Reporting The Good News III, Our Church as A Reporting Team

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. Then Jesus told them this parable, Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me, I have found my lost sheep. I tell you that in the same way there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. In the early sixties, I was a teenager. What a day! I know it seems inconceivable to some of the teenagers here, but we were cool. Rock and roll, we brought it in. TV, colored TV, was just coming on the scene. Fast cars, all those kinds of things, and church. Most all of my friends went regularly to church. And it wasn't even an issue. The only ones who didn't go to church were the ones who were on the very fringes of the teenage society, i.e., the bikers and those kinds of people. It was assumed, expected, it was American to go to church. My, how things have changed, have they not? Most every major denomination has lost membership over the last twenty-five years. In fact, a report just this week, once again, if you'll hand me that, Pastor Scott, that top one there. Yeah. Just this week says that, relative to the population growth of our country, we are falling behind in church attendance. Six million members have walked out of the mainline denominations in the last twenty years. The largest denomination projected twenty million people by 1992. Now they're revising all of their trends downward because they realize they're losing nearly one thousand members per week on national average. The numbers of people who are unchurched have grown from sixty-one million to seventy-eight million. George Barna of Barna Research reports, since 1980 there's been no growth, now let me say it again, no growth in the percentage of adults classified as born again, which is thirty-two percent by their own admission, their own testimony. Thirty-two percent, no growth in the last ten years, despite the fact that we spent billions of dollars on evangelism, despite the fact that ten thousand hours of TV programming have gone out in the last decade, despite the fact that five thousand new Christian books have been produced in the last two years, despite the fact that one thousand four hundred radio stations call themselves Christian today. Why? What has happened? What has caused this twenty-five or thirty-year slide in interest in church? You know, it's easy for us, and we need to guard ourselves, everyone, it's easy for us to lay the blame for this squarely at the liberals' feet, the liberal theologians, and say, well, they did it. They're the ones that pulled the gospel out of the church and they're the ones that need to be blamed for this, and certainly there is some of that. But I want to share with you some of my own recorded observations of living here in the North Hills for fifteen years. You're not dealing with an alien here. I know the mind of the people in the North Hills. Fifteen years I've lived here and talked with people about church attendance and why they care or don't care to go to church. I've done some door-to-door stuff. I've had the doors slammed. But Pastor Scott was with me from time to time when we did those things. I've had spontaneous, unsolicited kinds of comments from time to time from people who wanted me to know why they didn't go to church. Number one, people say church is irrelevant. It's not speaking my language. I used to go, but the content and subject matter had nothing to do with real life. People talked about blowing a trumpet and marching on the redeemed holy hill to Zion, and I had no idea where I was supposed to go or what I was supposed to do. I came trying to figure out why my wife and I couldn't get along, why I was so afraid to think about death, why I was losing hope about enjoying my job and even my family. You see, in the minds of most unchurched people, this place, not just this particular church, but this place and places like it have nothing to do with real life, and in fact, it's simply a crutch for those who are looking for a place to hide from the realities of life. When you can't cope, you go to church. It's kind of like taking a pill, and maybe it'll get better. Irrelevant. Related to that, many people would tell me over the years that church services are, well, they use the word boring, and that was the polite term. One guy told me, I can tell you how many bricks there are in the entire wall behind the altar, and this was a big wall. I can predict every ingredient within one minute of when it's supposed to happen. One man said to me, I don't need to go to church. I went ten years ago, and it hasn't changed. Now, some more candid people simply said this, I don't trust ministers, number three. I don't trust ministers. I feel like I'm just a necessary cog in the career of someone who's trying to climb to the top of their profession. Ministers come in for three or four years, build the congregation, somebody notices them, and off they go to the next biggest church. Another man said to me, I'm tired of getting worked over by people who don't know what work really is. I had a little attitude adjustment there I had to deal with. Another one said, I felt judged, I felt condemned, I felt continually put down for what I wasn't doing. Another person told me that I stopped going to church when I got pregnant because I wasn't married, and I knew the pastor and the whole church would hate me for what I did. Another frequently mentioned topic that I've heard over the years is money. How many of you know that has not been helped lately either? I mean, the issue of money in the church, fascinating. You know, when you think about it, however, people who have all these concerns, it makes sense. If the church is irrelevant, if it's boring, if it's judgmental and condemning, why give to it? That's what they think. It's tough to be motivated to give and support something that you feel is contributing to the demise of your life and joy. And the fifth reason was, and it continues to be, and I'd say even more so in the last five years, scheduling. Heavy schedules. I don't go to church because I don't have time. I'm working six days a week. Sunday's the only morning I can sleep in. I don't know how many times I've heard that. Sunday morning's the only time I can sleep in. One young gal told me, I stopped going to church because my manager, she worked at a local restaurant, said he needed extra help to feed the people coming out of that church down the street, i.e., this one. Now, what makes all of this very hurtful is that it does not need to be this way. And, in fact, the church should be the most relevant, the most exciting, the most accepting, the most giving, the most available experience that any of us could ever have. When people ask me, as they often do, why are folks coming to your church? Along with prayer, along with prayer as the foundation of our confidence and trust in God's movement, I believe it has something to do with the fact that we've endeavored to be real, we've endeavored to be relevant, and we've endeavored to be related to one another. Not without fault. And never would I stand here and say we've done it all well and perfectly. But our efforts in that direction have caught the imagination and the hope of many people. Maybe that's why you're here today. Now, what makes this decline overall in attendance and membership so alarming is that, on the other hand, George Gallup... By the way, the Gallups are very committed Christians. You may not know that, but they are... Their poll is recognized worldwide as being authoritative in their polling methodologies. But he's very sensitive to these things, and in a recent survey called Gaging the Spiritual Climate in America, here's what they discovered. Pat Robertson reported this on the 700 Club. 60% of the people polled reported that they are more interested in spiritual things than they were 5 years ago. In other words, they're looking more actively now than they did 5 years ago. 16% reported a greater interest in being involved in a Bible study than just 5 years ago. And college students moved from 35% to 50% who reported that religion was important to them in setting their course of life. The reasons for this aren't surprising to me, and I'll tell you why. What I'm discovering more and more is that, number one, people are disenchanted with their stuff. They're disenchanted with their stuff. They're not satisfied with materialistic accomplishments. In my recent class reunion, one man who I was very close to in college had just been promoted to oversee what would be the equivalent of 14 Kauffman stores in the Charlotte area. I mean, a major executive position. And we were talking about how all that happened and so on and so on, and he said, you know, but in the last year, I started going back to church. I said, well, why is that? He said, because I realized, number one, that I didn't really deserve all these blessings, and number two, I realized that all these blessings weren't really touching something inside of me. The second reason why I see people more spiritually interested is the problems in our nation are too great to be solved by the social engineers and the government agencies all around us. Dear ones, are you getting tired of hearing about it? If I hear any more about the drug epidemic, I mean, we have to hear about it, but it wearies the soul to hear how people's lives are being destroyed. When we can smilingly sign a $160 billion savings and loan bailout and then have it reported a week later, that's not going to be enough. When a national leader in the United States government can stand up and say, yes, I engaged the services of a homosexual prostitute, but it didn't affect my job or my work or my performance, I want you to know there's something more seriously wrong than any old educational program is going to fix. When you unravel the moral fabric of a nation, it will fall. And people are smart enough to realize that, oh, sure, some voters will put the guy back in office, but over the long haul, it will fall. And the third reason why people are interested more and more in spiritual things is because the fragmentation and isolation in our relationships is increasingly hurtful and difficult. Marriages continue to fail, families break up, and it seems that friendships and other natural kinds of relationships are more strained than they've ever been. Whether it's money or competitiveness or whatever, we in the body of Christ need to be able to give the hope that the cross, not the courts, is the answer to people's relational problems. So people are looking to the church, they're searching, they're wondering, does the church really have an answer? My conviction is that the pool of the spiritually interested, that 60%, that pool is growing. Now, sure, there are the cynics and there are the skeptics and there are the people who make fun, you know. We have people who make fun of us because we pray here. You know, we hear about these things, these people here at the restaurant, they come to open up at 6 and say, those nuts are down there praying, they don't even have to be up, you know, those kinds of things. I'm not talking about those people, I'm talking about the people who are really searching for an answer. That pool of people is growing. And George Gallup said this, if the spiritual interest, this spiritual interest that we've defined here, can be translated into solid commitment, this country will see enormous change. You want revival? What is revival? It's people's lives being changed by the power of God, is it not? Gallup's saying here, that if we can get a hold of this spiritual interest that's out there and translate it into changed lives, into solid commitment, the whole nation will be affected. And I want to submit to you that the mission of the local church is to convert spiritual interest into solid commitment. It doesn't happen on the TV ministries. One percent of all people who come to Christ, one percent do so through TV. It happens through the efforts of you, the members of the local church. How are we going to do that? How are we going to do that? How are we going to bring about a change that will revolutionize our society? Well, in the past, and I hope you're tuning in here, in the past, we have tended to see evangelism as a byproduct of healthy Christian lives. Come in on Sunday, get filled, have a glory gathering, and go out on Monday and win the world. That's been basically the direction we've gone over the years. For the most part, however, this has not provided for the sincere believers, and I mean most of you in that, it has not provided you enough of a base of support to know how to penetrate a cynical and confused and rather defensive society. And so what takes place more often than not is you have great intentions but very little follow-through. What we found is that most sincere believers who wanted to share their faith and touch other lives and knew that Christ had commanded them to do that stopped at the point of giving their personal testimony and didn't know what to do after that. They'd go in and share what their workmate or their office friend or whatever, their neighbor, and when that person didn't say, Oh, that's great, I want that, they didn't know what to do. They didn't know where to go next. After you've told your story, then what do you do with something like that? Well, in the words of Philip to Nathanael in John 1, 46, we should be able to say, Come and see. Come and see. Come and see this Christ. It's changed my life. But what we discovered is that the great majority of you, and I'm talking about you, I'm not talking about the next service or the neighbor that's next, I'm talking about you. What we've discovered is most of you will not say those words, come and see, to your unchurched friends and workmates. I hear comments like, Well, you know, I love it there, but my friends wouldn't understand. Now, we've done surveys and we've had discussions and we've had protracted, in-depth investigations as to what's going on in all this. Others say, Well, you know, it's just a little too active. People that I relate to just don't, you know, they don't understand people who do some of these weird things, lifting hands and all that. Another person says, Well, it's just so different that I can't seem to... I brought a person one time and they just, you know, they thought you were nice, but, you know, that doesn't help. That's not the issue. Now, this isn't everyone. And some people say, Oh, I like it just the way it is and I invite people all the time and that's great. And we have some people like that. But most of the people who say, Let's just let the Holy Spirit do it. You know what we discovered? In all these surveys, what we discovered is the people who say, Just let the Holy Spirit do it. What's wrong with Pentecost? They don't bring anybody. I started looking through these things. It's been two years or more since they brought anyone. It's easy to say that when you're not doing it. And a great deal of the growth of our church, now listen, this is a difficult thing to share, but a great deal of the growth of our church is from people who are not getting their needs met at another church. And I'm grateful that we can offer those kinds of things which appeal to those people. And we'll continue to do that. But dear ones, we need to see that God is looking for the one sheep that's veered off, the one that's lost. So what I want to suggest that we consider doing together and what we're going to commit to, number one, we want to provide a place, an opportunity for the spiritually interested to discover God. We'd like to continue to increase our sensitivity to those who are searching and provide a place where he or she can, number one, hear the Word of God, experience God's presence, and be ministered to by the Spirit of God in an environment where they are safe to have doubts and fears, safe from an expectation that they cannot fulfill to worship like we do, to pray like we do, to give like we do, to give something they just don't have yet. Interestingly, some people call this particular sensitivity a compromise to the Gospel as though the packaging of it compromises it. I thought about this. Can you share the Gospel at Free River Stadium during the seventh inning stretch of a baseball game? Can you? Certainly. Can you share the Gospel on the bus on the way in to work in the morning? Certainly. Can you share the Gospel at the back room of North Park Lounge at one o'clock in the morning? Is that compromising the Gospel? Then why would it be compromising to share the Gospel in a slightly adjusted, sensitized setting for people who don't know what this is all about? Why does it suddenly become a compromise? I don't understand. To bring people into a service where things there are believable for them and provide an opportunity for them to sort through their questions. Paul said it this way, I have become all things to all men, that I might win some. I've done this for the sake of the Gospel that I might share in its blessings. We've prayed about what this means. And because we're already pretty much full on Sunday, the second service has about another 200 people more than this one does. We've really prayed about this because we know it's difficult in the parking. We know all the facilities, the walls could flex, they'd be bending. But we're really excited because the elders are in unanimous agreement and the staff has taken a deep breath and we are excited that we're going to begin a Saturday evening service here at Northwest. A service primarily sensitized to those who are searching for spiritually interested. We want to begin on September 16th in about three weeks. And our desire will be to provide a place where the spiritually interested can come to hear more about who Jesus Christ really is. Where they can discover what the Bible is really all about. And not just some old myth that they've blown the dust off. People don't... You think this stuff's so relevant? Look in today's Pittsburgh Press. Look in the Sunday morning Pittsburgh Press back in the perspective section under the editorials. And you'll find a national columnist tongue-in-cheek sticking his knife in the Bible as a source of authority. You go ahead. And see, that's what people think. Well, you know, the Bible's really, you know, it's an antiquated old book. What difference does it make? We want people to come and be able to just to search. What does this really say? What is the Christian life really all about? Not what they've heard it through some old kind of worn out liturgical gobbledygook. I'm going to give a good overview of what God says about real life issues, about fears, and about life and death, and about marriage, and about money, and sex and power, and storms of life, and those kinds of things. We're going to get God's perspective from His Word on what business really is supposed to mean in the pursuit of labor. We're going to use creative ways of communicating such as dramas and videos, and weaving those things in. But at the center of it all is going to be God's Word. And behind it all is going to be the breath of God's Spirit. Because I want to say very clearly, I believe the Holy Spirit is leading us. I trust that many of you will commit yourself to come on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. and bring a friend and share with them. Let them come to terms with what has so changed your life. Now I want to speak for just a moment to those of you rather who I know are asking the question. For whatever reason you're asking the question, I'm going to talk more about this. What about me? I mean, I have needs too. I want to go on in God. I want to get deeper in Christ. I want to experience more of His presence. Don't I matter? Is this church giving up in all the ones that have been here a while? Absolutely not. We love you. I as your pastor am committed and have spent my life being committed to maturing believers. I believe that's the thing that I probably do best. Beginning this fall, we are going to go in a deeper direction than we've ever gone. Wednesday nights, you're going to have to come to terms with this, folks. Wednesday nights should not be an option. In 90 minutes or so, we give spiritual meat. We've had marvelous worship times. The Lord ministered. We had some things happen Wednesday night. People's lives were changed. You're going to say, well, why don't you do that Sunday morning? Because the dynamics are entirely different. The time is entirely different. We are going to be giving you a step-by-step, helpful study guide through the book of Romans so you can dig deep and find out what God is saying to you. We're going to be adding adult education on Sunday morning where we can take some topics and really get into them. Our home group leaders are being trained and provided for in ways to help you to grow. And our Sunday morning services will continue to be much as this one is. A celebration of the goodness of God. So what I'm saying is we're providing an alternative. You may not feel that's for you. We haven't forgotten you. We're just asking you to understand those who are at a different place. You say, well, I want to be like Jesus. Mark 10, 42 says, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save and to give His life a ransom for men. Now a church that's going to see the spiritually interested become the spiritually committed, number one, we need to provide a way for them to do that. Number two, we need to bring God's Word to the front and center. And I've already mentioned this. Let me just underscore it in this way. You see, I personally feel that a great deal of unlearning has to happen. So many people don't, they look at the Bible as something that is, it's crazy to them. They were taught in many of their churches not even to open it when they were growing up. And we want people to know that the Bible is as relevant, as I said already, as today's newspaper. I was talking with a woman in the department store the other day. Just passingly, she stopped me. She hadn't been here for a while. We're friends. And she said, well what about my husband? I can't get him to go to church. And I said, you know what he needs to be? He needs to be rocked. He needs to be shaken to the point where he is thrown off of his equilibrium. He needs to experience some kind of a thing that's going to upset his apple cart where he has to begin to look and examine and search once again. You see, God's Word will do that to you. Jesus never shrank back from challenging men and women to give their whole lives to Him. Heart, soul, mind, and strength. And that's what we're going to do too. And I have to tell you, the Word of God can be the most challenging thing a person will ever hear because it's the truth of God. It's unchanging truth. It's not just an opinion. It's not just a newspaper editorial. It's God's truth. But it takes a stiff, direct challenge many times for people to respond. How many of you know you don't change unless you're really challenged to do so? There's someone here today that lost 60 pounds in the last several months. I said, how did you do that? He said, my wife told me I couldn't. You see, it takes a stiff challenge. And God's Word provides that. Number three, we want to be a church committed to developing authentic relationships. If you're newer to our church, you may not know this, but North Way began as four home groups long before we were ever a worshiping congregation. Our name, North Way Christian Community, underscores the fact that we are seeking to work out this great salvation in relationship. Community is the term we chose specifically to indicate that we have relationships at the base of our life together. You know, 25 or 30 years ago, society did an awful lot more to help people relate. People fostered their natural relationships. The extended families tended to live together. Neighborhoods meant something. Today, neighborhoods don't mean anything. How many of you know that you can live in a place and not know the person two doors down? You have to know your next door neighbor because you've got to borrow stuff. But two doors down, you don't even know their names. And, you know, over in the plan just behind our house now, I've begun to notice something. The plan just opened last October, and there's probably three or four houses out of 50 or 60 already built that already have for sale signs on them again. That's what happens. Our culture's just moving back and forth. The average time of moving is 24 months. Families then, as a result, are pulled in and the pressures are great. Very few of us know how to even cope with all these changes. So the church needs to be a place that is contributing to the bringing of people together in groups. Our companies, the North Way companies that we talked about last May, provide a place for support, for growth, and spiritual things, for prayer, for fellowship and friendship. One man told me just recently, he said, I just could not have made it without my home group. When the bottom fell out in my family and sickness struck in a way I'd never experienced before, my home group drove me to the hospital, they brought me meals, they talked to me late at night when I needed comfort. It was wonderful. And now I know why you say to get into companies and support them. Our network ministry and other relationship building experiences can help people find a place where they fit in a fast-changing society. And finally, folks, if we're to convert spiritual interest into commitment, we need to believe in our mission. We need to believe that the church is the greatest thing in the world today. You know, I spent the first 23 years of my life preparing for what I thought was going to be a great career. I got a degree in chemistry, I minored in business, I was accepted at a very prominent business school to get my master's. I had my plans. I was told that if I got on that track and now 20 years later most of the people that I associated with told me that I'd have been a great background to do what I needed to do. But God had a different plan and he began to show me something. He showed me that the most exciting, the most challenging, the most fulfilling thing in all of life is the activity of God in the earth today. And I was called to serve Jesus Christ and his church 18 years ago. I discovered that the most profound things that are happening aren't on Wall Street or on Pennsylvania Avenue, they're in the closet of prayer with the people of God who are affecting the destiny of nations. And now I can tell you if I gave this pulpit over hundreds of people here today I could tell you the same thing. Some who've already reached the pinnacle of their career and now are saying well, you know, I've accomplished that but God is still the most important thing. Some of you in your 20s on the fast track realizing that it will consume you if you don't control it. But see, once you realize that God has called you into his service, once you realize that you can make a contribution, that you have a gift to give that will turn the course of someone's life out of darkness into the light, once you realize that God has given you something and you begin to use it, it's the most satisfying thing you'll ever know. There's nothing like it. And when a whole church, when a whole congregation catches a vision that they, each one, can make a contribution whether it's out in the parking lot or teaching the children or greeting at the door or serving the bulletins or bringing a friend or singing up front, and a whole church realizes they corporately can make a team impact, dear ones, it gets really exciting. It begins to be the most vital thing that you're part of. I can understand now why people, one couple seated here today, is thinking seriously about moving their whole operation from a location 60 miles away just to come and be near the church. They drive right now 75 minutes to get here. I understand that. I understand why the most, for some people, the most difficult thing in their life is balancing their desire to serve the church with their other demands because it's just so rewarding to see what God can do. Nothing even comes close to me. Listen, no golf course, no condo at the beach, no amount of stuff, no retirement home, no boat, no stock portfolio. Nothing comes close to what it means to serve the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus called us his bride. I've discovered something about brides. I've done about 125 weddings. Do you know at a wedding, the most beautiful woman is always the bride? The bridesmaids, you know, there's something that happens. And as far as I'm concerned, all the other things in the world, they're just bridesmaids. The church is the bride of Christ. And when spiritually interested people become committed believers, they become passionately involved, like a lover for his bride, for the things of the church. They want to worship with the church. They want to pray for the church. They want to serve diligently in the church. They want to give freely to the church. And they look past the faults of the other ones like them to serve the Jesus who is the head. Let me just end with this. When you think about what matters in life, when you think about the church, when you consider it, do you get a little bit excited? Does your heart beat a little bit faster? And if it doesn't, then what does it beat faster for? What compares? My prayer is that we'll consider these things. We'll consider what God is saying to our church. And we'll lay down the things that we feel we deserve. And we'll grab hold of the things that we believe God's calling us to. And that that vision of His bride sharing eternity with Him would grip your soul and your heart and motivate you to give your very best. Let's stand, shall we? Lord, in whatever sense I was not adequate today, I pray that You would cover these words and just bring to mind and to heart that which You want Your people to lay hold of today. Jesus, You gave us everything. You didn't hold back what You could have had. You left the glory that You rightly were given. But You loved us enough to lay down Your life. And I pray now, Father God, that we'd have that same spirit. Moving in each one of our hearts. Oh, how He loves you and me. Oh, how He loves you and me. He gave His life. What more could He give? Oh, how He loves you. Oh, how He loves you. Oh, how He loves you and me. Jesus, to Calvary did go. His love for mankind to show. What He did there, brought more pride.