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Bring

September 26, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Stuff My Church Does – Bring *
Sycamore Creek & Potterville UMC
September 2016
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

What’s your experience coming to church?  Are you like me?  I grew up doing church.  My mom brought me every week.  But when I got to be a teenager someone invited me to youth group.  It was maybe the first time I had gone to church without my mom.  This whole faith thing started to get real.  I came the first time because someone invited me.  I came back the second time because there were cute girls at youth group!  (Admit it: how many of you guys stayed in church because of a cute girl?)  Well, I’m exaggerating a little bit, but not by much.  I not only found cute girls at church, but I also stayed because I found something deeper in the people around me.  These other teenagers who were all in for Jesus seemed to have found something I was looking for.  Found people find people.

Today we’re continuing in the series Stuff My Church Does.  We’ve been looking at the why behind the stuff we do.  We began with discipleship, looked at music the second week and prayer the third week.  Today we’re looking at why we bring people to church.

Here’s the whole point of today.  If you get nothing else out of this message take this away:

The Point: People bring people to Jesus.

The person we are today has more to do with the “who’s” than the “what’s” of our life.  This is true about the church too.  We connect and stay because of someone.  We are involved because of someone.  The church can have all kinds of great ministries, events, etc. but none of them bring people to Jesus.  People bring people to Jesus.  The Church is the only organization whose purpose is for those who aren’t here yet.

How did you end up coming to Sycamore Creek (or any church or organization you’re a part of)?

The current American church is having an identity crisis.  Lifeway Research, an arm of the Baptist church, found that only 2% of people who regularly attend church will invite someone outside the church in a year (98% don’t invite someone to church)!  So that’s the Baptists.  How bout we Methodists?  I recently read that a United Methodist invites someone once every 38 years (Get Their Name)!  Consider those statistics in light of other research that shows that 7 of 10 unchurched people have never once been invited to get involved in church in their entire life and 51% of people would be likely to come if someone invited them.  Maybe we should say, “’Bring’ is the stuff the church doesn’t do!”  We’ve hidden our light under a bowl.

Today I’d like to re-inspire us to bring people to church by looking at one of Jesus’ early friends, Andrew.  Andrew is always bringing someone to Jesus.  He brings Simon.  He brings a boy with fish.  He brings curious Greeks during Passover.  How and why was Andrew always bringing someone to Jesus?  I think there are two reasons Andrew was such a bringer.

  1. Andrew Maintained a Sense of Awe and Wonder

Andrew is the disciple always elbowing the other disciples whispering, “It’s Jesus!  Check this out!”  Let’s look at one story where this happens.  John is one of Jesus’ three closest friends and he tells the story of Jesus miraculously feeding thousands of people.

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.[a] A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples.
~John 6:1-3 NRSV

Notice that Jesus is focusing here not so much on the crowd as he is on his inner circle of disciples.  And yet the needs of the crowd are going to have an impact on and become a teaching point for the disciples.

Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages[b] would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.”
~John 6:4-7 NRSV

John tells us that a crowd of pilgrims are there for the Passover.  This means that they’ve traveled far away from home for the Passover.  The Passover is the time when the Jews celebrated their deliverance from slavery in Egypt.  And now that they’ve traveled this far they’re all hungry.  Most of the disciples are very pragmatic about the situation.  But Andrew has a slightly different response.  He brings someone to Jesus.

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?”  Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they[c] sat down, about five thousand in all.
~John 6:8-10 NRSV

When John reports that there are “five thousand in all” he doesn’t really mean that the way we would today.  What he means is that there were five thousand men.  That means there were more than twice that amount when you include women and children.  And Andrew is suggesting that a boy with five loaves and two fish might somehow be part of the solution even if it all seems impossible!  I’m guessing the disciples were thinking Andrew must be some kind of idiot!  But what kind of idiot?  The kind of idiot who has a big vision of Jesus.  It’s Andrew’s awe and wonder and passion that keeps driving him.

Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.  So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets.
~John 6:11-13 NRSV

Jesus recognizes the opportunity to teach the disciples about who he is through this boy that Andrew has brought him.  He does the miraculous and feeds them all with a lot left over!  It all begins with Andrew bringing the boy to Jesus.  And Andrew brings the boy to Jesus because he’s passionate about Jesus.

We talk about what we’re passionate about.  Our heart and mouth are closely related.  Jesus teaches that “it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45).  Whatever has a hold of your heart comes out of your mouth.  If you’re passionate about Green and White then you talk about the Spartans.  If you’re passionate about Blue and Gold then you talk about the Wolverines.  But if you want to mix the two together then you talk about Blue and White!  Go Blue Devils!

One of the things I’ve been really passionate about over the last couple of years is balance bikes.  A balance bike is a bike that kids learn to balance on.  It doesn’t have pedals.  So they learn at their own pace slowly learning to glide more and more.  Both of my boys have used one to learn without having the painful experience of all that falling down stuff.  I started a community balance bike group, and I’m always telling people with little kids about balance bikes.  I’m passionate about it so I talk about it.  Could it be that our reluctance about bringing people to Jesus is because something else has laid hold of our hearts and our passion and has captivated us?

For many of us there is a lot of time and distance between when we first met Jesus and today.  Familiarity breeds contempt (the more familiar you are the less passionate you are about it).  Somewhere along the way we’ve forgotten how good the news is.  We lost our first love.  We lost our awe and wonder about Jesus.  What was Andrew’s secret for maintaining awe and wonder?  I think it may have been in the way that Jesus initially called Andrew to follow him.

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
~Mark 1:16-18 NRSV

Have you ever wondered why the disciples were so quick to follow Jesus?  Was Jesus some kind of a Jedi?  “At first it seems a little fishy.”  (Ugh…I know.)  Why were they so easily persuaded?  Well, first of all, this was likely not their first encounter with Jesus (read John 1).  But more so, in first century Israel culture everyone wanted to be a Rabbi, not a rock star, sports star or reality TV celebrity.  Every six-year-old boy started off on the path to become a rabbi.  There were three stages of training (for more on this check out this article by Ray Vander Laan).  At some point if you didn’t have the right stuff, you’d be sent home to learn your family trade.  If you had what it takes, you might ask to follow a rabbi.  But some extraordinary rabbis would choose their own students.  “Come follow me.”

Andrew is fishing, which means he’s taking up the family trade.  He wasn’t good enough during the three stages of training to be a rabbi.  He didn’t have what it takes.  So he’s gone back to the family business of fishing.  And along comes this rabbi, an extraordinary one at that, and he picks Andrew!  Andrew lived in close proximity to the grace offered by Jesus.  Jesus picked Andrew when others wouldn’t.  Jesus picks us when no one else would.

Most of us are stuck in an old Janet Jackson song: What have you done for me lately?  But maybe we should be grateful for what Jesus has already done for us.  If God didn’t ever do another good thing for you, what he has already done for us in Christ is infinitely more than we deserve.  If we’re going to maintain a sense of awe and wonder we’ll have to be in the habit of continually reminding ourselves what Jesus has done for us.

How did Jesus rescue you?  Many of us don’t have a big rescue story.  Andrew didn’t really either.  He was rescued from the family business of fishing.  But Jesus brought reality to the deepest longing and desires of Andrew’s heart, not because he had a really messed up life.  Perhaps Andrew felt disappointed about doing what his family had done for centuries, and Jesus introduces Andrew to a purpose and cause bigger than himself.

Here’s a good question to cultivate some awe and wonder: What mess would I be living in if Jesus hadn’t rescued me?  Or who would I be if Jesus hadn’t called me?  What kind of spouse?  Father?  Mother?  Friend?  Worker?  Son?  Daughter?  Jesus not only rescues us, but he brings reality to the deepest longing in our hearts.  This is good news!  We can’t help but share it with others.  We need to be in the habit of reminding ourselves just how GOOD this GOOD news is.  This is the secret to how Andrew maintained a sense of awe and wonder.

  1. Andrew Chose Compassion over Convenience

Andrew’s awe and wonder also showed itself in his profound awareness of other people’s needs.  After initially encountering Jesus, Andrew wants to go immediately to find Simon.  He wants to share this compassion with others around him.  In the story we read above the disciples want convenience, but Andrew wanted to try something new.  Our compassion creates encounters for others with Jesus.

A couple of months ago we did a very popular series called The Art of Neighboring.  We handed out fridge magnets and challenged you to get to know the names of your eight closest neighbors.  We asked, “What if Jesus meant for us to love our actual neighbors.”  How’s that going?  Knowing your neighbors’ names is one simple step of showing compassion.  We hosted a neighborhood BBQ at our house and had about twenty neighbors over.  We got to know their names and even more about them. We had a lot going on this summer: launching a Church in a Pub, exploring adopting Potterville UMC, vacations, and more.  But we made time to show our neighbors a little compassion even though it wasn’t necessarily very convenient.  What is your home?  Is it a fortress away from the world or is it a hospital for the world?  Is it where you keep all your appliances of convenience or is it where you show your neighbors compassion?

Choosing compassion over convenience means showing compassion to the person you work with who drives you nuts, the family member everyone has given up on, or the strangers you work out next to at the gym.

Andrew didn’t wait for someone else to do something, He went and brought people to Jesus.

Imagine if he hadn’t brought Simon or the boy with five loaves and two fish to Jesus?  What if the person who brought you to Jesus hadn’t done so?

As we live into owning a building it will be tempting for us to forget that the Church is not a building.  It’s a community of people.  When people ask, “Why won’t the church do this or that?” I think, “Good question: you are the church.  Why don’t you do that?!”  We’ve got a cool-slowly-being-remodeled building and a cool sign out front, but buildings and signs don’t bring people to Jesus.  People showing compassion bring people to Jesus.

This fall God is beginning something new at Sycamore Creek.  We’re doing a church-wide campaign called Simplify.  We’re trying to show some compassion to the overworked, overscheduled, and exhausted people in our culture.  Here’s a basic question: How will they get here?  How will they know about this good news?  The answer is: You’re the invitation.  Will you commit to Invest & Invite three people to Sycamore Creek this fall?  It’s stuff my church does: bring people to meet Jesus.

Next Steps

  1. Journal about what God is doing for you
  2. Daily pray for five minutes about this fall (Church in a Pub, Potterville, Simplify)
  3. Sign up for a small group through GroupLINK
  4. Invest & Invite three people

* This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Nick Cuningham

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: , ,

Ant Man – Are You Too Small for the Challenge?

July 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment

GodOnFilm

 

Ant Man – Are You Too Small for the Challenge?
Sycamore Creek Church
July 19/20, 2015
Tom Arthur

 

 

Peace friends! 

So who has actually heard of “Ant Man” before just now?  I had never heard of him as a super hero before looking at the movies coming out this summer.  He isn’t the biggest super hero out there.  In fact, he’s kind of, well, small.  But he packs a big punch!

It’s a good day to be here at SCC because we’re continuing in our summer series, God on Film.  Each week we’re looking at a different summer blockbuster.  We’re exploring one theme in each movie and looking at what the Bible has to say about that theme.  Today’s it’s Antman and the question is: are you too small for the challenges you face?

What BIG challenges are you facing today?  Maybe you feel like one person standing against injustice.  Or you’ve got too many obstacles in the way of your goals.  Or you think your relationship is too far gone.  Or you’ve got no hope for a job or a child is in trouble.  Maybe you’re struggling with a BIG powerful addiction.  Or you feel small and isolated and alone.  Or there’s BIG criticism you’re facing and feeling smaller and smaller with every critical comment.  Maybe at work you’ve got too much to do and not enough time or employees.  Or at church you’ve got too much to do and not enough volunteers.  Or financially there are too many bills and not enough money.  Or maybe you’re on the opposite side and you’ve got too many opportunities and not enough money to take all of them.  Maybe today you know too many people around you who need financial help and you don’t have enough money to help everyone.  Or your bad habits are ingrained in BIG ruts.  Maybe like at my house there’s too much noise and not enough peace and quiet.  Or you’ve got too many kids and not enough time to spend with each one.  Sometimes we feel really small in the face of BIG challenges.

Today I want to look at one person in the Bible who was too small and had too many big challenges for God to do much in his life.  But one day Jesus walked by.

Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town.  There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich.
~Luke 19:1-2 NLT

Zacchaeus is an interesting character in this story.  Any Jew reading this in his day would have thought  immediately, Zacchaeus is too much of an enemy for God to do anything with.  He was the “Chief Tax Collector.”  In other words, he was an extortionist.  His job was to get as much tax out of you so that he could have as big of a commission as possible.  You pay more taxes.  He makes more money.  What if the IRS worked on a commission?  Yikes!  Add to that, Zacchaeus was very good at his job.  He had become “very rich.”  Probably too rich.  Remember what Jesus said about rich people?  “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”  (Matthew 19:24 NLT).  And these are just the first two of many BIG problems for Zacchaeus. Let’s keep reading.

He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.
~Luke 19:3-4 NLT

Yes, Zacchaeus is not only too crooked and too rich, he’s also too short!  What a way to punch a man when he’s down.  Zacchaeus has BIG problems for God to work in his life and he’s too short to meet Jesus.

When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”
~Luke 19:5 NLT

Jesus just walked over a serious line here and you may not have even noticed it.  He wants to be a guest in Zacchaeus’ house!  What’s so bad about this?  Well, Jesus is offering to not only hang out with one wrong person, but he’s going to go hang out in the lion’s den itself!  Zacchaeus certainly has too many of the wrong kind of friends, and Jesus wants to go meet them all.  Well, this puts the people in an uproar!

Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.
~Luke 19:6-7 NLT

More BIG problems.  Now Zacchaeus and Jesus both have a publicity problem.  There’s too much criticism.  People are seriously displeased.  Not just one person but people.  A whole crowd of criticism.  Of course, there’s criticism.  What did Jesus expect?  Zacchaeus is a “notorious sinner.”  Like the Ant Man, he “broke in and stole stuff.”  He cheated people on their taxes.

Needless to say, Zacchaeus had BIG problems and just wasn’t the right kind of person for God to work in.  So why does Jesus do it?  Because Jesus’ mission is clear:

For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”
~Luke 19:9-10 NLT

When it comes to feeling lost amidst BIG problems in the world there are two kinds of people:

  1. Those who feel small and lost in a BIG world;
  2. Those who don’t feel small and lost in BIG world.

1.       Those who don’t feel small and lost in BIG world.

Let’s begin with the second kind: those who don’t feel small and lost in a BIG world.  Did you notice what kind of tree Zacchaeus climbed up?  A “sycamore-fig tree!”  Before Jesus walked by, Zacchaeus may have been too short to see Jesus, but he was at the top of the food chain when it comes to living in a BIG world.  He’s likely not very religious.  He’s interested in “BIG” things: money, power, and politics.  But catching a glimpse of Jesus was about to change all that.  As the “Ant Man” says, “This wasn’t my idea.”

It’s my hope that Sycamore Creek would be a “sycamore-fig tree” that provides a glimpse of Jesus for those who don’t yet know they’re lost in a BIG world.  But rest assured, God is at work in that person’s life even though they don’t recognize it yet.  John, one of Jesus’ closest followers said, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NRSV).  God loves that person even before they realize that they need God’s love back.  But for them to respond, there has to be some kind of small stirring in their heart.  I think that we at SCC can provide that stirring.  We can be the sycamore tree that they climb up and catch a glimpse of Jesus.  We do that in many ways but one very significant way: the way we welcome them.

When a first-time guest shows up and gives us their email on the Connection Card, they get an email on Monday welcoming them and are invited to take a 30-second survey.  The first question we ask is: what was the first thing you noticed?  Over the last year or two here are most of the responses we’ve gotten:

  • Friendly people
  • The greeter at the door was playful and friendly
  • The first thing I noticed was how friendly and inviting everyone was to me.
  • Signs inside and greeter
  • relaxed atmosphere
  • nice building (under construction)
  • Everyone was smiling and having a good time.
  • The friendliness everyone we saw was saying good morning and happy Easter. It felt awesome!
  • Everyone that I met was really nice and welcoming
  • Friendly people
  • The friendliness of church ‘regulars’ and representatives from church staff.
  • Welcoming atmosphere, praise & worship team.
  • I could hear the nice music outside of the church
  • I was immediately greeted by very friendly greeters.
  • Warm greeting from so many people
  • Friendly, welcoming people. very accessible worship service
  • Friendliness
  • Friendliness of people when I walked in
  • The friendliness of the congregation.
  • Friendly, welcoming atmosphere and a sense that things are “happening” at Sycamore Creek. Clearly an exciting time of growth.
  • Friendly people
  • The friendliness of congregation
  • When people realized that I was a stranger, they smiled and welcomed me.
  • The greeter
  • There was somebody at the door to greet me as I walked into the building. That was awesome.
  • Age diversity for a contemporary service
  • orange cones directing traffic, children check in point, and food
  • The warm welcome and laid back atmosphere
  • The crowd of people and the happy faces. The general atmosphere of well-being….that everything was right with the world at that moment.
  • Honestly? The smell of popcorn. After that, the smiles.
  • Everyone was so friendly and welcoming!
  • How welcoming everyone is
  • Everyone was super filled with GOD and happy.
  • there was a greeter directing people
  • Pastor Tom’s friendliness.
  • Greeters opened the door for us and were very inviting
  • Friendliest of people
  • How quickly people came up to greet me in a very genuine way.
  • smiling faces
  • Friendly welcome when we entered (and we saw the great sign out front)
  • a warm welcome
  • The friendliness of everyone.
  • Being greeted when we sat down.
  • The welcoming feeling I got from my first step in.
  • Ministry teamwork. Good communication. Preparedness.
  • Warmth

Do you notice any common threads among the answers?  It’s pretty obvious isn’t it?  People experience a warm welcome here.  We don’t always nail it, but we do it more often than not.  In the face of BIG questions about how to reach new people, sometimes a small welcome is all that is needed to help someone catch a glimpse of Jesus.

We do this using one simple tool.  We call it the 5-10-LINK rule.  While we all want to come to worship and reconnect with friends we haven’t seen, we can’t neglect the guest among us.  Five minutes before the service and five minutes after the service focus on getting to know someone you don’t know.  You don’t have to cover the entire building.  Just cover the ten feet around you.  That’s probably the seats beside, in front, and behind you.  Then LINK that person to others around them.  You’ve got ants in your kitchen?  Let me introduce you to Bob, he’s got ants in his whole house!

OK, one caution here.  Welcoming guests can be overdone.  This is a bit of an art form.  Watch for signs and cues about how much that person really wants to interact with you or others.  Are their answers to your questions short and to the point?  Is their body language closed?  Then welcome them and let them move on.

Friends, for those who don’t feel lost in a BIG world, we can be the “Sycamore Tree” that someone climbs up on and catches a glimpse of Jesus.

2.       Those who feel small and lost in a BIG world

While there are some who don’t feel lost in this BIG world, many of us feel like the ant man:

 

 

For those who do feel small and lost in a BIG world, it’s my hope that Sycamore Creek would be a place where Jesus regularly passes by.  I don’t mean a “place” in the sense that the building is where Jesus passes by.  The building is a tool.  The community that meets in the building is the “place.”  Wherever the community is at, that’s the place.  I also don’t mean that a pastor is the place where Jesus passes by.  I mean the whole community.  Each one of you.  The pastor is just the chief equipper, the head coach of the community.  I also don’t mean a formal ministry of the church, as important as that is.  Ministries are tools the community uses to create spaces where Jesus can come to town.  What I do mean is that wherever you are, there Jesus is passing by.  You are the “Sycamore Tree” that people will climb up to see Jesus when he passes by!

When people encounter Jesus at Sycamore Creek, everything changes!  Our “smallness” actually becomes a strength.  As John the Baptist says, “He [Jesus] must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less” (John 3:30 NLT).  I think you could say, “Jesus becomes bigger and I become smaller.”  Your mission in life becomes clear as it lines up with Jesus’ mission.  Why you exist becomes clear as it fits into why Jesus exists.  Your vision for what can be gets bigger.  You see how God can use your small contribution to accomplish BIG things.  Your creativity for how God will get you to where God wants you gets bigger.  Jesus takes you to unexpected places.  Let’s go back to Zacchaeus and see how God does big things through this small man.

Big Outcome for a “Small Person”

Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”
~Luke 19:8 NLT

Zacchaeus has a BIG change of heart.  His heart moves from greed to BIG generosity.  He gives away half his wealth!  And some of you complain about 10%.  There’s a BIG turnaround in how he treats people.  He makes things right by giving them back what he stole with interest, 400% interest!

Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”
~Luke 19:9-10 NLT

Jesus’ mission is clear: “The son of man came to seek and save those who are lost.”  Jesus’ mission overcomes BIG obstacles and results in BIG salvation.

Are the Obstacles too BIG for SCC?

I want to take a moment and reflect on some unique obstacles that SCC is facing right now.  They are unique because of the size of our church.  Those who study church size describe four different sizes of church from small to big.  The first three sizes are:

  1. Family Size Church (made up of a couple of families) – <75
  2. Pastoral Size Church (made up of the friends one pastor can sustain) – 76-140
  3. Small Program Size Church (made up of several pastoral size churches under one roof with key staff being the “pastor” of each “church”) – 225-400

Notice the jump from pastoral size church at 140 to small program size church at 225.  In between this is a fourth church size:

  1. Transition Size Church – 14-225

It’s a transition size church because it is “too large to be a small church and too small to be a large church” (The Myth of the 200 Barrier).  It is also called the awkward size church.  It’s awkward because a church of this size needs facilities, staff, and programs all at the same time but only has the resources to cover one at a time.

So where is Sycamore Creek?  Sycamore Creek has on average 220 people every weekend.  We are at the top end of the transitional size church, but I think our transitional nature is somewhat exaggerated because we never have 220 people all gathered in one service.  We have three services that are each family to pastoral sized.  When it comes to facilities, staff, and programs, we’ve focused rightfully so on facilities.  But if we are going to continue to grow, we’ll need to focus more and more on the other two: staff and programs.  You can grow programs in one of two ways: with staff or volunteers.  It’s my sense that God is calling SCC to grow our programs primarily with volunteers.  Individuals giving small amounts of time can together accomplish great things.  Consider the ant:

 

 

I think God is calling us to mobilize twice our current volunteers in three different areas: teaching ministries, caring ministries, and hospitality ministries.  When it comes to teaching, you’ll begin seeing more and more volunteers and staff preaching and teaching.  If we’re going to launch seven satellites in seven venues on seven days of the week, we’re going to need more preachers than just me!  As we continue to reach new families with young children and teenagers, there will be more opportunities to serve in Kids Creek and StuREV than ever before.

When it comes to caring ministries, a family size and pastoral size church can easily receive care from one pastor.  A pastor is essentially a family chaplain for a family sized church!  But that doesn’t work when you’re providing care for 220 people.  Because if there is an average of 220 people in worship on the weekend, that means there are 300-500 people in our orbit.  So you’re going to see Tom Fox, a retired pastor in our church beginning to organize volunteers to provide care in the hospital.  You’ll see our Caring and Listening team providing congregational care for our church so that I’m not the only one doing counseling.  You’ll begin seeing other staff doing funerals and weddings.

When it comes to hospitality we’re about to open a new Connection Café on Sunday mornings.  But wouldn’t it be great to see that café open other days of the week?!  There will be more opportunities than ever before to help provide a warm welcome with a warm drink in our new Connection Café.  Another key aspect to hospitality is a clean facility.  When the building is clean, some small and BIG obstacles are removed from a guest encountering God in this building.

Now we can do this.  We do it pretty regularly.  When we take our worship Live on Location (LOL) “ants” come out of the woodwork to lift the heavy loads.  At Baptism @ The Beach we had sixty people sign up to help make that day happen.  Many hands made light work.  And many hands turned a park into a sacred place where BIG salvation happened in the lives of those who were baptized that day.  Is SCC too small for the task?  Not when Jesus walks by this way!

Prayer
God help us to look to you when we feel small and the obstacles feel BIG.  Use us together to accomplish BIG things in the lives of those we meet.  May we join Jesus in seeking and saving those who feel small and lost amidst this BIG world.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN.

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Compassionate

January 19, 2015 by Leave a Comment

hello

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MP3thumb

Hello: My Name Is Sycamore Creek Church – Compassionate
 January 18/19, 2015
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

You never know who will show up for worship.  What would happen if Lady Gaga showed up for worship?  Grandview United Methodist Church in Lancaster, PA recently had that experience.  One of Lady Gaga’s family members was being baptized and she was there to participate.  So what would happen if she showed up here?  What if coach Izzo walked in the door?  And coach Beilein?  Let’s amp it up a bit.  What if Barak Obama walked in the door?  What about George W. Bush?

Here’s what I hope would happen: No matter who you are, where you’ve been, what you’ve done, or where we encounter you, we’re going to do our best to show you God’s compassion.  Hello: My Name Is Sycamore Creek Church and I’m compassionate.

OK, those scenarios were a little off the wall, right?  But here are some that are more likely to happen.

  1. You’re driving down the street and someone is standing on the corner asking for help.
  2. Your child moved out of the house to live on his/her own, but made some not-so-wise choices and now wants to move back in.
  3. You’ve just attended worship and are enjoying hanging out in the Connection Café catching up with a good friend when you notice just over their shoulder, someone you haven’t seen before at SCC who is standing by themselves.
  4. You show up for worship one day and realize that there are all kinds of people who attend worship that you would never naturally choose to hang out with.

What do these situations have in common?  They all have to deal with a basic question: How do we show God’s compassion to those around us?

Here’s a basic problem I want to deal with today.  Christians have been following a lie.  The lie is that my faith is about me and Jesus.  Here’s how the church has traditionally described what its mission is about:
MeandJesus

We are stuck in our sin and this leads to death.  When we ask Jesus to be our Lord and Savior we cross over a bridge that gets us to a Holy God and eternal life.  Life is now good.  Me and Jesus.  Thus, the mission of the church is to get people to walk over the bridge of Jesus so that they have eternal life with God.

Now there isn’t anything particularly wrong with this, except that it is woefully incomplete.  It doesn’t go far enough.  It neglects everyone else around you.

 

 

Here’s a better illustration of what the church is all about:

Jesus&World

I think we all agree that the world isn’t as it should be.  All kinds of things are wrong with this world.  Things aren’t as they should be.  Christians believe that’s because God created and designed the world for good, but it was damaged by evil.  We focused on our own needs to neglect the needs of others.  The good news is that God didn’t throw us out and start again.  He sent his son, Jesus, into the world to restore it for better.  He showed us how to live and gave us his power to live that way.  He did this in large part by creating a community of people who are seeking to follow his way.  Now it would be really nice to just stay in that bubble of a community, but Jesus sent us out into the world together to heal.  So it’s not just about Jesus and me.  It’s about Jesus and us and all the world.  Thus, the mission of the church is to invite people to be restored for better and then sent out together into the world to bring healing, to be part of the solution rather than the problem.  We can’t do this on our own.  That’s what got us into trouble in the first place.  We need the resources of God in Jesus.

So here at SCC we seek to be compassionate, to bring healing together to the world through Jesus.  No matter who you are, where you’ve been, what you’ve done, or where we encounter you, we’re going to do our best to show you God’s compassion.  But it’s not always clear how to show God’s compassion.  Here are three hooks of compassion here at SCC.


1. Fiercely Focused on the Guest

In the book of Hebrews, we read:

Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!
~Hebrews 13:2 NLT

The guests who show up at our events just might be angels!  So you better make sure they don’t go unnoticed.  The Rule of St. Benedict, the basic instructions for Benedictine Monasteries tells monks and nuns to “Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ.”  SCC treats our guests like we would treat an angel or Christ if they showed up.

There are some important ways we think and talk about this focus.  First, we talk about guests, not visitors.  Guests are people you plan for and expect.  You’re excited when they show up.  We were recent guests at Sarah’s parents for Christmas.  When we showed up they were prepared.  They had all of their grandkids’ favorite toys out. They had their rooms all prepared.  The ornaments on the tree were up out of reach.  They had gone shopping and had enough food to cover the visit and not only enough but favorite food.  They were glad we came and they prepared for it.  A visitor is someone who comes to the door unexpected and unwanted.  The Kirby salesman is a visitor.  You’re polite (most of the time) but you want to get rid of them as fast as possible.  At SCC, new people are guests, not visitors.  We plan for them.  We learn what they like and want and we prepare for it.  We are glad they showed up.  We do everything we can to make sure they experience an environment where they can encounter God.  We are fiercely focused on the guest.

Second, we practice the 5-10-Link rule.  Five minutes before the service and five minutes after the service pay attention to the people within ten feet of you that you don’t know.  Then link with them and link them to someone else.  If you find out that they are a computer programmer, introduce them to another computer programmer in the room.  If you find out they like comic books, introduce them to someone else who likes comic books.  If you find out they’re hungry, introduce them to someone else who is hungry.

Third, be careful to protect my time as the pastor with guests.  Sometimes I get swamped right after worship with a lot of people who want to talk to me.  Can you wait five or ten minutes?  I’m not going anywhere.   If I happen to be talking to you and a guest walks by, I will stop our conversation to greet the guest.  Sometimes I can do that gently.  But sometimes it’s abrupt.  I was talking with a regular attender the other day when a first-time guest was walking by. I ditched him so hard and it was so abrupt, that I called him up the next day to apologize.  He understood.  I was practicing the 5-10-Link rule myself.

We practice compassion at SCC by being fiercely focused on the guest.

2.     Diverse friendships

Paul, the first missionary of the church, wrote a letter to the church at Colose that we now have in our Bibles as the book of Colossians.  Here’s what he said:

Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.

So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline.
~Colossians 3:9-12 The Message

It tends to be easiest to show compassion to those who are like us with the same labels.  But Paul believes that in Christ we build diverse friendships.  White with black and Hispanic.  Rich with poor.  Educated with the uneducated.  Employed with the unemployed.  Gay with straight.  You see, it’s easy to stereotype people who are different than we are when we don’t know them.  But when they are our friends, we are more likely to be compassionate.  We “put on” compassion when we build friendships with people who are different than we are.

I was talking with someone in our church the other day who is not by American standards rich, but they have a good job that takes care of their basics and leaves money to have fun with.  This person was telling me how when they first came to SCC they really wrestled with those folks here who are homeless or near homeless.  They wrestled with building friendships with the working poor.  But over time this person has realized how special and unique it is to voluntarily be in a community where you’re building friendships with people who are different than you are.  Diverse friendships at SCC helped this person put on compassion.

3.     Compassion Service

So far we’ve looked at two hooks that SCC hangs their compassionate hat on.  The third hook is compassionate service.  Matthew, one of Jesus’ followers, tells the story of a moment when Jesus encountered a crowd. He says:

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
~Matthew 9:36 NLT

I think there are two ways that Jesus understands people as helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  At one point he says, “Blessed are the poor” (Luke 6:20), or those who have physical needs.  At another time he says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3), or those who have spiritual needs.  At SCC we seek to show compassion by meeting the physical needs of those around us as well as the spiritual needs.

We meet physical needs in our church primarily through our small groups.  Each of our small groups is encouraged to do one service project each semester.  They choose what they do and we advertise it to the rest of the church.  We don’t have just one mission team.  We have twenty-plus missions teams!

But we seek to show God’s compassion no matter where we encounter it, and we often don’t get to schedule opportunities for compassion.  They just happen.  We’re walking down the sidewalk and someone asks for help.  I’ve been asked many times for tips on how to respond to people who ask for help on the street corner or elsewhere.  Here’s my approach.  First, be non-judgmental.  There’s a lot of judgment going around about whether someone asking for help on the street corner is legit or not.  I don’t know, and you don’t either.  What would it take in your life for you to stand on the street corner and ask for help?  A lot.  So let’s not be judgmental.  Second, I have a hard time responding to people who I’m driving by, but when I drive by someone over and over again and see the same person over and over, I’m inclined to stop and offer to buy them a meal.  I ask them what they’d like, and then I go buy it and come back and sit and talk with them.  I begin building a diverse friendship.  If someone asks me for help as I’m walking down the sidewalk, I offer to go with them right then and buy them what they asked for.  They often will decline only wanting money.  I tell them that I can’t give them money, but I will buy them what they asked for.  Sometimes they take me up on the offer, sometimes they don’t.  Either way, I seek to not be judgmental.  I seek to show compassion by meeting physical needs.

But we also seek to meet spiritual needs.  I’ve told you that we hired a demographic expert named Tom Bandy.  About a month ago he helped us get to know our neighborhood.  We found out that the largest group we are currently reaching is a group called “Singles and Starters.”  Experian, the credit rating company, describes them as “young singles starting out, and some starter families, in diverse urban communities.”  SCC is currently made up of about 14% Singles and Starters, but just around our new Sunday venue is about 28% Singles and Starters.  When it comes to worship they are looking for missional connection, educational, and coaching worship styles.  Then it comes to our “Christian Education” they are looking for topical and peer group options.  When it comes to small groups they want rotated leaders rather than designated leaders.  They have a lot of questions about health and quality of life.  These are some of their spiritual needs.  We seek to be compassionate by meeting the needs not just of those within the walls of SCC but also those in our community.  Singles and Starters aren’t necessarily aware of their own spiritual needs, but they are open to surprises.  One example of this came when Joanna began attending our Church in a Diner with her mom.  Listen to how she describes being surprised by having a spiritual need met.

 

 

Hello: My name is Sycamore Creek Church.  I’m curious, creative, and compassionate.  What’s your name?

Prayer
God, help us put on compassion by being fiercely focused on the guest, by building diverse friendships, and by meeting the physical and spiritual needs of our community.  Let us show your compassion to whoever walks through our doors or whoever we meet whenever we meet them.  May this be true of us in the name of your son, Jesus.  Amen.

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Seasoned for Hospitality

November 28, 2011 by 1 Comment

Seasoned for Hospitality

Seasoned for Hospitality
Sycamore Creek Church
November 27, 2011
Tom Arthur
Romans 12:13

Peace, Friends!

It’s the season for hospitality.  Thanksgiving.  Christmas.  New Years.  Anyone throwing a party or invited to a party?  I would guess all of us will at least get together with some family or friends at some point in the next month or so.  Sarah and I went down to Indianapolis for Thanksgiving and a good portion of our family met for a meal at my dad and step-mom’s house.  Or perhaps you’ll be having a couple of office parties.  Whatever the situation, in each case hospitality will be a big part of what makes or breaks the moment.  Hospitality is like seasoning.  It makes or breaks the meal.  As Christians, we are to be people seasoned for hospitality.  This is true whether we’re with family, friends, co-workers, or even here at the worship.

Sarah and I recently went to a worship service while we were on vacation.  We got the whole experience of hospitality.  Too much seasoning.  Too little seasoning.  And just the right amount of seasoning.  The moment we walked in the door we were greeted by a very enthusiastic greeter.  He realized we were new to the church, and he was a little too eager to make sure that we knew we were welcome and wanted.  He told us about all kinds of things and said that after the worship service he’d introduce us to all kinds of people.  Way too much seasoning.  What I really wanted to know was, where is the bathroom?  And you can bet that after the service we did our best to avoid this over seasoned greeter.

After going to the bathroom, Sarah and I regrouped and headed into the worship area.  We found ourselves a row of seats that had plenty of room between us and the person further down the row.  You know.  The comfort zone seats.  You never really want to sit right next to someone, so we left a couple of seats between us and them.  A moment after we sat down, a lady who was standing in the aisle turned around, saw us and said, “I was saving those seats.”  We looked around to make sure she was talking to us.  Then she said, “Well, you can just move down.”  We imagined the safety seats we had left between us and the next person down the row disappearing and said, “We’ll just move to another row.”  So we got up and moved.  OK, I have never had this happen to me in my entire life of visiting churches.  You always hear about stuff like this, but it always seems a little bit like an urban legend.  Are church people really like this?  Way too little seasoning.  (To the credit of this woman, she did come up to us afterwards and apologize.  She said that her grandchildren had been sitting where we were sitting, and when she turned around, she was startled to see us rather than her grandchildren.  Makes sense, and easy enough to understand, but had we really been guests looking for a church, it is highly unlikely that anything that happened that morning could have made up for the awkwardness of that moment.  We found out later that she and the guy who greeted us were married!)

So we got up and moved.  When the worship service began, we joined in.  They came to the moment in the service when we were asked to greet our neighbors.  We found ourselves in a handshaking assembly line.  Almost everyone simply said, “Hi” without really looking us in the eye and gave us a quick hand shake.  The only person who didn’t do this was the guy in front of us. He turned around and introduced himself. He seemed to be a little introverted himself and not particularly fond of this part of the service.  But he was kind and friendly and brief without making us feel like we were part of someone’s to do list.  After the service was over (here’s the key part), he turned around and complimented us saying, “I’d like to sit in front of you two singing any day.”  Compliments go a long way in greasing the wheels of conversation.  Soon we were into a conversation about all kinds of things.  He singlehandedly saved our first impression of this church from being a major disappointment.  Just the right amount of seasoning.

Scripture is chock full of references to being people seasoned for hospitality.  Here are some examples:

Rom 12:13 TNIV – Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Rom 16:23 TNIV – Gaius, whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy, sends you his greetings.

Heb 13:2 TNIV – Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

1 Peter 4:9 TNIV – Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

1 Tim 3:2 ASV – The bishop therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality…

I want to stress that when scripture talks about hospitality, it almost always means providing a roof, bed, and meal (and perhaps even clothes).  Whatever is needed.  Motels and hotels weren’t anything like they are today.  When people traveled they were dependent upon the hospitality of strangers or acquaintances or friends of friends of friends (and all this without Facebook!).  But there’s a basic principle at work here: when someone new shows up, make sure their needs are met.

I’d like to suggest this morning that there are three basic ingredients to hospitality: invitation, welcome and connect, and the meal.

Invitation

It’s hard to offer hospitality if you haven’t extended an invitation.  How are you at extending the invitation to come and join us at Sycamore Creek Church?  How many people have you invited to SCC this season?  We’re encouraging you to invite three people.  Write their names down.  Pray for the opportunity to present itself.  Then invite.

I think watching for the opportunity for an invitation begins simply with listening and asking questions, being sincerely and genuinely interested in someone.  Jeremy and I have been hanging out on MSU’s campus more and more lately.  We tend to bring free coffee with us.  Coffee helps get conversations going.  Then we simply ask questions.  We are curious about the lives of those people we’re talking with.

A couple of weeks ago we met dozens of students but had significant conversations with four different people.  We met Brenda who is a first generation college student in her family and is studying humanities and packaging.  Her family is from Mexico, but she grew up in Michigan.  We met Todd, a liberal arts student who is interested in everything.  He was particularly focused on keeping corporations and the government in check.  We met Baho, who is from Uzbekistan.  He studied English for 10 years in his home country, and when we told him we were with a local church, he wanted to know if our church had an ESL class.  We spent a lot of time discussing religious laws in Uzbekistan and the rationale behind them.  Lastly, we met Yuna, a freshman who is still looking for a church.  At the end of the conversation she gave me her email.  In each instance, we simply listened and asked questions.  It was only as the opportunity came up (they usually asked us why were handing out free coffee) that we even brought up Sycamore Creek Church and handed them an invite card.

Speaking of invite cards…those cards we’re passing out to you each week aren’t for you.  They’re for your friends.  Those three friends (or more!) that you’re going to invite to SCC this season.  We’ve also created posters for you to take to your work place, community hang outs, school, or wherever to hang up.  And to support all the work you’re doing, we’re mailing out thousands of these cards to families in our immediate community.

Another very simple way to at least make people aware of SCC is through Facebook.  We’ve created an updated page about SCC and invited you to “Like” it.  So far we’ve got 38 people who “like” our page, but there are surely more of you out there who can push a simple button.  Do you know that through those 38 people who have already liked our page, we have the potential of reaching almost 9000 people.  The more you interact (comment, like, or share) with the content we post (and we’re trying to post something every day), the more your friends will see and hear about SCC.

The recipe for hospitality begins with a very simple step: the invitation.

Welcome and Connect

So you show up at a party and you don’t know anyone.  How do you feel?  Awkward?  Overwhelmed?  Excluded?  For most of us, we generally don’t have a positive initial experience of being the new person.  Every time a guest walks in the door of SCC, that’s what they’re experiencing.  I’d like to teach you a simple technique that you can use to help people feel welcome and connect with others.  This works whether you’re at church, home, work, school, or anywhere.  It’s called the 5-10-Link rule.

5 = five minutes before the service and after the service focus less on the people you know and more on the people who you don’t know.  It’s not a bad thing to want to talk to your friends, but too often we let that desire to connect with friends overwhelm the need of the guest around us.  So give the guest among us the first five minutes before worship begins and the first five minutes after worship is over.

10 = ten feet around you.   You don’t have to hit the whole room.  That would be overwhelming.  Just pay attention to a ten foot radius around you.  Who don’t you know that is within ten feet of you?  Focus on those people.

Link = connect them with someone else.  This is super simple.  You go up and introduce yourself.  You begin a conversation.  Then you see another friend of yours standing behind them.  Say, “Hey, let me introduce you to my friend.”  When you introduce them, give a brief introduction.  If you noticed something they have in common—they both like the Lions—make sure you point that out.  Prime the conversation pump.

The person who introduced me to the 5-10-Link rule was a master at doing this.  I was at a conference in Dallas and barely knew anyone.  He found out that I was at a relatively new church, so he brought me over and introduced me to some other pastors who were in new churches too.  He told these other pastors a little bit about me and my church (what he knew) and got the conversation going.  Eventually he moved on, but we kept talking.  It was awesome.  I made some new friends with people who were in very similar situations that I was in.

Too often we don’t offer this kind of welcome and connection because we’re afraid of forgetting names.  Let me give you a couple of tips for how to get around stick situations where you’ve forgotten names.  It’s not a sin to forget someone’s name.  It is a sin to avoid them because you think you should know their name, but you don’t.  If you’ve forgotten their name, simply say, “Help me with your name.”  Everyone likes to be helpful and everyone understands that names are easy to forget.  They probably forgot your name too.  Then say you’re introducing someone new to someone else and by the time you get to the “Link” you’ve forgotten their name.  Simply say, “Have you two met?”  Then wait.  There’s a script in our culture and soon they will shake hands and introduce themselves.  Pay attention and you’ll hear their name again.  It’s that simple.

Hospitality continues with the 5-10-Link rule.

The Meal

The last part of hospitality is the meal.  It would be a little awkward to invite people over and not have something to eat or drink.  When you’re at worship, the “meal” is the music and/or message for the day.  I’d like to give you a little behind the scenes look at how we organize the “meals” here at SCC.  While we try to make every Sunday accessible to the guest, there are some Sundays that are particularly geared to the guest.

Throughout the year we have several categories of series.  Here are some of them and examples of those series:

  1. Buzz Series (engaging, fun, felt-need based, relational) take place in October, Christmas, February, Easter, and once in the summer.  These are series that are particularly aimed at being guest friendly.  Here are some examples: Clearance, Chipped, Courage, and Questions.
  2. Bible Series (an Old or New Testament book) in the fall and spring.  Some examples include: Revelation, Exposure (Song of Solomon), and The Downfall of Kings (1 & 2 Samuel).
  3. H.A.B.I.T.S. Series (the habits and practices of the Christian life) in the fall or spring.  Here are some examples: H.A.B.I.T.S., I Like Your Style (Evangelism), The and Elements of Worship.
  4. Belief Series (basic beliefs and Christian doctrines) in the fall or spring.  Some examples include: Off the Tracks (Sin), I Believe (The Apostles Creed), and Life (Baptism).
  5. Vision Series (where we’re going and our mission, vision, and core values) in the fall and spring.  Here are some examples: Mixin’ It Up (Missions and Small Groups), So Many Reasons (Our Annual Stewardship Campaign), 20 Years Deep (Our Capital Campaign).

Seasoned for Hospitality

When all of these ingredients are blended together in the just the right amount the end result can be incredible.  I’d like to give you one example of how I’ve seen this work in our church at its best.

Daniel Storer was shopping one day at Hidden Treasures when he bumped into Keith Cantrall.  They started a conversation and Keith invited Daniel to try our church.  Daniel biked to church that next Sunday.  He showed up early and was a little sweaty.  Martha Trout greeted him warmly and offered to show him the school showers.  Bob gave him a ride home.  Several people did the same over the next several weeks.

Daniel isn’t one to sit for an hour, and when he got up to walk around, he found that no one treated him as though he shouldn’t be doing that.  He was connected to Mark Aupperlee who invited him to a small group.  He began attending regularly.  He met some other people and found more rides to worship.

He met Jeremy Kratky, our worship leader, and Jeremy found out that Daniel could really sing (he actually taught choir at one point), so he joined the band.  Daniel was looking for a job.  He eventually met Carol Hazel in the band, and Carol introduced him to a friend who needed a handyman and chef.  Daniel was both, and he has recently been hired at Charlar’s Place.

Daniel then invited the people he lived with to church.  One of those people is in a wheel chair.  Mary Ziegler noticed this and offered her wheelchair accessible van to this family.  She had not needed it since Ken died.

Did you notice that I barely showed up in Daniel’s story.  Yeah, I’m the pastor, but it wasn’t me who made Daniel feel welcome.  I wasn’t the primary person who connected him to other people.  A guest won’t experience our church primarily through me, the pastor.  Their experience will be based on the people they meet here.  Daniel’s story is a story of meeting a people who are seasoned for hospitality.  It is my hope and prayer that every guest who walks in the door will experience the same thing that Daniel experienced.  Will you make that hope and prayer a reality?

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Seasoned for Hospitality – This Sunday

November 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

We’ve got a stand-alone one sermon series this Sunday to prepare you for the season of hospitality:

Seasoned for Hospitality

How do you welcome someone into your home?  How do you welcome someone into your church?  It’s the season of hospitality and we’ll be exploring how we’re called to be seasoned for hospitality.  This message will give you practical steps for offering hospitality in your home, work, school, or church.  Come join us and be seasoned for hospitality.

November 27 – Seasoned for Hospitality

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How to be a Good Host

July 19, 2010 by

How To Be a Good Host and Guest

How to be a Good Host
Sycamore Creek Church
1 Corinthians 14:1-4 & 23-25
July 18, 2010
Tom Arthur

Peace, friends!

Summer is wonderful, isn’t it?  It’s a very active time.  We all enjoy getting outside.  We enjoy being active.  We also enjoy having people over.  Summer is a time for BBQs, deck parties, pool parties, garage parties, and the like.  It’s a time when we enjoy being a host to friends, family, and neighbors in our homes.  I think this makes summer an appropriate time to also consider how we host people in this home we call the church.  How should we treat those who are guests among us?  Does the Bible offer any direction on this?  Well, not explicitly, but Paul does offer some thoughts to the church at Corinth on how their worship should be received and experienced by those who come but are not believers.  Hear what he has to say:

1 Corinthians 14:1-4 & 23-25 (NLT)

1 Let love be your highest goal, but also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives, especially the gift of prophecy. 2 For if your gift is the ability to speak in tongues, you will be talking to God but not to people, since they won’t be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit, but it will all be mysterious. 3 But one who prophesies is helping others grow in the Lord, encouraging and comforting them. 4 A person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally in the Lord, but one who speaks a word of prophecy strengthens the entire church…

23 Even so, if unbelievers or people who don’t understand these things come into your meeting and hear everyone talking in an unknown language, they will think you are crazy. 24 But if all of you are prophesying, and unbelievers or people who don’t understand these things come into your meeting, they will be convicted of sin, and they will be condemned by what you say. 25 As they listen, their secret thoughts will be laid bare, and they will fall down on their knees and worship God, declaring, “God is really here among you.”

This is God’s story for us today.  Thank you, God.

Now there’s a lot going on in this passage, but I’d like to focus on the third verse which says, “But one who prophesies is helping others grow in the Lord, encouraging and comforting them” (1 Corinthians 14:3, NLT).  There are several things we can learn about being a host in this short verse.

Focus on Others

First, being a host in worship means focusing on others.  Paul says, “But one who prophesies is helping others grow in the Lord…”  You do this whenever you invite someone over to your house.  Several weeks ago I helped plan and host a community BBQ for our neighborhood association.  When I invited my neighbors into my house, I was focused not on my own needs but upon their needs.  For example, I told folks where the bathroom was, where they could put the picnic chairs they brought, where they could put the food they had prepared, and how and when we would eat.  I provided the meat for the event and had grilled it.  This might sound like a lot of expense, but I bought a grill box from Great Food for All that made the whole event very affordable.  Within that grill box came several different kinds of meat so that my guests could find the kind of meat they preferred.  I showed the kids where some of our toys were and where they could play freely.  When I saw that they were missing some active toys, I went out and grabbed my Beemo, a large soft Frisbee-like toy, and played toss with them so that their parents could enjoy time with one another.  I was simply enough focused on meeting their needs.  This is what a good host does.

Paul is concerned about the same thing in the Corinthian worship services.  Paul values prophesy in the church over speaking in tongues.  Now what are these things that Paul is talking about?  They sound kinda strange.  For the moment, let’s understand prophesy as speaking God’s word into a situation, not telling the future, and speaking in tongues is a kind of supernatural speaking or prayer language.  To explain what those two things are in more detail would take another entire sermon, and that’s not where our focus is today.  What we’re focused on is that Paul prefers one, prophesy, over the other, speaking in tongues, because prophesy helps the guest while speaking in tongues does not.  Notice the “others” in verse three.  In the next verse, Paul says that those who speak in tongues are “strengthened personally in the Lord” while those who prophesy strengthen “the entire church.”  Clearly Paul values in this context what strengthens the entire church over what strengthens one personally.  Growing in Christ means being willing to worship in a way that may not speak personally to you, but does speak to the broader community, especially those who are guests.

So does this mean that we should never focus on our own personal spiritual growth?  Absolutely not!  Jumping down toward the end of this passage Paul points out that his encouragement is for a particular situation.  He says, “If, therefore, the whole church comes together…” (1 Corinthians 14:23, NRSV).  This suggests that there are other appropriate times when the whole church is not present that may be more appropriate for a personal focus.  I suspect that even in Paul’s day there were small groups within the church that met to focus on personal growth.  That’s certainly one place where it can happen in our church.

Grow and Mature

A second characteristic of a good host for Paul as found in verse three is that a host wants his or her guests to grow and mature.  Paul says, “But one who prophesies is helping others grow in the Lord, encouraging and comforting them” (1 Corinthians 14:3, NLT).

Once again when I hosted our community BBQ I too wanted my guests to grow in the Lord.  Sarah and I sought for our guests to grow by providing sign-up sheets for people to help out with future events like this one and also for our community garden.  These sign-up sheets were about growing community but didn’t specifically have to do with growing in the Lord, so while this was not a church-gathering, because it was in our house, I decided to go ahead and pray before we ate.  I gathered people together in our great room and welcomed them.  I told everyone that Sarah and I pray before we eat, and then I shared a prayer from our “prayer cube.”  It’s a six-sided cube with prayers on each side.  This prayer cube is something we often use at meals to help us keep our prayers fresh so that we’re not just saying the same thing every time we pray for a meal.  It is a very easy way to pray because you don’t have to come up with something to say yourself, but you can use the words of others to be meaningful to you and your guests.  This was modeling an easy way for my guests to pray in their own homes.

What about being a host in our church gatherings?  Paul focuses on this aspect when he says that he values prophesy because guests “will be convicted of sin…” (1 Corinthians 14:24, NTL).  You know that growth sometimes hurts.  It is sometimes like surgery.  The surgeon cuts not with the intention to hurt, but with the intention to heal.  It is a hurt that is motivated by compassion not judgment.

Recently I was listening to a classic Christian book by Thomas à Kempis called Imitation of Christ.  As I was listening in my car there à Kempis said something that struck a little too close to home for me.  He said that we will not be judged by the amount of books we read but by how we lived our lives.  Ouch.  I love reading books.  I read and listen to audio books almost every day.  Sometimes I get a kind of trophy mentality.  I put books up on my shelves like little trophies that I’ve earned.  Thomas à Kempis was reminding me that if I do not love rightly all those books mean nothing.  This kinda hurt, but it was a hurt I needed.  Sometimes growing in the Lord hurts.  Thankfully that’s not where Paul stops.

Encourage

For Paul, the church hosts well when it encourages.  He says, “But one who prophesies is helping others grow in the Lord, encouraging and comforting them” (1 Corinthians 14:3, NLT).

Speaking of reading books, I recently read a book titled, The Art of Mingling by Jeanne Martinet.  I don’t really feel like I’m the greatest at mingling.  I’m kinda introverted sometimes, and I sometimes have a hard time with small talk.  This makes Sunday morning something of a challenge for me, so I thought that Martinet might be able to give me some good tips for how to mingle on Sunday morning.  In the midst of this book I came across a section titled “The Party Coach.”

Martinet describes a good host as a party coach.  He never lets a guest be left out of the party.  If he sees someone standing by himself, he goes over and begins a conversation.  When he finds a subject that he knows someone else who is a guest at the party is interested in, he takes this guest over and introduces him to the other guest.  Martinet says, “A good host doesn’t then merely introduce the two people; he offers them something they have in common.  In other words, he provides them with their first bit of subject matter, just to get things moving” (174).

I wonder if that isn’t part of what it means to be encouraging to guests when they come to our church.  If we see a guest standing by themselves, don’t keep focusing on yourself, go over and introduce yourself.  And when you find out something they like that you know someone else in our church likes, introduce the two people and get the conversation going.  Connect guests with others in the church who will encourage them.  This can even happen with things they are struggling with.  If you find out that a guest at church is having a hard time because they’ve been grieving the death of a friend of family member, perhaps there is someone else in the church who has been through that process already (preferably they are not still in it!) and can offer an encouraging presence and word.  Connect those people together.  In this way we as a church will encourage our guests.

Comfort

Paul is also interested in comforting the guests who show up at church gatherings.  He says, “But one who prophesies is helping others grow in the Lord, encouraging and comforting them” (1 Corinthians 14:3, NLT).

While planning the community BBQ at our house I got an email from a single woman in our neighborhood who wasn’t sure about coming because single people don’t often fit in at events like this.  I encouraged this neighbor and promised that if she came I would personally make sure she had a good time.  When she arrived I quickly introduced her to Sarah and other people in the room.  There happened to be about four or five other single women at this BBQ and from that point forward, she seemed to feel very comfortable at our community BBQ.

What about comforting the guest in our church?  There seem to me to be two possible reasons a guest might need comfort.  The first would be in the midst of those growing pains I spoke about earlier.  In this instance I think providing a kind of coaching can be helpful in appropriate times (if you really know what you’re talking about).  When I was younger my dad paid for me to have batting instructions from a private batting coach who was a scout for the Mets.  It was helpful for me when he moved me from the 60-mile-an-hour cage to the 90-mile-an-hour cage to remind me of what I needed to do differently, and what he saw me doing incorrectly.  This worked only because he knew what he was talking about and I trusted him.

The same can be true as we talk to a guest who has experienced growing pains in worship.  Maybe they are taking that sermon point a little too rigidly.  Loosen up your grip.  Maybe they’re swinging the point of that song a little too widely.  I’ve found it helpful if I hold my hands a little closer together.  And so on.

Another reason a guest might need comforting in church is because of a trial or suffering they are going through.  In times of suffering people often seek out spiritual communities like a church.  A way to provide comfort is by offering to pray.  Even right there!  Or drop a card in the mail to them.  Offer to meet for lunch or coffee sometime throughout the week.  In these ways we offer comfort to the guests among us.

Everyone

I think it is helpful to also notice that later in the passage Paul says, “If all of you are prophesying…” (1 Corinthians 14:24, NLT).  In one sense Paul expects that the work of growing, encouraging, and comforting isn’t just one person’s job, it’s everyone’s job.  It’s not just the job of the pastor to be a good host to guests in the church.  It’s the job of everyone to be a good host.

This took place too at our community BBQ.  Everyone brought a dish to pass.  I couldn’t have fed over 30 people by myself.  I needed help.  Parents took turns playing with the kids and keeping them entertained.  I wasn’t doing that all night long.  The single women and some married couples in the neighborhood embraced and enjoyed one another making this community BBQ a safe place for our single neighbors.  The community BBQ wasn’t a success because of me, but because of everyone who attended.

When guests visit our church, they will experience it as warm and welcoming not by whether they were greeted at the door by a hospitality team, but by whether the person they sat next to was warm and welcoming.  All y’all are responsible for being good hosts to our guests.

Response

This leaves but one thing, the response of the guest.  Paul hopes that when a guest comes to a church worship experience that they leave saying, “God is really here among you”

(1 Corinthians 14:25, NLT).  They will do that in large part based on whether we are good hosts or not.  May it be said of Sycamore Creek Church, “God is really here among you!”

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With:

The Art of Mingling by Jeanne Martinet

April 10, 2010 by

The Art of Mingling Audio BookThe Art of Mingling by Jeanne Martinet
Audio Book
April 8, 2010
© Tom Arthur
Rating: 5 out of 10

Introverts (myself included) beware.  This book will be a serious stretch for you.  I picked it up because I needed just such a stretch.  As a pastor I do a lot of mingling on Sunday mornings.  I mingle with somewhere between 100 and 150 people.  The problem I always run into is that I’m not very good at small talk.  If you’d like to talk about what God is up to in your life or a deep theological issue, I’m good to go, but if you just want to have pleasant conversation, I struggle trying to find things to talk about, especially if I don’t know you very well.  Enter The Art of Mingling.

Jeanne Martinet has compiled a book on mingling techniques that is both very helpful and also absurd.  There are times when her suggestions are easily a 10 out of 10, but then there are times when her suggestions bottom out at a 1 out of 10.  So while I gave the book overall a 5 out of 10, I still recommend reading it if you are mingling-challenged like I am.  Just be prepared to sort out the suggestions worth an extended mingle and the ones that need an escape route.

On the good side of things, Martinet provides some very helpful thoughts on how to enter a conversation, come up with topics to discuss, and then leave a conversation to search out another mingling group.  Perhaps my favorite topic idea was using the alphabet.  She suggests having a pre-memorized topic list for every letter of the alphabet that you can coordinate with the first name of the person you’re talking with.  For example you’re talking to Abbie, which is A, and the A-topic is art, so you talk to Abbie about art or about how whatever is going on around you is an art form and so on.  You can also coordinate this topic list with the color of the shirt someone is wearing.  Abbie is wearing a purple shirt, which is P, and the P-topic is…well, I forgot what the P topic is, and herein lies the problem with this strategy.  You either have to memorize the list ahead of time or be quick on your feet: P…P…?  Aha!  P stands for pomp and circumstance: “Boy, there sure was a lot of pomp and circumstance around the NCAA tournament this year!”

Two other helpful chapters are the ones on social networking and technology and how these virtual conversations are not mingling.  Martinet calls us back to face-to-face conversations rather than Facebook, texting, IM-ing, etc.  The second helpful chapter is on being a host.  I found her insights on hosting especially helpful for reminding the church what it means to host visitors on a Sunday morning.  Don’t let anyone stand alone.  Mingle.  A visitor is into computers?  Well then, bring them over and introduce them to someone else in the church who is into computers.  Help make connections and get the conversation going for them.  Make their experience enjoyable!

On the negative side of things, this is the second book I have read that recommends lying as a helpful tool for the topic at hand.  Perhaps the most ridiculous strategy Martinet suggests is what she calls the “Helpless Hannah” approach.  You tell the person you’re talking to that you’re in need of some help because another unnamed person is causing you trouble.  You ask whomever you’re talking to (perhaps even several people over the course of the night) to come help you get out of a conversation when you give a certain sign, which you may never give but keeps the person coming back to check in with you all night long.  On a smaller scale she also suggests lying as one among many ways to get out of conversations: “I just saw someone I haven’t seen in a long time.  I must go say Hi to them.”

This strategy of lying is based upon Martinet’s premise that mingling should be enjoyable for you.  Mingling being enjoyable isn’t a bad idea, but in a church setting, mingling isn’t so much about what’s enjoyable for you as it is about what is helpful for the other person.  I also can’t help wondering whether I could trust someone who was regularly lying in small instances of little or no consequence to tell the truth when it really mattered.

While there is no way that I’ve retained every suggestion Martinet offers in this book (there are hundreds of ideas), some of them have begun to stick, and I’ve been finding them helpful in all kinds of settings (dinner parties, Sunday morning, bumping into someone in the store, talking to strangers at the gas station, etc.).  In this way, Martinet has challenged and stretched this introvert, and that is what I was looking for in this book.  I may even mingle with it again.

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