2020.03.29 Future Church: Showing Up or Turning Out

2 Timothy 3:16–17 NASB95

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Future Church: Showing Up or Turning Out

Galatians 5:22–23 NASB95

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Future Church: Showing Up or Turning Out

I hope you are weathering the quarantine well. I know it’s been hard, and I’ve read a lot of posts about things we can do with all of our time to stay emotionally well.

We went to WalMart the other day, and the self-check aisle we were in broke while we were using it. And it was just “one more thing”. It was a Friday, and I had nowhere to be. I had no schedule or obligations. But this “one more thing” was enough to send my attitude through the floor. I immediately saw everything that was wrong with the situation. They didn’t have enough check outs open - people had too many items - the staff wasn’t busy enough - my family wasn’t doing anything to help…it’s amazing how chippy we get when life is turn so upside down.

Let me tell you what you may have heard from other optimists in your life: “It will take some time, but it’ll turn out alright.”

When life is upside down, and we’re not sure what’s next, we reassure each other with words about the future…we talk about how things will “turn out”. When we talk about things “turning out” alright, we’re talking about things being different than they are right now, aren’t we? When we think of things “turning out alright”, we CERTAINLY don’t think of the things staying this way do we?

We’ve been comparing Future Church vs. Historic Church. Historic Church has gotten us where we are as a worldwide church community. In the last 50 years, the church community in the Western World has lost millions of people. We’ve spent a lot of time and effort trying to fix our congregations so more people would come or come back. But Historic Church’s motive has been self-focused. WE want more people to come to OUR buildings and participate in OUR programs and put money in OUR offering plates. I’ve been part of churches who have ACTIVELY recruited people from other congregations! I can’t even explain how wrong that is … and the church I’m thinking of paid a heavy price for growing their numbers that way. That’s not church growth. It’s not God’s concept of church growth.

It would be hard to explain why it’s wrong. Nowhere in Scripture do we see God telling us that growing this way is wrong. However, we are told lots of ways we ARE supposed to grow, and growing this way NEVER APPEARS in Scripture.

Let me suggest that the real problem isn’t with the process of “stealing sheep” per se. The real problem is with the church’s willingness to celebrate a bump in numbers. Even a slight bump in numbers can send a congregation into contortions of self-congratulations that breaks our arms patting our own backs.

Based on what I see in the Scriptures, I don’t believe God is pleased with a bump in attendance figures. Well, if the new people are people who haven’t been involved in any church before, God is pleased … but a bump in numbers does not SATISFY God! “God wants His people to be more than attenders...”

“God wants His people to be more than attenders...” “Transformation happens when God’s people are captivated by the gospel, empowered by His indwelling Spirit, and compelled by love to live holy lives (Gal. 5:22-23).”

I’ve heard before, God is easily pleased, but not easily satisfied! As believers in Jesus Christ, our lifegoal should be to not only please God, but to satisfy Him. We don’t want to hear, “You did okay, mediocre and wavering servant.” No. We want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” and if we want to hear those words, our focus needs to shift.

You see, God doesn’t hope people show up in his sanctuaries across the world. God hopes people are changed by the grace of his Holy Spirit through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In the book of Revelation, we don’t read, “He occassionally makes some things new.” No! We read, “Behold! I make all things new.” [] So, if we’re following the track that God has for each one of us, it means we should be made new! That’s a lot different than just showing up.

We read a very familiar passage earlier, the fruit of the spirit is very familiar to most believers. First, I want to make note that the word “fruit” is NOT plural. These characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit are multiple characteristics of one fruit. In other words, the fruit of an apple tree is leafy, green and red, hard skinned, soft white meat, juicy, with hard black seeds. That’s one fruit, with multiple characteristics, and the fruit of the Spirit is the same.

Now, let me put the fruit of the Spirit in some context:

Galatians 5:19–24 NASB95

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

So, our former self demonstrated deeds of the flesh. Our life was known by different character traits than they are now … but some residue remains … we aren’t done.

You see, God isn’t satisfied with us showing up to worship, or studying his word, or praying. He’s pleased by those things, but his real desire, what SATISFIES him is transformation. “Transformation happens when God’s people are captivated by the gospel, empowered by His indwelling Spirit, and compelled by love to live holy lives.” — Gospel Saturation Primer Or, as Paul wrote: “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Historic Church has sold God’s expectations way too low! Showing up is a good first step, but Future Church must realize that “turning out” or being transformed is really what God wants for and from every one of us!

So … as we sit in our pajamas all day at home, how are you being transformed? Which of the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit is most difficult for you? Maybe we can use this time to grow in these characteristics:

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The story I shared earlier demonstrates that I still have some transformation to grow into. How about you? What does God want to transform in you today?

If we really want to please God, we need to set our sights on transformation as the goal of the Church. If we want to help every man, woman, and child experience the risen Christ and respond to his gospel … the good news of that is not that our numbers would rise. The good news of that is that the kingdom of God grows, and we are transformed in that process.