2013 Church / Sermon 2 / Wide and Deep / January 13, 2013

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Miles Cain
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1 2013 Church / Sermon 2 / Wide and Deep / January 13, 2013 Were you here last week? We watched a clip from a brilliant young pastor, a guy named Steve Furtick. I just changed one word. He says, If you know Jesus, I am sorry to break it to you, this church is not about you. Remember that? Because (this is huge, guys) once you become a Christian it s not about you anymore; it s about honoring him, and serving each other, and reaching them. You buy that? You see, there is a change that takes place when a man or a woman becomes a Christ follower: we become less and less self-centered, and more and more Christ Driven. And then we talked about the church. Jesus said, On this rock I will build my church literally, my ekklesia. And we said that an ekklesia is not a building, it s not a place, it s not an institution, it is a movement. Ekklesia means literally, called out. Jesus says, On this rock I will call out my people, bound together by their allegiance to me, called out to get a job done; and the gates of hell aren t strong enough to hold them back. Church was never supposed to be about a place it was about a movement, a people called out, called together, to get a job done for God. One more little piece from last week. We said that Satan has planted a corrupt and corrosive and twisted idea in our minds. Too many Christians believe that church is for people like us. If you look like us, and believe like us, and behave like us, you are welcome here. Well No! Not here, at Capital City. It was never meant to be just for people like us. God s church was supposed to be a place where the curious, and the unconvinced, and the skeptics, and the used-to-believe, and the broken are welcome to join us as we come together to explore Christ, honor him, serve each other, and reach them. Our mission is not to create a church for the churched, but to be part of a movement, a community as attractive to the unchurched, as it is to the churched. Are you guys good with that? Well, this morning I want to unpack that just a little bit. I want to explain what it means to be a church for the unchurched. I want to explain who we are and where we re going. Now last week my focus was on one verse. Jesus said, On this rock I will build my ekklesia, and the gates of hell won t be able to hold us back. This week I want to focus again on just one verse, the last thing Jesus told us to do before he went back to his Father. This is his command, this is our mission from God. Jesus says, Go make disciples. Page 1 of 9

2 Go make disciples. Do you know what a disciple is? Literally, in the Greek, it means a learner, a student, an apprentice. But it goes way deeper than that. A disciple isn t someone who just learns about Jesus, he s a Jesus follower, she s someone who tries to do life with Jesus, and for Jesus. A disciple is someone who is trying to be Christ-like, Christ-driven 24/7. Our job is to make disciples. Now making disciples has two parts. First we have to bring them in: we have to introduce people to Jesus, bring them face to face with Jesus. And then we have to help them grow into fully Christians. It s not enough just to connect people to Jesus, he wants us to grow them up into fully mature Christians Christ Driven, 24/7. You buy that? Now, you old guys who have been around church a long time probably remember that awful little song we sang in Sunday School: Deep and Wide. Remember that? Deep and wide, deep and wide, there s a fountain flowing deep and wide with the hand gestures and all that. Well, that s kind of what God wants for his church: he wants us to be deep and wide. He wants us to be wide enough that the unchurched, and t irreligious, and the skeptical, and the scarred, and the de-churched, feel welcome here; and he wants us to be deep enough that once they connect with Jesus they grow into Christ-Driven Christians. So I m going explore what it means to be a church that is wide, and then what it means to be a church that takes them deep a wide and deep ekklesia. Ready? Hang on! How can we build a church that is wide? I think that takes two things. Thing 1: we take Jesus outside these walls. We can t be a missional church and just huddle in here and hope that those who need Jesus drop by. We can t just huddle here and talk about how people out there need God. We take Jesus outside these walls. We go out there to show them what it means to be a Christian; we go out there to love on them like Jesus did; we go out there to invite them into our home. Do you buy that? That s what Chris is going to talk about next week. Chris is going to talk about taking Jesus outside these walls and inviting the unchurched to join us. That s thing 1: We take Jesus outside these walls. Thing 2: We make sure that when they come here they want to come back. We want the unchurched, we want the irreligious, we want the skeptical, and the curious, and the scarred, and the de-churched to feel welcome here at Capital City. We want them to like coming here; we want them to want to come back, and bring a friend. We want Capital City to be a church the unchurched want to attend. Do you Page 2 of 9

3 agree? You ought to, if some of those unchurched are your friends and your family. Listen guys, this is huge. Listen: irreligious people loved Jesus. There was something about Jesus they really liked. Guys, if they were drawn to Jesus, they should be drawn to his church. If they are not drawn to us, something is broken, here. People who were nothing like Jesus liked Jesus; so people who are nothing like us should like us as well or we are not disciples of Jesus. Do you buy that? That doesn t mean we re soft on truth Jesus was never soft on truth. It means we bleed grace, like he did. I hate it when the people we are called to love on for Jesus push us away. Now if they push us away because they are fighting God, so be it. But if they are pushing us away because we re not Christlike, because we aren t doing our job God s way, shame on us. Have you ever heard of Bill Hybels? He s the pastor of the Willow Creek church up in Chicago, an amazing church. I want to read you a little of his story, because it s kind of like most of our stories. He says, The church I attended when I was a kid was so unbelievably self-absorbed that it didn t give a flying rip about people who lived close to us but far from God. In my estimation, (he says) the church leaders and members preached compassionate love, they just didn t see the need to practice it. Ever been there, seen that? He says, The troubling trifecta of ill-planned church services, uninspired preaching, and a whole slew of Christians who weren t fired up about much of anything, wrecked me a little more each week. You ever been there, felt that? He says well, listen to him tell the story. **Hybels clip** ( ) Have you ever been there, felt that? Have you ever been afraid to invite someone to church, because you feared that your church might drive them further away from God? Now I m not talking about your churched friends. I don t care nearly as much about whether your churched friends like their experience here at Capital City as whether your unchurched friends feel welcome here, whether your unchurched friends find what happens here relevant, and meaningful, and compelling. If your churched friends want to come back, that s cool. If your unchurched friends want to come back, I m ready to break out the cigars and the Coke Zero. Page 3 of 9

4 You see one of the hardest things for us to do is to keep the church wide open for the unchurched. There is this gravitational force that pulls us into thinking that it s about us, it s about what I want, what I like. There is this powerful current that causes us to drift into building a church that s about us, for people who look like us, and believe like us, and behave like us. And when that starts to happen, a church becomes graceless, and lifeless, and useless. When that starts to happen, I think that church needs to die. So let s get real practical. How do we make sure Capital City is a church where the unchurched feel welcome, where the irreligious want to come back? Three big ideas. The first one is so simple: Is our environment appealing? Have we cleaned up our house for our guests? Julie is a little mean to me sometimes when I clean the house for guests. I ll tidy stuff up, hide the clutter in the closets. I ll move the dishes from the living room to the kitchen, and line up my shoes neatly on the stairs, and pick up any obvious clumps of dog-hair. Looks ready to me! But Julie sees it differently. She wants our guests to be comfortable in our home, she wants them to feel honored. Have you ever been to a church that just felt like it didn t care about its guests? Have you ever been to a church that just felt a little run down, a little cluttered, and a little dirty? We tolerate for our guests at church what we would never tolerate at home. Tables stacked with clutter; Bibles and hymnals and umbrellas here and there; bulletin boards that are sloppy; blinds that are dinged and twisted; walls that are scarred and carpets that are stained. And some of you are thinking, You re the pastor, get it fixed. And I am thinking right back at you, It can t be fixed, until the whole family cares. Guys, before I ever get up to preach, most of our guests have already made up their minds whether they are coming back or not. They get their first impression of Capital City when they are in our parking lot. They get their second impression when they walk into our foyer. Does this seem like a nice place? Is it friendly? Is it clean? Does it feel relevant? Do they care that I am lost? They get their third impression when they drop off their kids and ask themselves whether it seems safe, and clean, and organized. Do I really want to leave my kids in this place, with these people? They get their fourth impression when they walk into our sanctuary and sit down. Are the people friendly? Do they seem excited to be here? They get their fifth impression when the service starts. Is it fun? Are these people kind of fun to be Page 4 of 9

5 around? Does it feel like these people care about being here or are they just going through the motions? By the time I get up here to preach most guests are on their sixth or seventh impression. How can we be a church that is wide? Big idea # 1: Is our environment appealing? We need to clean up our house, for our guests. We need to make sure their first impression, and their second, and their third, and their fourth are good, because we care about them and we are serious about their joining us as we explore what it means to do life with God. Big idea # 2: Is our presentation engaging? That s mostly about what happens in here. Does our worship engage them, draw them in? I ve been to churches where the presentation is just bad. I ve been to churches where the music was not only old, but bad; where the visuals were not only poorly chosen, but poorly executed; where the speakers were not only illprepared, they were boring. But guys, an engaging presentation isn t just about what happens up here, on stage. There is nothing that will draw a guest into worship more powerfully than a church family that is engaged in worship. Do you want to drive our guests away? Then just sit there and look bored, or grumpy, or mad. Do you want to draw them in, then don t just spectate worship. Nothing engages people more than engaged people. If you spectate, they will too; if you engage, you ll draw them in. Do you buy that? We worship for God first, we worship for ourselves next, I suppose, but we worship for our family and for our guests too. Big idea #1: is our environment appealing; big idea #2: is our presentation engaging; big idea #3: is our content helpful (appealing, engaging, helpful). Is our teaching practical, and is it relevant. Does what we teach about doing life with God really help, does it really make a difference? Are we giving real answers to real problems that real people are struggling with today? Some churches are pretty good at preaching all kinds of truth that doesn t matter a hill of beans to real people with real problems. You can learn about theology, and Christology, and pneumatology, and soteriology, and eschatology, and a whole bunch of other ologies, but you don t really come away with anything seriously helpful to a struggling marriage, or a troubled kid. You can learn about how the other churches get it wrong, but you won t really learn how to handle money God s way, or manage your anger God s way, or guard your Page 5 of 9

6 heart God s way. Listen guys, if this is going to be a wide church, then people who are unchurched need to get almost as much out of what we teach in this room as those who are churched. It has to be relevant, it has to be practical. Now there are places to do the ology stuff, there are places to dig deep. But in this room we have to give our guests a compelling reason to come back. Let me tell you what our weekend wins need to be. This is how we ll know we re getting it right. Are you ready? Win #1: When one of our family invites a guest an unchurched guest into our home, they come back. That s a win. It s cool when a churched friend wants to come back. But guys, it s party time when someone who is unchurched comes back. And if that unchurched person brings someone else with them A few weeks ago an unchurched couple visited Randy s church. Randy greeted them, had a pleasant conversation. The next week they brought their unchurched kids. That was a win. Now there were four. The next week they filled two rows. Randy broke the cigars and the Coke Zero. Last week Randy went up and thanked one of them for coming back. They said, I ve never been here before. Guys, that s getting it right. That s a kingdom win. Win #2: This is what we are shooting for: Lives are changed. When people who come here become more and more Christ-Driven, guys, it s party time. Okay, those are three ways we can go wide: is our environment appealing, is our presentation engaging, is our content helpful? I m going to have to fly, but I need to give just a little attention to how we are going to go deep (we want to be wide and deep). How will we grow Christians up, here at Capital City? How do we help disciples mature into Christ-Driven 24/7 Christians? That s our job, our mission from God. But guys, I think we ve been doing it wrong. I think most churches have been doing it wrong. You see, we think it s about learning more Bible. So we have all these Sunday School classes and Bible studies. We teach people how to read the Bible and study the Bible on their own. And we think that is the way to mature a Christian. Ours is a classroom model. But guys, listen to this: classes don t make believers mature, they just make believers smart. I ve known a whole lot of smart Christians who are not very mature. Have you ever known anyone who knows a whole lot of Bible but just doesn t seem very Christian? Listen guys, Page 6 of 9

7 maturity is not defined by how many Sunday School classes and Bible studies we have sat through, how much Bible we have read, how many verses we have memorized, how many degrees are hanging on my wall. I believe that Christian maturity is defined by character. Are you like Christ; are you Christ-like? Are you godly? Are you Christ-Driven 24/7? Do you think like God wants you to think, and act like God wants you to act? Do you look at people through God s eyes? Do you feel for people with God s heart? Do you trust him? Do you trust him even when it s hard, even when it s confusing, even when you don t want to? The more we learn to trust him, the more Christ-Driven we become. Do you buy that? Sometimes God s way is scary, or confusing. Sometimes I m not sure I agree with God. Sometimes I don t want to agree with God. Sometimes doing life with God takes me way out of my comfort zone. And God says, Trust me. Now, if I say, Trust me, you re thinking, what s the catch. If I say trust me, I m probably going to ask you to do something you don t want to do. God says, Trust me. He says trust me when it s hard, trust me when it s confusing, trust me when it takes us way out of our comfort zone. But it is in the trusting him that we learn to be Christ-Driven. Guys, we build maturity by building trust. We build maturity by getting way out of our comfort zones. We have to change the model. Our model isn t working. Our model builds smart Christains, but it isn t effective at building trusting Christians. You see, growing disciples isn t just about getting people get in a Sunday School class, or a Bible study, or challenging them to read and memorize a Bible verse. It s about getting people out of their comfort zones where they have to trust God. Now, there are some guys who have been studying this stuff hard. Here s their question. If trust is the key to growing Christians, how do you build faith, how do you trust? They say there are 5 faith catalysts; 5 ways to build trusting Christians, mature disciples. Some of them are very familiar; but it s the last one that is maybe the biggest. Faith Catalyst #1: Practical teaching. We do want to teach the Bible. That is essential. But we also want to make sure our teaching is relevant, and practical. We want to look for those big ideas, those life principles that can change the way we live. Faith Catalyst #2: Private disciplines. We want you to learn to spend time with God on your own. We want you to read your Bible on your Page 7 of 9

8 own, and pray on your own. We believe that the longer you are a Christian, the more you need to learn to feed yourself. Way too many Christians rely on their churches to feed them. We need to learn to feed ourselves as we grow up. Faith Catalyst #3: Providential relationships. The Bible says, As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27.17) You cannot grow to be a fully mature Christian if you try to do it on your own. We need to encourage each other, and challenge each other, and pick each other up. That s why our small groups are so important. Small groups of Christians kind of drag each other to heaven. Faith Catalyst #4: Pivotal circumstances. Sometimes things happen that draw us closer to God. Sometimes good things; more often, bad things. The times that have stretched my faith in God the most, the times when I have learned to trust God the most have usually been tough times in my life. But here s the big one. Here s the one we need to move right to the top. Faith Catalyst # 5: Personal ministry. Finding your God-given gifts, and putting them to work for God; finding a place to serve, not just be served. If maturing as a Christian requires trust, then we have to challenge people to do something that requires trust. It doesn t require a whole lot of trust in God to sit in here on a Sunday morning, or to sit in a Sunday School class, or a Bible study. But it does take trust to tell God you re going to try to serve him somehow, even if it s kind of scary, even if you re not sure you have the time or the skills. We believe every member of this family can do something to serve God either inside these walls or out there. And we believe that serving God, getting your hands dirty for God, grows your faith, your trust, not being served, but serving grows a mature disciple faster than just about anything else. We re going to challenge as many people as possible, as young as possible, as soon as possible to find a place to serve. Maybe it will be in one of our programs like Beach Club, or the Jesus Prom, or Mayberry. Maybe it will be working with our kids. Maybe it will be through one of our Life Groups. Maybe you ll take the plunge and go with one of our mission teams. There s one getting ready to go to Central America right now. Maybe it s through your giving, or you ll help out with our Next Gen services. Maybe you ll find a place to serve him outside these walls. But find someplace, somewhere to serve. Page 8 of 9

9 Guys, our staff and our elders are passionate about this stuff. If our goal is to make disciples, if our goal is to change the world one life at a time, then we have to be willing to tweak our model whenever necessary. Sometimes, guys, churches love their model more than they love people. Sometimes we love our traditions more than we love the people God has called us to reach. Well, not here. I love the way Andy Stanley puts it. He says, Write your vision and your mission in ink; everything else in pencil. Fall in love with your vision; stay mildly infatuated with your approach. Marry your mission; date your model. Because the truth is, no model, no approach works forever. If we are going to be an ekklesia, if we are going to be a God-honoring church that is both wide and deep, we ve got to be willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. We can be a church both deep and wide. We can grow mature believers here at the same time we are attracting any and all kinds of people. In fact deep and wide really go together. The deeper we go, the wider we ll be. The deeper we go, the more we ll be willing to get out of our comfort zone to bring them in. The deeper we go, the more we will love on people who are not like us, the more we will care for people whose souls are soaked in sin. Because the deeper we go, the more we will be like him. Deep and wide it s a win / win. That s the kind of church we want to build here. We believe that s the kind of church God s wants us to be here. We believe that s the kind of church you want for your kids and your unchurched friends and family. Will you join us? Page 9 of 9

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