So I want to start by talking about a time of great challenge and revitalization in the North American church during the 80s and 90s. There was a lot of shifts happening. It would come to be known as the worship wars. So if you grew up in church, you might remember this time. Because what happened is for...
seemingly hundreds of years, their congregational songs were hymns. Now, it's not that other music about Jesus and biblical concepts things hadn't been written, but the majority of churches only did hymns congregationally. And what started on the fringes started little by little to push in and become mainstream. It was a very contentious time, and yet it led to a time of great revitalization. Now, for me, I grew up in church. I came to know Jesus later on in my teens, but I remember very much sitting in church on Sunday morning and
I went to a Baptist church. Typically, they're people of the word. They really stand firm on the Bible, stand firm on the gospel, but they're not really known for change. It's just the way it is in denominationalism. But our pastor at the time...
he felt deep in his heart that music needed to shift. And for whatever reason, God called him to be a front runner. As he talked to younger generations and as he was looking at how things were going and he still wanted to reach the culture for Jesus, he knew a shift needed to happen. He felt it. And so he was the first Baptist church in our kind of city and county that was to hire what would become known as a worship pastor. And this worship pastor, you know, what their idea was, oh, you're going to hire someone and he will just lead the hymns week after week. And it was like, no, that is not his job description. He might lead some hymns from time to time.
But his goal was to bring in new music into the church. That was like his job description and new instruments. And I remember as a kid, the first time I saw a guitar in church and I was like, what? And it was crazy because it was always like an organ and a piano. And some people loved it. Other people hated it because they were playing new songs on that guitar. They weren't in the same rhythm and timing as hymns. It was new and it was different. Well, then it continued. More new songs started to mix in. And then eventually they had other instruments. Eventually they got a drum kit.
Now, what's fascinating is almost all those people now go to churches with drum kits, but you know, it is a thing. He, for whatever reason, was a front runner. He faced a ton of adversity and trials in through that, but he really felt deep in his heart that this was the direction, this was the vision that Jesus had given him. And again, as human nature, some loved it, some hated it, and some were like, whatever, I'm going to church either way. I don't, you know, it is what it is. Now, why I'm talking about this today is kind of related to something that we introduced last week, which is the church life cycle.
Now, since World War II, a lot of research and data has been collected about North American churches, and they all seem to go, no matter the denomination or non-denomination, they trend through a certain life cycle. And this is what it goes. Now, what happens is the longevity of a church is whether or not they can maintain that center point where everything's in their proper position with vision guiding it. Now, if that slips, if we go to the next slide here, we have three ways to get it back. Our church went through a revitalization not too long ago, 2014 to 2016, where we had a consultation that said, you need a new vision. You've slipped. And so we started a revitalization process, and you can get back.
Eventually, if vision is gone in a local church, relationships start to suffer. People who feel like nothing's changing and the church isn't going where they leave or there's conflict, and eventually ministry suffers. Once you've only got ministries left, but they're not really headed in the same direction, they're siloed, you can replant a church. You can kind of get a new constitution bylaws and you kind of start a new journey that way, and it's called a replant. But if that doesn't happen, eventually what happens is a local church is left with a building and bylaws.
And the research shows that they're kind of on life support. The children's ministry is usually closed by that point. No one really knows why they go, but they go out of faithfulness, which is a beautiful thing. And they all kind of know, and something needs to change, but they don't know exactly how to do it. And that is usually what's called a resurrection, where the assets are all sold to that church, and they're given to a church planting couple or a church planting team, and they start a brand new church. So this is kind of the way things have been going, and it still goes this way. And for us as a church, we want to make sure that we maintain vision.
And we went through this journey of COVID that lasted way too long. Now we've been more than a year out of it. We have a property on Mountain View and Range Road that's just sitting there. We have money in the bank for a building project. And there is kind of many of you ask, like, what are we doing? Like, where are we going? Those you've been around a while. So it's like, OK, the leadership team has said, OK, we need to start talking about what we're going to do next. But I know from the last time we went in this journey and I know from the research that if you talk about what we're going to do with a building.
Without vision first, it's going to fail. In the Old Testament, in Proverbs, it says, without vision, the people perish. The ecclesia, the church, it's without vision, we're going nowhere. So this series, we want to make sure that before we do anything, before we even have a little bit of a conversation about what we're going to do next, that we keep this in mind, that we're going to stop going to church. Not literally, I'm glad you're here. Okay, it's a little bit of a tagline. You say we're going to stop going to church. No, but we do need to be the church. That the ecclesia, the gathering or assembly, has always been about a growing group of people. That people become disciples.
Tell people about Jesus who become disciples and it spreads. The people. Now in that process, it is very nice in cold weather to have a building and to gather together in a building. But the moment the church becomes so focused on a building and miss the mission and vision they've been given, it's over. Because it's not about the structure administratively or physically. It's about the people group who have been called by Jesus to reach each new generation.
You are called to reach people in your community to tell them about Jesus, that they might come in, give their lives to Jesus, be discipled and grow. And the more people we can tell about Jesus, the more people will see eternity in heaven with him. And if we lose that and we just get a new building or just get something fancy or a pocket full of money or a bank full of money, if we lose that, we're missing. So for us, we want to center back on our vision that we're given during our revitalization time and our consultation between 2015, 2016, to be an authentic, vibrant church serving and reaching our city, which we introduced last week. And last week with this, we introduced the values that support that vision. So when a church has a vision, the vision is what Jesus has called us to be, but then our values are what Jesus has called us to do. And the values support a vision in a church. Now, every church has the same mission, is the Great Commission, to go into all the world, right? Tell people about Jesus, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe everything that Jesus commanded.
That goes the same for everyone. But each local church has a vision. This is ours. Last week, we talked about our first two values. First one was Christ-centered. This is our most important one. That in our journey, wherever we go as a church, if we lose that one, we've lost everything. All the values don't matter if we miss the first one. Jesus will always be the absolute most important thing in everything we do. Then our second we talked about was being authentic. Real people living real lives. We talked about that everyone who walks in here, you know, has baggage. We all got stuff going on.
We can't ever walk in here and pretend that we all have nothing going on. And maybe we get like this time where things are really good, but it's only a matter of time before things are a struggle. And so for us to be authentic, we come in assuming we're going to let each other down. We come in assuming that we're not going to be perfect. Let's move on to the next two values. So the third value that supports our vision is to be vibrant. And the tagline that the pastoral team stated to kind of support that is joyfully expressing God's love. The joy of the Lord is our strength. Joyfully expressing God's love. The joy of the Lord is our strength.
Now, when you hear this word vibrant or vibrancy, in Western culture, we might assume we kind of get a sense of like bright colors or maybe you get this idea of like maybe a vibrant personality. That's somewhat right, but it doesn't encapsulate the true definition of the word and the meaning. The true sense of vibrancy or vibrant, it also attaches to, the biblical term would be zeal, right? Passion, vitality, purpose. That someone who has vibrancy or is vibrant is able to overcome struggles, who faces challenges. And like we stated, they're choosing joy. Their circumstances don't determine everything. That they look to Jesus and look to the Lord, it's like, I have something to rejoice in. Jesus said this in John 10, 10.
He's teaching, he says, the thief, which is Satan, the devil, the enemy. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. Related to the ecclesia, the ecclesia, the gathering or assembly of the church of Christ. Satan absolutely wants us to fail. He wants the ecclesia to be in pain. He wants them to suffer. He does not want the ecclesia, the church of Christ, to continue on.
And so there's a hard piece of giving your life to Jesus because the moment you start giving your life to Jesus and the moment you submit to that, the gospel, you're living for something greater. You have a greater purpose. There is something at the end of your life now and you're moving in a different direction. And if you're living for yourself, then absolutely the thief will ignore you. But the moment you say, no, I'm going to live for Jesus. He does not want that.
And so what Jesus is trying to say, he will try to steal and kill and destroy. Now, thankfully, in Matthew 18, he says, the gates of hell will not prevail, but it doesn't mean it's not going to be hard. It doesn't mean the church won't face trials and adversity. But look at this. Jesus says, I came that they, those that would come to know him, his followers, that they may have life, but not just life, but that they would have it abundantly.
That word abundantly, that is full, that is vibrant, that is passionate, different, a bigger purpose, a bigger life. And if you've given your life to Jesus, then you know what I'm talking about. You know that the moment you moved from darkness to light, you were on a different journey. You weren't just living for yourself or what you wanted. You were moving towards, no, I'm called to reach people for Jesus. I'm called to live for Christ. I'm looking forward to the next life. And what I do matters. What I spend my money on matters. What I spend my time on matters. What I spend my energy on, it matters now.
And that is, and once you're living out the gospel, then you know it. If you know it, you know it. You're like, my life is more abundant. And this is what Jesus promises. And the more we make Jesus the center, and the more Christ becomes the center of everything we do, and we're constantly looking to him for the next thing, life is abundant. But it'll still be difficult. It'll still be challenging. In Philippians 4, the Apostle Paul says this, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Now, this is hard, especially if you're kind of new to Christianity or new to the church. You're like, how? Sometimes life is just terrible.
But what Paul's speaking to you is there is this time when you fully understand what Jesus gave you at the cross and you understand what you deserve and what you've been given and that you've been given eternal life of nothing of you and everything of him and that he went to the cross and he paid the punishment for you and then rose again and through that resurrection, you have the eternal life when you die. When you understand that and you're a follower of Christ, every day you have something to rejoice in. Even in your lowest moment, you can say, but I still have Jesus and no one can take that away from me. No one. And so this is what Paul is talking about. Even tough times, we rejoice in the Lord always. We don't rejoice in our circumstances. We rejoice in what Peter claimed, that you are the Christ, you are the living son of God. That is where I center my vibrancy, my zeal, my rejoicing in. It's on him. And so no matter what, no matter what trial adversity, we always, always, when we face a time of repentance and mourning, that's good. But we don't stay there because Jesus paid for that on the cross. And we stand back up, we choose vibrancy, we have passion and zeal in Christ alone, and we move forward.
Fourth value that supports our vision. Humble. Having a servant attitude in all we say or do. Humble. Having a servant attitude in all we say or do. And do. Now this is an interesting account here.
In the book of Matthew, we see this situation where the disciples are kind of arguing on who's the greatest. And it seems weird. When you read the thing, it's kind of almost humorous. I don't know what it's like to be there in front of Jesus, but they're kind of saying, you know, who's going to be beside Jesus in heaven? I don't know if that really matters right now, but this is the thing. And Jesus is listening to them. Have this discussion, you know? Who gets to sit beside Jesus? Who's going to be the greatest? You know, I think it'll be me. I think it'll be me. Well, Jesus calls a little child to himself.
Imagine. Imagine Jesus puts a child on his knee as a bit of a teaching example. And he says this, truly I say to you, unless you turn, turn, so change of process, so change your mind on who's the greatest, turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven, which is crazy. They're talking about who's going to have a place, like who gets the best spot, but there's an assumption in what they're saying that they're making it. And Jesus said, you're not even going to make it unless you become like a child. And then he adds this tagline, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
whoever humbles himself like a child. This is so crazy because he's making a distinction of the kingdom here that we are children and we have a heavenly father. Now, maybe for you, you didn't have a good father. Some of us don't, some of us do. Maybe you had a good mother, but maybe you didn't have good parents. I don't know your story, but I assure you, your heavenly father is a good father. He's a great father and he loves you and he knows what's best. And for a moment, I don't know your experience, but if you can imagine for a moment what Jesus is trying to say is we have a good father and we're children.
And when a good father tells you you need to do something, tells you you need to let go of something, tells you you need to move in a certain direction, right? A child, an obedient child, they do it. Sometimes they don't know all the details. Sometimes they don't know why. Sometimes they don't like it. I have three children. I have to tell them to do things. Spoiler, they hate it when I tell them to do things. And this is how children are.
because they want to do A, and you're asking them to do B. I don't want to do B. I want to do A. And maybe they have a fit, or maybe they openly, secretly, maybe they're passive-aggressive, whatever it is. But to be humble, the essence of humble, is not just about being nice with people you like, because that's easy. It's always to play nice families. That's simple. Very easy. Very different when you put it on the range of being a child to God.
Because sometimes Jesus calls us to do things that we don't want to do. Now you have your own preferences and ideas and I have mine. We all do. But there's times in our life where God will impress upon us. You need to talk to this person. You need to go here. You need to serve here. You need to give here. You need to, I don't know what it'll be. It's different for you. It's different for me. A child, an obedient child is submissive. Yes, father, I'm going to do it. Not a big fan. Just being honest with you, but I'm going to do it because you're my father and you know what's good for me. I don't know the future. You do. And this is the greatest in the kingdom.
will be people, will be adults that are able to be humble like a child to their father. That whatever their father asks, regardless of their feelings or circumstances, they say, okay, God, I'm in. And subsequently in other teachings, maybe you heard this, Jesus also says faith like a child. So it's interesting. Jesus says two things. If you want to be in the kingdom, if you want to really know Jesus and get the heart of God, humble like a child and faith like a child. It's amazing.
But then Paul talks about this a little further in Corinthians, right? Because part of the humility part is to serve. It's one thing to just maybe be nice, right? Being nice is good. It's humble. It's good. It's meek. But serving, serving, actually taking time and energy and serving others, that's a harder level of humility. It's easier when you're doing something. What are you actually doing? And he says this.
for though I am free from all, in other words, he's stating here, he has the cross and resurrection. He is free. He is no longer bound by the traditions and law. He's not under rules. He's free to do what he wants. Okay? Because of Jesus. It's a great thing. And yet, he says, for though I am free from all, I don't have to do anything. I have made myself a servant to all. Now,
I have made my servant to all that I might win more of them. Notice how he doesn't say, I have made myself a servant of all so that people like me. I made a servant of all so that I get a good place in society or culture or the church. I don't make myself, I don't become a servant of all so I get a paycheck. There's none of those things. It's fascinating that when Paul says a servant of all, you might assume he's talking about, okay, well, that's in the church. That's what people he knows and teaches and stuff like that. No, he's saying that I might win more of them. He's not just talking about serving people inside the church. That's a given. There's lots of scripture. That's a given. And that's the easy piece.
It's way easier to serve people inside the church than outside. Because outside the church, they think the things that you think are crazy. You might try to tell them something about Jesus and they're like, a little out there. They may be a complete atheist. They believe there's nothing. They may live and speak and have completely counter ideas to everything you hold to be true. And Paul's saying, though I'm free, I don't have to talk to any of those folks. I have become a servant to all that I might win some of them. Which is the craziest act of humility. It's to serve people.
that don't agree with you, that serve people that are against you. Jesus says, love your enemies. That's nuts. So the people in your life who you would rather not hang out with, Paul's saying, I serve them so that maybe one day they might ask me, why are you being kind? Why are you doing this? And then he's gonna share them the message of the cross that whatever he does is nothing compared to what Jesus did at Calvary for him. And it's a minute amount to serve this person, even though you might not agree because what Jesus did is far greater.
And might, you might in that situation, someone might say, okay, I want to know more. And you might have the opportunity from being humble and serving those that they might receive the gospel and come to know Jesus. Which when someone comes to know Jesus, that's the one time where we have from scripture that angels party. You have a great worship service with your favorite type of music. God's happy about it. Don't get me wrong. He loves people praising him. But it's when people give their lives to Jesus that heaven erupts in complete, crazy, zeal-filled vibrancy. When someone turns from darkness to light.
That is the one thing you will only be able to do here and you will not be able to do in heaven, is to tell people about Jesus. So it's worth it. It was worth it for Paul. Let's bring these together. Becoming vibrantly humble. Here's what I've come to realize in my journey of being a Christian. Gave my life to Jesus at 17. It's been a process. Worked in business first. God called me out of that to become a pastor. And in my journey, what I've really come to know is that when trials feel unbearable, vibrancy and humility in Jesus are unshakable.
When trials feel unbearable, vibrancy and humility in Jesus are unshakable. It's a balance. It's this balance of not allowing the enemy to steal your zeal and passion for the gospel, while at the same time being completely submissive to everything God asks you to do, no matter what. And it's this strange line that you walk when you're a follower of Jesus. And it often costs you something, but in the end, there's just amazing wins. And if you've ever got a chance to see someone come to know Jesus and...
And then grow in discipleship and make choices for their life that are completely different. Then you realize this balance of not letting anything steal your zeal and your vibrancy. And just trying to be a child of God and do whatever he says no matter what. This journey, it's unshakable. And as I reflect on my life and as I reflect on my childhood. And I think back to that pastor. The outcome is fascinating. Because the things that he felt so deeply that God was calling him to do. And regardless of the adversity inside and outside. He just felt that vision was sure.
And the church grew. They saw people come to know Jesus. They saw people baptized. Over a decade, many of the people who left came back because they went to churches that did the same changes. And then they were left nowhere. And it's like, well, I got to come back to where I started. He is now the board chair of our national fellowship. 500 plus churches across Canada. What's fascinating to me is I followed his journey. He didn't always lean into what was easiest. He always leaned into what God was calling him to. He was a great pastor and had a long, long ministry.
It was because he was willing to take risks when God called him. And if there's one thing I'm learning, is every year I just feel this internal thing that wants to stick to what's easier. But praise be to God, I had good examples in my life. Praise be to God that we have people in their 20s and their 30s. And when I talk to them, they want to reach their generation for Jesus. They love the Bible. They love Jesus. But they have different ideas. And I need to remember that sometimes I might have to shift. And I realize the older I get, the harder it's going to be.
And for those of you that have lived longer than me, you've already seen tons of shift. And the fact that you're still here, that is a testament to your grace because we've had a lot of change. And as we talk through what it's going to look like to have a new building... Some of us might go a little crazy. It could happen. But we have to keep our mission and vision central. We have to remember that the next building will be here long after we're gone, probably. And we need to maybe go down to base camp and look at all those kids and say, okay, those kids are going to be in this room. Well, not this room. It's like, what can I do to make sure that future generations have a local church? Whenever we feel like, oh, this is uncomfortable or I just don't like this.
it's a quick Google search to do some church history. And what we'll find is every shift in every local church, it's always been uncomfortable. There's no one in church history where things have shifted where everyone said, it was so comfortable and easy. It was like nothing at all. That's never been the story. But every time that a church has followed what God's calling,
there's been, you know, new life and brought in the church, new discipleship opportunities. And so, yeah, that's where we want to go. Let me pray. Dear Father, thank you so much for our vision. I ask Father, help us to be an authentic, vibrant church serving and reaching our city. Help us to continue reaching people for Jesus. Help us always have open doors. Help us to be humble enough to submit to you when you're calling us to do something different or calling us to stay in a certain area, whatever that might be. Help us to seek our joy, not in our circumstances, but in your son, Jesus.
and the salvation we have through him that you've provided. Father, as we talk about the idea of what the future might look like over this year, I pray that you give us humble hearts and open minds, and be with our leadership, be with our staff and ministry team, help us continue to do the best thing we can with the work we have, with the energy we have, the time we have, and continue to bring people to our church that are looking for answers, and that we might be able to provide them. In Jesus' name, amen.
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