Where is this church going? (Romans 10:12-15)
Billy Milton - June 5, 2005
When the Service Planning Group last met they decided to leave one Sunday free for me to preach on whatever I wanted. This is it! During the few months leading up to today I’ve been giving some thought as to what I should use this free slot for and up until a few weeks ago I was undecided. Then someone said to me that they would find it really useful to know where the Elders think that this church is going in the next few years so that they could intelligently support that vision. So that’s why I chose the title, “Where is this church going?” Hopefully by the end of today you will feel able to throw your weight behind the vision that the Elder’s have for this church.
I was at a conference a couple of years ago when Bill Hybels, the Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Church in Chicago, was talking about the phenomenal growth of his church. When he was asked what the secret of his church’s explosive growth was he replied, “The main thing, is to keep the main thing, the main thing.” REPEAT SLOWLY Tom Peters, in his highly successful book ‘A Passion for Excellence’ said a similar thing about business and used the phrase ‘stick to the knitting’ to describe those businesses that were in general most successful. I suppose the main lesson that both Hybels and Peters in their different fields of expertise are trying to emphasise is that of focus. The problem with most churches is that the bulk of those who attend them are not too sure where to focus or what the ‘main thing’ is for their church. They don’t really know where their church is going. A Pastor friend of mine described his church as being like a football match - 22 people very busy in the middle and hundreds supporting from the sidelines! Now, who’s to blame for that situation? The players in the middle who are already very busy or the folk in the terraces who’d perhaps like to get into the team but don’t quite know how to join up?
What I hope to do today is to give you a broad outline of the reasons why KRC exists so that you can say to yourself, “Is what I am doing contributing towards that goal?” Or perhaps you might say, “Now that I know what this church’s aims are I can help them achieve it by doing X, Y, or Z.” In short, my desire is that every member of this church, if they were to be asked by a visitor, “Where is your church going?” they would be able to give them a clear, concise response.
Did you know that as a church we have a Mission Statement? It has been in existence for a number of years and it appears on the notice sheet every week. Who can tell me what our Mission Statement is? Yes, you’re right it is…
“Serving Christ together ~ making him known to today’s world”
I personally think that this statement encapsulates rather well what we want the ‘main thing’ to be in our church. Of course it doesn’t go into great detail about all our activities, nor is it a statement of faith - they are both contained in another leaflet that we have available [SHOW IT]. This Mission Statement simply provides the guidelines within which all of our activities function. They are, if you like, the reins that control the horse. If we don’t pull against the reins of our Mission Statement we should end up going in the right direction. Whatever we do, if we are maintaining our focus, we should be able to answer yes to the question, “Does this activity help us achieve our Mission Statement?”
For instance,
Q. Why do we have a Family Service each week? A. Making him known…
Q. Why do we have flower rotas; coffee rotas; etc? A. Serving Christ together…
Q. Why do we run a Holiday Club? A. Making him known to today’s world.
There are two obvious elements to this Mission Statement that I want to home in on this morning:-
1. SERVING
2. PROCLAIMING.
1. SERVING
If you’ve been coming here for any length of time you’ll have discovered that we are not a church that likes to be ostentatious about the practice of our faith. We don’t decorate our building in overtly religious ways because our focus is not on buildings, its on people. And we don’t make a big distinction between clergy and laity, for instance. Furthermore, the elders don’t see themselves as the ‘bosses’ of the church but rather we genuinely view ourselves as the ‘servants’ of the church. As a result we believe that every member should be developing a ‘Service attitude’ rather than a ‘Serve us attitude’. Do you see the distinction?
Many church members have a ‘serve us’ attitude which means that when anything changes the members feel threatened because the raison d’etre of their church is to make them feel comfortable. The elders of this church fundamentally believe that making the believers comfortable is not our job! One of the key elements in shifting that wrong attitude is by identifying people’s gifts and then empowering them to use that gift. Eph 4:11-12, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up…” In terms of service, this is a most powerful concept once you grasp it. Let me explain.
And of course our example for serving comes directly from Jesus himself. Take a look again at the verses X read to us:
1 Peter 4:7-11 The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.”
Romans 1:8-10“God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how I constantly remember you in my prayers..”
Mark 10:43-45 “..Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
The model could not be clearer. If Jesus himself came “not to be served but to serve” then surely that is the example we must follow? And serving Christ together will automatically mean serving one another and serving our neighbours as well. Doesn’t this message fly right in the face of modern thought which tells us to look after number one and don’t worry who you trample on on your way to the top. Survival of the fittest and all that jazz. I came across the following example of serving in this moving story from Don Cormack’s book: ‘Killing Fields – Living Fields’ p421
Now I know that we will struggle in Berkhamsted to replicate that type of serving, but it’s the attitude that I am more concerned about. The attitude which says I will treat you like a king or a queen even if it means me putting my head lower than the dirt on your feet. It’s that service attitude that we need to consciously develop in this church.
2. Proclaiming
The second part of our mission statement is to do with ‘proclaiming’. Again, as with serving, examples of proclamation are all over the Bible from Jonah to Jesus but there is just one passage that I want to focus on and we heard it preached on a few weeks ago by Mary and read to us earlier. Its found in Romans 10:12-15 and it is for me one of the most challenging passages in the Bible. It reads as follows:
For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” [ELABORATE]
How can those outside of Christ hear the Gospel without someone who is prepared to tell them? That’s where this church is going. We want to make the gospel message known to the people of Berkhamsted and beyond. And like Paul in Acts 15:19, we want to do it in a way that does not make it difficult for those outside to come in. To accomplish that the Elders have focused on some specific goals.
- We want to expand the accommodation in this building because right now we are more than 80% full every week and beyond a shadow of a doubt, we are losing people because they no longer feel that they need to be here or that they will really be missed if they stop coming.
- We’d like to see that becoming reality in the next 3 years.
- That could cost in the region of £500 000+
- We are aware that we are not effectively reaching the children of our town and so we want to bring in a qualified and experienced children’s worker to add to the team. Hopefully that will be within 6 months.
- We need to continue to be outlooking even as we strengthen our infrastructure. To that end my involvement with the actual bricks and mortar will remain very limited so that my focus remains on the Pastoring (rather than the plastering!)
- That means more Alpha’s; more parenting courses; more marriage courses; and starting in September, regular courses for new believers to help them get bedded into their faith.
- We also want to maintain and develop a strong missionary focus. Recently we have supported Claire, Andrew, Jacky, Peter + all our full time missionaries and we want to continue and increase our support.
Lastly, we as elders want to help people to realise the privilege, indeed neccessity, of learning good stewarding. That is, the looking after of our time, our families, our gifts and our money. I don’t have time to expound on all of these areas but let me concentrate on finances. Much of what I’ve outlined already needs financing …and we are not very healthy in this area at the moment. I want to ask you a very serious question – have you discovered the joy of tithing yet? By that I mean the setting aside of a specific proportion of your income to give to the Lord. It is honouring God with the first fruits of your income. It is such a freeing thing to do. It is worship. A young couple came to me after the Global Day of Prayer to give £500 to the ReachOut project. I asked them if they were sure they could afford it. Do you know what they said, “Its not our money.”
I know that God will bless that type of response as contrasted with another couple I spoke to a long time ago who told me that they gave nothing to the church because they could not afford it and they would just leave it to the wealthy people to give. That couple are still struggling financially and, surprise, surprise, no longer go to church at all. Giving joyfully is an absolute essential for any growing Christian and I want to challenge you this morning to examine your giving; examine the vision of this church; put the two together and watch God blessing your commitment. Please speak to Myra at the end to set up standing orders and so on. That way your money gets to church even when you don’t. Don’t swallow the lie of the Devil that you cannot afford to give money to God. It’s a strange match up but the most joyful Christians I know are also the ones who give most generously. I say that because of my experience as a treasurer in a couple of churches. Switch your thinking from sacrifice to worship. Speak to Myra. Own this vision and let’s serve Christ together and make his name known to those we come into contact with.