During Superbowl XXXVII, FedEx ran a commercial that spoofed the movie Castaway. You probably remember the movie. Tom Hanks plays a FedEx worker whose company plane went down, stranding him on a desert island for years.
The Hanks character was assigned the task of looking after a particular package which he safeguarded through his entire ordeal. In the movie, we never learn what was in the package.
In the commercial, looking like the bedraggled Hanks in the movie, the FedEx employee goes up to the door of a suburban home, package in hand. When the lady comes to the door, he explains that he survived five years on a deserted island, and during that whole time he kept this package in order to deliver it to her.
She gives a simple, "Thank you."
But he is curious about what is in the package that he has been protecting for years. He says, "If I may ask, what was in that package after all?"
She opens it and shows him the contents, saying, "Oh, nothing really. Just a satellite telephone, a global positioning device, a compass, a water purifier, and some seeds."
Sometimes we have all the resources that we need if we just open the package.
Church Growth is a hot topic. If you do a search on the internet for church growth resources you will find thousands of companies and organization that promise that they can provide exactly what you need.
• You need a slick web site and we will design that for you.
• You need a whole new image. We’ll help you coordinate all of your communications.
• You need our consultants to help you.
• You need demographic information and a targeted direct marketing campaign.
• You need new audio and video equipment.
• You need our curriculum material. You need our music.
• You need to attend our seminars and buy our tapes.
I need to say that I think there is some real value to some of these offers. We, as a church, need to do things in an intelligent manner. We do need to be concerned about our image.
While it makes sense to use the best tools that we can to spread our message, we are not selling soap and there should be a difference. There is no simple answer.
Everybody wants to be an Act 2:47 Church. 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
We need to read the preceding verses. Acts 2:42 comes before Acts 2:47. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers
The goal should not be church growth, the goal should be church health. A church that attracts new members but is unhealthy does more harm than good. A healthy church will grow naturally.
Growing a healthy church takes time.
There are no short cuts to maturity. It takes years for us to grow to adulthood, and it takes a full season for fruit to mature and ripen. The same is true for the fruit of the Spirit. The development of Christ like character cannot be rushed. Spiritual growth, like physical growth, takes time.
When you try to ripen fruit quickly, it loses its flavor. In America, tomatoes are usually picked green so they won’t bruise during shipping to the stores. Then, before they are sold, these green tomatoes are sprayed with CO2 gas to turn them red instantly. Gassed tomatoes are edible, but they are no match to the flavor of a vine-ripened tomato that is allowed to mature slowly.
Acts 2:42 says that the early church devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. The great commission says make disciples.
A big part of the burden for this rests right here. Since I am the one who is generally in the pulpit, making sure that sound and effective teaching takes place in the church every week is my job. It is not that I am somehow gifted with super spirituality or great wisdom. By I am given a responsibility to study and proclaim the eternal truth of God in a way that relates to our world today. You need to know that I take that seriously.
But it isn’t just me. There is more to growing in the understanding of Scripture. There is no substitute within the church for having a solid educational program. It is important that we have good curriculum and dedicated teachers. We need to offer options for different ages, maturity levels, and interests.
But education is not just an organizational effort. The believers, the members of this first church, devoted themselves to learning. We too need to be responsible for taking advantage of opportunities that are offered, and there are resources out there beyond what the church provides. There are good books to read – Linda or I can make suggestions. There are video studies that can be watched at home. You might even consider getting together with a few people in your neighborhood – they don’t all have to be part of this congregation. The point is personal maturity and growth.
And while we are on the topic of education, you might think about formal education. There has been an explosion of distance learning opportunities. If you want to take a college or seminary level course on some topic, you now can find classes that you can take from your own home.
The next thing that verse 42 mentions is good fellowship. Sometimes ministers discount the importance of fellowship, it just doesn’t seem spiritual enough. But the simple truth is that the majority of people who come to a church are invited by a friend. And believe it or not, most of them don’t come to hear great preaching, they come to be with that friend. More than that, the number one reason why people stay at a church is not because they have grown to appreciate the great preaching. They stay because of the friendships that they have developed or deepened with others in the congregation.
Being a friendly congregation is not a marketing gimmick, it is part of our Christian calling. When a visitor walks through that door, it is imperative that they feel welcome and cared for. They will not hear the gospel from the pulpit unless they see it in pew.
Inevitably, there will be disputes that arise between people within the congregation. Paul advises us to “put up with one another in love.” That is not pie in the sky stuff - that is as down to earth as it gets. Within our congregation we will find people with whom we disagree on very basic issues. Still, we must always remember that those things that unite us are much more important than the things that might divide us. Any energy that we waste in disputes within the family is diverted from the basic mission of the church.
We’re conditioned. As soon as we hear “breaking of bread” we think communion, and that is partially true, but when the New Testament speaks of “breaking of bread” it means something more.
Yes, when the early church gathered and broke bread together, it was a remembrance of last supper and the sacrifice of Christ that established the new covenant. Remember that we are a people called together. Not so much a group of saints in the modern understanding of that word, but a group of forgiven sinners. At times we are called “hypocrite” but only because we recognize that we are called to a standard higher than we have attained.
But in the early church, the “breaking of bread” was not a symbolic meal as we practice today. It was a full meal. For many in the early church, it was the difference between going hungry and being fed. It was a place where slaves and citizen alike could sit at table together. A place where station was forgotten and people were valued as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Today, Park observes communion whenever we gather. That is good, but it isn’t enough. If we want to be the kind of congregation that we have read about this morning, we need to be a church that welcomes others - that reaches across social and cultural barriers. Most importantly, we need to be a congregation that constantly retains Christ and the gift of God’s grace as central to all that we do. “Breaking Bread” is not about little wafers. “Breaking Bread” is about an open and inviting table where both physical and spiritual needs are met.
This early church in Acts devoted themselves to prayer. There is no such thing as healthy church without it. Why, what does prayer do for us.
First, as we pray our goal is not to make our request known to God. God knows. Much of what we are doing is making ourselves conscious of God’s perspective and aligning ourselves with it. When we honestly voice our concerns to God we are forced to make them specific and explicit. That gives us clarity. In addition, as we bring those to God we can’t help but think about how they sound. Are we being selfish? Are we focused on the details or do we see a bigger picture? Are the desires of our heart true to the character of God? Prayer changes us.
Never is prayer so powerful as when we pray for a family member or friend whose alienation from God is causing real pain in their life. As we pray for that person we begin to share in that divine desire to welcome them into the kingdom. We see the hurt that arises when life is lived without a meaningful purpose. We also heighten our sensitivity to opportunities to share our faith in ways that could redeem a life.
I also believe that prayer makes a real difference in what happens in the world. I can’t explain the mechanism in any scientific sense, but I truly believe that God is active in our world. Our prayers do have an impact on what happens.
I’m into numbers - my undergraduate degree is in math - so I look at the research statistics on church participation.
The number one reason that people give for not attending church is that it is too boring. I think about that every time I write a sermon. I try to keep them from being boring and I usually succeed. Right Linda? Wake up Linda. Oh well.
The second most common reason for not attending church is that it is irrelevant. I think about that too. I ask myself if what I’m saying is something that applies to everyday life.
The third most common reason is the perception that the church is just after people’s money. Because of that, I really make an effort not to place too much emphasis on money. And as a matter of fact, we have been blessed and Park’s current financial condition is good, so I don’t need to stand here and beg for money.
Still, I can’t talk about this particular passage without talking about the importance of generosity in a growing church. This passages talks about people selling what they have and giving it to the church to be distributed to those in need.
Am I going to ask you to give everything that you have to God? Actually I am. If you accept that Christ is Lord of your life then all of your resources should be used in accordance with God’s direction. But that doesn’t mean that I am asking you to give everything to the church.
So how much should you give. To me, that is a matter of your own spiritual maturity and I am not going to dictate a “right answer” to you, but I will tell you something about my own journey in this area.
I have known for a long time that a tithe, ten percent, was the Old Testament standard. I reasoned, and maybe some of you reason this way, that we are not bound by the law, but by grace. The amount is not as important as the heart and the devotion. And, in truth, everything belongs to God anyway. This reasoning led me to reject any standard and, as a result, I gave less than ten percent to the church.
But there was a problem that I had to face. While we are under grace, not the law, it is always true that grace calls us to a higher standard, not a lower one. I came to the conclusion that I should be using at least ten percent of my money to further God’s kingdom. However, I interpreted that broadly. I started counting up all of my donations to charities and such. I thought that I would be doing the right thing if I could get the total of my giving to everything up to ten percent.
As we grew in our appreciation for all of the work of the church, Linda and I came to the conclusion that the church should receive at least ten percent and that anything else that we did would be above that number. This was a tough decision for us to make, but it strengthened our commitment.
Most recently, we began looking at the concept of first fruits. I had always thought of tithing like this. You know how when you plant squash, or most anything else, you either have none of it, or it comes in like gangbusters and you have an abundance. When you have an abundance, it is easy to imagine giving a portion of that back to God’s work. I thought about people in the Old Testament having a big harvest that comes in all at once and them taking their tithe from the abundance. That was not the way it was. When the crops just started coming in, the Jewish faithful would estimate what the total harvest would be and would offer the first fruits, the first ten percent, to the Temple. They would give the tithe, not from their abundance, but before they even knew for sure what they would have. It was an act of commitment. It was an act of faith. It was a risk.
So what is the equivalent of first fruits for us? To tell you the truth, Linda manages our finances from week to week. She came to a conclusion about what we should be doing and only told me a few weeks later that we were doing it. We had been basing our tithe on what we brought home, and for me that was significantly less than my salary. She concluded, and I eventually agreed, that the modern equivalent of first fruits giving, is giving on a gross, not a net, basis. So that is where we are. One tenth of our gross income goes to the church. That happens first and any other giving comes after.
Here is the biggest benefit that I have experienced from a sacrificial level of giving. It caused me to focus. As long as what I gave fit comfortably in the family budget, I didn’t have to make any hard decisions. As we began to give more, I had to pay much more attention to where money was being spent and why. I had to focus on those things that were truly important and begin to eliminate anything that diverted me from my purpose. Gaining focus is like pruning a branch. The stuff that you cut away is not necessarily bad, but its saps energy and dilutes efforts. When I was forced to make conscious decisions about where my resources would go, I found myself making better decisions in every area. The tithe, at least for me, sets a standard that demands that I do things purposefully. It makes a difference in who I am and what I do.
I want to repeat that I am not advocating the return to the law and I not trying to hold you to a particular standard. I don’t know what anyone else gives and I don’t want to know. But I would like to encourage you, wherever you are in your financial commitment to the church, to seriously consider taking it up a notch. If you aren’t giving a tenth of your take home, try taking a step in that direction. If you are tithing on a net basis, prayerfully consider moving to a gross basis. And even if you are giving a tenth of your gross income, listen carefully to determine if God is moving you to another level.
There is no question that a healthy church is a giving church. The primary benefit is not that the church has more resources to use in its work, though that does help. The primary reason is that a giving church is a committed and focused church where the members of the congregation are listening to God’s direction. They are active and involved because they want to see their resources put to good use.
I like spicy food. I say that comes from growing up in New Mexico. My wife blames my allergies claiming that I can’t smell or taste anything unless it is strong. The McIlhenry Tabasco Sauce folks have adopted the Scoville Heat Unit scale to rate the spiciness of their sauce. To give you an idea, catsup would be about a zero on the Scoville heat unit scale. Their mild Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce would rate about 600 Scoville Heat Units; their medium tempered Tabasco Pepper Sauce would rate about 5,000 Scoville Heat Units, and their hottest sauce, Tabasco Jabenero Sauce would rate a five-alarm 9,000 Scoville Units!
Jesus says that we should be the salt of the earth. Maybe he should have said the slasa of the earth. I want you to rate the heat of your salsa on the Tabasco Scale! Is the zestiness of your faith just starting to warm up like the Green Sauce (and praise God if it is!), or is your commitment as a Christian growing and becoming zesty like the Pepper Sauce, or is you spiritual salsa fire hot like the Jabenero Sauce? I can’t answer that question for you, but you can.
Becoming a fully committed Christian does not happen over night—it’s a process—so where you on the spiritual Tabasco scale is not a matter of right or wrong, it’s a matter of spiritual growth. (Pause) Now let me ask you a question: is your heart beginning to feel some holy heartburn? The spicier your spiritual salsa becomes, the hotter your heart will burn to serve God in a significant way. If your heart is heating up with the love of Jesus Christ, then do something about it. And Park Christian Church is a great place to do it.
