1 Corinthians 3:1-11
This year we embarked on the business of thinking about our church and looking at our identity. We were starting to ask ourselves: what is our purpose?
What does God want us to be doing? Then the church burnt down!
I’ll freely admit it was the last thing I expected to happen.
Well, now we have got a purpose and it’s to build another church!
Let me tell you, building another church is the last thing I expected we should be doing. We only just built a church!
What occurs to me now, is that we are all in the business of building a church after all – except that the actual building across the road is being built by other people - and to some extent it doesn’t involve us. The building that we need to do together – is the building of the people of God right here in Langside, so that we have a good group of people ready to go into our good new building.
So this special time in our history is time for us in this church to be building - in all senses of the word.
How can we build the church?
Well, we do that by finding the answer to another question.
What does God want us to do?
God wants us to be a strong and vital church, and it is God who can help us to be just that – after all it is God that does the building - but God always works with human beings and so God needs us to partner with in this task.
But how do we discover what God is calling us to do?
We do it by spending time praying and thinking and planning for our future. We know that the church is people and not the building, but the Bible often uses a building as a picture to describe the people of God.
The opening of Psalm 127 says “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labour in vain.”
In Matthew’s gospel Jesus said: “On this rock foundation I will build my church and not even death will ever be able to overcome it.”
(Matthew 16:18)
In our reading today Paul was writing to the church in Corinth – and this was a church that had all manner of problems and arguments to contend with. Some of them were even seriously arguing about who was the best leader – Paul who had started the church, or Apollos, who led it since.
And Paul writes back to say in effect - why argue about that - who cares who the leader is, when the real leader is Jesus anyway?!
Paul says “I sowed the seed, Apollos watered the plant, but it was God who made the plant grow. The one who sows and the one who waters really do not matter. It is God who matters because God makes the plant grow. I did the work of an expert builder and laid the foundation, and another man is building on it. God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation, and no other foundation can be laid.”
(1 Corinthians 3:6-7, 10-11)
In the gospel story heard today from Luke Chapter 7 – Jesus says that his teachings are the foundation that will make us secure – whether it’s the foundation for our lives or our church.
Here is something else that’s true about foundations.
Foundations don’t only provide us with security and stability.
Foundations limit and determine our shape.
Our foundation, to some extent, actually defines us
When we looked at the possibilities for our building with the architect we discovered that there were a lot things we could do, but some things we couldn’t do. And that was all to do with the foundations.
We could build some new foundations for the new extra space we hope to get, but if we were to change the foundations of the biggest part; the sanctuary, (the worship area), it would be hugely expensive.
You see the insurance will cover us rebuilding the sanctuary using the existing foundations, but if we want to change them, then the insurance wouldn’t pay for that and we would have to fund it ourselves.
So to some extent the foundation determines the building. Once you decide what the foundation is like then there are things you can do and other things that you can’t.
What is true for our building is true for us as a church community. If we decide to put certain things at the heart, at the centre of our church then we need to concentrate on them. And that means not concentrating so much on other things.
You might say: Well, why bother with that?
Why limit what we do?
Why don’t we do everything we can think of?
Let me answer that with a story.
Picture this scene. It’s a church meeting. This church has decided to call its annual meeting for planning their work over the next year. And before you think what a stupid scene this is I’m describing, bear in mind that most churches I know (and I bet you’re the same) don’t even have a meeting like this to think about what they are doing.
Anyway, here is a church group meeting to plan the coming year’s activities.
Mr Brown opens by saying “Okay folks, we’ve got a big agenda. Tonight we have to decide what our priorities are for the next 12 months and then we have to present to them to the Board for approval in the next two weeks.”
Mr Black says “Last year has been a good year for our congregation. I propose that we should simply do all the things we did last year. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
Mrs White says “I disagree entirely. We can’t stay stuck in the past. We need to look to be doing new things. Just because something worked once doesn’t mean its always going to work in the future. Lets see some changes.”
Mr Green says “The church down the road has got this great youth group going. We should try doing something like that for our young people.”
Mr Brown says “I think we need to reach out more to people in our community. We need to start a project out there where people are.”
Ms Amber says “There is a great lack in adult spiritual education here. We should start some courses or small group opportunities for people to grow and learn”.
Mr Black, (who is also the treasurer), says “How much will this all cost?”
Now this meeting could go on and on with other suggestions but I am running out of colours here to name my characters! You get the picture.
There are lots of ideas going around – but there is no sense of direction. No standard of reference by which ideas could be judged. This church is (like many churches) trying to go in different directions at the one time.
When elected US President, Obama invited two prominent church ministers to take part in his inauguration: Gene Robinson, the Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire (whom Lyn and I had the privilege to meet recently), and Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church in California, the fastest ever growing Baptist church. Rick Warren began this church in his house with a couple of people and now they have around 10,000 attending each week.
One of the things that Warren has studied over the years is what helps or hinders churches from growing and making an impact on society.
Here is something he says…
“In my opinion, most churches try to do too much. This is one of the most overlooked barriers to building a healthy church: we wear out people.
Too often small churches involve themselves in all kinds of activities, events, and programmes. Instead of concentrating like St Paul did, they dabble in 40 different things and miss at being good at any of them.
The older a church gets, the truer this becomes. Programmes and events continue to be added to the agendas without ever cutting anything out. Remember, no programme is meant to last forever. A good question to keep in mind when dealing with programmes in your church is “Would we begin this today if we weren’t already doing it?” It is essential to the health of your church that you periodically “clean house” – abandon programmes that have outlived their purpose. When the horse is dead – dismount!”
(Rick Warren: The Purpose Driven Church p88f)
Warren also uses the image of light to make an important point. Focused light has tremendous power. If you focus the power of the sun through a magnifying glass, you can set a leaf on fire. But you can’t set a leaf on fire if the same sunlight is unfocused. When light is concentrated even more, like a laser beam, it can cut through steel.
“A focused life and a focused church will have far greater power than unfocused ones. Like a laser beam, the more focused a church becomes the more impact you will have on society”.
(Rick Warren: The Purpose Driven Church p89)
The point is, that if you concentrate on a small area of attention you will do a better job.
We need to decide what our main aims should be and concentrate on them. We need to set our targets.
If setting targets seem strange for a church to be doing let me tell you it is actually a very biblical thing.
For example, Jesus said he had come especially for the lost sheep of Israel. He wasn’t being down on other people. He cared for all people. But he was being realistic as to the people one person could reach.
The two most famous early leaders of the church were Peter and Paul. Peter spent the majority of his time with Jewish Christians whilst Paul’s mission was to reach out to non-Jews.
We have different gospels in the Bible. They were written to different audiences. For example Matthew contains nearly all the same stories as Mark. But Matthew was writing particularly to Jewish believers and Mark was writing for Gentiles – non-Jews.
Nobody can do everything. And no church can do everything either. We need to find what we are called to do and then to do that to the best of our ability. The rest will be up to God.
We need to pray.
We need to talk.
We need to think.
We need to plan.
A couple of weeks ago the elders went away for the weekend to do a bit of this, and there will be more to say in due course.
What kinds of things are likely to come from it? Well it’s still too early to know all the details but I’ll suggest a couple of things which I think will be involved.
We’ve been thinking about being a welcoming church and asking ourselves just how welcoming we are in reality to new people. We have been looking at ways we can make that welcome better. I think one thing we are going to look at next is taking this a step further.
Going beyond just being ready to welcome people - to actively seeking them. It’s all very well to welcome people who come to our church and so we should. But I think we need to do a lot more about finding ways to be attracting new people and we should be expecting to see new people here.
Another area we will be looking at is our structure as a church. Do we need more opportunities for people other than just committees?
And a third area is finding practical ways to allow all the members of our church to be and to feel involved – to realise afresh that we all have gifts and abilities that we can use to enhance our church and change the world for the better.
On thing is certain. We need to use this time wisely and well, while the workers are busy rebuilding across the road. We need to do our own rebuilding.
I’ve spoken before about Anthony Robinson – he is a guy from the UCC in America who writes great books about the church. He also takes a turn as a contributor in a kind of “thought for the day” I get each day on my email. Just last week he was commenting on a verse from Luke 21.
Jesus is talking about times when the world seems to be falling apart – when things seem to have taken a terrible turn for the worse and people are tempted to lose hope.
And Jesus says: "Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." (Luke 21:28)
Let me finish today by just reading what Robinson says next….
In times of crisis, we are tempted to hunker down, to hold on and to hide out. But God, Jesus tells us, can use crisis to bring redemption, to make a new world and a better world. God can use crisis to make a new church or a new you. Think about it. At least sometimes, when your world has seemed to break apart, it has been the opening to a new and a better day. It wasn't death but birth that was happening. God can use the present crisis and times of shaking, to do a new thing. But if we're going to be a part of it, we can't let fear make us faint. We can't allow foreboding to paralyze us. It's time, when everything is shaking, to "Stand up, raise your heads, because our redemption is drawing near."
Prayer
Come Holy Spirit, break us open and make us new.
And when things seem to be breaking up and open all around us,
give us eyes and hearts to see the new thing you are doing.
You are building your church, and you want our church to be strong.
Help us to work with you so that our church family here
can be all you want us to be. Amen.