WestonWilliams.com

“In the beginning, the church was a fellowship of men and women who centered their lives on the living Christ. They had a personal relationship with the Lord. It transformed them and the world around them.    Then the church moved to Greece, where it became a philosophy.    Later it moved to Rome, where it became an institution. Next it moved to Europe, where it became a culture.    Finally it moved to the United States, where it became an enterprise. We’ve got far too many churches and so few fellowships.”    -U.S. Senate Chaplain Richard Halverson, quoted by Karl A. Pohlhaus in his religion column for The Glendale Star [Arizona], July 16, 1998, C5.

How can we move beyond this?  1 John is written by John toward the end of his life and throughout this book he calls the people of the church his, “dear children.”  John calls us the reader his “children” 15 times!  Listen to the words of our spiritual father as he pleads with us to hear and obey.

As he approaches the end of his life, he thinks of his children and writes down all the really important things that we need to know about being the church.  He talks a lot about love, righteousness and remaining pure.  He wants to guard the fellowship and gives us five marks of fellowship in 1 John.

1. Separate

• 1 John 2:15-17, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; 16 for all that is in the world-the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches-comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.”
• The church, or literally ekklesia means the “called out ones.”  We are those who have been called out from the world.  Therefore we should be different, 1 John 1:6 tells us that we can’t claim to have fellowship with God and with the darkness of the world at the same time.
• Sometimes we go a bit too far and form our own ghetto Christian communities. It’s not subbing the world – or being “better” just different.  We should be recognizable as different, we should be light in the world – we’ll talk about that next week.

2. Loving

• This mark helps us to combat the ghetto from forming and our heads from being too puffed up.
• 1 John 3:23, “And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.”
• Our faith should equate to love, that’s what we’ve been talking about.  Lately my children who are very young have started playing together, sometimes they’ll run off into one of their rooms and just start laughing together.  Nothing warms my heart more and nothing warms the heart of the Father more than to see his children get along.
• We here at BGCC encourage, desire, need for every member to be in a small group – whether it’s a BFC or home group.  We want you to be well loved and cared for – we want you to know people you can love and care for.
• We see that the early church met in large groups in the temple and from house to house.  Now houses then could not accommodate the thousands that had been added to the church – so they broke into small groups.
• This love and concern is more than a small group meeting it is giving as well.  Last week we talked about giving which includes finances was a way of worship.  It’s also a mark of fellowship as well.  In ancient Judaism a minyan was a group of ten Jewish men and whatever city in the world had a minyan there was a synagogue.  Why?
  • Well the Jewish people took meeting together seriously and wanted to have services.  They would do this without a synagogue but when they got ten Jewish men they could formally gather as a synagogue.
  • Ten Jewish men, represented ten Jewish families and ten Jewish incomes.  When ten men tithed, or gave a tenth they had one income – that income provided for their rabbi.
  • The rabbi then would tithe and give a tenth – his tenth would provide for the supplies of the synagogue and so church could happen. No one gave anonymously, no one gave less, they all carried their own load and as such their fellowship was sustained.
• We see a model of small group fellowship in the early church and the grandmother of the church – the synagogue was a small group.  Today we must continue to get small as we desire to grow as a church pleasing to God.

3. Discerning

• 1 John 4:1, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
• The command to “test the spirits” is plural.  We need to test the spirits.  As we live in a spirit filled community such as this church we need to rely on each other for wisdom.  We have more wisdom together than separately, more insight together than apart.
• Last week we saw in Acts 13:2 that when the church got together to worship, the Spirit gave them the perspective they needed to discern his will.  We need each other to hear the voice of God.  A community that cares, gives, and worships together will discern together.
  • This is why there is a plurality of elders, no one man is capable of discerning the whole and total will of God alone – we need each other.
  • We together as a body of believers have great insight and wisdom into God’s heart and mind.
  • Some churches practice a process of discernment where young people come for prayer and discernment for everything from vocation to marriage.
  • That’s why I want to drag everyone up here who is going off on a mission trip or to Bible college.  Let’s pray for these people and be discerning for them.
• 1 Corinthians 6:3, tells us we will judge angels and that as such we are more than capable of judging daily matters.
• I would delight to hear of a church, or church member who comes to an eldership or other church and says, “Will you please settle this matter between us?”  We don’t need courts to arbitrate, we have the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth among us.

4. Incarnational

• As we discern the voice of the Spirit and move as one body we become Incarnational, it’s a process and we mature in this. Incarnational is not a word evangelicals use often but is popular in other flavors of Christianity.  Simply stated it takes Matthew 25 literally where it says when we minister to people we meet Christ in them, particularly in the poor.
• We meet the incarnate Christ in other and in turn we become Christ to others.  There is an intentional order to the mission statement, it starts with worship, moves into a fully functioning community and then once we’ve done that our love becomes so attractive to the world that evangelism comes naturally.  We must master this.
• 1 John 4:16, “So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.   God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”
• This week it was shown so clearly when we descended on the home of one of our young at heart lades in the church because of the downed trees in her yard. I put out two emails on CCB to the men’s ministry and we had vans, cars and a truck arrive to finish the job.  As we were unloading the branches a family from the church pulled up and went to work raking. It doesn’t have to involve money, that one hour made a huge difference.

5. Confident

• Finally if we exist as a separate, loving, discerning and incarnational community then we will be a confident community.
• 1 John 5:4-6, “for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. 5 Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.”
• Definition of “Fellowship” or Koinonia is literally “common” all things in common – we belong to each other.  Therefore there are times when we lend our spirituality to our neighbor in discipleship, or lend our joy in celebration with each other, or lend our tears in mourning with each other.
  • I remember studying this epistle with another student who had a Bible that had been translated into Hawaiian pidgin where they had a community word for something that belonged to the community or village.  It was a word that literally meant our community owns this.
  • We each have gifts that belong to each other according to Ephesians 4:11-13, “11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.”
  • 1 Corinthians 1:7 says that the church in Corinth wasn’t lacking any gift, why because they had come to share them and I dare say we too are not lacking any spiritual gift among us.
• Look at the diagram and see that God blesses “Me” and gives me gifts.  Why?  So that I might turn around and give them to the church.  How does the church get all its gifts through us, through me!  Our confidence comes from knowing, serving and completing the body of Christ together.

Today is the day some of you need to start loving the church by committing to this place your fellowship.  We call it membership and it’s nothing more than a public commitment of your love for this church.

The Washington Post recently revealed that President Obama has decided to appoint Josh Dubois as the new director for the office of Faith Based Initiatives (Read article here). The office is getting a bit of a makeover and will be renamed, “The Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.” It sounds a bit more approachable, user friendly – let’s see if this will ease the grant application procedure.  Heading this newly renamed office is Josh Dubois who served as the director of the Obama campaign’s religious outreach.  Josh Dubois has served with other political figures in other religious outreaches.  He is an ordained pentecostal minister from a small church in Cambridge (no website available) but his training seems mostly political. There is a great article with a limited interview about Dubois and his faith journey available here on the Wall Street Journal.

Dubois’ faith seems to be less of a concern however than does President Obama’s intentions for the policy of this office.  Throughout his campaign then Senator Obama stated that he would revise the regulation for faith based organizations receiving federal money.  These organizations would have to abide by all equal employment legislation, this is a sharp turn from the previous administration who allowed faith based groups to hire like minded individuals.  If these new legal constraints are placed on churches and other ministries who receive federal money they will have to either hire qualified candidates who disagree with their beliefs or lose federal funding.  In other words, if a church who runs a food pantry has a job opening they may be forced to hire an atheist if he is the most qualified.

What the problem with this scenario is that it brings the church under the authority of the state and fails to maintain their separateness.  The faith based initiative in its inception recognized that many churches, mosques and other religious groups were doing a better job of community aid than the government.  So, the government wanted to be efficient and help them help the community.  This was not without constraints and restrictions.  There were stipulations that recipients could not be screened or discriminated against on the basis of faith which is reasonable.  There were also accounting requirements that had to be met.  All of these previous requirements ensured an efficient outreach and let the church be the church.  These new stipulations, however, rob the churches of the spirit that originally inspired these initiatives!  What this will result in is a group of disenfranchised church goers returning to their churches with less resources to do the same job.

Many churches have spun off seperate non-profit organizations as a way to protect their church from federal requirements.  Perhaps the better alternative is to not take money from the government to begin with!  The money may appear to be free, but cost your soul in the end.  I’ll partner with Christ and let the government keep their money.

From microwaves to computers exists O/I.  O/I, On/Off, a simple symbol to indicate power.  During Operation Identity (O/I) we will be tapping into the power of a unified identity and understanding of Christianity.  We have made Christianity difficult to understand and easy to live – that’s about to change.  Christianity is simple to understand and challenging to live – take for example: “love your neighbor” it’s easy to understand but hard to practice!

This Sunday marked the kickoff of Operation Identity for our church and during the next six-weeks we will be exploring our new corporate identity and mission at BGCC.   This mission, shared by every believer, centers on 4 key relationships every Christian has with: God, the Church, the World, and the Broken! We will discover how to have successful relationships by first discovering the Personal Nature of God and Connecting to God through salvation.

If you want to be a part of this exciting initiative then make sure you:  Join a Bible Fellowship Class (BFC) or Small Group.  If you haven’t done so yet then this Wednesday all you have to do is show up and we’ll place you in a group. Attend Sunday morning services, commit to not missing even one during this initiative!  Connect with God daily through the daily devotionals.  This book was written by our church for our church, enjoy others’ reflections on these important truths.

I’m so excited about what God will reveal to us as we study his word and what God will do through us as we serve him with a concentrated focus!  Join us as we power on with a renewed identity in the person and purposes of Christ.

Church membership helps a church to identify you as part of “the local body” (although we are all part of Christ’s body to be sure) and it helps you to identify the church as a resource for your own spiritual needs. At our church there are no pledge cards to fill out or complicated rituals – simply your commitment to our church and our commitment to you in Christ.

Anyone who has been baptized into Christ as a believer may place membership with our church.  We only ask that you repeat a simple confession of faith, “I believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  This is typically done before the congregation on a Sunday morning but may be done through other arrangements to accommodate someone with special needs such as a disability, or phobia.  Should you desire to join no arrangements are necessary, simply respond during the decision song on Sunday morning and a minister or elder will guide you through the process.  If you would like to arrange for a meeting prior to this contact the church office for an appointment with a minister or elder.

Obviously no one should feel pressured to make a commitment they’re not ready for, instead be encouraged to come and “belong.” Over time however, as you come to know a church you should make a commitment to them for a few important reasons.  First, it helps them to be alert in their care for you – if a member goes missing then the church takes notice!  Second, it helps you develop a ministry within the local church.  Many teaching ministries, childcare ministries and other public focused ministries are available only to those who have made a commitment to the church.  By placing membership a world of service opportunities open to you!  Finally, placing church membership is a sign of humility and respect for Christ’s leadership.  When you place membership you publicly confess that you will follow Christ and respect the spiritual leadership within the church (i.e. the elders).

Church membership is a beautiful practice – it is like joining a family.  We are all devoted to the Father and committed to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Come and meet our family and when you’re ready we’ll welcome you with open arms!