A Church must continually evaluate where it has come from, what places it has gone off track, and where it currently stands in regards to Jesus central call to “Go and make disciples.”  I take that as Jesus’ mission statement to the Church quite literally.  The Book of Acts shows us the earliest picture of how the Church lived out that call.  For the past month, on Wednesday nights we’ve looked at Acts 2:37-47 as a model of a three stage process of disciplemaking.  It certainly doesn’t fill in all the blanks methodologically, but it helps piece together a workable model for what we are to be moving people through.

It shows us Three Major Next Steps beginning with the non-believer.  Peter preached his famous sermon on the day of Pentecost, and in the response to the sermon we find the first step in Disciple Making.  The lost being saved.  In response to the preaching of the Gospel the hearers asked a question I love, “What shall we do now?”  Peter answered first Repent.  I take this statement as one where repentance entails belief in the message and the decision to build ones life around it.  So the Church must evangelize to see the lost saved. 

The second step, then, is taking the newly saved, and seeing them go through the waters of Baptism.  We don’t recognize this as a salvific event, but a public profession and demonstration of the inner change that’s taken place in the new believer.  You want a concrete next step?  It couldn’t be any clearer than “Repent and be baptized.”  And so 3,000 on that day trusted in Jesus and followed His command to be baptized.  

The third step is integration of the newly baptized into active involvement in a local church.  This is often where the breakdown occurs.  But here in verses 42-47 we see these new believers’ rock solid commitment to the local church in Jerusalem.  What were they committed to?  The Word of God (apostles’ doctrine), and True Christian Fellowship.  Further clarifying fellowship, Luke outlines that this involved mutual meals, mutual prayers, and mutual care for one another.  They became partners, formed around the Gospel, who regularly experienced the fellowship of the local Church.

As I evaluate our church, I must ask the question, is our church organized to take people through the stages of discipleship, and further, are we in fact doing so.  They say that the system you design, is designed to achieve precisely the results that you get.  If our system were designed to take people through these stages, then we need a new system, or at the least a return to an older system.  What I’ve noticed is an unhealthy balance between teaching times and times of other kinds of fellowship involving mutual care and prayer.  We design our official service times to be primarily teaching/preaching points, which is great, if there are other times to accomplish those other things.  We have Sunday School, Sunday Morning Worship, Sunday Evening Worship, and Wednesay Evening Bible Study.  Ample time for sitting under the Word.

The great problem is this hasn’t led to a fruitful, full fellowship in our church.  In fact there’s breakdown from the first stage all the way to the third.  Few ever are saved, few ever follow into the waters, and few take the next step to join with our church.  The challenge for us is to examine the system to figure out where the train went off track, and make the necessary adjustments to get back on track again, so that we are known as a Church that makes disciples.  There may be resistance, but it may just be urgent enough to make the effort worth it.  We shall see how the response is.  We leave this in the capable hands of God.

Have you ever had the “naked” dream?  The one where you show up somewhere public only to realize that you must have forgotten to put any clothes on?  I had it for the first time as a pastor a few weeks ago.  I was, for some reason only my dream knows, sitting in the back of the church as the worship service began.  Nothing abnormal, nothing out of the ordinary besides that.  The music starts up and all the kids and youth go into the aisles and start some broadway dance looking number.  I realize I need to get up to preach just after the song, and so I’m going to sneak outside and go back in through a side door near the platform.  As I get outside, I walk past a glass window, it’s sunny outside, and so I see my reflection and realize I’ve got pants on, but I have NO shirt on at all.  Not much else to the dream, really, except that in that moment you feel very exposed to the church.

I guess that it feels somewhat the same to be in the ministry and have a publicly known salary.  By no means am I complaining.  In fact I understand why some churches would want to publish the salaries of their pastor.  My church takes good care of me, and my family is not in need.  So it is not a shame thing.  I guess maybe it’s more a privacy thing.  It takes a little getting used to, having people who know and pay your salary through their tithes.  From time to time there are comments about it.  Never a comfortable thing.  And as budget time rolls around, there is the unenviable position of being on the same finance committee that deals with salary.

Of course you don’t ask for a raise.  But what about a deduction?  What does a pastor say when someone on the committee recommends this?  (This has not happened to me by the way, I can simply imagine how it would feel).  They would be put in the ugliest of ugly positions.  No person in any job in the world wants to have their salary lowered, and no person would say a word if an employee put up a fight about it.  But what would they say if a pastor did not want someone to lower his salary?  “He’s not spiritual.  He’s in it for the money.  If he cared about God’s work he’d do it no matter what the pay.”

People REALLY think this way.  I’ve not seen it in the church I pastor thankfully.  I believe in my heart they desire to care for the pastor and family.  But I’ve certainly heard stories.  There are many ways a pastor feels exposed (READ: NAKED) before the congregation, preaching the chief among them.  But the most uncomfortable one has to be everyone reading your salary.  The Good:  It keeps you on your toes and accountable.  The Bad:  You always feel the need to overwork to justify the salary you do make.  It’s an odd world to live in, but if God calls, you go.  Even if you forget to put your shirt on.

In the “old days” Little Mountain, much like many churches at the time, had no baptistry.  For those of you who do not have any idea what “baptistry” means I’ll briefly explain.  A baptistry is a dunking booth for baptisms.  Really.  The Greek (“Really?  You’re bringing Greek into this?”) word for baptize means to immerse, which means to dunk, which means to take someone/something under water.  A baptistry is the place this is done in churches today.  Before the advent of these handy booths, people would use natural bodies of water to baptize in.  A river, a pond, a lake, an ocean, or the little local creek.  Little Mountain’s new believers were dunked in a creek that was damned up several hours before the baptism so a pool would form.  This is a picture of an actual baptism from our church about, I don’t know, 60 years ago.  I love the black and white older pictures.  Many long for the “good old days,” but I much prefer my water warm.  

This past Sunday our Music Minister of 7 years announced his resignation effective January 27th. Jay, we will miss you here at Little Mountain along with Brenda and Miranda.  Over the past 10, wow almost 11 months, I have enjoyed working alongside Jay.  He has helped me in more ways than I can count to understand Little Mountain, and how it works.  He’s seen and done a lot in his time here, and I can say I will miss walking out those doors each Sunday and making our way (slowly during the hip troubles) up onto the stage.  Jay is gifted as a singer and song leader.  He is a man of prayer, and sometimes as we pray and seek the Lord He leads us to new places.  Wherever he leads Jay I pray it will be a fruitful journey with renewed service to God.  Pray that God would lead Jay and his family exactly where God would have them go.  And pray for our church that God would bring in exactly who He wants, and what we need (they go hand in hand).

Reflections on the message tonight.  I read today in 1 Chronicles 13-16 about how David led Israel frequently into times of corporate worship.  Of course once there, it was the Levites who led, but David called “all of Israel” together many times to worship and celebrate God.  It got me thinking along several lines, but especially about our times of corporate worship.  The people participated in worshiping God.  They not only gathered to listen, but gathered to contribute as well.  Corporate prayer, confession of sins, repentance, praise, thanksgiving, rehearsing great events from the past.  All these came together for a joyous time of worship.  Our music minister gave a nice acronym for what our corporate worship priorities should be.  J.O.Y. — Jesus, Others, Yourself in that order.  We usually go Ourself, Jesus, Others.  A bit out of whack.  

I’m not a mega church pastor.  If I were being absolutely honest I would say, “I don’t know if I want to be one.”  Lots of young pastors have aspirations to be in a large church.  They see the steps they have to take to get there.  It starts with a smaller church, then a medium, then a larger medium, then a large, then a mega.  Most pastors never get there, but the ones who go this route many times start out knowing that’s what they want to do and need to do.  That is not my mindset at Little Mountain.  I came to Little Mountain to plant myself there, and to see my life intertwined with theirs.  I’ve learned a lot and done a lot badly.  My deepest desire for our church is to see growth.  I don’t want this church to be a stepping stone.  I want it to grow, and me with it.  When I say that, I mean both numerically and qualitatively.  I want our people to mature in the faith.  I want our people to reach the lost.  I want the unchurched Christians to be reached (if there’s such a thing).  Growth can be good.  It’s not good in and of itself, but it can very well mean that people’s lives are being changed.  This new year I want to see more life change than ever before.  It has to start with our people.  Our leaders have to lead.  Our people have to come along.  We have to work harder than ever before.  But there’s potential there that’s untapped, and in the process of being tapped.  I don’t know what God intends to do but I do believe this year will see things happen that haven’t happened at Little Mountain in a long time.  I believe it will be for the better.  It’s not because God told me so.  I simply have faith that He desires to do a work in our midst, and through us.  Whether that happens will not be dependent on His desire.  I believe His desire we can assume is to grow in maturity and in number.  Maybe not to “mega” status, but to meet our God given potential.  If I lose expectations of great things happening I might as well leave the ministry.  I’m already done.  I will be posting specific goals in the near future.  I believe it is important to set measurable, reachable goals.  I am bad at it, but I’m giving it a shot.  Any suggestions?

Just a quick note to let you know the church website has been updated with a new article you may find mildly amusing. It’s entitled, “Jesus, James Bond, and Christmas.” Intrigued? Even if you’re not, stop by the site and check it out. In other news, lmbchurch.net has received over 600 hits in the past 30 days. Not bad for a Rural American Church.

There’s something special about a deacon ordination service in a small rural church. Everyone is so close, and it’s so much a family affair. You see men in tears and their wives as well as I get an opportunity to challenge someone from the Word to serve Jesus. We ordained a very special man today, and even though he’s somewhere in his 60’s, this is the first time he’s ever served as a deacon anywhere. I was honored to be a part of it. I hope that he will always remember this day, and I’m fairly sure I will.