Sunday Focused Church

Sunday is an important day for disciples of Jesus. It was the day Jesus was raised from the dead. History tells us that it was the day that early disciples gathered together to remember Jesus by sharing the Lord’s Supper.

However, God very clearly teaches us (Galatians 4:8-11, Romans 14:4-6) that no day is more special than another. Add to that the fact that only once are Christians spoken of as meeting on Sunday (referred to as the first day of the week in Acts 20:7) and you would be forgiven for thinking that 21^st disciples of Jesus make too big a deal of Sunday.

To many Christians, it is THE holy day of the week. Many have taken the language of the Jewish covenant and have called it the Sabbath. God never did that.

Sunday focused churches are very much the norm in the kingdom. We have got into the habit of measuring churches by the statistics of their Sunday gatherings. We have changed our language in the kingdom because of this. We speak of “going to church” or “going to worship” even though the Holy Spirit never does.

For many Christians the Sunday church time has become the one essential part of their Christian calendar.

For something that has become so central a focus of our lives as Christians, there is very little support for such a focus in the New Testament. I’m not saying Christians gathering together on a Sunday is bad or wrong. I am saying that making it the focus of our life with Christ is bad.

Jesus clearly states that He should be the central focus of our lives (John 14:6 etc.). The Holy Spirit is clear that our devotion and worship of God is to be an every day occurrence (Romans 12:1-2, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Ephesians 6:18). Rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians 4:4) not just during praise time on Sunday.

We are called to live lives for Jesus, not just a series of Sunday mornings.

We are not just married on our anniversaries. We aren’t just parents on our children’s birthdays. And we are not just Christians on Sundays. We do gather on Sundays and do some wonderful things but we must not let that become a replacement for living for Jesus every day of the week.

Given this I have a couple of thoughts (opinions) about Sundays in the kingdom.

Many of us (including me) have made Sunday THE time of worship and that has detracted from Christians worshiping God every day of the week.

Many of us (including me) have made such a production of our Sunday gatherings that we have inadvertently given everyone the impression that this is THE special holy time of the week. Churches employ worship ministers to choreograph these services. We build cathedrals so we can house these events. We buy the latest technology so we can produce the best event. I’m not saying that such things are wrong. I am just saying that we may be sending a message to our people that we hadn’t intended to.

How much of the church budget is spent on making sure that the Sunday “service” goes well? I know churches (and you do to) who pay preachers 6 figure salaries to produce a world class sermon each Sunday (See Ephesians 4:11-12 for why we should have preachers). How much of the church budget is used to help the poor? How much is used for evangelism?

I love meeting with other disciples on Sunday. It is a great event in my week. But when that event becomes the central focus of my week then I have misunderstood the calling of Jesus to walk with Him every day of the week.  We need to take a leaf out the early church’s book. “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.” Acts 5:42. “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,” Acts 2:46. “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Acts 17:11. “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” Hebrews 3:13.

I might read an article like this and say, “That’s right. We should be devoted to Jesus every day of the week.” But when I ask the question, “When did I last sing a song to God?” or “When did I last seriously pray”, I find that my life doesn’t match up to my words.

The point is not to “desanctify” Sunday. It is to regard all days with the same level of reverence that so many give to Sunday. And in reverencing all days we should turn our hearts to Jesus on each of those days and speak of our love for Him. After all He is the true focus of disciples of Jesus. 

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Users and Takers

Don't you just love it when a concise phrase sums up an important point? Well, maybe you don't but I do (I must admit I am easily amused). God jogged my memory recently by reminding me of the transformational vs transactional dynamic of relationships in the kingdom. This phrase is most commonly used to describe leadership models in business etc. Just do a Google search on it. Google said I got 447,000 references to it and it only looked for .36 seconds.

However I want to use it to describe our personal relationship with people. As disciples of Jesus we have been called to help people. We aren't perfect but we are in a kingdom of light that is called to shine into the darkness (Ephesians 5:8, Colossians 1:12,13). We have been called to be transformational in our lives in this world. We don't just exist, we exist to change the world we live in.

Yet, the most common interactions we have with people are transactional. What I mean is that often our agendas in our relationships are a transaction whereby we are giving so that we can......

1. get other people to do something to benefit us. USERS
2. get money, gifts or other stuff from others. TAKERS
3. find people to make us feel good. "LIKE A CAT" ERS (my cat does this all the time)
4. get a balanced return act. "TIT FOR TAT" ERS

Transactional relationships are ones where people are tying to see what they can get. The best response is when you get a good transaction (you get what you want ... after all, it is all about you, right?). It is very limited in what it can do to really help people.

Jesus calls us to transformational relationships. He said it in Matthew 5:16. We are to live, associate, work with people in such a way that it transforms them (and us as well). “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” 1 Peter 2:12, NIV. 

One aspect of transformational living that has a huge impact is when disciples of Jesus like you and I do the UNEXPECTED like the following .......

1. Love our enemies instead of hating them.
2. Forgiving people even before they ask for it.
3. Suffering an injustice instead of standing up for our rights.
4. Being inclusive when people expect you to be exclusive.
5. Being kind to strangers rather than suspicious.

This is what Jesus did isn't it? Eating with embezzlers and "sinners". Talking to a Samaritan women in public. Teaching in the secular marketplace. Suffering torture when He could have easily prevented it. 

This sort of behaviour in the name of Christ transforms people. We will be come a transforming Kingdom when we learn to live the life Christ has called us to and get away from trying to ring up transactions with  people. 

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All Churches Are Messed Up!

Have you been looking for the true church? Have you searched for the perfect church? Are you trying to restore the New Testament church? For me years it was these things that drove me until God revealed to me that all churches are messed up therefore you couldn’t find a perfect one, even in history. It was a special experience of revelation. He had been saying it all along in His word. It just took me a long time to realize it. Here are a few observations about this that have been rattling around in my brain and heart lately. 

Nowhere in God’s word is the ideal (complete, perfect, etc.) church ever mentioned except in the universal sense like in Matthew 16:18 , Ephesians 1:22-23 etc.). Every local church mentioned in scripture had serious problems. Every leader had serious flaws. Check it out for yourself. Maybe I missed something.

I have concluded that all churches are messed up in some way. This truth is really important in coming to understand the kingdom of God and our part in it. All churches are messed up. 1^st century churches, churches in the middle ages and 21^st century churches are all messed up to some degree.

No, this is not about church bashing. It’s about understanding who and what we are.

Christ’s churches in the first century had all sorts of problems. When you list them this really does hit you. And yet they were all still Christ’s church. Problems with ……

Toleration of sexual immorality (1 Cor 5:1-6) – they were even proud of it!

Holding to false teachings (Rev 2:14)

Divisive behaviour (1 Cor 1:10-13)

False beliefs about the future resurrection of our bodies (1 Cor 15:12 ff)

Taking believers to court (1 Cor 6:1-9)

Marriage and divorce (1 Cor 7)

Luke warm attitude to Christ (Rev 3:14-22)

And these are only a few of the many that are mentioned. Yet, in all this the message of Jesus was for each person in these churches to turn back to Jesus and to do what He wants them to do.

He never treated them as anything other than His family, His church, His kingdom.

Our fellowship in Christ is based upon our relationship with Jesus. It is in that relationship with Jesus that we get our relationship to each other. The foundational common bond we have is between each of us and Jesus. We may not agree of everything (or even many things) but we do agree on who is the king, who is our saviour. Because of this, we share some common things. We don’t have to figure out what those things are. God already has and here is His list.

“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called-- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:3-6, NIV.

Often, I am asked, “What does your church believe?” My answer varies. Sometimes I say, “My church is not my church. It is Jesus’ church. We believe what Jesus says.” Other times I say, “We do not have a creed or list of beliefs. We just believe what the Bible teaches.” At another time I might inform the questioner of the fact that churches do not believe. Individuals believe. “I can tell you what I believe or what the leaders believe, but I would encourage you to read the Bible for yourself and believe what God says in that.

At other times I turn to the Ephesians 4 passage about and say, “Here are the foundational beliefs of God’s Kingdom.”

Here is another list of things. These are things that are never mentioned in God’s word as being foundational for a church to be Christ’s church or are mentioned as specifically having nothing to do with it.

Worship style – old songs, new songs, upbeat songs, praise songs. Never spoken of as key to our being Christ’s church.

Use of instruments – I advocate acapella singing but I have got to have enough humility and submission to God’s word to recognize that use or non use was never taught to be a barrier to fellowship in Christ’s church.

Organizational pattern.

Which hymnal or songbook a churches uses.

Signing a human written document to establish unity.

What you eat or drink.

Drinking of alcohol, although drunkenness is forbidden.

Doctrines outside those mentioned in Ephesians 4. This doesn’t mean that we don’t strive to learn all the teachings of God, but that we have a lot of grace as we all search for those truths.

Which movement within the kingdom you subscribe to.

Politics of the day.

Owning a church building.

Having a kitchen in the church building. If you don’t know about this one, be glad that you don’t.

Methods of evangelism and discipleship.   

Yet, in the history of believers in Jesus, all these things (and many others) have been used as the criteria to say that a particular church is not faithful, which is often a euphemism for “not being a true church of Jesus”.

I am not advocating or denying any of these things (although I have opinions of each of them). I am just saying that these things are not meant by God to be the basis for our place in the kingdom, the family of God. How can I be so sure? Because God’s word never uses them that way.

Each person has the opportunity to enter the kingdom of God. This entry is made possible by two things.

1.    God absolute power to forgive all our sins (past, present and future) based on the punishment Jesus suffered for all these sins in His death on the cross. Don’t believe me. Read it for yourself. “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:22-26, NIV.

2.    Our faith response in choosing to be born again. Again, read it for yourself. “In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”” John 3:3, NIV. “Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” John 3:5, NIV. “Peter replied, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call.”” Acts 2:38, 39, NIV.

At its core, church isn’t about you or me. It’s about Jesus and you. Jesus first and you and I second. Church isn’t about loyalty to leaders or faithfulness to traditions. Church is about each of us being born again and helping as many others to experience that rebirth. Church is about discovering what part of the body of Christ, the kingdom of God you are and fulfilling God’s plan for you.

The question we are really trying to answer is framed a different way when the religious leaders of the day tried to trap Jesus in a doctrinal question. What is the most important thing? Jesus is very clear. He doesn’t say all commands of God are equally important. He says there are two. Love God and love people. This is what defines God’s people. Again, this is my particular focus. It is the focus of Christ as expressed clearly in Matthew 22:34-40.

No local church will ever fulfill our desire to be in the perfect one here on earth. That’s okay. That’s the way God planned it. Don’t you think God knew that the Corinthian church was going to have all those problems? Don’t you think Jesus knew that the local church you are a part of was going to have the problems it has? Yes, He did.

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Kingdom Connections

It has now been about a month since our arrival back in Sydney. As the dust starts to settle I am being challenged to listen to God for His plans rather than tell Him what I am going to do. It really is a challenge for “let’s get stuff done” George but it is what His kingdom is about.

After all, it is His kingdom. He has His plans. He has been working long before I got here and I need to find where He is working and focus my energies there. It is appearing like it will be quite different from what I thought. Why does that surprise me? Maybe because I was walking by sight and NOT by faith. You think so?

Usually when I have moved to a new work, the boundaries and parameters were pretty evident. Usually it was a church with an existing membership, leadership and direction. But this time the connections that God is showing me don’t look like churches I have worked with in the past. I’m not talking about teaching. It is still the pure gospel of Jesus but I am talking about the people God is leading me to. Northside Church is our beginning point but some how I think God doesn’t quite see the boundaries we do.

Interesting times, to say the least. Please pray for Julie and I as we move further into this adventure in His kingdom. Can’t wait to see what God is going to show us next.

Preaching on Life in the Kingdom this week. Starting a list of core values in the Kingdom. What do you think should be high on that list?

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