I drew extensively from sermons by Dr William O. (Bud) Reeves
First United Methodist Church
Hot Springs, Arkansas
His sample sermons are posted at Bishop Schnase's http://fivepractices.org/ website.
Thank you Dr Reevs and Bishop Schnase for the inspiration
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THE CHURCH PART 1:
loving God and others
Reinbeck UMC
8/31/14
·
While
we were in Charlotte, we worshipped in a 4000 member United Methodist church
with 6 worship services every Sunday. When I was in seminary, I served a church
with an average attendance of 15 older adults.
·
I
have worshipped in the church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and in a
thatch roof pavilion in Haiti.
·
I
have lead worship with a band and smoke machine and gobo lights. I have
participated in silent unprogrammed Quaker worship.
·
I
have worshipped in a Greek Orthodox church in downtown Chicago, and of course I
love our small town church in rural Iowa.
You know
what?
No
matter how large or small, no matter how formal or informal, no matter how loud
or quiet, each one of those places is still the church. The church of Jesus
Christ transcends buildings, and attendance statistics, and locations, and
music style, and language and race, and time. The church of Jesus Christ
transcends almost every human category or classification we can imagine.
The
church of Jesus Christ is greater than any of these categories except one. THERE
ARE FRUITFUL CHURCHES AND THERE ARE UNFRUITFUL CHURCHES. There are churches
that are living by Jesus’ mandate to “Go therefore into all the world and
preach the gospel,” and there are churches that are not doing that. There are growing,
and there are churches that are dying. There are churches that are making
disciples, and there are churches who are driving disciples away. Believe me, it
has nothing to do with their building, location, attendance, worship style,
language or race.
You
could read a book a week for the rest of your life analyzing why some churches
work and others don’t. However, I think United Methodist Bishop Robert Schnase
of Missouri has hit the nail on the head. Bishop Schnase wrote a book that
identifies five practices that are present in every fruitful church. Some
fruitful congregations are large, and some are small, some are in the city, and
some in the country. Whatever the context might be, however, excellent churches
display some common characteristics. I think our congregation here does pretty
well with these 5 qualities, and I think our fruitfulness shows it.
Occasionally, however, it is good for us to step back and look at who we are
and what we are doing. Today and for the next two weeks, I want to look at the
five practices of fruitful congregations and compare them to our ministry here
at the Reinbeck United Methodist church, so we can think together about ways we
can improve and be an even better community of faith helping people to know Jesus, grow more like Jesus, and go
for Jesus.
A.
Let’s
start at the front door with hospitality.
Hospitality
is the ministry of loving people as God loves them. What is the goal of God’s
love? To draw people to love him.
Hospitality is loving people in a way that
they will be drawn to love God. It has to do with loving those outside our
walls as well as those inside the walls of the church. Hospitality has to do
with communicating to EVERYONE who is here and who might come here that God so
loved them that he has already given his only begotten son for them. God has
already prepared a place for each and every person, and we, as the church, are
the welcome mat for God’s kingdom.
There’s a story about a man who had to go to a farm to talk with the
farmer about a business matter. Driving up the dirt road leading to the farm,
he encountered signs that said things like: “Trespassers will be shot,” “Beware
of Dog,” “Keep Out …This Means You!” Arriving at the door, he was a little
worried about what he might encounter. But he was greeted by a smiling,
congenial farmer. When the man was ready to leave, the farmer said to him in
sort of a wistful way, “Come and see me again sometime. I don’t get many
visitors up this way.” Well, no wonder. The entrance to his farm did
not indicate that the visitor would be greeted with much in the way of
hospitality.[i]
That farmer reminds me of some churches.
I
haven’t seen any “no trespassing” signs around here, In fact I think this is a
pretty hospitable church. I think we do
a great job with the basics, but think about this…
·
Our
church sign can‘t be read as you drive up to it from either West Street or
Spruce Street. Try it. It can only be
read from the corner. It is in disrepair and just generally not very welcoming.
It doesn’t say no trespassing but it doesn’t say “y’all come in” either.
·
Do
you know where our name is on our building? Most people don’t even know it’s
there on the West side of the entry way. Do you know what it says? It says First
Methodist Church. No one knows us by that name… especially since we have
been UNITED Methodist for 47 years now. It doesn’t say “get out” but it doesn’t
say welcome either.
·
We
fixed up the women’s restroom, but the men’s is an embarrassing mess. It might
not say we don’t want you, but is certainly says we don’t care very much.
·
If
you are in a wheelchair, do you want to sit in one of the aisles where you feel
like you are in the way? That is the only option we have given them, even
though there are possible solutions.
Hospitality
isn’t just the building…
I went to the Hubbard UMC when I was
on retreat one time, and not a single person talked to me… not even the pastor.
I don’t think that would every happen here, but are you one that makes a
special point to greet strangers, or are you one who sits with your arms
crossed and whispers, “who is that?”
Hospitality
is not just for guests. It has to do with the way we treat everyone.
We
generally treat each other very hospitably, but… I know that some of you really
look down on other people in this congregation. I know that some of you gossip about
others. I see unkind things that you write on facebook. You might not be saying
“trespassers will be shot,” but you words are lethal weapons. I know that some
of you don’t want anything to do with the handicapped ramp because you don’t
know Beverly… but how many times have you made the effort to see her? She’s
been a home bound member since April 25th, 2010. That’s 4 year and 4 months if you
are counting.
Paul writes
in Romans 15, “Welcome one another, just as Christ has welcomed you” And he was
talking about welcoming what the Jews thought of as “those dirty gentiles.” I
am talking about friends and neighbors.
Now
don’t get me wrong. In the big picture, we are one of the most welcoming
churches I have ever seen. We have most of the basics down cold. We have each
of you to thank for that…
Hebrews
tells us “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that
some have entertained angels without knowing it.” You can all hopefully think
of folks who have come to be part of us in the last few years who are just
angels. They stay because you showed them hospitality. Thank God for them and
keep up the good work.
However, we aren’t perfect. There are still
things we can work on. Fruitful churches practice RADICAL HOSPITALITY and are always trying to be better
welcome mats for God’s kingdom.
B.
Once
we are in the door, the first stop for most of us is worship. Bishop Schnase
says fruitful churches have passionate worship.
Some
would say that passionate worship is an oxymoron. (Words that are inherently
contradictory like: military
intelligence, congressional action, or pretty ugly.) Some argue that worship is
at best a time to see some friends and catch a few Z’s. I’ll admit I have been
known to get a little nap between the prelude and the postlude from time to
time. (Fortunately not when I have been leading worship!)
Bishop
Schnase says, “Vibrant, fruitful, growing churches offer Passionate Worship
that connects people to God and to one another.”[ii]
Great
worship is passionate worship. What do you think of when you hear the term
“passionate worship?” A televangelist with a big show? Africans drumming and
dancing? Pentecostals shouting and speaking in tongues? A high mass in a
cathedral? A Taize folk service with a guitar for accompaniment and everyone
seated and singing? Or do you think of Reinbeck United Methodist Church?
Which of
these are passionate worship? All of
them can be!
·
Passionate
worship has nothing to do with the style of worship. There is as much variety
in passionate worship as there is in the people of God. Passionate worship can
be traditional, contemporary, liturgical, high, low, gospel, ethnic, you name
it. It’s not about the style.
·
Passionate
worship is not about the leader. Some leaders are more capable than others, but
it is not the pastor that makes worship passionate.
·
Passionate
worship is not passionate because of the music, the order of worship, the
choir, the sermon, or the communion.
·
Passionate
worship doesn’t depend on what vehicle you take, as long as you arrive at a
personal encounter with the presence of the living God
If we
can’t rely on the music or the pastor to give us passionate worship, how do we
get it?
· First, SAY YOUR PRAYERS. Great
worship is undergirded by prayer. We have to be spiritually prepared to
worship. Trying to worship without preparing in prayer is like trying to run a
race without stretching your muscles first; you could pull something! Do you
pray for the pastors, the music ministry, the Sunday Schools, and your own
openness to God before you ever show up on Sunday morning? If you pray to have
great worship, God will hear those prayers, and you will be filled with a
spiritual expectancy when you enter this place. The result will be better
worship.
I come
over here every Saturday night. Do you know why? Partially to print things off
and practice the sermon. But just as importantly I walk around this sanctuary
and pray for each and every one of you. I lay my hand on every pew, and pray
for whoever will be sitting there tomorrow and since you are creatures of habit,
I often know who that is going to be. I pray for open hearts and spirits that
will be vulnerable to God’s movement in worship.
When was
the last time you prayed for great worship? Or do you come and plop yourself
down and dare me to entertain you? Great, passionate, worship happens when it
is undergirded with prayer.
· The second key to passionate worship is,
ENGAGE YOUR HEART. John Wesley constantly had to defend himself against charges
of “enthusiasm,” or inappropriate emotionalism in religious services. The early
Methodists were called “shouting Methodists” because of their exuberance in
worship. I’m not saying we should go crazy with emotionalism. But I am saying
that passionate worship has to engage the heart as well as the mind.
Matt
Redman is a contemporary Christian songwriter who has reached people around the
world with his worship music. But early in the 1990’s, he was leading worship
in his church in
England
called Soul Survivor church. The band was of course good, but the worship was
flat and uninspiring. So one day their pastor, Mike Pilavachi, confronted the
band and declared a season of no music. They would sing a cappella until they
got the right spirit back in their church. His point was that even thought he
quality of music was excellent, they had
lost their way in worship. He believed that the way to get back to the heart
would be to strip everything away. He wanted to challenge his church to be producers of worship, not just consumers.
Well,
the band was insulted and left the church. All except Matt Redman. He looked
deep inside himself and came up with a song, which has become one of the
best-loved songs in contemporary worship. It’s called “The Heart of Worship,”
and some of the lyrics say, “I’m coming
back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about you, all about you, Jesus. I’m
sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it, and it’s all about you, it’s all about
you.”
That is
a song from the heart. And when we engage our hearts, we can experience passionate
worship
· The third key to passionate worship
is to KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. I’m not talking about marketing surveys here. We have
a tendency, in our consumer culture, to view the worship service like religious
entertainment.
o
God
is the producer; he is in control of the process.
o
The
pastors, musicians, ushers, and others who move around are the actors,
o
and
the congregation is the audience.
If we’re not careful, we end up with
the attitude reflected in the Dennis the Menace cartoon from several years ago.
Dennis was walking out of church, and says to the pastor, “Pretty good show for
a quarter!”
In
passionate worship, we have to know who our audience is. YOU are not the
audience. In spite of the way we have you sitting, YOU are definitely NOT the
audience for worship. The only audience in worship is God. Passionate worship,
is not for us. It is directed at God.
o
The
pastors, musicians and others are the stage hands,
o
helping YOU, the actors, to get everything you
need. You are the actors
o
And
the audience of our worship is God. Passionate worship is directed toward our
heavenly Father. We do this for Him. We have an “audience of One.” And the only
ultimate criterion of good worship is that it please our audience.
It
doesn’t matter if I am happy with our worship, or if you are happy with worship.
All that matters is whether God is happy.
Passionate
worship -- worship that is surrounded with prayer, comes from the heart and is given
to God will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. This is what Paul was talking about when he wrote
to the Romans: “I appeal to you
therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies
as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed…” Be transformed by
passionately worshipping God with all that you are. Your head, your hands, your
heart. Be transformed by worshipping the God who is the God of all that was …
all that is new… all that is to come.
Let me
close with a quote from Annie Dillard that I think speaks powerfully to where
we, as the church, are today.
“ Many churches today are like children
playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill
a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear …(our fancy clothes to church; we should all be wearing
fireproof suits) … and crash helmets.
Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to
our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking
god may draw us out to where we can never return.”[iii]
Radical
Hospitality- loving others into God’s love.
Passionate
worship- loving God with all we are.
That is
what being church is about.
