(CM 01) A Bigger Deal Than We Think
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Through the year (or years) we touch on several things.
We make statements.
We use words.
We use passages and verses.
I want to take all those puzzle pieces and put them together in the big picture.
We are going to spend a few weeks talking about church membership.
I didn’t sell that well.
Some of you probably groaned a little bit inside.
Non-members and members alike.
This series will feel a little different.
There will be times it feels more like preaching and other times it feels more like teaching.
This will be a 5-8 week series.
What is church membership?
This question will take some time to answer.
Let me give you a quick answer from ChurchTrac.com
"Church membership is the relationship between a local church and a Christian marked by the local church overseeing the Christian's faith journey and the Christian living out their faith under the local church's care"
Church membership is a seemingly broad topic with seemingly broad definitions.
Though we don’t find an explicit command, there are plenty of examples and principles in the New Testament to guide our thinking.
About 9 years ago we spent some time on this in Sunday School.
We touched on it Sunday School a couple of years ago.
I think its important to spend some time on this with the whole church.
Many will tell you this is when our thinking began to change.
There are differing views of church membership.
There are a few people who would say church membership is necessary.
There are some Christians that would say that it is at the most optional but probably not necessary.
There have been movements lately to minimize the church membership pressure.
Even if churches have a form of membership they change the name.
The majority of Christians are someplace in the middle.
They see it as optional.
They understand that Christian should be involved in a local church.
But membership isn’t a big deal.
Where do you land?
Where does the Bible land?
Let’s take think about this from a different perspective…
Barna - 2 in 5 professing Christians report attending church regularly.
Church hopping has become a common thing for church goers.
They have 2 or 3 churches they like to attend.
Who’s responsibility is a healthy church?
1. The responsibility of a healthy church lies on every Christian.
1. The responsibility of a healthy church lies on every Christian.
A. Jesus commands every Christian to make disciples.
A. Jesus commands every Christian to make disciples.
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,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
A. Jesus commands every Christian to make disciples.
A. Jesus commands every Christian to make disciples.
The responsibility of a healthy church lies on every Christian!
B. Paul tells every Christian that church health is their responsibility.
B. Paul tells every Christian that church health is their responsibility.
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
B. Paul tells every Christian that church health is their responsibility.
B. Paul tells every Christian that church health is their responsibility.
the saints: those who are set apart by the gospel.
God’s people.
Christians.
They are responsible for the building up.
For building up the body
“The act of one promoting another’s growth.”
Every Christian is expected to become spiritually mature.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
B. Paul tells every Christian that church health is their responsibility.
B. Paul tells every Christian that church health is their responsibility.
Who speaks the truth so others can grow?
Notice that each part must work properly for the body to grow.
You matter.
You being here and being involved matters.
You not being here and not being involved matters.
This is a foundational truth that we all need to understand.
The responsibility of a healthy church lies on every Christian!
C. Peter tells every Christian to use their gifts to serve the church.
C. Peter tells every Christian to use their gifts to serve the church.
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
C. Peter tells every Christian to use their gifts to serve the church.
C. Peter tells every Christian to use their gifts to serve the church.
God has given every Christian a spiritual gift.
You can find them mentioned in several areas of scripture.
Hospitality
Teaching
Service
Giving
Evangelism
Given to each Christian by God
They are on loan from God to us.
We must use them well.
Don’t miss this important detail…
Only one of the gifts involves finances and it is not giving regularly as each of us has a responsibility to do.
These are gifts that contribute to the edification and numerical growth of the church.
Every Christian has a responsibility to the church far more than simply showing up on Sundays and putting money in the offering plate.
God gave these gifts to the church.
The responsibility of a healthy church lies on every Christian!
D. Jude tells every Christian to build themselves up in the faith.
D. Jude tells every Christian to build themselves up in the faith.
But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,
keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
D. Jude tells every Christian to build themselves up in the faith.
D. Jude tells every Christian to build themselves up in the faith.
We have already seen that each Christian has a responsibility to build up other Christians.
The spiritual growth of person sitting in your row is your responsibility.
Here the responsibility for spiritual growth is squarely on the shoulders of each Christian.
It is your responsibility and mine to grow.
We can never say: “I’m not growing because…” and place the blame on another person.
The responsibility of a healthy church lies on every Christian!
God never meant for the church to be a place for consumers.
He meant it to be a place for contributors.
Am I a merely a consumer?
Do I contribute to the life of the church?
In what ways do you contribute?
Not by just keeping programs going…
We could take away every program and still have a healthy church.
2. The culture has impaired our understanding of the church.
2. The culture has impaired our understanding of the church.
A. The culture outside the church has impaired our understanding.
A. The culture outside the church has impaired our understanding.
John Wayne said he liked God until He got under a roof.
All over social media: I don’t need to go to church to worship God.
“You don’t attend church, you are the church.”
Forgetting that the only way to function as the church is to gather.
We could say we gather because we are the church.
A building full of attenders does not make us much of a church?
Our have what you want when you want, the customer is always right attitude contributes to church hopping.
Live streaming services.
Easier to stay home.
Easier to find other churches.
There is nothing wrong with this when we see the point of church as being something I consume.
“I can get better preaching on a podcast.”
Preaching should not be the centerpiece of our church.
Preaching is just an important piece of what the church among other important pieces.
Multiple churches in every town.
Our attitude that we all deserve freedom and nobody will tell me what to do.
I am my own person.
My life is my own.
My decisions are my own.
My relationship with God is my own.
B. The culture inside the church has impaired our understanding.
B. The culture inside the church has impaired our understanding.
Sin inside the church.
Church scandals
Church politics.
Cause us to push back against submitting to the church.
Paid pastors.
Some think that the pastors are paid so they do everything and I just show up.
A general misunderstanding of the what the church is and the importance of it.
Evangelism habits.
We tend to avoid even nominal commitment when witnessing.
“I’m not asking you to join the church, I’m asking you to receive Christ as your savior.”
We have bought into easy believism - repeat a prayer after me.
Make another mark in the front of our Bible and move on.
We have given in to the idea that the rapid addition of numbers is a successful church rather than making committed followers of Jesus.
Its what the experts tell us.
Its what pastor’s learn in Bible colleges.
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
B. The culture inside the church has impaired our understanding.
B. The culture inside the church has impaired our understanding.
Concluding thoughts.
Concluding thoughts.
Before we can consider the question: “Is church membership important?”
We must consider: “Is the local church important?”
“Is it important that I gather faithfully with the church?”
The problem: We often want the benefits without the responsibility.
We want whatever it is we expect the church to give us.
My goal during this series is to help us think biblically instead of culturally about the church.
Kid’s questions:
What is one way I can serve my church?
Who is one person (not in my family) that I can build up this week?
Questions for the week:
What is one way I can use my gifts to serve my church?
Who is one person (not in my family) that I can intentionally build up in Christ this week?
If the health of my church looked like my gathering habits and my involvement, how healthy would my church be?