Milestones - Membership

Welcome: Broadcast Live

Hello Prairie Lakes Church - I’m glad to be here how bout you?!

Hey: if this is your first weekend with us and there seems to be nervous excitement in the room, that’s because we’re experiencing something that’s brand new and different this weekend:

We are broadcasting live at all of our locations across Iowa and online!

Which means what we’re hearing in Cedar Falls right now is the same as we’re hearing in Osage and the same in Grinnell and Fort Dodge and New Hampton and Independence and Decorah and online!

And so here’s what we’re hoping will become clearer to us as we shift into this mode of gathering ever weekend:

First—that it’ll serve as a great reminder of this amazing picture that we’re all a part of every Sunday: one church, gathering together, leaning in and listening in together, living out this no matter mission and vision to Reach Iowa. One church across much of Iowa.

And to maybe give you a visual of this:

We’ve got 7 campuses. 7 locations in central and eastern Iowa. We want to launch more—but we’ve got 7 right now.

So if we pulled up a map of our state…

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Show animated/build-in map of Iowa

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And we plotted where all of our campuses are…

And then we drew a circle around each of them with a 20-mile radius (which is about 30-minute drive, or about how far people are usually willing to go in order to come to church)…

And then calculated how many people are “within earshot” so to speak—how many people in our state we’re in a position to reach with an invite to a PLC campus because we’re in their neck of the woods… they’re in those circles…

Want to know how many people we’re in a position to reach?

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446,000 Iowans are within our reach.

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Now, the internet makes that number even higher when you consider who our online broadcast reaches—and there’s some cool stories there as well.

But in terms of PLC campuses—worshiping communities where we’ve got people who can invite their little Iowa… their friends, neighbors, coworkers, family members… parents they met as they were unloading the marching band trailer for the 8th time and then watching the same halftime show also for the 8th time—

That’s just an incredible potential of kingdom impact right there.

And this is our reality.

Every. Weekend.

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We are a multisite church who wants to reach Iowa with no matter churches and no matter followers of Jesus.

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Not too many other churches in Iowa wake up on Sundays with that kind of potential.

It’s humbling. It’s exciting. And it’s worth sacrificing for and giving our lives to—because there’s more communities in Iowa who need a no matter church.

Why?

Because Jesus is the Way, he’s the Truth, he’s the Life, and far too often the church gets in its own way of simply making his message clear and compelling.

But we want to be a church where no matter who you are you can crash land at a place that’s ok with whatever you’re bringing into the room with you—not because it doesn’t matter, but because Jesus has already taken care of it. And he already knows. And he loves you. And he invites you to turn away from whatever’s got you all bound up and turn toward him.

In fact, let me just share another no matter number with you:

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182 people have crossed the faith line and have begun following Jesus at PLC just this year.

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At every campus. God’s doing it at every campus.

And so: we’re super excited about this broadcast thing (because that’s what I was talking about, right? Got on a tangent there…).

Now, if you attached a blood pressure and heart rate monitor to your worship and production staff and volunteers, you’d see that they’re excited as well… but also all kinda holding their collective breath hoping this all works.

But listen—listen:

We’ve got backup plans in place just in case everything falls apart. Don’t worry. There’s worse things than a few seconds of delay on a screen.

But more than that:

We’re a church that’s always trying to get better. And we’re gonna try new things. Why? Because God is worth our best, and Jesus’ mission matters most, and we want him and his gospel to be the most compelling message that you hear all week.

So… relax. Settle in. It’ll all work out. And even if it doesn’t, good news: Jesus still wins in the end.

Not only is that true, but it’s still true… and let’s switch gears here just for a second:

Jesus still wins in the end, regardless of how you feel about the results of this past Tuesday. We’ll have a different face in the Oval Office for the next four years, but the same King we’ve had for the last 2,000. Amen?

Transition: Acts to Membership

Alright. So, hey: we just finished up a 6-week series where we journeyed through the book of Acts—which documents how the church began. And to summarize 28 chapters and 6 weeks worth of sermons, basically, here’s how it happened:

The risen Jesus encountered a guy named Paul, convicted him of his sin, changed the trajectory of his life, and gave him a mission that took him all across much of the known world.

And so he launches out on three different world tours, so to speak:

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Show pictures of Paul’s missionary journeys - #’s 1, 2 & 3

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His first one is a little shorter.

But then he travels again around the Mediterranean Sea, from region to region, big city to big city, stopping into synagogues and Roman civic centers/theaters alike, sharing and preaching this message about Jesus.

And the result of these trips were churches. Churches in multiple locations.

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Show picture of early church locations

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You had churches in Rome. And Corinth. And Galatia. And Philippi. And Colossae. And Thessalonica.

And I’m sure it was awesome to see what God was doing and how he was moving in each of these places and people’s lives.

But it wasn’t easy.

In fact, at times, it was downright discouraging—and even painful.

Take a look at how Paul describes how parts of his second missionary journey felt:

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2 Corinthians 11:26–28 “I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.

I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.”

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Turns out, trying to grow a church in multiple locations—even when you’re doing it because Jesus literally knocked you off your donkey and told you to do it—doesn’t come without its challenges.

This is from a book of the Bible called “Second Corinthians”—and it’s called that because it’s the second letter we have that Paul wrote to the churches he started in the city of Corinth.

But each of these letters that we have in the New Testament that are named after a city—these letters are called “epistles.”

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Epistle: a formal letter written to a specific person, church, or group of churches addressing specific problems or occasions.

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Which should prompt us to ask this as we read them:

Why is he writing? What’s the problem or occasion that he’s addressing?

And for this particular section of Paul’s letter that we just read:

Why is he talking about all of these hardships and difficulties he’s had to face?

Because—let’s be honest… and I think this is true of us as Iowans:

We don’t like hearing about how “hard someone’s life is.”

Oh, is your job hard? Did you get your feelings hurt? Life is hard. Rub some dirt on it. Or at the very least, shut up about it.

I mean, we just got through the driest harvest season that most farmers have ever seen. Most of them had one hand on the wheel and the other on a fire extinguisher.

We do hard things. Life is hard. For everybody. So put a smile on your face, give me that polite, two-finger wave as we pash each other on the road, and keep the rest of that whining to yourself.

But Paul is airing it all out. In fact, I’m only sharing a sliver of what he’s sharing in this part of his letter. Why is he oversharing? Why is he publicly cataloguing his hardships?

Well, because:

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There were some in Corinth who were saying that following Jesus should lead to a life of victory instead of defeat, and success instead of suffering.

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But this is what is so interesting about how Paul ends this portion of his letter. Let’s put that last part up there again:

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2 Corinthians 11:27–28 “I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.”

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Paul lived this really fruitful but really sacrificial life, and as a result…

Multiple churches across the region.

He had Galatia… Ephesus… Corinth…

Philippi… Thessalonica… Colossae…

We’ve got Cedar Falls… Osage… Grinnell… Fort Dodge…

New Hampton… Independence… Decorah…

And it works the same way now as it did back then. The church multiplies the same way now as it did back then.

It works the same way. Same pattern. Same story. Because it’s the same God and same Jesus and same mission.

Here’s how Paul describes this pattern just a little bit later in his letter:

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2 Corinthians 12:9–10 “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

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Up in Decorah… Summit… question about finances… great chance to explain multisite (Randy/Ben?)

Our story: group of people in CF decided that…

Why? 2008… picture of Samaritans purse… a group of people who didn’t know us came and served us! Maybe we should…

And now we have more PLC people outside of CF than in CF!! What amazing fruit from a “it’s not about us” mentality

Acts series! Paul’s journey… and his “concern for all the churches”

Paul’s collection

Tie to membership: being a member at PLC is saying yes to a church that’s in your town but that goes beyond your town

It’s concern for Iowa and disconnected people

It’s saying yes to a church that remains committed to reaching the one over the 99… no matter big and little

Strong group over individual mindset (in a world that wants to individualize you and segment you off into your tribe and phone)

You have benefited from a church made up of people who said “it’s not about me.” Will you carry on that mission?

Speak to baptism/membership connection? Acknowledge?