Messy Church

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Disciples are sent (called) as messengers who are members of the diverse, messy community of Jesus to live in a way that holds up/lifts up one another in the fight, quickly doing our best to call one another to maintain unity and exercise reconciliation in keeping with our baptism.

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Transcript

[SLIDE 1]Announcements

Aug 25: Sent Sunday

Congregational Meeting

Car Show and Swap Meet

EFCER Fall Retreats

Men: Sept 11-13 @ Camp Gideon
Women: Oct 11-13 in Sugar Creek, Oh
Fliers @ the Welcome Center. Fill out and leave there OR, register on the website starting this week.

[SLIDE 2] Vintage Faith Series

[SLIDE 3]Introduction: We Live in a Messy World

Fractured - not whole

Toxic
Live fast and without limits
Polarized

Polarization/toxicity

Politcs
Racism
Poverty/Homelessness

Self promotion - having the right answer to your problem

Look to things to bring contentment
Look good on the outside while dying on the inside

Anxiety/Mental Health

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Anger/Rage

Nowadays people are eager to fight. Many are on edge, waiting for anyone to misspeak so they can pounce.
Anger
Many are on edge, waiting for anyone to misspeak so they can pounce.
Many are on edge, waiting for anyone to misspeak so they can pounce.
Eager to fight.

Critical, Dehumanizing and Abusive to one another

Nowadays people are eager to fight. Many are on edge, waiting for anyone to misspeak so they can pounce.

People walking away from one another

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Critical of others to make ourselves look good
Look to things to bring contentment
Look good on the outside while dying on the inside
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What it Looks Like in Society

Polarization/toxicity

Politcs
Racism
Poverty/Homelessness

Self promotion - having the right answer to your problem

Look to things to bring contentment
Look good on the outside while dying on the inside

Anxiety/Mental Health

The daughter of friends of ours ending her life a month ago.

Anger/Rage

Many are on edge, waiting for anyone to misspeak so they can pounce.
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Friendships end because of political views
Eager to fight.

Critical, Dehumanizing and Abusive to one another

Marketing, work place - elevate self

People walking away from one another

Polarized, distant, hyper critical distrusting. The United States aren’t united.
In the 2nd Century, church father Justin Martyr named the four biggest challenges to Christians as “sexual immorality, magic, wealth and ethnic hatred.” Sub out magic for technology (magic with algorithms) and not much has changed for humanity in almost 2000 years.” Drew Dyck
Consume - never get enough
Pornography - Objectifying/using one another
Contentment in things
Murder
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Facebook:
Relationships ended because of political views
Ypsilanti and Lincoln schools - free or reduced lunch
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What it Looks like for You and Me (in the church)

The church should be…different
BUT - Church is where we bring our pain, wounds, selfishness, self-righteousness, personal views on what is right/wrong.
Avoid controversial topics in public
Value one another the way the world does
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Traditionally, the Church values people the same way the world does. We look for great leaders, strong communicators, and talented artists. We value their gifts and put them on display. Just like the world, we overlook so many who don’t initially appear to have much to offer. Do our actions show that we expect supernatural contributions from every member of the body? We would never dream of looking God in the face and telling Him we thought one of His children was worthless. But we don’t have to say it with our lips if our actions scream it.
Chan, Francis. Letters to the Church (pp. 89-90). David C Cook. Kindle Edition. 
Modern Christianity offering a false hope of relief
I’m a recovering critic
Consumers - don’t get what we want when we want
In the book of Malachi, God’s people had become bored with worship. God’s response was not mild. As the prophet Malachi called them back to the passion, devotion, and sacrifice of true worship, the people responded by saying, “What a weariness this is” (). They saw worship not as an honor but as an obligation. Today we’d respond to this by saying, “Look at how bored they are! Let’s make worship more exciting; then people will really get something out of it!” But God’s response was much different. He was so offended by it all that He would rather they simply shut the whole thing down.
Chan, Francis. Letters to the Church (p. 66). David C Cook. Kindle Edition. 
Our version of church involvement, time in the Scripture and commitment to righteousness, claiming God’s promises, saying spiritual sounding words and phrases, etc doesn’t get at the core troubles in our hearts.
Won’t look at the inside - not sure we’ll like what we see
Don’t want to admit when something is wrong - avoid a deep inside look BUT God is good!
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Crabb, Inside Out: I don’t want to admit it - but I know something is wrong.
Crabb: Inside Out - If anyone is thirsty. We are thirsty people longing for what was lost at the fall: dignity, being treated well, etc. What happens below the surface when we are not? Deny our hurt...carry it around...shows up in attitude, etc. Can’t spiritualize it away.Something is wrong with everything.
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Chan, Francis. Letters to the Church (p. 66). David C Cook. Kindle Edition. 
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Mud gets thrown
People leaving the church
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Traditionally, the Church values people the same way the world does. We look for great leaders, strong communicators, and talented artists. We value their gifts and put them on display. Just like the world, we overlook so many who don’t initially appear to have much to offer. Do our actions show that we expect supernatural contributions from every member of the body? We would never dream of looking God in the face and telling Him we thought one of His children was worthless. But we don’t have to say it with our lips if our actions scream it.
Chan, Francis. Letters to the Church (pp. 89-90). David C Cook. Kindle Edition. 
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Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say “My tooth is aching than to say “My heart is broken.”
C.S. Lewis Tweet
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- what matters to God is glorifying God, helping blind men and women see. The disciples were worried about theories and doctrines. Jesus is worried about the blind man.
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Traditionally, the Church values people the same way the world does. We look for great leaders, strong communicators, and talented artists. We value their gifts and put them on display. Just like the world, we overlook so many who don’t initially appear to have much to offer. Do our actions show that we expect supernatural contributions from every member of the body? We would never dream of looking God in the face and telling Him we thought one of His children was worthless. But we don’t have to say it with our lips if our actions scream it.
Chan, Francis. Letters to the Church (pp. 89-90). David C Cook. Kindle Edition. 
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Why are people leaving? Why are we critical and complain? Why is Sunday morning the most segregated time of the week?
Our version of church involvement, time in the Scripture and commitment to righteousness, claiming God’s promises, saying spiritual sounding words and phrases, etc doesn’t get at the core troubles in our hearts.
Crabb: I don’t want to admit it - but I know something is wrong.
If anyone is thirsty. We are thirsty people longing for what was lost at the fall: dignity, being treated well, etc.What happens below the surface when we are not?Deny our hurt...carry it around...shows up in attitude, etc. Can’t spiritualize it away.Something is wrong with everything.
Maybe because we won’t admit our flaws.
Why are people leaving? Maybe because we won’t admit our flaws.
The Church has real issues, but Jesus still refers to the Church as His body, His Bride! We must love His Bride, not gripe about her or leave her.
Chan, Francis. Letters to the Church (p. 22). David C Cook. Kindle Edition. 

Attempts to Fix the Mess

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What Seems to Be Working

Daryl Davis,
Daryl Davis is an R&B and blues musician.
As a black man, he made it his mission to befriend members of the Ku Klux Klan.
Nothing brings people together like great music, so Davis could have made this list on his virtuosity alone. But we've added him for another reason. As a black man, he made it his mission to befriend members of the Ku Klux Klan.
Davis met his first Klansman while playing piano at the Silver Dollar Lounge in Frederick, Maryland, more than three decades ago. The two struck up a conversation. The Klansman was surprised that a black man played in the same style as Jerry Lee Lewis. Davis informed him that Lewis's musical idols were black musicians, a surprising revelation for the Klansman.
"The fact that a Klansman and black person could sit down at the same table and enjoy the same music, that was a seed planted," Davis told NPR. "So, what do you do when you plant a seed? You nourish it. That was the impetus for me to write a book. I decided to go around the country and sit down with Klan leaders and Klan members to find out: How can you hate me when you don't even know me?"
Local efforts to create a place of community and conversation: listening to one another.
Over 30 years of conversations, Davis has convinced about 200 people to quit the Klan. When they leave, they give him their robes, which he keeps as a reminder that his efforts have measurably lessened racism in the world.
"Establish a dialogue," Davis told the Daily Mail. "It's when the talking stops that the ground becomes fertile for fighting. When two enemies are talking, they're not fighting."
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Megan Phelps-Roper grew up in the Westboro Baptist Church. At the age of five, she began to picket with her family. Later, she became the voice for the hate-filled organization on social media.
Twitter responses directed at Phelps-Roper were typically filled with scorn and loathing. But through the noise, some conversations took shape. Phelps-Roper and a few of her detractors began to have open, civil conversations about their opposing beliefs.
"There was no confusion about our positions, but the line between friend and foe was becoming blurred," she said during her TED talk. "We'd started to see each other as human beings, and it changed the way we spoke to one another."
Thanks to her conversations with her cultural "enemies," she left Westboro in 2012. Today, she speaks publicly on the power of conversations to overcome divisions.
"My friends on Twitter didn't abandon their beliefs or their principles — only their scorn," Phelps-Roper said. "They channeled their infinitely justifiable offense and came to me with pointed questions tempered with kindness and humor. They approached me as a human being, and that was more transformative than two full decades of outrage, disdain, and violence."
Cultivate Coffee

[SLIDE 4]REDEEMING THE MESS: Where What Works Comes From

The Christian life doesn’t take place in perfection. Paul dealt with a lot of messes in the church: incest, lawsuits, divorce, idol worship, egis, doctrinal infighting, getting drunk during communion - that was one small congregation.
Ephesians 4:1–6 ESV
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
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Redeeming the Mess

Baptized Disciples Are Called as and to be

To Be Called as and To Be

1. Members of the diverse, messy Community of Jesus

To be a member of the community of Jesus is conceptualized as being called.
Member - a part (as in of the body...a hand, foot, etc). Not an organization. Participant.
Yaconelli: We redeem unbiblical living; we don’t condemn or condone.
The Christian life doesn’t take place in perfection. Paul dealt with a lot of messes in the church: incest, lawsuits, divorce, idol worship, egis, doctrinal infighting, getting drunk during communion - that was one small congregation.
Spiritual growth happens in the midst of our problems, not in their absence. God is Good not because he alleviates our pain, but because he uses it for our good. And because of that, when it is happening, it doesn’t feel like God is good.
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I never understood why [being part of a church] made you a hypocrite, because nobody is in the church because they’re perfect.
If you’ve got it all together, you don’t need to be part of ot. You can go jogging with all the other perfect people on Sunday morning. Every time you gather with the church, you’re confessing again to yourself, to your family, to the people you pass on the way there, to the people who will greet you there, that you need their support, you need their direction, you need some accountability, you need some help.
Rich Mullins

2. Called/Sent as Messengers

Crabb: underneath brokenness is a deeper river of God calling us to himself and alignment with the Kingdom of God.
Calling is alignment with the Kingdom of God.
Primary calling is trust, not obedience; looking up, seeing where he is at work and responding to him, what he is at work doing and his grand adventure.
Calling is looking up, seeing where he is at work and responding to him. . God is at work and has created a grand adventure.
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This noun is related to the verb καλέω (kaleō, “to call”), and is used in the nt only of callings issued by God (e.g., ; ).
What is he at work doing: God is restoring the Kingdom: mercy, peace, justice, reconciliation.
ἀποστέλλω (apostellō). vb. to send. To send someone to do something; to send a message
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pempo - We are called/sent to be the Kingdom’s message of reconciliation - where fractured people and the fractured society are made whole.
πέμπω (pempō). vb. to send. To send someone, especially as a messenger.
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3. To Live/Walk in a Way that Holds Up/lifts Up One Another in the Fight/Mess

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God wants to come into the places where pain gains its power and bring His healing to bear.
Only way this happens is in community.
Larry Crabb: A spiritual community as a gathering of people who experience a kind of togetherness that only the HS makes possible, who move together in good directions and want to - because the HS is at work…[where] people reach deep places in each other’s hearts that are not often or easily reached. They openly express love and reveal fear, even though they feel so unaccustomed to that level of intimacy.”
Bearing with one another in love 
Not heaven but to know the grace of God in Christ, to be the children of God, and to serve him as his ‘dedicated ones’ and messengers of his gospel, should transform every part of life.
- obligation to bear with one another's failings and NOT to please ourselves. Please our neighbor for his or her good which is to build them up.
- As God's chosen, holy, and beloved - put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you
Step by step we are to walk (see on 2:2) in a direction that corresponds to the hope to which he has called us.

4 Aspects of the life to walk

1. Lowliness/humility
2. Meekness. Mild, gentle character toward other people. Mutual submission. So committed to the common good that nothing offends us; nothing is taken as an insult or taken personally
3. Patience. Slowness in avenging wrong or retaliating when hurt by another.
3. Patience. Slowness in avenging wrong or retaliating when hurt by another.
4. Forbearance. Outward longsuffering. Bearing with one another's weaknesses, not ceasing to love one's neighbors or friends because of their faults that offend or displease us.
Without mutual forbearance (tolerance), no group of human beings can live together in peace (John Stott).
These 4 are only possible when we bear with one another in love - the seeking of the highest good of others.
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Only way this happens is in community.
Larry Crabb: A spiritual community as a gathering of people who experience a kind of togetherness that only the HS makes possible, who move together in good directions and want to - because the HS is at work…[where] people reach deep places in each other’s hearts that are not often or easily reached. They openly express love and reveal fear, even though they feel so unaccustomed to that level of intimacy.”
Bearing with one another in love 
- obligation to bear with one another's failings and NOT to please ourselves. Please our neighbor for his or her good which is to build them up.
 
- As God's chosen, holy, and beloved - put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you

Encourage One Another Toward Unity

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The apostle who was so concerned with the practical unity of Jews and Gentiles in the church, and with the working together of all Christians, would surely have abhorred many of the divisions that we accept.
Diverse church racially and socially. Different temperaments, etc. Spiritual realities should transcend differences of background. But it takes work.
Not create it…it is given to us. Keep it, guard it with everything we have from anyone or anything that would take it away.
Where differences are caused merely by superficial things or by the selfish individualism of members, he would toil and fight for the breaking down of barriers and the working out of genuine fellowship.
Diverse church racially and socially. Different temperaments, etc. Spiritual realities should transcend differences of background. But it takes work.
As Caird puts it, ‘The corporate unity of the church is not a desirable end, but a datum to which the behaviour of its members must conform.’
Renea McKenzie, Editor and Poet. There is something about the physicality of human existence throughout the arc of the human story: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Resurrection. Climaxing with the Incarnation of Jesus, there is just too much concerning our actual bodies for me to give up the gathering of many bodies as One Body. And there’s something about an embodied community that, for me at least, takes “inciting love” to its next step of “stimulating helpful deeds.”
The practice of unity is practicing our baptism
The apostle who was so concerned with the practical unity of Jews and Gentiles in the church, and with the working together of all Christians, would surely have abhorred many of the divisions that we accept.
The practice of unity is practicing our baptism
Neither personal ambition, nor party spirit, nor disputes about non-essentials will be allowed to break such unity,.
In the bond of peace
Peace. Total well-being, prosperity, and security associated with God’s presence among his people. Linked in the OT with the covenant, the presence of peace, as God’s gift, was conditional upon Israel’s obedience. In prophetic material, true peace is part of the end-time hope of God’s salvation. In the NT, this longed-for peace is understood as having come in Christ and able to be experienced by faith.
It is not an end to tension, an absence of warfare, domestic tranquility, nor anything like the worldly estimation of peace (; ; , ). Its presence may, on the contrary, actually disturb existing relations, being a dividing “sword” in familial relations (). Jesus’ gift of peace is, in reality, the character and mood of the new covenant of his blood which reconciles God to man (; ) and forms the basis of subsequent reconciliation between men under Christ ().
This gift of peace or reconciliation with God, made available through Christ, places an ethical demand on the Christian; it calls for the exercises of “peace” (as reconciliation between persons) within the church. Peace, as a fruit of the Spirit (), is to be the goal of the Christian’s dealings with others (; ; , etc.), that which marks one’s identity as a “child of God” ().
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As Caird puts it, ‘The corporate unity of the church is not a desirable end, but a datum to which the behaviour of its members must conform.’
The apostle who was so concerned with the practical unity of Jews and Gentiles in the church, and with the working together of all Christians, would surely have abhorred many of the divisions that we accept.
The practice of unity is practicing our baptism

Practice/Exercise Reconciliation

Paul’s particular vocation, then, was to found and maintain Jew-plus-Gentile churches on Gentile soil.”
NT Wright
Paul was a multiethnic church planter because of the Gospel.
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Paul would surely have abhorred many of the divisions that we accept.
Spiritual realities should transcend differences of background. But it takes work.

Invitation

The apostle who was so concerned with the practical unity of Jews and Gentiles in the church, and with the working together of all Christians, would surely have abhorred many of the divisions that we accept.

Invitation

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
Spiritual growth happens in the midst of our problems, not in their absence. God is Good not because he alleviates our pain, but because he uses it for our good. And because of that, when it is happening, it doesn’t feel like God is good.
Winston Churchill
Messy Church/Spirituality is a celebration of a discipleship which is under construction. It’s the refusal to pretend, lie, and allow others to believe we are something we are not. It admits we are unfinished, incomplete, in process and trusting God in our unfinishedness. Mike Yaconelli.
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Standing on the outside…guarded

Tired of living a fractured life

You’re a Critic

Know something is wrong deep inside but have been afraid to look

Want to become a member of this messy community of Jesus working to redeem the world

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