow to a church of 6,000 active members. We should grow from 2,500 to 6,000.

Now we can do that if the people just in here witness to somebody else. If just those who are under the sound of my voice go out and seriously witness to somebody else, we could be at 6,000 easily.

An Annual Budget of $6,000,000

The Vision Realized
“We MUST Finish What We’ve Started”

We will have a Family Life Center and Retail Establishments in Southern Dayton View.

We have to finish what we’ve started! We started plans for a FamilyLifeCenter in Southern Dayton View. We have about 6 or 7 acres of land down there. Judge Littlejohn has a coffee shop that he’s going to open up next week. There is so much opportunity for retail establishments in Southern Dayton View.

The truth is after we start it someone else will finish it, but if we don’t do it, guess what?... Nobody else is going to see the good that exists in that area. Nobody is going to see the value of that land. If we don’t see the value of the land, nobody else is going to see it. Nobody else is going to value all of the constituents that go all the way downtown and all the way over to Starbucks. The people who go all the way down to the Dayton Mall to go to a bookstore and people who travel all over town to get what they need. They’ll let you keep traveling until you look down and say, ‘I am somebody, I am something and I’m worth your investment.’

So, we will have a family life center and we will have retail establishments in Southern Dayton View.

Global Ministry Expanded

We will build a house for Omega in Ghana, West Africa so that when we go back and forth, we will be able to stay there.

We will continue what we’ve done in our Global ministry. On my second trip to Ghana I remember the eyes of the women who cheered me on during my chiefting ceremony. I remember how they looked at me - they hoped that things would get better for them... Now two schools, two churches all of that later! We are making a difference in Ghana, West Africa. You’re doing something, you’re making a difference.

You know, you can sit around in this United States of America and feel like it really doesn’t matter that I’m here. But your dollars in Ghana, West Africa make a difference.

Furthermore, I believe that as a predominately African-American people we have a complex. We have a complex that we believe in victimization. We say, ‘poor me, those people don’t like me, those people are bad to me, and they’re mean to me.’ We can whine and complain all we want but until we pick up our mina and do something with it someplace else, God cannot heal us. When you are no longer a victim, God can do something with you.

I believe that God has given us a chance. We have an opportunity to have a house in Ghana. We can have a house for Omega so that when we go back and forth we can stay there. Isn’t that a shame? We’re going to a place where you can’t even stay in a house unless you go to a hotel or something somewhere. The poverty is so bad there, but we can help and that’s a blessing.

Social Justice is our Mantra

We will have a Social Justice Ministry. That means we will write letters to congressmen, we’ll help our public schools be better. We will speak with the voice of God as God gives us leadership.

Furthermore, we will be an Afro-centric church that embraces all cultures. We’re not going to be apologetic about being afro-centric. We’re not going to feel guilty about celebrating our heritage. But furthermore, we’re not going to put anybody else’s heritage down. We’re going to help them feel good about who they are as we feel good about who we are. Social Justice Ministry will be our mantra. We will have a Social Justice Ministry. That means that we will write letters to congressmen, we’ll help our public schools be better. That means we will speak with the voice of God as God gives us leadership. If the church does not speak, then God has no voice. God wants to speak on these issues. God wants to make a difference in the world. The only thing holding God back is that the church is silent on too many issues. We have to have the guts; we have to have the backbone to be children of God in this day and age.

Continuing with the Nehemiah Initiative
AND Increasing our Financial Giving

The Harvard Campus Mortgage... $1.3 million dollars... We CAN pay this mortgage off this year!

Then with our Nehemiah Initiative, one of our members gave me this idea. Do you know that if 650 people gave $19.25 weekly, we would pay off the mortgage on the Harvard Campus? - $1.3 million dollars! I hope to do that this year. I plan to do that this year.

We also need a full time youth minister of music. God has blessed us in our youth area. We need to grow in our financial giving where we’re able to afford a full time minister of music for our youth.

Then we need to use our Harvard Campus to its’ fullest. We need to figure out what do we do with the library? What do we do with Roberts? What do we do with Fout? What do we do with our chapel? What do we do with our offices? We need to figure out in the next five years how we use that campus to its fullest. I know that God has a plan for it. Because it’s clear that the people have needs.

Omega Will Become An
Education Church

This will not be a church that just educates ministers. We will be concerned about the education of lay leadership addressing a variety of needs that exist throughout our local and national communities.

Finally, we will be an EducationalChurch. This will not be a church that just educates ministers. We will be concerned about the education of ministers, but we will also be concerned about all of God’s people! All of God’s people need education.

The courses that I gained the most from in Seminary are courses you need to. Laypersons need to have knowledge and information, too. You need to be studying the Bible. The Bible needs to be made interesting to you. The whole church needs it!

We can, at our Harvard Campus, provide a site for churches to come from throughout the country. They can stay at Robert’s Hall. We’ve got 30 acres of land! They can take walks... they can take classes and study with some of the foremost church leaders and thinkers of this community and from throughout the nation. We can be a blessing to the Church of Jesus Christ, if we focus our energies.

Furthermore, if we teach courses on, How to do Your Ministry to Youth or How to Become an Effective Youth Minister or How Do You Have a Good Usher Board or How do you have a Good Choir... we will contribute greatly to the Kingdom of God. As we offer classes and people are taught, we get better at doing and serving the Lord! And, I have found that if I want to get better at a thing, the best thing for me to do is to teach about how to do it.

God wants to use Omega Baptist Church and God has a plan for us. Will you stand, will you stand, will you stand and do God’s will?

God Bless You.

Faithfully Submitted to the Members of The Omega Baptist Church,

Reverend Daryl Ward
Senior Pastor