How to Build a Super Church
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· 16 viewsJust as today’s competitors in Super Bowl XXXVIII must have a Team that plays together, built around a strong offense, and a strong defense, and strong special teams, so we too must build our church into a super church around certain essentials.
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TEXT: Acts XI:XVIIII-XXVI
TOPIC: How to Build a Super Church
Pastor Bobby Earls, First Baptist Church, Icard, February 1, 2004
BIBLE SURVIVORS SERIES, Message LXXXVIII
INTRODUCTION: Welcome to Super Bowl Sunday! Without question, the top event in American sporting life is the Super Bowl. You may prefer the World Series or the collegiate Final Four, but make no mistake about it, all factors point to the Super Bowl being the grandest event of them all.
This is why corporations will spend millions of dollars for 30 seconds of ad time during the Super Bowl. This is why out of the 10 most watched TV programs in the history of television, the Super Bowl has captured 9 of those slots, with the 1983 final showing of the series MASH, picking up the only non-Super Bowl listing.
Do you realize that over 130 million people will watch this game tonight? Even greater football enthusiasts will make the trip to Houston, Texas, site of Super Bowl XXXVIII and will spend thousands of dollars at the game. And that’s just the price of the tickets! I heard the other day that more food will be consumed on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year other than Thanksgiving. I know we plan to do our share of consuming shortly.
And can you believe that this year’s Super Bowl features the New England Patriots and our own Carolina Panthers! The Panthers are in the Super Bowl for the first time. Just think, two years ago the Panthers had one of the worse records in football at 1 and 15. But in just a few years, they’ve built a super team and they’re in the Super Bowl.
But we’re not here today just to talk about the Super Bowl. There will be a Pre-game shows today that will last longer than the game itself. They are even longer than a Lord of the Rings movie.
On this Super Bowl Sunday, I want to talk with you about Building a Super Church. What does it take to make a Super Church?
Please take your Bible and open to Acts 11. For in the eleventh chapter of Acts we encounter a Super Church. The church in Antioch, was one of the first truly great churches in the first century. Located in what would be northern Syria today, the church at Antioch became the center for world evangelization and the great missions church of the Scriptures. Antioch sponsored Paul, and his companions, men like Barnabas, Silas, Luke, and even John Mark. It was in many respects, the Apostle Paul’s home church.
What was it about this church in Antioch that made it a Super Church? That is a question we need to ask and answer if we hope to become a Super Church here at FBI.
Just as today’s competitors in Super Bowl XXXVIII must have a Team that plays together, built around a strong offense, and a strong defense, and strong special teams, so we too must build our church into a super church around certain essentials.
I. WE BUILD A SUPER CHURCH BY SHARING EVANGELISTICALLY
This church was founded by those who had been scattered by the persecution in Jerusalem. Yet in the midst of adverse circumstances, they were “preaching the good news,” v. 19, and v. 20 says they were also preaching about Jesus. In other words, they were preaching the good news about Jesus.
Acts 11.19-20 “19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus.”
You know that’s what the church needs today. We need to focus on the good news about Jesus. There’s always plenty of bad news. If you look long enough you can always find some bad news. But you do not build a super church on bad news. We need good news. The good news about Jesus!
The strategy for building a super church always begins with a focus on evangelism. We must prioritize the Great Commission in our purpose statements. To make disciples is impossible if there is not an equal and simultaneous effort to share the good news about Jesus with those who are lost.
That’s what F.A.I.T.H. is all about. It is our evangelism strategy through the Sunday School. It is, if you will, our greatest offense. We move the church forward numerically as we consistently and conscientiously share the good news about Jesus.
We need your help to build a super church evangelistically. We need F.A.I.T.H. TEAM members. We need Learners, Leaders and Assistant Leaders. Every great offense has to have a great quarterback, and powerful running backs, and explosive wide receivers. But they can do nothing without the supporting casts of centers, guards, and tackles.
My friend you may think you’re not needed, you’ve done it before, or you think, I could never do this, but you’re wrong. You’re an important player when it comes to building a super church through sharing the good news about Jesus Christ!
We hope to send out 12 teams of 3 people every Monday night over the next 16 weeks. By the way, isn’t that how long the NFL season lasts, 16 weeks? The parallels never stop!
We need 12 teams of 3. Will you be one? Come tomorrow evening to our F.A.I.T.H. Banquet and then decide whether there is a place for you on F.A.I.T.H.
Well, there’s something else.
II. WE BUILD A SUPER CHURCH BY GIVING GENEROUSLY
Look at verse 27 – 30, (Read them). Word came to the church at Antioch that a famine was to hit. The believers at the founding church in Jerusalem, the mother church, would suffer especially. The believers in Antioch did not waver. The responded immediately to this need by giving in proportion to their abilities and even beyond their abilities. When you read Paul’s message to the Corinthian Church, in 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, you see this in practice.
Now I want to tell you, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done for the churches in Macedonia. 2 Though they have been going through much trouble and hard times, their wonderful joy and deep poverty have overflowed in rich generosity. 3 For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford but far more. And they did it of their own free will. 4 They begged us again and again for the gracious privilege of sharing in the gift for the Christians in Jerusalem. 5 Best of all, they went beyond our highest hopes, for their first action was to dedicate themselves to the Lord and to us for whatever directions God might give them. (NLT)
To grow into a super church, we must be generous with out time, our energy, and our resources. Church growth is always costly in all those areas.
The Panthers are not where they are at today because they were lazy, or because they lacked commitment or sacrifice.
In the same way, a super church must recognize the promise the Lord Jesus makes to any believer that trust Him with their giving.
If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving—large or small—it will be used to measure what is given back to you.” NLT
Finally,
III. WE BUILD A SUPER CHURCH BY PRAYING SERIOUSLY
Acts 13:2-3 allows us to peak into a worship service of this super church. One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work I have for them.” 3 So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way. NLT
This church was fueled by serious prayer. They were fasting and praying as they worshipped the Lord. In the midst of this, God gave them their vision for reaching their world.
We need to restore prayer to its rightful place if we are to build a super church. Nothing of any eternal significance ever occurred except through serious prayer. If our church is to grow supernaturally, we must have a supernatural power that comes only through supernatural praying!
You know what I would love to see happen this F.A.I.T.H. cycle that has never happened before? I would love to see all our F.A.I.T.H. prayer partners come out on Monday nights and lift us up in prayer the entire time we are out sharing the good news about Jesus!
Don’t you think that would go a long way toward helping us build a super church? I do.
CONCLUSION:
I still have a vision to build a super church here at First Baptist Icard. But it will take a team effort. A team effort that includes sharing evangelistically, giving generously and praying seriously.
Are you ready?