What Does it Mean to Be a Disciple: Join

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Listen to the sermon here: 

As we read the Acts of the Apostles it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of the number of churches started and their amazing growth as people were converted to Jesus.  But a closer look also reveals that most every church either suffered from persecution and/or experienced conflict.  If we read one of the stories as recorded in Acts 11:10-26, we read an important message Barnabas gave to the new church at Antioch:  remain true to the Lord with all your heart!  When we, the church, face conflict -- and we do, and we will (I've never yet found a perfect church!), where we especially need to remain steadfast is in terms of our mission.  There is really only one purpose and mission:  make disciples!  But our tendency is to make church about us -- what I like or what I don't like.  And we naturally gravitate towards becoming a social club.  When that happens, trouble is not far behind!  So much of Paul's letters to the various church was in response to conflict and/or churches having lost their focus and sense of priority.  How many times might we hear a church member say, "I'm not going to church anymore."  "I don't like the music they sing."  "I don't like the Pastor's sermon."  "I'm not giving any more money to that church until they get their act together."  The truth is:  church is not about us -- not me and not you!  It's about God and the mission of making disciples!  So the call for us today is this:  renew our commitment to our membership vows or to the spiritual disciplines that keep us aligned with God.  #1 is prayer.  It's past time for us to be a church of prayer -- to discern what God is saying to the church and where God is moving by His Spirit.  #2 is presence.  Where ever we are, especially at church, to be present (and so much the more in these difficult and stressful times), considering "how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." (Hebrews 10:23-25)   #3 is gifts.  Stewardship is not optional.  We don't give when things are going well and withhold our tithes/offerings when things aren't going our way.  Withholding our gifts is like putting a shield over our heads and telling God "I no longer want your blessing."  I believe Malachi had it right when he warned that such a position is robbing God.  God is not able to bless what we don't give.  When conflict comes, our tendency is to stop praying, withdraw, and stop giving.  The best response to conflict is that we need to pray more, attend more and give more.  It's those spiritual disciplines that will get us through the tough times!  "God, revive us again, and set our hearts on fire, to serve You better, and to be Your church!"

Gene Kelsey, Director of Christian Education

What Does It Mean to Be a Disciple: Pray

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Well as many of you know, this has been a week of technical difficulties here at the church. Email, the internet and now we find out that the audio from this week's services didn't get recorded either, not to mention the power outage at the Super Bowl yesterday. Although it can be frustrating, somehow it makes it a little easier to say "no big deal" and take things as the come. We appreciate everyone's patience and understanding this week and hope to be "back to normal" this week.

So Sunday we asked the question: What does it mean to be a disciple? to which we answered: pray based on Matthew 6:5-13. This is part of our ongoing series about what it means to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus. Now I have to admit (and I did on Sunday) that I wasn't exactly excited to preach on prayer again. The truth is that I still feel a little inadequate in the area of prayer and more than that, I had used up my "good stuff" last time. So I said to God,  I don't know what I should do, I don't really have much to say, I'm not really a great pray-er, there are so many people in the congregation that are better equipped that I am." Now, while there was no booming voice from heaven, I very clearly understood God saying to me something along the lines of "Oh I'm sorry, since when was this about what YOU have to say? I thought this was supposed to be about what I have so say." To which I said, "Touche God! You're right! You always are." 

So once I got myself out of the way and spent more time studying the scripture, I could clearly see that that was exactly what the passage is about, what God has to say about prayer. Thankfully God appeals to our human nature, our need-to-know, just-tell-me-what-to-do attitude and gives us some insight through Jesus' words. He starts out by telling us what NOT to do: don't get all showy and wordy, basically. You're missing the point of prayer if you do. 

(We watched this youtube video which gave us some good, and comical, contrast based on this passage.) 

But as we dig a little deeper we can understand that God is not making us prayer rules for us, God is showing us the difference between the internal and external part of prayer. What's NOT important is the external stuff: what words actually come out, what type of reaction it elicits, what people think about the person who is praying, those things aren't what prayer is about. Prayer is about what's going on internally: are we being open and authentic with God? are we open to listen to what God's saying? are we tuning in our hearts and minds to God or just filling time and God's ears with whatever sounds good, or whatever's on  our prayer list? Jesus is helping us adjust our focus here, from what goes on externally to what goes on internally during prayer. Prayer is not what we see and hear, it's what's going on in our hearts and minds and spirits between us and God. 

All this may not be new to you or rock your prayer life, but it is what God is saying to us. We have a lot of expectations about prayer and those give way to a lot of insecurities and anxiety (I would know, praying is in my job description). But we can't ignore that most of those things are centered around the external and not the internal. They draw us farther and farther away from where authentic, life-giving, life-changing prayer happens: internally. So my prayer (my honest authentic prayer) is that this week as you pray, in whatever way you pray, that you allow yourself to let go of the external part of prayer and focus on connecting in your heart and mind and soul with God who is ready and waiting. 

We ended on Sunday with a paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer, a gift that Jesus gives us in our quest to pray well. This one is written by Sarah Dylan Breuer and can be found here. Unfortunately I think that we can become desensitized to the Lord's Prayer because we say it so often. That of course does not take away from it's perfection, it's profoundness and potential to change our lives. My hope is that hearing it in a little bit different words will help you hear it again, like it's the first time. 

"Loving Creator

we honor you,

and we honor all that you have made.

Renew the whole world

in the image of your love.

Give us what we need for today,

and a hunger to see the whole world fed.

Strengthen us for what lies ahead;

heal us from the hurts of the past;

give us courage to follow your call in this moment.

For your love is the only power,

the only home, the only honor we need,

in this world and in the world to come.

Amen." 

Jen Hibben, Associate Pastor