Folks, what is the purpose of the Church? Since God’s chosen matrix—the Jewish nation—didn’t really work out so good, God now uses the Church as his matrix to reveal himself to the world! That’s what we’re supposed to be about! So, evangelism—sharing our faith—is really what will help to grow the Kingdom, to make the Church healthy and essential once again. The Early Church knew the Good News … and they shared it. Just listen to what happened:
“Peter made his appeal to them and with many other words he urged them, saying, ‘Save yourselves from the punishment coming on this wicked people!’ 41 Many of them believed his message and were baptized, and about three thousand people were added to the group that day. 42 They spent their time in learning from the apostles, taking part in the fellowship, and sharing in the fellowship meals and the prayers. – Acts 2:40-42 (TEV)
We’ve said that there’s a problem—we’re losing or have lost the younger generations. O.K., but what does God want us to do about it? Well, for starters, God wants us to ‘close the back door.’ Do you understand that phrase?
As one ‘church drop-out’ put it, “It should be harder to leave a church … than to join a church.” But, that’s not always the case. People drop out of the life of the church … and who cares? Does anyone follow up? Are we about building relationships here, so that when someone does drop off the radar … someone who cares will call to find out why? If you think that the pastor can keep up with all of this, you are sadly mistaken. And, neither should the pastor be the only one who’s about the work of the church; that is a job for the Body—at least according to my Bible…
- Are we making it easy for folks to come into our church and try us out … or is Church so intimidating that they don’t feel free to do that?
- Then, are we making it hard for folks to ‘drop out’ and do we notice when they do go through the ‘back door?’
That’s what we’re talking about when we say that God wants us to ‘close the back door.’ It’s been way too easy for folks who are interested in the church … to walk in the front door, worship with us for awhile, then walk right on out the back door … with no one seeming to care! It’s happened recently, I’m afraid…
So, what’s our next move going to be? Well, here are 4 things for us to think about, as we nurture God’s thoughts on this subject today. The ESSENTIAL CHURCH focuses on these 4 major issues: SIMPLIFY, DEEPEN, EXPECT, AND MULTIPLY. Today, we’re going to touch on them briefly. First, let’s talk about…
THE PROBLEM OF COMPLEXITY INSTEAD OF SIMPLICITY. Verse 42 tells us again what the earliest church was all about: “They spent their time in learning from the apostles, taking part in the fellowship, and sharing in the fellowship meals and the prayers.” If it would’ve been a complicated process for becoming a follower of Jesus, they would have lost the crowd of 3,000 … instead of adding them to the Body that day!
It’s no wonder there’s a popular magazine today called “Real Simple”; people crave lives that are simpler today! And, how have we responded as the Church? We’ve sometimes made a life in Christ complicated; that’s what…
Folks, we need to move from complexity to simplicity in our structure—our method or process for bringing others into the fold! Let me remind you of this reason drop-outs gave for not sticking with the Church: “They did not feel connected with people in the church.” Something is missing—fellowship (koinonia)… I mentioned this several weeks ago, but it does take several relationships being built for someone who is new to a church to feel ‘at home.’ Essential Churches are those who have a disciple-making process that moves folks toward small groups of all kinds, where they can experience ‘koinonia’ (fellowship) beyond worship and begin to get to know people and build the kind of authentic relationships that will keep them here! Essential Churches are very intentional about doing this…
What I’m talking about is right in front of you this morning: What are we going to be about as a church? Love God, Love People, and Serve God by Serving Others. Simplifying means intentionally moving people through a process of discipleship where relationships can happen; every one of us has an important role to play there! Worship will be very instrumental in teaching us to love God like we should. But, it’s through small groups of all kinds where we’ll interact and learn to love one another and serve one another (on behalf of God)…
I believe this to be God’s vision for our church … and IT’S SIMPLE! (We’ll talk more about that next week…) We need to keep it simple … and then really care about those who God sends our way—closing the back door in the process… Let me mention the other 3 areas of focus for ESSENTIAL CHURCHES…
THE PROBLEM WITH SHALLOWNESS INSTEAD OF DEPTH. We need to move from shallowness to depth when it comes to how we deal with the younger generations—how we present the truth of Christ… We need to be very intentional about sharing the GOOD NEWS!
I’ve heard comments like this so much during my ministry, that I’ve lost count of just how many times:
- “Our church focuses on discipleship instead of evangelism. We leave the evangelistic activities to others.”
- “We consider ourselves to be Great Commission evangelists at our church, so we don’t spend much time on discipleship.”
- At our church we focus on healthy fellowship. Other churches are called to do evangelism or discipleship, but our calling is different.”
Hopefully, today, you can see the absurdity of these comments! Nowhere in the New Testament do we find “specialist” churches. ALL CHURCHES are called to be evangelistic, to make disciples, to have God-glorifying worship, to be people of prayer, and to have healthy Christian fellowship… If you are truly a New Testament Church, then you’re about all of these things… The balance is NOT an option, but a biblical mandate. WE NEED TO GO DEEPER WHEN IT COMES TO THIS FOCUS! Next:
THE PROBLEM WITH LOW EXPECTATIONS INSTEAD OF HIGH EXPECTATIONS. Verse 42 again reminds us: “They spent their time in learning from the apostles, taking part in the fellowship, and sharing in the fellowship meals and the prayers.” I’m sure that they did these things with great joy after coming to know Christ personally … but it was also expected of them, if they were a part of this movement called ‘Christianity.’ And, we need to take the same approach today… We need to move from a ‘no’ or ‘low expectation’ church to more of a ‘high expectation’ church…
One of the reasons for inactivity in church that came from our drop-outs was: “I simply wanted to take a break from church.” Can you imagine what would happen if a student in high school just stopped attending school because he or she just wanted a break? Now, I realize that school dropouts are a reality in our society … BUT, our society recognizes it as a serious problem! We tell our students that they must stay in school! States enact laws that prohibit school dropouts before a certain age. We have declared that it is a problem that needs our full attention. Even if the number of dropouts is relatively small in our school systems, we still look at any level of school dropouts as a potential problem, don’t we?
But, church dropouts? Oh, well… Folks, Kiwanis—which I now proudly belong to—has greater expectations of me than most of the churches that I’ve been a part of in the past! That’s not right, especially when you consider the business we’re in—as the Church; it has consequences are ETERNAL! We usually get what we expect! So, our expectations need to change if the Church is to become essential once again… Here’s the last focus of ESSENTIAL CHURCHES:
THE PROBLEM WITH AN INWARD FOCUS INSTEAD OF MULTIPLICATION. We need to move from a concentration on US … to a concentration on others who do not yet know Christ! Luke states it as fact in Acts 2:47b: “And every day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.” Luke makes it seem that evangelism was just a natural part of the New Testament church… Why? Because it was…
Churches that are inward-focused are producing soft and self-centered Christians … who think that the Church is all about them—there to serve them… In contrast, churches that are outward-focused are sending a different message: THE CHURCH IS NOT ALL ABOUT MY NEEDS; IT’S ABOUT HOW I CAN GLORIFY GOD AS I MEET THE NEEDS OF OTHERS.
That’s the irony of the Essential Church!If you remember that list of TOP 10 Reasons why drop-outs have left the Church, you’ll also realize what kind of ‘Christians’ the Church has been producing, because … a good number of their ‘reasons’ for leaving the Church were self-centered. Are they partly to blame? Yep. But … so is the Church! We could do better … and we will (till my dying breath)! Remember: the younger generations are not necessarily leaving the faith; they’re just leaving the Church… So, we can do better…
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be on any team that is not a winning team! To the best of my knowledge, the only way that the Church is going to be a winning team (for God) … is if we can move to become essential once again—to close the back door! Are you ready to do that with me? The next four weeks will help us get started…