THE STATE OF THE CHURCH --WHAT’S THE PURPOSE OF BETHANY CHURCH?
Acts 2:42-47 (TMNT)
They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers.
Everyone around was in awe¡Xall those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person¡¦s need was met.
They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.
BETHANY¡¦S VISION STATEMENT
We are dedicated to promoting Christ-like love, deepening the Christian faith, and developing harmony among all people through our presence, our programs, and our commitment. To accomplish this vision we will:
1) Provide a church home for all people,
2) Introduce the unsaved to Jesus Christ,
3) Nurture and support converts in their Christian growth,
4) Provide support and organization for our work for the Lord, and
5) Support a missionary effort into the broader world.
BETHANY¡¦S MISSION STATEMENT
To know, to live, and to share Jesus Christ.
This morning, all over America, more than 100 million Americans will go to church. But most of those people have never clarified, Why? They¡¦ve never figured out, Why do I do this? Some people go to church out of guilt. Some people go out of pressure. Some people go to church out of habit. Some people go because they think it¡¦s the thing to do.
If somebody asked you, ¡§Why are you a part of the church family? Why do you participate in church services?¡¨ what would you say? What would you tell them?
What would you tell somebody if they said I don¡¦t see the purpose of church? I can worship God in my own way, in my own time. So what is the purpose of Bethany church?
Once a year the United States¡¦ constitution requires the President of the United States deliver an annual State of the Union message to the joint houses of Congress. It¡¦s required by our constitution. I want to start a tradition here at Bethany where once a year, the pastor delivers a State of the Church message.
We go back and look at it again and say, ¡§Why do we do this? Why do we have services? Why do we a building, Why do we give money? Why do we plan ministries.¡¨ Never do anything in life without understanding the reason. Your life is too precious to waste on things that don¡¦t matter. Never get involved in anything, never waste any time on something that you haven¡¦t figured out what¡¦s the purpose of this.
This year I want to invite you to review¡Xto remember I want to reinforce why we do what we do. I am going to begin this process by having you read together Bethany¡¦s vision and mission statements and then asking you to evaluate how well we achieved this purpose that we have defined for ourselves:
BETHANY¡¦S VISION STATEMENT
We are dedicated to promoting Christ-like love, deepening the Christian faith, and developing harmony among all people through our presence, our programs, and our commitment.
1 Corinthians 1:10 (NLT)
10Now, dear brothers and sisters,„T I appeal to you by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ to stop arguing among yourselves. Let there be real harmony so there won¡¦t be divisions in the church. I plead with you to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.
To what extent are we able to do what is urged here in this scripture, which I think our vision statement sums up well? (Rate 1 ¡V 10).
Look at the picture of the early church presented in our Bible reading from Acts. Now that is a church in harmony!
As I ask you to think about what is the purpose of Bethany church, I want to introduce to this book I have been reading and studying, The Purpose-Driven Church: Growth without Compromising Your Message and Mission. The author is Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church in Orange County, California. After reading this book last year, upon recommendation of the church growth institute, the book grabbed my attention. Because the author of the book expresses so many of the same thoughts that I have been having for the past few years about the mission and vision of our church. In other words, Warren clearly defines what I have been thinking about the life of Bethany church, but from the prospective of a church he helped start from scratch about 15 years ago.
This man had such a vision for how God could use him to build and grow a church¡Xand I would said God has blessed him. In 198__ he began a service with 15 people and now has over 15,000 in worship on Sunday.
In his book, Warren tells about the number of classes that are taught about surfing in Southern California. Surfing on the beaches there is the real sport, I guess much like soccer or volleyball is for kids here.
Now they even have classes on surfing and all the equipment you need to learn surfing. ¡VHow to recognize a surfable wave, etc. But you¡¦ll never find a course that teaches ¡§How to Build a Wave.¡¨
Isaiah 51:15 (NLT)
15For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea, causing its waves to roar. My name is the LORD Almighty.
Surfing is the art of riding waves that God builds. God makes the waves; surfers just ride them. Only God makes the waves. Only God can breath new life into a valley of dry bones.
So the question I present to you this morning¡Xis God making waves here at Bethany? And if so are ready to catch the wave and ride along? Those of you who are leaders here at Bethany¡Xyour job is to recognize a wave of God¡¦s spirit and ride it¡Xjust like experienced surfers. The more skilled we become in riding waves of growth, the more God sends!
I believe an unparalleled opportunity is here before us at Bethany. God¡¦s Spirit is moving in mighty waves around the world. Are we ready to ride the wave here at Bethany? Leaders of this church, I want to suggest, as Warren does in his book that we stop praying, ¡§Lord, bless what I¡¦m doing,¡¨ and start praying, ¡§LOrd, help me to do what you ar4e blessing.¡¨
And maybe we often ask the wrong question: ¡§What will MAKE our church grow?¡¦¡¦ Maybe that¡¦s the wrong question. That¡¦s like saying how can I build a wave? The question we may need to ask instead is ¡§ What is KEEPING our church from growing?¡¨ What barriers are blocking the waves God wants to send our way? What obstacles are preventing growth from occurring in our church?
Now my goal is not to have Bethany become another Saddleback church, but I do think I can learn from Warren¡¦s experience, as many other pastors and church leaders have. I don¡¦t see Bethany becoming a 15,000 member congregation. But I do believe that we can fill our sanctuary with people worshiping God in each of our 2 services within the next 5 years, while we begin planning for a possible 3rd service. It¡¦s all matter of riding the wave God¡¦s Spirit has sent our way.
I have learned in the past 3 and one-half years as your Pastor that wherever God guides, God provides as Warren discusses in his book. I have also learned what the writer of Ecclesiastes writes in the Bible:
Ecclesiastes 11:4 (NLT)
4If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.
So as we consider Bethany¡¦s vision , I invite you to our vision as the ability to see the opportunities within our current circumstances.
1. Provide a church home for all people, (rate 1 ¡V 10)
What we have accomplished, especially in 1999¡Xis to send the message out in our community that we can be a church for those who have given up on traditional church services, while at the same time holding to our traditional roots and practices. One way we have done this obviously is by giving people options of 2 different ways of worshipping, while keeping true to the gospel message. We have tried to get that word out through mailings, distribution of door hangers, frequent newspaper notices and ads, and by one to one inviting people to church.
So the challenge for us is to do a better job of listening to our community to learn how we as a church to listen to people and understand the daily pressures they are facing. I think we need to dream more about what kind of place Bethany can be in order to meet the needs of hurting, depressed, confused, and frustrated people. Can people find Bethany as a place of love, acceptance, help, hope, forgiveness, guidance, and encouragement?
It¡¦s up to you, the people of this congregation, to ride God¡¦s wave...
2) Introduce the unsaved to Jesus Christ,
Last year we had the Team Evangelism seminar to help us think about ways to introduce friends and aquantices to Jesus Christ. I¡¦m hoping to have an ¡§Acquaintance Making Event¡¨ in the community as a way of introducing people to our church so that hopefully they come a relationship with Jesus Christ through our church body. We began the early worship service on Sunday morning as a way to present the good news of Jesus to people through contemporary means. I think this follows Jesus¡¦ example of ministering to people where they are in their lives. Jesus never lowered his standards, but he always started with where people were. He was contemporary without compromising the truth. That is our goal in providing a contemporary means of worship.
I think it is important to produce quality worship experiences in both of our services. Warren suggests that quality produces quantity. People are attracted to a church that provides quality worship services, preaching, ministry, and fellowship. SO I present his challenge to you in the form of this question: If most of you as members of Bethany never invite anyone to come to our church, what are you saying (by your actions) about the quality of what our church offers? Warren suggests that a church that has no interest at all in increasing its numbers of converts is, in essence, saying to the rest of the world, ¡§you all can go to hell. We don¡¦t care about you.¡¨
Paul wrote to the Roman church:
Romans 1:13 (NASB)
13I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.
The fruit of another believer is another believer.
The Bible clearly identifies numerical growth of the church as fruit. So to the extent that we are growing numerically, to that extent you are introducing seeking people to Jesus Christ.
Are you riding the wave God is sending your way?
3) Nurture and support converts in their Christian growth,
Certainly Bethany¡¦s strength lies in nurturing and supporting Christian disciples in their spiritual walk. Our Sunday school classes have been powerful in the lives of keeping young and older Christians on the right track. Our summer vacation Bible School has been a strong influence on the children of our community. The Wonderful Wednesday programs are new ministries for nurture and support. We have had various Bible studies and prayer groups. And now the B.Cares ministry is reaching out..to those who are having difficult times or things going on in their lives that may keep them from attending church on a regular basis.
There is even more that we can do. Our ministry must be faithful and fruitful and we want to help our members in becoming more successful in fulfilling the great commission. I want to see us become good and faithful servants, as Jesus talked about in the parable of the talents.
Matthew 25:23 (NLT)
23The master said, ¡¥Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let¡¦s celebrate together!¡¦
In order to be more faithful to my calling as the Pastor of the church in helping you to be both faithful and fruitful I am going to offer a class called ¡§Discovering Church Membership.¡¨ I intend to offer this class during the Lenten season starting in March at 2 or 3 different times, so hopefully you will have little excuse for not finding a convenient time to attend (survey). I am asking that all of our church membership and attenders take this class this year to learn what it means to be a faithful and fruitful Christian.. If you have not joined the church you will be giving an opportunity to decide whether you want to do that or not.
I also am thinking that if anyone wants to join our church that he or she will be require to take this class, just6 as we have had confirmation classes for our teenagers in the past. I want you to be clear about what kind of commitment you are making to God and this church.
Moreover, I hope that we will be able to organize small groups, perhaps in some homes, in order that we can offer support and nurturing to one another. I¡¦ll be getting sometraining in doing small group in my trip to Saddleback Church.
Are you ready to ride the wave of faithful and fruitful discipleship?
4) Provide support and organization for our work for the Lord.
Last year we re-organized our church administrative and program structure to help us become better organized for mission and ministry. The process really started about 3 years ago as our church leaders met one Saturday at planning retreat. On that day we began to work at defining our purpose through writing new mission and vision statements¡Xthe result of what we have now.
That was a good start but we must continually be visioning and re-visioning. The first and primary task of leadership is to define mission. Our vision is to be one of making disciples for Jesus Christ.
Some of our church leaders have caught that vision; you have started surfing the wave God has sent our way. I know some of you are still confused or uncertain about the wave we are trying to ride. Some of you may not like it. That¡¦s OK. But I want to challenge every one of you here, especially if you are a church leader, to discover and remove the growth-restricting diseases and barriers so that we can continue our progress.
Warren states, and I agree, that the key issue for churches in the 21st Century will be church health, not growth. Because when a congregation is healthy it will grow. God wants his church to grow, and to the extent that we are healthy, to that extent we will grow naturally.
Colossians 2:19 (TMNT)
We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us.
To help us meet this particular objective of our vision statement, I envision Bethany as a research and development center, where we experiment with all kinds of approaches to reaching, teaching, training and sending our God¡¦s people. Mark Twain once dryly said, ¡§I knew a man who grabbed a cat by the tail and learned 40 percent more about cats than the man who didn¡¦t.¡¨ Are you willing to take risks and grab the cat by the tail¡Xeven if it means getting the cuts and scars necessary to being bold for God? I¡¦d like to see not be afraid of failure¡Xrather can we see everything that we attempt as an experiment, an opportunity to learn?
And I will add this¡Xprayer alone will not grow a church. I know of many churches who are praying, but they are not necessarily growing, healthy churches. Prayer is essential¡XI have seen that in the intercessory prayer groups we have going in our church. Along with prayer, churches become healthy and vibrant by the power of God through the skilled effort of the people of God. So my challenge to you is for you to learn all you can and become skilled as a leader and a member of this church.
At the same time we have to admit our failures and admit when it is time for some of our old practices to go. We must continually discern how we can organize for mission in new and innovative ways while remaining true to the good news of Jesus Christ.
As we continue to provide support and organization for the work of the Lord, how will we measure whether we becoming a healthier church? We will be able to measure that health, I think, by our sending capacity, not our seating capacity. We have a great building and sanctuary here, but I would love to see us get our building debt paid off this year (maybe the Lord¡¦s calling someone here today to help payoff this debt¡Xwishful thinking?) I would like to see us have more energy for turning attenders into members and in turn turning members into ministers and missionaries.
We will support and organize ¡Vit¡¦s all part of our vision. Vision is not just the ability to see the future. Vision is the ability to see the opportunities within our current circumstances. Are you ready to ride the wave?
5) Support a missionary effort into the broader world.
John Wesley, the founder of our Methodist movement said, ¡§The World is my parish.¡¨ We have some people who have caught that vision. Last year your mission giving was the highest in many years. The Outreach Team was able to support other mission work already this year because of the surplus in mission giving last year.
My dream is that one day 10 percent of our budget will go into the broader world, that we will be a missionary sending church sending our members to do the work of bringing good news and relief to those oppressed by the evil forces of the world. All aspects of our vision statement will depend on our capacity toturn seekers into saints, turn consumers into contributors, turn members into ministers, and turn an audience into an army. This is want the great commission is all about and the Commission should be the driving force behind all that we do.
Matthew 28:18 (TMNT)
Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: ¡§God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I¡¦ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.¡¨
Are you ready to catch this wave that Jesus started about 2000 years ago?
CONCLUSION:
What is the key to the continued health and growth of Bethany church? The key is to never stop learning, to never stop figuring our purpose for being here in Northern Augusta County.
Going back to the illustration of the surfer--When a surfer wipes out because he didn¡¦t ride a wave correctly, he doesn¡¦t give up surfing. He paddles back out into the ocean to wait for the next big wave. Successful surfers are PERSISTENT. Anyone who is successful is persistent.
You may have experienced a few wipeouts in your life or work in this church. You may feel burned out at times. I certainly do at times. You may have missed a few waves. But the good news is that the ocean hasn¡¦t dried up. I can see that God is creating some of the best waves ever here at Bethany. It is my hope that you will be a fellow surfer with me¡Xbecause I¡¦m scared to go out into the water alone. (By the way if I haven¡¦t convinced you yet I¡¦ll be talking about the benefits of being a part of a church family next Sunday).
Our mission statement is to know, to love, and, to share Jesus Christ. We can not carry out that mission by staying on shore and not getting our feet wet. Surfboards are safe on shore, but that¡¦s not what surfboards were made for.
So come on; join me in riding the waves of what God is doing at Bethany and in the world.
LET¡¦S GO CATCH A WAVE!
