State of the Church (2022)

It’s an honor to serve here at FBC as pastor. I’ve read from several other pastors of semi-local congregations who are struggling immensely with division, envy, and bitterness within the local church. As Christians we’re all humans and we’re not immune from allowing worldly problems to filter into the church - but there has to be a better way than allowing stress and differences of opinions to bring about seemingly irreparable division within the church of Jesus Christ who died to bring us together under His Gospel. It’s a blessing to serve here with so many of you all who lovingly serve and share the Gospel. It’s a blessing to serve here with so many of you who are willing to get out of your comfort zone in order to make a difference in the life of someone else.

Each year, Barna research publishes polls, surveys, and trends among churchgoers and pastors alike. In recent years they have begun to call this the “State of the Church” and include recent trends, concerns, celebrations, and encouragement in one easy to read article. Given where we find ourselves as a church and in the midst of a changing landscape in our community and world, I felt like tonight would be an appropriate time to have our own “State of the Church” examination as we look at where we are, where we are going, and how exactly we are going to get there.

Before we examine these questions and look at our specific church, let’s spend a few minutes tonight looking at Hebrews 10:19-25

Hebrews 10:19–25 CSB

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus— 20 he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)— 21 and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. 23 Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

Christian Confidence and Responsibility

The letter to the Hebrews is one of the richest and deepest books that we have in our Bible. This preacher points out to his audience how Jesus Christ is greater than their previous way of life. To the Jewish Christians in his audience, Jesus is the greater sacrifice. He is the greater Moses. He’s the greater Aaron. He’s greater than the angels. He’s the perfect priest who died for His followers. The 3rd and final section of Hebrews, which begins in Hebrews 10:19 transitions from theological to practical as this preacher encourages and instructs his audience to live differently as a result of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. Many of these instructions are for the entire church and we find several things that we as Christians are responsible to do in these 7 verses tonight. Let’s look at 4 things that the church must do

Have confidence in Christ (19-22)

As Christians, we know that we can’t place our ultimate confidence in our works… We place our confidence in Christ’s finished work in our place on the cross! Because of Jesus we are able to come before our God with boldness. We are instructed to draw near to God. This is a responsibility for Christians and one that we cannot take for granted.

Persevere in Christ (23)

The second thing that the church is supposed to do is to trust in Christ. Why is this a big deal? Why should Christians trust in Christ? Because He is faithful. He is good, He is in control, He doesn’t change… Therefore He can be fully trusted! The verb for holding fast is a present tense verb indicating that we must continue to hold fast to Christ not because it’s easy… But because He is always faithful and He can be trusted.

Lift One Another Up in Christ (24)

The third thing the church is supposed to do it lift one another up and help one another produce good works. Whenever we know someone is struggling, we encourage them and lift them up in prayer. There must be love inside the local church. As we love on one another, our prayer should be that we would continue to produce good works and proclaim the Gospel inside and outside the walls of this church. This is a responsibility for all of us!

Gather Together in Christ (25)

In 2020 Hebrews 10:25 became the most divisive verse in the Bible as people debated this, “What does it mean to gather together?” Some people took that verse to mean that it’s wrong to miss church under any circumstance… Others in 2020 took that verse to mean that I can do church by myself from home and not miss anything. Both of these aren’t the meaning of the text, at all. Hebrews 10:25 is clear: Christians are supposed to gather together - corporate worship matters! You should feel like you missed out whenever you can’t come to church because there’s something inside of you that longs to gather with God’s people and praise Him. Why? Because whenever you gather, you get encouraged by God’s people. Does this mean that you’re in sin if you are sick and don’t physically come to church and worship online? No - sick and unclean people in Jesus’ day didn’t go to the temple. Our responsibility as Christians is to desire to gather together for worship and to be careful not to fall out of that habit… Isn’t it easy to fall out of a good practice? If you develop a habit of waking up at 5am to read your Bible and you get sick and sleep in for a few days, it’s a lot harder to pick that habit of waking up at 5am after you’ve slept in till 8am for a week! We have to be careful to not fall out of the habit of gathering together to worship our Savior.

These are Christian responsibilities and things that we must do inside our church. We must proclaim the truth of the Gospel. We must stand on the Gospel unashamedly. We must lift one another up in Christ. We must gather to worship Christ together. These things might be contested in the media or in some churches, but we can’t confuse what the Bible says with what is popular or trending on social media. The Bible says it, that settles it!

Where We Are

For the next 10-15 minutes, I want to spend some time examining where we’re at as a church and what is on the horizon. God has been so gracious to us and has blessed us left and right. I’ve been praying for months and months about direction and guidance on where the Lord wants us to go in the days and years to come. Some pastors call something like this “Vision Sunday” where the pastor lays out his vision - I think that can be done Biblically, but I’d much rather share some truths, trends, and thoughts that I’ve had in spending time with the Lord about His plans. At the end of the day, we want to do exactly what the Holy Spirit is leading us to do… Nothing more but certainly nothing less. We want to stay in the center of His will and follow His plan!

So, where are we? We’re in the middle of a busy season of ministry in the life of this church. Between Love Thy Neighbor, Camp Joy, Day Camp, VBS, and our Guatemala Mission Trip, we are going to have lots of events and trips where the Gospel will be shared and, we pray, disciples will be made! We’re also in the middle of a busy time of the year for people traveling as some are today. As a result of traveling, trips, and events our attendance is kind of all over the place. Some weeks we’ll have near 300 and other weeks we’ll be closer to 250. The Lord has sent and is continuing to send people to our church and this has to make us pause and give thanks to Him for that!

From July of 2021 to June 1 of 2022 we’ve had 25 people join our church by statement of faith or transfer of letter and we’ve had 18 people join our church by profession of faith in Christ and following through with believer’s baptism! That’s 43 new members of FBC Salem in less than 12 months! This number doesn’t include a number of people who have been consistently attending our church and have yet to officially join.

Our 3rd quarter 2021 average attendance in morning worship was 194 and our 2nd quarter 2022 average attendance in morning worship, excluding Easter, was 280. This is reason to celebrate that more people are hearing the Gospel. More people are growing spiritually. More lives are being changed by the Holy Spirit. And more friendships and relationships are being made! Numerical growth is cause to praise God, but spiritual growth is even more reason to give thanks to Him!

Lots of churches and pastors get hung up on numerical growth and they make that the barometer of their success or lack-thereof. Whenever we make numbers the indicator of our success then we’re going to get depressed in a hurry. Whenever we make numbers the sole indicator of our success, we’ll begin to cater to numbers instead of people. It’s been said that whatever it takes to get people into a church, it will take to keep them at church. Meaning this, if the only reason that you come to church is to hear songs that you like and David starts to introduce some songs that you don’t like, you might stop coming because the thing that brought you here was the songs. If the reason that you came to church was because you really liked the sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount and we started a new series through Philippians, you might stop coming because the thing that brought you here has changed. The thing that we pray brings people to FBC Salem is not our songs, sermon series, or specials… We pray that it would be the people who gather to worship our Lord and follow His Spirit. We pray that people come here because we stand with confidence upon the inspired and inerrant and sufficient Word of the living God. We pray that people come here because of the love that exists here. We pray that people come here because this is a church that loves God and loves others well. We pray that people come here because this is a church that doesn’t just make converts but makes disciples and strives to make disciples of all nations.

The biggest praise about where we are is the spiritual growth and the unity that exists within this body. Without question spiritual growth trumps numerical growth and it’s been a blessing to see people come to faith in Christ and continue to grow in their walk and begin serving in this church. This is where we are. By God’s grace we are united under the Gospel. We are proclaiming His truth. We are loving our community. We are making disciples of all nations. The Holy Spirit is working in changing lives and hearts here at FBC Salem and it is exciting to get out of the way and watch Him move and change lives.

Where We’re Going

There are many praises about where we are, but God doesn’t call us to stand still and be comfortable with where we are. He wants us to grow in our walk with Him and for our trust in Him to deepen! As we think about these things and about where we find ourselves at today, we have to ask ourselves where is God leading us? Where does He want us to walk? How does He want to deepen our trust in Him? In order to understand where we’re going, we first have to look back at where we’ve been going.

COVID has been a game-changer for every single church. COVID changed the way that we operated. It changed ministries. It changed schedules. It changed the way that people interact with others. COVID changed church attendance and continues to do so. In looking at the attendance trend for FBC Salem, attendance went from 230s to mid 100s. Events and schedules looked different. Things were rescheduled. Lots of things changed seemingly overnight. People still get COVID, but we’re progressively learning to live with it and, as a result, our schedule of events is changing too. This spring we were able to do Kidz Choir and we had 75-85 kids most Monday afternoons! This was a win! After several years without an international mission trip, in July we’ll send 14 people to Guatemala. This is a win! After a few years, back in April we were able to have Pageant and that was a tremendous win! The Lord has been so gracious to open up doors for us to serve and proclaim the Gospel in recent months and we want to be ready to walk through the doors that He will open in the months and years to come.

I want to think about the future in 3 areas:

Home

Church

World

What does the future of the home look like at FBC Salem? The home is a battlefield in our world today. There are distractions and temptations vying for control of the home. The home matters and we want to equip members and attenders of FBC Salem to be able to win the war of the home! We want to fulfill the Great Commission of making disciples and that has to start in the home. In the days to come we want to provide resources, training, and constant prayer to help in this effort. In August, the weekend before school starts, we are going to have one of the leading Discipleship experts and a good friend to myself and David come up here and do a discipleship workshop with our congregation on Saturday and preach on Sunday. Dr. Pat Findley is awesome and I pray that this provides us with something to look forward to as we try to grow in our walk with the Lord starting in our home. We want to see relationships grow in our church and within our community so that we can open our home to others and extend the love of Jesus and truth of the Gospel with others. We want FBC Salem to be a place where people not only walk the walk in church but outside of church as well!

What does the future of the church look like at FBC Salem? The church is also under attack in our world. There are secondary and tertiary matters that are causing splits and division in churches all over the world. There are churches forgetting their mission and purpose. There are churches being opposed by our culture because of stands that they have made based on Scripture. What does our future look like? It looks bright! How can I say that? How does the future of the church look bright in the middle of a culture that hates the Bible and in the middle of a society that is getting “sue-happy” with Bible-preaching churches? Because Christ promised to build His church and He said that the gates of hell will not overtake it. I take Jesus at His word. Does this mean that times won’t get hard? No, they probably will. The future for the church will be challenging, but Jesus promised us that we’d have tribulation and trouble… That doesn’t mean the future is doom and gloom - the Gospel won’t return void. The Holy Spirit is still changing lives. God is still seated on His throne in control. So how does this impact our future? FBC Salem is a growing church. Why is FBC Salem growing? I pray the reason why is because we are being obedient to Scripture and following the Holy Spirit’s guidance. As long as that continues - as long as we stand unwaveringly on Scripture and follow the Holy Spirit - we will stand out from everything else this world has to offer and in a world of darkness, our light will shine bright.

What does the future of the world look like at FBC Salem? Our world is getting dark and many people have not heard of Jesus in our community and throughout the world. What can we do about that truth? We start in our home proclaiming the Gospel. We continue in our church and community to proclaim the Gospel. We take the Gospel to the ends of the earth because that’s what Jesus calls us to do. How do we do that? This year it looks like a couple of different things: It could look like going to Guatemala in person, helping someone go, praying for those going, or supporting the ministry that will take place there. It could look like giving to Lottie Moon or another mission effort. It could look like praying for the Gospel to be shared and lives to be changed. In future years it could look like going to Moldova, Guatemala, or another location that we don’t even know of tonight! In September we are going to have a dedicated time looking at missions as Dr. Phillip Burden from FBC Ozark will be here on September 24 and 25 to do a missions workshop. I pray that in the days to come, FBC Salem would be a place where Jesus is lifted high and that we would faithfully give, grow, and go in order to take the Gospel far and wide.

How Do We Get There?

If we want to be a church that stands on the truth of Scripture and lets our light shine for our community and world to see and if we want to see lives continue to be changed by the Gospel, what do we have to do? In one sentence, we have to stay faithful to Christ and align ourselves with His purpose for our lives.

In 1 Corinthians 3 there was a debate about who the greater teacher was: Paul or Apollos? Paul calls them immature believers because they took their eyes off of Christ and instead aligned themselves in individual camps that resulted in unnecessary division. Look at what he says

1 Corinthians 3:5–7 CSB

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So, then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

The Lord has a role for each of us as individuals. Some of us will plant. Others will water. But God will provide the growth and increase. We are all responsible to fulfill our purpose!

So take where we’re at as a church. How can continue to stay faithful to Christ amid a season of growth?

Remember who is bringing the growth

It isn’t us - it’s 100% God and His power and His Spirit! We are responsible to continue playing our part of planting and watering seed, but God brings the growth and salvation. Whenever we think that we’re responsible for growth, we’re going to be disappointed… But whenever we remember that God is in charge of that, we will be humbled and grateful.

Look for new ways to serve

Whenever there are new faces, there will be new ways to serve. I’ve been told by numerous people that this is a church that does a good job of welcoming others and this is awesome! But don’t stop welcoming others whenever there are more guests than there were the month prior. Continue to serve in your ministry and if you don’t have a place to serve, find one! But we all must welcome others and extend the love of Christ, especially whenever there are new faces who are looking for a place to call home.

Get ready to get uncomfortable

Whenever we get comfortable in church-life, there is a temptation to stagnate. Christ doesn’t want us to stagnate and become lukewarm… He promises to vomit us out of his mouth when that happens! Spurgeon once shared that, “There is no university for a Christian like that of sorrow and trial.” While we may not view growth like sorrow and trial, growth gets us out of our comfort zone and can come across as a trial of sorts for a church. Do we succeed or do we fail? How do we succeed? By staying faithful to Christ and not staying comfortable. By staying faithful to Christ and not taking the easy way out. By staying faithful to Christ and possibly doing something that has never been done before because it’s what we have to do. By staying faithful to Christ and possibly doing something that doesn’t come natural to me.

God is sending people to FBC Salem. People from our community and people from other parts of the country who are moving here! We already have a children’s ministry that is too big for its current area. We already have Sunday school classes that are too big for their current classrooms. We have a growing church that is taking up more and more space and we have events where there is no more room. If we want to continue to be a light in our community and if we desire to see the 12,000 people who are unchurched in Dent County reached with the Gospel, our prayer should be that the Holy Spirit would continue to use us however He chooses to help the lost become found. As this happens, get ready to get uncomfortable. Not because it’s easy but because it’s necessary. Because if we gain another 43 new members in a calendar year and if our trends continues, as currently constructed, we will not have room.

Friends, God is blessing the ministry of FBC Salem. God is at work. It’s a blessing to be a part of this congregation and I can’t wait to see what He has in store in 2023, 2025, 2030, and 2035. He started this amazing work… He will see it through. Our duty as Christians is to trust in Him, encourage others, and stand on His Word. He will take care of everything else… He will bring in the increase. Let’s prayerfully consider what He is calling us to do today, tomorrow, and each day thereafter for His glory, for the good of our community, and we pray, for the lost to become found and for the saved to continue to grow.