Mark 4: 1-9 * Now, I don t want to get myself in any trouble here, but I think it is fair to say that neither Dianna nor I are what anyone would call great gardeners. When it comes to outdoor plants, the truth is that neither of us put yard work very high on our priority lists. So, we ll plant tomatoes, and kind of forget to water them. For really long periods of time. Like, until they start to whither. The same with zucchini. Which we have growing in our front yard right now. Poor things, I kind of feel sorry for them sometimes. They are trying so hard! But you know, we are both extremely busy people, and well, there are only so many hours in a day. And I think most weeds are pretty interesting so, there you go. All that to say that when it comes to using plants as a sermon illustration, I think I m pretty well qualified. Because I m actually thinking today about spindly plants dry plants plants that have been forgotten, neglected over-watered, under-watered, plants that have a serious list to them because they re desperate for sunlight I know those types of plants. We human beings like to make plans. We like to manipulate nature and, actually, I think that both of those urges come from our having been created in God s image. God is creative, put us in charge of creation. God s instruction to Adam and Eve was Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! (the Message.) The problem is that the same rebellious nature that showed up in Adam and Eve has been passed along to everyone else since then; and as a result, we mess things up. Our plans unless we re very deliberate and careful, and we are constantly watchful our plans tend to go awry. In your life that may show up as stressed out zucchini; or it may be something else, much more serious, but it s all part of who we are. So, like a car whose wheels are out of alignment, unless we are very deliberate to hang on to the steering wheel, unless we are constantly making adjustments with our eyes on the road ahead, we are going to run off the road and end up in an unhappy situation somewhere. Page 1 of 10
* This is part two of a six-part series called Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations. And what I want to talk about with you this weekend is how important it is for us to not take our Spiritual condition casually, how important it is to have a plan describing how we expect to grow in our faith, about how important it is to follow that plan, to discipline ourselves, to make constant adjustments on the fly that will keep us on track because if we don t, that out-of-alignmenthuman nature takes over, and we will drift. And we can easily crash. Its interesting to me that if you were to ask a person who is not a person of faith, to rank the priorities in their lives, that you would not, of course, likely hear them include in their list a relationship with God. Now, on the other hand, as we [Christians] understand this, the Holy Spirit is always active among people in the world, even those outside of the church/ faith and God then, is constantly calling, inviting, giving an inner nudge to people, to consider this part of their created being that is so important, and really, the only part that lives on after we die. In Wesleyan circles we call this Prevenient Grace the Grace of God that goes before our response. Paul talks about Christ dieing for us while we were still sinners, Jesus talked about the Holy Spirit drawing people to God, convicting of sin, that s what this is. Once a person starts paying attention to this inner nudging of the Spirit, something happens in their lives, and were we to ask them to list their life s priorities, well, a relationship with God would very likely be suddenly right at the top of the list. In fact for most, it would be their first priority. [At least, theoretically!] Because, you see, down the road a bit, many people who at one point in their lives were deeply committed to God (so they thought, and we might think, too) end up drifting away. We see this as people end up on our inactive roles at church, or I see it even more often as I meet people at funerals and weddings, etc., who say to me, I was really active once in the church this was all very important to me. I don t know what happened. Page 2 of 10
Of course, a cynic might suggest that what happened is that they simply grew up, and grew out of their supposed need for God. But I don t think we can dismiss this inner drive, one that is so universal among human beings, so casually. As C. S. Lewis (and others) pointed out, every inner drive of human beings finds a corresponding reality in the world: we need to eat, there is food. We thirst, there is water. We need love there is family, friends, marriages, community. But we also feel an inner need to serve and worship God. Why would this be the only inner drive that is false? Solomon says, it s not false, God has placed eternity in our hearts. A longing for something more, in us and it comes from God. But it s our choice! Jesus told a parable about a farmer who planted some seeds. And there were a number of different results to the planting. Listen to his words: (Mark 4) ** As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times. Then Jesus said, Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear. Now, Jesus explained later about what was causing the seeds in the first three soils to fail: In the first case, Satan takes away the word that was sown. Others have no root, so they can t survive persecution or trouble. Then there are yet others, who hear the word but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. But Jesus also points out that some seed falls on good ground. And in this good/ fertile ground the word grows, and bears fruit. This is the soil that I want to focus on today. Because I want to ask you what is it that determines what turns out to be good soil and what is bad soil; fertile or unproductive soil? Is it chance? Is it fate? Is it pre-determined? Well, there are always things going on in life beyond our control and understanding. But still, I believe that the condition of the soils is very closely connected to the intentionality of the recipient. In other words, it s up to us to prepare the soil. Page 3 of 10
We can take a plant, and put it in a pot can we expect that it will grow up healthy? Well, obviously, the answer to that question is: It depends! It depends on what else we do to it. If we simply leave it be, it probably is going to die. If we put it in a closet, or a room without windows it is going to die. If you give it to me to put in my office, a slow and torturous death will be its fate. If we neglect its water, or water it sporadically, it will either die, or it will be unhealthy. Believe me, I know these things! What I want to suggest to you, is that the same thing happens to us spiritually. If we re not working our own soil, we will not be healthy at best. At worst, we will die. I mentioned last week Natural Church Development which has become the de facto tool for church revitalization in our Annual Conference, as well as many other UM Conferences (and other denominations) around the world. The developers of NCD have done a great deal of research and have not only identified 8 factors that are critical to a healthy church, and ways to measure those; they have also identified a number of growth principles that together, make up a healthy soil mix. The premise of NCD is that we can t grow a Church, (only God does that) but it is our job to prepare the soil. One of those growth/ health principles fits especially well what I m getting at today, and I d like ** to share it with you. It s called the principle of sustainability. It s pretty simple, actually sustainability says that whenever an organism particularly a church as a whole begins a new thing i.e., a new ministry, a new congregation, etc, it obviously begins with an outflow of energy. Resources, effort, people it goes out. Well, the principle of sustainability simply says that at some point in the process that new thing needs to become at least self-sustaining, and if truly healthy, it will soon be adding to the resources of the greater body. For an illustration, think of a fruit tree. OK, a branch juts out of the main trunk. It is adding nothing to the whole tree at that point, the tree supplies everything that it needs. But soon, the branch develops leaves, and starts photosynthesizing, and it is Page 4 of 10
connected but it is self-sustaining, in a sense. It s giving back to the whole. And, hopefully, after the proper time, it will begin to produce fruit. Now sustainability works on the Annual Conference Level like the way we use Harvest Mission Funds for new church starts (the funds are for a limited time and decrease each year) and it also applies to the Local Church (like in the way we handle our nominations process i.e., with the expectation that each of our work areas will share names of people that they find are working in your area who have the right gifts and interests, it s a natural process of a healthy organism but also applies to each of us as individual Christians. And, basically what that means that we are working the soil of our own lives to allow the Holy Spirit access to our hearts and minds so that we will grow as believers in Christ, and bear fruit for the Kingdom of God. So, sustainability on a personal level, means taking responsibility to care for ourselves. To keep the soil fertile. I think our words sometimes reveal more than we realize. You know, I talk to people frequently who have left one church to go to another one, or who are complaining about their own church (usually the pastor). And you know what the most frequent complaint is? I m not being fed! Now, I certainly understand what people mean by that; and I take my responsibility to feed Jesus sheep very seriously. I understand that command coming from Jesus to me. Feed my sheep! I get it. (So does HeyYoung). On the other hand, think about those words ( I m not being fed ). At what point in a human s life journey are we fed? [**] Hmm? Well, it s at the very beginning, and perhaps the very end of our lives. And the rest of the time we do what? We feed ourselves. What healthy adult comes to a table and sits there waiting to be fed? [**] Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, says Paul in Philippians 2:12. And the underlying thought there is that our faith journey is not a passive walk, it is not simply sitting back and hoping that growth and maturity comes to us by accident or chance, or divine Page 5 of 10
fiat; it clearly implies that we have a profound responsibility to take hold of these things ourselves. Work it out with fear and trembling that sounds pretty urgent, doesn t it? I counted up the times that the words self-control are used in the NIV New Testament 16 times we read passages like this in 1 Peter 1: 5-7 [**] 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. [**] Five times Paul uses the word Fight to describe the way he approaches the Christian life like this example in 1 Corinthians 9: 26 27 26 I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. That sounds like someone who takes his responsibility for his spiritual growth very seriously. Very intentionally! Self discipline I Googled Diet Plans just for fun and got 15 million hits. So I added Fast and Easy to the parameters, and still had half a million. Some of you will know what I mean here: if you want to lose some weight, or get healthier, and you try a diet plan that labels itself as fast or easy you might as well save your money and your time. Not that it can t deliver I m sure there are many that can do exactly what they promise. But you can be sure of one thing: if it s fast and easy, the results will likely not last! You will eventually go right back to where you were you started if you haven t changed your lifestyle. And the same thing is true spiritually speaking. There is no fast track to Christian Maturity. There is nothing easy or quick about becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. It is worth every effort, but it is not easy. But there are lots of tools to help, and they need to be part of our plan. So, what exactly am I talking about? Page 6 of 10
In our personal plans for spiritual growth what should go in there? Remember last week, I put up on the screen the list of the 5 Practices of Fruitful Congregations that will make up this series of messages. Here they are again: ** Radical Hospitality Passionate Worship Risk Taking Mission and Service Extravagant Giving As I suggest some important spiritual disciplines for you to consider in closing here today, let me just point out that all five of these practices above are important spiritual disciplines. And since we ve already looked at Radical Hospitality, and since we re going to take a weekend for the next three, I m not going to talk about them now. Just note, please, that these are important components of our intentional faith development. They need to part of your faith development strategy/ lifestyle. But there are some other specific suggestions as well. But I need to point out two critical things here generally speaking first (1) this (i.e., faith development) is a mutually shared responsibility between you and the Church itself. In other words, we (the leaders of FUMC) bear a heavy responsibility to provide opportunities for you to grow in your faith, all ages for all life and faith stages on the journey. That s a responsibility that we, again, take very seriously. But I m emphasizing today our individual responsibility in this area mainly because, the Church after all, is you. So, unless we have people here who are intentionally growing into mature saints in Christ, who are then ready to bear fruit by passing along what you have learned and received by taking on leadership roles through mentoring, in establishing new outreaches that will bring the reality of Jesus to a lost world, to teaching, to hosting small groups, to leading in other ways, well, we just won t do it here. How could we? So, all it starts with your intentionality, individually. Page 7 of 10
(2) The second general thing, is that there are two branches of self-care or, roads to maturity, and we cannot afford a plan that only utilizes one of those roads. I m talking about private times with God, and interaction with other believers (i.e., in small groups, having a mentor, one on one relationships, etc). These two paths are critical and parallel, if we expect a lifestyle change, and are truly in this for the long haul we need to have both in our lives. [**] So we can look at a traditional area of Christian study and growth: like Bible Study. We need to realize that it is important to take personal time every day to read and study the Scripture. It is vitally important in that context to pour your heart out to God in prayer alone, in your prayer closet. This is when we can be the most honest with God, we can be silent before God, we can listen, as well as speak. But it s also vital that we find time to open the Scriptures with other believers Our culture has changed so much that people have very little spiritual context, to understand the Bible. I no longer tell people that understanding the Bible is easy or that the Bible is self-interpreting I used to say that, but no more. It isn t! That was a statement (possibly) appropriate for an age when nearly everybody grew up in Sunday Schools, and Billy Graham was on TV every Sunday. That s no longer our world. So, the Bible is often difficult, unclear, to people. It s a confusing book for many. And the Holy Spirit works among small groups of people who open the Word together in a totally different way than when we re simply reading it by ourselves at home. We need the clarity, the questions, the support, the encouragement, the challenge of other people s ideas, opinions, wisdom and life experiences the single best thing you can do to grow with perseverance as a disciple of Jesus, is to get involved with a small group of people who will seek God with you, who will get to know you, and who love you unconditionally; and who want only the best for you! What are some other areas? I don t have much more time but really, you know what works for you. I meet regularly with two men, one weekly, one occasionally, for mutual accountability and sharing. This is vitally important for me Jesus did it! Good example, there, huh? Page 8 of 10
I ve already mentioned Prayer private and corporate [**] One of the best ways that I grow is through keeping myself on a reading schedule. As an Associate Pastor in this church I had a goal of reading one book a month. For 10 years, I did it. After two years as Senior Pastor, I read a total of about 2 or 3 books! But I since have found a balance, and my goal now is 6 books a year. And I m going to hit that this year. I read books that keep me current with our culture, so I can have a hope of expressing timeless truths to a new generation. I want to retire relevant! I read books that challenge me to grow, to action, to humility, to inspire creativity. Books (and coffee) work for me! So, that always part of my plan. Some of you will find that you do your best private study on the Web. For you (thanks Grant Moyer!) I ve included a starting list of some Christian Web sites that you might find interesting. The thing about Web studies if you re not already a discerning Christian, be very careful to bounce some of the things you read off someone who might know a bit more than you. Because, after all, we know that everything on the Web is true, right? Just be careful, not every opinion is truth, regardless of how emphatically it may be stated. So, use discernment. Bishop Robert Schanse has written a book Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, as we saw last week, and in this book, is Chapter 3. Let me share one brief word from Bishop Schanse as I close this message: Why add the adjective intentional to describe the practice for churches that are vibrant, fruitful, growing congregations? Intentional refers to deliberate effort, purposeful action toward an end, and high prioritization. It highlights the significance of faith development and contrasts those congregations that take it seriously with those that offer it haphazardly and inconsistently, without new initiative, plan, or purpose. 1 The thing is, that applies to both churches and individuals we need a plan, and we need to work it. And the result, if we do, will be fruit abundant, and lasting! We ll then be on our way to becoming like the early church of the book of Acts 2: 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 1 Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Robert Schanse, Abingdon Press, 2007, p. 68 Page 9 of 10
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