The Simple Life at Church
“Getting Ready for Company”
1st Corinthians 9:22
You are looking at the tragic picture of the deadly bridge collapse in Minnesota that took place several months ago. 7 people were killed...over 100 injured in this disaster. . An entire school bus filled with children were all saved due to the quick thinking of the bus driver. Unfortunately many of us can recall a similar tragedy when in 1980 the Sunshine Skyway bridge collapsed.
It is perhaps unfortunate that these bridges that collapse became the central focus of the news. The pictures are hard to forget because they remind us of lives that are lost and families that are changed forever. But let me ask you this morning to think of bridges in a different way. There is not one of us here today who has not safely crossed a bridge probably hundreds of times to get to a specific destination. If you go on the web to a site like Mapquest to get directions you often find that the directions can be interesting...they can take you to places that are out of the way, they can sometimes cost you extra time. Usually the maps really help but I did find an interesting thing...if you are trying to get from say Atlanta to London the map will direct you from Atlanta to say New York and then it stops there ....I did find one that said drive to the coast and then swim 4000 miles. No thanks. I want a bridge. And I want a safe bridge, one that will get me to my destination and it won’t collapse.
When we started this church in June of 2000 over a period of several months we worked together to develop a vision statement that would define for us what we are about....where we are headed, that would give us direction for the future. The vision statement that we wrote says this...
Our vision is to enlarge the size of Heaven by taking as many
people as possible with us.
Simple. Direct. Right to the point. I like it. But I have discovered that something is missing. It tells us our role but it does not tell us what the role is of the person we are reaching. Does it mean we reach people, we tell tem how to get to Heaven and then they are just along for the ride or do they have a larger responsibility in this process also? So it occurred to me that we need a 2nd statement also that we would call our Purpose statement. In other words because we we have this vision, we will do this...and here it is.....
Our purpose:
Building bridges with unbelievers to cross over to maturity in Christ.
Here is your assignment. These 2 sentences contain 29 words. Memorize them. Pray over them. Let God show you your role as a bridge builder. The apostle Paul defined it this way... 1 Cor. 9:22 NIV to the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.
1 Cor. 9:22 LB Yes, whatever a person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him. 1 Cor. 9:22 NLT When I am with those who are oppressed, I share their oppression so that I might bring them to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ.
A common mistake that is made in many churches today is that to get people to come to church on Sunday mornings all the church has to do to get people to come to church on Sunday mornings all the church has to do is open their doors. Open the doors and unbelievers will come right in. Not so. Unfortunately in may cases people have been turned off by the church and by pastors in general. Too many pastors have compromised their Christian ethics, some churches are choosing to ordain men to the ministry who practice a gay lifestyle...the Catholic church has suffered one scandal after another and pastors have made the news for all the wrong reasons. In the past few months 2 very prominent, well known pastors have been exposed for their sin and as a result the church across America...the body of Christ has suffered. Research tells us that people are staying away from church in record numbers.
There is a question the church of today must consider and this is it...are we relevant or is it possible we are answering questions no one is asking? And is it possible to be relevant and biblical at the same time? Change for churches can be very hard. Change takes us out of our comfort zone but if we plan ti grow as a church we have to talk about change. Now before we get to that topic let me remind you of some things that will never change in this church.....
(1) Jesus. Jesus Christ will never change. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of the Heavenly lights who does not change. In a world of constant change it is comforting to know that Jesus will never change.
(2) The Bible. Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God stands forever."
This amazing book was written down by nearly 40 men involving 3 different languages..Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic over a period of nearly 2000 years and it has stood the test of time. It does not change.
(3) Responsibility to teach the Bible..faithfully without compromise. Paul says in his letter to Titus that those who hold leadership positions in the church that they “must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others. We are not to change it, we are not to water it down and we will never take it out of the pulpit or the classroom. It is our textbook. These things will never change. But there are some things that must change.
We change as we grow older. Hopefully we mature, hopefully we have better discernment. We change physically. Someone has said there are 4 signs of getting older: baldness, bifocals, bridges and bulges. Our culture is changing. Listen: the church must adapt it’s ministry to the culture in which we live. Jesus, the Bible, our teachings do not change but our methods do. Worship styles change. When I was a teenager we couldn’t have guitars in church...in fact it was the Catholic church that first asked me to play guitar on Sundays. Music has changed. Jesus preached from a boat on the sea of Galilee..in those mountains it would have been almost like an amphitheater. I use a lapel mike and stand in front of you. Paul wrote scripture down on papyrus with a quill and a bottle of ink...this week I used Windows XP and the web to help me prepare. The early church studied from scrolls, parchment...we actually know what these looked like. In 1947 a young Bedouin shepherd boy, near the caves of Qumran, threw a rock into one of them and heard something break/shatter. There were the scrolls, more were eventually found in 10 other caves...over the next 9 years over 900 documents were found. All written down on parchment. Now we have dozens of translations bound together in a choice of bindings...colors. My computer has 14 versions of the Bible with a Greek and Hebrew dictionary. Paul wore a toga (a robe) while he was preaching. I don’t and I don’t plan to. The church cannot minister to people in 2007 with methods that are antiquated. The very first verse of the Bible tells us that God is a God of change. In the beginning He created. He doesn’t change but He is constantly changing our world. When I read through the Bible I find verses that tell me about “a new song” a “new heaven and earth,” “new wine” “new covenant,” new creation, new man, a new commandment. Our God is a God of change and He calls the church to do the same.
Here’s the deal. God never changes. The world does. And the church can no longer get caught in the middle. I told you several weeks ago there would be some changes we would need to make..there will be a variety of changes we must make but today change #1 starts right at the foundation of the church. Our image.
Change#1. We must become a friendlier church. Listen, every church I know if you were able to survey their congregation and ask them what one word would describe your church. You know what they would say? We’re friendly. Every church believes they are friendly. But here’s the truth...if visitors who come to our church don’t think we are friendly, then we aren’t. You see it doesn’t mean enough for us to think we’re friendly..it’s the unbeliever, the individual searching for a church home and they walk through these doors. Their opinion really should matter. White card in bulletin. Now how will that happen? Well when you have guests in your home there are some things you do to get ready for company. *clean the bathrooms) you meet them at the door* you may even give them specific instructions where to park * you make sure they know how to get to your home * when you greet them you smile and shake their hand.
So what do we do when guests arrive? What do we do here to prepare for company? The same things really. We can’t say, here we are, come find us, just come in the door and find your way around, park where you please, not speak when they arrive. Find a seat and sit down. That is not the responsibility of the guest. Here is a good principle to go by. Don’t treat guests any different at church than you do in your home. Isn’t God’s house just as important? Here is what I want to ask you to do. I need 32 people today, age 16 and above to agree to be a worship friend. Your ministry will include these 4 things..you will Smile at guests..shake hands with guests....sit with them..stay with them until they leave. Say to them I don’t believe we’ve met. Take the card. Print your name across the bottom of the card. Do that first. Now place an X in th spot where you usually sit. That way we will cover every area every week. You will receive a reminder card when it is your week to serves as a worship friend. During the invitation today i want you to step forward and place you card here on te table. Now this may seem like a small thing but it is not. We will grow in direct proportion to the level of our friendliness. Let me ask you, how many of you have ever attended a church where people did not speak to you and you felt like an outsider? How many of you went back to that church?
I heard of one fellow...woke up one Sunday morning and said to his wife you know I don’t want to go to church today. She said well why....he says well the people there are mean, they’re not very friendly and no one speaks to me. His wife says we honey you’ve got to go..you’re the pastor! Listen, when I come in people smile at me, they hug me sometimes, they shake my hand...they ask me how I’m doing and I think my this is a friendly church but then I realize I’m the pastor. You guys are great to me. Let’s treat our guests the same way. 1st Corinthians 9:22.
