Game Plan 2026

As we look to what God has in store for Burke Community Church in 2026 there are some key areas we are focusing on together. Join Pastor Marty as he lays our the game plan for the coming year and give us a snapshot of all that is in store!

Watching the football playoffs over the last several weeks, I always find it interesting to see the coaches on the sidelines speaking into their headsets while holding the all-important game plan template. What do these templates tell the coach? Every offensive and defensive scenario is recorded on these sheets, so the coach will know how to direct the team to either stop the opponent’s advance or move the ball into the end zone.

Here’s one photo to illustrate my point:

As you can see, the play call sheet quickly guides the coach in making informed decisions about how he wants the team to function in a given scenario. If the team is in the Red Zone (within 20 yards of the End Zone), the prearranged template guides the coach and the team on the strategy to score a TD. If it is third down and the ball is within 1 to 4 yards of first down, the template gives you options to hopefully secure the first down. If it’s fourth down and 8 to 10 yards from the first down marker, then all the coach has to do is look down to see his pre-planned options for possible success.

Question. Why do the coaches speak with the template over their mouths? Probably so the other coaches and team analysts in a high box perch can hear them. It’s also a good way to keep lipreaders from stealing your next play. Smart.

Question. What has this got to do with my annual State of the Church message? Everything. Like a coach, I look back at what worked well to give us a winning season in 2024, and I then look forward to what I think we need to focus on in our game playbook for 2026. So, today, I’ll talk like the coach of a successful team, our pastors and elders will be the various other coaches, and you’ll represent our great, gifted players. Oh, since each game is complicated, complex, and somewhat unpredictable, I don’t think my analysis today is total, far from it. I plan to give you some of the overarching plays we need to make on the field of life over the next year as we advance the kingdom of our team owner, Jesus Christ. More detailed calls are already written and ready to be implemented at the right time, but for now, join me as we focus on the big plays we need to make.

Game Play#1: Get Debt Free

In 2025, the typical NFL team operated with a debt load of $800 million per club. Most teams, like the Cowboys, Patriots, and Bears, have debt representing only between 1% to 6% of their total value. Other teams, like the Los Angeles Rams, have debt loads estimated at around 28% of their team value. Yikes. The Las Vegas Raiders (that name change still bugs me as a former Californian) have a 14% debt load.

Just imagine what these teams could do if they had no debt. Granted, NFL teams are not under too much pressure from their debt because of strong cash flow and massive revenue sharing from national media contracts. For instance, each team receives over $300 million in annual revenue from television stations. Yet I’d wager it would still be beneficial if a given team had no debt because debt has the propensity to pull away assets from other vital quests.

Perhaps a few quotes about the negative features of debt will validate my last point:

• “Debt is the slavery of the free.” — Publilius Syrus (85-43 B.C., Latin writer, maxim-maker, moralist, and satirist)
• “I consider a permanent public debt as a canker inevitably fatal.” — Thomas Jefferson ( I guess our politicians never got this memo)
• “Remember this: debt is a form of bondage. It is a financial termite.” — Joseph P. Wirthlin
• “Debt is not a tool; it is a method to make banks wealthy, not you.” — Dave Ramsey

Debt isn’t ultimately good for an NFL team, a family, or a church. Sure, if used wisely, meaning you don’t borrow more than you can handle and you work to pay it off quickly, then debt can be a tool for achieving greater goals.

Six years ago, our team built a new $17.9 million worship team to accommodate our explosive growth since 2008. At that time, we raised almost $14 million for the down payment, leaving us with financing of nearly $4 million with a thirty-year loan. Your sacrificial giving since the loan’s inception positioned us at the beginning of 2025 to have reduced our debt load to $2.5 million. With our Going, Going, Gone campaign, I stand here today to give you some amazing, jaw-dropping news: In the next two weeks, we have received so much additional tithes and offerings that our financial team will be paying off our remaining debt! Did you get that? By mid-February, we will be debt-free.

I, along with the elder council, pastoral staff, directors, and other leaders, want to personally thank you for your generosity over the last six years that has made this a reality. We challenged you, based on the biblical model, to give generously, and you rose to the challenge, taking the ball into the proverbial end zone for a significant score. Now, we are positioned as a highly skilled and motivated spiritual team to do even more for our team owner, Jesus Christ, and to advance the spiritual opportunities He will bring our way. What a freeing experience. Now, all of our ministries can really flourish, from our innovative children’s program to our cutting-edge missions team that guides us in reaching people for Christ nationally and internationally. So thank you. Thank you for not just giving the Lord a tenth of your earnings, but for going above and beyond.

In addition, I’d like to commend you for your giving in December of 2025. We entered the final month of the year with a deficit of nearly $250,000. With staff working hard to control year-end spending and you giving super abundantly, we ended the month with a tithe total of $1,538,574, which is roughly double what we needed monthly! What a team. I’ve never seen one like it in all my years of attending or leading a local church.

What does this team understand?

• Our finances belong to the Lord. They are on loan to us, and we are to use them to care for our needs while also advancing His kingdom purposes.
• It is essential to invest in things that matter for eternity, for God’s heavenly kingdom, not in things that are merely temporal: Matthew 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.).
• God blesses you in relation to how you give: Luke 6:38, “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
• It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).
• We are called to excel in generosity: 2 Corinthians 8:7, “But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also.” The gracious work, contextually, is financial giving to God’s work.

I might add, we don’t just understand the biblical concept of giving; we collectively apply it. So, thanks for being the types of team members you are.

And as top-drawer players, you know a new year is before us with a new budget. So, once again, as your coach, I challenge you to prayerfully consider how the Lord and His Spirit will direct your giving.

But let’s also continue to enjoy the fact that we are not only about to be debt-free, but we just closed out a year with the highest giving month in the history of our team. Way to go, team!

Game Play #2: Grow More Disciples

As with any team, there are just some core drills you observe to build strong, quick (explosive), and skilled players. While not always fun, these drills prepare each player to do their part in guiding the team toward a winning season. The old saying is true: “The will to win is important, but the will to prepare to win is vital.” How true. To develop speed and agility, a wide receiver will need to do his share of cone drills (4, 5, and 6 cones) with sprint intervals. He will also need to run sideways through each hexagon on a hexagonal exercise floor ladder. A lineman will need adequate time pushing a heavy sled around. Lunges will help everyone build strength and speed. Quarterbacks will need to work on upper-body strength for throwing the football, as well as core exercises to help them scramble well when defensive linemen breach the pocket.

In my day, I became really familiar with the six-man sled. I also did my share of the square box ropes, which had two parallel boxes about ten yards long. The ropes were raised just high enough to make running through them challenging. And who can forget those metal chutes you had to run through, then pop up and hit a man holding a curved pad? I always felt sorry for the guys who rose too early. The metal bar floored them. In any event, the point is well-taken: Core drills are ones you can’t eliminate from training, ever.

All of this brings me to my next point.

One of our core drills as a church is directly wedded to our team owner’s final words to us.

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20).

As I’ve taught before, the main verb here is the imperative to make disciples (matheteusate, μαθητεύσατε). All the other verbs in these sentences are participles that get their imperatival force from this imperative. Hence, we are to go and spread the gospel of Jesus. And, yes, we are to baptize new converts to publicly demonstrate they are identified with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Yet, at the core of our Lord’s command is for all of us to be continually committed to developing disciples of Jesus.

What is a disciple? The Greek word describes a person in NT times who was in a teacher/pupil relationship. Ardnt’s Greek Lexicon tells us this much:

μαθητεύω (s. μαθητής) 1 aor. ἐμαθήτευσα, pass. ἐμαθητεύθην.

① to be a pupil, with implication of being an adherent of the teacher

ⓐ intr., be or become a pupil or disciple (Plut., Mor. 832b; 837c; Ps.-Callisth. 2, 4, 4 τινί; Iambl., Vi. Pyth. 23, 104 μ. τῷ Πυθαγόρᾳ; schol. on Apollon. Rhod. Proleg. A a) τινί (Orig., C. Cels. 2, 9, 60) of someone (Ἰωσὴφ) ἐμαθήτευσεν τῷ Ἰησοῦ Joseph had become a disciple of Jesus Mt 27:57 v.l. Likew. as

ⓑ pass. dep. (Just., A I, 15, 6; Hippol., Ref. 1, 2, 16) μαθητεύομαι become a disciple τινί: (Ἰ.) ἐμαθητεύθη τῷ Ἰησοῦ Mt 27:57. γραμματεὺς μαθητευθεὶς τῇ βασιλείᾳ τ. οὐρανῶν a scribe who has become a disciple of the kgdm. of heaven or who has been trained for the kgdm. Mt 13:52 (γραμματεύς 2b). Abs. IEph 3:1. μᾶλλον μαθητεύομαι I am becoming a disciple more and more IRo 5:1. This gave rise to a new active form (B-D-F §148, 3; Rob. 800)

② to cause one to be a pupil, teach, trans. (AscIs 3:18 καὶ μαθητεύσουσιν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη καὶ πᾶσαν γλῶσσαν εἰς τὴν ἀν[ά]στασιν τοῦ ἀγαπ[η]τοῦ; Just., D. 53, 1 Χριστὸς … ἐμαθήτευσεν αὐτούς) make a disciple of, teach τινά someone Mt 28:19. ἱκανούς make a number of disciples Ac 14:21. Abs. ἃ μαθητεύοντες ἐντέλλεσθε what you command when you are instructing or winning disciples IRo 3:1.—ὑμῖν μαθητευθῆναι become your disciples, be instructed by you IEph 10:1 (cp. pres. subst. ptc. οἱ μαθητευόμενοι = οἱ μαθηταί Did., Gen. 69, 24; 245, 17; aor. ptc. αἱ δὲ τοῦ θεοῦ Χριστῷ μαθητευθεῖσαι ἐκκλησίαι Orig., C. Cels. 3, 29, 24; Πολύκαρπος … ὑπὸ ἀποστόλων μαθητευθείς Iren. 3, 3, 4 [Harv. II 12, 4]).—DELG s.v. μανθάνω. M-M. EDNT. TW. Sv.^[1]

A disciple, therefore, is one who studies and learns from their teacher/rabbi. They learn from his teaching and also from studying his life, which reflects the essence of his teaching. Various verses underscore this timeless truth:

26 If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14)

Salvation is based on trusting Christ as one’s personal Savior. This is an event. Discipleship is another matter altogether and is based on considering what it will cost you to follow the Lord. This is a process, and in it the goal will be to imitate and model Christ’s life in yours. The words “come after Me” address this concept of imitation. The disciple not only studies His Lord’s words well to implement them, but he is also committed to melding his thoughts, reactions, dreams, character, and so forth to reflect that of his Lord. Here is how Jesus put the process in Luke:

⁴⁰ A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher. (Luke 6)

Jesus is the ultimate teacher of all disciples. Still, as we see in the NT books outside the gospels (where the word disciple exclusively appears), the concept of imitation of a spiritual leader is woven like a beautiful thread:

¹⁶ Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. (2 Cor. 4)

¹¹ And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, ¹² so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (Heb. 6)

²¹ For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps . . . (1 Pet. 1).

The word “imitate” in texts like these merely echoes what a disciple is supposed to do: they are to work at making their lives reflect that of their master teacher’s instruction and lifestyle, character, and so forth.

Isn’t this what we need more in our morally and spiritually rudderless society? Indeed, we need more people who follow God instead of themselves, who evidence virtues that God supports, who believe truth is absolute, not relative, who believe morals never change, who believe in humility and not hubris, who are kind as opposed to vindictive, who understand that there is a difference between that which is holy and that which is unholy, who embrace purity over perversion, who are lawful as opposed to lawless, and so forth. No doubt. This is the fruit of creating disciples who follow hard after God. People like this not only reflect Jesus but also cause others to want to know Him through the transformed lives they witness.

All of this is why we are committed, more than ever before, to the command to grow disciples of Jesus Christ. For the last year, the pastoral staff and elders have worked on and finalized a robust discipleship plan. As Pastor Jim has communicated recently, this plan is being woven throughout our entire ministry, from the smallest child to the oldest adult, from our women’s ministry to our ministry to teens. Each month, various character traits of disciples will be observed and taught so that we are all heading in the same discipleship direction. Life Groups will also focus on discipleship concepts, and we will have Sunday School classes to teach discipleship at a deeper, personal level. Our goal, of course, will be to produce people who not only know Christ as Savior, but who live like Christ. As this endeavor is realized, not only will our church be strengthened, but so, too, will people and families who attend here. I’m sure our culture will take note of the spiritual depth here in transformed lives, and this, in turn, will naturally lead to more disciples.

So, I challenge you to become an ardent disciple of Jesus this year. When a discipleship opportunity presents itself, take advantage of it. And above all else, pray that our church will be known for our commitment to living for Christ and implementing His Word in our lives.

Game Play #3: Get On With A Third Service

Recently, our worship attendance has spiked to the highest levels in the church’s fifty years of existence. Who doesn’t see this?

• When you see the parking lot packed each Sunday for each service, you know God is up to something big.
• When you come into worship and have to follow an usher around to find a chair among the sea of people, you know the Spirit is moving in our culture.
• When you park at the shuttle lot at Cherry Run Elementary school, about 1 mile from our building, so new people can find a parking stall more easily, you know you are doing the right thing as a disciple.
• When you see over 500 children between birth and 5^th grade attending our excellent Children’s Program, you know that God is up to something.
• When you hear that 220 teens, ranging from 7^th to 12^th grade, showed up recently for a worship night called Renewal and Revival, you know God is working powerfully in young lives . . . despite the world’s quest to indoctrinate, disillusion, and discourage them.
• When I fill out a stack of visitor cards each Monday, with most of them young couples with children, you know that revival is sweeping our spiritually thirsty land.
• When you see that 2025 was the highest average attendance in the history of the church, you know the Lord is moving in the lives of our neighbors and friends. As a side note, our Christmas Eve service this year drew 3,113 people. Amazing. That figure represents people who are looking to honor the Lord of glory, who was born to deliver us from our sins, or they are folks who want to find out what Christianity is all about.

Yes, we all know our relatively new building is bursting at the seams.

So, what should we do? As leaders, we know we are fast approaching the time of launching a third service. We don’t know which times we will choose, but we know the Lord will give us clear direction when we reach this point. Our goal is also to provide three identical services to maintain continuity and community. So, I’m just here today to tell you that a much-needed worship change is needed to accommodate growth.

Pragmatically, what will this mean? It will mean more work for our already hard-working staff. So, pray for and encourage them. A few attaboys would also build up, inspire, and motivate the team. Additionally, be in prayer about where you can serve. By adding another service, we will certainly need more people serving throughout the entire ministry. Also, if it is possible for you and your family, try not populate the middle service. Try one of the bookend services to give more room to visitors who typically love the middle service. Remember, as a disciple, you should be well-acquainted with the concept of sacrifice for the good of others. Jesus is our model in this regard.

Game Play #4: Get Going With Parking

This topic naturally follows the last one. Last year, in Phase 1 of our parking program, we added 16 new parking stalls facing Old Keene Mill when you first enter our parking lot, and we built a much-needed drop-off and pick-up area for our busy shuttle service. Later this year, we will add a nice-looking, modern metal awning to protect folks who use the shuttle on Sundays. But we are far from finished with maximizing the parking to accommodate the number of worshippers who attend here.

In 2026, we continue our parking expansion venture with Phase 2. When this is complete, our retention pond on the north side of the building will be buried after large tanks are installed to accommodate rain runoff. When this is complete, we will add 100 new parking spaces in this area. Currently, our engineering company, Walter L. Phillips, is developing the intricate details required by the site plan approved by Fairfax County. Eventually, we will need to raise probably between $1.5 to $2 million to complete this worthy project. No doubt, being debt-free will help us realize a goal like this; however, we will still need to launch a new giving program to raise money to bring this project to fruition. But in prayer now, regarding what God might have you do in this regard. Just imagine how wonderful it would be to have this many more parking stalls on a given Sunday! Talk about a game changer.

Last…

Game Play #5: Get More Kingdom Transfers

The Bible is full of contrasts:

• True prophets vs. false prophets
• Wise people vs. foolish people
• God fearers vs. God haters
• People on the narrow path that leads to eternal life vs. those on the broad path that leads to eternal destruction
• Those who produce good fruit vs. bad fruit (Matt. 7:18-19)
• Wise builders vs. foolish builders (Luke 6:46-49)
• The kingdom of heaven vs. the kingdom of Satan
• Self-deniers vs. self-seekers (Matt. 10:38-39)
• Those who are wheat vs. those who are tares, and therefore under the judgment of God (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-42)
• Good fish vs. discarded fish (Matt. 13:47-50)
• Those who seek heavenly treasure vs. those who seek earthly treasure that is temporal and worthless, ultimately (Luke 12:15-21)
• The last and the first vs. the first and the last (Matt. 19:30; 20:16)
• Those who will be raised to eternal life vs. those who will be raised to eternal judgment (Luke 14:14; John 5:28-29)
• True worshippers vs. false worshippers (Mark 7:6-7; John 4:24)
• Children of God vs. children of Satan (John 1:12; 8:44)
• The spiritually uncondemned vs. the spiritually condemned (John 3:14-18; 6:40; 8:24)
• The lovers of spiritual light vs. the lovers of spiritual darkness (John 3:19-21; 8:12; 12:46; 18:37) . . . to name a few.

From these contrasts, we quickly learn that God is not as broad-minded and accepting as we are. No. He is holy; therefore, nothing that is associated with being unholy can be permitted in His presence. Further, He is the epitome of truth; thus, nothing or no one that is given to falsity can have an audience with Him.

Out of love and concern for us, God sent His Son to be our Sin-sacrifice so we would have the opportunity to exercise our free will and choose His perfect salvation, and thereby move from the negative side of the eternal ledger to the positive. As Jesus says in John 5:

²⁴ Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. (John 5).

From this, we learn that all approaches from the condemned side of the spiritual ledger to the uncondemned side require God’s prescribed mediation. In OT times, the priest offered blood sacrifices to cover man’s sin, but this was perpetual work because no God-prescribed sacrifice (Lev. 1-7) could perpetually deal with man’s sinful status. At this juncture, enter Jesus, God’s Son. Concerning His work in giving sinners the opportunity to become saints, the author of Hebrews writes:

11 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. 14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. (Heb. 10)

Christ, the High Priest and the Sacrifice, sat down because after His death and resurrection, His redemptive work was done for sinners. Now, for them to become saints, they merely need to come to Him in trusting, repentant faith. When they do, they move from spiritual judgment to spiritual forgiveness, from spiritual darkness to spiritual light, and from Satan’s family to God’s family.

How does the sinner hear about this good news from God? Through the witness of God’s people like you. Let Christ be our model. Throughout His brief earthly ministry, He called sinners to come to Him in faith so He could forgive them and make them His sons and daughters. He spoke to powerful religious people like Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish equivalent of the Supreme Court (John 3:1-21), and He took the time to talk with a social outcast and a lady with a sordid past, like the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4). Yes, Jesus was all about telling people to repent, for the kingdom of heaven was near (Matt. 4:17; 9:35-38). No wonder, then, that His last words to His followers on the Mount of Olives, located just east of the Temple in Jerusalem, called us to be His witnesses to the lost.

⁸ but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth. (Acts 1)

We are, therefore, individually and corporately, to be all about fulfilling this challenge. We are to be committed to being the witnesses of His gospel because He has commanded us to. We are also to be sold out to sharing His gospel, His good news, because it is the only way people on the negative side of the spiritual ledger can be moved to the positive side for all eternity.

Going through my mother’s personal effects after she died three weeks ago, I found a stack of old letters bound by a fragile blue rubber band. Once I pulled the brittle band off, I started opening up the envelopes and reading the letters. Who were they from? They were from criminals in the local youth prison just south of Stockton, CA, on Matthews Road.

For years, I had led a Bible study on certain Sundays in this felon ward. Eventually, my mother, of all people, took over the ministry, and she was in her early seventies at the time. At first, people at church thought she was crazy for going into the prison with all of these brutal barbarians.

My mother didn’t see it that way. Like Jesus, she saw young men who needed the Savior who could help them move from death to life, from unwise living to wise living, and from hopelessness to hope. So, she went in through the massive steel doors, took a chair among the convicts, and shared Jesus with them.

What happened as a result of her courageous witness? Many of those young men became new young men in Christ. Over the years, they took the time to write this aged, slow-walking, arthritic Senior citizen, my mother, to tell her what her sharing did for them inside and outside of prison. Now, they were young men with a clean spiritual slate before the living God, and they knew it. Their pen-and-pencil letters dripped with respect and love for her. They knew she didn’t have to come in behind those guarded walls, but she did, and because she did, they were not the same anymore.

What my mother did in that prison is what all of us, as saints, are called to do. Courageously share the gospel so that sinners can have the wonderful opportunity to become saints. We remain committed to this calling from our Lord, and I challenge you to go forth this year and take the gospel to the lost around you so they can be found.

^[1] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 609.