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.
