Health in Church

Background

Welcome to New Day Pasadena

If we havent had the pleasure of meeting my name is John Colunga and I have the privelige to serve as Lead Pastor and I also have the privilige to bring todays message.

If you have your Bibles please turn to 1 Peter chapter 3

Today is launch Sunday as it is our first official launch gathering as New Day Pasadena

We had a church merger last year around August where Golden Acres Baptist Church joined New Day

These past few months we have been transitioning into getting processes in place, renovations made, and focusing on alignment as New Day

All of that hard work has brought us to today. Launch Sunday

It is today, January 8th, 2023 where we proudly and boldly say we are here and we are here to stay

Essentially what we are is a church re-plant

Re-plants are churches seeking New Life and healthy growth in its community

The easy news for us is that the scariest part of re-planting is over

We are not facing closure or wondering about next steps to remain in existence

That is the excitement of today!

We have New Life through God’s leading us to New Day!

The hard news is that the work is only going to get harder

Just like plants need water and sunlight and nurturing - so this church needs the same

And so as we launch, we are also having vision Sunday

Vision is different from mission

New Day has a mission that encompases all 3 location

We have our mission as New Day - On our website OUR MISSION WE EXIST TO HELP EVERYONE FIND THEIR NEW DAY IN JESUS' NAME

We are passionate about loving God and making His glory known We are passionate about new beginnings and changed lives We are passionate about loving each other and making a difference in the lives of people We are passionate about growing in our faith and following Jesus in everything We are passionate about telling our friends and neighbors about the gospel of Jesus We are passionate about giving our lives to something bigger than ourselves We are passionate about the future and believe the best is yet to come

This is the mission of New Day

But today, all three campuses are recieving vision that pertains to their individual location

Vision Sunday is a time to share vision for our specific church

Thom Rainer (author) with Church Answers defines vision as “God’s specific plan for a specific church at a specific time.”

Church Answers (Headed by Thom Rainer) came out with a Post of 10 church trends that they predict will be most commmon in 2023

I am not saying I agree or disagree with these, I am not saying they are right or wrong, I am simply saying these are trends in todays churches

1. Local congregations will emphasize evangelism more than at any point in the past three decades. Church leaders understand they can’t lead a church to growth with cultural Christians (a true oxymoron) and transfer growth. If churches desire truly to make disciples, they must begin with evangelism.

2. The increase in the growth of diversity in congregations will be its greatest ever in 2023. Millennials see a monocultural generation as out-of-touch. Gen Z cannot imagine anything monocultural, especially a church.

3. The year 2023 will be a record year for church adoptions. An adopted church is a congregation that comes into the family, care, and authority of another, usually healthier, church. Of course, more churches will seek adoption because they are about to die and close.

4. More churches will have specific global partners. Churches in America will seek to partner with churches in other nations, particularly where the gospel is spreading the most rapidly. This trend is more than an increase in mission giving; it is an intentional and strategic partnership with a specific church or churches.

5. The time between pastors for churches will be longer than ever. I can remember when a long-term interim period was twelve months. Today, many churches have these interim periods for two to three years or more.

6. The number of interim pastors will be greater than ever. This trend is obviously a corollary of trend number five. Some of these interim pastors are preachers only. Others are considered “intentional interims” with consultive roles as well as preaching.

7. More churches will request consultations than at any point in American church history. For example, we get ten times more requests now at Church Answers than we did just three years ago. Congregations are more willing or more desperate to seek outside help.

8. Church autopsies will be the fastest growing area of research in American churches. I wrote Autopsy of a Deceased Church in 2014 and the demand for the book began growing again in 2022. Thousands of churches have closed, and we are trying to discover the reasons for their death.

9. More pastors and staff will become bi-vocational and co-vocational. The latter term usually refers to those who chose to remain in the marketplace. Bi-vocational pastors are those who have work outside the church because their church could not compensate them with full-time pay.

10. More pastors and staff will get their theological and ministry training in the church. This trend has been growing the past decade and will continue to grow even more in 2023.

I list these trends because we have seen some of these trends in our own church

I have listed these trends because this what many churches are facing or going through

It is important now more than ever that churches evaluate themselves and take a look at what they must do stay healthy

Our Vision

Churches can get so caught up in many different things that their chruch health suffers

What I believe New Day Pasadena is called to do in 2023 is to focus on our spiritual healthy growth

Our vision for that growth will always be rooted in God’s word

Specifically I believe our vision in 2023 is rooted in 1 Peter 3:8-12

Please stand now if able for the reading of God’s word

“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.””

This is the word of the Lord, You may now be seated.

It might be cliche that we are talking about church health and growth at the time where New Years resolutions are made

Most resolutions have to do with increasing or bettering health, character, and habbits

These resolutions are made because an individual wants to grow

We, as the church, we want to grow spiritually

This spiritual growth is something we want both individually and collectively

And I believe the key word is not growth but the key word is “healthy”

To be clear I am not focusing on healthy numerical growth. I do want numericle growth and I will be intentional in fostering it but it starts with the church body being healthy

I believe we are in a healthy state to bring people in, share the gospel, and disciple

And by doing this, numerical growth will naturally occur

But we should be focusing on how we can continue to grow healthy in a spiritual way

But just like anything else, health is a balance

Nutrition has the food pyramid, there are individual workout plans that work out individual muscles with rest days, and there are habbit trackers that will help you form new habbits

And just like I said earlier, we are imperfect people and so there is a level of unhealth in all of us and it look differently from others

But It is easier to acquire spiritually unhealthy habbits from each other and to let it grow rather than to actively work on healthy habbits

Most of the time an unhealthy spiritual life is a natural re-action of our heart and actions while a healthy spiritual life takes pro-action

You cant just do nothing and expect health

In other words, if you live your spiritual life with no intentionality, you will naturally form unhealth but if you live your spiritual life with meaning then you can form healthy spiritual growth

To be clear, I am not calling us to be perfect, but I am calling on everyone here to be proactive with your spiritual life

The Apostle Peter is writing this letter at a point when the church is suffering from persecution

The church is dispersed and this letter from Peter is believed to have been sent acrross 6 Roman Provinces

The persecution in each area may have been different but what we know is that most of them were struggling in some way

It is noted in 1 Peter that the persecutions included insults, slanderous accusations of wrongdoing, beatings, social ostracism, and mob violence

Here is the thing, the church isnt suffering from the government, but from amongst the people and religious leaders opposing the church

The persecution was getting so bad that the church itself was starting to waiver and the people would cave in to social pressures

The church was becomming hostile towards their persecutors and in return would get hostile towards each other

And so Peter uses this passage to exhort the church and gives 5 principles as to how they are to live through their suffering

That through their suffering, Christ would be glorified through their spiritual life and actions

Their spiritual life and outward actions would reflect the Jesus they are being persecuted for and will be counted righteouss

These 5 principles listed are not natural reactions but require proaction form the church

Our vision for this year is to foster, work on, and grow in these 5 principles

5 Principles - Unity

Peter writes, “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind”

This sounds as if the book of 1 Peter is coming to a close

However, what is really coming to a close is Peter’s instruction as to what our actions should be

And the first principle he states is for all of us to have unity of mind.

This does not mean that we have to agree on all things

Rather, it connotes a common goal on serving the same Lord and means that we share the same gospel and same purpose, serving God and Christ.

This does mean we can differ on preference (color of paint, 5 songs or 2 songs,)

Everybody has an opinion - and everybodies opinion is always right,

We can differ in preference and that is ok but even then it should not cause quarreling

We can differ in different aspects of theology (eschatology (end times interpretation) pre-mil, a-mil, post mil)

I have had several conversations with people in our church and we differ on this and other aspects

But where we do not compromise is on the gospel of Jesus Christ

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, Jesus being fully God and fully man came to earth

He lived a perfect and sinless life

He was unjustly sent to the cross to die for His people

On the third day he arose from the grave and conquered sin and death

And because he reigns and rules,

We imperfect, sinful people, put our faith in trust in him alone

Not in our actions, not in our money, not in ourselves

Faith in Jesus is the only thing that can save

That, we can never compromise on!

In that we will have unity of mind

We must have unity in the gospel

We must have unity that our purpose to glorify God and to enjoy him

That we strive to glorify God in our thoughts, words, and actions

That we as a body of believers with differing gifts, come together to use our gifts to serve one another but to build up the church which glorifies God

In our membership class we will go over what we belive, our distinctives, and what we encourage our members to do

encourage you to have a personal relationship with Jesus, to come under the care and guidence of New Day Eldership, to join a small group, to serve on a team, and give financially to support the mission of the church

We go over all of this and we talk through these things because we want to have unity of mind

And we have unity that we get to enjoy God’s blessings, we enjoy the freedom he gives us, and one day we will enjoy him in heaven for all of eternity

Sympathy

The next three actions Peter shares all have to do with love

As the church, we are to love one another

And its because of that love that we have sympathy for one another

To have sympathy is to have pathos - which is a shared passion

We share in the passions and desires of each other

We have a compassion to try to understand each others emotions

And because we are human we go through hard times and although hard times might look different for each of us,

Hard times produce the same emotions within us, so we can sympathize with one another which will then cause us to feel for one another

We hurt when someone is hurting

We rejoice when good news is shared

Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”

1 Corinthians 12:26 “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”

We live life together in a way that is not superficial

And so we are to live with brotherly love

Brotherly Love

The Greek word for brotherly love is Phileo

Philidelphia is considerd the city of brotherly love

Although they didnt show brotherly love towards the Astros - justice was served

John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”

Matthew 22:39 “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Neighbor refers to everyone - believers and non-believers

How much more should we love our brothers -

In scripture when the word brother is used it is meant to mean fellow believers in Jesus Christ (believers)

Have you ever heard this, “I dont have to go to church because I have God and he is all I need”

To that I would say, Jesus is all you need for salvation but nowhere in scripture does he say that you should live alone

There is no basis for any Christian living without community

Grant R. Osborne, “1 Peter,” in Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: James, 1–2 Peter, Jude, Revelation, ed. Philip W. Comfort, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2011), 215.

There are 164 hours in a week, and in a world full of hurt, despair, brokeness,

As you go to work, and encounter daily life - you also need a community to help encourage, love, support, pray, and worship with

We shouldn’t just have brotherly love - we need it

This is why we push to be in a community group

So we can share our struggles and wins

So we can learn more about one another and pray

To grow together in our faith and to love Jesus and each other

It is an essential part of your healthy spiritual growth to be with a body of believers

It is essential to have brotherly love for one another

We are designed to be a church because Christ loved his church and died for his church!

So we are to have brotherly love in the church

Tender Heart

This tender heart is parallel with Sympathy but it isnt a pure emotion

Our hearts themselves should not be hardened towards others

We should be willing to be generous, merciful, and compassionate with each other

To be able to truly love you must have a tender heart

Your tender heart must lead you to extend love

I do believe that with a tender heart and a posture of seeking God’s will for us,

That he does put it on our heart to show mercy and grace to one another and to help each other out in some way

We take care of one another

In context, Peter is writing this for us to have a tender heart within the church - for one another

But that doesn’t mean that God wont also use it outside of the church

For reasons unbeknown to me, under God’s sovereignty

God does not call, nor does he allow New Day Pasadena to have all of the resources to solve all of Pasadena’s problems

I believe it is safe to say that we will never have enough money to meet the needs of everyone who needs help

We simply do not exist to be a charity

But I do believe that a tender heart is vital to evangelizing and sharing the gospel with others

And while I do not believe that serving an unbeliever with money and time is God’s primary means of grace to bring someone to him, I do believe it is a pathway

I do believe God can use your tender heart, acts of mercy and grace to open up conversations where you can share the gospel of Jesus

Humble Mind

Humble minded runs parallel to unity of mind

To be humble is to supress our natural desire to put ourselves first

When we are humble and we have a difference of opinion -

Our humility will keep us from quarreling

Jesus came to be the model of humily for us

Philippians 2:5-7 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

To be humble can sometimes be viewed as a weakness

In that time, culturally speaking, the people were raised to present themselves from a position of strength and position

Jesus came and showed that humility is not weakness, it is freeing to live for others rather than self

And ultimately, unity of mind - sympathy - brotherly love - tender heart - and humility will all bring peace

If all 5 of these are lived out in the Christian life, it will create peace within the church and will be a good testimony to those outside of it

Peace

In 3:9 the emphasis changes from the internal church community to the external, depicting the Christian in a non-Christian society.

Grant R. Osborne, “1 Peter,” in Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: James, 1–2 Peter, Jude, Revelation, ed. Philip W. Comfort, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2011), 216.

This is the teaching of how we are to live and love with our neighbors

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.””

And I wish I had 30 more minutes to expound on this but I dont want 30 emails on Monday so I’ll keep this consice

but I do have to mention that when we display these 5 principles with the outside world and let go when we are persecuted

When we bless rather than repay - there is a blessing

None of us has ever gone through the evil or reviling that Jesus went through on the cross

The beating , the humiliation, the blood, the tears

And in the midst of it all “Lord forgive them for they do not know what they do!”

This he went through and suffered for you and me!

Don’t shrug off when a brother says to let go of that thing that one person said to you or about you

Dont let that tweet bother you so much

Take a breath when you are cut off on the road - that ones for me

When someone does something with evil or malice in their heart, when they are intending to hurt your feelings - dont respond the same way

Romans 12:17-19 “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.””

Rather, We focus on our healthy growth and rely on Christ to bless and restore us

We will get our feelings hurt

We will get angry

We will cry

We are human and we are not shielded from the emotional pain of others

But what we are promised is that Jesus, the one we suffer for, will bless us and count our actions righteouss

That we stay away from evil

that we watch what we say with our tongue

that we do good

and that we seek peace and pursue it

We have to be pro-active for peace!

We dont just seek it but we also pursue it!

And this is the testimony of the church - we can be called intollerant, unloving, prejudice, old school, controlling, fake, asleep

And yet it will not deter our focus and gaze upon Jesus

That we trust in the one who is perfect, true, loving, merciful, compassionate, kind, gentle, graceful, humble, faithful, and peaceful

That he is just! - I do not fear the wrath of man but I fear the rath of God

And I believe his wrath is true and I dont want anyone facing it

So in the face of insults, evil, and all kinds of reviling - I will display love, peace, and humility

That my testimony points to the one who is righteous

And in doing so I know I am not overlooked

That as I pursue peace,

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.

Lord hear our prayers at New Day Pasadena

We want to love life and see good days

So we do not give into the ways of the world, we trust God to deal with the world because the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.””

My hope and prayer is that we remain a body of prayer warriors and peacemakers

My hope and prayer is that we remain a body who actively pursues righteousness

My hope and prayer is that we remain a body who seeks to have healthy growth in Jesus Christ

That we are a body of worshipers and not spectators

That we are a body of servants and not masters

That we are a body of unity and not division

Application

So this is our vision - That we pursue healthy growth through unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, tender heartedness, humility; and will seek and pursue peace within the church and the world

Action Plan - The next three weeks we will start a sermon series called “The New Day Way”

Week 1 - We will focus start your day with God

Week 2 - We will focus on never miss church

Week 3 - Share Jesus every week

Remember I said the healthy growth part is hard, but we must be proactive in our spiritual walk

And if one these things may have rubbed you the wrong way, I encourage you to join us as I expound over the coming weeks

For today - I exhort you to look at these 5 principles and pick one to work on

You know where you struggle

Give it to God, pray and ask God to reveal it and help you to grow in it

Ask for ways to put these principles in action in your life

I guarantee there is a way you can display at least one of these every single day

And it all begins with Jesus

If you are here today and you dont know him as your Lord and Savior, trust him

Repent and turn away form your evil deeds, trust him to guide your life

It wont be the life you imagined but it will be a life far greater as you will be freed from the bondage of sin and shame

Jesus went to the cross for you. He wants a relationship with you

Give your life to him and trust him

I’m about to pray and if its in this time that you know the Holy Spirit is calling you to him, say yes to him

Closing Response

Please fill out a connect card - we would love to get to know you (A phone call or text message is what you will recieve)

We do want to know if you have given your life to Christ, if your interested in baptism or community groups - fill out the connect card

If you have been visiting for awhile and want respond to become a formal member, (I would love to meet with you and talk with you about that so please let me know)

Community Groups will be starting back up at the end of this month (happens on Wednesdays at 6:30)

We do believe that giving is a response. To be obedient with our tithse and generous with our offerings. The mission of the church can go as far as you give. You can give online or in the baskets up here in the front (You can also drop off your connect cards up here)

New Day Houston will have a worship night on Wednesday, January 11th at 6pm (everyone is invited to that)

Lastly, prayer for other locations - Specifically our Magnolia campus is going through a pastor search. Pastor James is leading that and is leading them for the next few months so please be in prayer for them.

Just as we read today to bless others, I would like to dismiss with a benediction before we leave -

Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” Amen

Thank you, you are now dismissed