Your Spiritual Growth: Sunday Morning Is Not Enough
--Ephesians 4:7-13
Our Sunday evening small, disciple group ACTS, Academy for Christian Training and Service, small group is using Bishop Reuben P. Job and Dr. Norman Shawchuck�s devotional guide entitled A GUIDE TO PRAYER FOR ALL WHO SEEK GOD. The subject heading for this week�s readings has been �What Are You Looking For?� In one of the �Readings for Reflection� for this week Bishop Job asks us two pressing questions. The first one is: �What are you searching for that consumes all your energy and attention?� He then shares his personal testimony in his own answer by affirming, �The quest for God is a search worthy of such all-consuming passion and energy.� This is a matter of priority. What is the number one priority in your life? Can you truly say that you devote an �all-consuming passion and energy in your personal quest for God?�
I RETURN TO MY Alma Mater Asbury Theological Seminary this week for the third of six sessions in our Spiritual Leaders� Academy. Our own ACTS small group is a result of that ministry. In our Asbury SLA we are gaining practical, hands-on experience and tools in how the Church is to �make disciples for Jesus Christ.� Our Illinois Great Rivers Conference in stating our mission quotes the 2004 DISCIPLINE in affirming �The purpose of the annual conference is to form disciples of Jesus Christ by equipping its local churches for ministry and by providing a connection for ministry beyond the local church, all to the glory of God.�
Such is the purpose and mission of all local churches and pastors as well �to form disciples of Jesus Christ by equipping the laity for ministry.� Paul asserts in Ephesians 4:11-12, �He (i. e. Jesus Christ/Holy Spirit) is the One who gave . . . pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God�s people (i. e. the laity) to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ. . .�
I must give credit to Dr. Steven L. Martyn, Associate Professor of Christian Leadership and Spirituality at Asbury Theological Seminary and primary facilitator of our Spiritual Leaders� Academy, for the content of today�s message. The plans I am sharing with you are the inspiring ideas I have gleaned from his lectures on �Equipping the Laity� and lessons the Holy Spirit is leading me to incorporate in training you �for the work of the ministry� at Trinity United Methodist Church.
My last semester at Asbury in the spring of 1973 for my Greek New Testament project I had to exegete this same passage of Scripture and then prepare a sermon from this very text. I have to confess, however, that although I clearly saw that as a pastor-teacher I was given the holy responsibility to equip my laity for the work of ministry I had absolutely no idea how to do this, and neither did the vast majority of the 120 to 180 graduates in our class that year or most all seminary graduates nationwide.
Asbury prepared us extremely well in two vital areas of ministry: (1.) preaching and (2.) pastoral care. There is nothing I enjoy more than �dividing the Word of Truth,� and I always feel closest to Christ in giving pastoral care when shepherding my people through hospital visitation and prayer and support of our families in times of sorrow and bereavement. As God give me opportunity, I am thrilled to lead a lost person to salvation and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As far as hands-on, how to guidelines in �equipping the laity for ministry,� we never received that, until now, through the opportunity to participate in the Spiritual Leaders� Academy and apply the lessons I learn there back here at home in Trinity United Methodist Church. As Steve has driven home to us, our text from Ephesians 4:12 is our �flagship verse� in our ministry of �making disciples for Jesus Christ.
Many, if not the vast majority, of the people in our American Churches today are not genuine disciples of Jesus Christ; they are only pew sitters we might also dub with the title �Cultural Christians.� The Gospel of Jesus Christ has reached the heads of such people who sit in their pews Sunday after Sunday, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit has never radically or intensely �impacted their hearts.� In all honesty would you have to call yourself a cultural Christian, a pew sitter?
How is a disciple different from a pew sitter or a cultural Christian? Disciples of Jesus Christ are men and women whose lives have been deeply transformed by the Holy Spirit into the image of Jesus Christ Himself. Disciples are followers of Jesus who have �claimed God�s ministry for their lives.� They are dedicated followers of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who have �completely sold out to Him.� Disciples are persons who are �fulfilling God�s will in their lives.� Someone has well described a disciple as being an �apprentice of Jesus.� Are you an apprentice of Jesus who is obediently fulfilling God�s will in your life each and every day?
What is your vision for Trinity United Methodist Church this morning? Do you want to see a bigger congregation? Well, I must confess that would be wonderful, but more than having a vision for a bigger congregation I long to see our Church family filled with �bigger Christians.�
My dream for Trinity United Methodist Church is to see a balanced, healthy, vibrant Church filled not with pew sitters or cultural Christians but with true disciples of Jesus Christ. Such a Church is populated with laity who are fully engaged in fulfilling God�s plans for their lives, fully engaged in ministry. Disciples are nothing less than lay pastors or lay ministers who are �obediently living out their ministry calling in Jesus Christ.�
How does the Holy Spirit transform a Church from being a congregation of pew sitters, i. e., cultural Christians into being vibrant, fired up, obedient, dedicated followers of Jesus Christ who are completely sold out to Him? Anyone who wants to be a disciple of Jesus Christ must come to the place where they realize that if they are to grow spiritually, if they are to become like Jesus, �Sunday morning is not enough!� Pew sitters, cultural Christians, are satisfied to just fill a pew one hour a week on Sunday mornings; disciples are hungry for more!
John Wesley realized this after his Aldersgate experience in 1738. When his �heart was strangely warmed,� he stopped became a real disciple of Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit to make and train hundreds and thousands of other disciples as well. The Holy Spirit showed Wesley that if Methodism was to be truly a Revival Movement and make an impact on England, America, and the world, more was needed than for people to be satisfied with merely coming together once a week for preaching and worship. Preaching and meeting together was not enough.
In order for people who had made a decision to follow Jesus to be transformed into disciples, small groups of converts would need to meet together, at least once a week, to mutually support each other and �hold each other up.� So Wesley formed small groups of converts into class meetings for this very purpose. The Class Meeting thus became the heart and soul of the Methodist Movement.
The Methodist Class Meeting was much like the Giant Sequoia Trees in California. Just like the Methodist Class Meeting, the Great Sequoias �hold each other up.� They may reach a height of 311 feet, an age of 3200 years. They often weigh 2.7 million pounds. Their bark on the average is 31 inches thick. Their braches are about eight feet in diameter and their base 400 feet wide.
If tree roots do not grow deep into the earth, strong winds will soon �blow them over.� Such is not the case with the Great Sequoias. Their roots barely reach below the surface, but the winds do not bring them �tumbling down.� You see, sequoias grow only in groves. Their roots intertwine with each other under the surface of the earth. So when the strong winds come, they �hold each other up.�
So it was with the early Methodist Class Meeting. Small groups of perhaps only a dozen people would come together each week to �hold each other up.� One basic question brought them together, and that was: �How is it with your soul?� Then for the course of 60 to 90 minutes each member would share their personal temptations, doubts, and trials they had faced the past week.
I am convinced the Wesleyan style Class Meeting is the key for successfully making disciples for Jesus Christ today. It is being revived across America and around the world in groups known as �John Wesley�s Accountable Discipleship Groups.� Our own Academy for Christian Training and Service that meets tonight at 6:30 p. m. is such a group. Two Scripture verses empower us to �hold each other up.�
James 5:16, �Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.� The second one is Galatians 6:2, �Bear one another�s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.� I call these verses the �battle cry of spiritual sequoias.�
As we come together each week in our Academy for Christian Training and Service, we share the condition of our souls. We state the condition of our hearts. We mutually encourage and support each other in the spirit of the original Wesley Class Meetings. As they did almost two hundred years ago, I as the leader begin by sharing about my life in the past week including the doubts and struggles I have faced. Everyone does the same in turn. Like the original Wesley Class Meetings we also try to begin and end each session with singing and prayer.
What happened in the Class Meetings in early Methodism that made true disciples for Jesus Christ? The members of the classes came to deeply care for and love each other. The Class Meeting �provided an environment in which people could trust and be trusted; love and be loved; and be vulnerable in a way that is needed for true growth in grace and love of God, neighbor, and self to occur.�
We are beginning to see God do it again in our Academy for Christian Training and Service at Trinity United Methodist Church. SOLI DEO GLORIA, �To God be all the Glory.�
Maybe you are saying, �Pastor, that�s fine for you and a handful of others at Trinity, but it�s not for me. I don�t like being vulnerable. I don�t want to �bear my soul� before other people that might betray me by blabbing everything I share.� We can trust and be trusted as did the early Methodists because we make the vow of confidentiality. You�ve heard the old adage, �What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.� You can rest assured, �What is said in ACTS, stays in Acts.� It is only as we come to trust our brothers and sisters in Christ in a small accountability group that we can ever hope to grow to be like Jesus, to become more than just a pew sitter or cultural Christian, but to become a true disciple of Jesus Christ.
If you honestly want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in the twenty-first century, �Sunday Morning Is Not Enough�: "GENTLEMEN, THIS IS A FOOTBALL!" �This quote comes from a story about legendary football coach Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers. Each year he would gather his players for training camp. In front of him sat some of the best athletes in the world. They had played football since they were children. They were some of the highest paid athletes of their day, and some of them are now in the Football Hall of Fame. And the coach would stand up in front of them, hold up a football, and say, "Gentlemen, this is a football." He certainly did not have to tell these men what this object was. He was not trying to demean or belittle them. He was simply making the point that they were going to go back to the basics.�
[Source: http://www.leadnet.org/journey0104.asp].
It�s time the people called Methodists get back to the basis in Christian discipleship. In 1786 John Wesley wrote Thoughts Upon Methodism in which he said:
�I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist, but I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. That will undoubtedly be the case unless they hold fast both to the doctrine, spirit and discipline with which they first set out.� Has Wesley�s prophetic fear been fulfilled? Is there hope for Revival, reversal, and renewal?
We have only one mission as the Church of Jesus Christ�to make disciples for Him by the power of the Holy Spirit working through us. It�s time the �people called Methodists��at Trinity, in the Vermillion River District, in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference, and around the world�get back to basics. To the best of my ability, as God teaches me, empowers and enables me, I promise to �train you for the work of ministry, to equip you to do His work and build up the body of Christ.� Will you pray for us all as together as pastor and laity under His guidance and direction we work towards that end?
Will you become part of a small group of believers to support, encourage, and love each other? If you want to grow spiritually to be like Jesus, Sunday morning is just not enough. God showed John Wesley how to make disciples for Jesus Christ in and through the ministry of the Methodist Class Meeting. He will do the same for us as well at Trinity in the twenty-first century if we fully surrender and sell out to Him. Let us all desire that regardless of whether we become a bigger congregation or not, we will be bigger Christians. May none of us be satisfied to be a pew sitter, a cultural Christian. Let us begin the journey towards discipleship as the Holy Spirit molds us into the image of Jesus.
