Partnership and Advance of the Gospel: The Resolved Church Mid-Fall 2007

October 24, 2007 7:56 pm admin Blogs

Last Sunday I preached one of the most difficult sermons I have ever preached. It was not a sermon I was looking forward to or excited to preach, but it was as though if I did not preach it I would not have been doing my job as a pastor. The sermon was titled, “Partnership and Advance of the Gospel: The Resolved Church Mid-fall 2007″ and was a sobering look at where we are as a church plant.

We looked at Philippians 1:1-18 and what it took for the church in Phillipi to get started and to continue and then we looked at how those things are present in our current context. The four things we focused on were: partnership, the gospel, challenges, and advances.

PARTNERSHIP - This word comes from the Greek word Koinonia and means fellowship, participation, joint-effort, togetherness. In regards to church planting it hightlights that we partner together in the endeavor of the gospel. This is what it means to be a church. You have a leader spearheading the charge and then others partnering together alongside with him in a common endeavor. We are a spiritual body with members attempting to reach a city together.

GOSPEL - The word gospel is news, news that is good. It was sometimes used to announce the birth of a baby or a victory in battle. In regards to Jesus, the gospel is the news of who Jesus is and what he has done for us. The gospel brings real heart change in us and then moves us with compassion to share the message and follow Jesus example of entering into culture and through it telling people about his person and work.

There are three approaches to culture within Christianity today (Props to Driscoll on his good baptistic alliteration which I stole. )
1. Reject/Sectarian. This view says culture is bad. The problem is culture is haywire and needs to be rejected and we need to show non-Christians how different we are and not have anything to do with them and their evil practices. This includes not only the Amish but a good majority of mainline protestant denominations and evangelical indepedents who are fundamentalists. They don’t have any fun and strip the joy out having good mental capacities.
2. Receive/Syncretism. This view says culture is ever evolving and truth itself is evolving and we as the church just need to keep up with it and adapt and change the gospel so that it will still be relevant. This includes a majority of the “emerging church” movement and the neo-Catholic movment which wants to still be spiritual and okay with God but live however they want and not be accountable to anyone.
3. Redeem/Subvert. This view says culture is amoral and expresses itself in either God-glorifying or un-glorifying ways and can be redeemed according to the gospel. This view looks at the example of Jesus who entered into culture, wearing sandanls and a robe and speaking the language of the people in order to share the gospel with them. This includes Acts 29 (www.a29.org) the Gospel Coalition movement (www.thegospelcoalition.org) and us as The Resolved Church.

CHALLENGES - The Challenges we face include the following:

1. Lack of Regular Sunday Attendance - For nearly two years we have fluxuated between 25-50 people, if everyone who comes on a semi-regular basis came on one Sunday we would be nearly 150 people. So the sermon is not a reaction to one week but to a consistent prolonged trend. We have apparently plateaued and have shown ourselves to be unable to grow beyond this point. What are the potential reasons?

  a. Consumerism. Church is treated like a product that is me-centered, spectator oriented, based on what I like. Do I like the music? Is it too dark for me? Was the sermon entertaining? Sometimes those things are important but they will always vary. You need to commit to a church and for Sunday attendence not always be a decision each week.

  b. Sunday Insignficance. Church is seen as something that is not that important for me to be a regular part of. It is a simple lack of seriousness about the church and significance of reliable attendence. Church is extremely important for your own personal growth and others who benefit by your presence.

  c. Saturday night drunkenness or promiscuity. Persons are either hung-over, asleep, and/or feeling guilty for the previous night’s sin and the result is abstaining from church in the morning. Those things are sin (Gal. 5:19-21) and you need to stop doing them because you are putting your eternal salvation in jeopardy.

  d. Sunday Dispensible. Church is seen as something that is dispensible if there is something better going on (like football games or a friend’s party etc.). Sunday is seen as a “free day” to do whatever I want.

  e. Not taught. Some simply may have not been taught that God created and intends there to be a devoted to his people collectively worshipping him together (Ex. 20:8; Heb 10:25). Christians do this on Sunday. If you love Jesus, you will love his church and worship him on Sunday.

2. Spiritual Immaturity - We will always have a mixed mulititude I pray…unbelivers, new believers, mature believers. At the same time we always need to be pressing for maturity. What are areas where we are experiencing immaturity in our church?

  a. Lack of reading the Bible and good theological works. God designed the cognitive function of reading to be the chief means for us to grow up in him. God revealed himself in words in a book. If you are not regularly reading you are not growing.

  b. Men acting like boys. Drunkenness, pre-marital sex, husbands not lovingly leading their family. Boys need to grow up and be manly men who are respectable and protect and provide for their wife and children both physically and spiritually. Single guys need to do the same in preparation for a family and treat females like their sister until marriage.

  c. Women not following godly men. Married women need to respectfully encourage their husbands to repent of their lack of good leadership and not try and manipulate them to perform better. Single women need to care more about a guy’s godliness than his looks and/or personality. If the guy doesn’t love Jesus don’t waste your time, you’ll just get your heart broken.

  d. Heart not right. Some may think their a Christian and so they are okay and their attitude sucks. They are unkind to those around them, bitter, and think terrible thoughts about people. These are heart issues that need to get dealt with.

  e. Lack of Example. Perhaps the men have simply just not seen good examples before them. I am currently considering starting a men’s time with Duane, to open up my life to you and teach you what it means to be a man according to the Bible.

3. Lack of Community - Community means knowing each other and sharing life together. How much time have you spent with people outside of Sunday morning service. It seems to me this is rarely happening and is a big red flag warning of our love for one another.

  a. Fake Growth. It seems at times we have expected flash in the pan magical growth, that people will magically walk through the doors and get connected to our community.

  b. Lack of Outside Sunday time. Very few people from our church spend time together outside of Sunday. Church is not intended to be a Sunday morning event but rather community life together, including during the week. Some churches expect you to be there nearly every night of the week, we expect Sunday and one other day of the week interaction with someone from church.

  c. Mid-week Community Groups. Our one and only mid-week community group died a few weeks ago because we no longer have a facilitator. You need not be a Bible scholar to lead one of these things, you only need to be able to open your hope and keep discussion on the discussion questions written by Pastor Duane.

  d. Meals together. Eating and drinking together is an important part of community. How often do you eat and drink with other people in the church. Go out to lunch with people after church, invite other with you, get to know each other.

  e. Welcomeness. I think we have improved on this level as far as people coming in the door on Sunday. We are friendly to them. But what about the next step of inviting them into our lives, to hang out with us and spend time with our community.

  f. Too busy. We live in a fast paced, demanding world. It is a high calling to work hard, put family first and treasure Jesus’ church at the same time. But when it comes down to it, you make time for what you love and value. If you love Jesus and his church you will make time for his people.

4. Conversions. In the history of The Resolved Church, there have been 3 people who profess to coming to faith through our ministry. I’m sorry kids but I’m not happy with one a year and neither is Jesus. So why are not more people becoming Christians through our ministry.

  a. Bad mission. Mission has become for you a license to join the party or the workforce with no gospel purpose or intent in mind. You make friends with non-believers but never talk to them about the gospel. Never question them about what they think. Never listen to what their objections are and never confront the state of their hearts. People will not become Christians unless you make friends with them and then challenge their life and beliefs.

  b. No mission. You don’t have any non-Christian friends that you regularly hang out with. You are amissional. You are in violation of Jesus’ command and you are a disservice to Jesus church. You need to immediately go to the local bar and make some friends.

  c. No prayer for non-Christians. God has deemed that no one will come to put faith in Jesus without prayer and them hearing the word of God preached, either through you or a trained and qualified preacher. We need to be praying as a church that God will save sinners.

5. Me - I’m a problem as well as the main leader of this church. I am a sinner too not the one who has it all together. I need Jesus bad.

  a. I get angry, bitter, and frustrated. When things are not going right as we planned either in service or in general overrall I come undone at times which is immature and makes it difficult for people to follow and trust my leadership.

  b. I have got hung up on service so many times. I foolishly think that if the service runs perfect and smooth then I will be happy. The desire for perfection most frequently becomes my other Jesus I idol worship to for my joy and satisfaction.

  c. Impatience and ungracious. I tend to lack the fruit of patience and want things to happen now and if they are undoable then I break line and try and figure out how to do it my way as quick as possible. Ungraciousness often goes hand in hand but I frequently find myself wanting immediate change in people and forget taht God’s grace in my life took me along ime.

  d. Too intense of a preacher. Perhaps my sermons are too long, too intense? I probably can’t change that and I’m not sure how true that is. But I can’t be someone that I’m not. I’m willing to learn and get better, even after preaching for 10 years, but I can’t change who I am. I feel like Jeremiah did who said God’s Word was like a “fire shut up in his bones (Jer. 20:9).”

  e. Micromanaging & learning to lead. In my 8 years and three degrees of college ministry preparation, I never took a single practical ministry class because I was more interested in the Bible and theology and figured if I got that the practical part would be easy. It’s not so easy. So I took my first leadership class this summer and am trying to learn how to lead and develop leaders like Jesus.

  f. The pressure of money and my family. I am dependent on income from this church to be your pastor. My family is growing since my daughter is due to be born in two weeks and with it my expenses are increasing and if we do not grow numerically we will not grow financially and I will be Scripturally disqualified as your pastor for not being able to provide for my family. Sometimes that pressure is so intense that I do not always respond to people and to situations as I should.

ADVANCES - This word comes from the Greek word, prokopen, and means to advance, progress or to set aside a block in the way of the road. Some of the realities of where we are at as a church may sound dark and discouraging but they need not be. Once you know what is going on then it is easier to try and figure out what to do. And not everything has been all bad. We have taken some great strides forward.

1. Music worship - This last February was the first time Michael Trujullo had ever led anyone in worship of song musically. And in these few short months he has developed a whole band! And it is not just that they sound good and are super creative but their heart and dedication is right on point. They practice once a week during the week for you guys. I talk with Michael and pray with him each week and he and Kenny and Gema have such desire for you to grow in your love for jesus and singing praise to his name. When we sing, we sing in response to who God is and what he has done. If you don’t sing that is like saying you don’t get it or don’t love who God is and what he has done for you. A few weeks ago Michael called everyone out and said we were not singing and needed to. That is good. Your leaders are trying to set an example of what worship is and calling you to it and that is awesome! We thank you and love you music team.

2. Families - For so long had no families. I prayed and prayed and prayed and thought we might just be single college age kids forever. Now we have a few committed families and not just that but we have Sunday school happening for the kids. I see this as a huge step forward. Some of you are wanting to get married or just recently did. That is good! Some of you are tired of dating and want to take marriage seriously in your dating. That is good! These are good steps forward. A healthy church has people from all stages of life. Ron and Kathy, who have been with us now for several months are a treasure to our church. They are the ones who put together the luncheons. They have been walking with Jesus for a long time and helped plant a church 30 years ago and wanted to do it again! God is sending the right people here to partner with us!

3. Membership class. - Currently there are 7 people taking our church membership class. There are people who are wanting to step up and love this church and are all about it. People wanting to learn. People who are teachable. On paper, there are only 6 members of this church, who have been through the class and signed the membership covenant. Here in a few weeks hopefully we’ll have another 7 and we’ll be 13! That’s good! We’re making progress.

4. Leadership development - A few months back I started leadership development with three different guys in the church who I meet with once a month and grill them about their lives and about their roles and we are going through a book together. In addition, recently Josh Carstensen has stepped up and as you may have noticed the last few weeks is running our service and also overseeing our set-up and tear-down.

5. Gospel conversions. - There are people who are genuinly coming to faith and embracing the gospel. Last week at membership class we just went around the room and each person shared where they are at with Jesus. It was amazing to hear the stories of God’s recent work of grace in several people’s hearts. Each week when I stand at the back and make myself available for prayer, people come and ask me to pray for them. God is working in people’s hearts. I have several conversations, email exchanges, dinners, coffees, beers, surfing with people and there is growth and humility happening in several individuals where the gospel is taking deep root in hearts and lives.

Conclusion

Let’s conclude. Today’s been open, honest. There are good things and bad things going on. Today as we approach the table I think we should approach it in three ways: examination, petition, and praise.

Jesus came into this world and died for his church. He took our names to the cross to die for his own. And we are sinners. We fall so far short of the glory of God and yet God in his perfect love sends his own and he dies in our place, give us all his goodness, his fully righteous person. He lives a perfect live where we could not. he dies our death for us. and then gives us his life. That is grace, that is the gospel.

Jesus died for all our faults and failures as a church. He died to cover our sins and satisfy our guilty punishment and and he rose again to give us new life and to change things and to carry us along into glorious inheritance. The gospel is real. Come to the table and thank and praise jesus for all that he is. He is the head pastor of this church. Let us worship him.