Don’t Just Stand There
August 14 2011
Most of you know that I spent from Monday – Friday of this past week representing New Harmony Presbytery at the Presbyterian Church’s Engage! Evangelism Conference in St. Pete’s Beach, Florida. This conference was held in conjunction with the Presbyterian Church’s New Church Development Conference and I would say there were about 75 ministers and elders at each conference – making for a total of around 150 Presbyterians who were excited about topics such as evangelism, church growth, discipleship, and new church development. New materials for evangelism, church growth and discipleship were shared and there were some of the best minds our denomination offers on hand to share their ideas on these vital topics. It was a blessing to be able to learn from and discuss evangelism with the likes of Dan Kimball, Stan Ott, Chris Walker, and our denominations staff that works on evangelism and church growth Eric Hoey, Ray Jones, and Dave Loeling) .
I come back to tell you bad news and good news.
First we have to face the bad news. The Presbyterian Church (USA) as a denomination has been losing ground for a number of years. Churches have been losing members, churches have not been gaining new members, churches have not been teaching their members how to grow as Christians, and churches have not been training members how to share their love for Christ with others. As a result the denomination is in a state of decline, as are a majority of our churches. Some like to attribute this decline to the debates over ordination that the denomination has been embroiled in over the past 10 years or more, but we can’t blame all our problems on these. Others want to give the excuse that it’s not just Presbyterian churches that are declining but every mainline denomination is going through the same problems. The truth is, friends, that these are poor excuses – and that we as Presbyterians have not been doing our job – the job that Christ gave us – the job of making disciples for Him and growing as His disciples ourselves. It’s time we quit pointing fingers at the controversies we go through as a denomination and quit pointing fingers at other denominations and start pointing fingers at ourselves – because it is our fault we are in the decline that we are in.
But – with all the problems and controversies and “bad news” that plague our denomination, there is good news. The good news is that God is still at work – still active – and still moving to do new things in our denomination and the world. It was a blessing for me to see in St. Pete — and to be able to share with you – that there are Presbyterians throughout the country praying and working for answers – and there is a new staff at the denominational headquarters in Louisville working in the vital areas of evangelism, church growth, and discipleship that love God and want to help churches grow and reach their communities for Christ.
So – there is “bad news” for the denomination and there is “good news”.
Do I have to tell you that Hopewell is going through the same problems the denomination is going through – that the “bad news” for most Presbyterian churches is also the “bad news” for us here at Hopewell?
I believe you all can see that Hopewell is losing members and not brining in new members. I believe that most of you realize that we here at Hopewell do not do a very good job of teaching folks how to grow in their faith and share their faith with others. I believe that most of you realize that we here at Hopewell seem to be more concerned with how we have always done things than we are with praying for God to bless us with a vision for the new things He might be calling us to do and the new ways God might be calling us to do things.
But – with all the “bad news” for us here at Hopewell – I am convinced that there is also “good news”. I believe that God is active and moving among us and wants to do new things in our Church and in our lives – if we will let Him work in us and through us.
If we will pray for God to bless us with His vision and a zeal for doing His work in our Church and our community I firmly believe that He will bless us. I firmly believe that if we will pray for God to bless us with a vision for how He would have us to grow His Church here at Hopewell – how He would have us to grow in our own faith and grow disciples here at Hopewell – then how He would have us to reach out into the community and share His love with words and actions – He will bless us.
But we have to be willing to pray and work together.
If we pray and work, I believe the blessings will come.
I believe we all have to have a focus that – instead of focusing so much on our problems – will help us focus on God’s will.
I am going to call this a focus that will help us look upward – and outward.
We need to look upwards to God – and outwards to others.
Our passage before us this morning from Acts 1:1-11 gives us two directions that Jesus called on His disciples – and that includes us – to focus on. As Luke records Jesus’ last words to His disciples before His ascension, He calls on them to focus upward and outward.
First, He told them to focus upward.
If we are going to be the Church – the disciples – God is calling us to be we are going to have to look upward. By looking upward I mean that we have to focus on the things that help us focus on God – things like prayer, Bible Study, and worship.
In our passage from Acts 1 Christ told His disciples to wait and pray.
Now, if we are honest about it we’ll have to admit that waiting for anything – and praying – seems to go against our nature. There is something about waiting and praying that seems to us like a waste of time. We don’t like to wait for anything or anyone. We want immediate results, with our satisfaction guaranteed or our money back. We want instant happiness - instant success. We don’t want to wait for the good life; we want it now, immediately. And if we don’t get what we want where we are we will look someplace else. Who wants to sit around and wait? Who wants to sit around and pray?
That is indeed part of our problem. We focus so much on the problems the Church is facing that we fail to look for God’s answers to these problems – and miss opportunities to grow in our own faith and our own commitment to Christ. We rush around looking for answers when really the answer lies in obeying Christ’s command to wait and pray.
If we want God to bless us as a Church so we can become a Church that is vibrant and active and where we focus on growing in our faith and sharing our faith with others we each need to learn how to pray.
We need to pray – every day – for God’s will for our lives.
We need to pray – every day – that God will bless us and help us live as His people.
We need to pray – every day – for God to give us opportunities to tell others about Him and what He has done in our lives.
We need to pray – every day – for God bless us with a vision for what specific things we can do here at Hopewell to grow into being His church.
Just like the disciples, we need an upward focus– a focus that calls us to pray for God’s blessings and wait on Him to reveal His will.
How often do you pray – and when you do pray – what do you pray for?
Do you pray every day – in fact numerous times every day?
When you pray – do you pray for your own needs – or do you pray for others – and even for the Church?
Can it be said about you that you have an upward focus – a focus that brings you to pray for God’s blessings on the Church?
Praying is a vital part of this upward focus Jesus calls on us to have – but not the only part. If we are going to grow into the Church God would have us be we also need to study God’s word.
You need to study God’s word on your own so you can grow as a disciple – and then you need to be involved in the times we come together to study God’s word – times like Sunday School and Bible Study.
How often do you study your Bible?
How often do you read your Bible?
Do you read and study your Bible every day so you can grow in your faith and learn how to serve God?
Do you come to the times we gather for study – to Sunday School and Bible Study?
Can it be said about you that you have an upward focus – a focus where you focus on learning about God’s will for your life and for the Church by studying God’s word on your own and joining us as we study God’s word together?
Praying and studying God’s word are parts of this upward focus Jesus calls us – as His disciples – to have. Being committed to joining with us as we worship and praise God and fellowship together in God’s name are also parts of this upward focus.
To be the Church God wants us to be we need a perspective that is an upward focus. To be the Christian – the disciple – God wants you to be you need a focus that is an upward focus.
When it comes to the problems we face as a Church, do you have a focus that is an upward focus – that focuses God and His answers by focusing on your prayer life – your study of God’s word – and your participation in worship and fellowship with God’s people — or do you have a perspective that focuses on the problems you see in the Church without being willing to seek God’s answers?
In our scripture passage for today Jesus called on His disciples to have an upward focus.
He also called on them to have an outward focus.
Friends – - if we are going to be the Church God is calling us to be we can’t just sit and worry or fuss about our problems. We can’t just have an inward focus where we stare at each other and wonder what happened to the Church we used to be. We have to have to be outward focused – looking at the community and the world and those who do not know Christ or who need God’s love – and looking for ways to share Christ with them.
In the Acts 1 passage we are looking at today Jesus was getting ready to leave His disciples. He was getting ready to ascend into heaven. He would no longer be with them — but He did not want them to sit around and mope and worry about what to do next. He wanted them to have the upward focus. He wanted them to focus on God – but he also wanted them to have an outward focus. He wanted them to share His word and His love with the people around them – as He said in verse 8 — with people in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. This means sharing Jesus and His love with those in our local community – then expanding to a larger community – then to the ends of the world.
To be the Church God is calling us to be, and to be the Christians God is calling us to be, we have to have an outward focus. As easy as it would be to sit in our Church and complain about how we aren’t growing and how no one is coming and how the new folks in our community don’t just show up at the doors of the Church, that type of inward focus is not the focus Jesus calls us to have. Jesus calls us to have an outward focus – a focus where we are committed to taking Christ into the community and into the world.
How committed are you to taking Jesus into the community – talking about Him and sharing His love with those you come into contact with – every day?
Can it be said that you have an outward focus to your life – and that you are continually seeking new ways to share God with others?
How committed are we – as a Church – to finding ways to reach out into the community with God’s love and new ways to tell those around us and around the world about the love of God?
Can it be said that we have an outward focus – and that we are continually seeking new ways to share God with others?
Alice Ridgell is the pastor of a new church in Greenwood, SC and spoke at the worship service that began the conference I attended this week. She shared that she heard about a Church in Atlanta whose evangelism theme one year was:
“The Church has left the building”
I like that!
“The Church has left the building”
If we are going to grow as the Church God would have us be, we are going to have to leave the building and be God’s witnesses in our community and in the world through specific actions of love and grace and specific words that share God’s love with others. From reaching out to the Wallace Gregg School and Thornwell with School supplies to donating fans for those in our community who are suffering in the heat to finding other specific actions that will meet people’s needs, we need to be outward focused – to “leave the building” with actions and words that show God’s love.
If you are going to grow as a disciple of Christ, you are going to have to leave the building – leave the Church every week and your home every day and be God’s witness in your community and in the world through specific actions of love and grace and specific words that share God’s love with others.
How committed are you to going into the community and finding the needs that are all around us – and looking for ways you as an individual and we as a Church can meet those needs?
Let me give you a suggestion.
Pray for God to bless you with vision for the needs that are in our community and the willingness to do something about them.
Pray a prayer I learned from Steve Hayner, President of Columbia Theological Seminary. Hayner once told a group I was a part of that he had written in the cover of his Bible:
“Lord – give me eyes to see things as You see them.
Break my heart with the things that break Your heart.
Let me never pass up opportunities to touch others with Your love.”
This prayer is now in the cover of the Bible I use for my personal devotionals every morning and is part of what I pray every day.
As you go about your daily routine at home, work, school, in the community, wherever you may be – pray that God will give you eyes that see things and people as He sees them – and a heart that is broken by the things around you that break His heart.
I promise you that if you pray for God to give you an outward perspective that focuses on meeting the needs of others with His love and telling them about Him, He will rejoice and bless you with ways to reach out into the community and the world.
If we are going to grow as a Church we are going to have to be open to the direction God is leading us. Yes – we have to admit that there is “bad news” for us in that we are losing members, not brining in new members, and not doing a very good job of teaching folks how to grow in their faith and share their faith with others. But we also have to see that there is “good news” in that God is doing new things and if we will have an upward focus and an outward focus instead of an inward focus we will become the Church God is calling us to be.
Last Sunday I asked for each of you to pray for me while I was at the conference this week. I felt your prayers – and was blessed in ways that I can not begin to share in just one sermon. I truly believe, though, that the greatest way I was blessed was that I was blessed with a new commitment to being your pastor and the leader of this Church God has called me to be.
I have been blessed with a new commitment to an upward focus for my life and ministry. I have a new commitment to praying for God’s will in my life and my ministry. I have a new commitment to praying for God to help me focus on His will for my life and the Church. I have a new commitment to praying for God to give me a vision – His vision – for the Church and the courage to work for it.
I have also been blessed with a new commitment to an outward focus for my life and ministry. I have a new commitment to looking for ways to reach out to others with God’s love and telling them about the love of God – a new commitment for my heart to be broken by the things in the community that break God’s heart – my ears to hear people as God hears them – and my eyes to see the needs all around me as God sees them.
I invite you to join me.
The more of you who will join me in the upward and outward focus that God is calling on us to have at His Church and His followers, the more we will be blessed – and the more the work of God will be done in our community and in the world. Amen.
