OK so this weekend we're devoting as I said several sessions to the
subject of Unlimited Growth - how to achieve it.
and how to maintain it. Now even though the subject matter
will be about church organization and growth. This is not the
ultimate goal of the church. Growth is a
by product. Growth is a spinoff benefit of the
church's true objective. And the church's true
objective. Is to be faithful.
That's what you shoot at. You shoot at being faithful.
Because when Jesus returns He is not going to be looking
for a big church.
He's not going to be saying "OK who's got more than a thousand?" or "who's got money in the
bank" and "who's got nice windows or polished..."
"Who's got a multi purpose building?" He's not asking for that.
When Jesus returns He's looking for faithfulness.
A church of 20 who are faithful. A church of old people who are faithful.
A church that meets in a mud hut who are faithful.
Faithfulness is what He is looking for and
so what we work at is being faithful. Growth is a spin
off of being faithful.
Jesus adds to His church
as it faithfully follows His instructions for ministry and
growth and I might remind you by the way that in your workbook you have a
study sheet on this particular topic. You don't have to fill it in and you can use
it as a fan you do whatever you want. Some people just like to have the outline.
In front of them.
And so if somebody asks, "What is the goal or what is the mission of this
particular congregation right here in Ponca City?"
It would not be: Our goal is to be a growing church.
According to our Bibles the answer should be:
Our goal is to be a faithful New Testament church.
That's the goal. That's what you're shooting at.
That's what you're striving for. That's what you're praying for. That's what your meetings are
about. Because if you strive for that,
the Lord will add to your number.
OK that's the whole seminar in a nutshell. In a sentence.
If you strive to be faithful the Lord will add.
to your number and continue to add to your number as long as you
do that. However there is a cost attached to
everything and everything has its own particular demand.
So being a faithful New Testament congregation is no exception.
So this session tonight.
In this session rather I'd like to go over some of the requirements
necessary to remain and flourish as a faithful New
Testament church because you see it's exciting to talk about
growth and imagine the rewards of an unlimited potential, that's all
wonderful. But the question is are we willing to pay the price that this
requires. So what does it take to
be a faithful New Testament church. Well number one
you have to know who you are. You have to know who you
are. You say you can't become or you can't preserve
something unless you know well what that thing is. So
let's begin by describing what a faithful New
Testament church actually is. Some
basic things that you are probably well aware of.
Well first of all historically and this is kind of some basics here I think
most of us know this but just to make sure we've covered all the bases.
Historically we come from a Restorationist movement begun in Europe.
And spread to the frontier of America in the 18th and 19th century
that's who we are. I mean I come I come from Canada from
Montreal from French Canada. Right. I
know where I come from and I know who the people are where I come from and I never
heard of the restoration movement. Until I actually became a member of
the New Testament church. And it was important for me to
understand you know what that was. If I'm going to serve to
preserve it. Because my history is I'm
French and I'm Italian. So if you were French and
Italian living in Quebec in the 1950s,
98% chance you'd be Catholic.
Can you imagine living in a place where there are six million people and
98 percent of them are Catholic.
If somebody would have said to me when I was say 20 years old.
That one day you're going to be a preacher for the Church of Christ.
When I was 20 OK. I would have first of all not understood what he
meant by preacher that term I couldn't even fathom what
that term was. I grew up Catholic I went to Catholic school. I was
an altar boy. I served in seminary. I thought even about being a priest one of these days.
Preacher what is that. And Church of Christ? What?
You mean there's another church other than Catholic.
So you see what I mean. If you don't know who you are if you don't know what you're preserving
How are you going to preserve it how are you going to be faithful.
So our (meaning the churches of Christ) ours was and
is a movement that sought to shed Old-World
denominational traditions and religious hierarchy's in favor of the simple
truth, the simple faith and the simple Christianity taught
by Jesus and His Apostles in the New Testament. It was the thing that
appealed to me so much as a Catholic.
When I became a Christian oh man no more bells no more smoke.
Whoa. That's so awesome.
You mean I can find the answer for myself.
Really?
When I left the Catholic Church I mean I actually said OK I'm done you know I'm done
with this. I remember the priest saying to me you're never going to make it without us.
He said that to me you'll never make it without us. I said we'll see.
And then you know I you know like everybody else I was searching took a couple of years
reading testing looking. I was looking. "God I know you're out there but I mean
who are you?" Surely you're not those guys wandering around in those robes I can't be you.
Jesus. Come on. And so you know I think you know in my
travels too long a story but to you know narrow it down. I was with a group of
Pentecostals.
And they introduced me to the Bible. Oh the Bible. God's Word. oh ok
I get it.
And they say OK you're going to speak in tongues you're going to cast out spirits. I did all that stuff.
All of it really.
But I, there was one thing wrong with me I just kept reading the
Bible. And I kept reading I said you know.
I don't see in here what you guys are doing. And they would say well you just don't understand.
So what was it the priest told me that that I didn't understand either.
Well this is sounds awfully familiar here.
And I kept thinking, I just can't see Jesus rolling around on the ground. I
don't see it. I don't see Peter doing this. I don't see Paul doing this.
So I said I'm sorry you haven't got the answers.
And you know when he said to me the main prophet.
You said you know what was that long ago. You'll never make it without us.
I say I've heard that before.
And it took another almost two years.
And one day.
I was living at my cousin's house an old joke they live in at my cousin's house sleeping on the couch.
After having traveled for two years with my backpack and my guitar.
Been to Vancouver and down south and back around back to Montreal looking for a
job figure man I get to get my life together.
And my cousin had a newspaper you know not like the big newspaper like The Daily Oklahoman that one of the
shopper guide they give them away at the you know at the grocery store.
And in the middle of the newspaper they give away free ads to churches you know.
And I was looking at the ads and one said you know military wiste at St. George's you
know Presbyterian church, bingo at St. Mary's Catholic Church,
clothing give away....
And then there was an article just one column on.
And it's said.
Sinners are welcome at the Church of Christ.
I looked at that I said. This guy's really saying something.
That's me. That's me.
And I went to this little bitty, mission church (30 people).
Singing was bad. When I look back on it the preaching was not that great.
It wasn't.
So I had a Bible study with the preacher. And I asked him my questions. His name was Jim
Medder by the way. I still remember him.
So I'd ask them with questions so that's your question. I said Yeah OK wait a minute.
Mark 4:13. "Read that." I'd read it.
Yep. "That answer your question?" Yip "Did I just put words in your mouth?" No no that's what it says.
"OK. Next question."
OK. "Romans Chapter 6, read it" and I read it.
"Is that what it says." Yeah.
"I'm not put words in your mouth." No no. That's what it says. All right. OK.
That was our Bible study. That was our Bible study.
No angel singing up in the sky. No visions of glory.
Just one night in November a very cold night 1977. I said to Jim you know what.
I believe I need to be baptized. All right he says.
What does it say here when somebody said they wanted to be baptized.
I read it. "They said they did it right away." All right.
Is that what it says. Yep. Well then well I guess we should do it right away. OK.
And man was a cold. November in Montreal, no
heater in the Baptistery. I mean you got to want it you know what I'm saying here. So I have to
want to.
That's who we are. We're the Bible people. Remember that?
And you know what, I'm the only one
that ever answered that ad.
That was the that was the total result of that ad. One person
one conversion.
But do you know that I have preached to more than a million people in my lifetime.
More than a million.
That's who we are. We're the Bible people.
And so the churches of Christ spread this restoration ideal throughout the world. And
now we have tens of thousands of congregations related only by the
shared idea that we will only use God's Word to establish to
build and to multiply churches as well as guiding our Christian teaching our
morals in our conduct. What does the Bible say?
That's it. That's who we are.
And that's a good thing.
That is such a good thing.
The Churches of Christ are not the only ones to try to do this you know don't
don't kid yourself to think that we're "restoring..." we're the only ones that came up with this
idea. Other people have tried this and have succeeded. But I
can say that we have succeeded better
than anyone else at this idea of restoration.
So there are restoration churches not call the churches of Christ. I've been to some of them never
even heard of the Church of Christ. But they're doing what we're doing.
The only difference is we do have better.
And we've had more success in the last 100 years than the others have. So
we need to remember who we are historically that's who we are.
That's a good thing. We shouldn't be ashamed of that.
All right we also have to know who we are theologically.
A New Testament church
is one that uses only the Bible and considers only the New Testament as the plan and
guide for Christian moral teaching and conduct that's our theology. Our theology is
not such that you have to be some sort of Brainiac to understand it.
Our theology is not you know huge words and these these esoteric concepts you know
that you know you you have to have two Ph.D.s to understand our theology is very
simple.
We are committed to doing the things that the Bible gives us to do
whether it be preaching of the Gospel or worshipping God or establishing and
organizing the church whatever it is. We are committed to doing those
things in the way that the Bible instructs us to do them.
Is that like difficult to get?
You know patterned theology is that so tough to understand you know you have a pattern for
something and if you make you know according to the pattern you can repeat
that pattern a thousand, a million times you will always get the same thing. Is it too hard to
understand that the Bible is the pattern for the New Testament church. And if we
follow the pattern we will be able to reproduce it generation after generation after
generation until Jesus returns. Is that is that too hard to understand?
But because we want to be like the smarty Alex out there in the world you know we confuse
ourselves. And look what's happened to us we've dealt away our uniqueness.
As our brothers said before you know nobody can tell us
apart from anybody else. We've given away the one thing that really separates
us from other people. Now there are thousands of course of
examples but let's take baptism simply because we all understand baptism
it's a universal idea an image in the quote world of Christians.
The Bible teaches Matthew 28, Mark 16, Acts 2 that
those who can express their faith in Jesus and choose to repent
of their sins need to be immersed in water for the forgiveness of sin and
the reception of the Holy Spirit. The grammar says that the context says that the
history says that the imagery says that. I mean that's what it says.
There are the candidates. This is the sequence and
these are the results the candidates are believers who repent.
The processes they confess Christ and are immersed in water and the results
are that their sins are forgiven and they receive the Holy Spirit.
You don't have to be a theologian to share that with somebody else.
You don't have to defend it. You just have to proclaim.
That's all. Jesus doesn't asks us to you know do battle with the
brainiacs in the world he just does proclaim it. You don't have to defend the word.
It will be OK.
So a New Testament Church therefore will follow this pattern
or this teaching exactly when baptizing someone and when teaching
about that New Testament churches try not to change
not to add not to take anything away from what the New Testament teaches on a particular topic.
Those that do suffer the consequences.
Now this reasoning is followed for all aspects of Christian life and
service and practice. We ask ourselves: "How does the New Testament
instruct us with this." "What shall we do according to the New
Testament?" That's why you know this business what would Jesus do and some some guy figured it
out and made a million bucks you know selling the little bracelet. We came up with that
idea. What does the New Testament say. Well how are we going to
handle this situation.
I've been with our elders at meetings and you know some situations you know brothers and
sisters they're tricky. You know it's not exactly black and white and I've heard this. The question
said out loud well what would what with the New Testament say about this what is the what does the
word give us. Is there a principle is there an idea. Is there something there that will give
us some guidance. That's the right question to ask.
It is this history. And this theology that
make us unique in the religious world and also that links us in a brotherhood
of millions of other New Testament Christians around the world.
So when people come here to visit. You want them to
come and experience the joy and the peace and the fellowship and the
spiritual rewards afforded those who follow Jesus as
a New Testament church. OK. So
we need to know who we are historically
theologically and the third thing we need to know about ourselves. What is our type?
What is our type?
And what is our character? Now some of the things I've said so far
probably familiar to you. But I wanted to lay the basics so that we understand where I'm
coming from and where I'm going. But this part here maybe you're not so familiar with what
what is the character of the congregation.
Yeah we're all Churches of Christ.
Choctaw Church of Christ Ponca City Church of Christ
Edmond Church of Christ
South Africa Church of Christ.
All churches across but not all have the same character.
My wife and I we have four children. We're the bio parents of four children.
We've tried to raise them exactly in the same way with the
same ideas and the same attitude. And guess what?
None of them are the same as each other.
The last one we wonder where he came from actually. We're not sure. You
know we're not sure. So what is our
character. Well among the churches of Christ we can identify several
types or several character of different congregations.
OK ready. Number one there's the struggling mission church type.
So what is this type. Well usually about 50 members or so with a
missionary who preaches and serves as the ministers usually no
elders, no deacons.
And this type of congregation stays this way for a few generations until
indigenous leadership can be cultivated. When I worked in Montreal for example
this is the kind of church it was the New Testament church but this was the type that I
was working in a mission church. I was the only minister you know I can
remember on a Sunday opening the door turning on the heat preparing... my wife and I
preparing the communion. People would come in. I'd leave singing. We'd serve the communion I'd
preach the sermon.
People would leave I shake their hands shut everything down take the trash to the corner
and then go home you know Mission Church Mission Church type
another type the urban team mission church.
This is a mission point church where the mission team approach has been used in other words
several missionaries converge on a spot in order to establish a church. A good idea.
Back in the day when I was serving you know as a missionary They were kind of
dropship you. You know the elders. You know in the United States will give you some
money. Dropship you somewhere you know with a salary and just enough money for stamps to
send home your report and it's OK go ahead plant the church and then they wondered why is it
taking so long for this church to develop you know. And then they decided
you know what maybe we need a group and so they came up with the urban team mission church.
These are congregations that have reached the excuse me this approach rather
yields a much faster result in producing an indigenous
local church with its own leadership. In other words if you send in five missionaries you know and their
wives to plant a church they're going to have a much faster result.
Because they're five full time workers preaching teaching training and so on and so forth so
those churches mission churches grow faster and have a
stronger local leadership. Another type of church a covenant church.
A covenant church. Covenant Churches come in all sizes big and small.
They are congregations that have reached a plateau in their growth. And for whatever
reason they remain at a certain size and effectiveness without much change
year after year after year. And so Covenant Church is their
commitment and their focus is to maintain a faithful presence and service to
their members and to their community. Now most Churches of Christ
fall in this category.
Covenant churches. You know I didn't say bad.
You know I didn't say bad. They're just you know they've maxed
their growth. They've reached the plateau. So they you know they're preaching the gospel you
know and they're doing good works. They're training people send out missionaries you know but they
pretty much stay at that level.
Another type of church is a growing church.
A growing church also comes in all sizes and
shapes but what is unique about them is that they consistently exceed the
national average of between 3 and 5 percent in their growth rates. So a growing
church is a church that's growing at 8 percent a year, 9 percent a year, 10 percent.
That's a growing church. I understand the enthusiasm about having a
100 percent growth. You know that be great you know but if you
get 8 percent growth that's something to be happy about.
A realistic goal.
Yeah we're doing good. We grew seven and a half percent last year "ok let's go" 9 percent next
year. Yeah sure. Good.
Growing churches usually struggle with growth management issues and
in other words how do we minister effectively to more and more people.
We're running out of parking space. We need more Cradle Roll classes all
these babies in one of our problems a Choctaw is were in the process of hiring a Youth and Family
Ministry because the sweet spot in our demographics is we've got so many
families with children. We don't know where to put all these kids. You know. I mean that's a
great problem to have but it's still a problem because if we don't minister to them we won't keep.
Another. Yeah. Well listen you know I mean.
2 miles that way there's another congregation, one mile that way.
We're surrounded by you know
eight other Churches of Christ so you know where.
People go shopping you know. All right another type of church a dying
church. A dying church the death of a church has a lot of
causes. Population shift. For example.
Failure to adapt. Aging without renewal.
False or poorly focused teaching.
Poor leadership.
Whether it's divisive leadership or autocratic leadership or
inexperienced leadership you know a church cannot rise above its leaders.
No way. No way. Church cannot rise above its leaders.
And then of course general sinfulness and laziness that also kill the church as well.
So the result is a church that's going through the motions. Many of them are rich in
property value. Poor in spirit.
Poor in spirit. Now the death of a congregation is very sad but
sometimes it's necessary in order to really motivate people
to get renewal and to redistribute resources when I was working in
California there was such a church population shift. It was a
white church you know white church in a certain area at one time that was
very well-to-do. And then things changed and became inner city.
A lot of different cultures began to move in that area.
Lower was poor. It became poor and older and that church
instead of adapting instead of perhaps hiring a minister who perhaps spoke
Spanish and you know changing the programs their approach. They didn't. They just wanted to be a
white church. Well eventually you know the white people died.
You know. But here's what they did.
Here's what they did. They were property rich. They sold everything and
distributed the wealth to the various congregations in the area. You know one to
help build a multi multipurpose building another one to hire another minister. In other words they
use their wealth to serve these other congregations so not all was
not all was lost.
And then of course there is what I call the extreme church. I'm being polite here.
Extreme churches.
Are not known for their size or their effectiveness but rather for their
positions. Some are
consistently extreme at one end of the spectrum or the other left or
right whatever you want. It says if they go out of their way to
provoke their brethren with their position on things.
And so extreme churches their focus is more on guarding and
promoting their position
than actual saving of souls.
OK. And then there's the leadership church. Leadership
churches are those churches which have managed to harness their growth and resources to
set the pace for ministry followed not only by their own
members but by other churches as well. In other words they're
the churches that are used as models by other churches.
So it's to these churches that others come to learn how to better evangelize or how to
be more effective in teaching or how to actually integrate large members of people
into the large number of new members for example
into the body without losing spiritual intimacy. It's where people come
to experience meaningful worship and observe more effective and dynamic ways to do
church work.
And there are many of these leadership churches you know these churches that will hold a seminar
on you know early childhood education. Why? Because they have a full time minister that
does that. They have a track record they have a program they put on a Friday/
Saturday thing you know to help other churches that can't afford those things. You know those type of
congregations - leadership churches.
Now there are two key questions for you here in this congregation that
you will have to answer. Number one what is your present type.
And number two what type do you want to become. Now I don't
know you well enough - I could guess to answer the first question
but I do know that if you want to be a growing or a leadership type church there is a
second thing that you must know aside from who you are.
And the second thing you must know is:
How to be a faithful New Testament Church.
I know what I am what I'm supposed to be. I'm supposed to be a
faithful New Testament church and if I do that then the Lord will add to me. But how
do I do that. Yeah we want to restore New Testament Christian Christianity.
Yes. We want to be faithful to the restoration principles and ideals. This is all well and
good but how do we do it. How do we do this.
You know I know what seminars are like. I've attended a lot of them were all pomp for all you know.
We're going to do it. You know let's.
And then you walk out the door and [deflate sound]
So how does the you know what we learn how do we get it out of this this room
tonight. Well we begin by putting aside the religious traditions
that we ourselves have created. And really begin to follow the New Testament
pattern for church organization and function. That's where we start.
And a good place to begin scraping off the barnacles of religious habit and tradition is
with a careful and reflective reading of the Ephesians Chapter 4.
Somebody says as they're going to be any bible tonight. Yes. Ephesians Chapter
4. You thought I was going to go to the book of Acts but no. Ephesians Chapter
4 that's where the New Testament church is.
It's in Ephesians So if you have your Bibles you can do that. If you don't have your book it's ok
I'm going to throw the Scriptures appear on the screen and you can read them off the screen.
Let me show you what I mean when I say a careful and reflective reading.
So let's go to Ephesians chapter 4 and begin reading it says, "Therefore I the prisoner
of the Lord, I implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in
love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you also were called in one in one
hope of your calling." OK.
We so go to the Book of Acts to look at the New
Testament church. And I believe that that's part of the problem.
The New Testament church is in Ephesians.
That's where we start. OK let me ask you the question.
Are we conducting ourselves with humility and gentleness and forbearance?
That word by the way forbearance an old fashioned word it means to
put up with other people's weaknesses patiently.
Are we doing this in the church?
The New Testament church?
Because that's what happens in the New Testament church you see.
Is loving one another despite differences of character and opinion
is it common here in this church? This New Testament church?
Do we shrink our pride? Do we shrink our will? Do we shrink our own
ambition down to size in order to build unity?
Because that's the New Testament church my friends. Do we hold our tongues?
Do we act kindly towards one another simply because it's the loving thing to do
and not because people deserve it?
We don't do stuff because people deserve it. We do
stuff because they're our brother - they're our sister.
Because if we start doing stuff because they deserve it. Imagine you think
Christ did what he did for us because we deserve it?
Is there a common teaching of Christ and the doctrines of Christ? Is there a common
life that all share in the spirit of Christ? Are we truly in submission to the
God and Father of all every day in our personal lives? Brothers and sisters I'm going
to tell you a faithful New Testament church lives and breathes by
these guidelines.
A faithful New Testament church isn't just - we have communion once on
Sunday. That that's not the idea of a New Testament
faithful New Testament church. That we baptized by immersion. You think that's the only
thing that's important to the New Testament church? Were not the only ones that do that.
Other people do that. That we don't use instruments of music in our worship. That's correct.
That's biblical. We can defend that. But do you think that really is the mark of a New
Testament church? Listen. Greek Orthodox right? They don't use
instruments in their worship either. You know why?
Greek Orthodox they can actually read the Greek. They know
what it says as no instruments. But would we any of
us here that know anything about Greek Orthodox would we actually say they're
a New Testament church? They're a Restorationist church because they don't use instrument.
See what I'm trying to get at?
We've described the wrong thing. We've described that just by externals.
We haven't described that by the guts of the thing the heart of the
thing. That's why we don't... That's why I'm saying we got to know what it is we want
to preserve.
A faithful New Testament church lives and breathes.
Ephesians Chapter 4. Let's keep going shall we.
He says, "But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Therefore it says when He ascended on high He led captive a host of captives and He
gave gifts to men. Now this expression he ascended. What does it
mean except that he also had descended into the lower parts of the earth.
He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens so that He might
feel all things."
And so a New Testament Church understands as Paul explains here
that it was Jesus and only Jesus who came from heaven down to earth and then went
back again. That's what he's saying here it's a little mysterious the way he explains it but he's simply saying
only Jesus came from heaven and then only Jesus went into the ground and that only
Jesus came up out of the ground and went back to heaven. Only Jesus. Nobody else.
And in doing this He demonstrated His lordship over all things on earth
as well as in heaven. That's the point he's making. And so what's the point about New Testament
Christianity here. The Church of Christ holds only Jesus as head
only Jesus as Lord of the church. Not tradition not human intelligence not
opinion not what's popular but only Christ and what He has done and what He's
taught. I'll give you an example. Many years ago when we
lived in Montreal.
Our eldest daughter Julia she had a best buddy, best friend, best friends forever,
they went to school, they did everything together, whatever. They're about 12 or so in those days.
And so this little girl her parents invited us over for coffee you know
just to meet us and so you know knew their daughter was best friends with our daughter we
were neighbors share would go over you know we sit and we chit chatted had a nice conversation
The girls were having fun playing dolls or whatever they did in the room. And you know if you're a
preacher if you're a minister you know what's coming.
You know it's coming.
Because we talked about the weather and sports and we talked about hockey and we were in Canada
after all we talked about hockey and then eventually the big question came...
"So what do you do, Mike?" I'm a minister.
"Oh really. How about that." Well of course the minute you say you're a minister. Oh boy. Here
we go.
So then he had all kinds of questions so I gave him the answers and so on and so forth. So then he
said to me.
He said Well so do you believe that you
know like the Buddhist you know are they going to Heaven you had
to do it he couldn't hold himself back. I said no.
And his eyes got big.
"What do you mean?" I said well the Bible in Acts... "the Bible"
in Acts Chapter 4 verse 12 says, there is no name
under heaven by which we can be saved.
Is there another way to interpret that to include Buddhists by the way? Can I squeeze in
Hindus? Muslims? Atheists? Can I squeeze them
in under that scripture? I can't. Can you?
Well I mean these people were, "you mean to say
only Christians are going to heaven?" I guess only the only
Christians who are confessing Christ. That's what it says. That's what I believe.
"Well I just..." I mean he was flabbergasted. And I mean from
there on it was just trying to figure a way to leave politely.
I didn't go in to beat him up with the Scriptures we were neighbors going to talk about
our daughters in school and things like that. But he wanted to know, he you
know he wanted to get me.
And in my mind I said. You asked.
You went and asked if you didn't want to know you shouldn't have asked me.
You shouldn't have asked.
The Church of Christ holds only Jesus as Savior.
A faithful New Testament church is not ashamed of naming Christ as the
Lord and the reason behind everything that is done in our
personal lives and in the world. He's either Lord or He's not.
If He's the Lord then He is the Lord and we're not ashamed to acknowledge that He is the Lord.
That is if we are a New Testament church.
Let's keep reading shall we.
Verse 11. "And he gave some His Apostles and some His prophets and some as evangelists and some as
pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building
up of the body of Christ."
So a new Testament Church is organized and functions in the way the
Bible says it should function and be organized. And this is the core of my
teaching tomorrow.
You want to grow. You have to first of all be organized the way the New Testament organizes the
New Testament church.
This means that Apostles and prophets and evangelists and elders and teachers are valued
for what they truly are. They are gifts. They are favors that
God has blessed each congregation with.
Between preachers, we have that joke between us. There are preacher jokes. I mean there's only two
preacher jokes that exist. You know that eh? Either the preacher you know that can't
stop preaching he preaches too long or he only works one day a week. Every joke has that
punchline. But among ourselves preachers we have our own jokes. You know that where
they don't realize that we're a gift.
They don't realize that we're a gift.
We may not be wrapped very well sometimes.
And the bulb may not be shiny and there may not be much glitter at times.
But the New Testament says that God has given gifts
to the church and those gifts are not money or real estate
those gifts are
Elders and teachers
and evangelists and at one time Prophets
and Apostles. You can have a congregation without these
people since whenever two or more are gathered are gathered rather Christ is
present. Yes. And the body of Christ is made up of saved
individuals added to the church by Jesus himself. Yes (Acts 2:47). But I'll tell you
something you rarely have a growing church or ever have a leadership church
without the blessing of elders evangelists and teachers I guarantee you that.
I'll guarantee you that. There are a lot of little churches just bumping along.
And would give anything to have just one of those gifts and having been an individual who
worked half of my career for churches that didn't have elders you never hear me
complain about the fact that we have elders.
A New Testament church prays
to be blessed with these gifts from God and when they have them the church values
and follows their leadership. A New Testament church also understands that the
work of these men is to use their particular gifts and the task of
helping the church to grow spiritually. Very quickly we're almost at the end of this session here.
First of all evangelists What is their role?
They proclaim the gospel and they plant churches and they organize them according to the
New Testament pattern. They develop leadership and continually encourage the
church to do what is right before God. That's the job description
according to the New Testament for an evangelists. And evangelist is
not the guy who
manages the building of the garage to put the bus in.
That's like using a scalpel to make burgers.
And elders guard the church. They are
guardians against false teachers and teachings. They minister to
those who are weak in the spirit. They provide an example of godly living for
others to follow as well as overall leadership.
When the majority of the elders time is made up figuring out the budget they're
wasting their time.
Let me put it this way. They're not serving according to the New Testament.
And isn't that what we said at the beginning if we are a faithful New Testament church.
And teachers continually help the congregation in understanding and applying God's
word to their lives. Many teachers
don't qualify as elders.
Some have the gift of teaching but do not qualify as elders but all
elders need to qualify as teachers.
And although not mentioned
here in Ephesians but elsewhere in First Timothy, Deacons provide
management and training of the church and the task of ministry. You hear what I said.
Management and training. The deacons are the ones who
mobilized the church for work.
When we're considering a deacon we're not saying, "Let's get Brother Joe he's a carpenter. Are you
kidding me. We won't have to pay to have people come in and fix the building." No no no no no no
that's not the New Testament church.
That's not the New Testament church.
In Acts Chapter Six the deacons that were selected right to to to serve
thousands of people there for food what do think they did they manage the task.
They didn't do the task. They managed it.
And why all of this work by all of these people let's get back to Ephesians 4,
"Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a
mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of
Christ.
As a result we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by
every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming;
but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow in all aspects into to Him who is
the head. Even Christ."
God wants His Church to think and act as a group like Jesus thought and
acted as a single person. A New Testament church that is faithful
faithfully represents the person of Jesus and what it says and what it does
before the world. For example a New Testament church has the
compassionate eyes of Jesus. A New Testament Church speaks
His words. A New Testament church has a pure heart, a ready and helpful hand.
Feet that are prepared to go anywhere with the good news. So.
If you want to be a faithful New Testament church this is the church that you aspire
to become not just the church that has communion on Sunday, doesn't use an
organ, has male leaders.
You know what those are right. But they're the superficial things.
If you make that the objective don't ask yourself why things are dry ,why
we're not motivated, why we don't have the joy of the spirit those things. Tell
me now, tell me. What joy do you have other than knowing that you've obeyed
a command other than that what joy does it bring you the
knowledge that you're not using instruments in worship.
Or that the men are the elders.
What? That's not what causes the growth.
Purity, seeking after the Spirit, forgiveness,
compassion, humility. That's what causes growth.
One last thing. One last thing you must know and do
in order to become a faithful New Testament church, you have to know who you are, you have to
know how to be a faithful New Testament church. And finally each of you every single
person here has to be changed. Although the New Testament church is a
corporate thing involving a group of people God works on individuals
within the group God does not work on groups, He works on people.
In other words, God doesn't work with the church as a group, He works within the group
in individual hearts to affect the entire group. See what I'm saying?
And so a faithful New Testament church is a church where change is taking place in the
hearts of individuals. Again let's go back to Ephesians 4.
Paul says, "So this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer
just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind,
being darkened in their understanding, excluding from the life of God because of the ignorance that is
in them because of the hardness of their heart and they having become callous, have
given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with
greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way if indeed
you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in
Jesus, that in reference to your former manner of life you lay aside the old
self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of
deceit, and that you'll be renewed in the spirit of your mind and
put on the new self, which is the likeness of God has been created
in righteousness and holiness of the truth."
I want you to know that after Paul has described the
spirit and the organization of a faithful New Testament church he goes on
to demonstrate what's happening on the inside of each person's heart in
order to bring this church to life. What brings the church to life
is change. And change within individuals.
That's why you know people say How is so dead in this church. Well nobody's changing.
It's the same old, same old. Never mind it's the same old same old routine. Nobody Nobody's
changing. Nobody has come forward and says you know what.
You know I've been a you know I don't know. Let's pick something really nasty
shall we.
I've been secretly consuming pornography for years.
And realize that it's just killing me spiritually. It's separating me from,
(it's usually men) it's separating me from my wife. It's ruining
my prayer life. I can't even look myself in the mirror. Enough already.
I've had it. I repent.
As somebody goes forward in your church and says something like that. He goes oh.
Maybe I will look at my self.
That's what inspires the church. Humility.
Humility. A reverence
repentance.
So the road to achieving the twin goals of
fidelity and growth runs through the heart of each.
Individual member.
So what have we learned?
We've learned that being a faithful New Testament church is a worthy and biblical goal for this
congregation Ponca City and this type of vision can lead to unlimited
growth, which I'm going to explain tomorrow. But in order to receive this you must:
A. know your history and know your theology. Knowing your past and who
you are will guide your movement into the future. And my hope my personal hope is
that you become a dynamic leadership church. You know the revolution and
this part of Oklahoma can start here.
Why not? Why not?
You've got all the basics.
Christians, you're mature, you have money in the bank, you have a property
you've got thousands of people around, why shouldn't it start here? Why not? And you know
what. When we let the opportunity go by what does God do.
He gives it to somebody else. You think you're the only ones who can give it to? No
He can give it somebody else. Talk about that kind of regret.
You know looking at a church and saying that could have been us.
Secondly you must know how to remain faithful, how
to remain faithful as a New Testament church. Don't be ashamed of following the
Scriptures and challenging one another that have become patterned after Christ.
Patterned after His words in the New Testament. And then finally.
Each of you needs to be changed. Remember nothing changes unless a change is
made and the first change begins always with me.
Never mind about "well if the elders change i'll change."
No, forget that stuff.
You change. You change and say "well what do I change?" I don't
know, how I go praying about that.
Is that ever a prayer that we ever make instead of. Dear God I want to feel
better. Dear God I want more, fill in the blank. You know more money, more this more
health more. You know.
How about how about this prayer.
Dear God. Please reveal me to me.
Please give me the strength to be able to see who and what I really am.
Dear God please change me.
Change me. Show me the thing that you want me to change. Show me though
the one step that I can make because I'm pretty weak.
I don't know if I'll make it.
What if you just show me the first step and give me the courage. Even if I don't know
what the second and third and tenth step is if you show me the first one.
I'll make that first. So those of you who have come tonight.
In a way you've said. Church Growth is a good thing.
And I love this church and I love our brethern and I love the Lord. And maybe I just
don't know where to get a handle on this thing. Maybe this guy with a funny name.
Has got something to say I always say I'm a guy with a name that no one can pronounce from a
place that no one's ever heard of. But we don't let that stop us.