2. Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia begging him, Come over to Macedonia and help us.

Transcription

1 A Macedonian Call? Acts 16:6-10 November 11, 2012 Travis Collins I want to begin with a sincere thank you to those who ve served our country in the military, and to those of you who stayed behind while your family members served. I hope this is a great Veterans Day for you. Today I was supposed to be finishing up the series, The Good & Beautiful God. But I m going to push that out a couple of weeks. Our church is facing a big decision. The people of the New Covenant Baptist Church have expressed an interest in being a campus of our church dissolving as a congregation, giving us their assets, becoming members of Bon Air and having a bunch of us come over. That is such a big decision, that I must talk about that. Sometimes even faithful followers of Jesus have a hard time figuring out what the next step is. Paul and his band of traveling missionaries did. And sometimes we do. So I d like to explore with you how this story informs our present situation regarding New Covenant Baptist Church possibly becoming a campus of Bon Air. 1. They had been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. Paul and company were wandering, having to pass on opportunities. We, too, have been wandering and passing on opportunities. There was one big opportunity, for example. Woodlake United Methodist Church sold their building and asked if we might be interested. It was worth some conversations, but we ultimately decided not to even bring it to the church for consideration for we didn t feel ready. And when it comes to land and a building for James River Campus, I counted six different properties that we have explored to the point of multiple meetings. We have chased lots of opportunities only to end up at dead ends. We understand wanderings and passed opportunities. 2. Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia begging him, Come over to Macedonia and help us. Who were these folks and what help did they need? Apparently there was a small group of people either already following Jesus or at least seeking spiritual truth. A group of people, wherever they were on the journey to following Jesus, needed some outside help for the next leg of that journey. I m not Paul, and I didn t have a vision. I m just Travis, and I got a phone call. It was from 1

2 Larry Frakes, the Interim Pastor at New Covenant Baptist Church. We met over at Joe s Inn, and while I ate my typical meal, a Cajun Tuna sandwich, he explained New Covenant s situation. He had heard this concept of mergers a concept with a lead church and a joining church, whereby the joining church dissolves, gives its assets to a stronger church, becomes members of the stronger church, and becomes a campus of that church. Larry wasn t begging like the Macedonian man was. But he did say, Would you come over to Three Chopt and Patterson and help us? 3. After Paul had seen the vision we got ready to go, having concluded God had called us. That s an interesting phrase having concluded. I wonder how they concluded that. We know that Paul was a strong-willed guy. So I wonder if Paul and the others sat down and talked about it, or if Paul just made a declaration. Was this a decision by consensus or by Paul s decree? We don t know. I do know this: I don t issue decrees. I m passionate about the church, and I feel strongly about what I understand to be God s vision for us, and might even be a little stubborn. But I cannot impose my will on the congregation. I can point to the hill and say I think we ought to take that hill. I can blow the trumpet and sound the charge. But you decide whether it s the right hill and whether we re, in fact, going to take it. So let s talk about the decision Why wouldn t we do this? Reasons include the following Financial contributions to the budget are down. You see that every week when you look at your Messenger. There is money for a future site, which would include this one, in the Our Legacy Continues Forward Campaign there is $444,000 so that we don t have to go into our budget to help get this started. But the fact remains that contributions to the budget are down. We are not immune to national trends, and our future cannot be guaranteed. I tend to feel like Bon Air is something special, that other churches might slip, but not us. Yet let s not be so naïve as to think we are immune to decline. This is really complicated. Members of our church family smarter than I are working on this, but there are lots of issues to consider at one time lots of moving pieces. We might stretch ourselves thin. What if 100 people leave and we nobody steps up to fill their places? What if we don t have enough volunteers to run the programs we have now? It s a reasonable concern. So why would we consider this? Why would I stand here and ask you to 2

3 consider it? Because, almost always, more people come to Jesus through new approaches than in existing approaches. Let me give you an example of that. I asked Lisa, one of our Administrative Assistants, to go back to September of 2006, when we began James River Campus, and give me the names and numbers of those baptized in this church by campus. I found that in these six years 85 people from the James River Campus have been baptized. 9 baptisms came from the Robious Hall Campus, which has been there for three years. Now, this is not a competition between campuses. But I m delighted that our new approaches two campuses six years and three years old have seen 94 baptisms! That s important for a number of reasons. Here s one: I was watching the news this week when a political commentator made a big point. In our country church attendance is rapidly declining, he said. Today clearly one in five Americans claims no religious affiliation. Of course that doesn t even include all those who would check Christian or something else on a survey but not check it in their hearts. A political pundit noted that America is an increasingly secular nation. Our country is on an alarming drift away from Jesus, and an even more alarming drift away from the church. Churches are dying. Churches like New Covenant are all around us. A Multi Site Movement is one way to fight our national trend. It s not a silver bullet. It s not the only way. But multi-site movements expand the influence of strong churches. And this church is strong because for sixty years you have embraced, funded and given yourselves to bold ventures. We can do something. But we can make a difference. I m not willing to throw up my hands in surrender. I want to throw up my fists to fight! I want us to fight the trend away from Jesus that already has happened in Europe. I believe a Multi Site Movement is one way to do that. God blesses big decisions. I m not talking about rolling the dice and merely hoping for the best. I m not suggesting the kind of risk that jeopardizes the future of the congregation. When I say big decisions I am talking about risks, but I m talking about prayerfullyconsidered, spiritually-assessed, God-prompted risk. A few months ago I read the following words of Jesus in my devotional reading. They come from John 8:15-16: You decide according to what you can see and touch. I don t make judgments like that. But even if I did, my judgment would be true because I wouldn t make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father (The Message). That got my attention! If we make decisions out of the narrowness of our experience we make little decisions. But if we make decisions in the largeness of the One Who has called us, we make big decisions! The late Peter Drucker was an organizational and management genius. He was a faithful follower of Jesus and wrote a book titled Management of Non-Profit Organizations and talks a 3

4 lot about church management there. About the balance between opportunity and risk, Drucker said, One asks first: is the decision reversible? Then one asks, Is it a risk we can afford? All right, if it goes wrong, it hurts a little. Or is it a risk that, if things go wrong, will kill us? Or the trickiest of them all, the risk we can t afford not to take. Over the next few weeks we ll be asking those questions. What am I asking of you? Three things 1) Educate yourself, and be part of the decision-making Read the brochures that are scattered around, or go back and read the Q & A s that I sent as part of my Tuesday . Come to the Town Meetings. One is today at 1:00 over at New Covenant. We re all invited to that one. Go see the place. The second is at Buford Road in the sanctuary Wednesday evening at 6:15. The vote is on December 5. Participate in the discussion. Be part of the conversation. I ask that you not make up your mind either way, for or against, until you get the information. If the decision is yes 2) Pray about being part of a launch team. At the Town Meetings and the Are You Interested? meetings we will have an opportunity to sign a sheet at the top of which reads the following: At this point, knowing what I know, I do have a sense of leading from God s Spirit that I should be open to His call. I am seriously open to being on the Launch Team for the new campus that will be at what is now the New Covenant Baptist Church. Simply put, if we don t have a good indication that 100 adults aren t willing to go, we don t even bring this to a vote on December 5. 3) Step up to fill gaps left by the launch team. If 100 people leave our present services and campuses, then they will leave gaps. Those who remain must fill them. Here s the rest of the story 4

5 Paul and company traveled to Philippi, the key city of Macedonia. On the Sabbath went to the riverside where Jewish people and people who were trying to figure out Who God is gathered for prayer. There they met Lydia, a worshiper of God. Not a full convert to Judaism, but hanging around on the periphery. Open. Investigating. Sincere. Still needing Jesus. Verse 14 says, The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul s message. Paul spoke and God s Spirit whispered to Lydia, This is true. And it will change your life. And Lydia responded. Then a movement began that swept Europe. Because Paul and company went. This week I did an interview with a student who was writing a paper on vocations and wanted to interview a pastor. He asked me to tell a story that changed me and shaped how and why I do what I do. I said, I ll have to go back to before I was born I m going to tell you that story again. Some of you don t know it. I will tell it multiple times because it is why I d stand here in such a precarious position asking you to consider something rather bold. Somewhere around 1950 a church in Anniston, Alabama decided to hold a tent revival. The proposal was made to the church that they put up a tent on an empty lot in town and invite a traveling evangelist to preach one of those hell fire and brimstone types. And so they put up a tent and started inviting people. Across town there was a couple who d had a rough go of it. It was the second marriage for them both. She was a Christian but hadn t darkened the door of a church in many years. The man had left school after the 6 th grade, was 18 when the Great Depression hit in 1929, and had hoboed, partied, and fought his way across the south. He had a gold tooth near the front which took the place of a tooth knocked out during a fight. His first marriage had ended terribly and his two kids wanted nothing to do with him. To be frank, he was the kind of guy that some churches would rather not have visit them. And somebody in that church that had decided to have a tent revival invited that man with the rough history to church. (It must have taken a lot of courage to invite that guy.) Since his friend invited him, and since it wasn t exactly like going to a church, the man considered it. When he mentioned it to his wife she thought it couldn t hurt. And something happened. That fire-breathing, pulpit-pounding, Bible-waving preacher spoke of sin and salvation in language that man with a sixth grade education could understand. The couple kept going back and then after the services one night in the middle of the night that man couldn t sleep. He called his brother-in-law who was a pastor and that pastor with big hands and broad shoulders and a tender heart drove over to his house and they talked about what it means to be saved, to become a follower of Jesus. And they knelt in the living room of 200 East 30 th Street and that man who d been going to that tent revival prayed through his tears for God to forgive him and change his life. And God answered his simple prayer. The pastor with the big hands and broad shoulders and warm heart who drove over in the middle of the night and prayed with that guy with the rough history was my uncle. The man with the rough history whom God caught up with under a tent was my father. The woman was my mom. That was a decade before I was born. It sobers me to think of who, what, 5

6 and where I d be (or even if I d be) had that church not held a tent revival. Would God have sent someone else to my dad? I don t know; I don t understand the ways of the Almighty. Would God have sent someone else to Lydia? I don t understand the ways of the Almighty. What about those 94 people who have been baptized because we began James River Campus and Robious Hall? I don t understand the ways of the Almighty. But I remember an old hymn that I grew up singing We have heard the Macedonian call today; send the light, send the light. There are souls to rescue there are souls to save; send the light, send the light. We have to decide whether or not we have received a Macedonian call. 6