As those of you at Faith know, we are in the middle of a series called "Extreme Makeover: Church Edition." I actually preached a similar series at a previous pastorate but as I've prepared for this series each week I've ended up rewriting each sermon. I've seen and begun to understand God's purpose and plan for His church differently than ever before. It's very exciting.
Yesterday, I preached about how we, the people who make up Christ's church, are the framework or the walls. 1 Peter describes it as the "living stones" who are built on the Cornerstone, Jesus Christ. As those who are built on the foundation of Jesus, it is important that we line up with the Cornerstone, that we follow the same "line" as the foundation follows. A building built at odds with the foundation will not stand very long, especially if it is expected to withstand adverse weather conditions.
Practically speaking, this means that we, the Church, must be in line with God's purpose for the church as revealed through His Son, Jesus. This is where things get a little "sticky." I believe that means the Church must constantly be aligning and realigning itself with those ideas and principles that best represent who Jesus was and what Jesus did. In other words, it's not about what I want or prefer. It's not about what I think the church ought to look like or be like. It's not even about what will make me or people like me happy. It's not the responsibility or obligation of the church to line up with me...or...(dare I say it)...even you. It's the calling of the church to line up with Christ!
So here's the question I'd like you to ponder and respond to: What does that look like? If the church begins to look more and more like Christ, what will change? What will be different than it is right now? Give it some thought and then join the discussion.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Counting the Wrong Numbers
This past week I was moved as I watched a clip from the movie "The Guardian" starring Kevin Costner. I used this clip in the sermon because I thought it illustrated so wonderfully the fact that we as "the church" spend an awful lot of time counting the wrong numbers. In the movie, Kevin Costner's character is asked several times about his "number." His number is supposed to be the number of people he has rescued from peril as a Coast Guard-ian. When he finally reveals his "number" he replies, "22." Surprised, the young recruit is taken aback as he assumed the number would have been much higher. "22 is number of people I lost," Costner says, "it's the only number I kept track of."
We have a tendency in the church to count the ones we rescue instead of the ones we lose. Probably because we can feel better about ourselves if we talk about the 20 we rescued instead of the hundreds we lost. In Costner's case they were lost only to the sea, they only lost their life. In our case, those we lose are lost to the enemy and they lose their eternity.
Perhaps we could all take a little time this week to ponder those who we walk past, those who are hurting and in need, those who need to be rescued. Perhaps instead of passing them by while feeling good about past accomplishments, we could focus on those that we see today, those that God causes by divine appointment to be where we are, when we are there so that we can reach out and help them.
Just something to think about.
We have a tendency in the church to count the ones we rescue instead of the ones we lose. Probably because we can feel better about ourselves if we talk about the 20 we rescued instead of the hundreds we lost. In Costner's case they were lost only to the sea, they only lost their life. In our case, those we lose are lost to the enemy and they lose their eternity.
Perhaps we could all take a little time this week to ponder those who we walk past, those who are hurting and in need, those who need to be rescued. Perhaps instead of passing them by while feeling good about past accomplishments, we could focus on those that we see today, those that God causes by divine appointment to be where we are, when we are there so that we can reach out and help them.
Just something to think about.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Thinking about following Jesus
I just finished watching a video about the new face of worship. It was really quite interesting. I guess for me it was about what it means to follow Jesus. For so long the church has made following Jesus about following people, or following tradition or even about following a denominational agenda. You know, following Jesus doesn't have to be about any of those things. Sometimes following Jesus is just about following Jesus!
Here's the question that I'm asking myself right now and I encourage you to ask yourself the same question. Here it is: What does following Jesus really mean to me? Where does that take me? What does that look like?
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
Pastor Rick
Here's the question that I'm asking myself right now and I encourage you to ask yourself the same question. Here it is: What does following Jesus really mean to me? Where does that take me? What does that look like?
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
Pastor Rick
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Lostness
Friends:
I am just finishing up a few days of class as I work on my degree at Campbellsville University. This week I've been taking what's called "an intensive" which means I get eight weeks worth of class work done in four days. It is intensive, to say the least, and a bit overwhelming.
This course is about church planting and actually deals with the first year or two of a new church's life. One of the things that has really touched my heart this week is studying what happens to most new churches in the first couple of years of their existence. Most churches are started with the best of intentions and usually have as part of their original mission statement, either written or implied, to reach the "lost," or in other words, to reach those who are far from Christ with the message of His love.
Two things really hit home. The first is the degree to which our society is "lost." Most of us have no concept of just how many people really have no personal relationship with Christ. Some may attend church occasionally or have their names on a membership list somewhere, but the overwhelming majority of people in our nation, perhaps as high as 90% by some estimates, have NO REAL RELATIONSHIP with Christ! Now most of us find that hard to believe, and at least one reason why we do is because most of us have few if any meaningful relationships with those who are lost. All of our friends and family are Christians. Most of our business relationships that we can control are with Christians. As a matter of fact most of us, by choice, spend most of our time with others who believe what we do. Because of that we forget just how lost the world really is. Not long ago some ministers were asked to write down the names of 10 friends who were lost. Most of them could not. Why? Because most ministers only associate with Believers. That probably is not true of church members to quite the extent it is with ministers, but the principle still holds, we have become numb to just how lost our world is.
The second thing that really affected me was that most new churches lose their mission and their commitment to reaching the lost with the glorious gospel after just a short time. On average, a new church reverts to about the same rate of seeing new Christians as older churches within just a couple of years. Why is that? I believe it's because we sink back into the same ruts as in the past. We begin playing church, going through the motions...we come in, sit down, get up and go home, without ever having our hearts challenged to reach the lost world for Christ. Our hearts get hard, our tear ducts dry up, and our passion for seeing others birthed into God's kingdom grows cold.
We need to pray that God will rekindle our passion. We need to ask to see the world as Jesus sees it...lost. We need to pray for courage and love in sharing the gospel. Will you join me in that prayer? Will we agree together to not allow our Family of Faith to become too busy to reach our community with the gospel's message? I hope so.
Walking by Faith,
Pastor Rick
I am just finishing up a few days of class as I work on my degree at Campbellsville University. This week I've been taking what's called "an intensive" which means I get eight weeks worth of class work done in four days. It is intensive, to say the least, and a bit overwhelming.
This course is about church planting and actually deals with the first year or two of a new church's life. One of the things that has really touched my heart this week is studying what happens to most new churches in the first couple of years of their existence. Most churches are started with the best of intentions and usually have as part of their original mission statement, either written or implied, to reach the "lost," or in other words, to reach those who are far from Christ with the message of His love.
Two things really hit home. The first is the degree to which our society is "lost." Most of us have no concept of just how many people really have no personal relationship with Christ. Some may attend church occasionally or have their names on a membership list somewhere, but the overwhelming majority of people in our nation, perhaps as high as 90% by some estimates, have NO REAL RELATIONSHIP with Christ! Now most of us find that hard to believe, and at least one reason why we do is because most of us have few if any meaningful relationships with those who are lost. All of our friends and family are Christians. Most of our business relationships that we can control are with Christians. As a matter of fact most of us, by choice, spend most of our time with others who believe what we do. Because of that we forget just how lost the world really is. Not long ago some ministers were asked to write down the names of 10 friends who were lost. Most of them could not. Why? Because most ministers only associate with Believers. That probably is not true of church members to quite the extent it is with ministers, but the principle still holds, we have become numb to just how lost our world is.
The second thing that really affected me was that most new churches lose their mission and their commitment to reaching the lost with the glorious gospel after just a short time. On average, a new church reverts to about the same rate of seeing new Christians as older churches within just a couple of years. Why is that? I believe it's because we sink back into the same ruts as in the past. We begin playing church, going through the motions...we come in, sit down, get up and go home, without ever having our hearts challenged to reach the lost world for Christ. Our hearts get hard, our tear ducts dry up, and our passion for seeing others birthed into God's kingdom grows cold.
We need to pray that God will rekindle our passion. We need to ask to see the world as Jesus sees it...lost. We need to pray for courage and love in sharing the gospel. Will you join me in that prayer? Will we agree together to not allow our Family of Faith to become too busy to reach our community with the gospel's message? I hope so.
Walking by Faith,
Pastor Rick
Monday, April 20, 2009
Change
Change...it can really be a problem...or a blessing...kind of depends on your perspective. For instance, if you're in a really bad situation, like a drought, you'd welcome change...a little rain. But, if you're having what some people would term a "string of good luck" you don't want anything to change. As a matter of fact you might even get a little superstitious about change.
But all things considered, I think most of us resist change. There is just something uncomfortable about change. We don't really like it when someone changes our presets on the radio or when a restaurant changes the recipe of our favorite dish. Detours really throw us for a loop because it makes us change our normal route and even house guests (even ones we love) can make us irritable because they force us to change our routine.
The truth is, unless we perceive that there is a huge benefit to change, we will probably fight it. In other words, if we discover a great new radio station as a result of someone changing our presets, we welcome the change. If changing our hairstyle gets us lots of compliments, we'll probably adopt the new hairstyle as the "new norm."
The key is, we have to be willing to try something new with an open mind and for long enough to decide whether there is a benefit to the change. Of course, no where is this more true than in the church. Change is especially difficult in the church because everything we do in church is connected either directly or indirectly to our worship and relationship with God. As a result we tend to see the status quo, or normal way of doing things, as sacred. Somewhere we got the idea that "sacred things" shouldn't be changed and most of us are pretty sure that God feels that way too. Man, not much could be further from the truth.
God is a God of change. From Genesis and the story of Abraham where God asked him to move to a new country, changed his name and turned his life upside down with the birth of an unexpected child, to the book of The Revelation where God promises a new, changed heaven and earth, and practically everywhere in between, God is a God of constant, radical and complete change.
The good news is this: When God recommends, requires, or instigates change, the benefit will always outweigh the inconvenience. So...we will be better off to change as God leads because He only asks us for change when we will be improved by it.
There have been many times in my life when God asked me for change. At the time, it was hard to imagine that the change could possilby be for my good. However, as I look back at many of those times now, I see not only was the change for my good, but for His glory as well. Can you think of some times like this in your life? Perhaps, God is asking you to embrace some kind of change right now. Why not say "yes" to the God of change?
But all things considered, I think most of us resist change. There is just something uncomfortable about change. We don't really like it when someone changes our presets on the radio or when a restaurant changes the recipe of our favorite dish. Detours really throw us for a loop because it makes us change our normal route and even house guests (even ones we love) can make us irritable because they force us to change our routine.
The truth is, unless we perceive that there is a huge benefit to change, we will probably fight it. In other words, if we discover a great new radio station as a result of someone changing our presets, we welcome the change. If changing our hairstyle gets us lots of compliments, we'll probably adopt the new hairstyle as the "new norm."
The key is, we have to be willing to try something new with an open mind and for long enough to decide whether there is a benefit to the change. Of course, no where is this more true than in the church. Change is especially difficult in the church because everything we do in church is connected either directly or indirectly to our worship and relationship with God. As a result we tend to see the status quo, or normal way of doing things, as sacred. Somewhere we got the idea that "sacred things" shouldn't be changed and most of us are pretty sure that God feels that way too. Man, not much could be further from the truth.
God is a God of change. From Genesis and the story of Abraham where God asked him to move to a new country, changed his name and turned his life upside down with the birth of an unexpected child, to the book of The Revelation where God promises a new, changed heaven and earth, and practically everywhere in between, God is a God of constant, radical and complete change.
The good news is this: When God recommends, requires, or instigates change, the benefit will always outweigh the inconvenience. So...we will be better off to change as God leads because He only asks us for change when we will be improved by it.
There have been many times in my life when God asked me for change. At the time, it was hard to imagine that the change could possilby be for my good. However, as I look back at many of those times now, I see not only was the change for my good, but for His glory as well. Can you think of some times like this in your life? Perhaps, God is asking you to embrace some kind of change right now. Why not say "yes" to the God of change?
Thursday, April 2, 2009
What's next?
Well, my first month as Pastor of Faith Baptist is just about over. In some ways, it seems like I've known the "Family of Faith" for much longer. I feel very much at home when preaching and teaching, and Jane and I feel very comfortable in our new home. The transition in most ways has been extremely smooth, far above average I'd say, and God has blessed our ministry from the first day in Marion.
Yesterday I was privileged to be able to experience a major milestone at Faith after just three weeks as its pastor. I was present for the closing on the property that God has allowed us to be the stewards of and last evening many of us went there to pray and dedicate the land to the Lord.
It occured to me today, when I drove out to look at the property again, that the possibilities for what God intends to do on that 17 acres are endless. I could envision lots of things happening there that would bring glory to God and bring people into His kingdom. I got excited just thinking about it.
The steps that we take together over the next few weeks and months will determine how we measure up to God's plan for Faith Baptist. Those steps must be taken with care, in unity, and with absolute confidence.
Yesterday I was privileged to be able to experience a major milestone at Faith after just three weeks as its pastor. I was present for the closing on the property that God has allowed us to be the stewards of and last evening many of us went there to pray and dedicate the land to the Lord.
It occured to me today, when I drove out to look at the property again, that the possibilities for what God intends to do on that 17 acres are endless. I could envision lots of things happening there that would bring glory to God and bring people into His kingdom. I got excited just thinking about it.
The steps that we take together over the next few weeks and months will determine how we measure up to God's plan for Faith Baptist. Those steps must be taken with care, in unity, and with absolute confidence.
- With care because our steps determine our destination. Each step is an important part of the process in getting to where God wants us to be. Each step must be taken following much prayer and consideration of God's will for us as a church.
- In unity because we must move in the same direction in order to avoid confusion and misdirection. The Word says, confusion is not of God. The history of the church of Acts suggests that God always shows up when His people are of one mind.
- With absolute confidence because when we hear from God and move in obedience to His commands, we can walk confidently forward knowing that God will honor His promises and see us through every circumstance.
I urge you to join with me in praying, believing, and moving confidently forward toward God's high calling for us as a church. What's next only God knows, but we can be sure that wherever He leads and whatever He calls us to do will be for our good and His glory!
Pastor Rick
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Positive vs. Negative
Hey everybody:
I've been thinking and Jane always says that's VERY dangerous! No really, I've been thinking... and I'm really excited about the future. Jane and I were taking our morning walk a couple of days ago and talking about the future, about plans, about ideas God' is giving me for Faith, and we just got so pumped.
Now here's what I want to talk to you about. For the last several months, we had both kind of slipped into discussing problems and challenges that were facing us...during our walks. Everyday, as we kind of dwelt on the negatives, we just felt more and more depressed about things. I don't mean "clinically depressed" I just mean "down." Well the other morning as we were discussing the positives, the plans, the vision for the future, etc. Jane turned to me and said, "It just feels so good to be talking about positive things, doesn't it?" Now here's one of the places were I can say, "Learn from my mistakes." It's so easy, even with the best of intentions, to slip into the "negative zone." It's easy to be overwhelmed by problems and difficulties. This is one of those places where the power of our speech is so evident. The book of James says that the tongue is a powerful tool, either for destruction (negative talk) or for building up (positive talk). The Bible says we have the power of life or death in what we say!
So...let me encourage you, as I encourage myself, to dwell on the promises of God, the visions He gives, and the prosperous plans He has for us individually and corporately as a church. Let's confess (remember that means to "agree with God"), let's agree with God that He has good plans for us, that we are more than victors through Christ, and that all things work together for our good and His glory.
Keep it positive, victorious, encouraging, and uplifting...when it comes to what you say. And when others try to draw the conversation the other direction, kindly offer a good word in exchange, even if that word has to be good-bye.
Pastor Rick
I've been thinking and Jane always says that's VERY dangerous! No really, I've been thinking... and I'm really excited about the future. Jane and I were taking our morning walk a couple of days ago and talking about the future, about plans, about ideas God' is giving me for Faith, and we just got so pumped.
Now here's what I want to talk to you about. For the last several months, we had both kind of slipped into discussing problems and challenges that were facing us...during our walks. Everyday, as we kind of dwelt on the negatives, we just felt more and more depressed about things. I don't mean "clinically depressed" I just mean "down." Well the other morning as we were discussing the positives, the plans, the vision for the future, etc. Jane turned to me and said, "It just feels so good to be talking about positive things, doesn't it?" Now here's one of the places were I can say, "Learn from my mistakes." It's so easy, even with the best of intentions, to slip into the "negative zone." It's easy to be overwhelmed by problems and difficulties. This is one of those places where the power of our speech is so evident. The book of James says that the tongue is a powerful tool, either for destruction (negative talk) or for building up (positive talk). The Bible says we have the power of life or death in what we say!
So...let me encourage you, as I encourage myself, to dwell on the promises of God, the visions He gives, and the prosperous plans He has for us individually and corporately as a church. Let's confess (remember that means to "agree with God"), let's agree with God that He has good plans for us, that we are more than victors through Christ, and that all things work together for our good and His glory.
Keep it positive, victorious, encouraging, and uplifting...when it comes to what you say. And when others try to draw the conversation the other direction, kindly offer a good word in exchange, even if that word has to be good-bye.
Pastor Rick
Thursday, February 26, 2009
The Future...
I was thinking last night and this morning about how exhilarating the future is. I know there are a few folks who are pessimistic about the future but really, I think most of us get excited when we think about the possibilities. I know I sure do.
I make plans, imagine things working out well and picture what might happen. It's just really very exciting! I've got a whole bunch of stuff that I'm hoping happens in the next few weeks and months. I can hardly wait.
What about you? Are you hopeful about the future? Take a few minutes to share with the rest of us what you're dreaming about. Name one or two things that you hope will happen in the next few months. It doesn't have to be spiritual, although it can be. Maybe you're hoping for a job, or a wife, or a big piece of chocolate pie. Just share. When everyone is done, I'll share my hopes and dreams with you.
Pastor Rick
I make plans, imagine things working out well and picture what might happen. It's just really very exciting! I've got a whole bunch of stuff that I'm hoping happens in the next few weeks and months. I can hardly wait.
What about you? Are you hopeful about the future? Take a few minutes to share with the rest of us what you're dreaming about. Name one or two things that you hope will happen in the next few months. It doesn't have to be spiritual, although it can be. Maybe you're hoping for a job, or a wife, or a big piece of chocolate pie. Just share. When everyone is done, I'll share my hopes and dreams with you.
Pastor Rick
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