Life Together - Session 5

Personal Evangelism

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?

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.”

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 in Clay’s Ferry and around the world.

Let’s conclude our series by looking at regular life together as a church:

Life Together

Acts 2:42–47 ESV

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

So what characterized this first church?

Loved God’s word, loved each other (even sacrificed belongings for each other).

Praised God, shared good news with others.

We want to see all that here at DMBC.

And as is so often the case, the exciting fruit that we see is supported by some important things underneath.

Gathered together regularly.

Lived life together in intentional relationships (met in homes, shared with each other).

Enjoyed and supported leadership God gave them (apostles).

Spent time together in prayer.

Regular Gatherings

Sunday School

9:30am Sunday morning. Classes on a variety of topics that equip our members to live as Christians. Some walking through books of the bible.

Main worship service

We sing the gospel. We are led in prayer. We hear God’s word read. We hear God’s word preached. And we celebrate baptisms and the Lord’s Supper

Sermons are generally expositional (preacher takes a passage of Scripture, explains what it means, and applies it to our lives) .Read the passage through the week.

Sunday evening service

Meets at 6pm on Sundays.

More of a communal time: sing, pray, hear a devotional.

Prayer time: a time to hear what’s going on in our lives and lift these things to the Lord.

We expect and encourage all members to come to both Sunday morning and Sunday evening.

Business meetings

Roughly once a month after Evening service on 3rd Sunday of every other month. For members only. Discuss church business (reports from ministries, updates on finances. We highly encourage every member to come to every business meeting. We may not always have a whole lot of new business, but as congregationalists, we want to be transparent and involved.

Children

Kids are always welcome at all of our services.In addition: special programs for them during services.

During Sunday School: nursery through age 3; Sunday School ages 4 to High School. We WANT kids in our full congregational meetings.

Now, that covers our regularly scheduled gatherings, but lets talk about living life together beyond Sunday.

Intentional Relationships

As we saw in Acts 2, church life extends far beyond formal gatherings. So when you ask the question “how do I get involved at DMBC,” we’ll likely answer it in a different way than some other churches would.

We’re not going to pull out our org design hats and manufacture relationships for everyone—like requiring every member to be in a small group or by dividing up the church into parishes, for example. And we’re not going to pull out our “get involved formula” where we assign you to different church programs. Instead, we’re going to tell you to invest in relationships. 

How do you get involved? Invest in relationships. We’re a relationship-based church—not a program-driven church.From what we’ve seen, the best way to cultivate long-term spiritual health is for you to invest in intentional, spiritual relationships.

We want to cultivate a culture where it is normal for members to take initiative to build relationships with other members with the deliberate aim of doing them spiritual good. Entrepreneurial in nature: no special permission needed to love in this way. Organic and messy: can’t map this out on a spreadsheet. But we’ll see that over time, this results in community that is deeper, longer-lasting, and encompasses a wider cross-section of our church. What does this look like?

You might join a church because of the teaching, but you stay invested because of the type of community that that teaching has built. And if you never get beyond teaching on Sunday morning and into the fabric of that community, you’ll be missing out on much of the good and unique work that God has done here.

So how do we do that?  Three ideas.

Hospitality

Invite people into your home; get lunch with folks who work near you; potluck. Attend weddings and funerals; visit the sick; help each other move; help older members.

Discipling

Help others grow in their relationship with Jesus. Find someone of the same gender and get together with them regularly to study a portion of Scripture, read a Christian book, discuss the sermon—or just encourage each other. Take the initiative in finding someone like this. It should be normal in our church culture to ask people to get together regularly—even though it might seem awkward to you. Having trouble? Talk to me or a Sunday School teacher.

Community Groups

Coming Soon

So the early church gathered regularly, had intentional relationship, then they also had God honoring Leadership

Leadership

Pastor/Elder

We currently have one Pastor. His name is Brad. You should meet him. The pattern we see in Scripture is for each church to have a plurality of elders. This is not an explicit command, meaning we don’t have to fabricate a plurality before God has made it clear it is the right step for our church, but a plurality of elders does Round out Senior Pastor’s gifts; helps make better decisions; helps in knowing our church. Whether it’s one pastor or a group of elders, What do these men do?

Pray (elders meetings; privately). Prayer is necessary in seeking to lead God’s people, and it’s honoring to God as we show our dependence on Him. Oversight as under-shepherds (marriage, finances, worship, ordinances, discipline, doctrine, missions, recommendation of elders & deacons & new members, and so forth)

Teach

One of only two distinct qualifications of an elder vs. a deacon in 1 Timothy 3. Men are given this role in Scripture (1 Timothy 2:12). Elders don’t do all the teaching—but they are overseeing it.

How do we get new pastoral staff? In our constitution we have laid out a procedure for bringing in new staff whether it be a paid or lay position. Basically, as congregationalists, though I may bring a suggestion to the church, it still must be approved by a nominating committee and affirmed by 2/3 vote in the church.

It’s worth noting that while we are called in Scripture to obey our elders, we also see that final responsibility for matters of discipline and doctrine rests with the congregation. In places like 1 Cor 5 or the book of Galatians, when a problem arose in the church, the apostle Paul went after the church, not the elders or the pastor. So we balance the authority of the elder with the priesthood of the believer.

Deacons

Acts 6 shows how the office of Deacon was established.

An issue of logistics threatened to divide the church.To address this issue of unity, the apostles designated deacons to oversee this administrative challenge.What are the responsibilities of deacons?

Primary: promote unity by being shock absorbers and peacemakers.

Secondary: though managing areas of administration

Other positions

Clerk, treasurer, Sunday School Teachers, Troy wants to be called Media Pastor but we aint there yet (Joke).

So in Acts 2, Gathering, Intentional Relationships, God-honoring Leadership, and finally prayer.

Prayer

Two suggestions of how you can pray for us:

Pray through the directory. (Explain how this works; why pray for people you don’t know.)

Pray for our church generally. (Bookmark lists things we pray for regularly on Sunday night.)