Making the case for the church
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This sermon explores the growing isolationist tendency called cocooning, and calls upon believers to value and embrace Christian Community. The key text is Hebrews 10:23-25 in which we are exhorted not to "forsake the assembling together."
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Making the case for the church
- 1. The new challenges we face in sharing the good news
- 2. Goals for today’s sermon 1. To grapple with the changes in our society that are creating increasing isolation. 2. To explore together the Bible’s teaching concerning the role of the church in building community. 3. To call God’s people at GEFC to step up their commitment to the evangelistic work of the church in building God’s community.
- 3. Making The Case for Community 1. Changes in our society that are resulting in increasing isolation and a breakdown of community.
- 4. Making The Case for The Commack Drive-In
- 5. Making The Case for The Commack Drive-In
- 6. Making The Case for
- 7. Making The Case for
- 8. Making The Case for
- 9. Making The Case for The Flat Screen TV
- 10. Making The Case for The Cocooning of America
- 11. Making The Case for
- 12. The Halo Effect
- 13. The new challenges we face in sharing the good news
- 14. Making The Case for Community 2. What does the Bible have to say about the value of being a part of a church community?
- 15. Making The Case for Community Hebrews 10 23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
- 16. Making The Case for Community Hebrews 10 24And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
- 17. Making The Case for Community Hebrews 10 25Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
- 18. Making The Case for Community A Christian Community helps us to hold fast
- 19. Making The Case for Community Hebrews 10 23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
- 20. Making The Case for Community A Christian Community helps to motivate us.
- 21. Making The Case for Community Hebrews 10 24And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, Παροξυσμός “Paroxusmos”
- 22. Making The Case for Community A Christian Community is a place of mutual encouragement
- 23. Making The Case for Community Hebrews 10 25Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
- 24. Making The Case for Community 3. The importance of Evangelism in building Christian community.
- 25. Making The Case for
- 26. The new challenges we face in sharing the good news
- 27. Making The Case for Community In a cocooned church… There are no fresh stories of conversion and life change.
- 28. Making The Case for Community In a cocooned church… Procedures trump mission
- 29. Making The Case for Community In a cocooned church… There is more angst than influence.
- 30. Making The Case for Community How can we build a church of influence?
- 31. Making The Case for We start becoming a church of influence by: Getting out of the Salt Shaker and into the World
- 32. Making The Case for We start becoming a church of influence by: Loving Others Unconditionally and Generously
- 33. Making The Case for We start becoming a church of influence by: Empowering Others
Notas do Editor
- To grapple with the changes in our society that are creating increasing isolation. To explore together the Bible’s teaching concerning the role of the church in building community. To call God’s people at GEFC to step up their commitment to the evangelistic work of the church in building God’s community.
- 1. Changes in our society that are resulting in increasing isolation and a breakdown of community.
- By 2011 the Commack Multiplex, the killer of the drive-in and the RKO Twin, was gone as well. Now, the Drive in is a Super Target. The Twin is a Party City. And the Multiplex is a Lowes. But what killed the Multiplex? A super-plex. A theater that serves meals? Something bigger yet?
- The Flat Screen TV. This simple set up packs almost all the punch of the theater. An LED screen with a superior picture to the theaters we grew up in. A soundbar that produces excellent high and middle sound and a sub-woofer to make the low sounds that make you feel the action. Some throw in surround sound and theater seats. By now you’re probably wondering what I’m up to with this bit of screen history. What’s the point? This progression from drive-in to home theater is part of a major shift in our society.
- There are so many examples of this trend. This term to refer to the retreat of Americans to the inside of their homes was first coined in the 1990s by a female entrepreneur with the rather colorful name Faith Popcorn. She has proven to be a bit of a futurist, someone who sees societal trends at their earliest stages. Ms. Popcorn predicted trends like working and shopping from home and talked about the financial and social impact that these megashifts would have.
- She said, “Cocooning is about insulation and avoidance, peace and protection, coziness and control – a sort of hyper-nesting. So what’s so bad about cocooning? What’s wrong with creating a comfortable nest? Is it really so bad that we have attached garages with garage door openers to get in privately? Or that we have alarm systems to keep danger out? Or that we have moved off our steps, or in NYC, stoops, in order to sit on decks in fenced back yards? What’s the problem with canceling my gym membership and building a fitness center in the basement? Or canceling my community center membership and putting in a pool and a Jacuzzi? Or building primary circle of relationships on social media? Is it a problem that we are moving away from community? It is a huge problem for the church. Do you know fewer people who go to church? That’s not just a perspective, it’s a fact. For a decade the pollster’s have been reporting that church attendance has fallen to 40% of the population. However, the truth is far more dire. In fact, less than 20% of Americans attend church regularly. Why the discrepancy?
- The reason for this 20% difference is what pollsters call “the halo effect.” The Halo effect is the difference between what people tell pollsters and what they really do. Half of those who don’t attend church don’t want the pollster to think they are a bad person. So they lie! And as a result, the polls can be greatly skewed. It looks like in the average American community, the real number is between 17-18%. My gut instinct is that the numbers are better in Geneseo, but probably not as much better as we might assume. And the trend is concerning. Church attendance is spiraling downward at an alarming rate. If we define a growing church as a church that is not just gaining attendance, but gaining at a rate larger than the overall population growth in that community, the percentage of churches that are growing in America is 6%. 94% are plateaued or losing ground.
- Cocooning is a part of this. But clearly there is a broader issue. Let’s be brutally honest. A growing number of people prefer not to go. Some don’t like church. Some aren’t sure that church helps them to be a better Christ-follower. A growing number prefer to stay in the cocoon and listen to better speakers and better worship on the internet. I’m not talking about the religious nones here. I’m talking about those who regard themselves as Christ-followers, but not church goers. Which leads to my next point.
- 2. What does the Bible have to say about the value of being a part of a church community? What I am talking about is the Title of our topic – Making the Case for Community. I think that before we consider specific reasons why a church community is important, we do well to begin with the text that most directly addresses the question of whether church attendance is important. That text is found in Hebrews 10.
- Hebrews 10 23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
- 24And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
- 25Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. These verses are more than a simple command to go to church. They provide us with some compelling reasons why we should be committed to the local body. Let’s explore these together.
- Look at verse 23 again: 23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. I will never forget my first day at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. One of the first places on campus that I explored was the Student Union. I heard that the Student Union had two things in the basement that very much interested me, a bowling alley and a room filled with pinball machines. College was going to alright. I entered the main floor of the Student Union and felt like I had just been transported to another planet. There was a punk rock concert starting in an hour. This was 1978. I hadn’t heard of punkers. There were people with blue hair and pink hair. There were men and women wearing spikes and chains. It looked like Walking Dead, but they were very much alive. But the punkers weren’t the only ones there. The Marxists were there, protesting for a workers revolution. And the feminists were there, braless and brazen. And there was a group of Jewish students confronting some neo-Nazis who were handing out a newspaper called White News that claimed the holocaust never happened… it was a hoax. I have to admit, I was downright numb. But there was something else I found that day… a flyer for the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship group that met in one of the upstairs meeting rooms on Thursday Nights. That coming Thursday, I was there. That group became a source of strength for me in a very lost place. I met 35 fellow Christians. Many were deeply committed disciples of Jesus. And when I began taking religion classes that denied the authority of God’s Word and ridiculed the notion that God created the universe, or Jesus performed actual miracles, that group was there for me. Several of the guys in that group took the same classes. We brainstormed about how best to oppose the professors skeptical approach to Christianity without failing the class. Greg and Phil and our IV staffer Steve helped me to hold fast in a setting that was hostile to faith. And as I look back I realize that I helped them. We were there for each other. This is part of why we need Christian community. Holding fast is harder on your own. In fact, this is one of Satan’s favorite strategies, to isolate a believer and then attack, like the way a lion separates a gazelle from the herd and then pounces. There is strength in numbers, and this is part of why we need a Christian community.
- A Christian Community helps to motivate us.
- Let’s move on to Hebrews 10:24: 24And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, There is a very interesting word used in this verse. The word παροξυσμός can be used in a positive context or a negative context. It only appears twice in the entire New Testament. In Acts 15:39 this word is used to describe the “sharp disagreement” that arose between Paul and Barnabas concerning whether to take John Mark along on the Second Missionary Journey after he had defected during the first. Paul and Barnabas were emotionally stirred up and it resulted in their going their separate ways. In our text we see this word being used in a positive context. As Christians we need to stir one another to love and good works. The idea here is that of motivation. Left to our own devices we can grow stale in our walk with God. This is one of the great dangers of an isolated Christianity. There is no one to stir the pot. Let me share some of the ways that my pot has been stirred in the last few weeks. One of the neat things about being a pastor is that you get to see God’s people at work. Mercedes Bealer stirred my pot. I watched her packing shoe boxes all last week with great joy and enthusiasm and felt lifted in the midst of a very busy week. Rick Gilson stirred my pot. I watched him kill himself between the Electrical project and the Parking Lot project. In fact, I told him that if he did nothing for a couple of months we would not be disappointed. I walked in the church yesterday and he was excited to show me the two flat screen TV’s that he and his son-in-law Dustin were installing in two of our Sunday School rooms. Josh Elmer stirred me up, even though I didn’t see him on Saturday. But I saw his handiwork. The doors were on the shed and the shed was half-sided. Josh is a busy guy with a large young family and here he is building a shed for us before winter hits. Annie Henthorn stirred me up as I saw her caring for little “Z-man” in the hospital. Nate stirred me up when we worked together installing the wiring for the TV connections in the AWANA room. I watched as he jumped from that job to other tasks like giving my daughter singing lessons. Everything I just shared with you happened this week. And I could have given 10 more examples easily. This is one of the most powerful benefits to being a part of a church, a Christian community. Your brothers and sisters in Christ provide you with an opportunity to grow in your love. By seeing the way that they love others and experiencing their love for you, it is a powerful motivation to become a more loving person. And as you see them do good, it stirs your pot of complacency.
- A Christian Community is a place of mutual encouragement
- 25Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. As I look at this verse I have always been amazed to see that the problem of poor church attendance is as old as the first century. During the apostolic era there were believers who didn’t see the necessity of gathering together. Rugged individualism is not an American invention. Self-sufficiency is as old as human pride. However, as we probe deeper into this verse we see a third reason why we need community – encouragement. But notice that this is not a pure consumerism. It’s not I go to church in order to be encouraged. The text speaks of encouraging one another. We go to church not only to be encouraged, but also to be an encouragement. You could stay home and find means of encouraging yourself. You can listen to encouraging sermons online. You can read books by encouraging authors. But here is something you can’t do all by your lonesome… be an encouragement. Sure, you can make encouraging comments on facebook or post uplifting tweets on Twitter. But there is nothing like coming alongside a real flesh and blood brother or sister in Christ and lifting their spirits. But there is something else that is packed into this exhortation an especial encouragement to be in Christian community as the end-times draw near. The reason is quite obvious. The closer we get to that time where God begins to withdraw the restraining hand of the Holy Spirit and allows evil to run amok, the more we will need encouragement. As I look back to the year 1980 I remember a time when I was blessed to my socks by much needed encouragement. I was working at our Free Church camp in New Hampshire, Camp Spofford. I had just made the most difficult telephone call of my life, telling my parents that I had just seen the doctor and that I probably had cancer. A friend came over and led me to the chapel where the entire staff was gathered together, already deep in prayer. The strength I drew from those friends that day was almost miraculous in and of itself. I drove back to Long Island. No sooner did I get in the house and the phone rang. It was a pastor in New Jersey telling me that his church was praying for me. A few hours later, another phone call from a pastor in Connecticut. I got calls from pastors all over the New England and Mid Atlantic states as word spread of this 20 year old diagnosed with testicular cancer. I went into surgery knowing that thousands of Christian brothers and sisters had my back. When the surgeon informed me that the pathology report was good news I found myself wondering… did the cancer become something else or was it never cancer. My doctor in New Hampshire was so sure. To this day I don’t know the answer to that question. What I do know is the powerful encouragement that is available to us through Christian community. If I hadn’t been connected with a praying church and a praying Christian camp I would have never experienced the full majesty of the Body of Christ. Over the years I have seen people who reach out to their church in times of struggle. I’ve also seen the people who disappear, kind of like the dog who goes under the deck to die. Their challenges are often identical, but their journey through the challenge is so different. There is more bitterness in their journey. More blaming God and others. Less peace. Less joy. Less comfort. And in neglecting Christian fellowship there is an unfortunate consequence. You fail to build the kinds of supportive relationships that you’ll need in those difficult moments like a marital meltdown or a health crisis. It’s hard to build such relationships in the middle of the muddle. You build community over many years. Every year the bonds of friendship grow richer and more sustaining.
- 3. The importance of Evangelism in building Christian community. Now let’s put our first and second points together and ask a rather odd question. Couldn’t the church be our cocoon? Why couldn’t we experience the benefits of the security and safety of the cocoon and the rewards of Christian community all at once by building a bigger cocoon, one that includes our brothers and sisters in Christ. Isn’t that possible? Let me bring back that Faith Popcorn quote:
- “Cocooning is about insulation and avoidance, peace and protection, coziness and control – a sort of hyper-nesting. “ Sadly, it is not only possible for us to cocoon together; it has been the way in which the typical church in America has come to function. The church has become for many the “Holy Hive.” Instead of forsaking the assembling together, some of us do nothing but assemble together. We have factored out all that negativity that unsaved people introduce into a community. Uncomfortable questions. Embarrassing behaviors. Shocking attitudes. Out of control lifestyles. Unbelievers introduce a lot of mess and we long for control. So, in a manner of speaking, it makes sense to guard the hive and maintain the healthy environment of our church. But there is one small problem. The church that fails to reach out is not a healthy community.
- Evangelism is essential to the health of a church. We need seekers and skeptics in our midst. Let’s consider for a few moments what is missing in a church that has allowed itself to become a cocoon.
- In a cocooned church there are no fresh stories of conversion and life change. When a church is growing and outward focused you can tell. There are constant testimonies. I remember once going to one of the most famous prayer services in the world, the prayer meeting at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. They have a famous and very talented choir led by Pastor Jim Cymbala’s wife, Carol. But the most amazing thing was not the choir. It was the prayer meeting. That Tuesday night prayer meeting was actually larger than the Sunday church services. The Fire Marshall used to send someone each week to close the doors when the large sanctuary reached capacity. Hundreds of others sat in an overflow room connected via video feed. The Tabernacle is located just blocks from where the Brooklyn Dodgers used to play in the now demolished Ebbets Field in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn I realize that that doesn’t evoke an image for you. When I was growing up we referred to neighborhoods like Brooklyn Heights as the “Combat Zone.” Gangs. Drugs. Prostitution. Violent Crimes. That is Brooklyn Heights. I remember going to the prayer meeting at the Tabernacle and checking the door locks three times. I also remember coming back to the car and breathing a sigh of relief that the tires and engine were still there. But in between that tense journey away from my car and back to it was one of the most uplifting nights of my life. Over 1200 people gathered in prayer. And the testimonies were amazing. A crack addicted prostitute who had recently come to Christ. She was now enrolled in a local college. A former gang member, tatted up with gang insignias sharing his difficult journey away from street violence. Every week there were testimonies like that because every week the people of that church were out in the combat zone sharing the love of Jesus. It was an exciting church. But when you go into a cocooned church the stories are different. They’re nostalgic. Ancient biographies of salvation experiences long ago. They are a valuable part of the testimony of the church, but a healthy church also has new stories. People are seen coming to Christ. Life change is all around.
- In a cocooned church procedures trump mission. Remember, part of cocooning is coziness and control. Cocooned churches become hyper-focused on policies and procedures. The greatest challenge in such an environment is outreach. Often you’ll find that evangelism isn’t in the budget. Evangelistic events aren’t on the calendar. And when you try to implement outreach there is a lot of concern about wear and tear on facilities. Some call this the “protecting church.” It exists to self-protect and develops a deep array of mechanisms for keeping disruptive elements at bay. I am thankful that we are gaining ground in this area. I am excited that there is an iWitness Team making preparations for an outreach at the Christmas Walk in a few weeks. I am excited that there are several shelves filled with Bibles and gospel tracts. I believe that we are breaking out of the cocoon. I am hearing more witnessing stories in our church and just starting to hear some conversion stories. There is nothing that will revolutionize our church more than when we reverse this equation and mission trumps procedure… the point at which we truly embrace our mission even if it introduces some uncomfortability and chaos.
- In a cocooned church there is more angst than influence. Given its overriding concern for peace and protection, the cocooned church looks at the world at large and sees a society beyond redemption. The world out there is a lost cause. How many times do you hear people talk about today’s teens as beyond reclamation. They’re too self-focused. Too liberal. Too lazy. Too disconnected and too distracted. Wake up call Boomers. Remember when our parents said the same thing about us! I look at today’s teens and I also see great opportunity. They value honesty and integrity. Many of them have figured out that life should be more than the stuff we accumulate. They are looking for a cause worth investing themselves in. And if the church provides them with a crystal clear sense of significant mission, look out. As long as we see this generation or this world as beyond hope, we will stay in our cocoons and install alarms in our cocoons. But there is another choice. The healthiest of churches are influencing churches. They see don’t see the world as a lost cause, nor do they see it exclusively as a battlefield. They see the lost world as a wide open mission field. How do we have influence? It starts with something we’ve been talking about for weeks… building bridges. Forging friendships. Getting involved in the lives of those around you. Which leads us to the final stretch this morning.
- How can we build a church of influence? How can we get out of the cocoon and into the world and really make a difference. Let me start with a borrowed title from Becky Manley Pippert’s classic book on Evangelism.
- In her book, Becky Pippert describes evangelism as a lifestyle, not an event. One of the things I love about my brother Jim Bos is that I see this in Jim. Evangelism is not something that Jim does. It’s who he is! That was why I asked him to head up our iWitness Team. I knew that the other members of that team would be able to look up to Jim because he is an evangelist. The worst thing we could do as a church is to thank God that we have an Outreach Team and leave it to them to share the gospel. I think of our iWitness Team as our special forces. But they are not our only forces. They need an army beside them. When evangelism becomes your lifestyle you will do it without fear. It won’t be scary anymore. In fact, it will be as natural as breathing. But it won’t become that comfortable over night. As you share your faith more and more frequently you will find your natural witness. It will cease being forced and will become natural and effective.
- We start becoming a church of influence by: Loving Others Unconditionally. When you ask people to share about the people who have most influenced them, there is an unmistakable common strain. They don’t reference the talents and abilities of these people who inspired them. Rather you hear things like: “He believed in me when I had lost faith in myself.” “She never gave up on me.” “He was so selfless.” What was the greatest apologetic of the first century church? What caused them to add to their numbers daily and grow from 120 people to 1 million disciples in 90 years? Their unconditional love for one another. It still works that way. But don’t think this is easy. People will test your love. Sometimes they’ll test it with bad behavior. That is why we are called to be forbearing in our love. I came across a great quote this week. “Jesus died on a tree of death so that we could have a tree of life.” That is unconditional love. Lost people will flock towards a community of people who love that way.
- We start becoming a church of influence by: Empowering Others. Christian Leadership guru John Maxwell has said, “a leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others”. Lost and cynical people see the church as a dependent organization. They think that we are all about money. And judging from the white suited televangelist jokers on TV, can you blame them? Churches that invest in lost people regardless of whether they ever become attendees or members will have great influence. I hope that some day in the near future we will have ministries like Divorce Care and Celebrate Recovery. I hope that we will have workshops on parenting and and building healthy marriages. Right now, very few people are looking for a church. What they are looking for is a helping hand. There is no organization better poised to be that source of empowering others than the church. Becoming such a body returns us to the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. However, I encourage you. Don’t wait for your church to launch a program to empower others. Just come alongside your neighbor. Use your gifts to bless them. Invest in their lives and when they get curious about why you are doing what you do, share with them what Jesus has done in your life. That’s Evangelism. And there is nothing like seeing lost people find their way to Jesus. That is why “I Witness.”