MPC 22nd January 2006.January 22 - Matthew 6, 9 - "Behind the Scenes"
Phil Campbell MPC 22nd January 2006.
I want to take the opportunity in these couple of weeks before Growth Groups start up and we get into our regular teaching series to do something a bit unusual.
Today and next Sunday, I want to run more of a seminar than a sermon. And what I want to do is look with you behind the scenes at some of the key distinctives of our church. And particularly at why we do things the way we do.
I had a friend who in his Christmas holidays at Uni worked behind the scenes at David Jones store in Sydney. Much like DJs here in Brisbane if you've been there lately, DJs in Sydney just exuded class. And a kind of old world serenity. You'd go in, and there's a guy playing a grand piano. The staff are all dressed in black, and have sort of a classy air of being born with a silver spoon in their mouths. The point was though, my friend who got a job behind the scenes was amazed at the kind of chaos going on out there. Cartons being moved around everywhere. People running backwards and forwards. The smell of diesel in the loading docks. The noise. All the behind the scene details that went into making the wheels go round at David Jones.
Well, I've got to say that MPC is nothing like that. We don't even have things looking smooth and classy on the surface. What you see is what you get.
Except in a way, there is a degree of background thinking, a degree of policy making, a degree of setting out principles that if you just turn up on a Sunday, you'd probably never see.
And over these next couple of weeks, I'm going to show some.
It's really stuff about why we do what we do. It's stuff about the goals we have. It's stuff about what we're aiming for when we meet together as a church. And why.
It's something that's been summarized in a training handbook that's gone around key people involved in our ministry areas like music and welcoming and praying in church. On one level it's about the stuff we actually do in church on a Sunday morning. But more than that. It's about the sort of church we are. And want to be.
And what I'm going to do over these next two Sundays is walk you through it. Take you for a tour behind the scenes of what we're aiming for Sunday by Sunday as we meet for church. And particularly a focus we've got in all of it on being a church that's focused on people who are starting out as Christians.
It's one of those issues where it's hard to find the right term for the kind of people I'm talking about. The huge Willow Creek church in Chicago talks about being seeker friendly. Which sounds a bit too much like an old Australian folk group. But they're talking about people who come along because they're spiritually hungry, looking for something. Even though they're not quite sure what it is they're looking for.
Or they'll use the term ordinary unchurched people. By which they mean people who'll turn up at their church without having had years of church culture and being trained when to stand up and sit down and do this or do that. I was down at the CMS Mission Conference at Mount Tamborine last Monday, and heard a guy there talking about mission work in South America. He said there are churches growing incredibly fast. But there's a culture shock for the old members; as there are these new Christians who still smoke and drink and wear all the wrong sort of clothes. Which isn't actually an issue unique to Brazil, is it?
You can talk about seekers. You can talk about people who are unchurched.
In our case, and in our training booklet, we just talk about newcomers. Without distinction. But the thing we want to do in our church life, and our Sunday church life particularly, is to be a church that ordinary unchurched seekers can turn up to as newcomers... and fit in.
Our key goal is to be a church you can turn up to and fit in to and understand and feel part of... even if you've never been to church in your life. Which sadly is how it is for most ordinary Australians these days.
And to be a church like that, we're actually wanting to be purposeful in the way we do things in church. Right from the time you walk in the door.
And today I want to highlight the two key areas of welcoming. And public prayer.
Sometimes you can go to a church that's got all the good intentions in the world, and you just feel frozen out at the door. Or else later on. When it gets to morning tea time. And all the regulars are talking to their friends and they don't even notice that you're there.
I've certainly been to churches like that when I'm on holidays. Like the one where one or two people nodded on the way in. But at morning tea time afterwards, they literally closed up in a circle and talked among themselves. And left us outside the loop.
So we got in the car and left.
Before we dip in to our handbook, let me take you to a couple of bible passages that highlight the issue.
Because I wonder what Jesus would have thought of a church that turned into a clique. I wonder what Jesus would have thought of a church that turned into a club for insiders. That left outsiders feeling excluded?
Turn over with me to Matthew's gospel, chapter 9.
Because that's one passage where you get a glimpse of the attitude of Jesus. It's not unique. In fact, it's an issue that got Jesus in trouble with the Pharisees more than almost any other.
The Pharisees are the religious in group. The Pharisees are the ones who mix with all the right people. Who do things all the right way.
And right from the start, as he gathers his group of disciples, Jesus is breaking their boundaries.
Now you need to know, and you've probably heard it before, that tax collectors back then were treated like traitors. Because tax collectors in Israel were working for Rome. They could tax people as much as they liked. Send the proceeds to Rome. And keep all the rest. And if you saw a tax collector coming towards you, you'd cross to the other side of the street.
But Matthew 9 verse 9, Jesus bowls right up to tax collector Matthew... and says follow me. And then invites himself round to his house for dinner.
Pick it up in verse 10. While he's having dinner at Matthew's house... it gets worse... many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.
And the Pharisees see this in verse 11, and they ask the disciples, what's going on? They say, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" I mean, surely, if he's meant to be a teacher from God, he should be mixing with the right kind of people. Surely, if he's meant to be a teacher from God, he should be hanging round with us. Who know the rules. Instead of riff raff.
To which Jesus replies in verse 12, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
I wonder what it takes to be a church that reflects that attitude?
I reckon it starts right in the carpark on the very first visit. I reckon it starts with an attitude that says, no matter who you are, you're welcome here. No prior qualifications required.
The way we welcome as a church depends on everyone. And it starts with being alert.
The training handbook I mentioned before is especially for people who want to be part of our newcomer welcoming team. But most of it applies to all of us.
In the left hand column on each page, there's a description of how a guest at church should experience their visit. And in the right hand column, the things we need to commit to... to make sure it happens.
So for instance, if you're a newcomer, it says things like, you'll feel welcome, even if you've never been to church before.
You'll be shown where things are, and told what to expect, and what happens when.
I mean, on one level it's only polite, isn't it? And yet Matt Viney was telling me recently about a church they visited on holidays, and nobody even took the trouble to tell them where the childminding area was. Even when they went looking.
In the booklet, there are five key things we want newcomers to experience; and five key commitments our welcoming team needs to make.
First and foremost, to identify newcomers. And offer a clear and warm welcome. Are we doing that?
Second, to identify particular needs. And then direct accordingly. Where's the kids program? Where are the toilets? Where are the disabled facilities?
Our welcoming team will try to introduce newcomers to someone appropriate. Who can guide them through the rest of the service. Here's a scary thought. Maybe they'll ask you to do that. I wonder how you'd manage?
There's more. With some practical guidelines as well. Geared to our welcoming team.
Now one of the reasons I'm talking about this today is that we're gearing up for a new year. And there's a need. There's a need for the right sort of people with the right sort of personalities to get involved in helping with this stuff.
Jodie and Shayne are going to be co-ordinating a team for the 9 AM service. And Chris and Christine for 10:30. But they're looking for help. Looking for people who are prepared to get here a bit early, who are prepared to be friendly, who are prepared to commit to helping make our church a welcoming church. So you might like to chat to them if you'd like to get involved.
But even if you don't; see, there's no point having a welcoming team on a roster if we're not going to be a welcoming church... from the heart.
And to that end I want to encourage everyone... to be alert. To look for new faces. To take the initiative to show people round. If someone's looking lost... help them out.
You know, a friend of mine, Ed Vaughn, who's a minister, he took his church leaders on an excursion. He took them to the local TAB. And told them they had to go in. And place a bet on a horse race.
Now for some of you, I'm sure that's second nature. But Ed's little group, here's a bunch of people who had actually never been inside a betting agency before. Who'd never placed a bet. And you walk in and there are all sorts of confusing video screens and pieces of paper and queues of people; and nobody tells you what to do. It's like you've got to figure it out for yourself.
And Ed said, his church leaders got the message. They found out what it felt like to be a fish out of water. To be on unfamiliar territory. The danger of assuming just because we know what to do and when to stand up and when to sit down and all that other stuff, that a stranger here for the first time knows it as well.
We need to be aware of that. And be helpful. And not just hang around with our own definition of the in group. Which the Pharisees were so good at.
Now another thing the Pharisees were so good at; and that Jesus takes aim at in Matthew's gospel... is the matter of public prayer. Which is another ingredient that goes into our Sunday services; and it's covered in our training guide as well.
It's an interesting thing, you know, that we so easily confuse matters of religion with an opportunity to impress.
Which is the mistake the Pharisees kept making. Actually, when we turn to our passage, Jesus uses the word hypocrites instead of Pharisees. But you keep reading a bit further, and you can see that's who he's aiming at.
A hypocrite is literally someone with two faces. In the original Greek, it was actually the word they used for a professional actor. Someone who made an art form of putting on a different persona.
In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says the Pharisees have made an art form of doing that when they pray.
Listen again. Matthew 6, and it's from verse 5.
And when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.
See, the trouble is, they're praying to the audience. Instead of to God. They're praying to impress.
Jesus says,
I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. He says, "But when you pray," be content to pray to an audience of one. He says, "go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
Which isn't to rule out public prayer by any means; because he goes on to give some guidelines for praying together a few verses later. But the point is, forget about praying to the audience. If you're praying in public, you're not praying to impress.
Verse 7, it gets even more specific. It's okay to pray short prayers. We went to a church once where one of the prayers went longer than the sermon. And the sermon wasn't a short one, either. One of the kids said afterwards, you wouldn't want to go to that guy's place for lunch. The food would be cold before he finished grace.
Now of course, we suitably disciplined our rude child for saying something as irreverent as that. Except it's exactly what Jesus was saying as well.
Read his words. Verse 7. "And when you pray, don't keep babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words."
You think praying longer means God's going to hear you? That he's going to be more impressed? Jesus says in verse 8, "Don't be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."
Long and involved and impressive sounding prayers... Jesus says, they're a pagan thing. And God's not impressed at all.
Jesus says, when you pray, it's not about eloquence. As if you're praying to impress. It's not about length. As if God weighs our prayers by the hour.
It's about simplicity. And sincerity.
So if we're going to reflect that in our own church, what's a newcomer here going to find?
In our handbook section which we give to the people who lead in prayer, there are some goals spelt out, in the same sort of format. Left hand column, the guest experience. What a visitor or a newcomer's going to find.
See, the point is, you should be able to come in off the street as a seeker, you should be able to walk into a church for the very first time... and if the person praying up the front is praying a long sort of flowery prayer full of jargon words that you don't even understand... you'll be alienated straight away.
But if it's simple and sincere... it's easy to connect.
So the guest experience. Here's what we're aiming for. You will find the language of our prayers is clear and understandable. Good start. Or another one... You'll hear someone praying seriously but naturally, not using a super-spiritual voice, or using out-dated pious language.
Or this one. Prayers will be kept to the point and won't try to cover all possible issues. They won't go longer than a few minutes.
And for those who are going to lead in our prayer times, the same format - a set of commitments; that they'll work on; so we're making sure that we're taking notice of what Jesus said. About the danger of praying in public. The temptation to pray long and flowery prayers to impress the audience. Instead of prayers that are simple and sincere. With a humble heart.
See, there's actually something very engaging about the framework Jesus spells out I reckon. That when you get rid of the fancy trimmings and get right to the heart of things, when you get rid of the window dressing, ordinary people are actually way more engaged by what's left.
And so there's a better connection.
And it's not just good for the absolute beginner. It's good for the long term Christian as well.
Now as we finish up, just a couple of points. Again, as the year starts up, Garnet and I would love to chat with you if you think you might be willing to do some of the work of leading in prayer. And we'd love to go through the guidelines with you and see more and more people involved in that part of our church life.
So please have a chat with us later. And we'll give you a copy of the handbook. And take it from there.
It's so easy for a church to fall into the Pharisee traps of just being a church for the in group. Of just being a platform for trotting out your ability to be impressively religious. When that's not what it's all about.
Well, that's two sections of our guide to serving.
There's plenty more; a guide for our music teams; our bible teachers; our service leaders; and the good thing is if you're coming along and you know some of this stuff, if you know what we're aiming for, if you know why we're doing what we're doing, then it's going to make a lot more sense. And you'll be able to keep us accountable. And on track. So get involved. And keep an eye out... let us know when we're off the mark.
Because we need to keep at it. Being a simple kind of straightforward welcoming church... where we're serious about growing followers of Jesus.