Revival means Resurrection!

I’ve been told that this weekend is the annual “superbowl” for pastors, so “sweat extra” preparing the sermon to impress the CEO christians (“Christmas & Easter Only”). After all this is only one of two chances you get to communicate to those who may consider returning into worship again.

As I read through some emails from different pastoral sites this week, I wondered to myself if many have not missed the point. Seems that since the medieval obsession with the physical sufferings and death of Christ many are still carrying on this idea that this “passion week” is to commemorate the death of Christ. I wonder if we had emphasized the cross too much, to the exclusion of the life and glory and power of Christ’s resurrection.

It’s almost as if Christians are happy filling their mind with pictures of Christ in weakness, Christ upon the cross, Christ dying, Christ suffering, most of all Christ hanging dead...Why do we concentrate on that passing episode that lasted a few hours as if that were the last word and the final scene, as if the curtain dropped upon the horror of disaster and defeat?

Christ is Alive. He is Risen! Halleluiah!!! To the end of unending eternity Christ is alive, Christ rules and reigns and triumphs. Think on this! Act like this! Let Him be present in your today experience. The resurrection is the most essential part of the Christian message. The Salvation has not been finished in the price paid, but in a deliverance from life of death and sin to a new life of righteousness in God by the Holy Spirit.

The Church itself makes sense only when the church is headed by the risen Christ. The Church came into existence upon the resurrection, Ascension, and Reception of the Holy Spirit. Our doctrine of last things, of end times hinges completely on the Resurrection. The practical, applied side of Christianity is nonexistent without the truth of the Resurrection. Apostle Paul says that our hope is vain, except Christ is risen from the dead (1^st Corinthians 15:14).

The miraculous conception and birth, the sinless life, the perfect teaching, the sacrificial death, and the victorious resurrection of Christ must be taken together, or we strip the gospel of its power, its sufficiency and its transforming grace.

Remember the Resurrection. Have you met Him? You know, because your life since cannot be the same as before. He is alive! Have you been revived?

Really moving from the Huddle to the Game!

You have been reading my blogs for the last couple of weeks comparing the way we do church with a mission of a sports team set for winning goal. The church service is our “huddle’ where we plan our actions, build each other up, get refreshed and ready to enter the witnessing field for other 6 days of the week. The real church work happens outside of these walls – building the Kingdom of God.

The Adventist News Network (http://news.adventist.org) published an interesting article this week. A Seventh-day Adventist layperson in Bermuda wants the island nation's churches to shut their doors. For a month! "The bible says 'Go ye therefore to the world,' not 'Go ye therefore to church,'" said Scott Smith.

The 44-year-old native Bermudian isn't against corporate worship; he's a member of the Pembroke Adventist Church. But he says many people won't step foot in a church - not even one like Pembroke, which is situated in a neighbourhood notorious for gang violence and is responsive to its community's unique needs.

To connect with their neighbours, Christians should visit them, Smith says -- a simple, obvious solution, but one he's observed is more likely to generate talk than action. If churches in Bermuda closed their doors for a month, members and leaders could channel energy, time and resources into a concerted effort to change the atmosphere on Bermuda's streets, Smith says.

Hmm!!! That’s a bold challenge. Yet, of church goers have no time for ministry, then let’s do it on Sabbath, Jesus’ style. Visiting people in need to give them comfort, liberation, relief, and help in trouble. Are we ready to move from the “huddle” into the “game”?

I am not sure closing our doors on Sabbath is the solution. Our members are not well equipped yet for the real outreach ministry. Yet, in this blog I invite you to consider the perspective of what really matters, of what really is important for the Kingdom of God.

This coming week Teresa, Heather, Gene, Lucy, Sandra, Esther, Grace, and many other volunteers will be here Tuesday night setting things up to serve the community Wednesday afternoon. As scores of people come, they are looking not only for handouts, but for connection, for someone to listen to them, to care.

Gord and Kathy are doing church every night this month, ministering to the health-needs of some 30 people through CHIP program.

How is your “going out”? How is your “game” of witnessing?

We welcome you to the “huddle” today. We want you to pay close attention to the Spirit moving today, learn the witnessing plan. And then GO and SPELL about your relationship with Jesus!

From Huddle to the Game.

Last week I shared with you the metaphor for the church as that of a sports team, where worship hour is the huddle, and the time we spend outside of the church, mingling with the community we live in is the “game” of our lives.

Today I invite you to consider this metaphor yet on another level. If we would to compare a football team that is set to achieve certain goals, certain victories, with the church, that also has a strategy and goal of winning people to the Kingdom of Christ, where do we invest most of our time, resources and energy? The huddle/worship hour, or the game/mission life 6 days a week?

As we met with elders last Monday we looked at the 10 parishes that constitute our church. Each elder has a responsibility for certain families, each parish ranges from 20+ to 40+ individuals. Our combined church family is just over 340 people, with some 200 members, and the rest are friends, immediate family, long-time visitors who did not yet make a commitment to join this family of faith. Yet, the regular attendance ranges within 130 people, including children. 77 people are disconnected, another 88 visit occasionally. From those attending regularly about 60% are involved in some kind of ministry.

Looking at the stats, we were challenged how much work needs to be done to connect and involve all for ministry, for living a life that brings God the glory. Pastors, elders and directors of various ministries are the support staff. Just like sports team having coaches, medical personal, therapists, masseurs, the leadership invests time in preparing the “huddle” – the Sabbath experience of motivational worship, and educational workshops. Yet, until people accept the responsibility for being the “star-players” all our (leadership) efforts will be wasted.

It is when every member accepts personal responsibility to live lives of witness, to pray for God to place in their lives people that they may witness to everyday, that our church will be a winning team. When every person attending this church asks him/herself “What is my purpose in God’s Kingdom?” “What is my ministry?” that the Kingdom of God will begin to grow exponentially in this city of London.