The Joy of a Wedding

I have the privilege of performing the wedding ceremony for a couple at their home in our neighborhood later today.  These two aren’t part of a church family, but they wanted to be married in a religious ceremony rather than at the courthouse.  They called our church a few months ago and asked me to marry them, and I agreed:  they seem well matched for each other, and I am honored to play this important role in their lives.

Over the past few months, I have met with them on several occasions to get to know them better and to help them understand the Christian approach to marriage.  I’ve seen some of the difficult life situations they face, and I’ve learned their perspective on their relationship and what marriage means to them.  Last night, we had the official wedding rehearsal – which was followed by my first experience eating a deep-fried turkey! – and I was struck by the joy and excitement of all who were in attendance.

Weddings are (usually) such enjoyable occasions.  If all goes well, the uniting of husband and wife is a reason for everyone to celebrate.  All the stress and tension that goes into planning a wedding seems to disappear once the ceremony begins.  And certainly once the ceremony is over, the participants can look back on all the preparatory work and (hopefully) say, “All that work was worth it!”

We as believers in Christ are constantly preparing ourselves for a great wedding that will take place when Christ returns.  As Revelation 19:6-8 (NIV) says:

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)

Brothers and sisters, we are in that season of preparation for our wedding day.  Let us continually work on clothing ourselves with appropriate wedding attire, so that when the Lamb comes and the wedding begins, we will be ready – and so that we will be able to say, “All this preparation was worth it!”  What a day that will be!

–Pastor David

The Need for Discipline

When I was a teenager, I spent a good deal of time and energy playing chess.  I developed a love for the game in childhood, but I never played “competitively” until middle school.  I remember that my first experience with a chess tournament resulted in a record of one win and four losses – not the most auspicious of beginnings to a chess career.

For some reason, I chose to devote myself to this game rather than to band, choir, 4-H, or other activities like those chosen by most of my friends at school.  Through a process of weekly practice sessions, tournaments through the school year, and individual study on my own, I developed into a pretty decent chess player.  I never won 1st place in an official tournament as an individual, but I often placed in the top ten and helped our team to do well from time to time.  The “crowning achievement” of my chess career was helping my school win the Indiana state team chess championship in my junior year of high school – a story so full of drama and tension that it would make for a good movie.  (At least, I would watch it!)

The need for discipline is a fact of life.  Discipline is required for any task at which we want to excel, whether it be a game like chess, a career or trade, a relationship with a spouse, or even a relationship with Christ.  It seems that we are quick to agree to training for a job or something “enjoyable,” while we are frequently hesitant to train for excellence in our relationships.  Why is this so?

In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NIV), Paul encourages us to “run in such a way as to get the prize.”  Of course, he is not writing about a literal footrace but rather about our walk of public discipleship.  Sharing Christ with those around us is so important that we should summon up all our energy for the task.  But any runner (distance or sprint) will tell you that you can’t just run and win the race.  You must train and train and train in order to be able to compete.  In fact, you will spend more time in preparation than you will actually racing.

Paul continues, “I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

Following Christ with our lives is hard work!  We must be dedicated to disciplines that will help us run the race:  prayer, Bible study, regular worship, fellowship with the saints, confession of sins to God, and so forth.  Are you engaged in these types of spiritual disciplines?  A better question:  are you excited about engaging in them?  I believe we could all stand to be more like aspiring high school chess players in our spiritual lives.

Stewardship of Life

Jesus cleverly evaded the Pharisees’ attempt to trap him in Matthew 22:15-22 by revealing their hypocrisy.  What does this have to do with the biblical concept of stewardship and our new church budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year?  Click the link below to hear Pastor David’s message on this topic.

Listen now!

Production note:  About 2 minutes into this recording, Pastor David’s wireless microphone batteries died.  The rest of the sermon was recorded from a distance by other microphones in the sanctuary.  We apologize for the poor quality!

Three Tasks and Some Applications

This past Sunday, the sermon focused on the theme of “working in God’s vineyard,” based on the parable in Matthew 21:23-32 about how two sons of a landowner responded to his request that they work in his vineyard.  I thought it might be helpful to summarize a few of the points from this message so you can have them in “hard copy” form.

What does “working in God’s vineyard” look like?  What tasks are involved?  To what do we need to attend?  I see three general tasks that we as the people of God face:

  1. Personal spiritual growth.  Each of us is responsible for our own growth and development in Christ.  We must choose to follow him, to repent of our sins, to be baptized, to give up sinful patterns of behavior, and to invest ourselves in the life-long process of becoming more like Christ.  Since this process is life-long, we must always work towards intentionality about spiritual disciplines such as prayer, Bible study, regular church attendance, and so forth.
  2. Corporate spiritual growth.  Each of us is responsible for the growth and development of our brothers and sisters in Christ, especially those in our own local congregation.  We do not live as “islands” of Christian faith; instead, we share life with each other, we support each other, we challenge each other, and we walk alongside each other through good times and difficult times.  The New Testament reveals that we in the church belong to each other and cannot live apart from each other.  Therefore, strengthening our corporate spiritual life is a high priority.
  3. Spreading the message of Christ.  Each of us is responsible to tend to the soil which has not yet produced a growing plant.  By this, I mean we are charged with the task of building relationships with people outside the Christian faith in order to share Christ with them, that they too might come to know the fullness of life which can be found in him.  We might till the soil, plant a seed, spread some fertilizer, water the ground – any of these agricultural activities can describe our work in sharing Christ’s love with those around us.

These three tasks are a beginning point to understanding what working in God’s vineyard looks like.  Certainly more tasks could be added to this list, such as working in society toward the goals of justice and fairness, striving to engender peace in our homes and cities and nations, and so on.  But I believe these three are a good starting point for us.

How, then, do we get to work on these tasks?  I see four applications at the present time for our congregation:

  1. Dealing with grief and hardship.  Many folks in our congregation are struggling right now; we have had more than our fair share of losses and crises in the past month.  Certainly the second task (corporate spiritual growth) is a high priority these days while we rally around those who are in distress.  However, there’s another level of application:  even though we grieve, mourn, and endure hardship, we are still called to work in God’s vineyard – we aren’t off the hook!  It might even be the case that our work will be more fruitful because of our reliance on the Lord in times of crisis.
  2. Sunday school curriculum.  We are experimenting with a standardized curriculum for our Sunday school classes this quarter.  I have heard mixed reviews at this early stage in our experiment; some people like the structure and content, but other people do not.  Remember that this is just an experiment, and the curriculum is only a tool to help us in our task of working in God’s vineyard.  Whether you like the curriculum or not, the tasks of personal and corporate spiritual growth are still on the table.  Let’s make the best of it!
  3. Youth group opportunities.  Pastor Jerry will soon be asking you (if he hasn’t already) to participate in our youth group ministry in more intentional ways.  For instance, he hopes to have adults in our church volunteer to bring in snacks for the youth group’s Sunday evening meetings.  He and Connie have several other ideas, as well – but I’ll let them reveal those to you!  Let’s become actively involved in ministering to our young people.  They really are an exciting bunch!
  4. Local Ministry of the Quarter.  I want this congregation to become more actively involved in partnering with local Christian ministries, of which there are many in our community.  Every three months, we will focus our energies on an individual ministry, which we will support with our finances, our resources, and/or our time and energy.  For instance, in the final three months of this year, we will support the Pregnancy Resource Center with a “baby bottle drive” – more info will come soon!

Let’s continue the process of learning how to work in God’s vineyard.  I’m looking forward to continuing this journey with you!

–Pastor David

The Truth About Who’s in Charge

In Jerusalem, the chief priests and elders questioned Jesus about where his authority came from – and he answered with some pretty strong words in Matthew 21:23-32.  God would rather have a people who repent and obey him than to have a people who inherit the faith and sit idly by.  What does this have to do with us – in practical terms?  Click the link below to listen to Pastor David’s message on this topic.

Listen now!

Strategic Planning Conference

As many of you know, I traveled to Nashville, TN last week for the Church of God’s “Strategic Planning Conference” (SPC), which is held every five years to help our movement relocate its identity, its vision, and its direction for the coming years.  I was honored to be invited to attend this series of meetings, and I’d like to report to you some of what took place in those days.

The conference was attended by pastors, administrators, missionaries, and educators (among others) from all around North America – and we even had a few from other continents as well.  About 140 people were in attendance, and as preparation for this event we were all asked to read Signals at the Crossroads, a new book by the late Dr. Gil Stafford which combines his two previous Crossroads books with new material he was writing in his final days.  This book raises many issues that the Church of God movement is facing, and it’s worth your time.  If you’d like to read it, you are welcome to borrow my copy!

We had several excellent speakers at the SPC who highlighted several concerns for our movement:  how we cast a vision for the movement as a whole, how we resolve conflicts inside and among churches, how we keep pastors from being isolated from each other, how we encourage women in ministry, how we balance religious enthusiasm with theological reflection, how we sustain our rich heritage while we engage our present culture.  We spent time in prayer and in worship as we brainstormed around these ideas.

For several years, the Church of God movement has lacked a strong, central, driving vision:  our reason for existence is not as strong as it has been in the past.  Granted, throughout our history, we have experimented with a number of different ideas for our purpose, mission, and vision.  Over the course of time, though, these ideas have faded, and where we are – in terms of a guiding purpose for the movement as a whole – is a little uncertain.

So, much of our time together, as a combined group and in our smaller break-out groups, was dedicated to recapturing a vision for the movement as a whole.  Through most of the conference – at least the two-thirds of the conference which I was able to attend – we saw evangelism move into the forefront of our collective vision for the Church of God.

On the positive side, it is surely part of our mission as people of God to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to individuals that are outside the kingdom of God.  After all, this was summarized by the Great Commission which Jesus gave his disciples at the end of Matthew.  We do well to emphasize this component of our Christian faith and mission.  However, I fear that we may become single-minded (for instance, ignoring the lifelong task of discipleship) if we focus too much on evangelism.  Also, we must remain faithful to our theological heritage while we press forward with evangelism.

One of my major concerns is with a recent trend in the Church of God to set numeric goals for our corporate success.  You may remember our Focus40 event this past spring; another is being planned for next year, and this time there is a stated goal of 25,000 new believers worldwide through the implementation of Focus40, and this was repeated at the SPC this past week.  Also, at the conference, one of the small break-out groups suggested that the Church of God set a goal of having 10,000 congregations on its roster by the year 2020.  This latter goal is simply mathematically impossible:  we would have to plant two or three churches every day for the next nine years to meet that goal.

The Church of God movement – and Mt. Haley Church of God in particular – must resist the urge to set numeric goals for their success.  If we as a congregation see fifty souls saved by Christ in the next year, we will have great reason to celebrate!  But if we set that goal ahead of time, then we are (at best) risking manipulation of God or (at worst) setting ourselves up to fail.  As one of our SPC speakers said, we need to balance religious enthusiasm with theological reflection.

Who are we?  What are we all about?  These are questions that we as a congregation are beginning to tackle once again; I hope it is beneficial for you to know that the Church of God movement is in a similar position.  May we all rely only on the Lord for the casting of our vision as we strive to carry out his will, until Christ returns and takes us home.

–Pastor David