Response to the Shooting at First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs, TX

Church Security and Soft Targets

Pastoral Response to the Texas Church Shooting, 11-5-17

Rob Tennant, HillSong Church, Chapel Hill, NC

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

            Terrorist events (see Boston Marathon bombing, San Bernardino shooting), mass shootings (see Orlando night club, see Las Vegas country music concert), racially motivated violence (see Charlottesville), and other deadly interruptions into the flow of normal life have occurred with alarming frequency in the last 7-10 years.  We Americans haven’t yet caught our breath from the unthinkable attack in Las Vegas, and we learn of Sutherland Springs, Texas.  We learn that we love the people of that small community because the First Baptist Church (FBC) there was shot up on a Sunday morning, the sanctuary full.

            For me, a church pastor, this hits close to home.  I have raced through, in my own mind, how our church would react if a shooter entered.  I have played the scenario out repeatedly.  Truthfully, I don’t know what I would do because I am not prepared for that.

            On a Sunday morning, I am prepared to preach.  I am prepared to meet the people of the church.  Some need encouragement, and if I can, I give it.  Some need a welcome and a hug.  I certainly can and do give that.  Some are leaders in the church and we need to confer about what’s going on Sunday morning or what’s going on at other points in church life.  These are the things on my mind on a Sunday morning.

            I hope, my heart and mind are prepared to encounter God.  I pray that we – myself and all in the church – come expecting to see God act among us.  Over and over the disciples who walked with Jesus every day found themselves surprised by his displays of power as he commanded demons and the demons obeyed and angry, storming waves on the sea cowered before him.  They found themselves scandalized when they saw Jesus love people society had pushed to the margins.  These disciples saw it every day with Jesus and still got surprised.  I hope we’re open enough and worshiping with enough eager anticipation that we see it when God send surprises of love and provision and hope to us.

            What we’re not doing is preparing how to respond to a crazed, murderous shooter (or bomber) (or vehicle operator).  And I don’t we should.  I think our call and our responsibility is to God.  We need to be looking for God when the church gathers.

            My heart goes out to First Baptist Church Sutherland.  That church, like ours, is small.  So many were killed and so many more were critically injured or traumatized, and the community is so small, that that specific church may not recover.  The pastor has got to be devastated.  I don’t know if I could continue in ministry if a shooter killed a bunch of our people, and I survived.  We pastors feel a certain responsibility for all who enter.  God has entrusted the worshipers into our care. 

            The other time, recently, I felt such a burden for a church was the Emmanual African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC, when Dylann Roof shot up their prayer meeting in June, 2015.  On that occasion, I preached a sermon about how churches should exist in a time of random, unpredictable, deadly violence.  The text of that message is here https://honesttalkwithgod.blogspot.com/2015/06/sermon-in-response-to-shootings-in.html. 

            One of the things I stressed in that message is that the deadly shooting happened when the church was doing “what churches do.”  They were in a prayer meeting, and they welcomed Dylann Roof, a dangerous person, into their fold.  They didn’t know he was dangerous.  We never do.  We know we are called to welcome people – people with mental illness, people will deep-seeded anger, and people who are themselves badly broken.  As we are church, the body of Christ, we welcome the lost.  That’s what we do.

            FBC Sutherland was different than Emmanual AME Church in that they never had the chance to welcome Devin Kelly.  He came in shooting, killing.  He may have destroyed that church.  God allows human beings agency – the freedom to make moral choices.  Part of being made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27) is we have free will.  But too often, we use our freedom for evil.  God allows this because without this freedom, we would no longer be human.  Atheists will see and evil event and use it as an opportunity to attack the church, but they don’t understand the bigger picture.  God has created a world in which human beings and God are in a relationship of love and trust.  God doesn’t force the relationship.  But God is active in it and God is active in the world. 

The mark of the person walking in close relationship with God, in Jesus Christ, is how that person responds in crisis.  Tragedy hits all people – Christ followers and non-Christians alike.  God is seen in how his church represents his love and hope in the face of tragedy.  On Sundays, we in the church, pastors and worshipers, whether long-time members or first-time attendees, have the same invitation.  We are invited into the presence of God.  That’s what we’re seeking and preparing for, not a shooting.

I wrote in 2015 the following after the mass murder in Charleston:

We as a community of faith have to tell the alternate story – the grace story.  … We have to be the story of hope.  We do this by opening our doors and ourselves to the lost and hurting people in the world.  Yes, churches are soft targets because broken people need a soft place to land.  Hurting people need to meet Jesus in an atmosphere of love. 

By being a safe place, a soft target, we risk everything.  Dylann Roof could walk in here.  Or someone without a gun but with a dangerous agenda could attempt to infiltrate our community.  Our commitment to being a people who welcome all leaves us open to such risks.  But we embrace that because God has given us a particular mission.  God calls us to live a story in which people of different backgrounds are brothers and sisters who embrace each other in the love of Jesus.  God calls us to stand in the midst of the violence, throw open our doors, and say to the world, “Come in, you’ll be loved here.  You’ll be valued here.  You have a place here.  In the heart of God, in God’s Kingdom, you have a home.

In coming days, it will become harder for us to tell this story and live this mission.  But we will do it no matter the cost because God enables us as God calls us.  And we will do it with great joy because God’s story is a grace story and a joy story.  The hope for the world is in the telling and living of that story.  Now is the time.

Those words still ring true.  I know some churches are talking about having armed security.  I suspect there may be people in our church family who are armed when they come to church on Sunday morning.  My own preference would be for us to post signs that say “No firearms on the premises are permitted.”  My desire for this is not a comment on gun ownership as a political issue.  I offer no comment on that issue in this essay.  The action of posting a “No firearms permitted” sign would be a statement about where our focus is.  Our focus is on meeting the Holy Spirit of God in this place. 

This action wouldn’t slowdown someone like Dylann Roof or Devin Kelly.  But it would be a reminder to all our people that we put our trust in God.  The people of FBC Sutherland Springs put their trust in God too.  I don’t know why they died.  I don’t know why Stephen was stoned (Acts 7:58-59), but John died a natural death (John 21:23).  I don’t know why most churches have pleasant Sundays but on November 5, tragedy his Sutherland Springs. 

But I know this.  We who follow Christ cannot let tragedy tell us who we are to be or how we are to live.  Tragedy doesn’t get to be the boss.  Racism doesn’t get to dictate to us.  Terror doesn’t the first word, the last word, or any word.  We churches are communities of Christ followers.  We are the body of Christ.  We’ll voluntarily exist as soft targets because we want to be safe places for broken people who need a soft landing.  

Rejected at the Church Door (Mark 2:13-21)

February 21, 2016 - 2nd Sunday of Lent

We passed out rocks on Ash Wednesday as a Lenten discipline. If you’d like to join us in this practice, come up and get a rock right now or at any time during the sermon.  You are invited. 

            My rock reminds me of the ways I neglect my faith.  I hold it and think of things that draw me away from Jesus. 

            I also hold my rock and remember that the Holy Spirit is with me.  I hope you’ll take a rock and carry it everywhere from now until Easter Sunday.  Be aware distractions and ask God to remove them.  Be aware also of the presence of God.

            This morning we will see another way this rock can serve a reminder in our lives as Jesus’ disciples. 

            Think of one or two people you do not want to see at church and write the names down.  Everyone turn those names in and we’ll make a master list and give it to our ushers.   They will man the door.  If anyone on your list shows up, they will put up a stop sign.  The “unwanted’s” will be rejected at the church door. But be careful.  You may be on someone else’s list.  The ushers may have to escort you out.  Or me; I may be able finish this morning.

            Anyone have Coach K on your list?  We live in Chapel Hill. We’ve got to keep the unacceptable people out. 

How about someone in a disreputable occupation?  We’ll ban bookies, telemarketers, and sensationalist fraudulent faith healers.  Who should we stop at the door?

 On a more serious note, has someone hurt you or taken advantage of you.  They betrayed you or gossiped behind your back.  Maybe the damage is lasting damage.  Could you stand and sing songs of praise alongside one who has caused so much pain and fear? 

What is someone is neck-deep in pornography?  It’s hard to imagine that person in church.  He doesn’t belong. 

When the Pharisees saw Jesus at Levi’s party, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners” (2:16)?  Jesus is a holy man, but he parties with the unclean, the unrighteous.  Why? 

In the early 1960’s Will Campbell made his way from his humble beginnings in poor, rural Mississippi to Yale Divinity School.  He became an aggressive civil rights activist and ended up back in the south where his Christian faith was tested when he saw white Christians reject black people at the doors of their churches. 

Newspaper editor P.D. East agreed with Campbell’s politics of racial equality but rejected his faith.  He dared Campbell to succinctly express the Christian message.  “We’re all rebellious losers,” Campbell said, “But God loves us anyway. 

P.D. East was unmoved.  Episcopalian priest Jonathan Daniels was a friend to both men and a fellow civil rights activist.  He murdered in broad daylight by Thomas Coleman, a Southern sheriff.  To East, this was evidence that there is no God.  Relentlessly he attacked Campbell’s definition of faith.

Was Jonathan Daniels a rebellious loser?  He asked.

Everyone is a sinner, including Jonathan Daniels.  So yes, he has rebelled.

Fine.  East continued his assault.  Is Thomas Coleman a rebellious loser?

The murderer?  O yes. Yes that murdering sheriff is a loser (Campbell thought of other words I won’t say).

Then, the unbeliever, editor P.D. East, nailed the Baptist minister Will Campbell to the wall.  Who does God love more, the murdered Jonathan Daniel who died fighting for equal rights, or his murderer, the sheriff, Thomas Coleman whose job is to uphold justice but is perpetuating injustice?  Who does God love more?

Will Campbell wanted to hate Thomas Coleman, but in the midst of that hot emotion a light went on inside his heart.  God’s grace isn’t grace at all until it extends to all sinners include the worst among us. 

Will Campbell, civil rights activist resigned from the national council of churches and moved to rural Tennessee where he bought a farm.  He became an apostle to rednecks.  He knew many who were fighting for civil rights.  He never let go of his believe in racial equality.  It is a Gospel imperative to work for justice in the name of love.  But he did not know anyone who was trying to penetrate the hearts of people in the Klu Klux Klan with the love of Jesus. 

He knew how evil the Klan was.  But he also knew the people in the Klan were sinners far from the love of God, as lost as people could be.[i]

Who do we want to reject at the church door?  Klansmen?  Members of ISIS?  Sex offenders?  The Pharisees asked, “Why does Jesus eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

The Pharisees were keepers of Israel’s law, the experts on the scriptures.  Their diligence was a gift to the community until that diligence led them to care more about upholding rules than helping people find their way to God.  When social mores mattered more than people, then the Pharisees went too far. 

A few years ago I met a Korean woman, an academic.  She was headed to North Korea officially as a visiting scholar there to train North Korean scientists.  But, she told me, her real purpose was to sneak Bibles into the country.  If she got caught it could mean years in prison, totally cut off from family and friends. 

She went for the same reason some people sign up to be prison chaplains.  She went because the North Koreans are from the love of God.  Some Pastors do not serve in churches or as hospital chaplains or in campus ministry.  They sign up to do their ministry inside of prisons.  Their congregations are full of felons.  Why serve there?  These individuals are far from the love of God.  They do this for the same reason Will Campbell was a missionary to the racists he spent so much of his life fighting.  Those racists are far from the love of God. 

Tax collectors were Jews who became rich working for the Romans collecting tolls.  The Romans had a fixed amount people were to pay.  The tax collector could force people to pay higher amounts and pocket the difference.  The people of Israel were broken under the oppression of Roman occupiers and their own fellow countrymen, added to their pain by working for the oppressors. 

Indeed, why would Jesus have table fellowship with them and with people who worked in unclean and unsavory professions?  Those tax collectors like Levi, and sinners like Mary Magdalene, needed God.  “Those who are well have no need of a physician,” Jesus said, “but those who are sick do.  I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The Pharisees are already upset about who Jesus is with.  Now, they don’t like what he’s doing.  The disciples of John the Baptist are going without meals as a spiritual discipline.  They’re fasting.  The disciples of the Pharisees are fasting.  Everyone fasting.  Jesus, why aren’t your disciples fasting?

Why are you eating with those people, Jesus?

Why are you eating at all, Jesus?

Jesus welcomes the peoples rejected at the door.  He is the Savior and His arrival is the onset of the new age.  His arrival means the Kingdom of God is here. 

There is time to fast, but not when we are in Jesus’ presence bodily.  We don’t fast in the Kingdom of God.  We don’t wear our funeral clothes on Easter Sunday.  The coming of Jesus is a signal that God offers life to – to the worst of sinners  including us.

To appreciate it, we have to love the tax collectors we’d rather keep away.  We each have our lists, those people we want to reject at the door.  When we hold on to those lists, we are old wineskins, stretched out, cracking, inflexible, not ready for the new, expanding truth of God.

New wine was still fermenting.  It expands.  That’s why the skins to hold is have to be flexible.  When we come to Christ, we are filled and stretched.  We don’t know what he’s going to do in our lives.  We don’t know the tax collectors and sinners he’s going to call us to love.  Never mind that we are as sinful and lost as those we think we can judge.  Stiff old wine skins cannot enjoy the Kingdom of God. 

To enjoy the kingdom and live it up at Jesus’ dinner party, we move from rejection, to welcome.  We open the closed doors of our hearts.  We throw away our gavels of judgment and open our arms for embrace.  We can only do this by the power of the love the Holy Spirit puts in us.  But when we are Spirit-filled, there is no limit to how much we can forgive, how greatly we can love, and how magnanimously we can welcome people we used to despise.  Hate in us is melted by the warmth of Jesus’ grace and it becomes love because of Him. 

Now you have your list – those people you’d prefer go somewhere else.  That is your prayer list for the next 6 weeks.  Pray for God to do wonderful things in the lives of the names on the list.  I know.  This is a list of people who are not nice.  Hold them up before God.

And start a new list.  This is one is of people you’re going to invite to church.  It is an invitation to drink the new wine Jesus gives. 

The rock that reminds us of obstacle to faith and reminds us that the Holy Spirit is with us also reminds us to pray for those people we just don’t like.  It is hard to do this, impossible without God’s help.  But the Holy Spirit gives that help.  Hold onto your rock, pray for clarity, appeal to the present Spirit, and Pray God will bless the people on your list and that they may find their way to the party Jesus is throwing.

AMEN 

---

[i] P. Yancey (1997).  What’s So Amazing about Grace? Zondervan Publishing House (Grand Rapids), p.141-145.

When We Dream (Joel 2:28-29)

Sunday, November 22, 2015

          We have prayed that God would grant wisdom and give revelation to HillSong Church.  These seven weeks have had an inward focus.  Our direction is Godward.  We have collectively, as a family of worshipers, as brothers and sister in Christ, pointed our faces toward the Lord.  We have joined voices and together asked God to speak.

          In the process, we have reflected upon who we are God’s people.  There is a sense of what a Christian should be.  We describe, generally speaking, what a church should be.  We have emphasized what HillSong Church is called to be in the first quarter of the 21^st century. 

          These prayers will not cease as we conclude this church-wide emphasis on discernment.  Understanding who we are in Christ is a constant process.  However, it is now time to reflect on what has been revealed; this is also the time to cast our gaze down the road and ponder where we are headed and also to see who, from afar, is coming toward us.

          We have talked about HillSong being safe place.  We strive to be a place of welcome where one can come and be loved and be encouraged and nurtured.  This will always tested as we who make up the community are born-again, spirit-filled yet also tempted by our weaknesses and by the devils’ wiles.  We, the people yearning to create safe space, sometimes are the ones who make it unsafe.  But we press on, we try again, as we welcome the next one through the door.

          In the safe space, our community, we worship.  In worship, our hearts are laid bare before the Lord and we pray that we actually meet God in those encounters.  In meeting God, we are forever changed.  We are made new – new creations. 

As new creations, we are then sent into the world to announce that something has happened.  God has done something.  God has come in human form, in the flesh.  That’s Jesus!  He is God in the flesh and in Him the Kingdom of God has come near.  In Him, people have forgiveness of sins and rescue from death.  We are sent to proclaim that He is Lord and King and people can have life in His name.  We are sent to help people become His disciples.

“Safe-New-Sent;” these words have become a mantra at HillSong.  But this is not all God has revealed.  Relationships matter.  We are a relational people.  Watch what happens when the worship service ends today.  People don’t flood to the exits.  I have been in church services where when the final song is over, people head for the exits like the building is on fire.  Here, people linger to talk, laugh, and embrace.  We love each other.

And our relationships are expanding.  New people come all the time.  Now, new congregations are in the fold with Zion Karen Baptist Church and Iglesia del Amor de Dios meeting in our buildings.  When our elders and deacons met a month ago, one of the observations we took away from our conversations was God is bringing the nations to HillSong.  And we are thrilled about that.

As a relational people living in fellowship with a divine calling to welcome the sojourner and seek out the lost that we might help them find the way to salvation, where do we go from here?

I appeal to the words of the prophet Joel.  He spoke of judgment and called a sinful people to repentance, but then, God showed him a new day dawning.  Here’s what God says through the prophet Joel.

^28 [a] Then afterward
    I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
    your old men shall dream dreams,
    and your young men shall see visions.
²⁹ Even on the male and female slaves,
    in those days, I will pour out my spirit.

          The dreams that come don’t originate with us. God says, “I will pour out my spirit.”  God’s Spirit visits us, and then the dreams come.  The good in our lives, the purpose which drives us to live and to live in a certain way comes from God.

          Joel shows that we dream God dreams.  To be people of faith, to follow Jesus, is to believe in visions and to experience dreams.  What’s more, this is all of us.  This is not reserved for the spiritual superheroes among us.  Nor is this purview of the privileged or the experienced or those more honored than others.  Children prophesy, senior citizens see things they’ve never seen before, and slaves dream and show the truth of God.  The revelation of God is generously shared as God desires to give it.

          But, what in the world does this mean?  The prophecy from Joel is beautiful and inspired and incomplete, because it doesn’t seem to ever become reality. 

          Then Jesus.

          Jesus comes along, and then Joel makes sense.

          In the book of Acts a series of events takes place.  First, Acts picks up right after the resurrection.  Jesus, who died and was buried, is walking about in his body resurrected.  The disciples see Him depart.  He goes to Heaven, to the right hand of the Father.  Then, after 40 days, the Holy Spirit rains down in tongues of fire on the disciples gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost.   As they are filled, they speak the languages of all gathered there.

          It doesn’t make any sense.  These are Galilean fishermen, not educated linguists.  Yet with unmatched eloquence, they tell the story of God coming in the person of Jesus, dying, and offering salvation to the world.  The crowd, astounded, doesn’t know what to make of it all.

          That’s when Peter stands and says this.

¹⁴ But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. ¹⁵ Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. ¹⁶ No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

¹⁷ ‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
    and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
    and your old men shall dream dreams.
¹⁸ Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
        and they shall prophesy.
¹⁹ And I will show portents in the heaven above
    and signs on the earth below,
        blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
²⁰ The sun shall be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood,
        before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
²¹ Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

          Peter’s way of making sense of all that happens is to appeal to scripture – the prophecy of Joel.  But Joel only makes sense when understood in terms of the resurrection.  Why can Peter say that the spiritual phenomena that happened at Pentecost is the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy?  Because Jesus was raised.  That spirit was and is the Holy Spirit of the Lord filling His people.

          Joel’s prophecy continues to be fulfilled as we gather, worship, glorify God in Jesus Christ, and band together as His people.  In this context, the church together, the Spirit pours new revelation and calls us to the work of holy living and holy love in the midst of a hurting and dying world. 

          Where do we go from here?  We worship – together.  We give and receive forgiveness – together.  We passionately discuss the issues of our day.  Sometimes those conversations heated, but it is for the sake of the Gospel because when we go over the issues of the day, what we are really talking about is how sin continuously wounds men and women.  When discuss, because we are Spirit-filled Christ followers, our discussion always comes back to figuring out, in the power of God, how we help heal the wounded.  This too is something we do together.  We live into the calling God has placed on us.

          An issue pressing the world right now, shows this point.  I have been in a number of conversations, debates, about how a nation like America ought to respond to the attacks in Paris and to the crisis of thousands of displaced Syrians.  Some argue that sound foreign policy is to send those Syrians elsewhere.

We don’t even think about sound foreign policy.  We know that our security is in the Lord, not in our government.  We want those who hurt at our doors so we can love them and help them.  Refugees who cannot find a shore?  This is our moment.  To care for them is to live into our calling.

Also, this morning, we have seen where we go from here.  In Baptism, in new members sharing their stories, our fires as a relationship people called together are rekindled.  The newly baptized believer and the newly welcomed member sharing there are hearts as we open our hearts to them and to all who come – this is what we are about.  This is who we are.

Next is Advent, that season in which we remember the coming of Christ and anticipate His return and the final, complete establishment of His Kingdom when Heaven and Earth come together. 

I pray that you will dream dreams the Holy Spirit plants in your heart.  I pray each of us will see our individual relationships with God become deeper, more real, and richer in the season ahead.  I pray God will shape HillSong Church so that in this place His love rules, and people grow into a full understanding that we are His.

AMEN

“Welcome the Madness” (Acts 17:1-15; 1 Thess. 1:1-10)

Sunday, August 23, 2015

    

           I was discussing our church with my dad.  He is a committed Christian, a deacon of many years in his church, a veteran Bible study leader, and someone whose theology is very practical.  As we talked and I described where I believe God wants us to focus, I admitted I was having trouble bringing my ideas together. 

When I told him we’d be looking Paul’s Thessalonian letters, he said without hesitation, “How a ‘Prescription for Life’?”  Brilliant!  Thanks Dad.

          Pharmacist and students in the pharmacy school worship in our church family.  Among us are doctors who write prescriptions for patients.  And every one of us has been to the doctor and had a medication prescribed. 

Over the next seven weeks, we will hear ideas, actions, and life-orientations prescribed from God’s word.  The purpose of this Biblical medicine is spiritual fitness.  We want to be healthy in our faith.  We want our witness to the Gospel to be robust.  When we say, “Jesus is Lord, his coming signals the inauguration of the Kingdom of God, and people can have life in his name,” we want to know what we mean.  We want to know the implications of living out such statements.  We need to understand what it means to follow Jesus.

The first prescription in this program is an assigned reading.  Read 1^st Thessalonians, 2^nd Thessalonians, and Acts chapter 17.  This prescription has unlimited refills.  You cannot take this too much. 

In 1^st Thessalonians 1, the three authors, Paul, Silvanus (called Silas in the book of Acts), and Timothy, express their profound thanks for the church in Thessalonica.  Specifically, they write, “We always give thanks to God … remembering … your work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:3).  If you are familiar with 1^st Corinthians 13, often referred to as the Love Chapter, you recognize the ending - faith, hope, and love.  These virtues, absolutely necessary for a disciple of Jesus, are highlighted in 1^st Corinthians 13 and also here in 1^st Thessalonians 1.  The church in Thessalonica was marked by these virtues and by actions that were fueled by their faith, their hope, and their love.

The New Testament is full of letters written by Paul in association with Silas and Timothy.  These are the earliest New Testament documents with 1^st Thessalonians being the first New Testament book written, sometime between 10-20 years after the resurrection. 

The book of Acts tells the narrative of the early church.  When you follow the prescription and read 1^st & 2^nd Thessalonians and read Acts 17, you will see the story told in different ways.  Luke, the author of Acts and one of Paul’s travel companions, had an audience in mind when he wrote and he highlighted certain elements in the story to appeal specifically to his readers.  These matters aren’t emphasized the same way in 1^st Thessalonians because there, Paul, Silas, and Timothy write in a different style to people in a different situation.

In Acts, Luke takes the account of the growth of the Gospel in Thessalonica to promote the way of Christ to his readers.  We, a 21^st century congregation, read 1^st Thessalonians and Acts to enlarge our understanding of the faith.  The way of Christ is the way of holiness. 

With that extremely short introduction, we turn to Acts 17.  and as we do, keep in mind those values in 1^st Thessalonians 1:3 – faith, hope, and love.

After Paul and Silas^[a] had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. ² And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three sabbath days argued with them from the scriptures, ³ explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah^[b]to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This is the Messiah,^[c] Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.” ⁴ Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. ⁵ But the Jews became jealous, and with the help of some ruffians in the marketplaces they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. While they were searching for Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly, they attacked Jason’s house. ⁶ When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some believers^[d] before the city authorities,^[e] shouting, “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also,⁷ and Jason has entertained them as guests. They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus.” ⁸ The people and the city officials were disturbed when they heard this, ⁹ and after they had taken bail from Jason and the others, they let them go.

¹⁰ That very night the believers^[f] sent Paul and Silas off to Beroea; and when they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹ These Jews were more receptive than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so. 

          Take note of Jason.  The church was obviously small – small enough to assemble in one person’s home.  In first century Thessalonica, the houses were smaller than what we see today.  It was not a large community.

          However, by the time Paul riled people to the point they would lay hands on him with harmful intentions, the church probably did have 20-30 people or maybe more.  Jason was wealthy enough that he had a home large enough to accommodate such a group.  Imagine your home with 20-30 guests who come every week.  He had financial means.

          Another indicator of this is the way it ended for Jason.  The synagogue leaders and the street toughs they brought together were able to manhandle Jason, drag him from his home, and convince city officials to formally arrest him. These opponents from the synagogue were savvy enough to work the crowd and the political system.  But Jason was just as resourceful. 

          Whether he was supported by someone wealthy or on his own he could work the system, he managed to get bail, pay it, and be freed from incarceration.  The last we see of him, he is free after being roughed up.  We know the church in his house grew and thrived because of what we read in 1^st Thessalonians. 

          These Thessalonian Christians, probably led by their host, Jason, were minorities.  Thessalonica was a pagan city whose residents either did not understand or acted openly hostile toward Monotheism.  The synagogue was monotheistic but opposed to those who saw Jesus as the Messiah.  The church, and by association, Jason was in a precarious position.  And they flourished.  How?

          This is the second prescription.  They and he welcomed the madness.  They knew that after Paul left, after Jason was bailed out jail, after everything cooled, the tensions with their neighbors would simmer with the potential to boil over again.  They knew this and yet they did not throw in the towel on Christianity.  Instead they lived the faith so vibrantly, Paul and his colleagues held the Thessalonians up as the model of a true church.

          First Thessalonians 1:6-9:

You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, ⁷ so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. ⁸ For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. ⁹ For the people of those regions^[b] report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God.

        As we read 1^st and 2^nd Thessalonians and Acts, we invite the craziness, the pain, the confusion, and the truly lost people in the world to come in among us.  We open our arms because the Holy Spirit has filled us with grace.  We open our hearts because we know what a mess each of us were before Christ came into our lives.  We open our lives because that is what Jason and the Thessalonians did in welcoming Paul, Silas, and Timothy.

          The chairwoman of our board of elders, Patricia, is not going to be arrested for her commitment to God in the life of HillSong.  Our Sunday school teachers will not have their property vandalized because they teach the Bible here.  I am not going to have my words censored.  Persecution today doesn’t look like that, at least not in the United States.  It does in other places, but not here, not in Chapel Hill.  Opposition to the Gospel does not come in the forms that it did in 1^st century Thessalonica.

          But it does come.  The same enemy who riled up those street toughs to give Jason the heavy-handed treatment is lurking all around us.  The devil doesn’t want to see our church proclaim the Kingdom of God any more than he wanted to see Jason’ home be the base for the Christian witness in the city of Thessalonica.  Our enemy will try any number of strategies to get us off the track Christ has laid for us. 

          Knowing this, knowing that people lost in sin are in chaos, we enter the mess and we do so willingly.  We embrace the madness because we have faith in our Lord.  As verse 9 says, we serve a “living and true God,” as opposed to the empty ideologies and philosophies espoused by people in our era of history.  We have that faith.

          We also have hope.  Verse 10, Jesus is resurrected and has already rescued us from the wrath to come.  The end of the age will be a time when everyone who has ever lived has to face up to the eternal consequences of rebelling against God and living in sin.  However, the risen Lord calls all who are his to join him as sons and daughters of God in the resurrection. 

          We have faith, we have hope, and we can welcome those who are burdened with the madness of a life without God because we have love.  We know it was love that sent Jesus to the cross to die for our sins.  That love beats in our hearts.  That’s why as a church we are ready to be a safe harbor for lost people, a place of welcome, comfort, and peace for those whose lives are chaos.

          So this it then, this is our prescription for life? 

We are to take 2 doses of Thessalonians, one portion of Acts, and we are to embrace people whose lives are falling apart? 

Well, … yes.  This is a partial description of the disciple life.  We’ll add to it next week. 

Until then, you have the doctor’s orders, and this comes from the Great Physician.  He is the way, the truth, and the life.

AMEN

Big Churches? Small Churches? HEALTHY CHURCH!

I sent the following to the leaders in my church:

Elders, Deacons, Ministers, and Pastors,

I read an article that I thought might inform us as we lead HillSong Church in attempting to be a community of Christ followers who welcome the weary, prod the inert, encourage the melancholy, and cheer and equip the motivated.  

Our work is to announce that Jesus is Lord and King and in him, the Kingdom of God has come.  

Our work is to equip people with knowledge, skills, and a team as they grow as disciples.

As we do our work, are we a "small church," or a "mid-sized church."  We are not large by any measurement.

I have never thought of us as small.  We have many ministries.  We support multiple works locally and internationally.  We are usually busy.  In fact, mid July - late August is our only sleepy time, and even now, our youth group is quite active.  

However on Karl Vaters' webtsite, one of the markers (of big/small) is the "200 barrier." HillSong never has 200 on a Sunday morning so by his definition, we'd be small.

I honestly don't care and don't think of us as small.  We have big ideas and God-sized dreams and our elders and deacons are energetic supporters of the ideas suggested by the vision-minded pastors.  I see us not as big or small but as healthy and purposeful.   I love being part of what we do.  I am grateful and I think God has a lot in store for us.

Would I like us to be bigger?  I don't really think about it that way, not seriously anyway.  I would not resist growth.  I certainly want out people to be more evangelistic and more pro-active in inviting their unchurched friends.  But, I think our biggest evangelism/outreach strategy should be training and encouraging all our members to be more evangelistic and inviting.   If growth happens that way, by our folks inviting people, then I would be all for growth.  If our folks became so inviting we grew to 200, 500, whatever, then I'd be all for it.

But I would oppose program changes designed explicitly to get people in the door.  I want people to come because they are led here by the Spirit.  I want people to come because they are invited by HillSong folks.  I am OK with some advertising (bumper stickers, yard signs, etc).  I am pro-growth.  I want our efforts to be true to who God is creating us to be (a safe place where people are made new and sent out in Jesus' name).

So I send you Vaters' article and invite you to peruse his site.  And I commend and thank you for your part in making HillSong a community of Christ-followers who love each other welcome new folks in.

- Rob

http://newsmallchurch.com/better-questions-about-church-size/#more-14177

Pour Your Heart Out

          Do you ever pour out your heart?  Some people find it easy to share their deepest feelings and most profound thoughts.  Some are not discerning enough and just spill their guts to whomever others will listen.  It is wise to show discretion. 

          Even in discretion, though, we have the need to spill sometimes.  Human beings, whether we are introverts or extroverts, need to share our dreams.  Even the most pragmatic of people have moments when they need to share their hearts – their dreams, their hurts, their disappointments, and their fears.  Every one of us needs a shoulder to cry on and someone who will laugh deep belly laughs with us.

          Do you ever spill your guts?

          Look at the picture of God in Psalm 62, specifically, 62:8.

          First, the Contemporary English Version – “Trust God, my friends, and always tell him each one of your concerns.  God is our place of safety.”

          Then, The Message – “My help and glory are in God —granite-strength and safe-harbor-God— So trust him absolutely, people; lay your lives on the line for him. God is a safe place to be.

          Third, The New Revised Standard Version – “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.  Selah”

          And finally, The New King James Version – “Trust in Him at all times, you people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.” Selah

          It is mostly for me that I share here four versions of the same verse.  I wanted to be sure it is saying what I think it says; what I hope it says.  God is a refuge.  God is a safe place.  If someone thinks that does not mean “emotionally safe,” then he has not read and experienced and felt the Psalms.  The Psalms are packed with passion.  To call God a place of safety is to say God will take me – all of me, the worst parts of me. 

          As the NRSV and NKJV both say: pour out your heart before God.  I absolutely think this is needed in moments of private prayer.  This “pouring out the heart, spilling the guts,” happens when I am in an alone time, just God and me, my voice silent, my spirit crying to him.  In those most personal moments, I need to reach to God.

          I also need it in community.  God became physical in a new way, in the incarnation.  Jesus was (and continues to be) God in the flesh.  And he was a safe person for others.  He socialized with society’s misfits.  He reached out to those scorned by others.  The hemorrhaging woman, scandalized Mary Magdalene, and unscrupulous Zacchaeus are but a few examples of people the community at large had ostracized.  In Jesus, they each found someone who would love them without judging them. 

Some religious leaders stoned adulterous people to death; they sent interrogators to “trap” Jesus with trick questions.  They imposed a legalism that broke the spirits of common folk.  Not all Pharisees did this; maybe not even most.  We have to realize that priests and Pharisees, in one respect, are not much different than average everyday people.  We all have fears and confusion.  It is a mistake to read the New Testament and caricature everyone in the religious establishment as evil or mean spirited.  Not all priests or synagogue leaders were “bad guys.”  But the gospel writers certainly do, overall, set the establishment as antagonistic to Jesus.  And one of the key differences is Jesus – God in the flesh – was a safe person for others just as Psalm 62:8 proclaims God as a “refuge.”  And the establishment, as an institution, was not safe.

So where is the safety of God today?  Again, we definitely find it when we pour our hearts out in individual, private prayer times.  We also, though, need it in community.  Jesus has ascended and is not here bodily.  Where is the body of Christ?  It is the church (1 Corinthians 12:12).  At least, it should be.  The church family should be the safest place you’ll ever find.

Certainly this is not always true.  Churches are comprised of sinners saved and forgiven by Jesus.  However, everyone is at a different point in understanding forgiveness and receiving it.  Many individual churches are marked by sin; the specifics can be found by going through the New Testament and reading the “vice lists” (Galatians 5:19-21 and 2 Timothy 3:1-9) are examples.  Too many congregations are communities of jealousy, prejudice, gossip, favoritism, deceit, and exclusion.  These are not safe communities.  These are not groups striving to embody Christ.

The church must be the place where you can work out your confusions, ask your questions, be outrageous, make mistakes, and be welcomed when you are at your worst, your ugliest.  The church is called to be as safe for everyone as Jesus was safe for the hemorrhaging woman, for prostitutes, and for those like Zacchaeus whose wealth consisted of dirty money.  Jesus never condoned sinful behavior.  Neither did he rub anyone’s nose in their messes like we do with a dog we want to teach not to do his business in the house.  Jesus met sinners with compassion, mercy, acceptance, and grace. 

Look again at Psalm 62 in The Message.  “God is a safe place to be.”  Today, church is not the only place God hangs out.  But, if a church is to be the body of Christ, then it better be one of the places God hangs out.  And if God is truly there, then it is a safe place.  This is when the church embodies Christ. 

As you read this, realize that it is highly unlikely that you can force your church to be a safe place.  I am a senior pastor, and I cannot dictate that our church will be a safe place.  I can preach it, encourage it, insist on it, and do all in my power to will it.  But it only comes about when the people buy into the idea.  I am grateful that in my church, most of the people do.  We have had the privilege to love a lot of broken people who came because they felt just safe enough.  But it is not because of my insistence.  It is because our people responded to the prompting of God in their hearts.

In your church, what you can do is make sure you are a safe person within your church family.  And you can pray.  Read Psalm 62:8 in the versions I have listed and in others.  And pray this into reality in your home and in your church.  Be a vessel that carries the Gospel.  By the hands and feet of God, walking to find the hurting, opening arms to embrace them. 

Do you ever spill your guts?  I pray you can.

Are you someone who can be there when someone else pours their heart out?  I pray you will.