State of the Church

State of the Church

January 29, 2012

First Baptist Church, Cornelia

Exodus 3

Walking by Faith Commitment Sunday - Week #4

Eric's Notes:  Bobby Ivey provided the biblical work for this sermon through his song Moses.  I hope to have a link to his performance on here soon.

Over the past several weeks we have been examining the spiritual initiative called Walking By Faith.  Theologically, we have stated God exists and the future, weaving God’s purposes into our lives – pulling us forward into the invisible future.  Missionally, we have stated our congregation exists to live out our full kingdom potential in God’s future.  Organizationally, we have stated the need to prepare ourselves so we may be ready when the opportunities of God’s future rise beneath us.

Walking by Faith does not mean we blind fold ourselves and simply start walking to see if God get us out of the house without hitting any furniture.  Instead, it means we assimilate all of our knowledge of the journey ahead, be honest about our true strengths and challenges, and prepare accordingly.

A few weeks ago – I used a story from Jennifer Pharr Davis’ book Becoming Odessa, to describe the point where we leave what we know and begin walking the unknown path before us.  This is walking by faith.  But there is more than just putting one step ahead of the other.  Jennifer spent months preparing to make those first steps on the Appalachian Trial – learning about wilderness survival, gathering the right materials for the journey.  Besides preparing, she also had one major understanding that helped her make her first steps of walking by faith. She had a destination.  While she didn’t know what would be around the next bend or over the next mountain – she stayed focused on her destination – Maine.  Each day – especially the terrible days full of snow or rain or cold she would repeat to herself the mantra – “This is another step closer to Maine.  This is another step closer to Maine.”

We begin our Walk of Faith with a clear destination in mind:  To be a congregation which says “Yes” to God:  in our lives, in our community, in our families and in our church structures.  This is our destination.  Our Maine.  Each step we make, each commitment we offer, each worship service we attend moves one step closer to this goal.  When we become a congregation willing to say “Yes,” to God, God’s ideal image of us – the image of his son Jesus – is formed and we make God smile.  Ours become spiritual sacrifices as we glorify God. When these things happened:  we will have a transformational impact in our community and in world; and the name of Jesus will be praised. 

Before we start on our pilgrimage of faith, we must face our present situation – our environment.

Our Reality

            First, our reality:

1.  The world has changed!  Sue Blair stated during both of our town meetings this fact about how we understand church and the world.  “If the 1950’s ever come back, we’ll be ready.”  We will have the worship style, the organizational structure, and the mindset to succeed.  Then, Sue would look over the crowd and say, “Well, folks, the 1950’s are not coming back.” 

            This is not a surprise to any of us.  We understand this fact rationally, but understanding it with our lives is quite a challenge.  We have two options when it comes to facing this new world.  We can resist it, fight it, and deny it.  Or we can welcome the challenges and opportunities it provides us. 

            The February 2012 edition of the business magazine Fast Company stated this fact for the business community in their cover article:  “Generation Flux.”  Rather than doing business in a world we understand, it argues we now live in a world control by the chaos theory – where no one knows the future.  5 years ago 3 huge companies controlled 64% of the smart phone business – today – 2 completely different companies are the top of this industry.  One of the key learnings the article makes about the future for industries and churches – is we don’t know what we don’t know. 

            As a church we have been very good at responding to the challenges of the 20^th century.  No one knows what the world will be like in 5 more years – but - I’m here to say, the best times for this church and Christianity are not behind us.  God is still at work.  While things of religion are being stripped away – God is opening up new, refreshing opportunities to experience and serve Jesus.

2.  The past weighs us down.

            As a congregation, the past still weighs us down – like weights upon our shoulders.  I discovered an amazing thing as I read through our 100 year celebration material in 1987.  At the very end of the booklet, we wrote excitedly about the future education building the church was beginning to dream of building.   For the past 25 years, we have invested our time, emotion, energy and finances in planning, building and paying off our Family Ministry Center.  Rather than seeking how God can use this building in new, creative ways to transform our community – we are still weighed down paying for it.  Honestly, at times it has consumed us. 

            At the beginning of the month, I wrote a letter to all the members of the church speaking about the importance of debt retirement to our ability to walk by faith.  Over the course of the next year, we hope to challenge all of us to give sacrificially to finally relieve this debt in order to utilize the potential of our great buildings for the kingdom of God

            This debt, though, is not the only weight from our past.  We also have hurts, scars and pain left over from past congregational conflicts.  To deny this reality is to cripple the opportunities our future holds.  Over the course of this next year, let us not just retire our financial debt, let us look to God to restore, redeem and heal the scars we carry from the past.  This does not happen accidentally – it happens through our intentionality.  We will spend time this year making space for God’s healing.     

Our Opportunity

            Our present situation as a congregation, though, is not defined by these 2 realities.  God has placed before us two great opportunities. 

1.  Our Kingdom Potential:

            As I stated a couple of weeks ago – it never hurts to hear it twice – the full kingdom potential for this congregation is great.  God has amazing things in store for us.  Use your imagine with me for a few moments:

            Imagine our facilities full every day with children and adults coming to know Jesus as they study and practice the arts – water colors, dance, chorus, pottery.

            Imagine our gym utilized every day with community sports teams and activates bringing families and the community together.

            Imagine Cornelia Elementary School transformed by the grace and sacrifices of our members – bringing healing and hope for families through Jesus.

            Imagine Matagalpa, Nicaragua recognizing the work and compassion of a small church in the NG Mountains for their community development work done in the name of Jesus.

            Imagine individuals sharing Jesus easily in their families and with their friends.  Imagine weekly baptisms.

            Imagine this sanctuary filled each week with the multiple generations worshipping Jesus.

            Imagine.

2.  Our People

            First Baptist Cornelia is not this building – it is you.  We are full of creative, innovative, compassion, dedicated, loyal, talented, passionate, missional and wonderful people.  We are full of people who love greatly – who accept others where they are, but love them too much to leave them there.  We are full of artists and athletes, mystics and theologians, servants and healers, missionaries and teachers.

            Imagine if we empowered this wealth of people potential for the sake of the Gospel.  Imagine if everyone here knew their spiritual gifts and dedicated their lives to living out their calling.  Imagine if our church structures called people out not only to keep the church working, but for the greater task of kingdom transformation.  Imagine…

Our potential and our people give us a vision of the opportunities God has place before us.  But we will never get there – the realities of the world will bring us down – unless we face the challenges of following Jesus.

Our Challenge

            In the 3^rd chapter of Exodus Moses faces his burning bush moment.  God calls him to speak on his behalf to the powerful of Egypt.  To do this - many realities must be addressed – he doesn’t speak well, he has a past that wants to track him down, and he really doesn’t want this burden.  But the opportunities are too great.  There’s no one else who can speak for the Hebrews to the halls of power. No one else, except Moses can get an audience with the Pharaoh.  No one could do the work of Moses – except Moses.  God knows the opportunities.  God challenges Moses to Give it up, let it go, lay it down.