The Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management has uncovered 5 common success factors IN BUILDING Community. In analyzing 68 Non Profit Organizations,
(1) The ones who have results aim at results. They have a very clear definition of and concentration on what they are trying to accomplish.
(2) They also abandon. They periodically look at what they’re doing, see what works and concentrate on that.
(3) The successful ones know how to collaborate. They know how to mobilize community resources and work with others.
(4) They do not look upon the beneficiaries as recipients. That creates dependence. Recipients are partners to success. The real beneficiaries are the volunteers.
(5) You do not really achieve results by taking care of social ills. You achieve results by building a healthy body, a healthy community. And you do that by creating community citizenship through your volunteers. This is, by the way, why faith-based institutions are more effective than any others.
The year was 1630. The place was the Massachusetts Bay along the Atlantic coast near the place known as Plymouth Rock. On board the ship the Arabella John Winthrop, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company challenged the Puritan settlers to establish a new kind of Christian community.
Winthrop said: We must be knit together in this work as one man, we must entertain each other in brotherly affection. . ., we must delight in each other, make others’ condition our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together. . ., our community as members of the same body, so shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us.
Winthrop knew that they were in this thing together; no one could go it alone.
Ministry & Discipleship occurs only in community.
Very few people are expert in anything all by themselves. They need a supporting community. Do you know a good musician who was not trained, nurtured and sustained by the music community? Show me an athlete who achieves excellence all alone, apart from the athletic community. Very few wise men become so without the accumulated wisdom of the centuries as expressed in colleges and universities and libraries. Medical people are more like ensembles and symphonies than soloists. What business tycoon does it all on his own without dedicated experts in finance, engineering, personnel, and marketing? Excellence requires participation in, and support of, a community of like-minded people.
Likewise in the church -- a forerunner of the new kingdom. Very few achieve Christian maturity all by themselves. Seldom is the Bible studied diligently without the aid of scholars and teachers. Rarely are people led to generosity by their own impulses.
Creating COMMUNITY in the CHURCH REQUIRES >>> …
I. PROGRESS the Gospel --advancement, furtherance, profit. the furtherance of the gospel;
Php 1:12 But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;
Php 1:13 So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places;
Php 1:14 And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
You can eliminate strife by focusing on HOW TO…
II. PROTECT the Gospel --ἀπολογία apologia – ANSWER defense of the gospel NOT YOURSELF!
(1 Pet 3:15 KJV) But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
Php 1:15 Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:
Php 1:16 The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:
ILL>>> "The reality in the first century was that the most intense persecution of the Christian church came, not from the Romans, but from the Jewish community. The Romans and the outside world viewed the Christian Community as merely a small sect of Judaism. Christianity did not spread globally and become a world religious force until after Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jewish people were scattered among the nations."
Conflict inCommunity
“The difference between spiritual and unspiritual community is not whether conflict exists, but is rather in our attitude toward it and our approach to handling it. When conflict is seen as an opportunity to draw more fully on spiritual resources, we have the makings of spiritual community.”: Larry Crabb in "The Safest Place on Earth,"
Php 1:17 But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel.
Php 1:18 What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
Php 1:19 For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
Php 1:20 According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. >>>>>> the Love in God is Jesus<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Php 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Php 1:22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
Php 1:23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
Php 1:24 Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
Php 1:25 And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith;
Php 1:26 That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.
Bill Hybels, the pastor of Willow Creek Community Church just outside of Chicago makes this statement. “If you create a loving community, first time seekers will sniff it and say “I want in.”
III. PLAN the Gospel Live a life WORTHY of the Gospel – plan to make the Gospel beautiful with your life- it becomes the gospel
ILL >>interior soul decorating
Php 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becomes the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit,
ILL>> The story that inspired the classic lecture, Acres of Diamond, tells about a farmer in Africa who became tremendously excited about looking for diamonds. He sold his farm to head out to the diamond line. He wandered all over the continent, as the years slipped by, constantly searching for diamonds and wealth, which he never found. Eventually he went completely broke and threw himself into a river and drowned.
Meanwhile, the new owner of his farm picked up an unusual looking rock about the size of a country egg and put it on his mantle as a sort of curiosity. A visitor stopped by and realized what that rock was. He told the new owner of the farm that the funny looking rock on his mantle was about the biggest diamond that had ever been found. The new owner of the farm said, "Heck, the whole farm is covered with them" - and sure enough it was. The farm turned out to be the Kimberly Diamond Mine.
When I answered the call to be the pastor of this church, I did not see what I could do with this church. I saw what the members of this church could do in this community. I saw the potentials you have and the ways God has gifted each of you. The challenge we face is not that we do not have the means to reach and serve our community. We have the means. We only need the willingness to apply our means.
ILL>> What is your goal in life??????????? make this your one only care- only let your conduct be for the planning and prep of the gospel
A. Only — Whatever happens as to my coming to you, or not, make this your one only care. With no other plans!! Today!
B. A conversation = Old verb from politēs, citizen, - from polis, city, to be a citizen, conduct as a citizen.
The Greek implies, “Let your walk as citizens (namely, of the heavenly state; ‘the city of the living God,’
Php 3:20 For our citizenship is in Heaven, from which also we are looking for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
ILL>>There is a book by Robert Putnam, a professor at Harvard. The book is called "Bowling Alone," and in it, he documents the decline in community life in American over the last four decades. The title comes from a trivial but telling example: the percentage of adults who belong to a bowling league today is only about ¼ of what it was in the 1960’s. Other examples:
• The percentage of people who volunteer in a political campaign - stuffing envelopes, making phone calls, going door to door - is today about half what it was in the late 1960’s.
• Active membership in local clubs and organizations, like the PTA, has dropped by about half, percentage-wise, since the 1970’s.
• People are visiting one another less frequently, having friends over for dinner less frequently, getting together to play cards less frequently.
In short, every objective measure of participation in community and civic life is declining.
IV. PROCLAIM the Gospel persuasion of – convince the faith of the gospel
with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
Php 1:28 And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.
Php 1:29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;
Php 1:30 Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.
Imagine that you have a big house and lots of land. Imagine further that a refugee shows up at the door asking if he might camp out in your backyard for a while. You are moved with compassion and grant him permission. A little later he asks if some relatives, who are also homeless, might also come and live on your property. What are you to do? How can you turn them away? So again you say yes. But then more come and more come. Soon there are hundreds. What have you gotten yourself into; you begin to wonder?
Something like that happened to a 22-year-old German nobleman in 1722. His name was Niklaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf. His estate was in East Germany. He was heir to one of Europe’s leading royal families. As you might expect his neighbors were not too pleased with the “riff-raff” that was finding asylum on his property. It began with ten in December 1722 and by late 1726 it was over 300. The place was known as “Herrnhut” meaning “The Lord’s Watch.” It soon turned into a small city of grateful and motivated Christian craftsmen and laypeople.
That crowded refugee estate became in time the most dynamic and strategic missionary launching pad since the early church. A deep outpouring of the Holy Spirit came on the community in August 1727. They organized a 24-hour prayer chain. At least two people were at prayer every hour of the day. This prayer meeting would last over 100 years. They became known by the nickname “God’s Happy People.”
Anthony, a former slave, came to speak at Herrnhut of the deplorable conditions of the slaves in the West Indies. The night he spoke, two of their young men could not sleep as they struggled with a sense that God was moving their hearts to offer themselves to go and minister to the slaves. When they were told that perhaps the only way they could do this was to become slaves themselves, they said they were willing if that is what it would take. Within 25 years more than 200 had gone out as missionaries from this small community to every continent of the world.
Every member of that community thought of themselves as a missionary. Each felt an obligation to take the gospel to all people and other places. The Roman Catholics had monks and nuns who traveled the world but this was different. This was a man and his wife and their children who saw the spread of the Christian message a major objective for their family. They believed that everyone can take the good news to others.
You can eliminate STRIFE BY STRIVING TOGETHER with a common PURPOSE! By focusing ONLY on…
1. The PROGRESS the Gospel
2. The PROTECT the Gospel
3. The PLAN the Gospel
4. The PROCLAIM the Gospel
