I never really got it. That’s what kept me in bed on Sunday mornings for most of my adult life. And trust me when I say that there are some of us here and millions more outside these walls that are feeling the same way. Feeling like there is no reason why they need to get up and go out to some boring, outdated, out of touch church that will simply put them back to sleep. They say they believe in God but they don’t believe in the need to go to a place that doesn’t actually have a particular purpose for their life. I know it is sad, but believe me, it is true, because I said it more than once.
But for many of you, what you are doing right now on this Sunday morning is a natural part of your lives. You get up and take showers and brush your teeth (hopefully) maybe eat a good breakfast and head out the door to get to the local worship location by 10:00am or 10:30am. But let me stop here for a minute and ask an important question: Do you know why we are here? I mean really, do you know why we are here right now at this gathering? After all, there are many, many people in San Antonio this morning still asleep in their comfortable beds, going for walks in a local park, having coffee with someone they love. They see no real reason to be here. Do you? Are we here because this is what we do on Sunday mornings? Are we here because this is what is expected of us? Have you ever really thought about it? Really? I have thought about it a lot. In fact, most of my life I have thought about it.
But you see after I exchanged my life for the life of Jesus Christ and began to read and digest the Bible for the first time, I stumbled upon an amazing section of Scripture that radically changed everything for me. In Acts 2:42-47 I found a passage that reads something like this (I invite you to read along with me)
42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (-Acts 2:42-47)
And that was followed up by another passage of Scripture that I found just a few chapters later in 4:32-35
32All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. 33With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. 34There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.
(-Acts 4:32-35)
I remember reading those passages for the first time and putting down my Bible in absolute awe. I remember the chills that ran up and down my neck and the goose bumps that appeared on my arms. I remember with huge tears in my eyes, whispering to God, “Lord, I want to be a part of THAT!”
So with THAT as my model church, the church I wanted to find and be a part of, I began (and am still on) a search to understand the church in America and to see if the ACTS 2 church can exist in our present day and age. Along the way, I have made some observations that quite frankly have brought me into more disagreements with friends and family members than I ever believed possible.
And what I would like do for the next several minutes is to share three observations that I have made about the state of the church today.
Usually, I have a hard time explaining what God has been showing and teaching me. So I thought I would use two models that my son has put together to illustrate my points-one model is a dinosaur and the other model is a jet plane.
THE COLLECTIVE CHURCH
I must admit that I haven’t ever really been too good at putting together models—I just don’t have the patience for it. But recently, my son started taking an interest in model building…models like the ones I have here. When I first look at these two models he has put together (especially from a distance), I see that collectively there are many pieces that make up the entire model’s form and function. But even though each of these models are made of the same material (wood) from the same creator (my son) and share some of the same shapes and sized pieces, in the finished product they don’t necessarily share the same form. One of them resembles a dinosaur; the other resembles a jet. So I ask myself is one better than the other? Well I guess the answer is whether you like dinosaurs or jets more.
Lately, God has been using my son’s models as an illustration for today’s church. For example, all of us— the collective body of Christ followers—join together to form what we call the church-represented here as the whole model. The word "church" which comes from the Greek "ekklesia" means "gathering" or "assembly." (called out ones confessing Christ) Therefore, the church is actually the gathering of all believers everywhere. More specifically, the Bible says that the collective church IS the body of Christ (Colossians 1:24).
Other places in Scripture make it clear that the church also refers to God's people at a given location as I Corinthians 1:2 points out…(“To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified [chosen and set apart] in Christ Jesus and called to be holy…”). These “bodies of Christ” (or churches) are still part of the collective body, but simply meet in different locations.
So while the churches in our world today are made of the same material from the same creator and share some of the same shapes and sized pieces, they don’t necessarily share the same form. Some of our congregations are enormous with thousands gathering in huge facilities. Some of our congregations are much smaller with believers gathering together in buildings usually reserved for other functions during the week. Some are simply dinosaurs while others are jet planes. And I am not sure that one is really better than the other, although I find this to be one of the most heated arguments between Christ followers. In reality, it just depends on whether you like big churches or smaller churches.
Even though they may each take on a different form, they all have the same collective mission and function. In fact, Scripture teaches that the church’s mission is really two-fold.
1. The church comes together (or assembles) for the purpose of bringing each member to spiritual maturity. Ephesians 4:11-13 says it this way… 11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
2. The church reaches out (scatters) to spread the love of Christ and the gospel message to unbelievers in the world. Matthew 28:18-20 gives it to us this way...
19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
This is the Great Commission.
So, the purpose of the church is to minister to believers and unbelievers. But I believe the church actually has a greater purpose. Let me explain.
Growing up, I had many friends who would put an incredible amount of time, attention, and detail into creating their models. But it always made me laugh because in the end when they had finished putting their models together, the models many times would end up on some high shelf in their rooms collecting dust or worse yet, at the bottom of a closet toy box broken to pieces. All that time and energy putting together the models was simply wasted.
The point I am trying to make here is that models are created for one purpose—the purpose of being put on display so that the creator can receive praise and glory for his/her creation. And so too is the purpose of the collective church—to bring glory and praise to the creator. The church does not exist:
• So we can have a place to go on Sunday morning
• So we can have a place to go to feel good about ourselves
• So we can have a place to go to see our friends and feel safe and secure
• So we can have a place to go to get away from our problems for a little while
These may be reasons that we hear from our friends and neighbors about why they go to church. But with all due respect, the church doesn’t exist to please us. No, the collective church exists to bring glory and honor and praise to our Lord Jesus Christ! You see it is really all about Him!
But my observations unfortunately have shown me that in many churches, this isn’t what happens at all.
1. Many times our churches, like our models, are put up high on a shelf out of reach from anyone where they collect dust and eventually become forgotten and obsolete. Worse yet, our churches may become deeply buried within the dark recesses of a box (and can never get out of the box) that they become broken and of no use at all.
2. Other times we ourselves put the church on display, painting it up, lighting it up and cleaning it up so that those who view it give glory and praise to the church itself instead of the creator. The church becomes the object of our affections (almost an idol)—instead of a living, breathing, serving, glory to God giving organism.
THE INDIVIDUAL CHURCH
The second thing these models have taught me about the church, is that these models are made up of hundreds of individual pieces as well. There are small pieces, bigger pieces, pieces of different shapes and sizes—with each piece having an important function to the entire model. I think we would all agree that without these individual pieces there would be no model at all. You see, no individual pieces, no collective model, no glorification for the creator.
Sound familiar? Our churches are comprised of hundreds and thousands of individuals of many sizes, talents, gifts, individually coming together to collectively form the church. 1 Corinthians 12:12 says it this way … 12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy for a model creator comes when they discover that they have a lost an individual piece. When they lose a piece, the finished model can’t be completed and can’t look the way it is supposed to look or function fully the way it is supposed to function. However, good model creators will stop what they are doing and go in search of that individual lost piece before moving forward. Those truly dedicated to the building of great models will search and search and search some more until they find and bring back the lost piece or pieces. Then and only then can the entire collective body be completed the way the creator wants it to be and the way it was made to be.
So how dedicated are we to building really great models? When we discover a lost piece (and believe me there are lots of lost pieces) do we pack up our models, put the pieces back into the box and resign ourselves to finding the piece later? Do we sometimes just give up hope that the lost piece will ever be found and instead decide to keep focusing on just the pieces we do have? Do we even care about the lost piece in the first place? Really?
Christ had a desire and willingness to do whatever it took, to seek out, find and restore those lost pieces. And Jesus especially looked for the pieces that were crushed, misshapen, and maybe a little different than some of the other pieces in the model. But one thing He never found was a piece that wasn’t already crafted from the highest quality of material and couldn’t be used to make the model better and stronger. Do we have the same stomach to make those same kinds of sacrifices for the lost pieces in our lives? My observations tell me that many of us are not.
THE STRONG CHURCH
So that brings me to my third and final observation. If you know anything about model building you will know that there is a substance that is the single most important part of building models. Without it, none of the other pieces can even hold together. The single most important element is the glue. Without the glue, the individual pieces can become weak or loose eventually causing the model to fall apart. This sticky, “invisible” substance bonds each piece together making it strong and durable.
Of course an experienced model builder understands that you don’t put the entire model together pouring a bunch of glue on it at the end. No, glue is applied to each individual piece as the creator builds. Over time as the glue dries and hardens and becomes stronger, the entire model rises up to becomes a tribute….holy and pleasing to the creator.
You see, the importance is really in the glue. Christ is the glue and we are the pieces adhered together by the glue—because it we aren’t, quite frankly we will fall off the model. Jesus describes it this way in the book of John… 5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.-John 15:5
However, I have observed that sometimes we make the church (the object) the glue. Other times, we make certain people in leadership or even the pastor the glue. And that is when we get in trouble because the church of Jesus Christ is only as strong as its pursuit of Jesus Christ and nothing else.
What’s interesting is that I have also discovered that you CAN build a model without glue. To be honest with you, these models here are built with no glue at all. They have been carefully crafted and engineered to make them work without any glue at all. But as my son said to me before I left the house with them this morning, “Dad, please be careful. Without glue, these models are pretty fragile and I would hate to see them fall apart.”
Interesting isn’t it. I have observed that if we are not careful, churches can also be put together without glue—without Christ at all. Oh don’t get me wrong, I believe that many of those called out to begin a ministry start with the right heart and right intentions. However, along the way through lengthy strategy, detailed performance measures, skillful craftsmanship and careful engineering you can create a church that can be put up on a shelf for everyone to see and admire and tragically bring very little glory to the creator; churches that quite honestly are pretty fragile and ready to fall apart.
I know that many of you right now are probably saying, Greg, why are you just focusing on the negative church stuff, what about all the great stuff that is happening to further the Kingdom of God? Don’t you think there is anything out there that is good? Well the answer to that is yes I do. There is some amazing work being done by the Body of Christ for the Kingdom of Christ, people and ministries that I have personal contact with and see how God is using them and their calling for His glorious purpose. But for me, there is still the desire for more, more glue so that I can be a part of the original model I first saw in Acts 2. I do believe it is possible. I really do. And I don’t want to settle for anything less.
There is a song by Matthew West called Motions that sums up the desires that I have been sharing with you today. Here is how the lyrics go:
This might hurt, it's not safe
But I know that I've gotta make a change
I don't care if I break,
At least I'll be feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life
I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"
No regrets, not this time
I'm gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love make me whole
I think I'm finally feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of this life
I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"
I want to encourage you.
• To get you fired up so that you never just want to go through the motions as a church.
• To get you fired up so that you never place your church high on a shelf where it can collect dust or put your church deep into a box where it can break apart.
• To get you fired up so that you continue to search and never give up until you find that missing piece
• To get you fired up so that you continue to passionately pursue Christ and never the church itself
• To get you fired up so that you will desire to be the church to the world that so desperately needs it.
The founder of the "home church" movement in England, Canon Ernest Southcott, said it best:
"The holiest moment of the church service is the moment when God’s people—strengthened by preaching and sacrament—go out of the church door into the world to be the church."
That to me is when we will begin to see amazing things happen, just like in the Acts 2 church.
