History and Missions - Session 4

READ: We further promise to watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember one another in prayer; to aid one another in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and Christian courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the direction of our Savior to secure restoration without delay. We moreover promise that when we move from this place we will as soon as possible unite with another church of like faith and order where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God’s Word.

So, as members of this church we commit to praying for and working for unity. We commit to not talk behind each other’s backs, to forgive each other, to give each other the benefit of the doubt, to surrender our preferences and opinions for the good of others and the glory of Christ, to be careful with each other’s reputations. This means we take time to listen to each other and consider each other’s desires as we run this race together seeking to fulfill the Great Commission Christ has called us to. It means not majoring on minor issues; it means being careful how we speak publicly in business meetings; it means praying for one another and putting on love at all times.

How do we love each other? Does that mean we all have sweet feelings toward one another? Well, that feeling may well be there, but biblical love is deeper than that. It’s an affectionate care: practical love that makes meals, visits the sick, and prays for each other. It’s a watchful love: looking out to protect each other from sin and mistakes. And it is a love guarded and guided by truth. This means that we love each other by admonishing and entreating each other when we sin. Now, in our day, some would say that for you to speak truth into my life or to call me out when I’m in sin is close-minded, judgmental and unloving . . . I’m telling you that’s not true. The most loving thing you can do for me if I’m struggling in sin is to come and speak with me about it. A church is a place where we can at the same time speak hard truths and be filled with grace.

We live in a world that’s full of envy, jealousy, and greed . . . but as a church, we’re called to be different. Because we love each other and have compassion and sympathy for each other, we are called in Romans 12:15 to “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” That means that as a church family, we rejoice when others get pregnant, even if that’s not been possible for us. It means that when someone else gets a promotion and we would give almost anything to just have a job, we rejoice. We are called to see other’s happiness and praise God for it.

We’re also called to weep with those who weep. We live in a world where there is death, cancer, divorce, friends forsaking each other…we live in a fallen world. As a church family, we’re called in Galatians 6:2 to “bear one another’s burdens.” We’re not designed to go through difficulty and sorrow alone and God ministers to us through His people in times of trouble. (Note: Give an example of seeing someone bear a burden or sorrow)

“We moreover promise that when we move from this place we will as soon as possible unite with another church of like faith and order where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God’s Word.”

Membership isn’t about affection for one particular group of Christians. It’s about unity with the body of Christians God has physically placed around you. So when you leave here—either because you’ve left the area or feel that you can grow better at another local church—resign your membership. This is a bit foreign to the church culture in our area, but you shouldn’t just keep your name on the roll somewhere if you have no intention of being a part of the body. The church leaders give an account for their flock. Pastors are worried for their flocks. What’s happened? After months of wondering, they finally return our e-mail. “Sorry—I moved to Alabama and I’ve joined a church there.” Don’t do that!! When you move, resign your membership and tell us what church you intend to join. It’s how you can keep this covenant with us.

Conclusion

So what does it look like to persevere in Christ? It means doing that in community with other believers where strong relationships allow them to know and encourage you and you to know and encourage them. Relationships are built on commitment, and our commitment to each other as a church begins with the promises of this church covenant. Promises you make not just to people with the same background as you, or in the same profession, or people to whom you have a natural affinity. But promises you make to all of God’s children who assemble here as part of our church. And in that we are spurred on and our Lord is glorified.

Now let’s get into history of our church:

Durbin Memorial Baptist Church

Talk about what I know. The church began meeting in Miss Durbin’s storage building in 1938. It was a place known for “sin and dancing” but the mission was seen as an opportunity to bring the light of Christ to Clay’s Ferry.

I75.

This building has been here since 1963.

The pastors I know of, Bob Barker, Ray VanCamp, Chuck Luke, Aaron Hornesby, Michael York, Russel Zik, Brad Pearce.

Help me out

Fill in the gaps for me. We are fortunate to have folks who have grown up here who have seen the church in all stages of life. What are some of the missions the church has been apart of in the past? What are some of the things I’m missing?

Going Forward

Going forward in the vision we pray for God’s will to be done in Clay’s Ferry as it is in heaven, and beyond as well. We are spread out through Fayette, Maddison, Scott, Clark county. We want people to know that here, here at DMBC you will hear the Word of God. We seek to do this through the application of our core values: (Speak about each of these)

MISSIONAL: We value a right relationship with God through Christ; therefore, we share His message with our world. (Matthew 28:19-20)

SCRIPTURAL: We value the Bible, God’s authoritative, inspired Word, and build our church and lives in its truth in all we do. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

RELATIONAL: We value this body of believers: a committed, mutually accountable, family of God serving in an atmosphere of grace, love, and acceptance. (Hebrews 10:23-25)

CHARITABLE: We value loving others, compassionately serving at their point of need. (Galatians 5:13)

With all of this in mind, I want to spend a deeper bit of time looking at the missional strategy of our church.

For the next few minutes, we’ll be looking at the topic of Missions and Outreach—and we’ll begin with Jesus’ words from Matthew 28 in what is known as the Great Commission.

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The command here is to “make disciples of all nations.” This is what our church and every church who claims Christ as Lord should be dedicated to until He returns. How do we make disciples? Well, there are really two ways we apply this command. The first is to help people who don’t know Jesus understand how to become His disciples . . . we call this evangelism. The second is to help people who already know Him grow in their relationship with him, called discipleship. Christians should dedicate their lives to both of those things.

Let’s look at the strategy for accomplishing this calling:

Personal Evangelism

How many of you came to know Christ through someone personally sharing the Gospel with you? [briefly, what happened?]

I love to hear how people came to trust in Christ. We could do this all day, but the point I want us to consider is that God uses His disciples to make more disciples through personal evangelism. Parents sharing the Gospel with their children. Children sharing the Gospel with their parents. It’s you sharing the Gospel with friends, family, co-workers, neighbors…whoever God has placed around you.

Now, as we think about personal evangelism and the local church, one thing worth noting is that personal evangelism is, well, personal. It’s relational. It’s something that happens most often through relationships we have with friends, family, and coworkers. Sometimes a friend you’ve only had for two minutes. But a friend nonetheless. And that means that we think evangelism is done primarily by you in those relationships, not by just bringing people to church for them to hear the gospel here. Of course, we want to make our services accessible to non-Christians. But if the content of Sunday services never extends beyond what a non-Christian can understand, we won’t fulfill the vision Jesus has for us.

Now, if evangelism is basically done by you in your own relationships, how does the church get involved? In all sorts of ways. Let me highlight three:

First, we’re a church where you can bring your non-Christian friends and family and expect that they’ll both hear and see the Gospel. This church is a place where the message of the Gospel is regularly sung, preached and displayed through the Lord’s Supper and Baptisms. And it’s a place where our people can see the love and unity which the Holy Spirit supernaturally produces in the church body. Why is this important? Because supernatural love in a congregation of transformed sinners is a powerful witnesses to the truth of the gospel. The idea that we should share Christ with people without introducing them to this seems a bit silly. Kind of like arguing with someone that the earth is round when, the whole time, you’ve got a picture shot from the Space Station in your back pocket. So personal evangelism is relational in nature—but it should intersect with the church community.

Second, we desire to be a church that helps you to faithfully share the Gospel when you walk outside our doors. One of the things we do often is model the gospel through the three circles presentation. I may not do it EVERY week, but I try to do it often so that I am equipping others to share the gospel.

Third, we have various events and ministries that help you to introduce your friends to the truth of the gospel and other members of this church, all at the same time. We try to have regular fellowship times as well as encourage our Sunday School groups to find acts of benevolence to do together. We also will be forming community groups in the near future as an attempt to invite people in to see the love of Christ.

A few things you should know about ministries like this. The first is that they’re your responsibility. Personal evangelism and the command to love your neighbor are given primarily to individual Christians—not to the church. So just because you give money to support this ministry doesn’t mean that you’ve discharged your responsibility to share your faith or care for those in need around you. But the church can be a great help in your doing that—both in helping you mature as a Christian and by coordinating effort, as we do through ministries like the ones I just mentioned.

The second thing to note is that while we care about all suffering, we especially care about eternal suffering. So we will always hold primary our opportunity to share the gospel—though we often see that opportunities to care for physical needs feed into that. If you’ve been around a long time, you’ve heard me say this a million times, but if we hand someone a bottle of water without telling them about Jesus, we’ve only sent them to hell hydrated.

The third thing to note is that we try to foster a fairly entrepreneurial culture in our church. We’re not trying to build a bunch of big programs that we recruit you to; instead, we want you to identify opportunities for ministry, jump in, and bring others with you. What that means is that there’s no nice, glossy brochure that tells you everything that’s going on. Instead, the best way to find out is to come regularly on Sundays and get to know people in our church. This also means that you’ll see our ministry focus change over time as God brings new opportunities and passions to our church. Interest in some things will begin to wane while new ministries rise up. And generally, that’s a good thing.

So that’s all in the category of personal evangelism.

Any questions so far?

10:02 / 0:12

Missions

While personal and local evangelism are important, we also understand that Jesus said we are to “make disciples of all nations.” So in the book of Acts, the church in Antioch fasted and prayed, laid hands on Paul and Barnabas, and sent them out to proclaim the gospel in places the gospel had never been. In 3 John 6-8 we hear how that church was involved with missionaries.

3 John 6–8 (ESV)

6b You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. 7 For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

Christians historically have called this “missions,” which we define as proclaiming the gospel across language, cultural, and geographic barriers.

Now, we believe that every member at DMBC should be involved in missions in one of two ways . . . either by sending or going. As for the sending part, that begins with giving. We try to give generously to the work of oversees missions through our church budget. We provide financial support to missionaries with several different missions organizations, though the largest chunk of our missions giving goes three missionary families, The Hensley’s, The Hatcher’s, and the Luke’s. We have direct relationships with each of these families and hear from them regularly. I am actively trying to increase transparency and access to these folks so we can see the good work for the glory of God that we get to be a part of with them.

But when it comes to supporting missions, we want to be involved beyond just writing checks.

What about going? How should members of DMBC get involved in missions? We are actively looking for opportunities to go on mission. In the recent past we have sent folks to Brazil. We also have a relationship forming with elkhorn city kentucky, which while not that far away, feels like a different country in many ways.

You’ll hear a lot about missions in our church; by God’s grace it is one of the most exciting things that we’re able to be involved with.

Does anyone have any questions so far about the missions efforts here at DMBC?

The Southern Baptist Convention

A significant part of missions and outreach in our church involves partnership with the Southern Baptist Convention. So before we finish, I’ll explain that partnership. To do that, I’ll answer a two questions we often get.

First, what does it mean to be Southern Baptist?

A Southern Baptist church is a local church that has chosen to be “in friendly cooperation with, and contributing towards the causes of, the Southern Baptist Convention.” What that means is that every Southern Baptist Church is completely autonomous under Christ. We don’t take orders or direction from the SBC. Instead, we can be in friendly cooperation when we want, and stop cooperating when we want. In fact, some don’t even like to call it a denomination because the SBC can’t tell any of those churches what to do like Presbyterian, Anglican, Lutheran, and many other denominations can.

That means the SBC is thousands of churches that cooperate together. Basically, a big pot of money that many different churches contribute to that goes to fund missions, seminaries, and church planting.

So when we say the words “in friendly cooperation with…” we mean that we have a shared theology and vision for missions and evangelism. And when we say “contributing towards the causes of…,” it simply means that we financially support to the work of the Convention.

So where did the SBC come from?

It’s important to note that this church hasn’t always been Southern Baptist. Baptists have been cooperating on a national level since 1814 when Baptist churches joined forces to better support missions work here in North American and around the world. They called this cooperation the “Trienniel Convention” because they met every three years.

Initially, this group tried to be agnostic on the issue of slavery, but by 1845 that was no longer possible. In that year, a missionary candidate was rejected because he was a slaveholder and in response, most of the Baptist churches in the American Southeast broke off to form the Southern Baptist Convention. Tragically, most churches in the South—Baptists included—did not see American slavery for what it was, antithetical to the gospel.

By the 1950s, however, as Southern Baptists were in the process of repenting from racists beliefs and practices, the Northern Baptists were slipping toward theological liberalism in their beliefs and practices—and this church started funding the Southern Baptists instead of the Northern Baptists.

Eventually, the SBC publicly repented and apologized for its past positions, declaring that church members must, “unwaveringly denounce racism, in all its forms, as deplorable sin” and “repent of racism of which we have been guilty whether consciously or unconsciously.”

So while racism was one major crisis that baptist churches had to navigate in deciding how to cooperate with other Baptist churches, it wasn’t the only crisis. The theological liberalism of the north pushed some into the SBC, but unfortunately it followed there, characterized by a denial of the authority and truth of the Bible. In fact, the SBC president who first sounded the alarm about this, K. Owen White in his “death in the pot” essay, had earlier been our pastor who led us into the SBC.

By the 1970s SBC pastors were being trained in SBC seminaries by professors who denied core gospel doctrines like the divinity of Christ, the necessity of faith in Him for salvation, the authority of the Bible and more. But, in God’s mercy a change occurred.

Beginning in the 1980s there was something of a grass-roots rebellion in the SBC, something not seen in other major US denominations. Over time the seminaries and sending boards were reformed, which meant that for the SBC, money was now supporting missionaries and seminary professors who would not actively work against the gospel. And so today we are pleased with how our money is used for pastoral training and for missions—and their partnership with us as we send out our missionaries with them and send our young men to their seminaries for training. It’s yet another example of how churches cooperating together can accomplish so much more for the gospel than they could do on their own.

Questions

Conclusion

So at DMBC we’re concerned to lead our church to be engaged in personal evangelism, missions, and caring for other churches. It’s a basic part of what it means to be a church as defined and described in the New Testament.

My call to you would be to join us in this work. Join here as a member. And work with us for the fulfillment of the great commission, that God might be glorified in his people here on Capitol Hill and around the world.