4.15.12--Sermon on Acts 4:32-35

Already in my short tenure in ministry, I have had the great blessing of serving beside some amazing Staff/Parish Relations Committee chairs. Now, I know that most of you know what role this group of people fill, but for those of you who do not, the Staff/Parish Relations Committee, known in the biz as the SPRC, is the hiring and firing committee of the church. They are the people who act both as the voice of the church—bringing the questions, concerns, and compliments of the congregation to the pastor—and as the ear of the church—hearing and responding to the questions and concerns of the pastor.

In other words, this is the committee that new hires—and new appointed pastors—makes friends with really quickly.

At a previous church, where I worked specifically with the youth ministry department, the chair of this committee was a retired businessman who saw the workings of the church to be quite similar to the workings of his old vocation: every cog had to fit together and do its work or else the entire machine did not function properly. He made sure that everyone was as happy as possible and that any concerns that came up were dealt with quickly and handled in such a way that pleased everyone. He and I had a conversation one day about our philosophies of ministry; we found that, though we shared much in common, there were a number of areas in which we differed from one another.

One of these areas was the way in which we measured the effectiveness of ministry. Now, I am of the mindset that if relationships are being built and people are coming to better know Christ—whether this is a mass of people or a small handful—then my ministry is pretty effective and doing the job that God needs it to do. He believes that for a specific ministry to be effective, it must always be (1) attracting more and more people, (2) bringing in more and more money, and (3) “growing the brand” of the church.

His business philosophy that had matured from his many years of experience in the world seemed to clash with my high-hopeful and faith-founded outlook that has been set ablaze by two years of undergraduate work and a summer internship.

I mean, we believe in a God who took on flesh, fed the multitudes, healed the sick and injured, and gave all he had including his life for the entire world so that all might be saved from sin and death. And yet he had only twelve people in his discipleship group. If I could only get a handful of youth to come to my events and engage in Bible studies with me, then it was obvious that this handful of kids were the ones to which God needed me to be ministering. It was completely worth me burning through a giant budget for these few, even though we weren’t really growing and there didn’t seem to be much drive to do so.

For my friend, who, by the way, had the power to fire me—a fact I never took lightly—the fact that we were not growing in numbers, that new families were not coming to the church as a result of our ministries, and the fact that there did not seem to be a quantitative return on the ministry meant that something had to change.

Can you see why we did not see eye to eye in this?

I knew that this man was a wise and faithful servant of Christ, though, so I tried not to discount what he had said to me. In the many years of ministry and experience that I have gleaned since then—a grand total of three whole years later—I have come to see that the best philosophy to have about ministry is one that resides in the middle ground between our two outlooks.

You see, believing in the faithful ministry of Christ is absolutely important, and one life changed is worth any endeavor on our part. But at the same time, Scripture bears witness to the fact that true ministry leads both to deeper discipleship—the qualitative growth of the church—and to larger numbers affected by the ministry—the quantitative growth of the church. I was leaning too far one way, and my ministry companion was leaning too far the other way. There has to be a middle ground. We have to strive for both/and, not either/or.

The church must be willing to give all we have for the sake of one soul all the while praying that God uses our efforts to reach the entire world.

In our Scripture today from the book of Acts, we hear of the growth and practices of the early church, those first Christians who so long ago devoted their entire lives to the cause of Christ. Let us read again these few verses and again listen carefully to the message that God speaks through them to us today:

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. (Acts 4:32-35)

This Scripture lesson spends the majority of its words speaking about money and the way that the early Christians devoted everything they had—all they owned and possessed—to the Way. No one was in need among them, for everything they needed was provided for, while at the same time no one kept for him or herself anything, seeing the needs of the other as being above the needs of the self. This is an interesting concept, right? And one that goes against our current cultural system. Putting the community, sometimes even an individual person, above yourself is not the way that we live life most of the time, is it? And yet by living this way, their numbers swelled, growing and growing as more and more people heard the Good News of Jesus Christ, repented, and believed. These first disciples were doing something right, for, as my old SPRC chair would point out, their numbers grew, more money came in, the “brand” of Christian become even more well known as time drew on.

This was, friends, a business model.

And it worked miraculously for the early church!

And in the center of it all—at the heart of the message, you might say—is the reason they were able to put their entire monetary trust in the church: “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.” You see, they knew that for their work to be truly sustainable, for their cause to be worth fighting, it had to be about more than simply bringing in more people and more money.

That was not enough.

For their work to be truly sustainable, for their cause to be worth fighting, it had to be centered on the Gospel. If the church’s mission had been to start a communal living culture, it would have fizzled out within a generation or two, if not within a couple of years. If the church’s mission had been to change the way the ancient Roman Empire viewed economics, it would not have lasted much longer than the latest toga or laurel leaf fad. If the church’s mission had been at all worldly, at all focused upon its own gain or sustainability for its own sake, it would not have seen the turn of the century.

But thanks be to God that the church’s mission was always on the sharing and spreading of the message that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Most High God, had been crucified and was resurrected. You see, the church is not sustainable on its own merits. The church is only sustainable due to the power of the Gospel.

“With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.”

So what does that mean for us today? How does that impact the congregation of Ellisdale/Crosswicks United Methodist Church? Well friends, I’m sure that you’re all aware by this point that we are not in the most comfortable place financially right now. In fact, the financial health of our church is poor at best, and many of you have had conversations with me about how we might turn this around. You want to know what needs to be done to save the church from going under.

Well, I will not pretend to have all of the answers as to exactly how to rejuvenate our congregations, but I can absolutely tell you why we should, and I can tell you right now that this, for many is going to be a more important lesson to learn.

You see, for our work to be truly sustainable, for our cause to be worth fighting, it has to be about more than simply bringing in more people and more money to pad the budget.

It is not enough to hope that things can somehow continue like they always have, because they aren’t like they always have been, are they? It is not enough to hold that this church has always been here and should remain here. It is not enough to say that I grew up in this church and want my kids to do the same.

It is not enough.

For our church to continue doing the work it is called to do in this community, we have to make certain that we are doing this for the right reason, and that reason must always be Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the one who was crucified and was resurrected. Those around us should be able to look at the work we do and state that with great power that church continues to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace is upon them all.

We have to get the why before we can get to the how.

So may we realize that our ministry mindsets must contain both a qualitative and quantitative growth plan. May we trust that the God who conquered death for us is able to use even us to change the world and spread the Gospel message. May we grow in hope like our past brothers and sisters that God will provide a way for the church to continue on in this broken world, and may we—the church—above all else always keep our focus on our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ.