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Location:
349 Jefferson River For
directions, click here.
Joseph
Slife,
lay leader January
23, 2005 I
want to begin by reading the same
text Pastor Jerry has read for
the past two weeks -- a text that
briefly describes life in the
early church. Listen
to this -- from Acts, chapter 2
-- selected portions of verses
42-47, and I'm reading from the
simplified translation known as
the NIrV. Listen
carefully: All
the believers were together.
They shared everything they
had.... They gave each other
everything they
needed.... Their
hearts were glad and honest
and true. They praised God.
They were respected by all the
people. Every day the Lord
added to their group those who
were being saved. Last
Sunday, we had a couple of
visitors -- a husband and wife
who are new to Athens -- who came
here because they saw our ad in
the new phone book, and it caught
their attention. I
talked with them for a few
minutes after the service, and
Ron -- the husband -- said that
they've been in many localities
over the years and have
discovered that they can learn a
lot about a church from the words
it uses to describe itself in a
phonebook ad. Now,
just in case you haven't seen our
new phonebook ad, I'm gonna show
it to you in just a minute -- and
talk about the words that are
there. But
first, let me quickly revisit
some other words -- our covenant
words that Pastor Jerry has been
talking about these past two
weeks. They're on the banner
right back there: prayers,
presence, gifts,
service. Anytime
someone joins this church, we
have a ceremony right here. That
person enters into a membership
covenant with the Lord in the
context of this local church and
our denomination. The
person joining affirms his or her
belief in Christ, and then
pledges to live out the Christian
faith in the context of this
local body of believers by
participating in the ministry of
this church through his or her
prayers, presence, gifts, and
service. That's
what Jerry's been talking about
for two, really three, weeks --
if you include our covenant
renewal service at the first of
the year. Today,
I want to take it a step further
and talk with you about our
mission as a church. You see, the
prayers, presence, gifts, and
service are in support of the
mission. It's prayer directed
toward something, service
directed toward something,
etc. Our
mission statement -- the mission
statement of Gateway Church --
is, in its short form, only four
words: "Helping People Experience
God." That's
our mission. That's our calling.
How can I help you, how can you
help me, how can we help others
out there, experience the grace,
the truth, the reality of God in
Jesus Christ? And
this what's in our phone book ad.
Here's what it says: "Helping
People Experience God through
Vital Worship, Biblical Truth,
Positive Relationships, Hands-On
Ministry." That's
a good outline for a sermon
series, but since I have only one
Sunday, I'm going to focus in on
just one of these. Maybe
one-and-a-half. But
first let me say something just
very quickly about the ones I'm
not going to focus on: vital
worship and biblical
truth. Jerry
talked with us about vital
worship last week -- about
worship that is alive, worship in
which experience the very
presence of God through the
ministry of the Holy
Spirit. Several
years ago, I saw a new story
about a survey that asked regular
worship attenders how often they
had a sense of God's presence
during worship services.
Twenty-seven percent said,
"Always." Twelve percent said,
"Usually." About 60 percent said
"rarely" or "never." These are
regular worship
attenders. So
when we say we want people to
experience God through vital
worship, that's a big thing. One
church says this about worship on
it's Web site: "[We want to
create an environment in
which] people leave powerful
worship services shaking their
heads in wonder at the nearness
they felt there to
God." That's
what we're going for, too. It's
vital worship. Worship that
experiences the presence of the
living God. Next
is "biblical truth." This means
that Scripture is the basis of
and the context for everything we
do. It is our source of
authority, our sure Word, our
steady guidance. I
may or may not have something I
can say to help somebody who's
struggling with life. But the
Word always have something to
say. In
our discipleship classes, in our
prayer time, in our worship
services, in our one-on-one
encounters with people, we can
help them experience God through
God's Word, through biblical
truth. Well,
now here's what I really want
focus on today -- the third
specific in our mission
statement: "Helping People
Experience God Through...
Positive
Relationships." As
wonderful and as important as
Sunday morning worship is, it is
only part of doing life together.
Doing
life together means being in
community. It means having the
time to really get to know one
another. And that will not happen
from 10:30 a.m. to Noon on
Sunday. So
there needs to be another forum
for this. A time when we can
share needs and pray for one
another. A time when folks can
say, "Here's what I'm struggling
with" -- or "Let me tell how God
answered my prayer." And
I have good news. We have a fair
amount of this going on already
-- in Sunday morning classes and
Wednesday prayer meeting and Beth
Moore studies. We
are a church with small groups.
What I've been talking with
Pastor Jerry and other leaders
about is changing that model, so
that we become a church
of
small groups. Now,
the Bible talks about inward
groaning, and I'm sure some of
you are doing that right now.
But
before you say, "Oh, no, not
something else to do," at least
let me explain. From
it's earliest days, the church
has been trying to figure how to
structure itself to be most
effective. Even in the Book of
Acts, we read about how they
created an order of deacons so
that the Apostles could
concentrate on prayer and study,
and the deacons could concentrate
of taking care of time-consuming
benevolence
situations. And
this attempt to deal with
structure has been going on down
through history. Entire
denominations take their names
from the structure they came up
with. Presbyterians have
presbyteries -- which is simply a
way of structuring the church.
Episcopalians have an Episcopacy,
which is another word describing
a structure that has
bishops. All
of this has been attempt to
figure out the most efficient,
most effective way to structure
the church. And
that's what I'm talking about
here -- a church of small groups
rather than a church with small
groups. But
listen, this doesn't mean we need
to create lots of new stuff -- at
least not right away. Late
last year, I read a very
interesting book -- Jerry's
reading it now -- titled Dog
Training, Fly Fishing, and
Sharing Christ in the 21st
Century by Ted Haggard,
pastor of New Life Church in
Colorado Springs. He
says that after years of trying
to do small group ministry -- and
really swimming against the tide
because people are busy -- it
occurred to his leadership team
that most people in the church
were probably already in a small
group of some type, it just
wasn't called that. For
example, the church leaders
realized that they had a
praise-and-worship team that got
together every week to rehearse.
Here were people who were in
community with one another, they
prayed together, they shared
concerns -- and the yet the
church didn't recognize that as a
small group. And
so what the church did was this.
They said, "Hey, if you are
regularly getting together with
people to do a task in the church
or to do an outside ministry
together, we're now going to
consider that to be a New Life
Church small group." Now,
there are some things each of
those groups had to start doing
in addition to their task -- they
had to have a time of prayer
together when they meet. They
have to have to set aside time to
bring each other up-to-date with
what's happening in their lives,
so they can minister to one
another. Some
of you saw the article in the
July/August 2004 edition of
Good News about
Faithbridge United Methodist
Church in Houston,
Texas. It's
a small-group that's tied to a
task. Faithbridge calls 'em
"service" groups, and they've
become a vital part of that
church's small-group ministry.
People in community with one
another, doing life
together. Faithbridge
also has many more traditional
small groups that meet in
people's homes and study
Scripture together -- and some
people who in a service group are
also in a "study"
group. But
even if they're not, there is a
place, there is a group that
they're part of, a group in which
there is care and spiritual
oversight. Now,
let me tell you about what else
Faithbridge is doing -- and this
is the second aspect of "Helping
People Experience God through
Positive Relationships." It's
about relating to people who are
not yet part of the Body, or who
are on the fringes of church
life. And
really what Ted Haggard's book,
Dog Training, Fly Fishing, and
Sharing Christ in the 21st
Century, is all
about. Faithbridge
is a new church, less than six
years old, and they are focused
on reaching people who are
unchurched. How do you connect
with someone who doesn't know the
Lord or who's a very young
believer? Do you ask 'em to come
to a Bible study? Well, sometimes
that works, but it's often
intimidating to a person who
doesn't know anything about
Scripture. Suppose
you could say to your coworker,
"Hey, listen, we've gotta a group
guys who go fly fishing once a
month. Why don't you come with us
next time?" Or,
"Someone from my church is
teaching a pottery class for six
weeks. I'd really like it if you
came with me." These
groups are about more than just
fly fishing or dog training or
pottery making, but that's the
hook that draws people
in. And
it can draw church people in as
well as unchurched people.
Someone who might not be
interested in a Bible study might
be interested in learning to play
the guitar, or do PowerPoint, or
talk about football. It's
a way to build community and draw
people in -- but every group is
-- by design and through leader
training -- always about more
than the shared interest. It's
about using that interest as a
way to connect with people in
positive relationships, so we can
help 'em experience
God. Here
in my hand is a the
listing
for the small-group ministry at
Faithbridge Church in Houston. It
now runs 41 pages. Remember, this
is a church that started about
six years ago. Page
3 the H-U-G group --
"Homeschoolers Under God" --
"Homeschooling moms who meet for
Bible study, support, and
fellowship Monday afternoons." A
sitter watches over the children.
And the group takes a field trip
together once a
month." Page
7 -- the L-A-M-P -- "Learning
About Ministry with the Poor" --
Includes a study of what
Scripture says about the poor and
offers hands-on experience in
ministry to the poor. Page
9 -- the "Twenty-Someone" group
-- For people in their 20s --
married or single.
Praise-and-worship. Bible study.
Hangin' out. Twice a month on
Tuesdays. Page
11 -- "Saturday Morning Men's
Group" -- Meet at Bailey's for
breakfast. Talk about
discipleship opportunities,
missed opportunities, prayer
needs and growing closer to
Christ. Page
23 -- This one is a service group
-- the "Connections Visiting
Team" -- Follow up visits to
first-time guests on Sunday
afternoon. Just
one or two others -- These are
some that are designed to attract
people who are on the fringe of
church life, or who are
unchurched altogether. Page
15 -- "Chess for Christ" -- "We
meet at Starbucks on 2nd and 4th
Wednesdays and use chess as a
bridge to meet nonbelievers
interested in playing a game or
two." Page
16 -- "The Spice of Life" --
Gourmet and creative cooking with
emphasis on the the joys of
living a Christian
life. By
the way, at Faithbridge, they
also consider their Sunday
morning ministry to children to
be small groups. They speak of
small groups of kindergartners,
1st graders, etc. Now,
there's so much more I could say
about this, but I hope you're
starting to catch some of the
vision for this way of doing
church, of doing life together,
of building positive
relationships. A
couple of days ago, I called the
coordinator of small-group
ministry at Faithbridge Church --
and I want to play part of that
conversation for you now. Here's
part of my conversation with Barb
Schnacke, coordinator of
small-group ministry at
Faithbridge United Methodist
Church in Houston,
Texas. (audio
clip
- 3:30) One
of the things Barb told me is
that this way of doing church has
been built into their DNA from
the start, when the church began
with five people and a pastor
almost six years ago. Not
long ago, Andy Hines and I were
talking -- Andy's the chairman of
our Gateway Church
Council
-- and he asked this question:
"What are we going to be doing
differently over there -- in our
new building -- than we're doing
here?" All
of us are called to participate
in the life of the church through
our prayers, presence, gifts, and
service -- and becoming a church
of
small groups opens the door to
increased participation, more
prayer, more presence, greater
use of gifts, more effective use
of service. To
accomplish this, we're going to
have to change the way we think
about church. We're going to have
to alter our DNA. Now,
that is a huge thing -- and we
can't get there overnight, but we
can make a start. We can set a
goal and start moving toward
it. We
can say, "This is where we're
heading -- toward being a church
of small groups, with service
groups, study groups, prayer
groups, shared-interest outreach
groups. That's our model, that's
what we're shooting
for." And
we can begin by taking an
inventory of what we already have
going on. What groups do we
already have meeting? What are
all the separate things that go
on that we can start thinking of
as not separate, but all part of
a our doing life together
tapestry? Over
the past couple of weeks, most of
you have been surveyed about
small groups and about your
interests. And here's what you
told us. More
than 60 percent said you'd like
to be in a regular Bible study.
Twenty percent said you'd like a
small group focused on going
through a book and discussing
it. Almost
30 percent of you said you were
willing to be a group leader.
As
far as interests, more than 40
percent of you said you're
interested in some kind of
ministry having to do with the
arts -- music, worship, visual
arts, drama. Thirty
percent said you'd like to be
involved in a prayer
ministry. More
than 25 percent said you'd like
to get involved with the Food
Bank ministry. Here's
what these data tell us: We have
people willing to be leaders, and
we have enough common interest to
launch some groups. Which
means that it's more a matter of
planning and structure, than of
desire and motivation. You want
to do this -- you're just waiting
for the church to say, "Yeah,
let's do it." Of course, some of
you aren't waiting, you've
already started. So
let me tell you what we're going
to do to get this rolling.
Because more than 60 percent of
you said you'd be interested in a
Sunday evening service, that's
where we're going to start. A
time of praise-and-worship and
Bible study on Sunday evening --
and one combined group -- for a
period of several
weeks. During
that time, we'll be identifying
our leaders and allowing them to
develop the focus of the small
groups they want to
lead. Maybe
one leader will offer a study of
a classic Christian book. Maybe
one will want to go through one
of the gospels. Perhaps one wants
to have a praise-and-worship
group to learn new songs and just
spend in the Lord's presence.
Maybe someone will want to lead a
prayer group. The
idea is that we as a church want
to be permission-giving -- to
allow leaders to come up with
ideas and see them
through. And
if no one rallies to a particular
idea -- maybe someone want to
lead a study of Methodist history
and doesn't have any takers --
well, that's OK. That leader will
have to go back to the drawing
board and try again. There's
much more about the
nuts-and-bolts of being a church
of small groups that I don't have
time to go into, but let me put
one other thing on the
table. Barb
Schnacke at Faithbridge told me
that in the early days, before
their groups became so diverse,
they asked the regular study
groups to one thing in addition
to their regular group time --
and that was to, once a month, be
involved in some kind of
outreach. The
church would say: Here's a list
of outreach things that we're
committed to doing -- soup
kitchen, food bank, Arbor
Terrace, Angel Tree. We need your
group to commit to supporting one
of these things with your
prayers, presence, gifts, and
service. That
gets us to the fourth point of
our mission statement about
"hands-on" ministry. I'll talk
about that some other time. But
the point is: we always need to
keep that outward
look. We
always need to be asking how can
we be the heart and hands of
Jesus to the world around
us? And
when you do outreach as a group,
rather than as an individual, it
brings a whole new dynamic to
that outreach. When you're
engaged in ministry with the
people you study with, pray with,
laugh with, cry with, it is -- as
the founder of Blimpie's likes to
say -- a beautiful
thing. Friends,
this is where we're going. It's
gonna be fun. It's gonna be
challenging. It's gonna be doing
life together. A
mp3 audio file of this sermon is
here
(46:00).
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
Road in Athens, Georgia,
three blocks off Hwy. 129
(Jefferson Road).
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GATEWAY SERMON
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
I'm purposely going to skip the
references to the Temple and to
Apostolic miracles, not because
those things aren't important,
but because I want us to focus on
the dynamic among the believers
-- the "average church members,"
so to speak.
The believers studied what the
apostles taught. They shared
life together. They broke
bread and ate together. And
they prayed. Everyone felt
that God was near....
Let's pray.Father,
we don't meet in the Temple
Courts, and we don't have
Peter, James, and John among
us, but may it be of us as it
was of that early believers
that we share life together in
a way that pleases you and
attracts others to Jesus
Christ. Amen.
Important
words
They
are important words. They are
words that, I trust, will guide
us on our journey in the days,
months, and years
ahead.
Our
mission
Well, we've now expanded our
mission statement to give four
specifics, four tracks that we
can run on as we focus on
"Helping People Experience
God."
Vital
worship, biblical
truth
Positive
relationships
There are a couple of different
aspects to this. First there are
relationships within the Body.
This is what pastor and author
Ted Haggard calls "Doing Life
Together."
In other words, the small group
would be the basic structure of
the church, and everyone would be
in one.
Ordering
our life together
A
change in the way we
think
I'll explain the title in
minute, but first I want to give
you one of his key
insights.
A
model to follow
They meet in a middle school --
and every Sunday a set up and
take down team goes into action.
After setting up all the stuff
necessary to transform a school
into a church, they have 20
minutes of "team time," during
which they have a devotion and
prayer time together.
Shared-interest
small groups
What I'm describing is what
known as a shared-interest small
group -- a group built around
something that may seem like an
"unspiritual" activity, but the
goal is 1) to build community in
the body, and 2) to reach those
outside the body.
Creative
ideas
Let me read just a few -- and
these are groups of very
different types:
The
voice of
experience
Remember, this is a church of
small groups -- it's a model
that's helped create a lot of
excitement and momentum in that
Body.
A
change in our DNA
It's Andy's sense -- and mine as
well -- that changing locations,
having a new facility, is only
part of picture of what the Lord
would have us do.
Moving
toward the goal
Ideas
and leaders
Hands-on
ministry
Supporting
text: Acts
6:1-4
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An
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office.
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050123a: Doing Life
Together.
©
2005 Joseph M.
Slife