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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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What’s My Position?

November 18, 2014 by Leave a Comment

coach

 

 

 

 

Put Me In Coach – What’s My Position?
Sycamore Creek Church
November 16/17, 2014
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

We’re continuing in the third week of this series: Put Me In Coach.  So far we’ve explored some fundamental questions of the game we’re playing here at Sycamore Creek Church:

What’s the game?
Who’s my team?
Next week: Who’s my coach?

Today: What’s my position?

There’s a key thought throughout this whole series:

There are too many fans of the game and not enough players in the game.

Take football for example.  In football there are 22 people on the field in desperate need of rest and 22,000 people in the stands in desperate need of exercise.  I don’t want to be the kind of church that has 22,000 people in the stands watching 22 people play the game.  I want to get those 22,000 people in the game.  This series is about that: getting in the game.  It’s about serving.  It’s about volunteering.

When it comes to getting in the game there are different distances people have from getting in the game.  Farthest from the game are those who simply aren’t fans.  They don’t even want to watch the game.  Then there are those who are fans.  They watch the game from a comfortable place.  Next closest to the game are the fanatics, the season ticket holders.  The next step into the game is the farm team.  These are the people who are working on playing the game and getting better at the game.  Then there’s the first string players.  These are the ones who are all in.  They’ve committed everything they’ve got.  Where are you at?  I’m guessing if you’re reading this then you’re at least a fan?  Are you a fanatic but not yet in the game?  Are you on the farm team or are you a first string player?  But if you’re a player, what kind of player are you?  What position do you play?  That’s the question I want to explore today.

In any sport, while there are specialized positions, there are some positions or some plays that everyone on the team plays.  The same is true of the game we play here at SCC.  There are some positions that we all play.  We all play the position of praying.  Are you praying for your church?  We all play the position of inviting.  Are you inviting by sharing our events on Facebook?  Are you inviting when we do a big buzz series or a big day?  Are you considering how you can invite by joining the “launch team” of our new venue?  We’re buying a building to be our Sunday morning venue.  It’s like we’re launching a new church.  So we should have a launch team.  Launching is about inviting.  Are you inviting?  Every player on this team invites.  Every player on this team also plays welcoming.  We’re all on the hospitality team.  When someone invites a friend to worship with us, they’re depending on you to be welcoming.  We welcome by running the 5-10-Link play.  FIVE minutes before the service and FIVE minutes after you cover a zone TEN feet around you and you meet the people you don’t know.  Then you LINK them to other people you do know.  Are you welcoming in this way?  We all play welcoming by engaging the meet and greet question at the end of worship.  It’s designed to prime the pump of conversation with those around you that you don’t know.  Are you playing welcoming?  We all also play the position of giving.  God has given each of us a certain amount of resources.  How are you doing being a steward of God’s resources?  How are you doing giving 10% back to God?  We all play the position of giving.  We all play the position of praying.  We all play the position of inviting.  We all play the position of welcoming.  But we all then specialize in one or more other positions too.  These positions are called spiritual gifts.

Throughout this series we’ve been exploring Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  Paul was the first missionary of the church and he wrote a letter to the church at Ephesus.  The letter is in the Bible and is six chapters long.  Go home today and read all six chapters.  It will take you about thirty minutes.  We’re really drilling down on chapter four in this series.  Paul tells the Ephesians:

The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.
~Paul (Ephesians 4:11 NLT)

You’ll see here that Paul is listing some very specialized positions in the church.  The Bible contains several different letters Paul wrote to different churches, and in two of those other letters Paul lists some other specialized positions.  They can be found in chapter 12 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and chapter 12 in the letter to the Romans.  Throughout this series we’ve been exploring fundamentals of the game.  Today is no different.  Today with Paul’s help, I want to explore three fundamentals of playing a position in the church (I’m indebted to Bruce Bugbee’s book, What You Do Best in the Body of Christ, for giving me the framework for these three fundamentals).

1.     Be Aware of Your Spiritual Gifts

The first fundamental of playing a position is that we are expected to be aware of the spiritual gifts that we have.  Paul says:

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.
~Paul (1 Corinthians 12:1 NRSV)

So what are spiritual gifts?  What gifts does God give to us?  The first gift of God is God’s very own self.  God’s presence with us is the Holy Spirit.  We must remember that God doesn’t give us unique abilities independent of giving us God’s very presence.  James A. Stewart, a 20th century preacher in the Church of Scotland said, “Many want the Spirit’s power but not the Spirit’s purity.  The Holy Spirit does not rent out His attributes.  His power is never separated from His glorious Self.” If we expect God to use us to the fullest, we must be aware of how God is present in us purifying us and calling us to be ready for what God is going to do in us.  It’s out of the relationship with God, the source of all power, that the Holy Spirit works through us and gives us special gifts.  Hudson Taylor, a 19th century missionary to China, said, “I used to ask God to help me.  Then I asked God if I might help Him.  I ended up by asking Him to do His work through me.”  God gives us God’s very own self and when God is present with us, then God works through us.  This happens in one of two ways.

First, God gives us certain God-given talents, passions, or abilities that are to be used in the service of God’s purpose in our lives.  They are at times supernatural talents, but at other times, they are natural talents used to accomplish supernatural results.  Paul says:

We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
~Paul (Romans 12:6-8 NRSV)

If you want to know more about your spiritual gifts, we have an online tool that we use that will take you about ten or fifteen minutes to fill out.  You’ll get a report on your personality, leadership style, and spiritual gifts.  It will help you know what specialized position God has you playing.  You can find the tool at www.assessme.org/2364.aspx.  The tool is free to you through us, but if you did it on our own it would cost you $15.  So take some time to learn about your spiritual gifts.  When you take this inventory online, your results will then be available to use to help get you in the game.

The second way that God uses spiritual gifts is to give us the unique gifts in the moment that we need them to accomplish God’s purposes.  This may mean that God supernaturally empowers you in a moment in way that you have no natural aptitude.  But because you have received God’s first gift, God’s very self, God can use you in a way that no one, even yourself, could have imagined.  Thus, the spiritual gift and passion may not come until the purpose is pursued.  This happens because while the world may count you out, God does not look at you in the same way the rest of us do; God sees your heart.  There’s a great modern classic movie about baseball called Moneyball.  It’s about the use of statistics to build a team.  There’s a scene in the movie when the coach goes to recruit a washed up catcher to play a position that he would never have imagined playing, but the statistics say he’ll do well enough at to benefit the team in other ways.  Watch what happens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyvu1nWjOlI

This is a real life story.  Scott Hatteberg was the catcher for Boston Red Sox.  He had an elbow injury which meant he couldn’t throw the ball to second base.  This resulted in his inability to play the position of catcher.  But the Oakland A’s saw something in him no one else did and recruited him to play first base.  It was a risky move by most recruiting standards.  But Hatteberg ended up hitting a walk off homerun to help the A’s make an American League 20-game winning streak record.  Sometimes you won’t be able to see what position you can play and how you have the talents to play that position until you say yes to the position.

The first fundamental of playing a position in the game of following Jesus is to be aware of your spiritual gifts.

2.     Expected To Use Your Spiritual Gifts.

Paul gave some advice to a young preacher named Timothy and we have two letters he wrote mentoring Timothy in how to play the game.  Paul said:

Do not neglect the gift that is in you.
~Paul (1 Timothy 4:14 NRSV)

God expects us to use the spiritual gifts that God has given us.  When it comes to using those gifts, we can underuse them or we can overuse them.  We underuse them when we’re ignorant of them.  Or we underuse them when we’re just flat out disobedient.  When our spiritual gifts are underused then it’s like a part of the team or the body becomes dead.  The rest of the body ends up having to overcompensate.  This puts stress on the rest of the team and leads to burnout.

But we can not only underuse our spiritual gifts, we can also overuse them.  This happens when we use our gift to dominate the team.  We don’t allow the rest of the team to develop.  There’s a great scene in the classic basketball movie Hoosiers when the coach intentionally benches a player who is on a scoring streak.  As you watch the scene, ask yourself: “What’s wrong with this guy doing all the scoring?”

 

A team and a church can’t be dependent all on one person.  Pastors and key leaders in a church tend to fall into this trap quite a bit.  Let me give you an example of how I’ve been over using a spiritual gift I have for the last couple of years.  I’m a pretty creative guy.  I love creating new ideas.  Most of the sermon series we do around here have been my ideas.  Most of the big outreach events we do around here are my ideas.  But about a year ago it hit me, we’re being creative but it’s all based on me.  If I’m in a car crash tomorrow or if the bishop appoints me to another church, then there is no creative team to keep this work moving forward in a creative direction.  So I’ve been busy over the last year beginning to build creative systems and teams to provide the creative scaffolding for what we do at SCC.  Two quick examples.

First, instead of planning the preaching calendar by myself for 2015, I pulled together a team.  We met on a Saturday in October.  I was a bit nervous about how this was going to work.  I was giving up something to allow others to help make decisions about what we’d be teaching at SCC from the “pulpit.”  I was nervous about how the creative process would work.  We scheduled the entire day from 9:30AM to 4PM to accomplish as much as we could.  I went in thinking that the day would be successful if we got through half the year.  What were the results?  We had the entire year of 2015 planned by 2:30PM!  This was a serious team effort.  The players came ready to play with really good ideas.  And now if I die tomorrow, there’s a system of creativity that isn’t based on the pastor overusing his creative gifts.

The same thing has been true when it comes to creative elements in worship.  Most of the creative worship elements we’ve used in the past have been developed by me and Jeremy, our worship leader.  But this wasn’t a sustainable team.  We needed to include more.  So now each month we invite people to join us for a two hour brainstorming session of a series that is two months out.  We just met this week with a group of people to help us plan January’s series.  We came up with more ideas and better ideas than we would have had we done it by ourselves.  And we’re making more positions for people to use their gifts rather than Jeremy and I overusing ours.

The second fundamental of playing a position is that you are expected to use your spiritual gifts.

3.     Held Accountable for the Use of Your Spiritual Gifts

Peter was one of Jesus’ closest team members.  Peter wrote a couple of letters that we now have in the Bible.  In one of them he encourages us saying:

Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.
~Peter (1 Peter 4:10 NRSV)

We don’t often use the word “manifold” but “mani” means “many” and “manifold” can mean assorted, multiple, or various.  There are assorted, multiple, and various gifts of God’s grace that God gives.  And we are each stewards of those manifold gifts and graces.  A steward is someone who does not own the property he or she is using.  Someone else owns it and the expectation is that they will use it well and return it well.  Some day God will ask: “How did you use the gifts that I gave you?”  How did you play  your position?  Will we be left making excuses?

Perhaps one of the best athletes to play any sport is Michael Jordan.  There’s a great commercial where he’s talking about the game.  But the kicker comes at the end.

 

 

Will you be left standing before God making excuses for why you didn’t play your position?  Will you be left standing before God making excuses why you didn’t get in the game?  Jesus tells a parable about a master handing out talents (Matthew 25)

Parable of the Talents.  To one servant he gives one talent.  To one he gives five.  To another he gives ten.  Then he goes away.  The five-talent servant and the ten-talent servant use their talents to make more talents.  The one-talent servant goes and buries his talent.  When the master comes back, he rewards the five and ten-talent servants and he’s furious with the one-talent servant.  He’s not upset because the servant has only one talent.  He’s upset because he buried it and didn’t even risk trying.

So one day you will be held accountable to how you played your position.  One of the ways you play your position is you volunteer somewhere in the church.  You can explore volunteering by filling out our Service Inventory Sheet.  On it you’ll find all kinds of ways you can serve in our church.  You circle the ones you’re interested in. You’re not signing up for the position, you’re only expressing interest.  When this series is over, someone who leads each area you circled an interest in will be in touch with you to talk further about that position to play.  You can download a Service Inventory Sheet here.

Here’s the three fundamentals of playing a position:

  1. Be aware of your spiritual gifts.
  2. You’re expected to use your spiritual gifts.
  3. You’ll be held accountable to using your spiritual gifts.

Let’s go back to that image I used at the beginning of the message.  How far are you from the game?  Are you not a fan?  Not even watching the game.  Probably not or you wouldn’t be here today.  So you’re at least a fan.  You watch from the stadium.  Or are you a fanatic?  You’re a season ticket holder.  You come all the time.  You cheer.  You cry.  But you’re still not in the game.  Or are you on the farm team?  You’ve made a commitment to serve somewhere.  You’re learning a position.  You’re exploring a position.  You’re learning the game.  Or are you a first string starter?  You’re all in.  You’re playing a position and while you do commit errors or fumbles from time to time, you’re learning from them and you’re in it to win it.

Team, I hope throughout this series you’re saying to yourself:

I don’t want to be watching the game at home.
I don’t want to be tailgating.
I don’t want to be in the stands.
I don’t want to be on the sidelines.
I don’t want to be on the bench.
I want to be in the game.
I want to be on the team.
Put me in coach!

Prayer
Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and praiseworthy service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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What’s A Team?

November 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment

coach

 

 

 

 

Put Me In Coach – What’s a Team?
Sycamore Creek Church
November 9/10, 2014
Tom Arthur

 

Put me in coach!

When I was growing up I played little league baseball every summer.  At the end of the summer the league would pick the best players from the various teams in our local league to play other local leagues in the first round of the Little League State Championship.  Every year I got a call to be on this team, but we never made it out of the local round.  When I was fourteen I didn’t get the call.  I apparently had an abundance of confidence because I assumed that I had just missed the call from the coach.  So I called him and told him I had missed the call and wanted to know when the first practice was.  He somewhat sheepishly informed that I had not missed the call, I just was not asked to be on the team.  I hung up the phone a little stunned that I wasn’t on the team and that my last season of Little League was over.  Or was it?  Apparently my call impressed the coach and a couple of days later he called me back and invited me to join the team.  It was an amazing team.  It felt like nothing could keep us back.  It felt like there wasn’t any competition that was too difficult to beat.  It wasn’t easy, but that year we were the first team in our local league to win the local round and advance to the regional tournament.  We felt invincible.  Until we actually began playing at that level.  We lost our first two games and were out of the tournament.  But oh, what fun to be part of a team that worked so well together!

Today we’re continuing a series we began last week called Put Me In Coach! The key thought for this whole series is this:

There are too many fans of the game and not enough players in the game.

It’s like football.  In football there are 22 people on the field in desperate need of rest and 22,000 people in the stands in desperate need of exercise.  It’s time to get out of the stands and get into the game.  This is a series about serving, volunteering, and getting in the game.  Last week we looked at three fundamentals of the game.  In the coming weeks we’re going to look at what your position is and who your coach is.  Today we’re looking at your team.  This game we play isn’t an individual sport game.  It’s a team sport.  You play the game on a team.  Today I want to look at three fundamentals of teamwork.

1.     A Team is United in Purpose & Calling
Throughout this series we’ve been studying what Paul, the first missionary of the church, had to say to the church of Ephesus.  The letter he wrote is known to us as the book of Ephesians in the Bible.  Ephesians is six chapters long, and I recommend you take some time this week to read through the book.  Very specifically we’re focusing on chapter four in this series.  Paul begins chapter four saying:

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you [plural] to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.
~Ephesians 4:1 NLT

Something that gets lost in translation is the plural version of “you.”  If you’ve ever studied a foreign language you know that in English there’s only one version of “you” and we use it to refer to you (singular) and y’all (plural).  But in Greek, the language that Paul was writing to the Ephesians, there are clearly different forms of “you” and the “you” in this verse is the plural version of “you” or “y’all.”  So Paul says, “I beg y’all to lead a life worth of your calling, for you have been called by God.”

We are one, but one person is a lonely person.  On the other hand, “one team” is a team of people ready to dive into a mission.  Y’all on this team are called by God to play this game.  Paul is begging you to live your individual life united with the life of your team to accomplish God’s mission in the world.

Throughout this series we’ve been watching some clips from the great classic sports movies.  There’s a great moment in Hoosiers when the coach realizes not everyone who has showed up for the practice is united together in one purpose.

 

In the same way that basketball is a “voluntary activity”, church is a “voluntary activity” too.  No one is putting a gun to your head to be here.  We want to welcome everyone and show compassion to everyone, but if you’re going to play this game on this team, you’ve got to be united in the purpose, mission, and goals of what we’re all about here at SCC.  Paul makes this abundantly clear when he says:

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
~Ephesians 4:4-6

Did you catch that?  One team!  One purpose!  One mission!  One calling!  Last week we explored in detail what that one purpose was.  Here are the three fundamentals of the game:

Q: What’s the Game?
A: Igniting authentic life in Christ and fanning it into an all consuming flame.

Q: How do we score?
A: When we help someone connect with Jesus and grow deeper in the character of Christ

Q: How do we win?
A: When we are all unified together ALL THE TIME serving to create environments where someone can connect and grow.

Two tools we use here at SCC to play the game in this way are www.assessme.org/2364.aspx.  If you’ve already taken assessme.org or if you do it during the month of November, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win two MSU basketball tickets.  So get online this week if you haven’t done so already and join the team.

We also use a tool that we call the Serve Interest Inventory.  It has a list of all the areas in our church where you can serve.  You circle the ones you’re interested in and someone who leads in that area will be in touch with you.  You’re not saying you’ll do it, you’re just expressing interest.  Download one here.  So make sure you fill one of those out this week and get on the team.

The first fundamental of teamwork is that a team is united in purpose and calling.

2.     A Team Knows the Competition

A team is also crystal clear about the competition.  Let’s make sure we are clear too.  The competition isn’t the church down the street.  We are one church with Trinity.  We are one church with Pennway Church of God.  We are one church with Riverview.  We are one church with Mt. Hope UMC.  We are one church with Mt. Hope “church of the flags.”  We are one church with Journey Life.  We are one church with Pilgrim Rest Baptist.  Yes, sometimes our family members embarrass us, but other churches are not the competition.

Rather, the competition is all the other things that compete for complete devotion to Jesus.  Paul says:

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
~Ephesians 4:14 NLT

Several years ago I was at a friend’s house and picked up a catalogue sitting next to his couch.  It was full of audio books and seminars that had a kind of New Age self-help approach.  There was some good stuff in the catalogue.  Some of it was by people I had studied under.  But what really got me was the title of the catalogue.  It was called “Sounds True.”  Sounds True?!  Paul says we need to be careful with things that sound like the truth.  Or as Stephen Colbert calls it, “truthiness.”  So what is the competition?  What sounds true but isn’t?

I think it’s important to point out that sometimes we are our own worst competition.  When the team isn’t unified with a single purpose and mission and goal, then the team itself is the competition.  Consider this scene from the classic hockey movie, Miracle:

 

 

These guys are their own worst nightmare.  The first challenge the coach has is to get them unified as a team.  It is important to note at this point that I’m not talking about the absence of conflict.  Patrick Lencioni wrote a book about teamwork called the Five Dysfunctions of a Team.  He lists the lack of conflict as one of those dysfunctions.  Great teams welcome conflict and passionate debate of ideas.  It’s important to have this kind of conflict because if you don’t passionately debate the ideas, then you don’t come out committed to the decision once it’s made.  Being united is not the absence of conflict.  But it is conflict in the purpose of the mission, not in the purpose of your own ego.  So the first competition any teams faces is itself.

The second competition the church faces is personal decisions about priorities that distract from God.  All of us, those here and those not yet here, live a life of disordered loves.  We love the wrong things in the wrong proportion.  Anything that gets in the way of connecting with God or growing deeper in the character of Christ is the competition.  This could be your job or the pursuit of money.  It could be how often you travel and the mobility in our current society.  Sleep or the lack of sleep could be the competition.  Your own family can get in the way of connecting with God and growing in Christ.  Entertainment can be the competition.  Sports can get in the way.  Both sports that you play and the sports that you watch.  Education can be the competition.  When I first went to Duke I studied so hard that I neglected all kinds of important things in my spiritual life.  None of these things are necessarily competition, it is only when we have too much of a good thing or love them disproportionately that they become the competition.

One last competitor worth mentioning is injustice and oppression.  Sometimes we aren’t able to make decisions about our lives.  Sometimes the system we’re in makes the decisions for us.  We find ourselves in a job market that requires people to work seven days a week and not have time off for worship.  Or we are stuck in bondage to a pace of life that doesn’t let us get a good night’s sleep.  It is not only the individual’s choices that are the competition but the system that contributes to those individual choices are also the competition.

So let’s be crystal clear about the competition.  The competition isn’t the church down the street.  The competition is anything that keeps someone from connecting with God or growing in Christ.  The second fundamental of teamwork is that a team is clear about the competition.

3.     A Team Makes Every Effort
Let’s go back to Paul.  He says:

Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.
~Ephesians 4:2-3 NLT

A team makes every effort.  They make every effort to stay united.  They make every effort to be humble.  They make every effort to be gentle.  They make every effort to be patient with one another.  They make every effort to allow for one another’s faults.  They make every effort be at peace with one another.  They make every effort to work toward their purpose, mission, goal, and calling.

There’s a great scene in The Blind Side where the coach responds to an injustice by the other team and the refs and in response gets an every-effort-response from his player:

 

 

What a great image of making “every effort” to STAY UNITED!  It results in scoring.  Let me emphasize again that this does not mean the absence of conflict.  Rather it means that we are humble in forgiveness.  If you’re wrong only 1% and your team member is wrong 99% then you confess your 1% (and don’t bring up percentages!).  It means that we give allowance for each others weakness, faults, and failures.  While we strive for excellence, perfection is not required.  We expect failure.  We cover one another’s backs when failure happens or when one of us is backed into a corner of our weakness.

We make every effort to be united by “being gentle” in correction with one another.  Let me give you some tips about how to be gentle in correction.  First, don’t do serious correction with one another on Sunday morning unless it is invited.  Set up some other time to talk to one another.  Second, make sure you know the difference between the “preaching voice” and the “pastoral voice.”  The voice and tone and approach I use in preaching is not the voice and tone and approach I seek to use when offering correction.  Third, a helpful tactic to gently correct is to lay out the facts and ask for input on what should be done about them from the person you’re correcting.  One time I had to fire a volunteer who was visiting a shut-in elderly woman.  The family of the shut-in didn’t want her visited anymore.  Instead of just coming out and “firing” her, I told her what the family had told me.  I then asked her what she thought should happen.  She said that she shouldn’t visit that shut-in anymore.  Right answer!  It was gentle and didn’t require me to be the bad cop.  Another time I caught a teenager under my care with alcohol.  Instead of calling his parents, I asked him what he thought needed to happen.  The teenager said that his parents should be told.  Right answer!  Then another time I had to talk to someone who was about to give a speech about a contentious issue.  I simply laid out the facts and asked what he thought should happen.  He expressed concern that the issue be brought up lightly.  Right answer!  We make every effort to remain united in purpose when we are gentle in correction.

Lastly, we make every effort to stay united in purpose and calling by “being patient” with the growth of others.  People don’t change overnight.  Look for the just noticeable improvements and celebrate them.  Extend your timeline for how long you think someone should change.  We all want justice with others and mercy for ourselves.  Extend mercy to others by being patient with the time it takes them to change.

Let’s review.  The fundamentals of teamwork are:

1. A team is united in purpose and calling.
2.  A team knows the competition.
3. A team makes every effort to stay united in purpose and calling by being humble, gentle, and patient with one another.

So here’s my question for you today.  Are you ready to be on the team?  If so, I invite you pray this prayer:

Prayer
Put me in God!  I don’t want to be watching the game at home.  I don’t want to be tailgating.  I don’t want to be in the stands.  I don’t want to be on the sidelines.  I don’t want to be on the bench.  I want to be in the game.  I want to be on the team.  Put me in coach!

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Team

February 24, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Bod4God 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bod4God – Team
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom Arthur
February 23/24, 2014

 

Peace friends!  Have you been watching the Olympics?  I haven’t seen the Iron Lotus yet, but I have seen Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

 

Davis&White

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you watch these two win the gold medal in ice dancing?  Wow!  They are magical.  They look like they’re right out of a Disney movie.  They make quite a team, and they’re not alone either.  There’s the whole team approach to figure skating this year.  While Meryl and Charlie won gold, the entire U.S. figure skating team this year won bronze.

 

TeamUSA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The US Figure Skating Team isn’t alone either.  Because they’re competing alongside all the other teams from the US.  As for Saturday morning, TEAM USA was in second place for the most medals:

 

Medals

 

 

 

 

 

The top athletes in their sports don’t compete alone.  Even if they’re on the ice alone or in the luge alone or on the slope alone, they’re not alone.  They’ve got a team they’ve trained with.  They’ve got a team that is standing on the side cheering for them.  They’ve got a coach.  They’ve got a whole nation cheering for them to win!

Today we’re wrapping up a series called Bod4God.  We’ve been looking at what it means that our bodies are a temple of God.  How do we dedicate these bodies so that they truly are a temple of God?  The problem I want to wrestle with today is this:

Problem: It’s hard to do it alone.

There’s a nasty cycle that we often get into when it comes to our bodies.  Health problems lead to depression, and depression leads to isolation, and isolation leads to further health problems.  It’s hard to do it alone.  It’s hard to take care of these bodies by ourselves.  Here’s the point of today’s message:

Point: You’re never alone!

Throughout this series we’ve been looking at an acronym: D.I.E.T.

We started with D for dedication.  Then we moved on to I for inspiration.  Last week we heard about E for eating and exercise.  Today we’re wrapping up with T for team.  Who is on your Bod4God team?  I want to look at four teams you need to have in place to have a Bod4God.

1. Eternal Team
Whether you’ve got any other team or not, you’ve got this team: the eternal team.  God is always with you and is always able to do more than you could even ask or imagine.  What?  Yes.  More than you could ask or imagine!  Paul, the first missionary of the church said it this way:

“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine…”
Ephesians 3:20 NRSV

What are you able to imagine about your body?  God can do abundantly more.  Abundantly more!

So what does this eternal team mean?  What does it mean that God is with you and able to do abundantly more?  One thing it means is that you have the wisdom of the creator of the universe at your fingertips.  You’ve got the greatest body trainer you could ever imagine.  Even more than you could imagine, because the creator of the universe knows your body better than any other person ever could, even yourself.  James, Jesus’ brother, said it this way:

“If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to you.”
James 1:5 NRSV

A lot of our problems come down to a basic issue: we lack self-control.  God can give us wisdom, but can God give us self-control?  Absolutely!  Back to Paul:

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
Galatians 5:22-23 NRSV

When God’s Spirit is at work in you, all of these amazing virtues begin to take root in your life: love, joy, peace and on to self-control.  You get the wisdom you need from God not to eat that extra doughnut and you get the self-control from God’s Spirit to actually restrain yourself.

Having a Bod4God is hard to do alone, but you’re never alone.  You’ve always got an eternal team: God.

2. Exercise Team
I think that God knows that we need a flesh and blood team that we can see and feel and touch and hear right now.  God is spirit and we worship God in spirit and truth, but God puts people around us to also be God’s presence in our lives.  When it comes to our Bod4God team, who is on your exercise team?

The Proverbs say:

As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.
Proverbs 27:17 NLT

The past two weeks I’ve gathered with whoever wants to join me at Meridian Mall on Friday mornings at 9:30AM to walk the mall.  My goal is always to get 10,000 steps in by the end of our time together.  Different people who have showed up have had different goals.  Some have a goal of one lap around the mall.  Some have a goal of 5000 steps.  Some are aiming for 15,000.  The thing we share in common is that we’re all there together, and it’s the team together that helps motivate us to get off our butts on a Friday morning and do some exercise.  I am motivated to do it because I know that people are there waiting for me and counting on me to be there.  There’s a kind of basic accountability inherent in being part of an exercise team.  The team expects you to show and waits for you to show up.

Who’s on your Bod4God exercise team?  I’ve heard stories so far about people taking advantage of the two community groups that we’ve partnered with in this series.  Some are joining the YMCA at a reduced rate for three months.  They’re working out in the weight room for the first time in a long time.  There are others who are taking up Karate at the Original Okinawan Karate of Holt who also is giving a huge discount for three months or a free month.  Each of these communities of exercise is acting as an exercise team to help people have a Bod4God.

Don’t do it alone.  Who’s on your Bod4God exercise team?

3. Education Team
All of us need some help when it comes to understanding better what it means to live a healthy lifestyle.  Who is on your education team?  Where are you getting more and better knowledge about what it means to take care of your body?  The book of Proverbs says:

“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm.”
Proverbs 13:20 NRSV

If the only people you’re hanging out with are other people who have bad health habits, then it’s likely you’ll have bad health habits too.  But if you’re surrounding yourself with people who are also seeking knowledge and education about how to better take care of their bodies, it is likely you will take better care of your body too.  Wisdom breeds wisdom.  Foolishness breeds foolishness.

Let’s talk a moment about doctors.  When was the last time you invited your doctor onto your education team?  Personally, I like to think of my doctor as a preventative team member.  I like to talk to my doctor before things become a real problem.  When was the last time you had a yearly physical?  It’s called “yearly” for a reason.  When was the last time you invited your doctor to give it to you straight?  If you don’t like your doctor, then don’t give up on doctors.  Find another doctor!  If you don’t like that doctor, find another one.  If three of them all tell you the same thing, that you need to exercise, eat less, and eat better food, then the problem probably isn’t with your doctor.  You’ve got an education team that is trying to educate you about something, and you’ve got your ears plugged up.  Let him who has ears to hear, hear.

Let’s expand this education team a bit.  Again, I like to think of this education team as preventative.  Most of us think of physical therapy as something you do once you’re hurt.  Sarah and I had a close friend who was a physical therapist when we lived in Petoskey.  We were getting ready to go on a backpacking trip to Yellowstone.  We were going to hike thirty five miles over five days into the heart of the backcountry.  I realized that at some point I would literally be a 17.5 mile walk from any kind of civilization.

Yellowstone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn’t want my body to break down on me in the midst of Timbuktu.  So we asked our PT friend what to do.  He said that he had a wellness program that we could sign up for.  We went in and he analyzed our bodies, their strengths and weaknesses, and he crafted a set of exercises that were specific to each of our bodies.  The end result was that we were in better shape than we had ever been and our bodies gave us no problems.  The hiking was tough, but it was also very enjoyable because we enlisted an education team.

It’s hard to do it alone.  Enlist your doctor, physical therapist, nutritionist, websites, books, and more.  Who is on your Bod4God education team?

4. Encouragement Team
All of us need cheerleaders.  Every Olympic athlete has someone cheering them on.  The book of Proverbs says:

Anxiety weighs down the human heart, but a good word cheers it up.
Proverbs 12:25 NRSV

The primary place where we try to build encouragement teams here at SCC is in our small groups.  We’ve currently got 20 or 21 small groups meeting weekly to encourage one another to have a Bod4God.  One of those teams is our challenge group.  After two weeks our challenge group has lost forty-eight pounds!  Friends, it’s hard to do it alone, but together you find encouragement to press on.

Harold Koenig, the director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University has been studying the relationship between faith and health for a long time.  The Agnostic Pub Group I help lead has been reading and discussing his book, The Healing Power of Faith.  In it he writes, “Research finds that the support of a loving family or close-knit social community such as a religious congregation can bolster that motivation to persevere [in any weight-control effort].”  It’s hard to do it alone, but with a faith community of encouragement, you can do it.

That brings us to Sycamore Creek Church.  Why is it important to be a partner with a church?  Why is it important to make a deeper commitment to partner with a community of faith?  Is it because SCC is perfect?  No.  Is it because we always get it right?  No.  It’s because here you will find an encouragement team not only for your Bod4God but also for your entire life.  It’s hard to do life alone.  Find a church family and make a commitment to partner with it.

We recently changed our “membership” to “partnership.”  We made that change because “membership” sounds like something you do at a country club.  That’s not what we wanted membership to mean.  We wanted it to be a partnership with our mission: to ignite authentic life in Christ by connecting (with God and others), growing (in the character of Christ), and serving (our church, community and world).  Partners say, “I want to help advance that mission in this world.  I want to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.  I want to be part of a faith community that is curious about God, creative in all that we do, and compassionate to everyone.”

Our process of partnership begins with Pizza with the Pastor.  I know what you’re thinking: is pizza really good for a Bod4God?  Well, it depends on what kind of pizza you eat and how much you eat.  A couple of pieces of pizza loaded down with veggies is a great nutritious meal.  Pizza with the pastor happens every fourth Sunday and Monday and pizza is on me.  You get a chance to get to know me and other new people at SCC.

The next step of partnership is to take SCC 101, 201, and 301.  These happen on the first, second, and third Sundays and Mondays, and you can take them in any order you want.  101 has to do with connecting to God and others.  201 has to do with growing in the character of Christ.  301 has to do with serving the church, community, and world.  We eat pizza and work through some ideas that are very specific to SCC.

One last step of partnership is to be baptized.  We’ll baptize people any time of the year, but our big baptism happens at the end of June with Baptism at the Beach.  There’s a nine-session small group that prepares you to be baptized, to baptize your child, or reaffirm your baptism if you were baptized as an infant or have fallen away from God since your baptism.  This small group is called Christianity 101.  It’s also great for those who really want to go deep in their faith.  It begins in March and runs for nine sessions through June.  Baptism is the sign and seal of being a part of God’s family.

It’s hard to do it alone.  Partner with SCC and put us on your encouragement team.

5. Ex-Team
Let’s be honest.  There are some people on your team right now who you need to get off your team.  The book of Proverbs says:

Stay away from fools, for you won’t find knowledge on their lips.
Proverbs 14:7 NLT

No pun intended!  Now I have moles throughout the entire church, and I was sent this picture this past week from one of our small groups that is supposed to be encouraging one another to have a Bod4God.  I’ve blurred out the faces to protect the guilty.

Mole

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flagrant foul!  Twenty-yard penalty!  I know I just mixed sports lingo, and that’s why you don’t want me on your referee team.  And there are some people you don’t want on your Bod4God team.  Who in your family is always egging you on to eat another cookie?  Who among your friends is always telling you another piece of fried chicken won’t hurt.  Who do you work with who is always trying to get you to go to the after work party where you know there’ll be lots of junk food you shouldn’t eat?  I’m not telling you to no longer associate with these people, but you will need to find a way to not let them influence you as much as they have.  They’re not on your Bod4God team.  Treat them like tax collectors and Gentiles!  It’s hard to do it alone.  Who do you need to add to or subtract from your Bod4God team?

Partnership
Today we have several people joining the SCC team.  They’ve all taken SCC 101, 201, and 301, and they’re ready to make a commitment today to partner with SCC in our mission: to ignite authentic life in Christ.  These are the commitments they make today to be on our team:

Partnership Vows
Tom: Do you seek to avoid evil and do good?
Partners: I do.

Tom: Do you confess Jesus as Savior and Lord in community with the church?
Partners: I do.

Tom: Will you stay in love with God?
Partners: By God’s grace, I will

Tom: Do you commit to connecting with God through worship and others through small groups?
Partners: I do.

Tom: Do you commit to growing deeper in the character of Christ through spiritual practices and H.A.B.I.T.S.?
Partners: I do.

Tom: Do you commit to serving the church, community and world with your time, talent, treasure, testimony, and temple?
Partners: I do.

To the church
Tom: Do you as the body of Christ, the church, reaffirm your own desire to avoid evil, do good, and stay in love with God?
Church: We do.

Tom: Do you commit to connecting with God and one another, growing in the character of Christ, and serving the church, community and world?
Church: We do.

Tom: Will you nurture one another and these new partners in the Christian faith and life, and surround them with a community of love and forgiveness?
Church: We will.

 

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