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Vision for Difficult Times
Acts 2:42-47 | Shaun LePage | January 28, 2007
I.
*Introduction—**Shaun **LePage*
A. “State of the Church” (bigger than an annual business mtg) → “State of the Union”.
B. We live in difficult times.
Our culture is increasingly disinterested in the good news of Jesus Christ, and fast becoming hostile toward it.
Over the past 100 years, the church in America has lost ground in every way we can measure—church attendance, biblical knowledge, moral standards.
1.Despite size of many churches; millions of dollars spent on building new church facilities, the number of people who claim to be born again Christians consistently drops from decade to decade.
2.Despite the fact that Americans own—on average—four Bibles per household, our understanding of what is inside those Bibles reveals that we are becoming a biblically illiterate nation.
3.Despite the fact that the United States has a higher level of church attendance than any other country and more than $4B of “Christian books and products” are sold in the US each year, we are in rapid moral decline.
Christians blindly follow the culture—rather than the Bible—in their moral choices and standards.
4.The question is—how shall we respond? 3 options:
a) Apathy.
Despite tendency toward hostility, still comfortable.
Easiest choice: play church, isolated from the world, and try to forget people “out there” going to hell—dead in sins, without hope, destined for eternal separation from God.
Not an option.
b) Accommodation.
Chameleon approach.
Change the gospel; soften prickly parts of Scripture that tend to offend.
Popular option for many professing Christians.
Mainline liberal churches chose this route—ended up dead and empty, still many in seeker ~/ emergent movement taking the same approach.
There’s more to it than that—I understand that.
But this is one of the underlying characteristics.
c) Authenticity.
The only real option is authenticity.
To know, do and be what God has called us to know and do and be.
To be fair, this is one of the motivations behind the emergent church.
A right desire for authentic Christianity.
Problem comes when culture—rather than Bible—used to define “authentic Christianity”.
5.What we—your elder board—wish to share with you today is a vision for authentic Christianity in difficult times.
More than that—not just talk theory.
Want to get practical.
How can we be authentic Christians in our difficult times?
C. We must start with this question: What is “authentic” Christianity?
We believe our Core Values represent a start.
David Barfield is coming up now to review our Core Values.
II. *Core Values—**David Barfield*
A. Reminder of development.
B. Key is to take from paper to practice.
From the head to the heart to the hands.
III. *Recap of 2006—**Shaun **LePage** *
A. January 2006 Elders’ Retreat.
1.
We began with a clear definition of purpose.
Given to us! Great Commission and Great Commandment—glorify God by inviting people to trust Christ and grow up in Him (foyer).
2. Set goals (not in order of importance—quickly read):
a) Improve “first impressions.”
Nice-up building & property.
b) Begin communicating Core Values.
Already developed.
c) Begin Discovery Class.
Re-establish formal membership at CBC.
d) Improve the Sunday morning children’s ministry—Sunday School.
e) Begin a new Youth Ministry (not absolute beginning, but weekly Bible study).
f) Begin Small-Group Ministry (not absolute beginning, but fresh start~/new direction).
g) (Not a “goal” but a decision) Increase the budget by faith (little crazy in transition).
B. Progress report—Our leadership was imperfect~/mistakes, but good progress 1 year later.
1. *First Impressions.
*Linda Schultz, Beth LePage and others—color scheme, decoration ideas.
Just about every one of you pitched in and helped paint the three most visible areas of the building and “niced” up much of the building—inside and out.
Most important?
Not at all.
“First impressions” can be important and good stewardship.
2. *Core Values.
*A work in progress.
FBC (renaming—Vision Weekend?) was a highlight for us—focusing on the first CV of prayer.
Planning a Spring Vision Weekend to focus on worship (Easter weekend?).
Twice a year—communication of core values.
3. *Discovery Class ~/ Formal Membership.
*Not exactly smooth beginning (can we laugh about it yet?).
But please understand: We have great liberty.
Sin to */not /*have formal membership?
No! Biblically acceptable to have it?
Yes! EB believes it is helpful and wise.
Five (5) reasons: 1) Creates opportunity to share the gospel.
2) We /must /have a time to “discover” whether we’re on the same page.
If not, it’s best to find out up front.
3) There must be a way for individuals~/families to say: “I’m with you—part of this body!”
That’s encouraging to a church family, and the spirit of the “body” metaphor.
4) Helps leaders identify “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
Hopefully false teachers—those who may come to our church with an agenda—can be identified and prevented from creating confusion and spiritual shipwreck in this body.
5) Helps leaders identify ways we can best minister to and disciple new members.
[Discovery 1 next Sunday]
4. *Children’s ministry.
*Sunday School is only a supplement to what children should be learning at home.
But the sermon just isn’t designed for children.
It’s good for children to learn how to sit in a service and behave properly, but it’s also good for them to receive age-appropriate Bible teaching.
With our current format, we believe we’re getting the best of both.
The first half hour they’re here with us, then during the sermon they go to receive age-appropriate Bible teaching.
Cathy Barfield and I did some research and chose /Discipleland/, which is a solid curriculum—user-friendly for teachers and age-appropriate Biblical input for children.
Focused on knowing, doing and being.
Our goal was to improve the Sunday morning children’s ministry.
We’ve done that.
And we’re open to your input on how we can continue.
5. *Youth ministry.
*Huge numbers of Christians walk away from the faith their first year of college.
Why?
I believe the youth ministry culture (fun and games) of the past 30 years is mostly to blame.
I’ve got a lot of experience in youth ministry.
Most of the past 20 years I’ve been involved somehow in youth ministry.
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