WHO HOLDS OUR FUTURE...
Pastor Wink Farrand
Sunday, June 22, 2008

(click on the picture to play the video)

John 9

The passage in John 9 tells the simple story of Jesus healing a blind man and the religious leaders refusing to believe it actually happened. For them God's benevolent power could only be realized through obedience to the law. For Jesus, he was providing yet another example of God's kingdom where all marginalized people are welcome to come to God's table and freely receive His healing grace. Jesus was clear,

Later, Jesus told the healed blind man,

Jesus was skilled at continually presenting God's big picture to His disciples. Even at the beginning of His ministry, he clearly presented God's mission statement for the coming kingdom of heaven.

As the disciples walked with Jesus, he continually provided living examples of God's liberating mission. At the close of His ministry he told his disciples that they would now carry the light of God's kingdom. Each would become and extension of Himself and all who became followers of Christ would carry the good news to the poor, freedom to those in bondage, the release of oppression, and the recovery of sight for the blind. It was just that simple. To be God's light meant being involved in liberation. The religious leaders of that time could not recognize God's mission at work in the life and ministry of Jesus. In the John 9 passage, they rejected the blind man's healing and also banned him from the synagogue because his miracle did not fit their religion. Their religion had blinded them to God's liberating work and at the end of the John 9 passage Jesus declared them to be guilty of willful blindness.

Tonight as we look to the future we want to be very clear. Regardless of our church's history, traditions, or religious practices, is what we are doing corporately and individually in line and giving precedent to Christ's missional statement? This must be our primary reason for being! If it isn't, then we need to confess our sin and repent. In our missional church conversation earlier this year, we learned that the church was to be a sign and an agent of God's kingdom. There is no middle ground here. We have unprecedented opportunities right now, but as Jesus has said, "The night is coming." In the very near future the doors to these opportunities will slam shut.

David Kinnaman, president of The Barna Group reports the following statistics. In surveying how outsiders perceive Evangelicals and Born Again Christians he recorded the following statements and corresponding percentages:

To the outsider, becoming a Christian and attending church makes about as much sense as opening a Hummer dealership. The church clearly has an image problem, but knowing the problem exists can help us at least change how LGC is perceived. It will take a commitment from all of us to a new normal in what we perceive as ministry and church.

A new ministry for us this next year will be Kid's Club at Shallenberger School. This past year four of us joined Central Christian's Kids Club at Fammatre School to learn how this ministry operates. We were amazed at the level of openness of the school, parents, and kids to teaching character qualities and teamwork from the Bible. It was like running a weekly VBS. In the above picture, that young boy is holding a Bible that we gave him at school. After several meetings with Angelic Ruiz (the Principal), Bev Daily, and myself, Lincoln Glen Church was invited to bring Kids Club to Shallenberger School. This is going to provide us with an amazing number of opportunities to meet new kids and their parents. The school will also provide us a new venue for our annual Easter Egg Hunt without the restrictions the city was putting on the public parks use.

In addition to the regular Kids Club program, Larry is looking forward to forming a Kids Club choir! This past year at Fammatre School, many adults on campus commented on how beautiful it was to hear the kids singing. Because of budget cuts, music is no longer part of the grade school curriculum. Having a Kid's Club choir will be a huge blessing for the parents and the performance venue will be LGC! In the very near future you will hear these kids singing on a Sunday morning with their parents in attendance.

I had the privilege of meeting Jamie Mathews at the local Compassion Conference held at Church On The Hill this past May. Jamie is the Code Enforcement officer for the city of San Jose. Homes that are in violation of city codes are cited and subsequently fined through his office. The past year 80,000 citations were filed. Many were the result of absentee homeowners, some too lazy to provide proper care and maintenance of their property. However, a moderate portion were because the homeowners were too disabled and impoverished to do the necessary repairs. "Better Homes" was the result of Officer Matthews and local churches collaborating to address these needs. His office not only provided the names of deserving clients, but all necessary permits and insurances. Church participating in "Better Homes" were able to provide the needed volunteer labor and a tax shelter for community donations to the projects. Here are a couple of the projects:

This client's property had been subject to ten complaints to Code Enforcement over a five year period due to a lack of landscaping and property maintenance. The client who had suffered a heart attack was unable to maintain her property and had gone to her neighbors at various times to seek assistance and was rebuffed. When the Church on the Hill began work on this property, they sent a letter to all the neighbors letting them know about the project and received a $500 check from one of the neighbors towards the project and apology for not assisting their neighbor earlier.

Officer Matthews is the one in the above photo embracing Olivia. This project was very short term and not only blessed Olivia, but the neighborhood as well. With the large number of property violations, more churches are needed to help those who are unable to help themselves. Projects can range from simple to complex and we can choose a project that best fits our resources. We have also been invited to join those presently working on a project so we can learn the process. In the very near future I will come with some proposals.

Extended Community Groups

The third item I'm presenting for this next year is the expansion of our Community Groups. On Sunday morning we currently have seven adult Community Groups. In addition there are two Living Stones groups, a men's Bible study, a ladies Bible study, and one additional small group Bible study. A little over a third of LGC is in some type of small group and that is a good thing. However, I think we can do better.

Typically, the church has been organized into ministries similar to this:

This attractional model of the church requires either many pastors to oversee the ministries or multiple boards of oversight. A small church can easily become overwhelmed trying to keep up with this megachurch model. This model is actually more like a corporation. I believe Christ intended His church to be more like this:

(click on the picture to play video)

This video demonstrates how a small circle of friends are living life in Christ's church together. They share victories and heartaches. They not only support each other, but also study God's word together. In addition, they serve their neighborhood by joining with other small groups for acts of community service that demonstrate the church as a sign and an agent of God's kingdom. A church organized in small groups might look like this:

While this kind of church is not as organizationally "neat," it is very functional and can grow simply by adding more small groups. Additionally, discipleship is not a product of a classroom, but a fruit of sharing, caring, socializing, and serving with a group of "like-minded" believers. In this kind of church, spiritual growth is not a "one size fits all" approach, but believers grow at their own pace while exploring and using their spiritual gifts. Also, personal needs are met from within the group or by joining resources with other groups.

This next year we would like to extend our community groups to more than 70% of LGC. This fall we will be launching a 40 day campaign that will provide additional groups for those who are not presently in groups. The campaign will include personal reading and a community group meeting coordinated with a Sunday morning service. Groups can also be hosted or led. Groups that are hosted will be provided videos for the study portion. There will be an evaluation at the end of the campaign as to effectiveness. More details will be coming soon.

In the coming year I would also like to have a Pastor's Prayer Team. It would have the following objectives:

I need to regularly meet with a group of people that are dedicated to these objectives and realizing God's direction for our church through prayer. A. W. Tozer states, "Prayer is the oxygen of the kingdom." If this is indeed true, if we aren't praying we are spiritually suffocating. I have been meeting with different groups for prayer, but most have been outside of our church. I believe it is of primary importance to pray with a dedicated team of our church members on a regular basis.

Finally, this next year I would like our church to commission a Missional Church Team with the following objectives:

The primary purpose of this team is to see the neighborhood with missional eyes and view our church with neighborhood eyes. They will gather data and make ministry proposals that will help us fulfill Jesus' mission statement of liberation. They will also be a resource of missional opportunities for our community groups. And, the Missional Church Team will help us creatively build a bridge into our community.

I believe the God who holds our future has much more for us. When I was young boy leaving the US for the Philippines, our family would travel to different churches to raise financial support for our term of ministry. Often my parents would sing an old song that simply said, "Many things about tomorrow, I don't seem to understand, but I know who holds tomorrow and I know who holds my hand." Over this next year we will need to embrace many new ways of doing ministry, but with a prayer filled guided direction from God's Spirit, there is no need to fear the future, because we know who is holding our hand.

Sincerely,

Pastor Wink Farrand