Tough Questions For Churches Today. Series

Job 19:23-27

19:23 "O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book!

19:24 O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever!

19:25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;

19:26 and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God,

19:27 whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

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Tough questions for Churches

“Is it working?” and “How do we know?”. We want to help disciples grow, but it’s difficult to know if we are helping these days through the growth of the church these days.

We live in a world that is obsessed with all kinds of distractions.

From the dozens of business surveys that bombard our email in-boxes every week, to local police hoping to spot patterns in crime data that will help them keep neighborhoods safe.

Yet it seems like everyone is convinced that numbers and math can answer all our

questions and problems.

But in order for us to understand those “Thought” numbers may mislead us, if we don’t use that Thought process God put in you in the creation of his big plan.

In the church, “regular” worship attendance has long been understood to mean worshiping weekly, at least it was in my early life.

And that “regular” attendance was considered a standard way we looked at our congregation’s health and commitment to discipleship. As worship increases, other positive changes would follow.

Today, many people see worshiping once or twice a month as active attendance, and the relationship between their worship attendance and other discipleship practices is less clear.

If we want to make sure we are making a difference, we need to reach out and adjust our ways of thinking about numbers and effectiveness. We’re going to work on doing a few of our God given talents.

We need to look out in the distance for the health of the Church. We do not need to “anticipate it will come” and then sit down. So open your eyes, use the “thought” process the Lord has put in you and that will put you bullseye on the direction with the holy spirit.

We should begin by thinking about where we want to end.

First, we need to figure out if this is happening, Then we have to set a goal, to know where we are trying to go.

Now, this is called developing outcomes, Outcomes are the changes we are trying to accomplish in our own lives, churches and the communities.

How do we open the doors? First we research our community, we look at their needs there. Then we have to understand the Knowledge of the community, the attitude they feel simply naming and describing where God wants our discipleship witnessing to lead.

When we can name and describe the change we feel called to make in our churches, our people and our communities, we gain a sense of purpose, we gain identity and meaning because we are getting our hands dirty working.

Outcomes are, therefore, an act of stewardship. Identifying our outcomes “means making a choice” Jesus’ describes the kingdom of heaven being like “one precious pearl,”

Matthew 13:45-46 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.

46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

In the parable, the merchant thought, discerned wisely, that the pearl was the one thing to which he should devote all of his resources, that it was worth letting go of everything else.

We are called thru discernment to consider what we should do, to live out who God intended us to be.

Even-though Jesus has just been sharing many parables of the kingdom of heaven with the Disciples and a large crowd of thousands who were fed with a few loaves and fishes.

Today, we are those stewards, or the glue in our own churches and communities. “to be stewards of God’s mysteries and his grace means that we are entrusted with Christ’s mission on earth.

We aren’t just talking about any outcomes. We must reflect, and appreciate what we have witnessed and have lived and been blessed.

Now lets see if we measure up for what matter's

SOCIOLOGIST WILLIAM BRUCE CAMERON

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

What are the makings of a disciple? What might that look like in your part of the world?

There is an obvious distance between “attending worship sporadically,” for example, and “worshiping every day in work and play”, and inviting others to join in worshiping.

How will we know that we are bearing witness to the world-changing love of Jesus.? Remember the idea that measuring is determining “how far” we have come?