18 posts tagged “new hope”

Breakout Churches: Discover How To Make The Leap

Thom S. Rainer

Recently I read an article about churches today and how effective they are. The writer pointed toward the number of churches that aren't growing (while the population is rapidly) and asked "just how effective are we?"

He then asked these two questions.

1. If you didn’t know ANYTHING about Jesus, what would you know about him after a normal weekend at your church?

2. If you had a loved one who didn’t know Christ, and they had one week left to live, would you take them to your church or another? 

To many, those are easily shuffled beneath the layers of life, never to be uncovered again.

Not for me. I'm constantly looking to see if the group of people I'm a part of is making a difference. After 7 1/2 years, I probably do that evaluation more frequently now than ever.

So when I spotted Dr. Rainer's book (75% off I might add - sweet!), I picked it up. Drawing heavily from a parallel with Jim Collin's "Good to Great", Rainer really works hard at trying to identify the factors that make good churches great ones.

He spends a lot of time looking at leadership and identifying the particular traits of the best "Acts 6/7" leaders. The sample was 13 breakout churches and 13 comparison churches. Not many churches I have ever known would meet the breakout criteria, but it's still very helpful.

At the end of the day, what pastors like me want to know is that we are making a difference for God's purposes and among His people. For me, anything I can read that helps me see that happen is worth reading.

Most social good in our country, reflected today in institutions like hospitals, orphanages, civil rights organizations and universities, began with Christ-followers sensing a call to live out the gospel. Somewhere along the way, many churches withdrew from the needs and dreams of their communities. (Leadership Network)

According to Thom Rainer, Outreach magazine, January-February, 2006, “nearly 95% of the average church’s ministries are for its members alone.”

Bunny and I went to see the movie Amazing Grace yesterday afternoon. It was an awesome portrayal of the efforts of a group of Christians to change the world. So what happened? When did we as followers of Jesus turn from change agents "those who turned the world upside down" to keepers of the store?

I believe that God wants to see His church turn back to the mission He gave us. To seed our communities with grace, with truth, with Jesus' love. To partner with other faith communities and other agencies and entities that serve our community to help our neighbors.

What would that look like?

A partnership with the local schools.
A "theology of the hammer" kinship with our fellow believers in other churches to help people whose houses need work.
A "loaves and fishes" ministry.
Worship outside the walls.
Block parties, affinity groups.
Summer enrichment for the kids in our neighborhood.
And a lot I haven't even thought of yet.

But maybe you have.

Tell me, what should a church that Jesus would love - do?

This Sunday, we'll be looking at the story of the Good Samaritan. It's hard for us to imagine how bad the relationships were between Jews and Samaritans in Jesus' day. For those of us who grew up in the South, The Cotton Patch Gospel of Clarence Jordan might be uncomfortable.

I can hear Jordan's reply to that statement. "Good. It ought to."

25.         One day a teacher of an adult Bible class got up and tested him with this question: "Doctor, what does one do to be saved?"
              Jesus replied, "What does the Bible say? How do you interpret it?"
              The teacher answered, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your physical strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself."
              "That is correct," answered Jesus. "Make a habit of this and you'll be saved."
              But the Sunday school teacher, trying to save face, asked, "But ... er ... but ... just who is my neighbor?"
              Then Jesus laid into him and said, "A man was going from Atlanta to Albany and some gangsters held him up. When they had robbed him of his wallet and brand-new suit, they beat him up and drove off in his car, leaving him unconscious on the shoulder of the highway.
              "Now it just so happened that a white preacher was going down that same highway. 'When he saw the fellow, he stepped on the gas and went scooting by.
              "Shortly afterwards a white Gospel song leader came down the road, and when he saw what had happened, he too stepped on the gas.
              "Then a black man traveling that way came upon the fellow, and what he saw moved him to tears. He stopped and bound up his wounds as best he could, drew some water from his water-jug to wipe away the blood and then laid him on the back seat.   He drove on into Albany and took him to the hospital and said to the nurse, 'You all take good care of this white man I found on the highway. Here's the only two dollars I got, but you all keep account of what he owes, and if he can't pay it, I'll settle up with you when I make a pay-day.'
              "Now if you had been the man held up by the gangsters, which of these three-the white preacher, the white song leader, or the black man - would you consider to have been your neighbor?"
              The teacher of the adult Bible class said, "Why, of course, the nig - I mean, er ... well, er ... the one who treated me kindly."
              Jesus said, "Well, then, you get going and start living like that!"

So what are we waiting for?

Diamond spinning

Diamonds

Yeah I know. Those ads for diamonds are good. Real good. Every time one runs and Bunny and I are watching TV together, I always feel like I should run out and buy her one like that guy did for his wife in the commercial. I keep wondering if some guy can't come up with a commercial blocker just for them.

That kind of advertising was started years ago by a man named Harry Winston. Your wife probably knows who he is. Might be news to you that he is the "jeweler to the stars." Many celebrities wear his diamonds to the award shows like the Oscars each year, and apparently they drop in all year and pick up a few trinkets too.

I read a story this week about an instance where a customer came into Harry's shop. They were welcomed with all the style and grace that goes with selling million-dollar jewels, by the top salesperson in the store. He opened the case, and after laying a black velvet cloth on the top of it, placed diamond after diamond before the prospective buyer.

He then took each diamond in turn and told about their clarity, color, and cut. Then he suggested different mountings that would work well. The customer lingered over one diamond, but seemed to decide not to make a purchase. Thanking the salesperson, they began to walk away.

Harry Winston happened to be on the sales floor, and he walked over and introduced himself. He asked the customer about their experience and led them back to the diamond case. He took the diamond they had considered buying in his hand and told them just how much he loved it. How he could see it gleaming in the spotlight, reflecting its beauty and drawing everyone's eyes that way. Winston explained how a diamond like that one was one in a million. That every hand that had touched it had marveled at its brilliance, and that the diamond cutter didn't so much shape it as unveiled it in all its splendor.

The person wrote Winston a check for well into 6 figures.

Before leaving, he told Winston that he'd have never bought it except from him. "How did your salesperson get to be the top one here?"

"Well", said Winston, "That salesperson knows more about diamonds than any other person here, including me. He has worked in every position here, from buyer, to jeweler, and now salesperson. He really is well qualified."

"But he doesn't love diamonds. I do. I wish I could teach him that."

I want to be straight with you guys.

Nothing - nothing - nothing - can take the place of your real allegiance to and love for Jesus.

You can be a pastor, or deacon, or Sunday School teacher. You can have memorized books, know Hebrew and Greek, even carried Paul's backpack on his missionary journeys. (Kidding on that last one - you aren't THAT old)

But unless you've really given your whole life over to His direction and purpose, you're fooling yourself. So here's the Word.

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life-your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Romans 12:1-2

Don't play at this. Cubic Zirconia diamonds aren't diamonds. Fake faith isn't life-giving faith.

That's this week's SITREP.

David Wilson
Lead Pastor - New Hope!

I grew up in the Deep South at a time when there were great differences in our society centered on the color of a person's skin. In restaurants, in schools, and at lunchroom counters, there were lines for white people, and there was a line for colored people. At Macon Georgia's Terminal station signs cover today what was once chiseled in stone - a "White" entrance and a "Colored" one. A person coming to Macon now wouldn't see what in my memory remains so clear - we were a divided people. Some of us were the "haves" and some others the "have-nots", and it had always been that way.

Looking back today I cannot understand how a nation so dedicated to freedom for all could have been so wrong about this for so long. But finally, we did change. We struggled with the truth. We refused at times even when confronted with it to acknowledge its claims on our lives. I can remember protests against Judge Bootle, conflict at Mercer's campus church, and confusion as the times really were "a-changing."

But they did change. Voices arose from within the nation. A rediscovery of just why we were here took place. We were exhorted to not judge a person by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. And 40 years later for the most part, Americans do.

I had to turn on the "way-back" machine for you today because I am struggling to help you understand just how the people of Israel, who saw themselves as the "light to the nations", who understood themselves to be "God's chosen people", who had law after law to remind them to treat their fellow Jew fairly - how these godly people treated those who were employed as shepherds during the time frame when Jesus was born.

Shepherds were a permanent underclass in the nation of Israel. They were despised and rejected by their own. Even though they had contributed to the making of Israel - remember at one time literally all of the tribes were nomadic shepherds, and David even rose to be the most famous king of Israel ever - by the time Christ was born all that was ancient and forgotten history. Everyone despised shepherds. They were considered second-class and untrustworthy.

To be a shepherd was to be involved in an activity critical to the worship of the people of Israel. The production of lambs for ritual sacrifices was ongoing, and the standards for those lambs were quite high. No defects, illness, or blemishes would be tolerated. So a successful shepherd delivered lambs as close to perfect as possible, and timed the birth of the newborn lambs so that they would be of sufficient age at the Passover feast, when every family in Israel that could was supposed to come to Jerusalem and offer sacrifice.

It was hard work- even dangerous at times as lions, wolves and thieves could threaten the sheep. To prevent the sheep from straying, a shepherd would hem the sheep into a natural sheepfold and bar the entrance with fallen logs or sometimes with his body, placing himself at the mouth of the corral. Christ Himself referred to His role as the "Good Shepherd, who lays down His life for the sheep." I'm sure Jesus' audience just chalked those references up as foolishness along with His insane penchant for hanging with tax collectors and prostitutes.

Remember, they called Jesus a friend of "sinners." Shepherds were called "sinners" because they were ceremonially unclean. Jews were told not to trade with them directly on the assumption that whatever they purchased would be stolen property. The Mishnah, a collection of rabbinic sayings, refers to them at one point as "incompetent" and in another place intimates that no one should feel obligated to rescue a shepherd who has fallen into a pit. They were deprived of civil rights, not being allowed to hold judicial offices or serve as witnesses at trial. People would avoid them, spit at them, chase them away.

Again, I can remember when it wasn't so different here. It hurts to remember.

The worship of Israel centered on the temple. It was there that the presence of God lived, and there that the rituals of worship had to be performed. Access and proximity to that worship was tightly controlled. If you were a woman, there was a place for you - the Court of Women. If you were a gentile, there was a place for you - the Court of the Gentiles.But if you were a shepherd, though you were where David, the shepherd-king of Israel once reigned, you were relegated to the far courts with the "sinners." The shepherds brought their flocks to the wall of Jerusalem and watched as the lambs were led to slaughter. The shepherds never were able to worship as the "good" people did, being made to stay in the same place as the rest of the "sinners", even though their efforts made it possible for the "good" people to worship freely.

And yet God seems to have a special place in His heart for shepherds. The rabbis of the time marveled at how in light of the despicable reputation of shepherds, God Himself was referred to by the Psalmist in 23:1 as 'my shepherd'. Of course in the same period of time, they were also wondering why God had been silent for hundreds of years.

When it came time to announce the birth of the King, the logical thing to do would have been to have the angels descend on the Temple in Jerusalem. They would be immediately in contact with the learned priests, scribes, and rabbis who could respond in worship and spread the news. The worship could then go on for months - even years. The best and brightest of the people of Israel would know what to do.

But instead, God went to the shepherds.

He ignored those who were sure they were first in His eyes and chose to meet instead with those "everyone" had decided He could never love. He rushed past all the fine furnishings, the impeccable dress, and the well rehearsed priests and musicians when He chose the people to bless with His news. How odd of God.

The shepherds had no temple, no priest, and no choir with them there. They had nothing and no one on their side. The only reputation they had was uniformly bad. No means of worship, no hope of being heard. They had been banished to the desert plains and given only their sheep as companions. So into this context of societal smugness and prejudice, far from the "right" places and the "right" people, God decided that the first people who needed to hear "It's a boy! Oh and He's Messiah!" were the despised and rejected shepherds.

God's light began to shine clearly into their dark place.

And a worship celebration broke through to earth from heaven.

8 There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. 9 Suddenly, God's angel stood among them and God's glory blazed around them. They were terrified. 10 The angel said, "Don't be afraid. I'm here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: 11 A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. 12 This is what you're to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger."
13 At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God's praises:

14 "Glory to God in the heavenly heights,
Peace to all men and women on earth who please him."

Luke 2:8-14 (The Message)

So the nobodies who couldn't worship freely since they weren't good enough got to experience worship like no one has ever seen. Those so despised that they were forced to live on the fringes were placed in the center of God's work. The last had become first. When they were shown the side door and relegated to the outskirts of God's neighborhood, the Lord Almighty simply kicked down the doors and redrew the map to include them.

Yeah, I think that qualifies as "great joy."

The news they received let the shepherds know that even if the world's standards for people stayed the same, God's new plan included them.

This good news was "meant for everybody..." for all people.

It still is.

May we walk into the light this Christmas forever remembering just how far we have to go before we see that joy and His peace break out everywhere.

Grace!

David Wilson