PBC Revealed
Acts 2:42-47
Rev. Brian Bill
5/4/08
Pastors get asked a lot of questions, they receive a lot of requests and sometimes people just need to share their ideas. Here are some actual letters from some children to pastors.
“Dear Pastor, I know God loves everybody but He never met my sister.”
“Dear Pastor, My father should be a minister. Every day he gives us a sermon about something.”
“Dear Pastor, I’m sorry I can’t leave more money in the plate, but my father didn’t give me a raise in my allowance. Could you have a sermon about a raise in my allowance?”
“Dear Pastor, I think a lot more people would come to your church if you moved it to Disneyland.”
“Dear Pastor, Please say a prayer for our Little League team. We need God’s help or a new pitcher.”
“Dear Pastor, My father says I should learn the Ten Commandments. But I don’t think I want to because we have enough rules already in my house.”
“Dear Pastor, I liked your sermon on Sunday. Especially when it was finished.”
Grown-ups have suggestions and comments about church as well. Five months ago 222 PBC people had the opportunity to express their thoughts not just about our church, but also about their spiritual journeys. This morning I’ve titled this message “PBC Revealed.” I hope you find it interesting, encouraging and challenging.
Let’s just say up front that there is no perfect church. Although I did come across a website that claimed to find one – it’s one with no people in it! Constructed out of 75,000 Lego’s, it took a year and a half to build.
Actually, there is a church in the Bible that while not perfect comes close to the model ministry. Turn to Acts 2:42-47: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
They Devoted Themselves
Look at the first three words of Acts 2:42: “They devoted themselves.” The NASB renders it “continually devoting themselves.” Literally it means that they were “continuing steadfastly.” The idea is to give “one’s self continually…to be steadfastly attentive unto.”
Nine years ago, in my very first sermon as pastor of Pontiac Bible Church, I made this statement: the depth of our devotion determines our impact. We then looked at six essential elements of the early church that helped it make a lasting impact, using the acrostic IMPACT.
* Notice verse 42: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching – that’s the “I” --> Instructing in God’s Word.
* Now, drop down to verse 45: Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need – that’s the “M” in IMPACT --> Mobilizing for Ministry.
* Look at the last phrase in verse 42: They devoted themselves to…prayer. The “P” stands for --> Praying with Faith.
* Notice verse 43: Everyone was filled with awe; and in the first part of verse 47: praising God. That’s the “A” --> Adoring God in Worship.
* The next ingredient is found initially in the middle of verse 42: They devoted themselves…to the fellowship. This is also fleshed out in verses 44-46: All the believers were together and had everything in common…every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. The “C” of IMPACT is --> Caring Community.
* Finally, in verse 47, we see the “T” of Impact --> Telling Others the Gospel…enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
I want to say this morning that the depth of your devotion has made an impact! Before we take a look at our survey results, let me remind you of our mission statement: The mission of PBC is to connect people to Jesus and equip them to become growing and faithful followers. Incidentally, these results are in a PowerPoint format and are available on CDs at the Resource Center or you can check out a hard copy in the church office. I am indebted to the pastoral staff, to the Elders and Deacons, and to Geoff Trembley for his work in helping to understand and analyze these results.
Here are some summary statements that jumped out at Geoff:
* Spiritual behaviors drive spiritual growth more than anything else
* Of those spiritually stalled, only 5% study their Bible on a daily basis
* Half of respondents have attended PBC five years or less
* 94% affirm the doctrine of the Trinity
* 27% attend PBC because they were invited or recommended by a friend
The Spiritual Life Survey was designed to capture insights on the spiritual health of congregations and the role the church plays in an individual’s spiritual growth. It included 70 questions about spiritual attitudes, beliefs, needs and behaviors as well as participation and satisfaction with local church activities. Our findings were compared to a total sample of 57,000 surveys collected from 200 churches around the country (this survey was done in phases – more than 500 total churches have now taken it). Our participation rate was more than 60% of our adult attendance. That alone is incredible.
I’d like to share some of the findings today but before I do let me explain two things. First, on many of the results, you’ll see one arrow or two arrows. One “arrow” indicates either 20% higher or lower than the average for other churches while two “arrows” indicates 50% higher or lower than the average. Second, this survey is a snapshot of what people were thinking last November. Unfortunately we don’t have any historical data to compare it with.
I wish we had more 20-somethings at PBC and that we would have greater diversity. How long has the congregation been attending PBC?
While it’s a good sign that half of our people have been here less than five years, I wish more people were in the “less than one year” category.
Why do people choose PBC?
According to the research, there are four groups of people that make up a spiritual continuum. I’ve listed the groups below with the corresponding percentages of PBC people in each category.
* Exploring Christianity (6%). “I believe in God, but I’m not sure about Christ. My faith is not a significant part of my life.” This is concerning to me because this group is 20% lower at PBC as compared to other churches.
* Growing in Christ (36%). “I believe in Jesus, and I’m working on what it means to get to know Him.”
* Close to Christ (28%). “I feel really close to Christ and depend on Him daily for guidance.”
* Christ-Centered (30%). “God is all I need in my life. He is enough. Everything I do is a reflection of Christ.”
Cheers
This survey pointed out some challenges and some things we can cheer about. Let’s focus first on some celebration points. In the area of “critical needs” for spiritual growth, PBC people scored at least 20% higher in five of seven areas.
Some of the highest ministry marks go to our children’s ministry and our student ministry.
The satisfaction level for children’s ministry is quite high, with half the categories having “up” arrows (page 54). The results for every satisfaction category in student ministry have “up” arrows, with half of them being “double up” arrows (page 55).
People are also happy with the small group ministry, with several categories having “up” arrows. Satisfaction with serving experiences also ranks higher than other churches.
Challenges
There are also some elements of this survey that were quite challenging. For example, while we scored high in “loving God,” we’re not doing so well at “loving others.” According to 1 John 4:8 that means that we don’t really love God if we don’t love others.
Some other challenges that rise to the top include…
* Family involvement low. While we score high in our children and student ministries, parents want to know more about what their children are learning and want to be equipped to train their kids.
* Not enough people exploring Christ. It’s our heart as leaders that more people will find PBC to be a place where they can ask questions, ponder the claims of Christ and come to saving faith.
* Evangelism is low. This was perhaps the most difficult finding for me because I’ve always thought of our church as outreach-oriented.
* 18% are “spiritually stalled.” While there are less stalled-out believers at PBC than the average (22%), we want to do all we can to help believers get jump-started and growing in grace. Our April sermon series was designed to give attention to this. It may be helpful to go back and read these sermons: www.pontiacbible.org.
* 10% are “dissatisfied” with PBC. I was bummed out when I saw this but then I realized that this compares with 17% “dissatisfied” in other churches. This means that “our dissatisfieds are more satisfied than other dissatisfieds.”
Key Takeaways
Four key takeaways rise to the top in all the churches that have taken this survey.
1. Involvement in church activities alone does not predict or drive spiritual growth.
2. All churches must focus on two critical needs:
• Challenge People to Grow and Take Next Steps
• Help People Understand the Bible In Depth
3. Personal Bible study/reflection is the most powerful catalyst for spiritual growth.
4. Our most active evangelists, servants and givers come from the most spiritually advanced groups.
Next Steps
Here are some steps I think we need to take in the next months.
1. Mobilize for missional ministry in our community and on the continents. As Stan Wiedeman said at our Anniversary Celebration, we have to stop thinking “us vs. them” and move toward “us for them.” Evangelism scored low; therefore we need to ratchet up our efforts. Let’s serve more. Be involved more. Invite more. Let’s have more events that target lost people. Since serving is high here as we combine serving with evangelism, we’ll leverage our relationships for the sake of the kingdom.
2. Focus more on families. Our community is in desperate need of help in their home lives and half of our families have children under 18 at home. Plus we have a ton of grandparents. We want to do a better job of equipping parents to be the spiritual champions in their homes. Parents want to be part of the process but have indicated that they are often left out. We want to move from a “church-centered, home-supported” paradigm to a “home-centered, church-supported” model as we not only include parents but mobilize them to be the primary teachers in the home. Our current series called “Generation Next” will focus on how we can engage parents in the spiritual training of their children so that the faith can be passed on to the next generation.
3. Cultivate compassion for those we don’t know. The flood follow-up helped us see how much our community needs us. GTLC will continue to care for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of our county. We will give continued attention to what God is doing around the globe as well.
4. We will continue to teach the Word and challenge people to grow. While we scored high in this regard we will never compromise or sway from the Scriptures.
Cautions
I received an email recently from the developers of the REVEAL survey. Here’s part of what it said: “First of all, thanks so much for your participation in our most recent round of REVEAL research. Because so many churches like yours volunteered to help us out with this work, we now have a database of over 150,000 people from 500+ churches and our latest findings about how people grow spiritually are fascinating. Among our findings is a point of view about which churches seem to rise above the rest in their ability to catalyze spiritual growth in their congregations. Your church appears to be doing an exceptional job inspiring spiritual growth in its people.”
A few days later I received a call because they wanted to ask some additional questions about what’s working at PBC. The lady told me that of the 500 churches that took the survey, Pontiac Bible Church is in the “top tier.” To which I said, “Really?” Then she told me that of all the churches that took the survey, PBC was in the top 15. To which I said, “Really?” She then said that she wanted to ask some questions because our answers will help other churches around the country go deeper with God. To which I said, “Really?”
As I reflected on this, I had two thoughts. First, I felt honored to serve a church that is in the top 3% of churches that took the survey. Second, I wondered what this says about the other 485 churches. Let me explain. I think we have a lot of things to improve and don’t consider us to have “arrived.” That tells me that the state of the church is in trouble in our country.
Having said all that, it doesn’t really matter how we “scored” or how we compare with other churches. Related to this, “satisfaction” is not always a good thing, is it? I could be satisfied with where I’m at spiritually but I could be far short of where God wants me to be. There should be a level of “holy discontent” in each of our lives. Likewise, we could think that PBC is dong well, when we might be way off.
The most important question is this: “What does Jesus think of Pontiac Bible Church?” This brought me to a realization that every church mentioned in the New Testament has some things to cheer about and they also had some pretty major challenges. Then I went to Revelation 2-3 and read what Jesus said to seven different churches. I wonder what He would say to us today. The Reveal Survey has helped us a lot but the real question is what would Jesus reveal about us? About me? About you?
When Jesus addresses these seven churches, he cheers them on when He sees them doing well but He also challenges them to repent when they sin. He sees their hard work, their hardship, their love, their faith, their service, their deeds and their endurance. But he also chastises them for forsaking their first love, for allowing false teaching, for tolerating sexual immorality and for leaving their deeds incomplete.
I wrote down a summary statement from the lips of the Savior to each church:
Ephesus: “You have forsaken your first love... repent and do the things you did at first.” (2:4-5)
Smyrna: “Don’t be afraid of what you’re about to suffer.” (2:10)
Pergamum: “Repent therefore!” (2:16)
Thyatira: “Hold on to what you have until I come.” (2:25)
Sardis: “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God…obey and repent.” (3:2-3)
Philadelphia: “See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut…Hold on to what you have.” (3:8, 11)
Laodicea: “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.” (3:19)
Let’s zero in on the lackadaisical church at Laodicea from Revelation 3:15-20: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
The Savior wants to have supper with us right now…But before we do that, take some time to make sure you’re ready. If you need to repent, do so. If you need to make a relationship right, do it. If you’re not in union, then don’t take communion.
Communion
As we distribute the bread, let’s remember what Jesus went through for us – his bruised body, His bloody wounds, and His sacrificial life. He tells us to take the bread to remember His body – so that we don’t forget what He went through on our behalf.
He tells us to drink the cup – so that we don’t forget about His blood that was shed to cancel our sin debt and to inaugurate the new covenant. As we think about His shed blood, let’s reassess how we are doing on the “Devotion” barometer.
Have you settled into a comfortable, casual Christianity? Are you a lukewarm Lego? Be honest with God – He already knows. If you were to put a % on the depth of your devotion, what number would you give yourself? 50%? 75%? 95%? Is your arrow pointing “up” or “down”? I heard a pastor say that if I’m 99% sold-out to Christ, I’m still 1% short. What about you? Take some time to reassess.
Having Remembered, and having Reassessed the depth of our devotion, I want to encourage you right now to Recommit yourself to be a resolutely determined follower of Christ. If you want to make an impact with your life, it’s absolutely imperative to become deeply devoted to Christ and to His cause…because the depth of our devotion will determine our impact.
This recommitment is deeply personal and yet it has a corporate element as well. Listen again to the first three words of Acts 2:42: “They devoted themselves.” I’m wondering if we could demonstrate our corporate commitment to Christ and to His cause right now. Let’s recommit ourselves as a church to be steadfastly devoted and to seek ways to live out our mission in this county and on the continents. If you’re ready to do that, let’s repeat our mission statement together: I will connect people to Jesus and equip them to be growing and faithful followers.
Mercy Fund Offering. As a way to make sure deeds follow our devotion, we take a mercy offering every Communion Sunday to help care for people who are going through a hard time.
