All Staff Retreat 2023

WELCOME

You all hear me say this all of the time to the whole congregation — but I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too. I appreciate and love each and everyone of you.

INTRO

A couple of months ago — during an all staff meeting — I presented the background to a discussion the elders have been having this year. I repeated that presentation to all of our folks who attended the all volunteer training in August. And — today — much of our focus is going to be on this new vision for Gateway.

But I need to clarify something first — this clarity came to me after presenting to you all and the volunteers. But I’ll need you to bear with me as I talk us through the four columns again.

These four columns represent the key components that drive the life, ministry, and direction of a local church. In the first column is the pastor — that’s me — for better or worse. Most folks tend to start here — with the pastor — when they think of the life, ministry, and direction of the church. “Why is the church doing this? Because the pastor wants us to” kind of thinking.

Now the Bible has a lot to say about the qualifications, characteristics, and calling of a pastor. There’s 1st Timothy chapter 3 (characteristics), 2nd Timothy chapter 4 (preach the Word), 1st Peter 5 (shepherd the flock), Acts 6 (prayer and the Word), to name a few.

The second column are the other key leaders in the church. Here at Gateway this would be your elders (who have the same list as the pastor), deacons (1st Timothy 3; Acts 6), and staff — though Life Group leaders and other key ministry volunteers would also fit in this column. But these leaders help the pastor move the church along in a certain direction.

The third column is the discipleship process of the church. Here at Gateway this is our process of Worship, Connect, Serve, and Go — our discipleship process. Worship is when we gather together to worship our God in a way that’s Gospel-Centered, done with excellence, and is contextual. We connect in Life Groups where we gather together to discuss how the Bible applies to our lives and care for one another. We serve the people in our church family and we go into the world by equipping, partnering with, and sending members to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Are there other ministries we do? Of course. But this is our primary way of making disciples here at Gateway. And these three columns have summed up our ministry as a church.

And — then — I introduced a fourth column — a new column for us as a church. And the way I introduced the fourth column was by asking a question — this question: What’s our spiritual goal for people who are part of Gateway Church? Meaning, what’s the end target for someone who worships, connects, serves, and goes? Meaning — the title for this column is this: Disciple. What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus here at Gateway Church.

And this is what hasn’t been defined — this is what hasn’t been clearly articulated. You’ve been catching glimpses of what it means to be a disciple through my preaching, the podcast, conversations with leaders, and so on — but because it hasn’t been clearly articulated — there’s been some confusion. And this is what we’re trying to now make it clear so we can all move forward growing as disciples and knowing what we mean by that.

And our vision — our spiritual goal for every disciple of Jesus here at Gateway — is that we’d be disciples...

1. Who are...Word and Spirit Christians (AKA Live under the authority of God’s Word and empowered by the Spirit).

2. Who are…generous.

3. Who are...family.

4. Who are…disciples who make disciples.

5. And who are Kingdom-minded (AKA equip and empower the Big “C” Church).

What Laura has asked me to do — today — is expand on each of these characteristics. And I’m going to do this in a broad way — meaning — no succinct, well-thought out phrases — much of this will be what first came to mind when we were in the brainstorming process. I just kept adding bullet points that helped to capture what each of these characteristics mean.

So we are Word and Spirit Christians — we’re trying to shorten these — so they’re memorable — thus the change from “living under the authority of the Word of God and empowered by the Spirit of God. But — just because we shortened it — don’t think that the longer phrase has been thrown out. You’ll still hear me say it. You’ll still probably catch it in a sermon in the future — just like I’ve used in the past.

Word and Spirit Christians is meant to capture our view of Scripture — that it’s inerrant — without error — infallible — incapable of teaching falsehood. God’s Word is authoritative, sufficient, and practice — thus — everything we’re to do in life — individually and as a church — is to be filtered by Scripture. Passages like 2 Timothy 3 and Psalm 119 come to mind when I think about being Word and Spirit Christians.

The Spirit part means living in the freedom we’ve been given. Living set free from sin. Fighting sin by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Where all that we do — in word and action — is done for the glory of God and done with joy. Spirit Christians use the gifts the Spirit has given them for the building up of the body so that we reach our full maturity in Christ. Though there are commands in Scripture that all Christians are to obey — as best we can — we want those gifted with evangelism to be our evangelists. Those gifted with intercession to be on our prayer teams. Those with the gift of hospitality in our cafes and resource centers. And so on.

We are generous. Being generous is something I especially love about Gateway — probably because generosity is one of my spiritual gifts. Whether it be our Christmas Eve offerings or how much of our church budget goes to missions — and specifically to unreached people groups around the world — and so on — being generous — especially with our resources — is who we want our disciples to be.

I believe that we have a holy obligation to steward the resources that God has entrusted to us by using them for his Kingdom work. From our dollars, to our buildings, to our staff, and everything in between — including our experience and our members. Being generous will help us to be disciples who celebrate what God is doing in other churches and ministries and will help us be a blessing to our community and neighbors. For we read in Scripture, “It’s better to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35) As well as, “God blesses a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:6-7) And we’re a church that makes disciples who are generous.

We are family. Understanding this as a characteristic of the disciples we’re making will help clarify why we do ministry the way that we do as a church. Families are different from business organizations — and I want your view of our church to be that of a family and not of an organization.

Rarely do you have to make formal plans in order to connect with each other when you’re family. You bear with crazy aunts and uncles — why? Because they’re part of the family. You help carry the burdens of those suffering in the family. And — families — healthy ones — Christ-centered ones — they love each other. They’re committed to each other. There’s this idea — in a family of “we before me.”

Everyone has a place and a role in the family. Names matter. So do each of our unique stories.

And viewing ourselves as family will change how we do ministry. It’ll change our gatherings when we worship. The person who shows up late or runs out early will feel like an outsider because family members stick around to talk and hangout. Our Life Groups will feel like getting together with family — not a box we check on our calendar — and whether or not someone is in a Life Group will indicate if they’re part of the family or not. So will our serving and going — in fact — all that we do as a church will have a different feel when we’re doing this thing called Gateway Church together as a family.

A passage that comes to mind are the first few verses of 1st Timothy chapter 5. There Paul tells us to view older women as mothers; younger women as sisters. Older men as fathers; and younger men as brothers. Though we may not be blood-related, there’s a familial relationship we have with each other for we’ve all been adopted into God’s family.

We are disciples who make disciples. I’ve shared my life mission statement before, which is “to glorify God by making disciples who find their joy in Jesus.” A local pastor in town calls me the Bible guy — the disciple making pastor — in Findlay. I’ll gladly accept that reputation. And my hope is that you all will gladly accept the reputation and responsibility of being disciple makers as well. For — it’s not just me — or a few of us here at Gateway — but all of us are called to make disciples.

We must pass on the baton of faith to the next generation. We are responsible for raising up the next generation of Christians, pastors, missionaries, and church leaders. We’re responsible for leaving the Christian faith stronger and in better hands as our time on earth comes to an end. As staff — we’re to empower others to do ministry.

Matthew 28 and Acts 1 come to mind. Some of Jesus’ last words were his command that we would be disciples who make disciples.

Finally, we are Kingdom-minded. This one’s still in the editing process — maybe one of you will come up with a better phrase — but this’ll have to do for now. Previously this was empowering and equipping the Big C — or global — Church — and that’s a mouthful. This ties in to us striving to be a people who raise up the next generation of Christians, pastors, missionaries, and church leaders — not just for our own local church benefit — but for the benefit of Christ’s church beyond our walls.

We’re to make disciples of all nations. We’re to pray for God’s Kingdom to come here on earth as it is in Heaven. We’re to trust in Jesus’ powerful promise to us that he is building his Church and the gates of Hell will not prevail for we’ve been given the keys of Christ’s Kingdom. And our King of all kings — is reigning and ruling over all of his creation. There is no one square inch of his creation that is not his.

CONCLUSION

Pastor — check. Key leaders — check — I’m so thankful for you. Discipleship process — we’ve got a good one. And the goal of our discipleship process — disciples who are Word and Spirit Christians. Who are generous. Who are family. Who are disciples who make disciples and who are Kingdom-minded.

DEPENDING ON ELDER MEETING I MAY USE THIS PART

One last thing. Back in August we didn’t have a word at the top of this fourth column — I just called it the “X” that marks the spot — the win — our spiritual goal. And the reason why I didn’t have a word is because — believe it or not — it took me a really long time to figure out what the word was supposed to be.

“Well that seems silly. Disciple is so obvious!” And it is obvious, but here’s why I struggled to figure out that disciple was the missing word. And this takes us to something else that’s been a point of confusion and friction at times — our mission statement. The word disciple isn’t in our mission statement. And yet the whole point of what we’re trying to do as a church is to make disciples. So I brought this up to the elders — that maybe it’s time for a new mission statement. One that better reflects what we’re actually doing here. It’s not that connecting people to Jesus Christ and one another is a bad mission statement — it’s just using words that don’t quite fit who we are now.

So what’s our new mission statement?