Join Us in Our Mission

January 30, 2009

JOIN OUR MISSION!

Selected Scripture

I am going to come straight to the point. I am in “recruiting mode” this morning. I am recruiting for 3 M’s.

The first M stands for Meeting. On Sunday night at 8 pm we are going to hold our Annual Congregational Meeting here in the Basement Hall. I want you to come! I know many Christians have had negative experiences at congregational meetings or church business meetings. Maybe, at one end of the spectrum, you have experienced them as boring. Or, at the other end of the spectrum, such meetings may have been filled with controversy and division and you have experienced them as painful. Either way, it may cause us to shy away from such meetings.

Personally, if I am going to choose one extreme or the other, I’ll vote for “boring” every time. But let us not mistake “entertainment value” with the significance of such meetings. The church is an organization. Now let me quickly add that the church is much more than an organization. But it is an organization and every organization must be governed and have procedures by which important decisions are made. Now, by the ECC constitution, most of the day to day decisions about the management of the church are handled by the church board. But the church board is elected by the congregation and the approval of the annual budget is approved by the congregation and that happens at the annual meeting. It may not be exciting, but it is important!

The other feature of the annual meeting has typically been reports from different church ministries and departments. This year, though, we are trying something different. We want to turn our “business meeting” into a prayer meeting. Instead of reports, each department has been asked to submit “praises” and “prayer requests” from their ministry areas. We are going to spend most of our time in small groups praising God for what he’s done and praying for the challenges that lie ahead of us. Maybe you don’t think that prayer meetings are very exciting either, but would any of us argue that prayer is not important? So, set aside the time. Make whatever arrangements you need to make. Come to the Meeting!

The second M is Membership. What is church membership? Am I already a member? Is it important to be a member? Those are good and fair questions. I am holding up a copy of our newest church directory. Let me say clearly: you are not a member simply because your name is listed in the directory! To become a voting member of the church requires an additional step. You have to affirm three things. First, you must affirm that you have trusted in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior from sin. In other words, using Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in John 3, you have been “born from above.” Second, you must affirm that you agree with the Statement of Faith of our church as it is recorded in our constitution; in other words, that you believe what we believe about the Bible, Jesus Christ, salvation, etc. Finally, you must be a regular attender here and affirm that you are committed to ECC as your church home for as long as you live in Abu Dhabi. (By the way, joining ECC does not in any way affect your membership in your church back home.)

That brings us to the question: Is it important to be enrolled as a voting member of the church? I’ll be frank with you. It’s not the most important decision you will ever make! We generally only have congregational meetings once a year. We might call one during the year if a crisis decision is called for, or if we are considering adding a new senior member to the church staff. We do not require membership to serve in the various ministries of the church. So, how important is it? Most of the time, not very. But when it is important, it can be very important. As an organization, there are times when we will need to take important decisions. Do you want to have a vote and therefore a voice in those decisions? If you do, you need to join the church as a voting member.

How do you do that? We are going to make it as easy as possible. If you want to join the church, simply come to the center at 7:30 this Sunday night in the Basement Hall. We’ll have members of the church board and the church staff here to meet with you, hear your testimony and assist you in signing the affirmation for membership and enrolling as a church member. You will then be eligible to vote in the meeting that follows at 8 o’clock.

Well, that’s two of the M’s I’m recruiting for: Come to the Meeting. If you are not already enrolled, become a Member. There is one M left. And this is where my adrenaline starts to flow and I start to get excited. I want you to join us in our Mission. The annual meeting and joining the membership roll are means to an end. They are not the end itself. The real purpose of the church is found in our Mission. Two weeks ago at the annual Men’s Retreat, the speaker, Ken Needham, spoke on the theme: As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. As Christ’s followers, we have been given a mission, a task to do. That’s what it is really all about.

The Evangelical Community Church of Abu Dhabi has a very deliberate mission or purpose statement. I want to show it to you:

The mission of the Evangelical Community Church of Abu Dhabi is to glorify God in word and deed and to serve him in the power of the Holy Spirit with the goal of bringing unbelievers to faith in Christ and bringing believers to maturity in Christ.

Let us explore this together.

The mission of the Evangelical Community Church of Abu Dhabi is to glorify God in word and deed…

First of all, our ultimate objective is to glorify God. In this we join the ultimate goal of all created things: All things were created by God and for his glory. We are admonished in I Corinthians 10:31: “…whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” In John 17:4, Jesus said in that great prayer: “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” Now we have been sent to complete that work (as the Father sent me, so I am sending you) and with the same goal: the glory of God the Father.

The second phrase indicates the scope and arena of our desire to glorify God. We want to do it in word and deed. We want to glorify him with our mouths. Both in our singing and our speaking and our praying, we should speak forth the glories of our marvelous God. We sing “to God be the glory…” and that should always be on our lips. But we must also give more than lip service to his glory. We ought to live in such a way as to reflect the glory of God. People should look at the lives of God’s people and see the glory of God. We are called to “reflect the Lord’s glory… by…being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.” (II Corinthians 3:18) We are to speak the glory of God with our words and show forth the glory of God with our actions. That is our mission.

The next part of the statement is vital: and to serve Him in the power of the Holy Spirit. This reminds us that the mission we have been given is not one that we can fulfill in our own power. It is a supernatural calling. Jesus reminded his disciples: “Without me, you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) He also told his disciples before his ascension: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.” (Acts 1:4,8)

We must always remember that what we do for God in our own strength and relying on our own ability will always remain wood, hay and straw. It is only what we undertake in the power of the Holy Spirit which will produce lasting fruit and an eternal reward. “’Not by might, nor by power but by my Spirit’ says the Lord Almighty.” This great quote from the prophet Zechariah (4:6) remains absolutely vital to our understanding of our mission today.

That brings us to the final part of the statement: with the goal of bringing unbelievers to faith in Christ and bringing believers to maturity in Christ.

It is one goal, but it has two parts to it. Let me show you a chart that helps me keep the big picture in mind. I shared this with you about a year ago in a series of messages on the church. But it’s worth repeating. It is a chart that represents different levels of spiritual development relative to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

+ 5 Spiritual leader, trainer of others

+ 4 Spiritually strong, serving in church, witnessing

+ 3 Studying the Bible, active in church, growing

+ 2 Assimilated into church, basic knowledge of Christian life

+ 1 New Christian, “babe” in Christ

Conversion/Salvation/New Birth

- 1 Understands Gospel and its implications and is positively considering following Christ.

- 2 Has a factual knowledge of the Gospel; curious, undecided

- 3 Some knowledge of the Gospel, mixed with some misunderstandings

- 4 Believes in a Supreme Being, but has no knowledge of the Gospel. He may be committed to another belief system.

- 5 Has no knowledge, no belief or no interest in spiritual matters.

It helps me to think of it this way. Everyone we contact, everyone who walks through the doors of this building, in fact, everyone in the room today falls somewhere on this chart. Our goal as a church, to put it as simply as possible, is to meet people where they are and seek to influence them to move up the scale.

This bar in the middle represents the most significant transition. This is the point at which an individual passes from death to life and from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. But there is lots of work that needs to be done both above and below the bar. On the one hand, we need to understand that a person who is at a -5 or -4 is highly unlikely to make a decision to follow Christ through a single conversation or by hearing a single sermon. On the other hand, we need to realize that our task is not complete when someone prays a prayer to trust in Christ. This sets them on a journey toward spiritual maturity and effective service and we have a responsibility to aid them in that journey.

Our mission as a church is to do what we can to aid each individual we come in contact with to progress in their spiritual journey. If they are below the bar, we want to bring them up to and across the threshold into the community of faith. If they are above the line, we want to help them on toward maturity. This is our goal and our mission.

In two weeks, I am going to focus my message on our task in bringing believers to maturity in Christ (the work above the line). But we are going to spend the rest of this service looking at some examples of what our church does to help unbelievers come to faith in Christ (the work below the line). To help me here, I have asked Pastor Joe, our Pastor of Evangelism and Discipleship, to come and share with us.

Pastor Joe shared an example of personal evangelism.

Pastor Joe described some of our deliberate evangelistic efforts with examples.

Pastor Joe describes our global effort through supporting “workers”

Do you like pictures of fruit? I do. Pictures of fruit are beautiful. I want to show you some even more beautiful pictures of a different kind of fruit. On Christmas day, on our recent trip to India, Pastor Mohan gave me the honor of participating with him in a baptism service in a canal. These pictures represent fruit of the most precious kind; men and women who have trusted in Christ as Savior. There were around 20 that day. There were women in their beautiful saris. There were men. There were young people and older people. One was the head man of the nearby village. Every one of these people came from a Hindu background. That means they started out at a -4 or -5 on the chart. But through patient instruction and evangelism, they came to understand the Gospel and trust in Christ as Savior. They passed from death to life. And they stepped into the water that day, in full view of the passing community, to give testimony to their faith in Christ.

Why do I show you these pictures? Because, in a very real sense, they represent fruit from ECC. They represent the fulfillment of our mission. Mohan was here in our church. We paid his expenses to go to Bible college. We have supported his ministry in prayer and finance since it began 12 years ago. We have contributed to the building of the church buildings and pastors’ houses and a school to move the ministry forward. We have sent staff to visit him and encourage him. I picture it this way. We here at ECC are the trunk of the tree. Mohan is one of our branches. And way out there, in a distant corner of India, at the very end of that branch, there is this beautiful cluster of fruit. And it’s our fruit, born by the power of the Spirit, as His life has flowed through us, through Mohan, and into these precious new believers who will be with us in heaven. The goal of bringing unbelievers to faith in Christ. It is happening!

So, I’m on a recruiting drive. Come to the meeting Sunday night. Become a member of ECC. But above all else, I challenge you, join us in our mission!