CRCF\u201d\u201d7-26-09<\/p>\n
What Does America Need from the Church? (Part 3)<\/p>\n
Introduction:
\n\u201cSusie is a good nurse. She is professional, skilled, and tough. If something can take place within the constricted space of a hospital room, she has probably seen it, and not much rattles her. Like many in the medical profession, she has acquired the emotional defense mechanisms necessary to continue to take care of the sick. <\/p>\n
But Susie is not as hard as stone, not always, anyway. Beneath her medicinal bravado lies a soft side. She is deeply moved by the sufferings of the ill. She has wept with the families of the dying. She has held the hands of more than one confused, anxious patient. When her work overwhelms her, Susie does what is natural. She searches for deeper meaning in all the misery surrounding her. Involving yourself in the sufferings of others is stifling. You have to escape at times just to breathe. Susie was on an escape some time ago and found herself in the most unusual place: church. See, Susie gave up on organized religion a long, long time ago. But there she was sitting in a worship service, looking for something. Actually, she was doing more than sitting and looking; she began to participate. She found herself singing the songs of praise, devoting herself to prayer; and giving herself completely to those precious moments. She then did what many of us have done. She went down the aisle of the church to pray at the altar. Susie was met with great empathy and compassion as she knelt, prayed, and cried, filled to capacity by the Spirit. But then things changed. She was removed from the sanctuary and shuffled to a back room for additional \u201d\u02dccounsel\u201d\u2122. A woman sat down in front of her, knees close enough to touch Susie\u201d\u2122s, and with a clipboard began to work through an exhaustive checklist. The list included everything that would now be required of Susie based on the \u201d\u02dcdecision\u201d\u2122 she was making: weekly attendance requirements, financial expectations, church allegiance, assignment to a mentor. Upon hearing all this, Susie seemed to feel God\u201d\u2122s presence drip from the ends of her toes. She regained her emotional toughness and promptly told the woman sitting across from her that she was not interested in any of those things. The woman put her clipboard away, folder her arms, looked at Susie, and said, \u201d\u02dcIf you turn back now, your decision tonight won\u201d\u2122t mean anything. You could leave this place, die in a car accident, and go straight to hell.\u201d\u2122 Susie told her counselor to go there first. What Susie needed in those moments was understanding and gentleness. She needed others to pray with her, to love her, and to stay out of the way of what God was doing. She did not need a visit from the equivalent of a used-car salesman explaining the fine print of a proposed contract. Susie has never returned to a church sanctuary. Who could blame her?\u201d
\n(McBrayer, 75-76).<\/p>\n
Why have we made church so complicated?<\/p>\n
Alan Hirsch: \u201c. . . I have come to the unnerving conclusion that God\u201d\u2122s people are more potent by far when they have little of what we would recognize as church institution in their life together\u201d (The Forgotten Ways, 23).<\/p>\n
What Does America Need from the Church?<\/p>\n
A quick aside worth jotting down:
\nAmerica DOES need the church. The church does NOT need America.<\/p>\n
America needs for every local church to know . . .
\nOur IDENTITY (Part 1)
\nWe are to be humble servants to our world, showing them Jesus\u201d\u2122 love.
\nAmerica needs for every local church to live in true . . .
\nCOMMUNITY (Part 2)
\nWe must show the world true community
\nthat only Jesus can build.<\/p>\n
America needs for every local church to live with . . .
\nSIMPLICITY (Part 3)<\/p>\n
We must simply \u201cshow and tell\u201d Jesus
\nto our world.<\/p>\n
Remember: We, as God\u201d\u2122s people\u201d\u201dthe Church, ultimately, have only one thing to say, only one thing to give, to the world: JESUS!<\/p>\n
Hirsch: \u201c. . . the church\u201d\u2122s true and authentic organizing principle is mission.\u201d (82)<\/p>\n
We must simply \u201cshow and tell\u201d Jesus to our world.<\/p>\n
HOW do we do that? Catch just 2 simple necessities:<\/p>\n
1.\tYou and I must simply follow Jesus.<\/p>\n
We can\u201d\u2122t influence others for Jesus unless we personally know and follow Him!<\/p>\n
What does it mean to be a \u201cfollower\u201d (disciple) of Jesus?<\/p>\n
–Trust Jesus:<\/p>\n
\u201cFor God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.\u201d (John 3:16, NLT).<\/p>\n
We must trust him as Savior\u201d\u201dfirst step in following Him as Lord.<\/p>\n
–Kill Your Own Ambitions:<\/p>\n
Matthew 16:24\u201d\u201d\u201cIf any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me.\u201d (NLT)<\/p>\n
What immediately popped into the mind of Jesus\u201d\u2122 hearers was not some spiritualized application in the form of fairly convenient personal sacrifice, but rather, \u201cthe sites and smells of the skeletal corpses hanging along the highways and byways of Galilee . . . When Jesus introduced a cross into the equation he could not have made a more sobering, deflating statement. It would be like demanding today that someone . . . be gloriously fitted with a noose in advance of their own hanging. Jesus will only take those foolish enough to embrace death as the means of gaining life.\u201d (McBrayer, Leaving Religion, Following Jesus, 117).<\/p>\n
This is why our church\u201d\u2122s mission is \u201cto welcome others to the Cross Road through the grace and truth of Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesus is not about \u201cmaking your dreams come true\u201d.<\/p>\n
Jesus is about glorifying His Father through your life of sacrificial love as you imitate Him!<\/p>\n
–Love Jesus in Obedience:<\/p>\n
John 14:15\u201d\u201d\u201cIf you love me, show it by doing what I\u201d\u2122ve told you.\u201d (NLT)<\/p>\n
Our obedience is not what makes us accepted by God or what earns forgiveness. Jesus gave us that through His sacrifice on the cross!<\/p>\n
But our obedience shows that we have trusted Jesus as our only hope and that we\u201d\u2122ve killed our own ambitions so that we can follow Him in such a way that others can see Who He is through us!<\/p>\n
Mother Teresa: \u201cWe must become holy not because we want to feel holy but because Christ must be able to live his life fully in us.\u201d (Hirsch, 113)<\/p>\n
–Depend on Him in Everything:<\/p>\n
John 15:5\u201d\u201d\u201cYes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.\u201d (NLT)<\/p>\n
We don\u201d\u2122t just trust Him up front for forgiveness and then try to carry our cross and obey Him and love the world in our own strength.<\/p>\n
The Cross Road is always about trusting Jesus in everything!<\/p>\n
We can\u201d\u2122t follow Him one step without His help!<\/p>\n
THIS is what it means to follow Jesus!
\n(REPEAT 4 subpoints)<\/p>\n
SIMPLE, but not easy.<\/p>\n
McBrayer: \u201cThis is a surprise for some, but true nonetheless: Jesus is not a white, middle-class Republican. Jesus is not a Democrat, a Libertarian, a Marxist or a Socialist. Jesus is not a Baptist, a Catholic, a Lutheran, or a Buddhist. Jesus isn\u201d\u2122t even a Christian. Jesus Christ is Lord. Followers of Jesus are not those who vote a certain way, who answer exit polls in a predefined bloc, who are born in a specific country, or those who line up the correct way on two or three hot-button political issues. Followers of Jesus are those who have thrown themselves on Christ alone, letting go of everything else, scorning the consequences\u201d (120).<\/p>\n
If we are going to \u201cshow and tell\u201d Jesus to our world, then you and I must simply follow Jesus.<\/p>\n
2.\tYou and I are to simply help others follow Jesus.<\/p>\n
The reason God leaves us in this world is so that we can \u201cshow and tell\u201d others Jesus!<\/p>\n
Howard Snyder: \u201cIt is hard to escape the conclusion that today one of the greatest roadblocks to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the institutional church\u201d (McBrayer, 125).<\/p>\n
The Church in America has become a complicated institution that looks more like a marketing corporation than simply a group of Christ-followers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe church, as a whole, is doing more and more. And the church, as a whole, is making less and less of a difference. Church complexity is costly. The cost is beyond time and money. The kingdom is not expanding. Lives are not being changed. Transformation is not happening. Churches are not growing\u201d (Rainer and Geiger, Simple Church, 228).<\/p>\n
McBrayer: \u201cThe largest locomotives ever built, were produced in the 1930s by the Lima Locomotive Company. They were massive and only two of the dozen or so built survive. One is at the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The Lima Alleghany at the Ford museum weighs 1.5 million pounds and has output of 7,500 horsepower. It carried 25,000 pounds of coal and 100,000 pounds of water, enough to power the engine for only three hours. Here\u201d\u2122s the interesting thing: All this weight, all this power, all this burning up of resources, and it took 96% of the engine\u201d\u2122s power just to move itself. It became more efficient once it was moving, but the thing was so big, sucked up so much coal and water, and was so expensive to operate, it just wasn\u201d\u2122t practical.<\/p>\n
That\u201d\u2122s an excellent, though painful metaphor of most of our church and religious systems. We\u201d\u2122ve got all the bells and whistles, steam is pouring out of the boiler, power is moving to the wheels, but most of it is spent just getting things moving, it is spent on ourselves, with little left to pull the load, as it were, along the tracks. And the resources we have been blessed with \u201d\u201c in people, dollars, talent, influence and time \u201d\u201c are all burned up and burned out at rates that are appalling. It has to be simpler than this. Maybe we can trade in our locomotive for a bicycle. We can\u201d\u2122t go as fast, and we can\u201d\u2122t carry as much baggage, but maybe that is exactly the point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hirsch: \u201cThe movement that Jesus initiated was an organic people movement; it was never meant to be a religious institution\u201d (54).<\/p>\n
So, HOW do we get back to that simplicity? How do we remain a simple church?<\/p>\n
We need only to go back to Jesus\u201d\u2122 own words on a couple of occasions. Jesus always kept it simple!<\/p>\n
The Great Commission<\/p>\n
Matthew 28:18-20, The Message\u201d\u201d\u201cGod 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\u201d\u2122ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.\u201d<\/p>\n
You and I are to simply \u201cshow and tell\u201d Jesus to others!<\/p>\n
\u201cJesus\u201d\u2122s strategy is to get a whole lot of little versions of him infiltrating every nook and cranny of society by reproducing himself in and through his people in every place throughout the world.\u201d (Hirsch, 113)<\/p>\n
Now, Jesus Himself simplified what it means to be like Him on another occasion.<\/p>\n
The Great Commandments<\/p>\n
Matthew 22:34-40\u201d\u201d\u201cWhen the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: \u201d\u02dcTeacher, which command in God\u201d\u2122s Law is the most important?\u201d\u2122 Jesus said, \u201d\u02dcLove the Lord your God with all you passion and prayer and intelligence. This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second alongside it: Love others as well as you love yourself. These two commands are pegs; everything else in God\u201d\u2122s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.\u201d (The Message)<\/p>\n
We make disciples by showing others how to love God and love others!<\/p>\n
Wanna know if you\u201d\u2122re doing these things? Here\u201d\u2122s some \u201clitmus tests\u201d for us all:<\/p>\n
We love God with all that we are when we hold nothing back from, giving Him our whole life for His use, allowing His priorities to trump ours, especially to the point of inconvenience or a re-ordering of our schedule!<\/p>\n
We love others as ourselves when we make personal sacrifices in order to serve them!<\/p>\n
You and I are to simply \u201cshow and tell\u201d Jesus to others by loving God with all that we are and by loving others by serving them in ways that cost us something!<\/p>\n
This is what America, this is what the WORLD needs\u201d\u201da simple church that lives a life of \u201cshow and tell\u201d!<\/p>\n
McBrayer: \u201cThe church is not an end unto itself, but is called, as the people of God and imitators of Christ, to bless and serve and love others. This servant task is unachievable if the church continues to spend its time, energy, resources, and personnel on building bigger, more complicated machinery, doctrines, and structures.
\nNor am I saying that big is bad; that denominations are evil; that if you are a part of a mega-church back home you are somehow missing out. No, don\u201d\u2122t hear that. These aren\u201d\u2122t bad things, but complication and religious obstacles, and man-made roadblocks placed in the path of Christ \u201d\u201c these are bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
What the WORLD needs\u201d\u201da simple church that lives a life of \u201cshow and tell\u201d!<\/p>\n
*A Picture of a Simple Church<\/p>\n
Acts 2:42-47\u201d\u201d\u201cThey committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. Everyone around was in awe\u201d\u201dall 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\u201d\u2122s 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 like what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.\u201d (The Message)<\/p>\n
–Note the Utter Simplicity that turned the Roman Empire upside down! (No institutions, no buildings, no political clout, no programs, no tax-exempt status, etc.)<\/p>\n
In the words of the Schleitheim Confession: \u201cWatch out for all who do not walk in simplicity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The early church simply followed Jesus and helped others follow Him\u201d\u201dliving out the Great Commission by following the Great Commandments.<\/p>\n
Conclusion\u201d\u201d
\nJim Wallis: \u201cThe only way to propagate a message is to live it.\u201d (Hirsch, 115)<\/p>\n
Perhaps one of the world\u201d\u2122s healthiest churches today is almost impossible to see. It\u201d\u2122s the underground church in China. But this modern-day, persecuted (and thus, underground) church has embraced the simplicity that we as American churches desperately need.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow else can we explain how the underground church in China activated Apostolic Genius? They intuitively seemed to know what to do when all external support structures and expressions were destroyed. How do we account for this? All their buildings were nationalized, all their thinkers were imprisoned, the entire existing leadership was killed, exiled, or imprisoned, and they were forbidden to gather on penalty of death and torture. How is it that in these conditions they just seemed to form themselves in a way almost totally identical to that of the early church? They had no access to material like this book to guide them\u201d\u201dthey didn\u201d\u2122t even have enough Bibles . . . Or more accurately, this potent coding is placed within them through the work of the Spirit and by the power of the gospel in the community. There is no other way of explaining this: it was already there, and the Spirit of Jesus activated it in the context of chaos and adaptive challenge. This is true in every situation where the church faces a serious threat or an overwhelming opportunity that compels it to the rediscovery of its true nature.\u201d (ibid., 77-78)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that persecuted Jesus movements are forced underground . . . But in order to survive in the context of persecution, they also have to jettison all unnecessary impediments, including that of a predominantly institutional conception of ecclesia. But perhaps even more significantly, they have to condense and purify their core message that keeps them both faithful and hopeful. For an underground church, all the clutter of unnecessary traditional interpretations and theological paraphernalia is removed. It has neither the time nor the internal capacity to maintain weighty systematic theologies and churchly dogma. It must \u201d\u02dctravel light\u201d\u2122. Therefore all unnecessary complexities are extracted, and in the process a miracle happens\u201d\u201dthe people discover their true message, and the movement is born. Faith is once again linked in utter simplicity to Jesus, the author and completer of the faith . . . But something else is unleashed in this recovery of simplicity, namely, the capacity to rapidly transfer the message along relational lines . . . the gospel becomes profoundly \u201d\u02dcsneezable\u201d\u2122. . . The desperate, prayer-soaked human clinging to Jesus, the reliance on his Spirit, and the distillation of the gospel message into the simple, uncluttered message of Jesus as Lord and Savior is what catalyzed the missional potencies inherent in the people of God.\u201d (Hirsch, ibid., 85-86)<\/p>\n
God forbid that the Church in America wait for persecution before we simplify!<\/p>\n
Rather, God help us to NOW become contagious with the simplicity of following Jesus so that we regularly \u201csneeze\u201d out the Gospel and, in epidemic proportions, infect our world with the love of God in Jesus!<\/p>\n
Celebration of the Lord\u201d\u2122s Supper
\nA Celebration of the Simplicity of God\u201d\u2122s Grace in Jesus that is the only hope for the world!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CRCF\u201d\u201d7-26-09 What Does America Need from the Church? (Part 3) Introduction: \u201cSusie is a good nurse. She is professional, skilled, and tough. If something can take place within the constricted space of a hospital room, she has probably seen it, … Continue reading