“The MYTHS”
Purpose living for a New Year - #2 of 4
Jerry Watts
MATT 16:13-19
• Shortly after I became your pastor I took a trip to Saddleback for 2 conferences in one week. One conference was “Preaching for Life-Change” and the other was “The Purpose-Driven Church.” Shortly before I left someone said to me that Rick Warren was a “New-Ager.” I then discovered a recent book called “Deceived On Purpose” had given Dr. Warren that title. So, on the plane to California I read the book. That caused me to enter the conferences with the ‘red-flag’ of “New Age” philosophy waving high. I made two observations: 1) the writer of the book seemed to have a larger issue with Rick using multiple translations & paraphrases as opposed to the KJV than with PD, and 2) Rick Warren & Saddleback love God, His word, and preach the gospel of sin, repentance, rebirth, Jesus’ death, burial & resurrection for salvation. I also heard, first hand, that Rick & Saddleback didn’t invent ‘living on purpose’, they just lifted the concepts from God’s word.
• We are talking about Purpose/vision/mission. Sometimes purposes are confusing & different.
• Story of Yogi Berra & Hank Aaron - Yogi was also a talker behind the plate. He used to talk to the opposing batters in order to distract them. Hank Aaron tells the story about the 1958 World Series, with Yogi behind the plate. Yogi kept telling Aaron to 'hit with the label up on the bat'. Finally Aaron turned and said "Yogi, I came up here to hit, not to read."
• Then there is the story of Rich Man who bought mom a $50,000 bird with a 40,000 word vocabulary. It cost a lot of money. He had it delivered & the next day he called & ask “How’d you like the bird?” She responded, “I just loved it, it tasted GREAT!”
• There should be no confusion over purpose/vision/mission (PVM) of God’s People & Bride of Christ. Jesus clearly says, “I will build my church.” In the Greek you will discover this statement in present perfect tense – which indicates an ongoing action. Guess what, He invites us to be a part of this.
• Let’s not forget that His Church is owned by Him, obeys Him, & opens the door for other TO meet Him. HBC’s calling from God is to be on mission, function with a purpose, & operate with vision.
• What “IF”, ‘what if, everything we did, planned, and promoted had a single focus – His PVM?
• It is here, we can see the confusion. Many ‘say’ we want to be a growing Church – reaching, teaching, & baptizing – while others might counter, “I like the church just like it is.” Candidly, to try to maintain a church body at a certain number is problematic – because a non-growing church will soon become a declining church if for no other reason, funerals. Our Lord called us to be a part of “Kingdom Building” which, by extension, is being a part of building His church.
• Something dawned on me, “Some might have a well-developed misunderstanding of purpose which has given birth to fear.” The south is known for “FABLES & MYTHS.” In my home town, it was a well-talked about “FACT” – by the kids in the neighborhood that that “Barn at the end of our street was haunted.” A story is told of the young wife who was cooking with her new husband. They were cooking a roast when she grabbed a big knife and cut off end of roast. Her husband asked ‘why’ & she said, “Mom, did it.” He grabbed the phone & called her mom who said, “My mom always did.” So he called the nursing home where granny lived & asked her why she cut off the end of the roast. (3 generations!!) She responded, “My pot was too small!”
• Today let us name 10 or 11 myths which cause us to follow “Self” and not “Savior”
1. Church is a place you go - This myth is so ingrained that it is almost impossible to correct our thinking. But consider that in Acts 2, they gathered daily “as” the church. They didn’t have a building so they gathered wherever they could. People joined them because their lives spoke of the faith they had in a person & not a place. Jesus died “at” a place not “for” a place. The church is people. We are either the “Church Gathered” or the “Church Scattered.” This building is where this church meets. When we leave this property, we actually enter the mission field.
• Please remember that the first Church put in a building was put there by a pagan ruler (Constantine) around the 4th century. A personal observation is that the church has not been the same since them. The Church is to be the living, powerful, active, involved, caring, and the loving bride of Christ. Could the revelation that ‘we are the only church society sees’ bring us to a “critical mass?” Then to think, in large measure they don’t want to be a part God’s church?
2. To be a “good” member you simply attend occasionally – I want to go on the record that MOST of these myths were started & certainly are propagated by the Evil one himself. However when He gets believers to buy into them, the Kingdom Power is decimated. I’ll suggest to you that Biblical Membership has expectations to it. Let’s list a few:
• Prayers – The Bible says pray w/o ceasing & pray at all times.
• Attendance- the Bible says, “forsake not assembling together as is the manner of “some.”
• Service- Once again the Bible tells us to discover, develop & deploy our gifts & use for service.
• Support-Malachi asks us about being a robber? The tithe is not an offering. Give vs Return!
• As a final note here, The Bible teaches, it rarely suggests.
3. A Church can grow spiritually without growing numerically – This myth always confuses me.
• Some say they’d “rather go deeper with God than wider.” Rick Warren decodes this in this way: “my church, my SS, my Bible Study, my, my – and just let the world go to hell.” As abrupt as this may sound, the impact of that attitude is the same. I have never figured out how a person can grow spiritual and then not care to grow numerically because God sent Jesus to die for people, according to John 3:16 ‘all’ people. So if God did all that He did to reach people, if we truly get closer to Him & His heart, the most natural outgrowth or response would be to fulfill His heart.
• This is not an either/or situation. It is a both/and. It is His command to do both
4. Large Churches are “bad”. One of the saddest responses which I hear among the modern day church member is this, “I prefer a small church” or “I prefer a large church.” The size church really should be determined by Him. We are called to be ‘in love’ with Him, then share His Hope with other, while serving Jesus with all we are. Consider both ends of the spectrum.
• An unbiased look sad to say, it is true some large church have lost the passion and the spirit’s support. However, this also happens in some small churches.
• At the same time, some of the most unfriendly churches you can visit are small membership. They’re friendly & loving as long as you’re a member in the know and you know things like parking space, seat, pew, & class room. Admittedly larger membership can be just as cold. It is just like the old joke about “BEING UGLY.” “There’s so much more there.”
• Honestly, larger is not better, better is better. For years, I visited FBC & SBC Houston which are huge churches and two of THE MOST genuinely friendly I have ever visited.
• Let me DEBUNCK one more thing. The most common complaint about a larger membership church by those who have never been in one is that, “Won’t know everybody.” 3 things:
a) You don’t really know everyone involved in this church today. If you do, we’re dying.
b) Friendliness of church is not determined by the size of the church, but by attitude of the people.
c) Not our task to determine size of the congregation—“OUR task is to fulfill Christ’s ministry”
5. Larger churches are only concerned about attendance. –This is kind of funny to me. I have yet to attend a larger membership church where the old attendance board in view. Candidly, larger churches become larger churches by majoring on bringing people to Jesus. Their object is not to become larger, but to reach people. The size is NOT the object but the outcome.
• I love talking with Bro. Kevin, Bro Ted, Bro Buddy, and other pastors from the larger church who talk about the many things their SS classes, small groups, & other ministries do to reach people.
• Whether it’s a special service or special emphasis or special ministry, these guys speak of their people ‘bringing people.’ The principle is to compel them to see, hear, & experience & it pays off.
6. You must choose between quality & quantity. – Every time I hear this phrase I think what I heard someone say many years ago, “what a terrible thought in the work of Kingdom.” Why is this said? What does it mean? Shouldn’t the plan for our Lord be ‘both?’ Quality should be defined as “the quality of disciples we are producing. Quality, in the eyes of our Lord, means helping people move from where they are into Christ likeness. This means an intentional process toward spiritual maturity. (I.E. word, maturity, giving, time, talents, money, share faith, minister/ Quantity, on the other hand, is simply growing in numbers.
Here’s a question: when you go fishing, what do you want quality or quantity? You want both! You want a lot of big ones. Every church (member) should reach as many as possible & then help them mature into Christ-like disciples who are doing the same.
Before I pass this point, let me offer you one secret: “In reaching people & making disciples, ‘Quality produces Quantity.’”
Had enough? Let me simply list 3 for the sake of time & then finish with a couple more.
7. To grow, a church must compromise message & mission.
8. If you are dedicated enough, the church will grow.
9. Larger churches grow only at the expense of smaller churches.
10. There is only ONE key to church growth. - Nothing is further from truth! If we are to be a part of the growth of His Kingdom & His Church, we must fall in love with Him to the point that we are willing to commit to a lifetime of learning, growth, and change. We must follow His example! What example is that? He went where the people were, met them like they were, & shared hope with them. How do we do this?
• In our last meeting, Jamie shared a devotion with us which serves to give direction. However, it’s not easy, but it works. He began in Matthew 5 Jesus tells us that we are the ‘light of the world & the salt of the earth.’ The question was & is “What good is light if you don’t shine it and what good is salt if you don’t use it?” So, how exactly can we shine & salt people of this community? From Jamie’s words I offer 4 steps: 1) Add value to their lives. In other words shine our light by letting people know we care about them. The ways are many, but it involves us getting out of our building & our routine to go to the community. One sister church – canceled (not moved) their evening services for 4 weeks and asked the attenders to find a way to do ministry for someone on a Sunday night. Until we show Jesus’ love in a tangible way, we may not be able to offer Jesus’ hope for eternity. They must be important to us. 2) “Build intentional community with them.” This is a fancy way of saying ‘make friends.’ This means we must step outside our comfort zone, make new friends, and embrace them as friends inside of our lives. This is a concept that will be new to many. Personally, I would call this ‘friends for eternity.’ Not one of us wants a ‘friend’ go to eternal punishment, but most want all their friends to go to heaven. A stranger, sad to say, we may not be concerned about. (This might be wrong, but it’s true). 3) Share Struggles With Them – This is what we do with our friends, we share their life’s struggles. A passage in Ecclesiastes speaks of friendship & says, “A cord of three strands is not easily broken.” POINT: All through this time, they must see Jesus in us. Jamie spoke of the “Small Group” impact on His life. This is where we can ‘live life’ together. 4) Connect them to Jesus. Scripture tells us “We are Christ’s Ambassadors”, “To spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere”, and to “Go and make disciples” – all this seems to me to now be optional, but rather the very reason we are here – His Purpose/His Vision/His Mission for us.
• As I finished, may I say this; these myths have been born of Satan, perpetuated by the Kingdom of darkness, and sadly have been inadvertently embraced by some of our church culture—and has brought much damage to the Work of God. So I end with the most dangerous of all myths:
11. “All God Expects of us is Faithfulness” – It is true that we must be faithful. A personal confession: In my ignorance, for years, I taught this as truth. The problem is, this will not stand up to a Biblical test. Any honest reading of John 15 lays this myth to rest. Verse 16 says that Jesus chose us, called us, and appointed us (this is not for salvation, but from salvation) for the purpose of bearing fruit. We are expected to bear the fruit of people. Verse 8 tells us that two things happen when we do; a) we prove that we are His disciples and, b) we bring glory to God. Colossians 1:10 speaks of our ‘fruitfulness pleases God’ while Matthew 21 reveals that Jesus reserved His strictest judgment for unfruitfulness.
Do you know what frightens this pastor as I am now in the late afternoon of my life and ministry? It is that God’s spirit may depart because of my (our) inability or unwillingness to produce Kingdom fruit. My heart hurts when I think we may get so distracted with good things that we lose our way to do the best, which is produce fruit for the Kingdom. The fruit of a believer is another believer so the fruit of a church might well be another church. Just like in marriage that the fruit of a man/wife is a baby – and somewhere down the road that baby turns into a couple.
It seems to me that we should, with our life, plant Holy seeds in garden of this world? Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful – we just need workers.” Authentic believer in the rich soil of society?
After hearing these myths, several questions present themselves? Have you seen yourself today? Most everyone here professes to KNOW CHRIST as Savior, which means you walk with Him each day. If not, why not now? Next, are you one with purpose or no purpose? (if so—whose purpose)
There exist 2 classes of believers: Either being or backslidden? Which are you?
