[OLD CHRISTINE CHURCH VIDEO]
-okay, so let’s just be honest, church can be a little weird at times. There are very few places you can go in the world that people do the things they do here. Where else do you get together, eat hot dogs, sing together, listen to someone, pray together, do all these things in one night (or day)?
-and it gets even weirder when everyone around you knows what’s going on, when to stand, the words to the songs, and you’re the only one looking around trying to figure out what to do.
-even last week, Fire & Water Sunday in the Sanctuary, it was funny sitting at the back and watching. Zak would start to sing, all of you sitting in the front would stand up and all the old people behind you would be looking around “oh, should we stand?”
-church can seem weird. But it’s like everything else. Think of your first day of school, it was weird, new place, don’t know what you’re doing. So why did you keep going back until it was normal and comfortable? Two reasons, either you liked it and wanted more, or you didn’t like it but someone knew it was good for you and forced you to go anyway.
-and that’s pretty much the two reasons someone goes to church. They tried it and liked it, or someone forced them because they knew it was good for you.
-but throughout life most of you have learned it’s easier to do things if you know what you’re doing, what will happen, and why you’re doing them. Most people don’t like church because they don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t know what’s coming next, and they don’t know why they are doing them.
-so for the next few weeks we’re going to look at why we do what we do. We’re going to talk about what we do here at Fire & Water and even at church in general and try to explain why we do it, how it is meant to help you grow more like Jesus, help you get to know God better.
-because it’s funny. As different as many churches are, there are patterns. There are things that everyone does, just slightly different. Even us here tonight and what we did this morning in three different services.
-like today’s topic, hanging out and games. Almost every single church in America did this in some way this morning. They shook hands so people would say “hi” to each other. We have a room just over there [POINT TO DINING ROOM] that people sat in together and ate donuts.
-fur us here at Drink Deep, it’s a little more obvious. Yes, we start at 6:00, but we open the doors at 5:30. Music is on, food is served, people can come in, hang out, talk, play cards, do whatever they want to.
-then at 6:00, the first thing we do together is play a game of some sort. Something to help break the ice and help you talk to each other, get to know each other a little. That’s done on purpose. There are people who come in right at 6:00 and they haven’t said “hi” to anyone, no one has said “hi “ to them.
-and we do this again after too! That’s the whole point of After Hours, some people aren’t talkative, they don’t like to “hang out”, but they like to play sports and will get to know people that way. So that’s what we do. For another hour people can spend time together either playing sports in the gym or they can hang out in here and talk and chill just like before.
-so is this important to us? Well, take a look. If you show up the second the doors open and leave the second we’re done, that means you will be here 3 hours, 5:30-8:30. Almost an hour and forty-five minutes, over half your time here, will be just interacting with other people.
-it is important. Even those of you that went on the mission trip, you served, you got to know God, you did devotions every day, but you also got to know each other and it makes a big difference.
-people will do almost anything if they are comfortable with the people they are with, for good or for bad. Well, we want it to be for good. That’s the first reason we do this hanging out and games.
1. TO HELP YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS BE MORE COMFORTABLE
-we want this to be an inviting place. We want this to be somewhere you want to go. We want this to be like “Cheers”, where everybody knows your name.
-now there’s only so much we can do for that, but we try our best for that.
-I mean, think about that show. If you’ve never seen it, it was really big about fifteen years ago. 90% of the show is guys sitting in a bar shooting the breeze. That’s it. But people loved that show. Why? Because they want to be a part of something where they can be themselves and just shoot the breeze.
-that’s why Starbucks is successful. Do you really think people go to Starbucks so they can pay $19 for a crappy cup of coffee? No. But think about it. Before Starbucks, name a national place where anywhere in the country you could hang out with a cup of coffee. You could get coffee at a gas station, not going to hang out there. Or you could go to a restaurant, where they really just want you to order food and you have to sit at a table.
-suddenly this place comes out all over. You can just buy a drink and hang out. There were couches. There was nice music in the background. You could spend four hours there and no one is trying to kick you out.
-it’s such a hit that now stores are asking for Starbucks in their business so people will come hang out. Look at Fishers. We have a Starbucks on the corner, across the road there’s another Starbucks in Target. Borders has a Starbucks in the corner. These stores realized they sucked at having people feel comfortable in their store so they brought in the professionals.
-and the church tries to copy it. We have coffee and donuts every Sunday morning. They put all this furniture in the Narthex hoping people will hang out down there, sit a spell between services.
-people go to Starbucks and pay $19 for a crappy cup of coffee because Starbucks has created a place where people feel invited to hang out and be themselves. And people in our society want that so badly they pay extra for it, that’s why the coffee costs more.
-we want church to be your Starbucks. Not the place you come to get a caffeine fix, but a place you feel comfortable, a place you can hang out, a place you can be with friends and just be you.
-think about it for a second, what place on earth should be friendlier than church? What place should be more accepting of people than church? And instead, we’re losing to overpriced bean juice.
-we should be an inviting place for people, somewhere people feel comfortable coming.
-the last book of the Bible, Revelation, after all the prophecies says this:
Rev. 22:17 -> 17”The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ Let each one who hears them say the same, ‘Come.’ Let the thirsty one come—anyone who wants to; let him come and drink the Water of Life without charge.” (LB)
-Jesus is saying this, and the Bride of Christ, that’s they Church, that’s us!
-we should be a place that says to people “Come”. We should be inviting to all people.
-and that’s part of why we do what we do here, why we put an emphasis in our time and effort in just hanging out and being with people. It’s part of why we drive to many places, so you all can hang out in the vans. It’s part of why we got rid of the circle o’ couches in here, these chairs you can move, you can twist, you can turn, making it easier to talk with each other. But we kept the tables, where you can sit and hang out together. It’s why the church when they built this addition gave us our own room that we can do whatever we want with. It’s why it was built next to the main door from the parking lot and next to the gym, an easy place to come in, find and hang out.
-when I started here you know where the “youth room” was? In the old section around the corner under the stairs. One wall was the accordion type walls like our closest in the back and it was also a storage room for old tables and other things. The chairs were old, third-hand and smelled. We couldn’t do any type of worship or games in there, or be with the Jr. Highs so we had to start in the Sanctuary, a room that also doesn’t feel inviting if you’ve never been there, where we had everyone sit in the first two rows. We have done a lot of things to give you an inviting place so you feel comfortable here and your friends who have never been to church, don’t know anything about God, they won’t walk in and feel it’s churchy and foreign, but instead they might have a chance to get to like the space and people and maybe even come back.
-spending time with each other is important to us. For those that don’t know, we have five core values, five things we think everyone should be doing to grow in their friendship with God, Worshipping, Allying, Teaching, Equipping, Reaching. Do you realize that none of those can be done alone, and three of them focus directly on people? Two of them are impacted by hanging out and games.
2. ALLYING
-we hope that when you come here, when you think of this ministry, when you think of people that are with you in this spiritual journey, you don’t think of just acquaintances, you don’t think of part-time friends.
**I Tim. 3:15b -> 15That family is the church of the living God... (NCV)
-when it comes to the “church”, the group of people working together to learn more about Jesus, we are supposed to be like a family. We are supposed to be more than just the occasional buddy you see once a week.
-and we want to do whatever we can to help this. We want to do what we can to help friendships grow between you.
- but we picked the word allying for a reason. Allies are not “friends”. A friend is someone nice to you, but when things get tough a lot of friends disappear. An ally is someone you know you can call on when things get tough. An ally is someone you know will tell it to you straight but will also have your back if you ever really need them.
**Prov. 18:24 -> 24Some friendships do not last, but some friends are more loyal than brothers. (GNT)
-that’s what we want for you guys here. That’s what we want you to feel, that there are people here who are friends that are more loyal to you than a brother or sister.
-and that doesn’t happen overnight, and that doesn’t happen if you never talk. This is one reason many people do not feel at home at church. They show up Sunday morning, they sit in their pew for an hour and they go home. Except for the thirty-eight seconds where they shake hands they never talk to anyone. And they wonder why they feel out of place.
-we don’t want that here. But it takes more time. It takes more effort. And we as the leaders here try to put in that effort to help you, we spend more than an hour Sunday night, we have a different type of room than the Sanctuary.
-we want you to hang out and play games so you can get to know each other and be able to support each other.
-but there’s another core value that’s kind of at play here.
3. REACHING
-this is something we as a church cannot set-up for you. There are very, very few people in this world who will just walk into the church off the street to find out more about God, and some of those will not suddenly come into a room and be like “wow, I think I’ll stay and learn about Jesus!”
-no, you gotta go out and talk to people about God. You have to invite them, remember we talked about that two weeks ago?
**II Cor. 5:18 -> 18All this is from God. Through Christ, God made peace between us and Himself, and God gave us the work of telling everyone about the peace we can have with Him. (NCV)
-it’s our job to help people realize who God is and ask them if they want to know who God is, if they want to know God for themselves, personally.
-but we want to help with that! We don’t want you to be talking to your friend about God and how great it is to know Him, all so you can invite them to church where we sit in isolation booths with no chairs listening to the Bible on tape as read by Troy, en Espanola.
-but we also don’t want you to tell your friend about how amazing God is only for you to invite them to a church service that doesn’t allow them to talk about what they know, ask questions, or feel like they don’t belong.
-and to be completely honest, there is one thing that impacts people’s view of God more than chairs or even my wonderful teaching.
4. RELATIONSHIPS GIVE THE BIGGEST IMPACT FOR GOD
-think about what you know about God. The majority of what you know, is it from reading about God or is it from somebody, a friend, a Sunday School teacher, a parent, somebody living out what God is like?
-last week five people shared every hour on Sunday morning what this ministry means to them. Did you notice that every single one mentioned the people they are in their spiritual journey with?
-every single person mentioned their friends, they people they hang out with at church, the people they know are their support, their allies. Every single person mentioned that the greatest asset to their spiritual growth is getting to know other people who are also trying to figure out who God is and who they can be themselves with and try to figure out who God is together.
-that’s why we do it. That’s why we give you a chance to hang out. That’s why we have sports and After Hours and lock-ins and all sorts of other things that may look like there is no spiritual relevance at all. It’s to help you get to know people, to help you build friendships, to help you become allies so when the tough times come and your faith gets shaken, you have people to rely on. So when we have Bible Studies or talk in small groups or even if you have a question about God, you know you can ask and talk openly and honestly and you won’t be judged, you feel safe because you know these people. So when you have friends who don’t have any real friends, they don’t have people they can really trust, they don’t have someone they can talk to, you can bring them here, they can build relationships and they can feel safe and want to know what kind of a God cares about them more than the people they met and know here.
-so take advantage of it. We do it so you can get all you can from it. Get to know people. Hang out. Just relax and talk. There are a billion other things that will try and get your time and it may seem like a waste to hang out here for an hour after, but you may be surprised. You may find out someone has the same class as you, also is in that sport, also wonders why God chose Jesus dying on a cross to make us whole.
-I don’t know where you are with God, but there are plenty of people who would like to talk with you if you want to know more, and we’ve got a whole hour after this set aside so you can talk with anyone you want.
