God is good - only

Jesus said only God is good (Luke 18:19), so we cannot become good without Him. In order to truly join in God’s goodness, we have to immerse ourselves in Him. 

God works in our hearts to help us recognize and do His will (Philippians 2:13). As we pray and learn from scripture, we grow in our relationship with Him, and His goodness is beautifully formed in us. 

Leadership is servanthood

@mikerjmiller: My desire for great leadership far outpaces my ability.  The pressure seams too much.  I'm not cut out for perfection. #gracefallonme

Leaders lead in humility.   That's hard 

Leaders initiate.  That's hard

Leaders put their own interests behind those of the mission.  That's hard. 

Leaders are vulnerable.  That's hard. 

Leaders need grace.   That's God. 

Followers are not good at grace.  God's grace is enough.  

Church - Why

When I reflect on my own "conversion" to Christianity, it was much differently than it was "sold" to me.

When I "accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior" and "asked Jesus in to my heart", I said the words I was told to say and I don't doubt that I was honest before God and really wanted to surrender to Him.  But, if' I'm being totally honest, as a 15 year old, insecure, pimple faced, hormone flooded boy, I really had no idea to what I was agreeing, other than I was lost and something about who God was resonated with something inside of me.

I really didn't understand what 'Jesus as Lord and Savior' meant and had no idea how someone could come 'in to your heart'.  I did understand that because I said that prayer, I was supposed to live differently.  Evidence of that is that my moral internal voice became more and more vocal and started to control more of my behavior.   I now see that as a supernatural act of what I understand as the Holy Spirit.

Often times, I reflect on my own faith and think less of my former self, but

CC: Serve - 2nd Birthday

We are Corvallis Church.  

Our tagline is "Engage, Serve, Grow"

This week we celebrate two years of public gatherings in Corvallis Oregon.  In those two years, we have developed a personal love for this city, what it stands for and the wonderful people who call this unique place, "home".

When we determined what we would call this church, it was by consensus that we landed on the name "Corvallis Church".    But we felt like we had to include our mission in our name.  "Corvallis Church exists to Engage our community, Serve our neighbors and Grow closer to God".   (Some wanted to add "and each other" to the end of that, but we decided to keep it simple).

It comes from the belief that the best way to grow closer to each other and to God was to serve others.  It is an over-arching theme of the Gospel.
- Esteem others as better than yourselves.
- Sacrifice your own comforts for the sake of others.
- Live in selflessness.
Those ideas/commands are throughout the teachings of the bible, old and new testaments.

On our second birthday, I am speaking about Service.  (Last week we talked about the importance of Engaging in community with each other and launched our small groups for the season.)

My thoughts on this week as I refine my sermon in preparation for Sunday:   
(God reserves the right the change my sermon at any given time) 

Service to others is how God hopes we express our gratitude to His overwhelming expressions of love for us.

The Book of James is famous for the "Faith without works is dead" paradigm.    I call it a paradigm because on the surface it seems to put a huge emphasis on a works based religion.  The type of relationship with God that if we are not proving ourselves through our good works, we are losing points with God.

God's lens
One could extrapolate (and many do) that we are to focus our energy and heart on doing good works.

The other way to look at this is through a God lens.  A God who loves and cherishes us.  A God who truly desires the best for us and loves us so deeply that He sacrificed everything so we could be in a relationship with Him.   A God who loves unconditionally and extends His hand of grace to us constantly.

If we look at it through a "God lens", it is clear that there is no possible way God could require such a legalistic, performance based system.  God is depending on our response to His love to us, to be an outpouring of love to Him (worship) and His children (service).  He is counting on us to express our love for Him by loving our neighbors (His cherished children).  His desire is for us to Love each other and sacrifice for the betterment of each other.  (In so doing, we bring the Kingdom of God to earth and accomplish His mission. (see previous blog post)

Green without Blue is Yellow.  

James 2:26 - Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.  

This passage is best understood as an observational truth.  It is very simple and not a judgement rather an observation.  Like the statement "Green without Blue is Yellow". 

It is a scientific observation.  If there isn't evidence of something's existence, it doesn't exist.  That's the marriage between faith and works.

So we shouldn't strive in works to achieve faith.  We are to simply respond to God's love for us by loving others.  If we don't love others, it is evidence that we don't understand God's love for us deeply enough.  

Rather this:  Isaiah 58-1-9 

Why aren't we experiencing God?  Why isn't God healing?  Why doesn't He hear our prayer?  

We go to church. We do Christian stuff.   Where is God?

We are held back by bondage to sin stemming from identity, depression, forgiveness ...  Issues that steal our identity.  

We are called to be free from bondage.  But on a whole new religiosity and experienced the fullness of God he is so desperate for us to experience.  

Suggest Reading:  CS Lewis Letters to Malcom
"I am often, I believe, praying for others when I should be doing things for them.  It's so much easier to pray for a bore than go and see him."  - CS Lewis

Engage: Small Groups . Church

Hebrews 10:24-25  "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not 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."

I believe that love is never stimulated apart from community.  That is based on my experience and my observation.  

I've heard so many excuses that are all held up by a self righteousness (read pride) that divides the "Church' and works against God's desire to bring His Kingdom to Earth as it is in Heaven.

“I don’t need my Bible any more; I get my word direct from God.” 

“I don’t need other people; all I need is my relationship with Jesus,” 

These may seem ridiculous statements to the mature, and rational arguments to those so steeped in pride that they can't admit that they need anything outside of themselves.   

The idea that you don't need other people, is working against the way God designed humanity.  The only way for us to grow, discover our gifts, mature in our faith, is in honest, vulnerable, transparent and caring relationship with one another.  

Jesus invites us to that type of community all over the NT>  Every time he tells us to do something to sacrifice our own pride, in order to restore and build up relationship with others.     It's truly beautiful that we are invited to the fullness of honest relationship on this Earth as part of our desire to see God's Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.  

Recommended reading:  

CS Lewis: (God in the Dock - (Go to Church)

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Sermon Notes and Excerpts

Ephesians 4:11–12

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

I have a deep confidence that God's hand is upon us for good here at CC. 

1.    Next week we celebrate our two-year birthday and the reality is that we are in the infant stages of our ministry together.

a.    There is so much potential for God-honoring, life-changing ministry in this place!

b.    And one of the greatest potentials of all lies in the emergence our small  groups

c.     The Staff and I have been praying for months about how to develop a network of faith-nurturing groups in the larger body here at CC.

2.    But the main thing I want to do this morning is provide a biblical basis for why we believe it is very important for you all to be involved in some form of spiritually sensitive small group.

3.    (I will be speaking on behalf of our Servant leadership team today.)

4.    Today we are issuing an all church call to “small groupness"

a.    and as your servants, we REALLY want you to agree it is a call from God and not from men.

                                      i.     This is not a church growth thing, it is biblical and God’s intended life for you.

5.    Today, some passages in the bible that have driven Christians again and again throughout the centuries to seek small groupness.

The Building up of the Ministry of All Saints

Ephesians 4:11, 12.

1.    This text is the Secret Sauce, Magan Carta/Holy Grail! Of Church ministry.

2.    It is the blueprint of God's living temple.

3.    It is a description of how the CHURCH must work in order to fulfill its God-ordained purpose.

a.    In verse 8 Paul says that when Christ ascended, he gave gifts to men.

b.    Then verse 11 describes those gifts as people, and tells us what their purpose is.

                                      i.     "And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ."

4.    Notice very carefully what it is in these two verses.

a.    God gives to a church “spiritual leaders” whose role is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

b.    And from the work of the ministry by the saints, the body is built up.

5.    God's pattern for producing people with powerful faith and genuine love is not to have the pastor-teachers do all the work of the ministry.

a.    They are to equip the saints to do the ministry.

6.    The Saints are you, all of you, who have set yourselves apart for God through faith in Christ.

a.    According to God's pattern, the building up of the body in faith and love is the ministry of the laity, not the ministry of the clergy.

b.    We believe that only in such smaller groupings will you, the saints, really be free to do the work of the ministry.

Exhort One Another Every Day

1.    Does the work of the ministry among the saints really necessitate forming small support groups?

a.    Isn't that more for the super-spiritual?

b.    Or those touchy feely type guys like Pastor Mike?

c.     I don’t need anyone else in my business.

d.    I am independent.  I don’t want to be a burden on people.

2.    Turn with me to Hebrews 3:12–14

a.    12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

                                      i.     It happens in churches (it has happened in ours) that a person is deceived by the attractiveness of sin, and becomes hardened toward things of the Spirit, and falls away from the living God.

b.    This is something that we ALL are in danger of. 

3.    BUT Notice it does not say, "Take care, pastors, to exhort your people daily."

a.    It says, "Take care, brothers, . . . exhort one another every day."

4.    Christ gives pastors to the church, pastors equip the saints for ministry, and you, the saints, minister to each other;

a.    that is, you exhort one another every day and become God's instruments for the preservation of each other's faith.

5.    We believe that without small groups @ CC we run the risk of this ministry not happening in our church.

a.    The kind of exhortation and encouragement need can't happen on a drive by fellowshipping on Sunday mornings. 

a.    It is not enough to have it given from the pulpit.

b.    We need people who know us and feel our need, so that their word of exhortation is intimate and shaped to our special crisis of faith.

2.    And you can't know people significantly if you only see them in church a couple of hours a week.

3.    Therefore, we believe it is essential that all of us seek the kind of regular small togetherness where the ministry of the saints is free to happen.

Stir up Good Works:

1.    When the saints do the work of the ministry, the goal is not only to encourage strong, overcoming faith, but also to stir each other up to love and good works.

a.    In Hebrews 10:24, 25:

                                      i.     Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not 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.

2.    Notice, again, it does not say, "Meet together so the pastor can stir you up to love and good works, and encourage you."

a.    It says, "Consider how to stir up each other . . . Encourage one another."

                                      i.     History has shown that God's way of stirring up his people to great acts of love and mission has often been to draw together a small praying band who lay themselves open to him and get a vision for service.  – John Piper

b.    Where will the new works of mission and charity come from in our church, if not from God centered dreaming in small groups of zealous people?

Bear One Another's Burdens

3.    There are so many obstacles to love and threats to faith.

a.    We sink down, or fall down, or get knocked down again and again,

b.    We have to realize that it is not God's design for us to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps in isolation.

4.    God's command: "Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).

5.    Isn’t that a sweet Law that in God’s Kingdom no one, (married or single, male or female, young or old) carry a crushing burden alone.

a.    Yet this is happening at CC. 

                                      i.     Because we are a young church and we don’t yet have all of the forms of “Small Togetherness” that we need.

6.    In order to fulfill this law of Christ, we have to build close, trusting relationships.

a.     Otherwise, you don't even know what the burdens are, let alone have occasion to share their weight.

7.    And we believe that to build those relationships we must form small, regular gatherings of believers.

In summary,

·      the biblical basis for developing smaller forms of togetherness in our church is that God intends you, the saints, to do the work of the ministry as you are equipped and encouraged by the pastor-teachers.

·      The aim of this ministry is to build up each other's faith and love.

·      God's design is to use human support and exhortation to sustain the faith of his children

a.    and to lighten the burdens which they bear in the service of love.

·      That kind of mutually caring ministry does not happen in big groups between casual acquaintances.

·      Therefore, to fulfill our calling we must have small groups.

Practical Suggestions

1.    Now let me conclude with some practical suggestions and examples.

2.    Our aim is to be as flexible as possible in the encouragement of this ministry.

a.    There is not one kind or size or frequency or format or group that will fit everyone's needs.

b.    We are happy to let the Word and Spirit of God go to work on you to produce many different forms of small togetherness.

c.     For example, I can see several housewives meeting each week for lunch and prayer.

d.    I can see three or four business men meeting for breakfast and prayer.

e.    I can see a group of high schoolers getting together to talk over problems of being Christian in school and praying for each other.

f.      I can see two or three couples and some singles meeting in the evening every week or two to read a pertinent book together, talk of mutual concerns, and pray.

1.     I meet with our two Church Planters in Training for coaching every week on Mondays.

2.     I meet with an elder at our church once per week to pray and discuss the church. 

3.     I meet with about 7 people every Monday to talk about the bible and pray together.

4.     I meet with the servant leaders of CC every other Tuesday.

5.     I am starting a Parenting Group during youth group on Tuesday nights during youth group. 

6.     I meet with our youth pastor every Wednesday morning for breakfast.

7.     I meet with the Men every Thursday morning for bfast

8.     I meet with local pastors about once a month to pray.

9.     I meet with my sons once per week /  I meet with my daughter once per week /   I take Fridays off with my wife and we spend the day together.

1.    When any of these groups lapse, I miss it very much.

a.    None of those people realizes how much they mean to me.

b.    I cherish the thought that I am building relationships now that will last all my life, no matter what.

What I desire for you all this morning is that the Lord might put the resolve in your hearts join or form a group.

May this be the beginning of a surge of ministry and life among the saints at Corvallis Church.