Lets Build A Church
Welcome back everyone hope your summer vacation was enjoyable and a time of rest and fun. Im sure some of you went camping, some went boating and others shopping.
Regardless of what you did this summer Im glad youve come back to church to pick up where we left off.
Since April of this year I have had the privilege to act as your substitute for a full-time minister. I very much enjoy these Sundays and I have learned a lot about myself and about the bible as we have worshiped together.
I have tried my best to give you what God puts upon my heart each week in the hope that what I share is both useful and challenging. But here we are again with me acting as a substitute for the real thing.
I met with our moderator Rev. Chuck Congram this past week and we talked about how things were going. For the most part I think they are going pretty well but I do feel so much more could be done if you had a full-time minister.
Now Im not looking to put myself out of a job its just that you as a church need to decide just what you want New St. Andrews to be and you need to identify what needs are not being met vs. those that are being met.
So in the mean time we will continue as we are until Christmas and then you and your elders and the moderator can review and evaluate just what direction your church needs to go. So in the weeks and months to come I want you all to be praying about the future of New St. Andrews and what you want that future to look like.
Today I want to talk about building this church and share with you how we can go about it.
Psalm 127:1 NIV
Psalm 126
A song of ascents. Of Solomon.
1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
Even though we sit in this beautiful building we must be mindful that it is just that, a beautiful building. A church is not brick and stone but it is the lives of those who are changed by knowing Christ and those who are seeking to know Him.
Matthew Chapter 7
The Wise and Foolish Builders
24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
28When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Jesus tells us that we need to build our church on the rock and not the sand. We need a sure foundation. He also tells us that we need to put into practice the words that he has given us.
Well what has Jesus told us? He told us a lot. But he also gave us a couple of powerful lines to help us remember the most important things.
Mark 12
The Greatest Commandment
28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e] 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.[f] 31The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.[g]There is no commandment greater than these."
You know friends Im in an awkward place here. Im trying to help you build a church and Im not very good when it comes to construction. When I was first married we lived in a little country house about 4 miles from town. I worked a lot of shifts and nights so I thought having a dog around would give my wife some protection.
I brought home a puppy not a dog. But soon he grew and grew into a large dog and it was time for him to have his own dog house. This is where it gets a little embarrassing. You see I got hold of a wooden pallet and I figured I could use that as the floor of the dog house. All I needed to do was build the side walls and a roof. Being the carpenter I am, I started with the roof. I know now that what I tried to do was well intentioned but I had no design and I choose to start at the wrong place.
The structure that I ended up with looked nothing like a dog house but it was big enough for the dog and it did provide modest shelter so thats what I had.
As I work here for the Lord and for your church I want to be careful to follow a plan of construction and work from a proven design so that we end up with a happy vibrant, growing Christ centered church that serves the spiritual needs and hopes of the members and the community.
So since you already have a roof and a floor and strong walls there is not too much for me to mess up in terms of the building. But I need to know what you have on the inside in order to know how we present ourselves and our church to the community on the outside.
I want to listen to your stories about how Jesus changed your life. I want you to be willing to tell that story to me to your church and to anyone else who will listen. But I want to make sure you know when to share and to whom to share. You see there is no sermon to equal the power of the personal testimony of a Christian.
Now back to building our church. We do it by building on Jesus, who is the rock and the cornerstone. You may not be the kind of Christian who can talk to a stranger easily or who can speak to a group or crowd. But you may be the kind that can bake cookies, send a greeting card or give someone a lift to the doctors. Yet there still are Christians who can share their testimonies and you can be sure God will use you too.
Jesus demonstrated for us that a one on one witness is a very powerful way to communicate Gods plan of salvation. So lets do just that. Lets agree to build our church by being willing to share our faith as God gives us opportunity. That opportunity may be to listen to someone, to cry with someone, to pray with someone or to share with someone from our own life with God.
The early church was most influential because they met in small groups and in homes. Lets try to invite people to our homes, lets learn hospitality and exercise friendship. Better yet lets do it around Gods word with a bible study or prayer group. Maybe you could start one or join one. Then we could invite them to our church once they feel comfortable with whom we are.
We also need to identify our gifts as a church. We need to take a kind of inventory of our strengths and talents. Then we can apply them to building the house of God using skill and wisdom as we let God use us.
The early church was famous for sharing everything in common. They lived in a kind of Christian subdivision and owned only four lawn mowers because everyone borrowed or shared each others tools. Well it was something like that.
We need to borrow things from each other more than we are used to. This will lead to more visiting and more hospitality and we will get to know each other more. It may also lead to more equipment repairs but we can all share the costs.
We need to come together for a formal worship service and time of prayer. We do this to please God and to demonstrate our love for God to the community that is all around us. We need to sing, to laugh, to cry to praise and to make music all out of love for our God.
If we agree to do these things we can get on with building a church. I will be with you at least until Christmas so that gives us about 12 to 16 weeks to take the first steps at building our church together. We need to be going in a direction or we will end up wondering in the wilderness for forty years like the Hebrews did.
In the old-testament there is a very detailed story in the book of Nehemiah that describes how the Jews went back to Jerusalem to rebuild its walls. The work required that everyone help, the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the skilled and the unskilled. We at New St. Andrews need to follow that example and we need to agree that we want to build our church and we need to agree that we will all work together. God has already given us a great design and a pattern of many years of success from which to draw on but now we need a new pattern.
We need to ask God to give us a vision for what he wants our church to be. Will we stay a little country church can we stay a little country church? Is it time for us to be a larger congregation? Should we focus on seniors or youth or missions or community issues?
I think the most important thing is that we be willing to let God make us into that which he desires. In order for that to happen we must then be the putty in his hands.
In closing I want you to do seven things over the next four months.
1.Be willing to witness and let your life be a witness to others.
2.Visit one another and talk about the things of God, the church and pray about it together.
3.Study Gods bible, even if its just a little bit, open His word and discover its riches.
4.Identify your gifts. Cooking, greeting, sewing, listening, teaching, speaking, singing etc.
5.Share what you have with your brothers and sisters in Christ. If you see a need address it.
6.Come to church regularly, make a statement to your family, neighbors, friends let them see youre serious about being with God on Sunday.
7.Sing, listen to Christian music, Christmas songs, and learn to praise God. Even in the difficult circumstances. Give Him thanks and praise.
Ezra 3:11 NIV
With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD : "He is good; his love to Israel endures forever." And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.
Let us rejoice for the foundation is already laid all we have to do is continue the work.
