"Farewell to the ABC Church" July 13, 2014

Transcription

1 "Farewell to the ABC Church" July 13, 2014 Glenn McDonald is one of my very favorite authors. Glenn s a Presbyterian pastor from Indiana. I have every one of Glenn s books. I ve attended several retreats that Glenn has led and found him to be totally fabulous. He s very bright. He s got a great heart. He s an amazing teacher and preacher. His book, The Disciple Making Church: From Dry Bones to Spiritual Vitality, is a favorite of mine. The first chapter of this book is called Farewell to the ABC Church. The ABC s that Glenn talks about are Attendance, Building and Cash. Glenn s theory is that if churches focus only on their ABCs, they ll miss the opportunity to do what we re called to do in the Great Commission. Matthew 28 tells us that the resurrected Christ instructed his disciples to go out into the world to spread his teachings. He wanted his disciples to go out to help more people become disciples. Today, we spend lots of time trying to discern what the mission of the church is: News flash - go out and help more folks become disciples of Christ - plain & simple Glenn tells a story in the first chapter of this book about the end of a long session (board) meeting where at 11PM things were finally drawing to a close. He asks if there s any new business - knowing that no one could possibly have the strength to muster up a new topic. But before he can adjourn the meeting, an elder raised her hand and said I d like to know something. How long do you think it would take someone visiting our church for the first time to hear about their need for Christ and then to know how to act upon it? Glenn said that silence filled the room. This was no ordinary question. It couldn t be answered numerically. It couldn t be answered programmatically. The question had nothing to do with attendance, the building or contributions. It struck directly at the heart of what we all know is the reason that the church exists. And when push came to shove, no one could answer the question. While the mission of Christian churches is clearly to follow the Great Commission (not to prop up our ABCs), this also means that each of us as members of Christ s church are called to participate (not just staff or elders). In this day and age of busyness, our instinct to gather more stuff for ourselves to do: Build a new sanctuary; add more small groups; get larger pledges. But (honestly) what do these ABC s have to do with discipleship? It is so easy to misplace our focus on faith.

2 Oddly enough, there s lots in the news these days about what people think about their faith. There are unconfirmed reports that huge numbers of Americans live their lives (unconsciously) focused on a new belief system called Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. It s centered on God, who created and ordered the world, and watches over human life on earth. 2. God, who wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions. 3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. 4. God doesn t need to be particularly involved in one s life except when God s needed to resolve a problem. 5. Good people go to heaven when they die. Our focus on our own personal faith journey has been molded into what Glenn McDonald calls a patchwork quilt of Billy Graham, angel worship, Oprah, Joel Osteen, Max Lucado, and Shirley Maclaine s crystals with a half dozen of my favorite spiritual websites thrown in. Glenn contends that we will need a serious Reformation to reacquaint the average churchgoer with even the basics of the New Testament. Jeff s been writing in the church newsletter about this for the last few months. We ll be talking more about it next week. Do you ever wonder how we can begin to help others become disciples when we re not even sure of what our own personal faith story is? How does what we believe about God match up with what we say is important in our lives? ABC PERSONAL LIVES These same ABC s that the church faces even filter into our own lives. Don t believe it? Look at our personal calendars. Where do we spend our time? What kinds of things come before our faith in our lives? Honestly, our calendar says it all. It s so easy for most of us to make additional time for more work or for our children s sports schedule or to read the new Tom Clancy novel. Why s it so difficult for us to make additional time for our faith? Last year, I was in a small group study where every single participant shared that they sadly put almost everything ahead of God. I asked one of my friends from the group why it was that she and I could find 15 minutes to text each other about an especially entertaining episode of Swamp People and then complain that we don t have enough time to pray. Looking at our personal calendars can be pretty indicting

3 And if we think that our calendars can make us feel guilty, then we probably shouldn t look too closely at our checkbooks If you really want to see what s important in someone s life, look at where they spend their money. By now, I think that we all see where this is going. It s easy to focus on the ABC s of our church and our lives but extremely difficult to put God first. When we look at our personal ABC s, what do we learn about ourselves? Are we really trying to be disciples? Are we really open to sharing the Good News with others? SCRIPTURE So, what does God s Word tell us about this situation? We ll focus on Matthew 7: (that Tom read earlier). This scripture, was written by Matthew - specifically for the Jews - between AD. It is intended to remind us of what was happening at that particular time: Jesus was beginning his public ministry. He s called his first disciples and he s giving The Sermon on the Mount. This is the longest teaching of Christ in the New Testament. It actually covers chapters 5, 6 and 7. The Sermon on the Mount includes some very notable information like the Beatitudes and The Lord s Prayer. This is the foundation of Christian discipleship. This is important stuff Listen for Christ speaking as I read from The Message. Knowing the correct password-saying Master, Master, for instance-isn t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience - doing what my Father wills. I can see it now: at the Final Judgement thousands strutting up to me and saying, Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking. And do you know what I am going to say? You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don t impress me one bit. You re out of here. These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit-but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. Friends, these are the Words of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

4 This Moralistic Therapeutic Deism that I mentioned earlier is described as a growing, new religion. Truth be told, it s been around forever People have been saying that they re disciples and then acting contrary since the beginning of time. Verse 24 says it all: 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. Now what? MOVING BEYOND ABC S How do we begin to move beyond the ABCs? How do we build our spiritual houses on rock? I really believe it important that after worship each week, that we ve established a clear bottom line. What does today s scripture and message mean to each of us? What does God want us to do with what we ve heard today? How s the Holy Spirit moving us to action? Whether we consider the number of people who (A) attend Providence Presbyterian Church; or the size of (B) our church building or our personal home or (C) how much cash/money either we have or the church has, most of us focus on the ABCs of our church and our personal lives. To say Farewell to the ABCs and to move beyond that, two things have to happen. First, we have to come to grips with the fact that we do usually put ourselves first. When we make a decision, most of us don t stop to think about what God would have us do. We do what we want; what will make us happy in the short term; and then we ll make time for what God wants us to do later ; after the holidays; when vacation s over; after school starts; when I retire. But there s the reality, that this magic time when we re going to bare down and focus on God so often never comes. There s always be something new to fill our lives. Think about it... This first step to discipleship is to begin to put God first in our lives. For some of us, the first step may be to just get God on our radar screens. Imagine that someone (like me) who s never been a runner decides that they want to run a marathon. Shouldn t my first step be to walk a mile before building up to a place where I could actually jog a mile and then run a mile? Seems to me that our first step is to jog into God s Word. If you re brand new to church or if you ve been coming every Sunday for the last fifty years, and you ve been wishing that you knew more about The Bible, Providence will be offering an amazing opportunity to learn more about God s Word starting in September as this community reads and studies The Story together.

5 The Story is a chronological Bible. One of the things that makes it both interesting and accessible is that there are no chapter or verse references. The scripture is woven together with some transitional texts to connect the storyline so that it reads like a seamless story. If you ve tried to read The Bible and ran out of gas in Leviticus (like most of us), The Story may be a great starting point for you. We ll be offering Sunday morning discovery opportunities for all age groups between September and June. Worship will be focused each week on The Story allowing us to read a chapter a week at home, come to Sunday morning classes and learn more. Then, you ll hear Jeff preach on the same topic during worship. To me, it is so exciting that grandparents, parents and young people will be studying the same thing each week. If you re looking for some common faith-based conversation points, they re right around the bend We ll have some of the material in the Fellowship Hall, following worship today. I encourage you to look it over carefully and see how you can easily move from walking to jogging. If you usually just attend worship on Sunday mornings, think about adding a Sunday morning class or attending Kirk Night or a new small group Whatever it is, please think about taking the next step If you re the kind of person who s at the church every time the door opens, maybe this is a time for you to focus on the second step of saying farewell to the ABCs: Beginning to share your discipleship with others. Don t worry. I know that most of us Presbyterian have trouble even whispering the e word (evangelism). Please know that evangelism can be so much more than handing out tracts at Towne Center or knocking on a stranger s front door. While both of these things are absolutely fine, they may not be a gift that God has given you. However, God has definitely given each of us a gift and likely opportunities to reach out to others. Whether it s asking a friend or a co-worker to join you at church or visiting someone who s going through a tough time, God put you on this planet for a reason that s so much greater than just gathering up more and more ABCs.

6 The church is here and we re all here to become disciples - to follow Christ - and then to share this amazing gift that we ve been given with others. I encourage you to think about asking someone who s expressed an interest in knowing more about God to join you in committing to read The Story. I strongly encourage you to make up your mind to take advantage of this study and other opportunities that the church is offering over the next months. Give it a try Get out of your comfort zone and take the next step. Say no to some of the things that prevent you from finding the time for your personal faith journey. Say yes to getting to know God and then sharing God s amazing gifts with others. Say farewell to the ABCs and welcome home to a different kind of life: a life of more fully and faithfully following Christ, who gave his very life so that each of us could live lives of hope. Thanks be to God for all that we ve been given and all that we can become. Amen.