A Church’s Work of Faith
1 Thessalonians 1:3-10

So, a number of our people at Grace have commented that the sermons I did on faith, hope, and love were a blessing and challenging, and were asking if I could put some of the notes up so that they could have them as reference.  Maybe I should re-visit my not liking sermon-note-handouts, and thinking that they are a waste of time.

Here are the notes that I sort of followed as I preached the sermon on faith.  I have edited some of them because I either did not even touch the topic, or had abbreviations/wording that would only be significant to me.  The writing in blue is additional comments that I am making.

Introduction: The Legacy We Create

A) What do you want to be known for personally?
     
B) What about as God’s people?
          a. What is Grace known for?  

          b. If we left, would anyone miss us?

C) What if this was how our church could be described (this is how Paul describes the church at Thessalonica):
          a. A model church for the entire region (Sno-King County)
          b. Our faith in God was known all around (all cities w/in 100 miles)
          c. The majority of our people were new converts, not transfers.
          d. The Spirit is moving in mighty ways
          e. The most influential man in Christianity called you “his glory, joy, and boasts before Jesus about you”
          f. ALL of Christianity would flock to hear about what we do

Body, Part 1: The Church at Thessalonica

A) How it began (Acts 17)
         a. Paul answers Macedonian call, goes to Phillipi
         b. Gets persecuted, moves down into Thessalonica, a “cultural hub”
         c. Preaches to the Jews in the Synagogue for 3 weeks
                  i. Many converted, some Jews, mostly Gentiles
         d. Persecution comes, mob can’t find Paul, takes out Jason and extorts him.
         e. Paul, Silas, Timothy sneak out of town, go start church in Berea.
         f. Jews find out, chase Paul away, Tim and Silas stay to minister
         g. Paul hindered in attempt to go back to Thessalonica, sends Timothy

         h. Hears of the mighty move of God, gets jacked up, and writes them a letter.

B) The first successful church model (1 Thessalonians 1:3-10)
          a. All this talk about what works or not, what should we change or keep, strategies, models, etc. going on today.  Believe me, there is so much literature, blogs, articles, opinions, etc on this.  I put forth here sarcastically  the notion of "is it possible that the key to a healthy church is already revealed in scripture, we just need to read it and find out?"
          b. What is the reason for their success?
                   i. Their work of FAITH, steadfastness of HOPE, and their labor of LOVE
                           1. No mention of their methodology, structure, form, style, whatever
                  2. Kind of wish 2 Thessalonians was a methodology manual.
                           a. But, then we would try and stuff our culture into what worked for 1st C Palestine.  This is exactly what churches of all shapes and sizes are doing today.  We are refusing to critically look at the way we gather and operate as a kingdom of redeemed people and see if we are really impacting our culture or  are we just creating "holy hang-outs" for Christians to commute to whenever it is convenient

Body, Part 2: Where the Work of Faith Begins

A) It all starts with OBEDIENCE to what God has said!
         a. 1:6 “imitators of us, the Lord, received the Word”
         b. 1:9 “turned to God, rejected their idols”
         c. 2:13 “accepted the Word of God, acknowledged that it was working in their midst”
         d. 4:1 “told how to live and are doing it”
B) God’s will is not nearly as ambiguous as we like to think it is
         a. God has revealed enough of His will for us as a church that we don’t need anymore special revelation I believe this so strongly that I will write more about this separately.  I believe that this principle is true for individuals as well.
                    i. Serve one another, love one another, evangelize the community, present the Gospel in a culturally relevant way, etc.
                    ii. “Many times what we want from God is not a mandate that requires our faith, but a guarantee that in reality, faith was never needed”
                              1. We will fight as long as we know we have the victory 
                              2. We will try a new thing as long as we know it won’t fail.
                              3. We will go along with something as long as we are not inconvenienced, or get disappointed along the way, or even fail.
                              4. See the church of Thessalonica Their faith thrived in the midst of                                                       persecution.  This was all done in the context of no guarantee of their success or safety:
                                        a. 1:6 “received the Word in much persecution”
                                        b. 2:14 “you suffered the same persecution that others did”
                                        c. 3:3 “they would not be moved by the present afflictions”
                   iii. Realize that God does not guarantee success I will blog more on this as well, because I don't think we really think this is true!
                              1. He expects OBEDIENCE!
         c. A church begins to live by faith when it moves the things God has clearly said into the “NON-OPTIONAL” category By non-optional, I mean the above stated revelations of God's will (love one another, serve one another, etc).
                   i. Until this happens, we will never be a church known by its faith

Body, Part 3: Dream Big and Press On

A) “God wants us to do the possible, so that by faith He will do the impossible”
         a. OT example- 1 Samuel 14
                   i. Israelites in serious trouble- massive army of the Philistines coming at them
                            1. Saul only has 600 men left, and 2 swords! Everyone else ran and hid in holes, caves, graves, and cisterns.
                   ii. Jonathan decides to go with his armor bearer to see the advanced raiding party’s encampment
                   iii. His man with him doesn’t care about the odds, will go where Jonathan leads him as a side note, as a leader/pastor, this is  response is awesome!
                   iv. They get taunted, then invited up to the camp for a whoopin
                   v. The POSSIBLE-
                            1. Jonathan moved out to meet them Faith is not passively sitting back wishing                                God would act on your behalf.
                            2. Believed some truth about God These were trustworthy, bankable truths about God, enough revealed about Him to move forward-
                                      a. Israelites were His chosen people
                                      b. If God wanted to, He could deliver them
                            3. Did not wait for a guarantee of success Jonathan and his armor-bearer "went for it"
                   vi. The IMPOSSIBLE-

                            1. God routed the enemy, even though He was not pleased with Saul at the time

         b. From the ministry of Jesus
                   i. Luke 5:17-20
                            1. Jesus is teaching in a home, there is a massive crowd and the house is standing room only
                            2. Some friends grab their paralyzed buddy after hearing Jesus is in town and try to get him in
                            3. Not to be hindered, they climb on the roof, dig a hole, lower their friend down so that Jesus could heal him
                            4. Jesus saw their faith and healed the man
                            5. The POSSIBLE note the other, potentially "spiritual" actions they could have taken, all of which on the surface could be considered good in and of themselves.  They could have sent one guy to wait for Jesus to be done, and then plead with Him to come and heal their buddy.  They could have waited for Jesus to walk past the house (highly unlikely) and corral Him in.  They could have doubted that Jesus would have the time to minister to them and not taken any action.  They could have waited for "a sign from the Lord", "fleeced God" or whatever else Christians call it.  So their action is central to the story:
                                     a. Friends gathered their buddy to move him
                                              i. Were not daunted by the task ahead of them
                                              ii. Got there and were initially thwarted, but sought a different way to make it happen This was a legitimate obstacle in their way, no doubt.  But people of faith don't let setbacks deter them from the mission God had given them
                                    b. Dug a hole so that they could get him to Jesus
                                    c. Lowered him in
                          6. The IMPOSSIBLE:
                                    a. Jesus healed the man after commending them for their faith.
                 ii. Luke 7:1-10
                          1. Jesus again in Capernaum, approached by the elders of the Jews on behalf of a Gentile centurion and his sick servant
                                    a. They like this guy
                           2. Jesus agrees to come and see the sick servant
                           3. The Centurion sends others to meet Him before Jesus enters the house
                           4. Acknowledges that at Jesus’ word, the servant will be better because he recognizes Jesus’ authority is similar to his own
                           5. Jesus marvels at the depth of his faith and heals the servant
                           6. the POSSIBLE:
                                     a. Centurion heard Jesus was around and sent people to find Him
                                     b. Understood that a teacher of the Jews would probably respond better to Jews asking than a Gentile He was wise and understood the culture he was in
                                     c. Believed that all Jesus had to do was say a word and healing would take place
                           7. The IMPOSSIBLE:
                                     a. Jesus heals the servant after commending him for his faith

Conclusion of the Matter

A) God has revealed much of His will to us
B) Our response must be obedience to what He has commanded us to do
C) God wants us to move forward, advance the Kingdom and the Gospel here in Lynnwood as Grace Fellowship
D) He does not guarantee success, but will strengthen our body because of the movement we are doing
E) God just might make us a blessing to the area.

Attributes of God

I have been thinking this morning about some of the attributes of our glorious God.

I must confess that lately when I reflect about these attributes, it feels like a rather stale and tired subject. Is that heretical? Can I still be a pastor if I feel this way? How can the idea of an Omnipotent Creator be uninteresting, especially when it feels that this world is spinning out of control? Or how could the fact that God is Omniscient (all-knowing) be stale when there are so many experiences in our lives that don't make sense and it is comforting to really understand that God actually knows what is going on. How about that God is Just when everywhere you look injustice rears its ugly head?

I guess what I mean is that I have read countless books about God's attributes, have led inductive studies about them, have personally mined the riches of scripture to learn more about my King, and have even preached on some of these attributes. So I guess in my sinful nature I think that reflecting on the attributes is not profitable at this time. And yet I am drawn to our God, to know Him more clearly, and to join Him in the plan of Redemption through Jesus. I am drawn to His character and what makes Him who He is.

So I have come to realize that I need to explore the less taught, less understood, and lesser known attributes of our God.

Our God is a Redeemer. He takes that which is lost, helpless, hopeless, pathetic and brings it back to Himself making it found, restored, hopeful, and useful. People. Kingdoms. Nations. Churches. Creation.

Our God is a Sending God. When His people need Him, He sends a redeemer. Abraham. Moses. The Judges. Boaz. Jesus. He sent His son to save the world. As the Father has sent Jesus, now we are sent as ambassadors for Him.

Our God is a Creative God. Look around us. Since we are having winter in Seattle right now, who but God could have thought of and created clouds? Hail as opposed to snow as opposed to rain? I believe that not only does He create something from nothing, He is creative, that He actually takes great pleasure in creating. When He saw all that He had made He pronounced it good. After creating everything, "pronouncing it good" brings a smile to my face as I think of our Creator sitting back and delighting in His work.

Our God is Missional. He has a mission and a purpose for life, for His creation, His people. He welcomes us to join Him in this mission.

I think I need to reflect on these and put some of my thoughts out into the blogosphere for anyone and no one to see.

What are some other attributes that might not be as well known and understood?

What you care about vs. What you believe

I thought I would add a post looking closer at the quote I had posted last time. I had a number of people comment on it to me, and Dwayne was even brave enough to put his comment out there for everyone to see :).

The quote was:

"It is more important to change what people care about than it is to change what they believe."

So what do I mean by this?

We as Christians really have been programmed to think the other way around here. If people believe in the Gospel, what they care about will change as they are transformed by the truth of the Gospel. Their new belief system will begin to reorganize and re-prioritize their values. So we as Christians focus on the belief aspect, trusting that the truth of the Gospel once believed will change what people care about. If we act contrary to what we believe, then we ask if we even truly believed in the first place.

As I have been a Christian for almost 18 years now, practically speaking I have seen that this above attitude is different than what actually happens in the life of a follower of Jesus. What really takes place is our desires (what we care about) often times supersedes our beliefs. Or we believe something as long as it matches with what we really want. If what we care about does not fit, then we either justify our selfish decisions by stamping a dove and fish on it and calling it holy ("It's God's will for my life", "I feel called to...", etc) or we outright disobey what God wants.

Here are some examples

1) We believe that the Bible is true (we have all nodded in agreement when a preacher teaches this passage) when we are told in Hebrews 10:25 that we should not forsake assembling together, basically gathering together as believers (Sunday or otherwise). Yet we organize our lives and the activities our kids are involved in such that we are unable to "commit" to being a part of the body (sporadic Sunday attendance, missing nights in bible study, etc.) on a regular basis. What we care about supersedes what we believe.

2) We care about being happy and living a content life. We claim a verse like Jeremiah 29:11 to demonstrate that God wants us to have a prosperous life. So we make all our financial decisions based upon maintaining that level of happiness (most often determined by us, not God). Yet, the scriptures teach (and as bible believing Christians we believe) in 1 John 3:17 that if we see a brother or sister in need (context: material needs) and do not respond, the love of God does not dwell in us. How often do we sacrificially give in this type of situation, even when doing so would prevent us from financially being able to satisfy our own desires? Practically, we don't do as much as we could because to do so would prevent us from living the satisfied life we think God has for us. Again, what we care about supersedes what what we believe.

These are just a few examples. I did not go into sins such as lying, pornography, anger, etc. An easy place to start is to think about the idols we have set up in our lives; the "functional saviors" which will get us what we want apart from Jesus. These idols are what we care about most. What is"eye-opening" with this is that whether it's a conscious decision or not, our idols oftentimes overrule our beliefs.

I maintain that if we can change what we really care about: our hopes, dreams, passions, priorities, etc., and submit these cares to Jesus and the scriptures, our beliefs would actually match what we desire and we can stop being hypocrites.

Just some thoughts.

What this is

So, as I said in the sermon today, I would love for this to become a place where we at Grace (and other friends and family) can come and communicate together about serving our King Jesus and having our church best reflect the awesome, amazing, transforming, dynamic, transcendent.... (add your own adjective here) God.

Unfinished Part of the Sermon and other missing comments!

Here are some missing ideas from my sermon, and one addition from Susan Kalnins.

Via Susan: (In response to my open question "Can we do this at Grace?") We will not be able to do this without the Holy Spirit. If He is not empowering us to do this, it will never happen. The reason many movments and ideas fail is because it was people driven and not Spirit driven. May we all remember that, thank you Susan.

The quote I wanted us to think about: "It is more important to change what people care about than it is to change what they believe."

From the sermon:

I wanted to very briefly expand upon one of the ideas I actually covered. When I said that the people in the new community were "willing participants" I wanted to add an idea that was in my notes, but I forgot to say it. Our churches can be so focused on rules and regulations that we almost do what we do because we have to, not because we want to. Joy is replaced with Law. Freedom is replaced by bondage.

Churches can destroy the spirit with man-made rules and regulations. We are more concerned with obeying and following the rules of our ethos than willingly following for the greater good. What made the new community in Acts so different is that they were in community together with willing devotion (vs. 42), doing things totally different because their ethos was now motivated by the Cross, and baptism and their new metaphors were the teaching of the apostles, fellowship, breaking of bread, and the prayers.

How do we begin to change the ethos here at Grace? (the last part of the sermon, did not get to this. These are just some ideas, I would love to have some other ones posted here as well)

1) Understand the power of words

The number of descriptors we have to describe a sub-metaphor (in the church this would be things that are not "the cross", "communion", etc, but words like the ones below) shows how much that ethos is informing what we do and say.

How many words (and what are they) do we use here at Grace to describe community? What about worship, fellowship, and church? I was talking with one of our sisters at Grace the other day and she commented that while she understands that Christian's need to be in community together, she could not easily define what that word meant for us as a people.

Do we use words like “risk, sacrifice, catalyze/ist, innovative, creative, fail, challenge?” These seem to be words that are used often in the business world, but don't seem to "fit" the vocabulary of church.

I would maintain that if we are to begin to change the ethos of Grace, we need to have many words which will describe our ministry. The more words are a part of our vocabulary here, the more the ethos will change.

2) Understand the power of the arts

Art moves us emotionally, spiritually (think Passion of the Christ), psychologically, etc. Unfortunately, the church, while reflecting the values of capitalism and pragmatism, has neglected the importance of aesthetics (the arts, music, the "space" we gather in, etc). If you accept my premise in the sermon that our ethos shapes our gatherings (and the many nodding heads either indicated you did or you were all dozing off!), then one way to change our ethos to better follow the Acts 2 model is to realize that we are heavy on reason and weak on romance. The image of a “biblical congregation” has been one in which the teacher taught and the people were students in the Bible school of God, but the arts were absent. Often they are downplayed or scorned as being depraved, subjective, or whatever.

Why is it that we who worship the God of creativity see so little of it when we come together? To create a new ethos, the fingerprint of God’s creative hand should be all around us. I dream of a day when local churches around the world will be known for their wellspring of creativity and the Quentin Tarrantino’s, Martin Scorcese's, and the Coldplay’s of the world will look to us as reflectors of the Creator.

3) Understand the power of Metaphor

Our whole existence should be motivated by the cross (the need to die to ourselves), baptism (raised to new life in Him), Communion, and teaching the “way of Jesus”.

This is key. If the above truths were what was motivating our gatherings, we would truly see a radical change begin to happen. I firmly believe that this is a make-or-break point for all churches (and Grace in particular). If we are to break free of our capitalisic, self-driven lifestyles and really embrace the Kingdom, then the metaphors which shape our ethos must change.

Here is part 3

Problem #3: We have lost sight of the Mission

There is no need to re-invent the wheel when it comes to the Missio Dei. Jesus told us in Matt 28, right? All authority is His. Go and make disciples (win them to Christ), baptize them into the family, and teach them to obey everything he has commanded. That's it. We have our mission. But we have lost sight of that as a church. Here are some ways (not a comprehensive list):

The church is known for being a hang out for Right-wing Republicans who don't like gay people, don't respect a women's right to choose, and don't want people to have health care who can't afford it. How sad that the life changing, dynamic message of Jesus has been reduced to this. Do I think gay marrige is wrong and homosexuality a sin? Of course. Is abortion wrong? Yes, it is an abomination. However, are we known for social justice? Not really. How about as stewards of God's creation? No, we actually make fun of people who are (tree-huggers!). How about being loving or compassionate? Sadly this is also a NO.

I am a pastor. I have seen first hand what happens when a church loses sight of the mission. We focus on the little things. We nit-pick each other to death. We try and "out religious" the other person. We fight and split over tertiary issues. I was an operations manager in a company and my employees were more gracious than some brothers and sisters in the church. Maybe it was because I could fire them . Rest assured, I have learned that to be a pastor means to have a soft heart, a thick skin, and wear a good cup.

We need to understand 1) what the Kingdom is about, 2) have the Kingdom inform and direct our mission, and 3) gather together with like-minded Christ-followers and pursue that mission. The mission should be culture specific. Every activity that the church does should align with that mission. Whatever hinders the mission needs to be dropped outright or changed so that it can bring about the Kingdom mission that God wants accomplished. We need to drop our "sacred cows" of church praxis for the sake of the Gospel.

Brain Seay, the brother Chris Seay (an emerging dude on the fringe of orthodoxy) made a good point about the mission of God in a book which recorded the converstaions of 3 generations of pastors about church. He said the when Kingdom people quibble and argue over little things like style of music, dress, layout of the building (ironically some of the issues here in the history of Grace) it reflects the fact that they have lost sight of the mission. When people are on mission together, and the fulfillment of that mission is clearly informing their actions, these secondary issues become more and more irrelevant in thre greater calling from God.

So here is part two of my rantings about the 3 biggest problems facing the church today.

Problem #2: The Church needs to stop thinking that our society is the same as it was a generation ago, hit the "reset" button, and become innovative with our mission.
Our world is changing so fast now, one can hardly keep up! This is one area where the church just does not seem to have a clue. But it (the church) should take heart because many people in the world today can't keep up as well.

We need to realize that most of our current church forms and praxis were cultural accomodations to a society that no longer exists. I am not overstating the issue when I say that many churches are lost in a time warp. We use our own language and terms (many of which have no meaning to people, even those who are in the church). We make people sit down in rows and listen to someone give a monologue (where else in society does anyone do this on a regular basis other than a comedy club, school, or something?) and sing some songs which sound nothing like music they listen to outside of church. We expect that people are still approaching truth from a propositional standpoint, still learn through abstract thought, and on and on it goes. Some churches still quibble over whether or not you should have drums and guitars or just organs, alcohol or "dry", dress, fill in the blanks. All the while our young people drift out the doors, society has long passed us by, and we are further on the fringe of society. It is very sad.

By innovative, I am not talking about the next church fad, ala Purpose Driven/Seeker models. Nor am I thinking that it should be a great showy, attractional event that is so cool people will want to bring their friends. I am saying that we need to critically examine every form we have adopted for our gatherings and determine whether or not they fit with the mission God has for us. If I were pastoring a retirement community in Florida, I would have a more traditional church service, more like the institutional models. But that would never work for a bunch of chain smoking indie rockers. So we need to innovate and change what we do for the sake of the Gospel. It's like a closed and open hand. In the closed hand we have the core elements of the faith, the truths worth contending for like Jude 3 says. Divinity and Lordship of Christ, Triune God, Jesus the only way to get to heaven, etc. But then in the open hand is everything else. Forms of church, tertiary doctrinal issues (tongues, rapture, millenium and the like), personal preferences, etc.

In my opinion, unless the church pulls its head out of the sand and embraces the reality of change, we will be no different that Europe, we are just a generation behind.

So I thought I would post this as my first post on this blog. It was on my school's forum and the question was "What are the 3 biggest challenges facing the church today?" These are my thoughts on the issue, part 1. Feel free to comment if you want to add something or just want to give a shout out.

Problem #1: The church has forgetten what it means to Incarnate the Gospel

It is helpful for me to think about the Incarnation in this whole process. Jesus came to 1st C Palestine. He came in a culturally specific way. Male, working class, Jewish, itinerant, etc. This was a crucial example to us. He chose to Incarnate the Good News in such a way that the message would be heard by the most people. Would he have had the same audience if he came to the same scenario as a woman? No. How about as one in a Pharasiaical family? No. What about as a cultural elite (like the Sadducees)? NO. He incarnated the Gospel in such a way that he would have no cultural barrier to the ones he was called to. At the end of John's gospel, Jesus prays for His people and says "as the Father has sent me, so I send you".

His mandate with the message is not to "market it", as if we can apply business priciples to grow churches. His mandate was for his people in every culture, place, time, etc to incarnate the Good News in such a way that our message won't get "Lost in Translation".

I live in the greater Seattle area. Less than 8% of our 5 million people attend any kind of church on Sunday. Throw out the liberal wacko churches and the number is alot less. Not only that, but we are now into our second generation of people (high school and new college) who are removed from any concept of Church attendence and even being formed within a Christian worldview. Now, I am a Reformed Theologian and a pastor. But, God has called me to be a missionary to this time and place. NOT to the 14th or 15th C. NOT to the 1st C. NOT to a society where the predominant world view was shaped by Christendom. NOT to a society where the church is considered the central place for spiritual answers. Therefore, as a good missionary, I need to do my "market research". I need to know the people whom God has called me to, what their hopes, dreams, and passions are, how they communicate, where they play, what their idols are, what is sacred to them, etc. Then, I need to engage them in their culture with the transformative truth of the Gospel. I need to constantly see how God would have me "Incarnate" His Good News, to re-tell their cultural narrative through the lens of the Gospel.

What generally happens in many churches is that we err in two ways. We have a tendency to over contextualize and ultimately compromise the Gospel or we withdraw from our culture, hunkering down in our bunkers with our rapture charts out, waiting for Jesus to come back .

A good balance with all of this is to approach the idols that our culture holds sacred. We need to decide what elements can be recieved. There are many aspects to our society which point to Jesus, Film, arts, music, etc all have elements that point us to God. These need to be recieved by Christians and affirmed as reflecting truth about God. We also need to decide what elements can be redeemed. These can be good things that have been turned into "God things". I think of the environmentalists. If anyone should be in the forefront of this it should be us Christians. Instead, we have neglected our responsibility to be stewards of the earth and have let others do it who are worshiping the creation instead of the Creator. Christians need to redeem this element of society back to Jesus, to show people what it means to steward the Creators world, not to worship it. Finally, we need to see what needs to be rejected. There are aspects of our society that are truly evil and must never be accepted. However, as a pastor I have found that when we are humbly engaging in the culture, recieving and redeeming elements back to Jesus, people are more open to hear why things need to be rejected.

Really, me and some fellow pastors in our network have concluded that you are right on in your ministry when you are shot at by both sides. The conservatives think you are too worldly and the liberals think you are too conservative!