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Printer Friendly VersionWhy do we do what we do? Is there some reason? Are there some
characteristics we’re trying to embody or some goals we’re trying
to reach as a congregation?
It’s never easy to reach lofty goals! That’s always a difficult
task. Climbing Mount Everest wouldn’t be such a thrill and so compelling
were it not an incredible challenge. President Theodore Roosevelt used to
say years ago, “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the
chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
Being a part . . . and serving in . . . and reaching toward
God’s best for us as a people is “work worth doing.” It’s
one of the best prizes life has to offer. We’ve all been a part of projects
or jobs or tasks that weren’t worth doing! They were a huge waste of
time and energy. I certainly don’t want to give my life to something
that doesn’t really matter. I want to make a difference. I want you
and your life to have an impact, and one of the ways you and I can do that
is through our church and its ministries!
Los Angeles, California has a company called “5 Star Parking.”
Hampton Roads, Virginia has a general contractor called “5 Star Homes.”
There’s the “5 Star Dairy Quality Assurance” group and the
“5 Star Side Impact Crash Test Rating.” You and I may not have
anything to do with any of those businesses in our lifetime, but we can help
to create a Five-Star Church! We can be a part of a Five-Star, community-reaching,
world-impacting, and life-changing church!
That doesn’t just happen by accident. As a people, we
must proceed with the same perspective as Jesus. We must do many of the same
things Jesus did. I want us to look at one very familiar verse from the Gospel
of Matthew, and I want us to focus on one particular aspect of that verse.
Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest.”
In your mind’s eye, can you see Jesus seated or standing
on some hillside in Palestine, extending His arms to the crowds and saying
to anyone and everyone, “Come to me!”? I want to draw our attention
this morning to that idea of everyone.
A great church—a “five-star” church—is
a church where everyone is welcome! --To paraphrase the words of Martin Luther
King, Jr., sadly the most segregated hour in America is the Sunday morning
worship hour. This has been repeated now for decades and is clearly the case
in so many places. But I’m moderately pleased as I scan this congregation
that I see skin colors in various shades of brown, and that’s a good
thing because in our world and in our community there are various shades of
brown! You and I can’t expect our church to be a great church and be
“mono-chrome,” whether that means solely white, black, or brown!
A great church welcomes people of all races, all backgrounds,
and all traditions. There are no barriers at the entrances of a “five-star”
church! You don’t have to be tested or analyzed or scrutinized when
you come to a great church. The people say, “Welcome!” The pastor
says, “Welcome!” The environment says, “Welcome to anyone
and everyone!”
One of my favorite story-weavers tells about preaching four
nights in a row at a church in Atlanta. Every night at a certain place in
the order of the service, the pastor would stand up and say, “Greet
each other in Christian love.” And the people would start hugging one
another and patting one another on the back and they’d go up the aisle,
and across the pew, and here and there. Finally the pastor would say, “Alright.
Alright. Hold it.”
The last night of the week, the pastor and his wife took the
special speaker and his wife out for coffee. Sometime during the pecan pie,
the pastor said, “Did you ever see such a family church? Did you ever
see such love in your life in a church?”
The speaker’s wife said, kind of under her breath, but
loud enough for the table to hear, “Yeah, I have.”
“What do you mean?” the pastor asked.
She said, “Well, I was there for all four services and
nobody ever spoke to me.”
Do you know what the pastor said? He said, “Well, that’s
because they didn’t know you!”
Listen. If you have to be known to be welcomed, and if that’s
what it means to be a family, then the church shouldn’t be a family.
We ought to reconsider the image. Five-star churches welcome everyone regardless
of where they’ve been and what they’ve done and why they’ve
come. The church says, “Welcome,” whether you’re already
a member of the family or not.
Because the next thing that is fundamental to a great church
is the foundational idea that everyone can be saved. No one is beyond the
reach of God’s grace! No one! It is possible for everyone to experience
forgiveness. Everyone can be born again or born from above. Everyone can be
justified by God’s grace through faith and adopted into God’s
family. The Bible says in 2 Peter 3:9 that God “is patient with you,
not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” It
is God’s desire that everyone repent and believe in Christ and give
their lives to Him. That’s God’s desire, but He will not force
anyone to do that against their own will. What a loving, gracious, merciful
God!
Five-star churches proclaim good news to anyone and everyone
who, by God’s grace, will turn to Christ and seek forgiveness and allow
God to transform their lives. Everyone is welcome. Everyone can be saved.
Everyone has something to offer. I’ve been around the church a long
time. I’ve been serving and leading churches for many years and I can’t
tell you how many times I’ve heard somebody say, “Pastor, I can’t
teach” or “I can’t sing,” as if teaching and singing
were the only gifts useful for the church. It’s just not true!
One of my favorite people, he’s a great encouragement
to me. He can do it all. He can sing. He can teach. He can preach. He’s
one of those multi-gifted people, but for the last couple weeks on this church
campus, he’s been replacing ceiling tiles! How’s that for a gift?
The Bible doesn’t mention it, but he’s got it. Listen, everyone
has something to offer. The key, 99% of the time, is willingness to serve.
If you can dial a telephone, or write a note, or kneel to pray,
or rock a baby, or say “Hello” with a smile on your face, then
you can find a place of service. We’re going to ask you to do it because
we believe “five-star churches” embrace the idea that everyone
has a gift and everyone can serve in ministry in some way. Rick Warren gets
it exactly right on this point when he says most church members and attendees
need “serving experiences in which they can exercise their spiritual
muscles.”1 You and I need opportunities to serve because each of us
has something to offer in the way of service.
Not too long ago, I read a big, thick biography of Dwight Eisenhower. Stephen
Ambrose, a magnificent historian, was writing about the time when Eisenhower
was leading all of the Allied forces during World War II. The command center
was, of course, very busy. People were constantly coming and going. Visiting
VIPs came to that “theater of operation” and Eisenhower didn’t
care much for that kind of thing. In fact, many times when VIPs would come
to the command center, Eisenhower would go somewhere close to the front line
to get away.
During one of those occasions, he wrote a letter to his wife,
Mamie. This is what it said:
Our soldiers are wonderful. It always seems to me that the closer to the front
the better the morale and the less grumbling. No one knows how I like to roam
around among them—I’m always cheered up by a day with the actual
fighters.
Get close to the front lines in ministry and service! The morale
is better. There’s less grumbling and it will change your life and your
perspective on what being the church means.
Everyone is welcome. Everyone can be saved. Everyone can serve.
Everyone must engage in the mission, which is to reach your neighbor, your
family member, your co-worker, and the world with the gospel of Jesus! That’s
the mission. That’s the goal of “five-star churches.” Everyone
must engage in the mission.
Great churches are full of Warren calls “world-class Christians.”
Not worldly Christians, whose primary concern is personal fulfillment or their
own needs or their own happiness. He says,
World-class Christians know they are saved to serve and made
for a mission. They are eager to receive a personal assignment and excited
about the privilege of being used by God. . . . Their joy, confidence, and
enthusiasm are contagious because they know they’re making a difference.2
You and I have the choice with God’s help to be a “worldly
Christian” or a “world-class Christian” who is engaged in
the mission and doing work worth doing.
Let me share with you two ways you can engage in the mission
of this church to fulfill our mission to share Christ and make disciples.
One of those ways is by investing in the lives of the unbelievers in your
circle of influence. Learn who they are. Share in their pain. Rejoice in their
successes. And then—at the right moment—leverage your relational
influence for the sake of God’s kingdom.
You and I realize that no one invests not to get a return. The
only reason to invest in a stock or a bond or whatever is to someday receive
some return, some value. When we invest in the lives of the pre-Christians
around us, we’re investing for the sake of God’s kingdom on earth
and for eternity! If you haven’t already begun that process of investing
in the lives of people who stand outside a saving experience with Jesus, then
begin this afternoon to think about and pray about who those people should
be.
You can invest and then you can invite. It’s up to you.
As a church, we plan services, events, classes, and programs so you can invite
your “investee” to come with you. I heard one bold pastor say,
“I tell our folks that if they are not willing to leverage their influence
for the kingdom, they are attending the wrong church.”
Invest and invite. That’s a simple, do-able way to engage
and embrace our mission to share Christ and make disciples. Everyone is welcome.
Everyone can be saved. Everyone can serve. Everyone must engage in the mission
because Jesus said, “Come to me . . . all . . . everyone . . . anyone
. . . and I will give you rest!”
1 Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here
For? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 231.
2 Ibid., 298.