Better Than One

One of the new hot movies is “Lost in the Land”.  Somehow I thought we lived in the land of the lost.  In a study of Kentucky, 66.5% of the population are not “church members” and are spiritually lost.  That would be somewhere around 2,700,000 Kentuckians!  In the “Comeback Churches” book, Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson said that “intentional evangelism” was one of the top five factors to bring back a church.

At Southern Baptist Convention on June 23-24, 2009 in Louisville, Great Commission Resurgence is going to be presented and preached.  I didn’t know I had lost the Great Commission but with lower baptisms and the ratio difference of people in a county and people in a church getting larger maybe we have lost our passion for reaching people with the gospel.

Intentional Evangelism in a church often looks like:  F.A.I.T.H.; G.R.O.W.; Sharing Jesus Without Fear; How To Be a Contagious Christian;  One Day Witnessing; NET and many others.  We sometimes do a decent job with sharing the gospel with people we meet and people who connect to our church.  Intentional means we have a process and we are prepared  to relate, rescue, and reach others at all times not just a few or sometimes. 

The first time I remember hearing someone emphasize “lostness” was in John Kramp’s book “Out of Their Faces and Into Their Shoes:  How to Understand Spiritually Lost People and Give Them Directions to God”.  When people are lost in the darkness, they need help to find their way out of darkness into the light.  Evangelism isn’t about trying to use gifts you don’t have; it’s being genuine and authentic about yourself.  People are not projects.  They are people that you can love, have a relationship with, and introduce to your best Friend.  Neil Cole in “Organic Church” asks the question, “Do you bring lost people to Jesus or do you take Jesus to lost people?”  Both are valid but we tend to spend most of our time bringing lost people to Jesus.  We might want to try and encourage our congregation to take Jesus to lost people in their neighborhood, at work, at school, at the gym, at the mall, at the hospital, and at the their place of interest.

In “a.k.a. ‘LOST’”  Jim Henderson writes, “I resigned from witnessing in 1996.  I knew I could never go back to the same old programs, the contrived joviality, or the fake evangelistic caring.  But what would I replace them with?  In the church I was leading at the time, many of us decided to do what was doable and to count what really counts.  We decided to count all the small attempts we made to connect with the people Jesus misses most and to do it in ways that were natural and had context in our ordinary, everyday lives.  We decided to call these practices Ordinary Attempts.”  Who are we passing every day that we could get to know and share, care, and love?

Kevin Harney says it this way, “Compassion.  It marked Jesus’ life.  Look into the Savior’s heart:  ‘Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.  When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd; (Matt. 9:35-36).  This is a prelude to Jesus’ statement that ‘the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few’ and to his call for us to ‘ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest fields’ (vv. 37-38).  Jesus’ heart broke for those who hadn’t yet received his amazing grace and experienced the Father’s love.  Too many leaders have become so busy at their churches or in their ministries that they have no time to connect with those who don’t know Jesus.  We can become isolated to the point that we almost never relate with people who are lost.  We need to hear Jesus’ call to pray for harvest workers.  And we need to offer ourselves to this Great Commission work.”  We will never ignite a spark or flame of reaching out with the gospel from a denominational level.  It has to start in the heart of every believer and the church has the best opportunity to get the fire going.

YOU are the light of the world!  A light should be placed on a lampstand so that it gives light to all the darkness surrounding it.  (Matt. 5:14-15)

In Jesus Driven Church, part 1, we related this writing to one of the ftop five factors in “Comeback Churches” by Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson - “Renewed Belief in Jesus Christ and the Mission of the Church.”  One way to move your church toward being Jesus Driven is to preach a sermon series around Jesus.  I did sermon series that highlighted who and how Jesus met people along the way and emphasized that we can do that too.

                                                    “I’ve Just Met Jesus”                                                         

“Surprised by Acceptance” – Luke 19:1-10

“The Love Story” – Luke 7:36-50

“Hide and Seek”  -  John 4:1-30

“Excuse Me”  -  Mark 5:21-43

“Do You See Anything?”  -  Mark 8:22-26

“Mary, Mary – Martha, Martha”  -  Luke10:39-42

“Hope for the Hopeless”  -  John 3:16

Our congregation needs to find their “first love” again for Jesus.  Seeing Jesus in action helps us demonstrate attitudes, behaviors, and strategies of Jesus. 

We must always remember that we can lead no one any further than we have gone before.  Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”….’Love your neighbor as ourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)  Until we are ready to be connected regularly and tightly to Jesus, it is impossible to lead a congregation to be Jesus Driven.

I have started reading Kevin Harney’s book “Leadership from the Inside Out”.  His first chapter looks at The Leader’s Heart and says, “We are building healthy lives and ministries when we make sure that God rules supreme and that our hearts are beating passionately for him.  When his glory is our joy, when our hearts beat with his, when he rules with no rivals, we grow healthy as leaders” and can influence others along the way.  “As leaders, connecting with God more intentionally and intimately is our starting point; it is the foundation for all we do in ministry.  When we fall more deeply in love with God with each passing day, all of our lives are driven by this simple reality:  God loves me and I love God.”

Kevin Harney also says, “I fix my eyes on Jesus and remember how he served, loved and sacrificed himself for the very people whose sin put him on the cross.  Jesus understood that an authentic relationship with God leads to a deep love for people.  When we forget Jesus’ words and just seek to do the work of ministry, we can disregard the fact that people matter to God.”    If we want a Jesus Driven Church, we have to pattern our lives in the messy and dangerous business of loving people, sacrificing, and risking injury as Jesus did.  We must be transparent with the congregation so they can start to see a glimpse of Jesus and foster his ways of service and ministry.

When you were dating and found the one you loved, what actions did you take?  Did you contact her?  Did you want to spend time with her?  Did you plan activities to be together?  When you were apart, did you get creative to find ways to connect with each other?  When you think about your love for God or Jesus, what are you doing to stay connected with him?  How much time do you spend with him?  Do you go out of your way to be with him?  Do you read his writings to you?  When you talk to God or Jesus, do you wait to hear what he has to say?  Is it a monologue or dialogue?  A Jesus Driven Church begins with you and me loving Jesus.

“O How He Loves You and Me!”

We often feel driven in our job, ministry, or work.  We may even neglect our family, our church, and our God.  If we are not careful, we will burnout and lose our passion.  Churches can also burnout and lose their passion by losing their focus on Jesus and being captured by attendance and service.

One of the top five Comeback Church factors is “Renewed Belief in Jesus Christ and the Mission of the Church.”  The Church in Ephesus mentioned in Revelation 2:2-4, says: “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance.  I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.  You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.  Yet I hold this against you:  You have forsaken your first love.”  How many churches today have lost their first love?  The church is doing good things, working hard, reaching out and serving but they have lost their first love for Jesus.

Everything in the church should be measured by Jesus and his words and actions.  Herbert Brokering wrote these words in a short skit about “words, thoughts, deeds” – Someone is looking to buy a Bible and gets into a dialogue with the store clerk:

“How much should it cost?

           As little as possible, so long as it has what Jesus said in red.

Why are you so sold on red?

           ‘Cause it’s easy to find all things Jesus said.  You know, the familiar sayings, the stories He told, and the Sermon on the Mount.

How does it help?

          It helps to pick these out as you read along.

Are they more important?

          What do you mean?

Are the things Jesus said more important than the rest?

          The rest of what?

The rest of His life.  Is what Jesus said more important than what Jesus did?

          Come again.

Are parables and stories more important than miracles?

          What are you getting at?

Nothing in particular.  Just wondering why all the red ink for His speeches when He was really famous for what He did.

          Oh.

And famous for who He was.

          Then change the order.

Meaning what?

          Get me one that prints all those things Jesus did in red.

There is no such Bible.

          But why not?

Are you suggesting that what He did is more important than what He said?

          Now we’re right back where we started.

I don’t think so.                     

Ajith Fernando has written a book entitled “Jesus Driven Ministry”.  Is our church  Jesus Driven?  Or is it deacon driven, pastor driven, staff driven, committee driven or me driven? 

Fernando uses the words of a simple chorus:

          Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me:

          All his wondrous compassion and purity,

          O thou spirit divine, all my nature refine,

          Till the beauty of Jesus is seen in me.

Consider doing a sermon series built around Jesus and His Encounters in the gospels.  Show how he related to people:  Some people came to Jesus, other people find Jesus on the way, and Jesus sometimes went out of his way to meet people.

In Jesus Driven Church part 2, I will share a sermon series relating to Jesus.

The hymn says, “Oh,  how I love Jesus”.