SERIES: IT: Finding It, Keeping It, and Sharing It
(freely adapted from Craig Groeschel’s It: How Churches and Leader Can Get it and Keep it)
“WHAT IS IT?”
SELECTED SCRIPTURES
OPEN
A man traveling on business was really excited about his relationship with the Lord. He was staying in a town where he didn’t know anyone but was determined to be regular in church fellowship during his stay. He looked in the hotel directory and found a church not too far away from where he was staying.
On Sunday morning, he got up bright and early. He showered, got dressed, did his morning devotions, and ate breakfast in the hotel dining room. As it got near to the time for church to start, he paid his bill and walked down the street to the church building.
It was a beautiful church building with huge stained glass windows and a very tall steeple with a chorus of bells. A lemon-faced man met him at the door and handed him a bulletin. He walked into the auditorium and was amazed by the beauty of the décor. He found a seat near the front and settled in.
It bothered him that not very many people were there but he figured the place might fill up as it got closer to time to start. The organist began a dry sounding prelude and when it was finished, someone opened the church service with a very formal sounding prayer.
The congregation stood and began to sing several hymns but nobody sang with any enthusiasm. As it got time for the sermon, someone announced that the regular preacher was not there and that the sermon would be brought by a young man from the seminary several miles away.
Everyone could tell he was a little nervous and things started a little rough. The visitor was determined to stay with it and pretty soon the young man relaxed a little and made a pretty good point concerning the scripture he was preaching from. The visitor got excited. He shouted, “AMEN!”
One of the deacons in the church came up beside this visitor and said, “Sir, we do not customarily respond to the sermon in such a way. Please refrain from such behavior.” And the deacon went back to his seat.
The visitor was taken aback at the response but he sat there quietly for awhile. But the young preacher was really doing a good job and the visitor just couldn’t hold it in. He shouted, “Preach it, brother!”
Again the deacon came to where the visitor was sitting and said, “Sir, I’ve already explained that we do not behave in such a manner in this church. Again, I’m going to ask you to please restrain yourself.” The deacon went back to his seat.
Almost everyone in the church was looking at him. He felt very self-conscious but again got to listening to the young preacher. As that preacher began to tell about what a wonderful savior we have in Jesus Christ, the visitor got excited and again just couldn’t restrain his enthusiasm. He shouted, “Hallelujah!”
That deacon came storming toward the front where the visitor was seated. He looked the visitor in the eye and said, “Sir, what is your problem?”
The visitor said, “I’ve got it and I can’t hold it in!”
The deacon said coldly, “Well, if you’ve got it, you didn’t get it here! So keep it to yourself!”
Today, we start a new series called IT: Finding It, Keeping It, and Sharing It. These ideas are not all my own. I do owe a deep indebtedness to Craig Groeschel’s book It: How Churches and Leader Can Get it and Keep it) Over the next several weeks, we want to look at some specific things regarding it: What is it? How do we get it? How do we share it?”
LET’S TALK ABOUT IT
Some churches have it. Many churches want it. Few have it. When a church has it, everyone can tell. And when a church doesn’t have it, everyone can tell. The same thing is true of leaders. Some leaders have it. Some don’t. And having it and not having it is obvious.
It is always unique. It is always powerful. It is always life-changing. That’s its upside. But it also has a downside. It attracts critics. It is controversial. Many people misunderstand it. It’s hard to find but it’s also impossible to miss.
You know it when you see it. It is an awesome work of God that can’t be contained, can’t be harnessed, and many times, can’t be explained. When a church has it, people certainly talk about it. People check out a church that has it. Not only do they check it out, they actually join it.
To those who experience it, life is different. They are passionate. They are excited. They know that they’re part of what God is doing. And they want everyone to know about it.
You might be thinking, “I don’t understand it. Aren’t some people just born with it while others never find it?” It is a gift from God. God is its only source. But I believe that God makes it available to anyone who wants it. I believe he wants to give it to you and to this church. That may be difficult for you to believe but it’s true.
Please understand that I cannot guarantee it to you. I can encourage you toward it. Together we’re going to look at some principles that could ignite it in your heart and life and in our church. I am praying that you find it and never lose it.
LET’S EXAMINE IT
Some people might say that it happens. But not always. Jn. 3:8 – “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Here are a few things that can’t be observed directly but can be detected only indirectly: Love. Gravity. God the Father. Black Holes. Freedom. God the Holy Spirit. Magnetism. Truth. Infinity. It.
From 1993-1996, my family and I belonged to and served with a church that had it. We left behind a church that had some people that were starting to get it. But others in that church decided they didn’t want it and did everything they could to quench it. Our personal spiritual survival was at stake so we left.
We began attending the church that had it. We found help and healing there. We felt the presence of God there. There was life and strength and nourishment there. We found it there. I had left full-time professional ministry for awhile at this point in my life and because we encountered it and experienced it there, I felt God’s call back into the ministry and have been back now for over 14 years.
Many times in my life, I’ve been accused of being full of it but that’s a totally different story. It is difficult to define. Whatever it is, this church had it. Everyone who came felt it. They talked about it. New people came and experienced it. And the church grew and grew and grew. Lives were changed.
The church started out as a Bible study that met in a meeting room in our local community center. It began with just enough people to count on both hands and one foot. And you didn’t even need all the toes on that foot. But the teaching made a difference and people were open to what God wanted to do with them and through them. Within a few short years, that handful of people became hundreds of people and a major work of God in our community.
Here is the big lesson for us today: If you don’t have it, you can get it. It doesn’t take big money, big buildings, or big programs to get it. The church I was referring to earlier that had it didn’t have anything that most people would think is necessary to have it.
We didn’t even have a building – we met in the local community center. Every Sunday morning, those of us who were helping to lead in the service and anyone else who desired to help had to show up extra early. We had to set chairs, we had to set up sound equipment, we had to set up platforms. And when it was all over and done with for the day, we had to break it all down again.
Sunday night was night of small groups meeting in people’s homes. Wednesday nights, we met in a local school building – all over the school building. The church offices were rented in an office building. And it went that way for years. But God was in it and the church grew rapidly.
I have to admit to you that I can’t tell you exactly what it is. Part of what makes it it is that you can’t categorize it. You can’t make it into a memorable slogan because it is far more special than that.
What we do have to understand is that God makes it happen. It is from him. It is by him. It is for his glory. We can’t create it. We can’t reproduce it. We can’t manufacture it. It is not a model. It is not a system. It is
not the result of a program. You can’t buy it or make it. It can’t be copied.
Not everyone will get it. It can’t be learned in a classroom. Yet, even though it can’t be taught, it can be caught.
LET’S BRING IT INTO FOCUS
The first principle concerning it is: It works. When a ministry has it, most things the leaders try seem to work. If they send out an invitational mailer, new people come and many of them stay. If they start a ministry in a particular area, it succeeds and grows. When a mission trip is planned, there are more than enough people to fill the trip and everyone involved has their lives changed. Even when one of their ideas doesn’t work as planned, just the attempt seems to lead to something new and successful.
One the other hand, when a ministry is out of it, most of what they try doesn’t work. Few new people, if any, show up after the mailer goes out. And those who do often don’t return. New ministries putt along for awhile and then go kaput. And if they attempt a mission trip, it gets canceled for lack of interest.
When a church has it, creativity flows. Lots of people come up with ideas. When a church doesn’t have it, they simply follow the same formula they used in years past. People are bored, uninspired, and complacent.
When a church has it, the workers know they’re part of something much bigger than themselves, part of a divine mission. They show up early for everything. They often stay late. They rarely fight. And when they do disagree, they grow through their differences and usually do it quickly. When a church doesn’t have it, the workers are simply doing a job or task. They become territorial and jealous. They start to gripe and even get bitter.
The second principle concerning it is: Everyone knows it. When a church has it, lives are changing, and everyone around sees it. When a church doesn’t have it, few people even notice that no one new is showing up. When someone new does come to church, but looks different, the it-free church unintentionally – and sometimes even intentionally – guards the status quo wanting nothing to change.
When a church has it, everyone can usually feel it, but they have trouble describing it. Everyone recognizes it, but no one knows precisely what it is.
One prime example is the Christian Church of Jasper, IN. This congregation began with a burden and a lot of prayer. I was serving as preaching minister with the Red Quarry Christian Church in French Lick, IN. Jasper is about 30 minutes south and west of French Lick.
Jasper was and still is one of the fastest-growing towns in the state. But there was no independent Christian church there. God placed a burden on me to get one started. I prayed and prayed about the situation. I was trying to make it happen.
There was a young man named Darrel Land who telephoned me one cold winter night early in the year 2000. Darrel is a Timothy of the Red Quarry congregation. He was at that time serving as youth minister in Gosport, IN. Darrel’s dad is an elder in the Red Quarry church. We had become good friends since I had moved to French Lick. Darrel asked me a question that made my heart sing. He said, “What do you think about planting a church in Jasper?” I said, “You’re an answer to my prayers.”
Darrel left his ministry in Gosport, moved back home with his parents, and began the work that is now the Christian Church of Jasper. We hired Darrel as a part-time associate at Red Quarry so he would have some income. I, along with Darrel’s dad and another elder from the Red Quarry congregation served alongside several men in the Jasper church on the initial leadership team that helped direct the church in their early days.
God has blessed the work in Jasper and CCJ, as it is known, has it.
The CCJ website gives just a little bit of their history. It reads:
The Christian Church of Jasper held its first service on May 21, 2000, at the Days Inn of Jasper with 14
local members and 20 visitors from supporting churches attending. After growing in number, the services
were moved to the Jasper 8 Theatres.
In August 2001, the church purchased the former Canteen building on Cathy Lane in Jasper. After six
years of substantial growth in the warehouse, CCJ built a new facility on the south side of Jasper to allow
for room to grow even further. CCJ held its first service in its present location on February 4, 2007. In late
2008, the church began an expansion project on the current facility to accommodate for growth experienced
in the first two years as well as future growth.
The Christian Church of Jasper now holds three Sunday morning worship services where they average over 800 in attendance. Just a few weeks ago, on Easter Sunday, they had over 1,200 people in attendance. All of this accomplished in a town with a very strong German heritage that was primarily Catholic and Lutheran in religious heritage.
Now, why have they done such a great work in Jasper? Sr. minister Darrel Land and associate minister Mark Messmore are great guys. They’re both excellent preachers. They have fantastic people serving both in paid staff and volunteer staff positions. But each one of them will tell you that it’s difficult to explain why they have done so well. God has just blessed them with it.
I can give you some reasons why I believe that God has blessed them with it and we’ll look at some things here in just a minute that might explain their situation in an applicable way to our situation. Nevertheless, it reminds me of the first church in the New Testament. In the first church, it was from God, by, God and for God.
Stop to think about it for a few minutes. The works of God recorded in the Book of Acts convinces me that no human being created all that it. Peter – who denied Jesus three times – preached and three thousand were baptized and filled with the Spirit of God. When the church was persecuted and believer were tortured and often killed, the church didn’t get smaller – it grew! If someone in their fellowship had a need, they sold what they had to provide for the one in need. If someone was arrested for preaching Christ, they had a worship service in prison and even led the jailer to know Christ. God would sometimes even break them out of jail.
The first church had it! They didn’t create it. God did. But they did work with it. They didn’t fight against it They made sure not to get in it’s way.
A third principle about it is: It is easy to misinterpret. So with all the talk about it, lets try to put some skin on it. It’s difficult to define precisely what it is, but it’s fairly obvious what it is not.
Someone might visit a growing church and observe outward signs of success – video clips, a large worship team, the newest technologies, a fancy children’s worship area, and so on. These well-meaning visitors mistakenly think, “If we had all that stuff, we’d have it too.” They couldn’t be more wrong. The first-century church had it. And they didn’t have all these fancy things.
A question that has to be asked is, “Is it still the same?” Is it still the same as it was 2,000 years ago? The answer is clearly, “Yes!” Another question that has to be asked is, “Is it still available to us now?” And the answer is, “Absolutely.”
So, it can’t possibly be stained-glass windows, expensive furnishings, tall steeples, and gold-inlaid hymnals. It doesn’t stick any better to a young, hip shaved-head preacher with rimmed glasses than it does to an older, stately gentleman in an expensive suit.
It is not lights and lasers, video production, satellite dishes, fog machines, fancy backdrops, four-color glossy brochures, slick billboards, or sermon series named after TV shows. It is not being on television or the Internet or being featured in books and magazines.
It does not follow a particular model. You can’t copy it from someone else. It can’t be ignited within our church by just listening to sermon or reading a book. Maybe, with a comprehensive list, some careful planning and enough time, we could try to fake it. But people would be able to tell. Because it is real. It is genuine.
CLOSE
So we come back around to the title of this message: “What is it?” Here’s the best explanation I can give. It is what God does through a rare combination of certain qualities found in his people. Those qualities are: 1. A passion for his presence 2. A deep craving to reach the lost 3. Sincere integrity 4. Spirit-filled faith
5. Down-to-earth humility 6. Brokenness.
You might be asking, “Doesn’t God give it most often to the super-charismatic speakers or to turbocharged spiritual leaders? Doesn’t it show up most around the ‘ten-talent’ people?”
Most certainly, those kinds of people can draw a crowd. They can lead ministries that have an it-like appearance. But don’t be fooled by imitations. 1 Jn. 4:1 warns us, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
Sometimes you will encounter a ministry that seems to have it, but in reality they do not. Without those Christlike qualities, no matter how good things look right now, no ministry or leader can sustain it with their own talent or abilities.
Those Christlike qualities are absolutely essential. But we can’t just learn them lickety-split. It would great to just read a book on brokenness and then be broken without having to endure the pain. It would be awesome to hear a sermon on integrity and then be totally just like Christ. Here’s the thing: spiritual shortcuts rarely work.
That’s why it would not be wise of me or you to think that one sermon about it will get it going in our lives. But here’s what I pledge to do. Because there are no “Three Steps to It,” we have to take some time to study. We can look at a few consistent qualities – that we CAN learn together – that are almost always present when it is present. That’s what we’re going to do over the next few weeks.
These are the qualities that have been observed in it-rich ministries and are missing in it-poor ministries. They are the qualities that help contribute to it, or at least don’t hinder it.
But here’s a warning. Some of what we do over the next few weeks will be enjoyable. You will have moments of celebration as God affirms that you’ve been following his lead. At other times you find our time together challenging – and perhaps painfully so. You might even get me at me. That’s okay. It all part of the journey to it. I hope that we are pushed, disturbed, and even stretched through our time together.
If you don’t already it, maybe it’s closer than you think maybe it’s bubbling just under the surface. Please consider: maybe it’s time to boil. LET’S PRAY.
One thing I do know. A person who is surrendered fully to Christ gets it. And once a person has it, he can’t keep it to himself. Jer. 29:13 – “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
