Church Core Values

Welcome

Offering

Invocation**

Scripture Reading

Singing (3 songs)

Baptism

Children’s song & offering

Children’s story

Prayer

Special Music

Message

Baptism

Today is a special day for our church. I’d like to invite Jon Calderon and Abraham Rodriguez to come into the baptistry, and any of Abraham’s family and close friends to join me up on the platform.

Jon Calderon has been studying the Bible with Abraham for several months. They have finished a baptismal preparation course and Abraham has asked to be baptized. This past week I spent some time with Abraham and his mother and brother and Jon and we reviewed the baptismal commitment in detail. Abraham affirmed His belief in God’s word, his surrender to Jesus as His savior, and his desire to be a part of the Pasco Riverview Seventh-day Adventist church.

Because Jon has been the spiritual leader who has brought Abraham through this baptism preparation process, I invited Jon to perform the baptism. For some this might seem a little strange since I’m the pastor and Jon is not. If you’d like to understand this better, I’d encourage you to come to the Ask the Pastor time shortly after the service is over and we can talk about it.

—give the time to Jon if he wants to say a few words—

After the baptism:

We have just experienced a young man publically confess to his faith in and love for Jesus. Jesus said that “whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 10:32-33) If there is anyone here today or watching online who is convicted that they too need to make a public confession of Jesus, please come and talk to me or any of our church elders. If you are curious about what this commitment is like or how to prepare for baptism, let us know that you’re interested in studying the Bible.

Church Center Announcement

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Last week I mentioned that we’re using a new piece of software to manage volunteers, coordinate our worship service, and organize small groups. The software has a neat app called Church Center that allows every member to be fully engaged with the activities of the church and connected to each other. I’d like to encourage you to take a minute and download this app.

Some of you have tried to download the app but haven’t been able to get it to work for you. That may be due to the fact that we don’t have your email or cell phone in our system. If we only have your address or a home phone number then it won’t work for you to sign in.

We’ve put a form on our facebook page and our church website, pascosda.com, that will help you update your contact information in our system. Just put in your name, email and cell phone number and any other information that you’d like us to have. Once you’ve done that, you should be able to log into church center. And if you can’t, then send me a text or give me a call and I’ll help you navigate your particular situation. My cell number and email are the bulletin.

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Introduction of Abraham

Introduce Abraham, give a gift basket, and bring the elders up front to pray for Him.

Introduction

There’s a community of nonbelievers in Seattle that call themselves the Seattle Atheist Church. Their mission is to be a place where atheists come together to do church. They celebrate the values of Atheism including critical thinking, scientific naturalism, and secular ethics by teaching, learning and thoughtful discussion. They meet every Sunday, beginning with a Sunday school study of that weeks readings of The Daily Stoic. Then they take a short break followed by a “sermon” by the leader for that week.

Atheist churches have popped up all accross the world starting most notably in 2013 with the London based group called “Sunday Service” led by Pippa Evans and Sanderson Jones. The first Sunday Service included a congregation of over 300 meeting in what they called a deconsecrated church singing songs from Stevie Wonder and Queen, and reading passages from Alice in Wonderland.

Over the last few decades we’ve had several national surveys that have asked people about religion and we’ve noticed something interesting. There has been a rising number of people who are saying they are non-religious. To questions about religion they say, “no religion,” or “nothing in particular,” or “none of the above.” In 1990 the number of “nones” was about 5 percent. By early 2023 that number had risen to something like 25 percent. That means that something like 60 million Americans do not identify with a religion. Social scientists are calling this phenomenon “the rise of the nones.”

Considering the reality of the ever-growing population of unchurched “nones” and the church-going atheists, we’re forced to ask ourselves some important questions:

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What is the church? and

Why does the church exist? …why do we exist in Pasco?

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This is the third and final message in our Core Values series. If you haven’t yet seen the first two, they will be helpful as you process what we talk about today. You can find them on our youtube channel or on our website at pascosda.org.

What is Church?

If we’re going to understand what the church is we need to turn to Revelation 12 and consider a prophecy about a symbolic woman.

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Revelation 12:1–6 (ESV)

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. [next slide] And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon ...stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. [next slide] She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

We know these are symbols because no woman could stand on the moon, be clothed with the sun and have 12 literal stars as a crown. What we’re looking at here is a symbolic representation of the church of God. Notice how the story unfolds:

A woman clothed with the sun and standing on the moon — the Bible says that Jesus is the son of righteousness (Mal 4:2, Luke 1:78-79), and the sanctuary services of the old testament reflected the glory of Jesus’ work of salvation much like the moon reflects the sun.

The woman wore a crown of 12 stars — both the Israelite nation and the new testament christian church had twelve leaders, respectively, the 12 sons of Israel and the 12 apostles of Jesus.

The woman gave birth to a man child that the dragon, which is the devil, was trying to devour — Jesus was born to the nation of Israel — the people who God promised to send the Messiah to. That was the church of God. And then, the New Testament church took on the story of Jesus and has carried his good news every since.

The picture of the church that Revelation 12 gives us ties the New Testament followers of Jesus to the Old Testament children of Israel. And, Revelation isn’t the only one to do this. In Romans 11 Paul talks about how Jesus is the vine. He says that the Old Testament children of Abraham weren’t God’s children because they were Abraham’s children, they were God’s children because they were part of Christ. But, as a group, they rejected Jesus. Now anyone can be grafted into the vine. Anyone can be a child of God. Notice verse 20

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Romans 11:20 (ESV)

[The Israelites] were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud...

In other words, from the first sin in the Garden of Eden to the last person who accepts Christ before His return, EVERYONE who believes is connected to the same vine—the same savior, Jesus Christ.

This is why Paul says,

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Romans 2:28–29 (ESV)

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit...

What is the church? — The church are all those branches on the Vine of God. This is why Paul said to the Ephesians that there is

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“one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:5-6)

Both Jesus and Paul use this illustration of a vine with its branches to talk about the church. It seems to suggest a living connection—a constant communion between Jesus and His people. But there’s a more personal and intimate illustration of the church that the Bible gives us.

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Galatians 3:26–28 (NLT)

For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. [next slide] There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Children of God gives an exciting dimension to the idea of the church. If you are a child of God, and I am a child of God, then we are brothers and sisters. We’re all part of the same family.

This concept of the church as a family is the most important thing to know about the church.

We could get into some interesting conversations about true doctrine and following the Bible and all the different denominations. We won’t do that today. What would be helpful for us to consider is that there are the children of God, and then there is the ekklesia—the gathering of God’s children.

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That word, ekklesia, is the greek word that we translate into church. It literally means, the gathering. In a sense, any group of people who gather together can call themselves a church. But there’s a difference between a gathering of people and the gathering of God’s children. Any group can sing songs, preach sermons, and have “Sunday school” lessons, but it’s only the children of God who are called The Church by God.

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Theologians like to make this distinction by identifying the children of God as the invisible church, and local church congregations and denominations as the visible church. Jesus warned us not to try to differentiate among those inside the local congregation (the visible church) identifying people as either the children of God and what he called the weeds growing among them. While you might come to church and not be a child of God, the church is a place where we’re trying to tell people how wonderful our Father in Heaven is, and you too can be part of His family. We’re not trying to clean up the visible church, our goal is to bring more people into the family of God.

So, is there such a thing as a church of atheists? Yep, insomuch as a church is a gathering of people. But if you’re talking about God’s church, NOPE! Only a gathering of God’s people can be called The Church. But let me tell you this, if there’s an atheist or a deist or an agnostic, or a pagan or whatever you call yourself in our congregation or watching online, then welcome. God’s church is a fantastic place to be.

Why are we here?

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And that leads us to our next question: why are we here? Why does the church exist?

This is an interesting question. Take a moment and ask yourself the questions, why does your family exist? It’s not just about function or purpose. Love is the best starting place for a family. Certainly many families begin with other motives, but from what we know about the God of love, He started His family on earth because of His great love, and His church continues today as an expression of and testimony to God’s love. This is why John says,

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1 John 4:7–8 ESV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

This is the fundamental reason, the basic why of the church.

However, does your home exist only on love? No, your home requires a whole industry to keep it in order. Clothes washing, meals, jobs that provide income to support shelter and provide bedding, all these things support the infrastructure of your family. This is true of God’s family as well. The church is not simply a group of people who gather together, it’s a family of believers that share life together, and who, together, abide with Jesus. Our mutual love for Jesus is why we do life together, but life takes intentional effort, organization, and purpose.

And this is where we get to the core values of God’s family.

First of all, the family of God must reflect the core values of God—gracious, slow to anger, full of love and faithfulness, forgiving, and just. We might not always do it perfectly, much like children don’t always perfectly reflect the values of their parents, but God’s character should show up in His church.

Secondly, the family of God is a group of God’s people whom He has called to bear the fruit of the spirit, which means God’s people will also express — joy, peace, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. Again, we may not all have all of these at the same time or in the same way, but if we’re abiding with Jesus then we’ll be growing in these core values.

We’ve already discussed all those core values. Is there anything that God is calling His gathered children to be or do that makes us more than just individual christians who are living individual lives and who happen to get together on occasion?

Yes.

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The first one is a prerequisite for the rest—Paul tells us to gather together. A family is still a family when apart, but it’s when the family gets together that wonderful things can happen.

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Hebrews 10:25 NLT

And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

Get together, get together, get together.

You might not always enjoy every member of the family of God, but get together anyways. You might have opinions about how it should be done differently or better, but get together anyways. Gathering with God’s people anywhere and anytime you can is a good idea, but gathering with your group of God’s people is extremely important. You see, we’re all a part of the family of God, but it’s your local church that has the best chance of truly knowing you, helping you grow in Christ, and helping you fulfill God’s calling in your life. Church hopping is a good way to stay at the surface, but I think God is calling us to go deep in relationship with our church family and that requires consistency and dependability.

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The second core value is only possible as we gather together, and that’s worship.

Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. Worship is something you do with your whole life. We should glorify God with every part of our life, but each of our voices and each of our prayers are little individual whispers at God’s throne. When we get together we swell in glorious worship to the God who is worthy of all praise and honor. Every time you find angels gathered in the Bible they’re singing praises to God.

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Revelation 4:8 (ESV)

day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,

who was and is and is to come!”

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Isaiah 6:3 ESV

And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Our Father in heaven is the God who holds the universe together and spreads it out according to His will.

Our Father in heaven is the creator and sustainer of all life.

Our Father in heaven is the all-powerful, glorious, all-knowing, and immeasurably patient and loving God.

He is worthy of our worship. When we gather together we swell our voices in praise and God is worthy of that praise. In fact, if we never ceased to praise God both day and night He would absolutely be worthy of that level of worship. But God has not called us to non-stop singing—that is the pleasurable service of the four living creatures at God’s throne. On earth God has given us six days to work and then He told us to rest from our work on the seventh. It is in that day that He invites us to gather together to worship our creator, our Lord, and our Father.

There are many ways that we worship God.

In ancient Israel there were certain priests who lead the people in singing. Certain psalms were designed to be sung at different times. Some were a call and response from two hills on either side of a valley. Others were designed to bring the people to lament for their sins. Others were specifically sung as the people came in sight of Jerusalem on their way to a festival. The New Testament church took these psalms and added more songs to them, making singing a part of every gathering.

Also, In Leviticus and Deuteronomy Moses called the people to gather together to read the books of the covenant publically. Readers would stand before the people reading as they listened. History tells us that levites and priests would mingle with the crowd and sit at their dinner tables after the reading to interpret and provide context for the reading. And then in the new Testament we find Paul telling us:

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1 Corinthians 1:21 (ESV)

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

Preaching to ourselves is a key part of our public worship.

And, in nearly every place that we find a gathering of God’s people in the Bible we find them praying. The repent of their sins, or plead for help with some crisis, or extoll God for some success He lead them in. Prayer is a key part of corporate worship.

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While God is absolutely worthy of our worship, He has specifically asked us to do certain things. I we don’t do these things we will fail to fulfill God’s will for His family.

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Mark 16:15–16 NLT

And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.

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Go preach to the world! Now, if we’re not careful we’ll think that this command is only for people with the spiritual gift of evangelism or preaching, but that is not the case. This is a directive that Jesus gave to all His disciples, not just the 12 apostles. And the word “preach” could just have easily been translated as “proclaim.” And I believe this is, in one fashion or another, the calling He has given His gathered church. Part of the purpose of God’s gathered church is to tell the world about the Good New of Jesus salvation and soon coming. Whether that’s through some technological means like TV or Radio or the internet or the written page, or whether that’s through a personal conversation, a Bible study, or a public sermon. Telling the world about Jesus is a core value of the church.

Notice the progression Jesus gave: 1) go to the world, 2) preach the good news, 3) anyone who believes and is baptized… If we’re just talking to ourselves, we’re not fulfilling this core value. We, the church, need to be engaging with the world or else we can’t tell them the story of Jesus, we can’t just do church in our own church building, we have to go into the world. But we can’t just go to the world and live our lives. We also need to tell them the story of Jesus. It’s a Go and Tell command. And when they believe in Jesus we need to baptize them and adopt them into our family. And that’s where the next core value comes into the picture.

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Let’s look at a parallel passage to Mark 16. Go to Matthew 28:

Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV)

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, [next slide] baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

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Jesus says, go and make disciples. He doesn’t leave the responsibility at preaching and baptizing. He tells us to make disciples, teaching them everything that He has taught us. A disciple, according to this verse, is someone who follows Jesus. It’s possible to tell someone about Jesus, get them wet, and then leave them to dry out on their own, but Jesus makes us also responsible for helping them learn what it means to follow Jesus. To help them through the sometimes extreme transformation that happens in the Christian life. Making disciples is messy work. It means exercising all those qualities of God—patience, love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace. This command to make disciples puts the church in the role of Bible teacher, addiction counselor, finance instructor, marriage and family counselor, dietitian, career counselor, and more. If the Bible teaches about it and it impacts our relationship with our Father or with our Christian family, or with the world, then the church is responsible for helping its members in that aspect of life.

Let’s review the answers to our question, why does the church exist:

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1) We Gather together to

2) To reach up in Worship,

3) to reach out in Witness, and to

4) Reach deep in Discipleship.

This is the purpose of the church—the core values of God’s gathered family.

Why are we here in Pasco?

But how then is our family of God gathered here in Pasco Washington suppose to practice these core values?

This question is where the rubber meets the road for the Riverview Adventist Church. For a church in China the answer will be somewhat different than for our church in Pasco. Their application of these core values will depend on their unique culture, challenges, and mindsets. We have our own culture, challenges and mindsets to face right here in our community. Our church is planted in the Riverview community and this is the first place God has called us to shine His light to the world. Our members are scattered all around the tri-cities, and each of our homes are another mission field where God has called us to shine His light. So, what do these hyper local mission fields need? How can we reach them for Jesus?

Also, what kind of unique gifts has the Holy Spirit given us? One church saw there were a bunch of single mothers in their town and a few mechanics in the church so they said, “let’s start a monthly free oil change for single moms!” They saw a hyper local need, identified a skillset the church could leverage, and then every month they preached the love of their heavenly Father to single moms in a practical way.

I haven’t been here very long but I already see our church applying these principles. There are many in our community that need food, and we have people who are gifted in project management and systems design which has allowed this church to rapidly grow a food bank ministry from feeding 50 families to over 900 families a week. And then there are those who go throughout the community sharing literature, and those who help meet the needs of the homeless. And the list goes on.

How else might Jesus be inviting us to worship, witness and make disciples?

That is a question that we will explore together over the next few months—in one-on-one conversations, through surveys, in small groups, and in our administrative and ministry meetings. We’ll spend time in prayer together, seeking an understanding of God’s plan for this church. In the next six to nine months we will seek the Lord, brainstorm and then articulate the vision that we believe God is calling us to as a church body. The result will be a strategic plan that represents our understanding of God’s vision for the next three to five years.

If you don’t already know, I hope that very soon you will have an answer for anyone who asks, “why is the Riverview Adventist church on Road 36 in Pasco, Washington?”

Some of you may be thinking that you know exactly what this church is here for. Why should we go through a visioning and strategic planning process? I’ll tell you the reason. Before I ever walked through the doors of this church I asked the elders, “what is your strategic plan?” In spite of having a lovely mission statement for the church, there was no clear plan they could articulate. There’s no sin in that. My guess is that your family doesn’t have a strategic plan, either. Life can quite easily get into a a pattern—get up, shower, read the Bible, eat breakfast, go to work, make supper, clean up the house, have family prayer, go to bed. Our days and our weeks fill up with the repeated cycles of life. And that’s not a bad thing. But sometimes we need to stop and ask ourselves, “is this the career path that I need to continue on?” Or, “is what we’re doing as a family helping our kids to grow up as followers of Jesus?” Or, “is how we’re spending our money the best for our future?” Or “when do we want to retire and what do we need to do to prepare for that?” These kinds of questions are vision questions. They make us think about the future and make intentional changes in the direction of our patterns so that we can reach a destination.

Churches get into those same kind of patterns that families get it. We host a food bank every Wednesday. We go to church once a week. We have a fellowship lunch once a month. We have two social events a year. We throw a shower for a new mother. We hold an evangelistic meeting every other year. And then we do it all again. But just like a family there are times when we need to interrupt the cycle to ask ourselves important questions.

Are our patterns and cycles of activity actually growing disciples, or do we need to adjust something?

Does our worship unite us in glorifying God? Is it all that it could be?

When we go into our community are they grasping the character and plan of God? Do we need to shift something so that we can be effective?

Churches that don’t ask these questions will find that they become irrelevant and ineffective. Even a fantastically successful church that stops asking these kinds of questions will begin to deteriorate over time. People who study churches suggest that a church that isn’t asking questions and seeking the guidance of God and making adaptations to their pattern will begin to become ineffective at God’s mission in as little as 5-10 years.

I’m a new pastor here and I don’t know a lot about this church family. I need to get to know you and your patterns of ministry. I need to get to know the community. Will you please indulge me in this process? Let me ask my questions. Let me lead you in a process of exploring God’s vision for this church. You might already know the answers to all my questions, but I don’t. And, I think, as we go through this process together, we’ll find some new and existing and effective ways to express the core values and mission that God has given our church.

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Let’s stand together and sing our closing song: Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, (647)