Wednesday Gathering

I have to make up one because they're buying them. I don't know. Yeah. I don't think you're going to want to do that. No, I'm making one up. I'm making a service. I'm making a miracle. I want to show you tonight, this final Wednesday night, about community. Hi, honey. And about what it means to have church and why we're doing what we're going to do so that you're on the same page of God. And by the way, this is going to be a season, and I like that word, for the next several weeks of lots of communication. And I pray you'll be way far ahead if you start tuning in early on. You know, get your receiver on the same basic frequency as the transmitter, and we'll be in great shape because there's so much to communicate. We've held off because so many people go in and out so much during the summer. And so tonight as I talk about community and church, unfortunately this message will probably need to be given to the whole congregation, but I'm going to have a significant variation of this on the weekend. It's really not going to be the same message at all. I want to start by just talking about two major misunderstandings that I think are prevalent in our culture, not necessarily in the North way, but in our culture around us here in Pittsburgh for sure. One of them is, and we have these in overhead, and you can take some notes. It might help a little later to articulate this to someone else. One of those misunderstandings is that faith is a religious belief system. Faith is a religious belief system. It's a worldview. It's how you think about life. It's sort of the way you put everything together in your head. It's your philosophy of life. Scott gave a wonderful illustration about a friend whose husband now thinks about God. It's a belief system that doesn't have faith as a relationship, which is how we have been, I trust, still in God's word to understand it. That's what our faith is. Faith is basically a trust relationship in a person. That's what faith is. Faith is a relationship with God, and it also involves a relationship with other people, a very significant relationship with people, as we'll talk about. As a theological student, a person who spent four and some years studying theology, I can tell you that systematic theology is really not in the Bible. One of our major courses is systematic theology. You can buy books on it. I had courses on it. But you have to kind of go all throughout the Bible to create a system of beliefs. You have to pull some out of this and some out of that, and it's not really nice and neat, and it's just not there. I was kind of surprised how much I had to work to create a systematic theology. But you know what's there? You know what the Bible talks about an awful lot, systematically? Getting along with you, all but one another's. I mean, the Book of Romans is a good illustration. There's theology all throughout it, but it's not real systematic. If you get down to the last chapter of the Romans, it's all about honoring, serving, loving, caring, forgiving, blessing, praying for one another. Much more about that than there is about theology in that sense of the word. So God isn't building a philosophy of life. He's not building some kind of belief system that only the intellectually stimulated can lay hold of. He's not even looking for a certain style of worship. He's not really trying to design some kind of religious group that he thinks would be appropriate for Pittsburgh. He's looking for a people. The Bible says he's creating a people for himself. A people. This is very difficult. This is not church talk, you see. The bride of Christ is a people. And that really leads me to the second misunderstanding. And that is that faith is a private matter. Now, anyone here ever heard someone say, well, I just believe religion is a personal thing? I mean, as if. Well, that's the end of the discussion then, right? Can't talk about that anymore. I worship God in my own way, and you worship God in your own way. Have a great time with it all? You're not any better than I am? Your way's not to be preferred? Your ideas aren't any better than mine? If I like my way, you like your way, what's the big deal? And you know something? By the way, it's very hard to go anywhere with a person like that. Right? Now, I believe a lot of that is sort of a reaction to some, and this isn't a negative thing about Catholics, but I believe the Catholic Church, and particularly in this area, has a very strong teaching that the church is salvation. If you're in the church, then you're saved. Isn't that true? So, in reaction, we kind of say, well, I don't have to be in the church. So I'll go to the other end of the spectrum, and I'll say, well, my faith's a private thing. And so it's, we are besieged with that mentality. Now, it's subtle. It's subtle in the church body here in Northlake. People won't say that, but what they will say is, well, I don't think that's that important, or that's not really what I feel about that, or I'm not into what you're doing. And they just begin to create for themselves their own little world of faith. What they want to, Peter Kornhofer, who's a profound writer, who's a German, who'd been standing for Christ in the days of Hitler, was taken to concentration camp, and near the end of the war, died. He wrote a number of good books, one of the best, called Life Together. And he says, Christianity is a relationship of God's people carried by a relationship of communion with God. You see, you really can't separate people from God, and we really would like to. I don't know, it's a lot easier just to love God and forget the rest of this stuff, you know? I would have a great ministry if I didn't have all the people. So the question becomes, what does an authentic church look like? I mean, what does a real church in biblical definition look like? I like to do studies, I get a lot of information, I gather demographics and so on, just to kind of be, kind of in touch and be on top of what's going on. And I think, what percentage of the people in the North Hills do you think say they belong to a church? Eighty percent, I heard? That's a very excellent guess. It's somewhere between 75 and 80 percent say they're members of a church. That's a very high percentage vis-à-vis our nation. Now, here's a tough one. What percentage of people in the North Hills go to church on any given weekend? How many think it's 40? 50? 30? More hands are going up. 20? Yeah, it's somewhere between 23 and 25 percent on any given Sunday. Oh wait, hello? Look in your neighborhood. How many cars are still pouring out of all these new housing developments on Sunday mornings to go to church? Not the many that I see. It's about 23 to 25 percent, somewhere in that neighborhood. So what's going on? Well, because people have defined church in terms that suit them. You see, a community of believers should provide a context for us to live out our faith. To kind of help us to test and see how we're really doing. We don't like it, but it should be a testing ground. It should be a place where we can kind of see am I on the right track here or am I just fooling myself? Where I can have some accountability and on the happy side of things and provide some partnership with people who have similar passions and jobs that I do. A community should be marked by three traits and I've given a whole message around these three traits. Three simple things that should mark this community. You all know them, but let me just review them. There's love. Every community, and this one certainly should be marked by love. John 1335 Jesus said, by this all men will know you, Second, acceptance. This should be a place where we accept people. Now there is a prescription for destiny right there. Look at that. Where we should love each other and then accept each other. I was out in the hallway of the junior high at the meeting tonight and I saw one of the volunteer staff came with this little 12 or 13 year old girl brand new from somewhere else. First time. You know that feeling? A new kid in the new youth group. Are they going to accept me? You know what? Adults come here every weekend wondering that same question. Will they accept me? We give unqualified acceptance to people. I want to say tonight, and I encourage you, because you all basically have been here for a while. We want people to know they can come here no matter what they're going through, no matter what their background, no matter what they look like, smell like. Because God and Christ accepted us. How can we not accept them? Number three, forgiveness. We operate with great forgiveness for each other. As repentance is embraced in our community, we need to learn to forgive people. It's a fact. People are going to mess up. They're going to make mistakes. Those who shake need to be part of the community at all times. Without them, we're not going to make it. John Powell is another author that I've read over the years. He wrote a number of books on understanding love, and one thing he said that has been important to me, he said this, our lives are shaped by those who love us and by those who refuse to love us. Isn't that true? We are very greatly affected by those who love us and by those who refuse to love us. And I pray that God would let this be a place where we don't refuse love to people, but we give it freely. Now look here in Hebrews, and let's just pick out from this scripture, kind of bring things together, some purposes of our community. Why are we here? Well, first of all, verse 19, the criteria, the basis of community, why we can even have it at all is in verse 19. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, open for us to the curtain that is his body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God. The basis of community, folks, one thing and one thing alone, it's the blood of Jesus Christ. That's why I can extend love, acceptance, and forgiveness to you and you to me, because the blood of Jesus has cleansed us all. In the case of notice, the only criterion for this club is the blood of Jesus, and any person can have it, by faith. That's the basis, very important. Those of you who are new to us, if you think, well, you know, I'm not, I don't know as much, I don't know the songs that you sing, or I don't know where you get these ideas you have about lifting your hands, that's not the basis of our fellowship. We're in fellowship because the blood of Jesus has cleansed us all, and we are welcomed to one another here. Alright? And that leads us to our first purpose, first thing we are to be about as a community, is to draw near to God with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith. The first thing that a community is here to do is to worship the Lord. That's our highest priority, is to worship the Lord. I mean, let me say categorically, if you're going to be moving into a community group, you work with your community group leader, whether it's in a home group, or an in-group, or whatever it is, to have time of worshiping the Lord together. Worship the Lord. Don't miss out on that. Worship the Lord in your own home, in your own car, in your own contact. But, the people of God, this is where we cultivate it, and I'm excited, I believe we're really growing in our worship in this season, and I believe the Lord has great things for us. These are supposed to be 90, Let us hold verse 23 unswervingly Let us hold verse 23 unswervingly to the hope of the folks for whose promise is this. We are here as a people We are here as a people to proclaim to this community to proclaim to this community that there is hope, hope for ravaged lives, hope for disintegrating marriages, hope for disintegrating marriages, hope for troubled families, hope for troubled families, hope for alcoholics, hope for unemployed people, hope for unemployed people, with their fathers and mothers with their fathers and mothers There's hope. There's hope for people who are afflicted. There's hope for people who are demon possessed. There's hope for people who are caught up in addiction. There's hope. We're here to proclaim that. It's one of the purposes of this community. And we can do that far better as a collective people than just once in awhile, one here and one there. We have an opportunity to proclaim the hope to the community around us. It's part of what we're all about And it's not based on how good we are at anything. What's it based on? He who promised the Lord The third thing we are to do, the third purpose of community is to correct each other, whoops, did I read that right? Let us consider how we may spur one another on to a love and good deed. Now how many of you love admonishment? I'm going to wake up in the morning and say, you know we'll just send someone to admonish my life today. Send someone God just to correct me right down to the core. Let me say a couple things about this. None of us, speaker included, are above admonishment. I need it, we need it, you need it. You should welcome someone who has the courage to admonish you on. Colossians says, admonish one another and teach one another. It's part of what we are to do to help each other not drift off. Folks, we need it. Now if you have kids, you know, our kids, how many kids of your kids love when you tell them they have to get a shower or a bath? I know you do. Why? Well, because if they didn't, you would want them around the house the next day. And folks, truth is, some of us are on your occasion, you need to be reminded. We need a shower, we need a bath, we need to cleanse, we need to deal with some things. And the Greek word there is the word spur. Okay? Let's translate that. Spur one another on. What does the spur do for us? When we were out in California for our family vacation, one thing I did as a concession to my wife and family was to ride horses. We went to one of these low-rent dude ranches. And, you know, it was quite an experience, of course. I hadn't done this for so many years and with my back, I was a little, probably a little foolish, but I'd come here and be part of this family thing. So we get in there, you know, and we're all lined up. This gal is scuffing money in her pockets and just kind of yelling at people. But they're lining these horses up, you know. There's several, probably 15 or 20 people lining up in these horses. And, you know, they're going down the list and they're signing people. And they say, you know, here's Candy and then Jonathan, here's Sunset and David, here's Pinto and here's your buck. Buck! No, I'd rather have Beelzebub right back here, you know. So we get out of these things and see what, you know. These horses, I know they resuscitated them between rides. They were, they would not move at all. I mean, you know, one foot like this. I mean, there was absolutely, in fact, no, zero danger, you know. And absolutely zero, no fun at all, just like that. And I literally, I mean, I was doing like this and like this. I wish I had like six-inch spurs, but I didn't have them. But it did paint a picture in my mind of what it's like sometimes, you know, trying to get some things done. We need to get those spurs out there and spur one another on. How many of you need a spur every once in a while to get on with prayer, get on with serving, and get on with dealing with some stuff? I need a spur every once in a while. I don't like it, but I need it. By the way, this is a real good time. If you've noticed that someone's not been around that you normally were accustomed to seeing, I recommend that you spur them this week. I missed you. I mean, maybe I've been gone and you were here, but I've just missed you. That would be very helpful. Frankly, summers can go by, and you don't see people for three or four months, but you used to see all the time. Great time to spur one another on. Finally, the fourth thing we're to do is let us not give up this 25 meeting together, a summer in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another. The fourth thing we're to do is to encourage one another. Go all the more as you see the day approaching. I've heard so many things, and like many of you, I've been watching for the last 15 years for the end of Christ to come forward. I've read all the end times books, backwards and forwards, and so on and so forth. But I know this. I'm convinced we're closer to the day of the Lord than we were 10 years ago. That's certainly the truest thing I've said tonight, isn't it? Even though there's strange things to try to figure out about world powers and all that stuff, it seems to me very certain that our nation is much more likely to implode than it is to explode, much more likely to crumble from within than from without. So as the day approaches, we need to encourage one another. We need to assemble together. That's right, and why are you canceling Wednesday night's event? I really appreciate it. Several people took the time in a right spirit to say, you know, it really disappointed me or hurt me when you chose to do that. This is a lifeline to me, or this is it, one time a week, that I can meet people from the other side of the city. Those are very valid things, and we understand that. I have to say, let me categorize it. We did not make this decision hastily. We waited over many weeks, over several weeks. We're not doing all that well in some of these other things. And in fact, as I started to do an honest evaluation, that's okay, it's an honest evaluation, as I started to really look carefully at things, I had to ask myself a very difficult question. Are we doing a good job in helping people to grow in Christ-likeness and in maturity and in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit? How well are we doing? Are people finding their giftedness and moving in it? Are people being fulfilled? I was at breakfast this morning with a wonderful lady here in our church. We were up at Denny's. I hope some of you will join us there in the next few days. This lady will probably be here tonight. I won't embarrass her by name or anything, but she is an elderly lady. She's, I think, in her mid-70s or so, and she was talking about fulfillment. And I'm, I'll tell you what, don't you hope that you can talk about fulfillment in your later years of life and know that you've done the will of God and been fulfilled in the ministry and didn't just kind of like fritter your life away? Well, one of the things that's of concern to me is that increasingly we have found it difficult for people to find fulfillment. And we know that it just can't happen here on a Wednesday night or on a Sunday morning. It doesn't happen in the context of a Buddhist Sunday. It happens when you're out there finding those points of contact, being equipped and being trained to be out there in ministry. As I did an evaluation of, are we becoming a community of takers or givers? Spectators or participants, casual or committed Christians, folks, I didn't like what I saw. And I, I know in some ways I'm speaking to the folks who least need to hear this. I recognize this. You wouldn't be here on Wednesday night. But in order to bring focus to the fulfillment of the vision to raise up a body of disciples who are committed to the Lord Jesus Christ, and they're put in ministry, if you want to know, they're lost in the Bible, but to do that, we need to bring focus to energy. That's part of me. So there's really three parts about this that I want to conclude with now. First thing we're going to do here is we're going to decentralize. What that means is our goal is that a great deal more ministry will happen because we're going to put our energies into helping it to happen out there. How many of you were here Wednesday night with the family night about? What was that, Scott? I don't know, was it three or four weeks ago? Yeah. Do you remember those people who stood up, many of you were here tonight, and gave your testimony and shared what God had done for your home group or your support group? Wasn't that strange to you? I mean, I thought that was, you know, that's the kind of thing where life-changing ministry is happening. And I don't say this glibly. I know it's true. Far less happens when I talk than I think I'd like to have happen. You're very polite and you pay attention, but the test of whether anything's happening isn't what you're doing right now, it's what happens when you walk out the door. You see, one of the problems with American Christianity is, and with Christianity in this little part of the world right here, is it isn't gauged by God by the amount of stuff we have up here. It's gauged by the way we obey what the Holy Spirit wants us to do. First of all, know you're with the Holy Spirit and be good. And by decentralizing our ministry, we're giving you an opportunity to live out the ministry where you are and to experience the joy of discovering how you're operating and functioning. This isn't a brand new thing by any means, but what we're going to do is approach it a lot differently than we have in the past. We're changing things quite a bit, subtly at first, and it'll take a while to get all the work out. Folks, we don't have a... I wish we had big curtains so I could roll this back and say, here's the name, because you wouldn't believe it. It takes time. It's going to take time to grow into this. But all of our pastors are going to be changing their role descriptions. You see, the difference between ministry and most other professions is you pay a lawyer to do the job for you. Is that right? Or a doctor? If you're taken to court and you go to an attorney, how would you feel if you went in and he sat down and said, well, tell me your problem, and you told him, and he said, well, I'll do it. How would it train you to represent yourself in your cases like in two weeks? How many of you would say, well, you know, it's real nice meeting you. I'm going to go to another attorney who's going to represent me and take my case to the judge and present my side of the argument, right? See, in ministry, my job is not to do it for you. What's our job? To equip you to experience it yourself. And only a little bit of that happens up here. I mean, I'd like to say there's tons of stuff back in that case. It doesn't shock you for me to say that, does it? I can't remember what I preached on two weeks ago. I don't know how I expect you to do it. You remember more if you say no. And you'd do a lot better if you took one thing out of every message, just one thing, and said, that's what I'm going to act on this week. That would be more to change you than tons of information, I can tell you that. But the best thing you can do is to get yourself locked into some people of like hearts. They don't have to be like age or like economic background or like race or anything else. They just might be of like hearts and get moving in some direction together and get tons of things happening. So we're going to decentralize. We're going to get the ministry in your hands. The second part of that is we're working on breaking the congregation into five districts, five geographical kinds of areas, so that we can be a little more effective in doing things like when people come to visit us, instead of somebody from, you know, Zillian Opal trying to contact someone from Crafton, we're going to be able to be much more in touch with people. And we're going to have a pastor of each of these districts, and that pastor will be there for you in times of need. It's going to be a whole lot more effective way of providing pastoral care. There's some other things that are going to happen with that too. And finally, number three, go ahead. We're releasing our ministry. What I mean by that is we're going to take a lot more risks, folks. We're just going to kind of put the green light on and say, go for it. And let's get out there and let's start stirring things up. You know what I think this church is an awful lot like? How many people had ice tea today? You got your ice tea, big glass, and if it was any kind of quality ice tea at all, it was unsweetened, cooked, right? You can get some yucky instant one when you're in all that gin, right? So, what do you do if you have one or two packets of sugar? Lift it open, dump it in. Now, what happens? You can tell me what happens when you put a couple of packets of sugar in ice tea. What do you have to do? Now, every time you have ice tea, I want you to remember this analogy. What I believe is true in our church, we've got a wonderful giant pitcher full of ice tea as a body. And God has poured about two pounds of the Holy Spirit sugar in us. And it's sunk down to the bottom. And he's just about to come and put that stirring rod in there and stir this stuff up. And when he does, the whole body's going to be sweetened, the whole body's going to begin to be refreshing for the community around us. And I think we're going to see an evidence of this all over the place. What we're going to be doing, and Jim, where are you? Go ahead and pass out those gold sheets now and the portion. We want you to know a couple of things. We are going to have a monthly celebration of what's happening throughout all your ice tea glasses. Once a month, the third Tuesday of every month, we're going to have a big gathering right here. All the home groups and community groups are going to come together. We're going to have a public-use dinner, praise and worship, testimonies, and a little bit of input if there's any time left. Listen to the Holy Spirit, have a prophetic word for us, whatever. But it's the third Tuesday. Now, if you have one of these gold sheets in your hand, it tells you the exact date. So it's October. Let's see if everyone gets them and then we can read them together. Okay. So when is the first community celebration? All right, let's try it again. October the 20th. The second is November 17th. And the third? Okay. It's the third, not Wednesday, but Tuesday. Why did we do Tuesday? Well, because every Tuesday, every other Tuesday, we're going to have leadership training for all of our community group leaders from 630 to Saturday. We're going to detail all this for you leaders this Saturday at 830. Every Tuesday, and if you can't make Tuesday, then we have the exact same training for an hour on Saturday from 9 to 10. So it's one or the other three weeks of the month. Okay? No questions about that, right? Good. And look at the other events that are coming. Don't want to miss those. October the 3rd, Strike Force is going to come on a Saturday night. They're taking over a Saturday night service, and that'll be a great evening. 17th and 18th, Sharing Our Vision. That's about the future expansion. A number of things happening there. November the 1st, all church worship in one location. And I have to say, we don't know where yet. We're trying to figure that one out. Okay? And then the Thanksgiving cantata, which is going to be great, is on November the 24th. It says 20th, but if you come the 20th, you'll... Where is it? Well, let's try it again. November 25th, then. Is that the right night? Is that the Wednesday night? Okay. When it always is. It's the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, so we won't miss that. November 25th. I'm sorry. Okay. So this is for you to put in your Bible so you don't miss any of those things coming up. Let me also say, in terms of releasing ministry, the care force, people have asked me, well, is the care force... I haven't heard anything about the care force for the last month or so. The care force is alive and well. What we've done, Roger Ackley's mission was to raise up the care force and prepare it and then to turn it over to a volunteer leader, and that's exactly what we've been able to do. Phyllis Martin is now providing leadership. She's there three days a week from 9 to 4, and she's going to help now take all that system that Roger created and implement it throughout the body. So that's another way that you can get involved in releasing your gifts into ministry, but we'll have more about that another time. Now let me pause here because this is sort of the closing chapter. Are there any questions about what I've shared and how it will relate to where you're going before we conclude the service call? I don't want to leave anyone dangling with a question. Yes, Carol. The leadership training that will be on Tuesdays and Saturdays? Yes. That will be available for anyone who wants to grow in leadership. Now the way we're going to be doing this is that it will be equipping you for primarily leading small groups. That's going to be the purpose because we have a goal. We want to see our small groups learn how to multiply themselves and expand. So if you're interested in learning how to do that, you would be welcome to come. I'd like you just to let one of the pastors know that you're interested, and they'll be sure that you get signed up. We have a preliminary training that we've done in August that was very successful that John Size and Bob Mason did. And, Scott, did you get a date on when that will be repeated? Within the next few weeks, though, we're going to repeat this training. You'll want to be looking for that. It's sort of the groundwork that gets you then on the right track for this Tuesday-Saturday leadership training. Now David will want me to say that every Wednesday night there will still be things happening here. The choir will be here from 6 to 8. Every Wednesday night the youth will still be here on Wednesday night, and so you can have an opportunity to come and be with people if you'd like to do that. So there's a lot going on, but we won't be having this there. Another question that I see? Okay, Veronica. What if I just stop both right now? Only the people, from my understanding, what we're doing is the people who are either learning to lead or currently leading a small group will be at the leadership training, Tuesdays and Saturdays. So if you'd like to be equipped to do that, you'll want to be there. If you're doing it, you certainly want to be there. If you're doing it, you need to be there. That will prepare you for leading a group on a weekly basis. Okay, Bill. How will the new ministry affect major things like? Yes, baptisms and so on, things that we normally do. We'll be working those into weekend services more, but maybe occasionally we'll call a special service. We may have some baptism. Wouldn't it be great to have a baptism service once a month at our celebration with new people that have come to know the Lord in the last month? So all that will be, we will not diminish any of that. It will just be woven in differently. Yes? That's correct. If you're already leading a group, I'm sorry, say again. If you're leading a group at any time, you definitely must be here either Tuesday or Saturday. Because, well, I can think of a couple reasons. Absolutely. We are laboring to present to you quality. I'm going to be at every one of those meetings sharing something of the corporate vision. All of our pastors are working to pull together quality training to help every leader succeed. One of the things that happened to us a few years ago was a lot of our leaders got frustrated because they couldn't get over obstacles and hurdles, and they'd get into a group situation that started to get difficult, and then they felt like, well, gee, now I don't know what to do, and now I'm kind of a failure. We're not going to let that happen. We're going to be working right alongside of our leaders to help them receive the grace of God and move along. Sure, there's going to be sharing going on. We're going to have three components of every one of those leaders meetings, a time of sharing vision, a time of teaching a skill, and a time of grouping together and sharing different components of what's making things work. The interaction will be one hour, 6.30 to 7.30 or 9.00 to 10.00. If you're a business person and you travel on Tuesday night, you can pick it up on Saturday morning. It's not closed, it's zero. A lot of this will get clearer to you as you come on Saturday. Good question. David? Yes. Will there be training to lead worship in small groups? I think there will be a component that we'll probably work into that, because that does become important in the group. All right? Anyone else? Any men have a question? That's okay. You get it from your wives and go back there. Janet? Oh, that's the purpose. The reason why weekly training is becoming part of thi