Final Words to the Church

The first time I walked through the doors of this church was August 18. Seven months ago. And it almost immediately felt like home. I am so thankful to this church, to its leaders—to JD, Bob, Jay, Pat, and everyone else who allowed me to be a part of this church for time that I have had here in the States.

Some of you have asked how you can continue to keep up with my life and ministry. I’ll put some links on the screen there for you. I do hope to begin posting regularly on my ministry Facebook page once we are settled in Australia, so if you would like more of my preaching and teaching, that’s where you’ll be able to get it.

We leave this upcoming Saturday, March 22. It’s a long trip. The upcoming week is going to be stressful. I continue to ask for your prayers that all the final things we need to come together will come together. Last week, I asked you all to pray about housing. On Friday, we signed paperwork on a rental house. It’s a bit more expensive than I was hoping for, but that’s true for just about everything in life right now. It’s an exercise in faith to make a big life change like this, but we go where God calls and we trust God for the results.

As I started to think and pray about what I wanted to talk about this week, it was honestly a bit overwhelming. Overwhelming in the sense that I have so much else that needs to be done. Overwhelming in the sense that it can be difficult to push aside the worry and the stress to really seek God at a time like this. But also overwhelming because I want to say so much. There’s so much we’ve left unsaid. So many things we just haven’t had time for.

So I began to think about what was the one thing I wanted to leave you with. The one piece of advice, the one bit of encouragement, the one challenge to do better—and I came up with five. These are my five final admonitions to this church. A church that I have come to love over the past seven months.

You Can’t Do Everything

First, you can’t do everything. There will always be more work.

In the Gospels, there’s a story—it’s one of the few stories that gets mentioned in every gospel—where Jesus feeds over 5000 people. I say over five thousand because it says five thousand men, not counting women and children. This is a lot of people. This is an overwhelming amount of people. And they’re hungry. In Mark, it reads:

By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

This has been how Jesus’s ministry has progressed. He’s gathered his disciples. He’s taught them. He’s empowered them. He’s commissioned them. He’s sent them out. And what we’re actually reading in Mark 6 is that now, after some period of time apart from Jesus—after having been sent out on their first preaching and teaching tour on their own—they are now returning for their debrief. They’re telling stories about their ministry. But the people are desperate for more.

I need you to understand this, because it is absolutely comedic. To avoid the crowds, Jesus and the disciples leave Capernaum, where they are at, get in their boat, and set off for what Mark calls “A solitary place.” John tells us that this is near Bethsaida. Now the Sea of Galilee is not large. The folks see the disciples and Jesus on the boat and the follow from the shoreline, running the five miles or so from Capernaum to Bethsaida.

33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

So the disciples get to the shore of their solitary place and there’s about maybe eight or nine thousand people or so on the shore waiting. And Jesus has compassion on them. He teaches them and heals them. And the whole day goes by.

Now the people are hungry. They did all this cardio earlier in the day. They need some carbs. They need some protein. They need some omega-3. They need some bread and fish. The disciples come to Jesus and they tell him to send the crowds away so they can get food. And Jesus says “You feed them.”

And the disciples are not thrilled by this. How are they supposed to do this?

7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

Jesus tells them to go out in the crowd and see what food they can find. Andrew reports back:

9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

And Jesus is like “That’s enough.” John says what happens in very simple terms:

11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

We’re like the disciples. When God calls us to do something, we can get wrapped up in our own limitations. We can start thinking about how the need is so great and we are so small. We start thinking that even if we gave everything, it wouldn’t make much of a difference.

But in this story, you’re not Jesus. You’re the boy with the loaves and fishes.

You’re not called to do everything. You’re called to do everything you can. This boy gives what he has. Willingly. I wonder if other people had food. The gospels say the disciples go into the crowd in search of food. Maybe some other people brought food but they aren’t going to give it up because they know there’s not enough for everyone. It’s absurd. They know they aren’t enough. They’re gonna give everything and lose their lunch and it’s not even gonna really help. So they don’t give anything. But this young boy brings what he has to Jesus. And Jesus makes it enough.

The work is overwhelming. The needs are never-ending. It can feel like we aren’t making a difference.

There’s a panel of a Superman comic that’s always stood out to me. Superman is standing in the foreground looking defeated as he listens to all of the evil and suffering that surrounds him. And it feels absolutely crushing. But you go and do the work and do what you can.

You can’t do everything and that’s ok. Find the areas in which you have a passion, in which you have expertise, in which you feel called to go. And then pursue it with everything you’ve got. Give to God your little lunch and they’ll turn it into a feast for all.

Trust God for the Results

And that leads directly into point two: When you do what you’re called to do, trust God for the results. There will be times that success does not look like the way success is usually defined by our culture. Our culture defines success as numerical growth, as financial prosperity, as a lack of conflict and struggle. But for the Christian, success doesn’t come in the results of our actions, it comes through the obedience of our actions.

In Hebrews 11, the author of Hebrews gives this long list of people who—very imperfectly, I might add—followed God in faith. It’s a litany of the history of faith. By faith Abel, by faith Enoch, by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, by faith Sarah…and then it says, verse 13:

13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.

It continues, by faith, by faith, by faith from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Moses, on through the judges and prophets and concludes:

39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised

They all had faith. They all did the work. None of them saw the ultimate fruition of that work. None of them received what had been promised in their lifetime. None of them saw the influence that they had on future generations. For many, especially the prophets, there was very little immediate good that seemed to come out of their ministry.

There will be times where it feels like you aren’t making a difference. But you are.

Err on the Side of Love

Third, when faced with a challenge err on the side of love. Near the end of his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul giving this series of short commands and writes:

13 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. 14 Do everything in love.

I know a lot of people, a lot of Christians, a lot of faith traditions. We’ve been taught everything in verse 13. Be on your guard, there’s people out there that will seek to lead you away from Christ. Stand firm in the faith, there’s going to be people who ridicule you or try to get you to compromise on your beliefs. Be courageous, it’s hard to deal with the social pressure of following Jesus. Be strong, have the strength of your convictions. And we create this militant, defensive faith. This Onward Christian Soldiers mentality. This idea that the world is a warzone and we’re in the middle of a fight for what’s right.

But then verse 14, “Do everything in love.” Do everything in love. That’s the core of the gospel, Jesus says. What are the greatest commands: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.” And who is my neighbor, someone asks. “Love your enemies” Jesus replies.

Whatever we do, do it in love. If we come to the crossroads of a difficult decision, ask ourselves which is more rooted in love? Pursuing what God has told you to pursue will inevitably place you in positions of difficult decisions.

If you get in trouble, if people get mad at you, if people leave the church, if you incur financial loss, let it be because you loved too much. And if you love radically, inclusively, abundantly—it’ll get you in trouble. It’ll lead to difficulty.

I’ve been in places of financial difficulty, gave everything I had away in the name of love and I have children because of that. I’ve had friends end their friendship because I’ve chosen to speak out and out of love defend the marginalized. I had a boss once tell me that if I loved immigrants so much, I should get deported along with them. Radically inclusive love isn’t easy. I mean, after all, it took Jesus to a cross.

And also, there will be those who take advantage of that love. Those that do not know how to reciprocate that love.

Earlier in that letter to Corinth, Paul says:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails.

When you love, there will be those that see an opportunity to profit from your patience, to manipulate your kindness, to take what is yours while you remain unenvious, to lord over you as you remain humble, to dishonor you knowing that you will not respond in kind, who would take credit for your success knowing you are not self-seeking, who would deliberately provoke you, eager for a reaction.

To love, writes CS Lewis, is to be made vulnerable:

Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken…To love is to be vulnerable.”

It sets us up to be hurt. To be disappointed. For our heart to be broken. But if we loved, we would never fail. We might still make mistakes. We might still make questionable decisions. We might go down pathways that lead to difficulty and loss.

The world may be so, so dark. It can be full of crushing, horrible blackness. It can permeate every crevice and every corner, crawl through homes and sweep across nations.

But the darkness can never extinguish the light.
As long as we love, we are that light.
As long as we love, we are the light of the world.
Err on the side of love.

Get Everyone Involved

Fourth, get everyone involved. There is a principle that I was taught in seminary about the work of the church and it’s that 20% of the people do 80% of the work. This is based on an observation from an Italian sociologist and economist in the early 1900s. He wasn’t observing churches. He was actually observing pea plants and found that 80% of his peas came from 20% of his plants. This intrigued him and he started to see if that was the case in other areas. As an economist, he found that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the people.

This principle pops up everywhere. Microsoft did studies and found that by fixing the top 20% of the most-reported bugs in their software they could eliminate 80% of errors and crashes. OSHA has found that, in the workplace, 20% of the hazards account for 80% of the injuries. In retail, 20% of customers may be responsible for 80% of a store’s revenue.

And it’s the same in the church. In general, 20% of the people do 80% of the work. But is that what we want from the church? The apostle Paul describes the church as being a body. In 1 Corinthians 12.

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.

He’s saying this in the context of how the church works.

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

He’s presenting the church as a body comprised of many parts all working together. There are no vestigial organs in the body of Christ. There are no useless pieces. Everybody has their place. Everybody has their calling. Everybody has their gifting.

Some people are arms. Some people are legs. Some are noses. Some are eyes. Some are mouths. And you know what? Your spiritual gift is not pew-sitting. Not even if you’re the butt. This church might have leaders, but Paul says that the leaders of the church don’t just do the work, they lead others into the work. In Ephesians, he says:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

Church is not an 80/20 endeavor. There are going to be leaders. There are going to be people that do more, contribute more, lead more. But the goal of the church is for everyone to be involved. Church is not something you do an hour on Sundays. It is a community.

Continue the Work

And then finally, continue the work. I don’t want anyone to take anything that I’ve said this morning as things the church isn’t doing and needs to begin doing. Rather, this is an admonition to keep on keeping on. Continue to lean into the places that only this church can go. Be reminded that you can’t do everything, but you can do everything you can. Trust God for the results. Keep on loving generously. Grow deeper in community. And persevere in the work God has called you do.

I leave you with this. In a thriving church, Jesus is center of our faith. Jesus offers a central point around which everything else pivots. Martin Luther King, Jr once wrote that “We humans inevitably believe at last not in isms but in incarnations.” That is to say that we follow people more readily than we follow systems of belief. When the center of our faith is Jesus, everything about who we are, how we act, and what we do stems from that Christlikeness.

Next, in a thriving church, community is the center of our life. St Basil, an early church leader, wrote that “When we live our lives in isolation, what we have is unavailable and what we lack is unprocurable.” When we are not part of a community, it harms others because our gifts, our talents, our friendship, our humanness, is cut off from others. And it harms us because we have no way to be everything for ourselves.

Last, in a thriving church, reconciliation is the center of our work. Paul writes to the Corinthians that “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” We must want those around us to believe in Jesus, to belong to a Christ-centered community, and to behave in a transformed way that comes through the Holy Spirit.

Continue that work. I close with this prayer from Paul:

Dear God,

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.