Explore ways that you, as young people, can really impact your local church, engage the community where you live, and work for God right where you are.

GYC 2019: By Many Or By Few

<p>Explore ways that you, as young people, can really impact your local church, engage the community where you live, and work for God right where you are.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Ignite Your Local Church for Mission

David Wright

Mission of the Word

This message was presented at the GYC conference by many or by few in Louisville, Kentucky.

For other resources like this, visit us online at GYCweb.org.

So this morning we're going to be talking about how to ignite your local church for mission.

And this is probably a little bit of a big title in terms of there's all kinds of things that we could talk about as we go down this path of how to ignite your local church for mission.

This is just what they asked me to present, so I put a few ideas together.

And I hope that some of these ideas will be helpful for you.

And I'm just going to go through what we're going to be talking about in the 4 sessions and then you can decide if you think this is something that would be beneficial to you or if you say, well, you know, there's a lot of other good seminars, I'm going to try something else.

That won't hurt my feelings in the least.

If I didn't have to be here, I'd be somewhere else because I've heard everything I have to say.

So anyway, yeah, I don't know, I'm lost in my PowerPoint here.

Maybe this is what your local church looks like.

I hope not, But sometimes it can feel that way.

I know the first church district, I guess it wasn't, no it was the first, well first and second church district that I was in, I pulled up to, they sort of look like this.

And I remember looking at my wife saying, is this it?

And she's like, yeah, I think this is it.

I don't know, let's go inside and find out.

Sadly, that's often what the local church can look like, but it doesn't need to look that way.

There's a lot of things that you and I can do that don't require a position, doesn't require us to be the pastor or an elder or a deacon or anything else to improve that local situation.

And sometimes we use the excuse, well, I wasn't asked.

Well, there's plenty of reasons in the Bible that says, you know, serve the Lord with all your might, right?

And so, we need to not just be spectators and just supporters, but also actively engaged in the work there of the local church.

So, we're going to approach this in 4 different parts.

The first is going to be the mission of the Word.

I think the Word is foundational in everything that we do, and there are ways that we're going to look at the importance of God's Word, but then also how we can use God's Word to grow and enlarge the church.

Really to me that's a very fundamental part.

You know, if we take away all the other parts of church, or maybe I'm saying that backwards, if we had all the other parts of church and they were functioning at a high, incredible level, but you take out God's Word, what do we have?

And so what can you do not only in your own study, but in creating a Bible study of sorts that will grow and enhance the work there in the local church?

And it will take time and we'll talk about that and unpack that more today as we get started.

The second session, we're going to be talking about the mission of attendance and involvement.

Just you showing up to things is very crucial.

And it can be very discouraging when people plan things and nobody shows up, right?

And so we'll look at that in the second portion and the difference that that can make.

Then we're going to look at the mission to the community.

How can I engage with my community around me?

Sometimes the question is asked, if your church were to disappear from your community, who would notice?

Well, all the Adventists in the community would notice, but outside of them, would your community know anything happened?

You know, you just close your doors and I think probably most communities would go on and not even blink, sadly.

And so we're going to talk about and try to inspire, you know, this is a very difficult thing to do as well, especially a Seventh-day Adventist.

Much of what happens in the community happens on what day?

And there's a lot of things that the community is doing on Sabbath that I don't feel comfortable engaging with.

But there are some things that maybe we can say, you know, that's something we can connect with.

So, we'll be looking at that in the third piece.

And then the fourth piece, I just had Q&A but I've added something to that.

I want to show the growth cycle in a local church using the method that we have in Scripture about preparing the soil, sowing the seeds, nurturing the seed, watering and so on, the harvest, and then preserving.

And so we're going to go through that, and all churches need all of those things to be functioning well for the church to truly grow.

And so we're going to talk about in the last piece that growth cycle, because oftentimes a church may be really good at sowing seeds, but then they leave it there.

Some may be really good at having evangelistic series all the time but they're not sowing any seeds.

Some may sow the seeds and have a harvest but they're not discipling at the other end and so a lot of these people, they come in all excited but then they don't, they're not put to work and so they leave out the back door.

And so we're going to look at all those different parts and hopefully when we're done with that last session you may be able to evaluate your church and say, you know, our church probably is low in that area or this area or the other area and maybe that's where if you invest in those areas, it will complete that growth cycle more fully and your church can grow.

And so that's a little bit of where we're headed and then question and answer on that session.

And we might have time to do that every time as well.

And if you say, I'm not sure that's what I'm here for, that's fine.

You can just say, oh, I need to use the bathroom and not come back, and that'll be okay.

But yeah, there's a lot of good seminars.

And if you miss some of those other good ones, you can do like I'm gonna do and go back and listen.

Hopefully the recording and everything will be working for everyone and we can listen to those seminars later.

Are you gonna talk about this or cover that?

We're supposed to be, what's our break, Jeff?

So at 10.30 everybody just start coughing or something and we'll be done.

All right, well if there's not any questions, let's bow our heads for prayer, ask the Holy Spirit to be with us and we'll get started.

Dear Heavenly Father, we recognize right here at the front end that this is your church and that you will have to finish the work in righteousness, but you long to use us, which is a pretty humbling thought.

You have angels at your disposal, you have all power, you have all authority under heaven and earth, but you want to use sinful human beings like ourselves.

And so Lord we just want to confess here on the front end that we're not worthy to be that 1 to make a huge splash or a big difference.

And we recognize that in and of ourselves we can do nothing.

But we also have read those verses that say, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

And so we're asking that through Christ you can use us to impact our local church.

And so we would pray that you would pour out your spirit on us as we go through this first session in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, so this first 1 is the mission of the Word.

In Joshua 1 verse 8 it says, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night.

That sounds kind of like all the time, doesn't it?

That you may observe to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your ways prosperous and then you will have good success." So the Scripture is really so foundational to everything that we do and being prosperous and so on and so forth, and we're supposed to do everything that we find there in it, and it's just the basis of why we call ourselves Christians and ultimately why we call ourselves Seventh-day Adventists, right?

Because we believe that there are truths there that are unique, well not unique to Scripture, but unique to the rest of the Christian denominations out there that aren't following the full truth as we understand it.

And so the Bible is our basis, and that's truly what gives us good success.

I think the devil knows this as well, and if he can get us out of the Word, I think we could say the opposite will be true, right?

And so you have a lot of contemporary thinkers that are really saying some interesting things about the Bible.

This is 1, Brian McLaren, pretty popular, prolific writer, says, the Bible is not considered an accurate, absolute, authoritative, or authoritarian source, but a book to be experienced, and 1 experience can be as valid as any other.

Experience, dialogue, feelings, and conversations are equated with scriptures.

I have some major problems with that quote.

And if I'm not careful, I could just preach on that and stand on these chairs and really go at it.

But this idea that the Bible is not accurate, it's not absolute, it's not authoritative, as soon as I can start picking apart the Bible and whatever verse cuts across my personal life I can say, that's not authoritative, that doesn't apply to me, that is antiquated, that's from a different culture, a different time, never mind.

Mission of Attendance and Involvement

So, this time we're going to be, I don't know how many of you were here last session?

All right, for those of you that are new we're looking at igniting your local church for mission.

And this last time we looked at the mission of the word, it was the first part and you can catch that maybe later by recording.

But this is the second part, the mission of attendance and involvement.

How can you improve your local setting through attendance and involvement?

And so we're gonna look at that more fully.

Before we jump in too far, there was Mary Johnson who's going to share.

So as soon as she comes back, I'm going to let her share because she has to head someplace else just to get us thinking outside of the box a little bit.

But before we do that, I just invite you to bow your heads and let's have a word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this group that has come because they want to make a difference in their local church.

And so Lord, we again recognize that in and of ourselves we can do nothing, but we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength.

And so Lord, we pray that You will empower us, that Your Holy Spirit will inspire us, that You'll show us something that we can use that would be helpful for furthering the gospel for Your glory.

And so we pray to that end in Jesus' name, amen.

She's gonna talk a little bit, you know, life can become, is anybody here busy?

Do You ever feel like you're a rat on the wheel sometimes?

I don't really listen to country anymore, but it used to go, always running, always running behind.

You're always running behind, you never can catch up.

Depression and anxiety is on the rise, higher than it's ever been before.

More people are on antidepressants and anxiety meds and you name it.

And that causes a host of other issues, largely because of our lifestyle, because we can't say no to stuff and so on and so forth.

Mary Johnson and I, we met on a trip to Kenya.

It was a Maranatha trip, and she was doing something very unique.

If you get the Maranatha Magazine, maybe you read an article about her, but in case you did not, I wanted her to share, I don't know, 5, 7 minutes about your experience?

Well, like you said, my name is Mary Johnson and I am a mission trip junkie.

And I had been on several mission trips and I had met people who were retired and they had all the time in the world to go on as many mission trips as they wanted.

And I thought, yes, this is my dream, this is what I want to do in 25 years, when I can retire.

And so I began thinking, I said, you know what, Lord, that would just be my dream if I could just do like, maybe just take a year and do as many mission trips as I could, like, you know, like midlife sample retirement, see what I'm gonna do when I retire.

So 2 school years ago in the 2017-2018 school year I took the entire school year off without pay to do as many short-term mission trips as I could around the world and that's where I ran into Pastor Wright in Kenya on a mission trip with Maranatha.

And at that time I was about halfway through my school year and that 1 school year I did 18 mission trips in a span of 13 months.

And after that year I went back to work full time where I teach public high school And it was a great way to witness because people ask me, well, what did you do during that year off?

And I would say, I did all these mission trips.

I said, but if you want to read about it, there's an article in the Volunteer Magazine, there's an article in the Pacific Union Reporter.

To go on a Maranatha mission trip, how many of you have been on a Maranatha mission trip?

There's airfare involved and insurance stuff and passport stuff.

I mean, that would be a 1 time, but all the others, it gets quite expensive.

So you had to make some significant life changes and adjustments and sacrifices and say, I don't need this, this, this, and this.

I don't need to live at this level, this lifestyle, da, da, da, da, because I'm going to go on 18 mission trips.

I mean, that's, you kind of just, whoop, went right over top of that, but that's a big deal.

I, well, and getting ready for that, I had my own condo.

I was working, I'd been working for like 15 years, living on my own.

And So I moved out of that condo so that I could move in with my parents to save money on the mortgage.

And so before that school year even started in 2016, I moved in with my parents.

And I stayed there throughout the duration of the time.

And by the end of my year off, when I went back full time, although it was a great win to be able to come back to my coworkers and students and say, hey, look what God did for these last few months.

I was very stressed, extremely, extremely stressed.

When I came to GYC last year, I was just like ready to pull my hair out because going back to working full time and trying to still do ministry helped take care of my parents.

My mom, right before I moved in in 2016, she had fallen and broken her ankle and she's 79.

And so when you're older, you know, things don't heal as fast.

And so now she needs more help getting around and everything.

And so I was trying to help my parents and be involved in ministry and it was a lot.

And I realized, I said, you know, I come to work every day my co-workers were like, how was your weekend?

And this constant idea that we have here in America that you always have to be working, you always have to be stressed, all you wanna do is make all this money that you're never gonna get to spend until you retire, and you can never just come up and say, hey, I feel great, I'm energized, I'm rested.

And so I see these people in these other countries that I had visited, they're so happy and content with a fraction of the money that I was making.

And so I said, you know what, I can live off of half my salary.

So during this school year, I teach every other day.

And so I work half the time, the other half the time, I have time to do ministry and help my parents, which means that I'm actually still living with my parents and I have the money to pay for a mortgage.

And so I'm making a sacrifice still, even though I went back to work, because ministry is that important, and not being super stressed at all times is very important, because that's when the enemy gets us and says, oh you know what, you're so stressed, you don't need to really spend that much time in the Word, you don't really need to spend that much time praying, and that's when you fall into his trap.

So last year, you came to UIC and you were like, bzzzzzzzzzz.

I was just thinking about how much better I feel this year than I did last year.

Last year was my first UIC I'd ever been to, and I'm so excited now that I feel more relaxed.

It's better for everyone involved, for my family, for my parents, I have time to help them.

My siblings aren't as stressed because they don't have to do all the work.

My students have scored the best they ever have on their final exams because I'm never tired.

I'm never at work thinking, okay, kids, let's just do a worksheet.

I'm like, oh, I only teach them today and I don't see them tomorrow.

They're like ahead of their other classes in Spanish because I'm so energized.

I haven't seen her since, have I seen you since that mission trip?

Mission to the Community

So we're going to go ahead and get started.

I think we are here until 1245 and then it's going to be lunch at 01:00.

So if you're going to miss anything, probably miss this, but don't miss lunch because you'll want lunch.

I think this is my water bottle I left over here.

All right, well if you have been here, there, and other places that's fine.

I oftentimes do the same but We've been talking in here how to ignite your local church for mission.

We talked in the first session, if you ever want to go back and listen, we talked about the word and the power of God's word and some practical ways that we can apply that in small group ministry and so on.

This girl has the notes so you can get them from her.

In the last session we talked about the ministry of attendance and just showing up to things.

And an individual was here with the testimony, yeah, I just started showing up in my local church and very soon they started asking me to do things and to lead out with the youth and the young adults.

And so if you want to get involved in your local church, start showing up to stuff and you'll either have to start rehearsing a good no or you'll be involved before you know it.

So that's what we talked about last time.

This time in part 3 is mission to the community and we're kind of asking the question here if our church were to disappear, if your church and your community were to disappear, how many in the community would notice?

And that's a challenging thing, and I think it's extra challenging for the Seventh-day Adventist church because everyone else goes to church on Sunday.

And so when do they plan their extra events?

And so that makes it very challenging depending on what those events are.

I don't feel comfortable engaging with those on Sabbath.

And so it really means that you have to be very choosy, but also very diligent so that when something does come on the horizon that's happening in your community that you can plug into, you can do that and still try and have a presence.

So or in this session, If that's something you're interested in, great.

If not, just pretend you have to go to the bathroom and just keep going and it won't hurt my feelings a bit.

But before we jump in, let's have a word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank You for all of those that have gathered here because they have a longing and a desire to ignite their church for mission.

And that's an exciting thing as I think about all the churches that are represented here.

But Lord, we also know that there's no one-size-fits-all.

There's no magic bullet or silver bullet that will succeed 100 percent of the time because every church and every community and the needs of those communities are different.

And so we would just pray that You will help us through the power of Your Holy Spirit to contextualize this to our place, our setting, where we are, and that Your Holy Spirit will do something far beyond what we are capable of doing.

We realize that in and of ourselves we can do nothing, but we can do all things through Jesus Christ who gives us strength.

And so we recognize our humanness and our lack, but the fact that the God of the universe that has all power and authority at His command would want to use us, the sinners that we are.

And so Lord I pray that by your grace we can be useful in the hands of our Savior in Jesus name, amen.

All right, first typically in something like this you just have to start with a very basic question, what are the needs of my community?

1 of the first churches I pastored was way out in the Thules.

If you're not familiar with the Thules, it's out in the middle of nowhere.

And our radio station would say it was the best mix in the sticks.

That's what they said on 1 of the radio stations, because we were just out there.

And most people would commute in from various places, most of them all about 45 minutes away to this church.

That resulted in a church that I inherited that was largely dysfunctional.

What is the community, you know, what's the community like?

We don't know, we don't really care, we don't live there, we commute in just for this church because we're avoiding other churches.

And when we would ask this question, nobody had good answers because we weren't part of the community.

And so oftentimes, we want to assign something and start with something and have a game plan before we've done the appropriate homework of what are the needs of this community.

And we somehow have this idea that finding out those needs is a huge mystery that will never be solved.

If you have a local newspaper, that will oftentimes share a lot of the needs of the community.

You might say we're too small, there is no local newspaper.

Well sometimes a farmers market will have some printing of something or school papers or something of that nature will describe an issue in the school that they're having that they need help with, or it really just requires you to constantly be aware and be thinking, what are some of these issues, and maybe make a little journal or something, writing those down.

Series

Ignite Your Local Church for Mission

Q and A and Final Charge

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

GYC 2011 totalChurch

Total Church: Leadership

2h 16m

Knees, Keys, and Please!

5. Victory in the Final Conflict

1h 4m

Distinct Advent Message- A1

A Moment or A Millenium?

2h

Devoted Devotions: A Vibrant Devotional Life for the Last Days

Bound by Devotion

59m

Breakouts

Walking Dead

55m

Distinct Advent Message- A2

A Vision of God: Who is God, Really?

1h 56m

A Call To Arms: How to Fully Engage In God's Church

1. Red Tape to Red Carpet: Your Unique Participation in the Global Adventist Church

59m

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Most Important Book Outside of the Bible - A Deeper Look at The Great Controversy

03-Adventism’s Prophetic Message in the Great Controversy

1h

Bob Folkenberg, Jr. - Evangeliving: The Great Commission in Action

Preparing for the Harvest Now

1h

Plenary Sessions

Six Keys for the Western Adventist Church

1h 8m

Bob Folkenberg, Jr. - Evangeliving: The Great Commission in Action

How Beautiful ARE Your Feet?

57m

Making Sons of Hell? The Don’ts and Do’s of Soul Winning

Addressing Objections and Answering Difficult Bible Questions

1h 2m

Sound Doctrine