Making the Home Team
“For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.” 1 Corinthians 3:9 NIV
Intro: There are many people on a team.
I want you to think about the words “we are God’s fellow workers.”
Church is not an event you attend.
It is a team you belong to.
It is a relationship with God.
And it is a relationship with the people you are connected with in your home church.
It is a group you are part of.
It is not an event you attend it is the home team you play on and the team you belong to.
God wants you to understand the significance of connecting with other believers in a home church.
He gives us four Scriptures on how a church is like a team.
He says it’s like being one of the stone block that are used to build God’s temple.
It’s like being a body part in a body.
It’s like being connected to a fruit tree or to a vine.
And it’s like being a family member of a family.
Each of these four examples have profound power and meaning and importance
when you understand what it means to be connected that deeply on a team.
What are the requirements to be on a little league baseball team?
Paintsville Little League signups were March 5th.
The League Championship was June 8th
Tournament games and playoff games
All Star Teams and Travel Teams
To be on any type of team there is practice, practice and more practice.
If you don’t show up to practice what happens? You don’t play.
If your team doesn’t practice you don’t win.
A church is like a team but it has something even greater than other teams.
Connecting to a church family is different from other connections you will have in life.
No other relationship is going to last forever.
You might play a couple of years on the same little league team but eventually it will end.
We have couples in this church that have been married 40, 50, even 60 years.
But we know that not every marriage lasts forever.
You might have a relationship with a business partner but that won’t last forever.
There’s only one relationship on the whole earth…, you could have…, that’s going to last forever.
And that is being a member of God’s team.
Being a part of his church.
Being part of his Team.
Write these down.
First, what happens when I join a church family?
What happens when I become a member of a home church team?
MAKING THE HOME TEAM -- MAKES ME PART OF GOD’S SPIRITUAL TEAM.
He says it’s like being a one of the STONE BLOCK that are used to build God’s temple.
This is the first example the Bible uses for the church. God is building a spiritual temple.
It’s a living temple.
It’s not only made of physical stone block
It’s not only made of people.
It is made of the spiritual.
It’s a lasting temple.
Pastor’s come and go.
Staff members come and go.
Individual leaders come and go.
Ideas come and go.
Ministries and Missions shift interest, change their focus with the times.
Some expanding, some being done away with.
But the church itself is lasting, enduring, persevering.
The church is meant to be multigenerational.
It is meant to be passed down from grandparents to children to grandchildren.
The reason is it not passed down it the lack of commitment and loyalty to a Home Church.
Faith is NOT meant to be practiced alone.
It’s like being connected to a FRUIT TREE OR TO A VINE.
You need to get connected to it as member of a local church.
Reading these verses makes me think about my own life.
Here are couple things I have learned.
1. You can’t build it with just one person.
You can have the best pitcher but no good catchers and still not have a winning team.
You can have the best batter in the league but no pitcher and still not have a winning team.
A team can never be built on just one person no matter how good they are.
It takes all the different players to make a team.
To build a temple, the body of Christ, the temple of God.
“For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.” 1 Corinthians 3:9 NIV
The phrase “God’s field” comes from the Greek word husbandry or farm.
?e??????, ??, t? Transliteration: geórgion Phonetic Spelling: (gheh-ore'-ghee-on)
It means: a tilled field
A place of cultivation.
A place where crops are growing.
Where plants are nurtured.
Where people are fostered and encouraged.
You are to be that person.
You are to be what promotes growth.
You are not the pitcher.
You are not the batter.
You are not the coach.
You are to be the place where the kids come and play.
You are the field.
You are the grass.
You are the bases.
You are the dirt and the sod.
You are God’s field.
I had rather be the “All Star” but instead we are the thing that gets stomped on and spit on and slid into.
We get plowed up.
We have weeds growing in us that have to be chopped out.
All of this before we can be played on or produce a garden.
You see church is not about you.
If it was we couldn’t go on if you left.
The only time you can’t play a little league game is when you don’t have a field to play on.
Everyone is important.
Every member matters.
You can’t play a little league game with only one base.
Can you imagine a field with four pitcher mounds but only one base?
Of course not.
As parts everything has to fit together and have their places.
If it doesn’t it is of no use.
By yourself you can’t make the kind of difference
that you can make when you’re connected in the house of God,
when you’re connected in the family of God.
This is why I want to clarify the difference in being an attender and being a member.
They are not the same thing.
The difference between an attender and a member is when I go out shopping and I go to a store
people will often come up to me and they’ll say, “Pastor Bruce, I really love your church.”
When they say that I know they’re not a member.
They’re just an attender because they say I love your church.
When they come up to me and they say, “Pastor Bruce. I love our church.”
Now I know they belong.
It’s their church.
It’s not my church.
It’s our church.
It’s our flock.
It’s our team.
The difference between an attender and a member is the difference between living together and getting married. It’s a commitment.
An attender comes to an event.
A member belongs to a family.
It’s the difference between believing and belonging.
God has called you to not simply believe.
He’s called you to belong to the family of God.
He’s called you to Make the Home Team.
Let me explain it this way.
You become a Christian by committing yourself to Christ.
But you become a member of a local church family by committing yourself to a home church.
And you say, “That’s going to be my family.
That’s going to be my spiritual home.
That’s going to be my place to worship.
A lot of people today want to date the church.
They want to go from church to church to church.
They just hop around.
Like frogs, hopping around from place to place.
And they never commit to any one place.
There are a lot of good churches.
There are other good United Methodist Churches here in this town.
There are dozens of good churches in Johnson County.
And they’re all good.
We’re on the same team.
We’re not in competition.
We’re not out to take each other’s members.
We are with every church that glorifies Jesus Christ.
The word “member” comes from the Bible.
The word “member” and “membership” come from the 1 Corinthians 12
But it’s not talking about funny hats and secret handshakes and code words.
Or triple A or golf club or something like that.
It’s talking about really being connected like an arm is connected to the physical body.
You weren’t meant to go through life disconnected.
You weren’t meant to go through life without support.
You weren’t meant to go through life without stability.
You need other people in your life who stabilize your spiritual growth,
who support your spiritual growth,
who strengthen your spiritual growth.
And until you get connected to a church family
and you belong to a church family you don’t have that support system in place.
In your life you’re going to need emotional support, physical support, spiritual support, and mental support.
And of course the best place to do that is not just in a church.
It’s in a small group within the church.
That’s why this church has:
Women’s groups.
Sunday School
Men’s groups.
Children’s groups
Teens groups.
GROW Classes
Did you know this church has over 52 different Ministry and Mission areas to serve.
You could serve in a different area every week of the year.
The Bible commands us to be fellow workers.
Let’s take this serious in our church.
We are all many different parts.
You are unique.
Look down the row you are setting on.
No one is exactly like you.
Even Brett and Brent Bartley twins are different in many ways.
We don’t just look different we think different.
We worship different.
We sing different.
We fellowship different.
(Get ready to laugh. Are you ready to laugh?)
Thank God he didn’t make two of some people.
Have you ever lost a toenail? I have.
When you lose a toenail you notice it’s gone.
I’ve have had a ingrown toe nail.
It can be painful.
But it is even more painful when they have go in and surgically cut it off.
You will miss that toe nail when it’s gone.
Every part is important.
You matter.
Can you imagine if every member of this church participated in just one of the 52 Ministry and Mission Opportunities that we have?
What difference do you think you could make if you decide I am going make this one ministry
or this one mission my personal priority.
I am going to work year around to be the best team member I can be.
I am going to show up for practice.
I am going to plan, plan, plan, and communicate, communicate, communicate.
Do you think you could make a difference if you adopt even one of these and make it your commitment?
I know you could. We would be 20, 30, 40 times stronger
If every person here today would just make that commitment to just one Ministry or Mission.
You can be an attender and not be a member
You can be a member and not be a team player.
Never confuse attendance and membership with team member.
They’re not the same.
Inside me there are some things like liver and lungs and spleen.
They’re not prominent.
You can’t see them.
I’ve never heard anyone say I love your liver.
Your lungs are so beautiful.
Most of us don’t’ even know what a spleen looks like or really does unless it has gone out.
The most important light in my house is not the big beautiful light over the kitchen table.
It is not the lamp I have standing in the living room.
The most important light in my house turns itself on at night.
When I get up to go to the bathroom or get a drink in the middle of the night I don’t stub my toe.
The littlest light is the most important light in my house.
The rest of you. The most important light is the one that comes on when you open the refrigerator door!
We are all important.
Hellen Keller was both deaf and blind. But she learned to overcome her isolation
And the near complete lack of language.
as she learned to communicate.
She said.
• Teamwork makes the dream work.
• Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success.
• “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
Have you joined a home church team?
Have you made the home team?
I want lie to you. This church is not a whole lot different than other church up the street.
The style of worship may be a little different.
The building itself is better than some and not as good as others.
This church is made of every different personality you can imagine.
If you stick around long enough there will be people you like and some you just have to love.
This just means you will fit in here really good.
There is a place for you here.
There are things for you to do to serve God here.
I want to invite you to join this church.
To become more than an attender.
To become more than a member.
To become part of a home team.
Let us pray.
