SYSTEM ON!
During this Year of Outreach, Dave Skinner, our deacon of evangelism and I have been developing and implementing a S.Y.S.T.E.M. of evangelism. S.Y.S.T.E.M. is any ongoing process that Saves You Stress, Time, Energy and Money. The council’s hope is to implement this ongoing process that will make evangelism easy and multipronged not only for 2012, but for years to come.
In the month of February we had a good balance of the two main approaches to sharing the good news of God. The first is, “Come and see” based on this passage:
Philip said to Nathanael, “Come and see.” (John 1:46 ESV)
The other is “Go and do,” based on the great commission from Jesus in Matthew 28:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:19-20 ESV)
Many of you told your friends, colleagues, and family members to come and see that God is good as we started a “user-friendly” message series on February 12 called “Taboo Topics.” Great job! The intent is to address the questions that non-church-goers ask, and help them see how the good news of God applies.
You also responded to “go and do” both in January and February as we went into the community to practice the good news of God by advocating for the poor and hungry by inviting the PV populace to donate food. Jay Luedde, who towed the U-Haul trailer full of food to Harbor Interfaith, wished all of us could have seen the joy (and shock) on their faces as we came to bring all of that food and material needs. So many of you made that possible!
Of course, this good news of God doesn’t have to be programmed by church leadership. Evangelism at its best is when the people of God are inviting constantly and witnessing unashamedly to the message of Jesus on their own time and on their own turf. That’s the focus of March as our “Becoming a Contagious Christian” seminar and Lenten series, “Just Walk Across the Room” are designed to equip every member to “be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy.” (1 Peter 3:15)
I’ve heard some Christians say that their pastor is always exhorting them to share their faith with others, but they’re frustrated because no one shows them how. I’m very happy to say that the same can’t be said at St. Paul’s. If you missed the first session of Becoming a Contagious Christian (sign-up here) you can jump in this Sunday between services in the Upper Room. Both the sessions on Wednesday and the services on Sunday will be available throughout March.
GET READY FOR THE NEXT COME AND SEE/GO AND DO
February was one of the three times of the church year when people with no church background actually think about God and consider coming to a Christian worship. The next opportune time is coming up April 8 for Easter. (The other one is one month after school starts.) Don’t forget: according to one research report "82% of the unchurched are likely to attend worship if invited" (LifeWay Research, http://backtochurch.com/participate).
Our next series of messages after Easter Sunday will be called “The Viewer’s Choice Series.” We will celebrate the traditions of Holy Week and Easter as we always do. But on Easter Sunday, we’ll invite congregants to submit a question that they want to hear addressed. The back of the communication cards will set it up by saying, “If you had 30 minutes at a coffee shop to talk face-to-face with the physically resurrected Jesus, what would you ask him?” In fact, you can vote for these suggested topics, or submit your own questions here.
This will be a great opportunity not only for people to come on Sunday, but for guests to return the following Sundays, so start praying for the friends you’re going to invite. My thanks to all who may be missing the traditional four readings of scripture that are part of the common lectionary. If your sacrifice helps bring someone to faith in Christ, it is well worth the investment!
As far as “Go and Do” we’ll be prayer walking the neighborhoods surrounding St. Paul’s during Holy Week. Prayer walking is simple. You just walk the sidewalks and ask God’s blessing to be on the people living in those neighborhoods. Guides will be given out.
THANKS BE TO GOD FOR A MEMORABLE DEDICATION SERVICE!
I would like to thank the Gulcher, Staes, Holmes, Luedde, and Picarelli families for their leadership and planning to make the Doak Dedication on February 5th so memorable. And of course, thanks again to all the project managers for jobs extremely well done. Virginia would have been pleased and proud!
Soli Deo Gloria! (To God alone be the glory!)
Pastor Charlie
Lord, help us your believers become disciples who: love unconditionally; listen compassionately; speak truthfully; act justly; endure patiently; forgive mercifully; give generously; serve selflessly; invite constantly; pray fervently; witness unashamedly; and live worthily. Amen.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
“The Year of Outreach, pt. 2: Go and Do”
One of the goals we set as a congregation for 2012 was that we would implement a system of evangelism—a word which means sharing the good news.
If you remember last month’s article, think of system as an acrostic. A S.Y.S.T.E.M. is any ongoing process that Saves You Stress, Time, Energy and Money. The council’s hope is to implement this ongoing process that will make evangelism easy and multipronged not only for 2012, but for years to come.
In the book we read as a congregation, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too, the authors state: “A multipronged approach acknowledges that there is no ‘silver bullet’ when it comes to reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The days of ‘Lone Ranger’ evangelism are a thing of the past.” In other words, the days of outsourcing evangelism to the pastor or the stadium-filling evangelist are over. They continue, “Developing an effective evangelistic strategy requires stages, helping people move from the ranks of the inactive and unreached to being active followers of Jesus Christ.”
This obviously doesn’t happen overnight. Like they said, this requires stages.
Last month we talked about how the first stage is based on when the disciples first believed they had found the Messiah early on in John’s Gospel:
Philip said to Nathanael, “Come and see.” (John 1:46 ESV)
You have an opportunity to do “come and see” evangelism by inviting your friends and co-workers to worship on February 12. The series is called: “Taboo Topics: Things You Don’t Say Out Loud at Church”, and it will address questions that people in our culture ask that they hardly ever hear addressed in church like, “What if I’m Divorced?” or “What if I’m gay?” We’ll kick it off on the 12th with “What if I’m Spiritual, but Not Religious?”
February is one of the three times of the church year when people with no church background actually think about God and consider coming to a Christian worship. (The other two are Easter and one month after school starts.) Don’t forget: according to one research report "82% of the unchurched are likely to attend worship if invited" (LifeWay Research, http://backtochurch.com/participate). If each of us brings one person, our attendance will double. Invitational cards like above were handed out last Sunday and will be again the next two Sundays. That’s the come and see approach.
But we also want to balance the “Come and see” approach with the second stage, “Go and do,” which is taken from the directive Jesus gave all Christ followers:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:19-20 ESV)
No one will come unless you go. Sometimes all it takes is to Just Walk Across the Room. That will be our theme for this year’s Lenten services to help you with your personal evangelism. Because He walked to a cross, doesn’t that compel you to just walk across? If you struggle to share the good news of Jesus, these messages will equip you to do so.
Or perhaps you’d like to just walk through the neighborhoods surrounding St. Paul’s. On February 4th (10 AM – Noon in the Upper Room) Julie and I will be leading a group of all who are interested to pray specifically for the outreach of St. Paul’s ministry. This will include a method we will plan for the following week called, “Prayer Walking” where we walk the neighborhoods and pray silently for each household asking God to open hearts and minds to the Gospel. We will do this again before Easter with doorknob hangers. (Don’t worry, we won’t be knocking on doors.)
If you are more passionate about reaching out to those who are broken and in serious economic need, you might want to meet with Lorraine Weber and me on February 16th as we brainstorm “Ministries of Mercy” and how we can meet real needs of real families in the community.
If you can’t make it to the Lenten services, between Sunday services starting Feb. 26, Dave Skinner, who leads our Evangelism Team, will be teaching the Becoming a Contagious Christian course again. (10:30 – 11:30 AM, Location TBA).
On February 25, we have an opportunity as a congregation to live out the Gospel by gathering food for the hungry with our next Grocery Food Drive. Then in early March we are hoping to have a booth at “Whale of a Day” at Pointe Vicente.
As you can see, there are many ways for every worshiper at St. Paul’s to participate in this year of outreach. Please continue to uphold our outreach together in prayer.
Soli Deo Gloria! (To God alone be the glory!)
Pastor Charlie
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
“2012: The Year of Outreach”
Can you believe 2012 is upon us already? If you’ve been keeping up with the Bible readings, you’re on the final stretch, reading through the strange book of Revelation and crossing the finish line for the Year of the Bible. I hope you’ve been able to do what Peter wrote in his letter: “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18a)
Perhaps it’s fitting that we’re reading Revelation as we anticipate the year 2012. All of us are probably aware of the famous Mayan calendar, which predicts the end will come this year. It’s not just the Mayans who are anticipating this year. According to Wikipedia, “New age interpretation of this transition is that this date marks the start of time in which Earth and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era.[5]”
While 2012 might be the year of the end for some, I’m praying something similar to the new agers: “that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era” at St. Paul’s. That new era will be marked by these words: The Year of Outreach.
One of the goals we set as a congregation was that we would implement an evangelism system.
What is evangelism? The word evangelism literally means “good message” or good news. Here are two “pretty good” definitions of evangelism from the Lutheran tradition:
“EVANGELISM IS APPLYING THE EVANGEL (GOSPEL) TO THE HEARTS OF PEOPLE, TO WIN THE UNSAVED FOR CHRIST, TO KEEP THE BELIEVER IN CHRIST, TO RECALL THE BACKSLIDER TO CHRIST, AND TO SEND THE BELIEVER FORTH A WITNESS FOR CHRIST.”
—THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH
“EVANGELISM IS ONE BEGGAR TELLING ANOTHER BEGGAR WHERE TO FIND BREAD.”
—MARTIN LUTHER
What is a system? Think of system as an acrostic. A S.Y.S.T.E.M. is any ongoing process that Saves You Stress, Time, Energy and Money. The council’s hope is to implement this ongoing process that will make evangelism easy and multipronged not only for 2012, but for years to come.
In the book, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too, the authors state: “A multipronged approach acknowledges that there is no ‘silver bullet’ when it comes to reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The days of ‘Lone Ranger’ evangelism are a thing of the past.” In other words, the days of outsourcing evangelism to the pastor or the stadium-filling evangelist are over. They continue, “Developing an effective evangelistic strategy requires stages, helping people move from the ranks of the inactive and unreached to being active followers of Jesus Christ.”
This obviously doesn’t happen overnight. Like they said, this requires stages.
The first stage is based on when the disciples first believed they had found the Messiah early on in John’s Gospel:
Philip said to Nathanael, “Come and see.” (John 1:46 ESV)
(We’ll talk about the second stage, “Go and do” in next month’s article.)
Remember what we talked about last month: according to one research report "82% of the unchurched are likely to attend worship if invited" (LifeWay Research, http://backtochurch.com/participate).
Some of you are imagining some of your unchurched friends and acquaintances coming to worship, and you can’t see it happening because worship will be such a foreign experience. One way I’m going to try to help you is from the pulpit.
We’re going to experiment with what I call a “Missional Lectionary.” The traditional lectionary was designed to tell the story of Jesus in a way that coincided with the changing of the seasons. It also assumed an agrarian culture. Three or four readings were read publicly because until the modern period, the common people did not have copies of the scriptures to read on their own. The traditional lectionary assumes Christendom—that is, it was developed in an era where the Christian story is well known among the people.
The Missional Lectionary assumes little familiarity with the story of the Bible. Not only that, this kind of lectionary presupposes that non-Christians today are very intimidated about visiting a Christian worship service. However, it takes into account the three times that God or church might come into their stream of consciousness: 1) Back-to-School Time; 2) Post Christmas/New Year’s Break (studies show that early February is when there is a spike in attendance of non-Christians); and 3) Easter. (Nelson Searcy, Launch: Starting a New Church from Scratch, p. 177-118)
During these time periods I will preach on scripture and topics that non-church-going people might care about and tell the story within that framework. For instance, this year around back-to-school time, the fall will be saturated with media coverage of politics and the presidential race. I’m proposing a series called, “The Politics of Jesus: Was Jesus Liberal or Conservative?” In the weeks leading up to this series, we’ll give you invitational cards to make it easier to invite people to worship. After these “attractional” kinds of messages, we will do other messages designed to deepen our knowledge of God as we grow to be His disciples.
This doesn’t mean we’ll throw the baby out with the bathwater. We will still observe the traditional seasons and have Lenten services, etc. It’s just one step we’ll take to help you invite your friends and say, “Come and see.”
Lord, help us your believers become disciples who: love unconditionally; listen compassionately; speak truthfully; act justly; endure patiently; forgive mercifully; give generously; serve selflessly; invite constantly; pray fervently; witness unashamedly; and live worthily.
God be with you all as you seek to grow in your love for and obedience to Jesus!
Happy New Year!
Pastor Charlie
Can you believe 2012 is upon us already? If you’ve been keeping up with the Bible readings, you’re on the final stretch, reading through the strange book of Revelation and crossing the finish line for the Year of the Bible. I hope you’ve been able to do what Peter wrote in his letter: “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18a)
Perhaps it’s fitting that we’re reading Revelation as we anticipate the year 2012. All of us are probably aware of the famous Mayan calendar, which predicts the end will come this year. It’s not just the Mayans who are anticipating this year. According to Wikipedia, “New age interpretation of this transition is that this date marks the start of time in which Earth and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era.[5]”
While 2012 might be the year of the end for some, I’m praying something similar to the new agers: “that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era” at St. Paul’s. That new era will be marked by these words: The Year of Outreach.
One of the goals we set as a congregation was that we would implement an evangelism system.
What is evangelism? The word evangelism literally means “good message” or good news. Here are two “pretty good” definitions of evangelism from the Lutheran tradition:
“EVANGELISM IS APPLYING THE EVANGEL (GOSPEL) TO THE HEARTS OF PEOPLE, TO WIN THE UNSAVED FOR CHRIST, TO KEEP THE BELIEVER IN CHRIST, TO RECALL THE BACKSLIDER TO CHRIST, AND TO SEND THE BELIEVER FORTH A WITNESS FOR CHRIST.”
—THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH
“EVANGELISM IS ONE BEGGAR TELLING ANOTHER BEGGAR WHERE TO FIND BREAD.”
—MARTIN LUTHER
What is a system? Think of system as an acrostic. A S.Y.S.T.E.M. is any ongoing process that Saves You Stress, Time, Energy and Money. The council’s hope is to implement this ongoing process that will make evangelism easy and multipronged not only for 2012, but for years to come.
In the book, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too, the authors state: “A multipronged approach acknowledges that there is no ‘silver bullet’ when it comes to reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The days of ‘Lone Ranger’ evangelism are a thing of the past.” In other words, the days of outsourcing evangelism to the pastor or the stadium-filling evangelist are over. They continue, “Developing an effective evangelistic strategy requires stages, helping people move from the ranks of the inactive and unreached to being active followers of Jesus Christ.”
This obviously doesn’t happen overnight. Like they said, this requires stages.
The first stage is based on when the disciples first believed they had found the Messiah early on in John’s Gospel:
Philip said to Nathanael, “Come and see.” (John 1:46 ESV)
(We’ll talk about the second stage, “Go and do” in next month’s article.)
Remember what we talked about last month: according to one research report "82% of the unchurched are likely to attend worship if invited" (LifeWay Research, http://backtochurch.com/participate).
Some of you are imagining some of your unchurched friends and acquaintances coming to worship, and you can’t see it happening because worship will be such a foreign experience. One way I’m going to try to help you is from the pulpit.
We’re going to experiment with what I call a “Missional Lectionary.” The traditional lectionary was designed to tell the story of Jesus in a way that coincided with the changing of the seasons. It also assumed an agrarian culture. Three or four readings were read publicly because until the modern period, the common people did not have copies of the scriptures to read on their own. The traditional lectionary assumes Christendom—that is, it was developed in an era where the Christian story is well known among the people.
The Missional Lectionary assumes little familiarity with the story of the Bible. Not only that, this kind of lectionary presupposes that non-Christians today are very intimidated about visiting a Christian worship service. However, it takes into account the three times that God or church might come into their stream of consciousness: 1) Back-to-School Time; 2) Post Christmas/New Year’s Break (studies show that early February is when there is a spike in attendance of non-Christians); and 3) Easter. (Nelson Searcy, Launch: Starting a New Church from Scratch, p. 177-118)
During these time periods I will preach on scripture and topics that non-church-going people might care about and tell the story within that framework. For instance, this year around back-to-school time, the fall will be saturated with media coverage of politics and the presidential race. I’m proposing a series called, “The Politics of Jesus: Was Jesus Liberal or Conservative?” In the weeks leading up to this series, we’ll give you invitational cards to make it easier to invite people to worship. After these “attractional” kinds of messages, we will do other messages designed to deepen our knowledge of God as we grow to be His disciples.
This doesn’t mean we’ll throw the baby out with the bathwater. We will still observe the traditional seasons and have Lenten services, etc. It’s just one step we’ll take to help you invite your friends and say, “Come and see.”
Lord, help us your believers become disciples who: love unconditionally; listen compassionately; speak truthfully; act justly; endure patiently; forgive mercifully; give generously; serve selflessly; invite constantly; pray fervently; witness unashamedly; and live worthily.
God be with you all as you seek to grow in your love for and obedience to Jesus!
Happy New Year!
Pastor Charlie
Friday, December 9, 2011
“Renovation Reflections”
“If you build it, he will come.”
Most of you would recognize this as the famous line from the cult classic baseball film, Field of Dreams. Some have adapted a similar saying in the church: “If you build it, they will come.” That is, if you build a building, or in our case, make renovations to our building, new people will start showing up mysteriously just as Ray Kinsella’s deceased father and all those old-time baseball players did in Field of Dreams.
While the movie enjoyed a major run and continues to be a big hit, the belief in church, “If you build it, they will come,” would be an egregious error. (Puns shamefully intended.)
While the movie enjoyed a major run and continues to be a big hit, the belief in church, “If you build it, they will come,” would be an egregious error. (Puns shamefully intended.)
I am so grateful to God for these renovations. For Virginia, for Fred Smalling, for all the project managers, give praise and thanks to God! However, there’s only one way people will come and enjoy our newly renovated sanctuary with us: only if the people of God go. Go and invite.
Jesus promised that he would build the church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18) St. Paul’s is His church. Our job is simple: love God, love people, and make disciples. (Matthew 22:37, 39; 28:19-20)
One mark of a disciple is someone who invites constantly. We see this early on in John’s Gospel when Philip invites Nathanael to “Come and see” Jesus. (John 1:46)
According to one research report "82% of the unchurched are likely to attend church if invited…yet only 2% of church members invite." (LifeWay Research, http://backtochurch.com/participate)
In other words, “If you invite them, they will come.” As 2011 comes to a close, think back over the last 11 months. Did you invite anyone to worship with you? Are you part of the 98%? All it takes is three words: “Come and see.”
Jesus made a promise: “when I am lifted up from the earth, [I] will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:32 ESV) My responsibility is to help people see that the Son of Man is lifted up. Our job together is to invite people to come and see.
The baseball season is long gone. The Advent season is just beginning. The theme of the season is not limited to “He will come.” It celebrates the reality that He has come. Therefore, it’s not just buildings that are being renovated. Revelation 21:5 says, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Because he has come the first time, he has already made you new. He has given us a new heart with a new life and a new lease on life. And because of Jesus—his life, death, and resurrection--He will renovate the whole earth so that the kingdoms of this world will be renovated to be the kingdom of our God.
This is the renovation worth showing off. And so, my challenge to us in this coming year is to enact this renovation of the heart, by inviting more constantly.
Lord, help us your believers become disciples who: love unconditionally; listen compassionately; speak truthfully; act justly; endure patiently; forgive mercifully; give generously; serve selflessly; invite constantly; pray fervently; witness unashamedly; and live worthily.
God be with you all as you seek to grow in your love for and obedience to Jesus!
Blessed Advent and Merry Christmas,
Pastor Charlie
Friday, July 23, 2010
Pastor Charlie's August Message:
Wayne Cordeiro, a pastor in Hawaii, relates the following illustration:
As we seek to be missionaries to the Palos Verdes culture, it’s important that we also evaluate our own nursery—ie our own culture--to see if ours is a thriving environment for newborns. Does God “feel good” about sending newborn Christians to St. Paul’s? Can He feel confident that His children will receive the same quality teaching and apprenticing that reflect the message and methods of Jesus?
If our culture is this kind of thriving culture, we will see our vision of each one maturing in Christ and actively serving others coming to fruition in even more tangible as well as more ironic ways. The paradox about maturing in Christ is that a congregation that is truly maturing is also going to be a congregation filled with much immaturity. In other words, a Christian who is maturing is someone who is leading people to experience new birth in Christ. As anyone who has been a parent knows, any time there is new birth, there are lots of diapers to change, mouths to feed, first steps to be taken, and vocabulary to be learned. Parenting can be messy, and it requires hard work. So does the nursery of discipleship. Mature Christians not only seek to midwife spiritual births and rebirths, but they also recognize that their lives change as they now see themselves as “new parents” who are charged with nurturing those new Christians; which means a mature congregation will reflect a certain degree of immaturity.
How have authentic kingdom values been unleashed into your life at St. Paul’s?
I’m guessing that most of our responses would not reflect a Sunday worship setting. Of course, we pastors always hope that kingdom values can be downloaded into souls through our messages, but we know that it’s all too often wishful thinking.
My guess is that those nurseries where you grew in your faith took place among smaller groups of people who, just like you, don’t have it all figured out; probably have more questions than answers; and who are actively seeking more of God. It was most likely from spiritual friendships where you are just doing life together.
That is clearly the nursery of the Nurturer, Jesus. Jesus wasn’t all about the hordes; he was about the households. While at one point, thousands wanted to be with Jesus, he limited himself primarily to a group of 12, and within that group, a group of 4. The largest group he would keep company with was a group of 70 (Luke 10).
This Fall you will have two opportunities to have kingdom values unleashed into your life through similar groups. One will be a Spiritual Gifts Group called Network. Every Christian has a spiritual gift (1 Cor. 12) and is called to employ that gift in some kind of ministry (Eph 2:10). If you don’t know what your spiritual gift and/or ministry is, then I highly recommend you participate in the group. The other opportunity will be a group called Becoming a Contagious Christian, which helps you to share the Gospel with your friends and family in a simple, non-threatening way.
At St. Paul’s, no one is treated as a number. There is a genuine concern and affection for people at St. Paul’s that reflects the love of Christ. In my three months of being your pastor, I detect a hunger for the Word and for spiritual growth. Now comes the point of “being fed” with the Word: it’s time to exercise it in discipleship—to minister and witness to the PV cultures and the people God sends to our nursery.
Please pray: Thank you, Jesus, for the nursery of St. Paul’s. Help us to care for the newborns you will send. Amen.
Early in my ministry, years before I came to New Hope Christian Fellowship O'ahu in Hawaii, I traveled to many churches on behalf of Youth for Christ. We had our first child at the time, and my wife, Anna, would take precious little Amy to the church nursery. She discreetly tried to discern if they possessed the two basic prerequisites that she as a mother required to give her the confidence and security to leave our newborn: Was the place clean? More important, did the attendants really love kids?
Anna observed some terrible environments: "Child number four, sit down! Child number three, are you wet again? Seven, seven, don't bite number twelve!" Whenever she found herself in a nursery of that sort, where they treated children like numbers instead of people, she'd bring Amy with her into the sanctuary and care for our child herself. As a good parent who loves children, Anna had no desire to entrust Amy to a nursery that could not provide adequate nurturing and care.
This observation taught me something: a church is like a nursery for the spiritual babies God the Father is drawing. He is constantly calling people into the nursery. The Bible's message is clear: "no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him" (John 6:44). And the Father is not done yet!
God is a good parent who loves his children, and he doesn't want to send his newborns just anywhere. It pains him for them to be in a neglected environment, or one that has posted the equivalent of a No Vacancy sign. Why send people with great potential into a culture where they cannot grow and become fruitful? However, if a church offers a rich, healthy, inspiriting culture that gladly accepts those whom God is drawing, then he has armloads of young, yet-to-be-developed D. L. Moody’s, Mother Teresa’s, and others to bring. But they're all in seed form as babies.
We've got to do the long-term work of building a nursery--that is, a culture--in which these future leaders can thrive. We've got to commit ourselves to a long-term organic approach of life-on-life ministry that unleashes authentic kingdom values into people's lives.
As we seek to be missionaries to the Palos Verdes culture, it’s important that we also evaluate our own nursery—ie our own culture--to see if ours is a thriving environment for newborns. Does God “feel good” about sending newborn Christians to St. Paul’s? Can He feel confident that His children will receive the same quality teaching and apprenticing that reflect the message and methods of Jesus?
If our culture is this kind of thriving culture, we will see our vision of each one maturing in Christ and actively serving others coming to fruition in even more tangible as well as more ironic ways. The paradox about maturing in Christ is that a congregation that is truly maturing is also going to be a congregation filled with much immaturity. In other words, a Christian who is maturing is someone who is leading people to experience new birth in Christ. As anyone who has been a parent knows, any time there is new birth, there are lots of diapers to change, mouths to feed, first steps to be taken, and vocabulary to be learned. Parenting can be messy, and it requires hard work. So does the nursery of discipleship. Mature Christians not only seek to midwife spiritual births and rebirths, but they also recognize that their lives change as they now see themselves as “new parents” who are charged with nurturing those new Christians; which means a mature congregation will reflect a certain degree of immaturity.
How have authentic kingdom values been unleashed into your life at St. Paul’s?
I’m guessing that most of our responses would not reflect a Sunday worship setting. Of course, we pastors always hope that kingdom values can be downloaded into souls through our messages, but we know that it’s all too often wishful thinking.
My guess is that those nurseries where you grew in your faith took place among smaller groups of people who, just like you, don’t have it all figured out; probably have more questions than answers; and who are actively seeking more of God. It was most likely from spiritual friendships where you are just doing life together.
That is clearly the nursery of the Nurturer, Jesus. Jesus wasn’t all about the hordes; he was about the households. While at one point, thousands wanted to be with Jesus, he limited himself primarily to a group of 12, and within that group, a group of 4. The largest group he would keep company with was a group of 70 (Luke 10).
This Fall you will have two opportunities to have kingdom values unleashed into your life through similar groups. One will be a Spiritual Gifts Group called Network. Every Christian has a spiritual gift (1 Cor. 12) and is called to employ that gift in some kind of ministry (Eph 2:10). If you don’t know what your spiritual gift and/or ministry is, then I highly recommend you participate in the group. The other opportunity will be a group called Becoming a Contagious Christian, which helps you to share the Gospel with your friends and family in a simple, non-threatening way.
At St. Paul’s, no one is treated as a number. There is a genuine concern and affection for people at St. Paul’s that reflects the love of Christ. In my three months of being your pastor, I detect a hunger for the Word and for spiritual growth. Now comes the point of “being fed” with the Word: it’s time to exercise it in discipleship—to minister and witness to the PV cultures and the people God sends to our nursery.
Please pray: Thank you, Jesus, for the nursery of St. Paul’s. Help us to care for the newborns you will send. Amen.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Comeback Churches Midweek venue change
We are now meeting Sunday in the Upper Room and midweek on Wednesdays at the San Pedro Brewing Company. (331 West 6th St. San Pedro)
Friday, June 25, 2010
Comeback Churches Book Discussion
Wednesday Night Book Discussions will now be held at the Original Red Onion, 736 Silver Spur Rd., Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)