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2013 Church Goals

Sermon Series: Where to Next?

The Charlotte media has spent a lot of time over the last year talking about two organizations, their goals for the future, and the changes designed to help them accomplish those goals. One of those organizations is Charlotte’s NBA team, the Bobcats. During the 2011-2012 NBA season the Charlotte Bobcats only won a total of 7 games. Their record of 7 wins and 59 losses set a record for the lowest winning percentage (.106) by a team in NBA history. So a lot of the talk surrounding the Bobcats organization after the season was over was pertaining to goals and changes for the following season. One of the obvious goals for the team was to win more games, so the team owners fired the head coach and hired a new one. Another one of the goals was to put the bad memories of the previous season behind for the fan base so that they could get excited about the upcoming season. So those within the organization who were responsible for the marketing and branding of the team looked at everything from changing the team’s logo, to changing the team’s colors, and even changing the team’s name and mascot. The hope was that a new look for the team would communicate newness to the fan base, resulting in a renewed excitement about the team and the possibilities for the new season. The other organization was Charlotte’s NFL team, the Panthers. The Panthers finished this past season winning 5 out of their last 6 games. But the start of the season was a different story. Before the season started there were incredibly high expectations for the team (most of the fans expected the team to make the playoffs). But instead of starting off the season beating teams the fans thought they should beat and getting off on a good foot, the Panthers started the season with a record of 2 and 8. The fans, many of the players, and many of the leaders of the organization recognized that the team wasn’t going to achieve the goals they had set for the season. So conversations started then (and continue today) concerning the changes that ought to be made to help the Panthers achieve those goals for next year. Do changes need to take place in coaching? If so, which coaches need to be replaced? Do changes need to take place in player personnel? If so, which players need to be replaced? All of these are questions that have been and are continuing to be asked.

I share these illustrations because these are a couple of examples of organizations we hear about on the local news and on the radio who have goals and who are working hard to reach those goals. Other organizations and sports teams do the same thing - some teams are trying to win more, some teams are trying to get their payroll down in order to get under the salary cap, and other teams are trying to build better relationships with the community. In the same way that these organizations are in the habit of taking an honest look at themselves and striving to make the changes necessary to reach their goals, it’s important for us to take an honest look at ourselves and ask the question, “What do we need to strive after next?” “Are there areas that we need to be working towards in order to be a healthier church, a more biblical church, or a church that does a better job representing God’s Kingdom?” We need to hold ourselves up next to the NT and discern where we need to grow and or change. So this week we are going to do our best to look at some goals for us collectively and begin to fervently ask God throughout 2013 to help us grow in those areas.

Concerning church goals there are two specifics that I want us to be fervently praying for in 2013. The first is this – expansion of leadership. What do I mean when I say “expansion of leadership?” That’s a good question. Let’s look at several verses from the NT book of Acts and the Paul’s NT letter to Titus and I’ll explain.

And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” - Acts 14:23

What we see in this verse is going to be a consistent pattern in the other verses we are going to look at in just a moment. As the apostles were traveling from city to city proclaiming the Gospel and planting a new church in each of the cities that they visited, the model for church leadership in each city and in each church was always a plurality of elders. In other words, the first generation NT churches were not lead by one single elder or one single pastor, but each church had more than one elder, and those elders were responsible for giving oversight to the church and helping to set the direction for the church. Make sure you pick up on some of the specifics in this verse. First, the text says “And when they had appointed elders” – plural. The context (Acts 14:19-23) tells us that Paul and Barnabas had traveled to a handful of cities and had made many disciples of Jesus in each. Then, prior to leaving them in order to continue on their missionary journey, they appointed more than one elder. Where? The text tells us – “in every church.” It wasn’t just that Paul and Barnabas appointed multiple elders in one, bigger church. It wasn’t that the church in Derbe was a mega-church that required more leadership than all of the others. Their understanding and their practice was to appoint multiple elders in every church. Let’s look at a couple of other verses to help make this case.

Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.” – Acts 20:17

What’s the context for this verse? Paul and Luke (and probably a few others) were doing their best to hurry back to Jerusalem in order to make it back in time to celebrate Pentecost (see Acts 20:13-16). Their travel was going to take them near to the city of Ephesus. Paul had some important instructions for the church leaders – the elders – at the church of Ephesus, but it seems that Paul was worried that he would get caught up too long if he actually went to the city himself. So instead verse 17 tells us that sent a message to those leaders to come to him so that he might give them some instructions. Again, be sure that you pay attention to the specifics, “. . . he sent to Ephesus and called the elders – plural – of the church – singular – to come to him.” There was one church in the city of Ephesus, and that church had a plurality of elders. Next:

On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.” – Acts 21:18

The context for this verse is that Paul and his traveling companions had made it to Jerusalem. The believers in Jerusalem were primarily former Jews who had believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah and who had placed their faith in Him as Savior and Lord. But Paul and his traveling companions had been proclaiming the Gospel in areas where there were little to no Jews at all. They had been proclaiming the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus in Gentile regions. But even the Gentiles were hearing the good news of the Gospel and believing in Jesus as Savior and Lord, so Paul had come to share with the church leaders in Jerusalem how the Gospel was impacting people outside of a Jewish context. Luke says in verse 18 that Paul went into a meeting with the church leaders at Jerusalem and notice what the text says, “Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders – plural – were present.” The church in Jerusalem had a plurality of elders. Let’s pause to look at one last verse:

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained in order; and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.” – Titus 1:5

Paul explains in his letter to Titus that one of the reasons that he left Titus in Crete was to finish putting into place the things that Paul, himself, had not been able to do before he left. What was one of the things that Paul had instructed Titus to do? Verse 5 says “appoint elders – plural – in every town.” Paul and his companions had made disciples of Christ on the island of Crete, they had planted churches on the island of Crete, but Paul had to leave before he was able to finish establishing those churches. Notice though that Paul didn’t leave those churches saying, “Well, we didn’t have time to put leadership in place, but I’m sure they’ll figure something out.” Paul left, but he also left his good friend and helper, Titus, behind so that Titus could finish the task of putting leadership in place in the churches they had planted.

The first generation churches in the NT – including the church in Jerusalem, in Ephesus, in Derbe, in Lystra, in Iconium, in Antioch, and in all the churches on the island of Crete – were led by a plurality of elders. That is the model for church leadership that we see in the NT. It isn’t a church led by one elder or pastor. It isn’t a church governed by deacons. It is a church that is led by a plurality of elders. At Escalate Church we don’t have a plurality of elders. In our first two and a half years we have been a very small group, doing our best to lay a solid foundation upon which to build. For a large part of that time our regular attendance was in the 20s or 30s. But now, most weeks we have an attendance in the upper 40s, some weeks even getting into the lower 50s. We are starting to get to a point in which we really are looking more and more like a church. So as our numbers continue to grow one thing that is going to be important for us to do is to put a biblical model of leadership into place. That’s not anything we want to take lightly though. So over the course of 2013 we need to be asking God to help us expand Escalate’s leadership and moving in that direction. We need to be asking God to help us have a biblical and healthy understanding of elders. We need to be praying as a congregation for the individuals that God has placed in our congregation who can help serve and lead us in that capacity. And we need to strive to appoint those individuals as elders so that Escalate Church has a good, biblical model of leadership in place.

The second church goal that we need to be praying towards and striving towards in 2013 is racial diversity. Hopefully this doesn’t come as shocking news for some of you, but Jesus didn’t come only to rescue white, educated, middle-class Americans. It’s true – He didn’t. But take a minute to look around you this week. If someone new came through our doors who did not know anything about Jesus or the story of the Bible, what assumptions might they make by just looking at the group of people who have gathered here this morning? Someone could come in, sit down, look around at our group, listen to the message, and then leave with the right understanding that the Gospel is for all people, but also have the assumption that we are simply too racist to tell other racial or ethnic groups about it. Or worse, someone could come in, sit down, look around at our group, listen to the message, and then leave with the wrong assumption that we don’t believe the Gospel is for all people – just white, educated, middle-class Americans. So let’s remind ourselves of two important truths the Bible is crystal clear on this week. First, the Gospel is good news of reconciliation! Listen as Paul makes this clear in his NT letter to the Romans. “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly . . . but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by is life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:6-11). The sin that is in our lives has devastating consequences. Paul says that it separates us from God, that it makes us His enemies, and that it renders us deserving of His wrath. But by making Himself a man and coming to earth, Jesus made Himself our substitute. In other words, His death on the cross was the death that we deserved. The wrath of God that He endured was the wrath that we deserved. But He took our place and He suffered the whole punishment that we are deserving of. Why? So that we would not have to remain separated from God, so that we would not have to remain His enemies, and so that we would not have endure death and God’s wrath. Jesus died in our place so that He could reconcile us to God! That’s part of the good news of the Gospel. Second, Jesus made reconciliation with God available to ALL people! Paul also makes this clear in some of his other NT letters. “For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:19-20). Jesus’ death on the cross wasn’t to rescue a few people groups; nor was His death on the cross to repair a few things marred by sin. Jesus’ victory over sin, death, and Satan was the beginning of Him rescuing, repairing, and reconciling ALL things! If Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection only managed to repair some of the things marred by sin and only managed to rescue some of the people separated from God by sin, then Jesus’ victory wasn’t complete and sin is still bigger. But Paul never says that we have a partially victorious Savior – we have a Savior who is rescuing, repairing, and making ALL things new (including all races and ethnicities). Listen to these verses as well, “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Chris, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:16-21). Although our world has always tended to look at people’s flesh and judged people by their flesh, Paul urged the church at Corinth not to regard anyone according to their flesh. When we look at others we aren’t to judge them by their skin color, job title, or what family they come from. We are to see them in light of their relationship with Christ! If they have a relationship with Christ, they are like us – new creations in Him; adopted into His family; reconciled to God – and we are to love them as brothers and sisters in Christ. If they do not have a relationship with Jesus – then we see ourselves as His ambassadors and implore them to be reconciled to God through Jesus (regardless of their skin color or ethnicity). Jesus came to reconcile ALL people to God the Father. Please listen to this carefully! We can’t be guilty of proclaiming the reconciliation of all people to God that Jesus accomplished only in our message – we must also be proclaiming it in our make-up! Our church shouldn’t be more racially diverse in the months and years to come – it must be more racially diverse! That way, when someone comes in, sits down, looks around, and listens to the message they walk away with no doubt in their mind that the good news which we proclaim is good news to all people.

Connection Point Questions for Discussion:

1. Why is racial divesity within our church a "big deal" in regards to our proclamation of the Gospel?  How can a lack of racial diversity hurt our proclamation of the Gospel? Is our present lack of racial diversity something for which we really ought to be concerned about, why or why not?

2. While Jesus was born to Jewish parents and lived in a primarily Jewish region, He also ministered to people of different races/ethnic groups.  Can you give some examples from the NT of non-Jewish people that Jesus was intentional about pursuing, loving on, and proclaiming salvation to?  What can we take away from these examples and how can these examples encourage us to be more intentional in regards to building relationships and intentionally sharing the Gospel with those outside of our race/ethnic group?

3. Are you in the habit of intentionally trying to build relationships with individuals who are a different race/ethnicity than you?  If not, what should you and can you be doing differently?  How can you be praying for yourself, and how can we as a Connection Point be praying for you, to help and to encourage you in this area this year? 

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