Northside Church - Sydney
The WHY Behind Church Week 2: Just Another Club?
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. The church, just another club, it'd be interesting to know how many clubs are represented here tonight. Who's in a club of some description tonight? Let's see those hands. Mmm, mainly the over 30s, not entirely, but I would imagine if we had the chance to pass the microphone around, we'd find a number of different types of club represented here tonight. There'd be those involved in a fitness club, there'd be some involved in some kind of travel club, frequent flyer, queerness club, Virgin Blue, whatever. There might be some actively playing sport, so there'd be very sporting club represented. I was wearing holidays last year with a guy who was in a wine tasting club in Perth and he was spending an extraordinary amount of money every month going to these wine tasting events. Some are in road tree, various service clubs and so on. Some clubs are very strange. One of the strangest clubs around, no, none of the ones I've mentioned, but one of the oldest clubs in the world today is hundreds of years old and I've checked this, this is current. So $9 you can join this club and it went through a period in the late 90s, early 2000s where it's sort of slipped into obscurity, but it's come back, somebody's fired it up, it's the Flat Earth Society, based in America, hello, and you can join it for, oh Rachel that was very unkind, I'm so sorry about that, you can join it for $9, the Flat Earth Society. Not a big membership I would think at this stage. Some clubs are very exclusive, when I think of exclusive clubs, my mind goes back to 1982 and I was a guest of road tree international along with five other young men from Adelaide and we're in the Texan city of Houston. It was my first overseas trip, I'd managed to get this scholarship along with five others and we had a Rotarian as our team manager and we spent six weeks in the city of Houston. We, everything that was available to see both at corporate and government level, we saw the whole lot, it was an incredible space centre, the whole thing, it was phenomenal. And one particular day we went to the Texas Medical Centre, which is a massive complex of hospitals in a big area, we saw open heart surgery from that viewing area there, you know, with a surgeon's here, which is an amazing day. Mid-afternoon, our host said, you know what, I've got a surprise for you, we're going to take you to the doctor's club for drinks, so we made our way to the doctor's club of the Houston Medical Centre and I can remember walking into that room, it was absolutely palatial, only a handful of people there because it was mid-afternoon and you know, they're all out in the golf course, in surgery or whatever and I remember we sat down and not like every chair, every single chair was one of those high wingback chairs, you know, like like some clubs or some rooms might have two or three of those, like every chair was a high back wing back kind of chair. So our standard dress on this tour was like business trousers, business shirt, a tie with kangaroos all over of course, being an Australian group and jackets and we had little pockets, you know, Houston Adelaide, Texas Exchange, 1982, we'd gone to a lot of trouble. It was a hot day and we decided to take the jackets off, just hang them on these, conveniently hang them on these high wingback chairs. Well, a beautifully dressed African American gentleman came out to take our drink orders, I can still see him, he was very, very black, beautiful white jacket, gold buttons, looked absolutely beautiful, took our drink orders courteously and they're a long while coming, we're kind of wondering, you know, what's going on, next minute, the same gentleman in the white jacket appeared and he took our host aside and then our host came back and he was a little bit embarrassed and rather sheepishly he said, "Oh, look, club rules, they can't serve drinks until we put our jackets back on." And we said, "What, like, there's nobody here?" And he said, "Well, it's just the way it is, you know, you've got to put the jackets back on." So we put the jackets back on. But here's the beautiful little ironic twist in this story. When we left that club, about three quarters an hour later, we went to the lift out in the lobby and this is a very old building, by the way, and I can still recall the sign said maximum capacity, six people, they are, I thought, this is bizarre, it was a very tiny lift, more of a service lift, you know, seven of us got into that lift. We pressed our desired floor, it went partway and then it kind of bounced. If you've ever been to lift the bounces before it actually, we prize the doors open and we're looking at a brick wall and so it's like a scene out of speed, you know, in the opening part of speed, but not the bomb. So the kind of long story short, we were nearly an hour in that lift. We couldn't get it to move and we had to be rescued out through the top, a little sort of an opening on the ceiling and we had to shimmy up to the floor that we'd left, which was a sort of about a meter, the lift had travelled about a meter. Now what I'm coming to is we had to go back into the doctor's club, covered from head to foot in Greece and filth and we had to take advantage of their beautiful, soft, white, fluffy towels and cover the whole in Greece like nurses don't think in terms of revenge, but we don't think in those terms at all. But you know, there was a little bit of justice served that afternoon there in the doctor's club. Guys, the church is not just another club, even though it's the sort of thing you can say and critics and cynics say, "Oh, well, of course the church is just another club." There are a number of distinctive differences and if these haven't occurred to you, I've had a chance to think about some of these. Number one, fundamentally, fundamentally a club is an organization, but the church is an organism. It's a living entity, I mean, there's energy, there's dynamism, there is potency associated with the body of Christ. It's made up of people who've chosen to follow Jesus Christ. They're reading tonight and says, "We have many parts in the one body. All these parts have different functions." And Paul, in another section of his writings, 1 Corinthians 12, as many of you know, he goes into much greater detail in terms of the different functions of the body. He describes certain members as an eye or a hand or an ear, all the parts of the body working in consort, in harmony to achieve the purposes and the plan of God. Yes, there's a level of organization associated with the church. Of course there is. Nooside is, unashamedly, a very organized church. There's a level of organization associated with the church, but organization can be arranged by people without God. It's possible. You can get clever people to organize the church of Jesus Christ and you can actually organize the Holy Spirit out of the whole thing. I've seen that. So you can organize the church, but when God touches a group of believers, the organization is transformed into an organism. 1 Corinthians 12 and verses 4 to 7, have a listen to this, 1 Corinthians 12, 4 to 7. Paul says this, "There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same spirit gives them. There are different ways of serving, but the same Lord is served. There are different abilities to perform service, but the same God gives ability to all for their particular service. The spirit's presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all, as God's spirit grabs a body of believers and as people discover their gifts and work together in harmony to achieve his vision, his plan for the community, for their own lives." It becomes more than just another organization. There's a dynamic. It's a Holy Spirit dynamic that is different than anything you can experience in this life in terms of organization. It becomes an organism, a living entity. If you're a Christian, the question is, which part of the body represents your gifts? Which of the bodily functions are you performing? If I can put it that way, that's the quest in the Christian life, discovering where you fit in. It's a lifelong journey. It's a lifelong quest of discovery to see exactly where Jesus Christ wants to use you in his church. Here's something else. Clubs focus on members, and Sam alluded to this last week. Clubs focus on members, whereas the Church of Jesus Christ exists primarily for non-members. Guys, I want to be perfectly honest with you tonight. I want to say that not all churches see it like that. Let's be very honest. Not all churches see it quite like that. I know this from my own ministry. Ministers are essentially change agents. That's why I've always viewed the ministry. We are here in part to assist the body of Christ move through various changes in order to become the church that Jesus Christ wants to become. It involves changes. The church is not a static entity. It's constantly growing and being reenergized and changing. That's just the nature of the Church of Jesus Christ. Of course, people are fiercely resistant to change. People don't like change. Even people who are supposed to be transformed by the power of God, people are resistant to change. Ministry effectiveness comes down to how well someone leads God's people through change. I had a board member in my very first church, fresh out of college, who said you'll probably notice that my voting at board level is a little different. I tend to vote on behalf of my father and I said, "Whoa, have I met him?" He said, "He's been dead for 10 years." Right, so we don't expect to see him rolling up any kind of anytime soon. He was a man fiercely resistant to change, who was conducting himself at a board level on behalf of his deceased father. There was a man who was resistant to change. In my second church, I had a gentleman tell me on the eve of the first board meeting, you'll find I vote a little differently on the board these days. I tend to vote on behalf of the caravan group. There were about 30 people who used to go away on the weekends and talk about how they could resist the changes that were taking place in the church. And he said quite unashamedly, he said, "Full marks for honesty. Full marks for honesty." But I tell you what, that was a very difficult road in the early years of my—because you sort of inherit boards. I say to ministers, "You have the board you deserve after five years." If you can't work it as God gives you the leadership and the guidance, if you can't work it to get the board that you need to achieve his purposes after five or six years, then that's the board you've got. But you didn't really inherit a board when you go to a church. They were difficult days because, guys, you probably don't believe this, but like all the things we take for granted today, like drums and guitars and electronic instruments, like I started in ministry in an era when none of those existed. My last church I was there for 17 years, when I went there in 1981, our two only instruments were an organ and a piano. That was it. And that was regarded as a pretty good church. And maybe on a special occasion, get a little acoustic guitar, just a little strumming there. But nothing, you know, nothing sort of rock and roll. And so I was part of a generation of ministers that worked under extreme difficulties to bring in drums, to bring in guitars, to bring in lighting. And I got to tell you, it was just hard work, really hard work. Scripture in song came in and we started to move the hymns out and people hated Scripture in song. And as a colleague of mine said, well, you know, you may not like the tune, but you can't argue with the words. You know, straight out of the Bible, you know, you can argue with a new commandment I give under you, you know, a problem with that. So we used all means to try to, but like I've been through, I know what it's like to introduce change and it was not easy. You've got to work out in leadership, you've got to work out what you can live with without becoming comfortable. You've got to take the people of God as many of the people of God with you down the road of change, keeping their vision for growth within their own life and growth within the church as vital and as much of a top priority as possible. But if you put off the people of God, if we were to suddenly abandon everything that's special for you guys, those of you who love this church and who are members, if we were to abandon everything that you hold here and change the whole thing toward the non-Christian, whatever that might look like, would that be a pub church or a coffee church or a barbecue church? I don't know whatever it would look like. Let's say we were to do that. I mean, we'd have real conflict. The idea with change is to introduce it progressively but in a sustained sort of way and be ready to let people drop off if they so choose. You can't allow that most resistant person to call the agenda. Sadly, I speak with a deal of regret that many of my colleagues aren't prepared to pay that price. A dear friend of mine, Barry McMurtry, addressed a group of ministers in this state about 20 years ago at a minister's conference. Some of you have heard me tell the story before. He said, "I've done some statistics, some research. It takes 62 members in the Church of Christ in New South Wales to make the church viable." A full-time minister, pay the light, just run the church, run it off the church papers, and it takes about 62 members. He said, "I've done some further research. The average size of the Church of Christ in New South Wales is 62." The message was clear. Most of the guys were just pitching for comfort. Let's not rock the boat. Let's not push for too much change because it's so hard. Well, I'm not trying to pretend that sometimes the church in its darker moments is quite resistant to change, but praise God, we have a culture of change here at Northside. And my secret, if you like, is just longevity. Just stay long enough to see enough of the changes that you want. Come to pass. Don't go in the first three years and ruffle so many feathers that you spend the next 10 years patching up. Just stay long enough to just progressively see God achieve his purposes. Here's something else. Clubs are preoccupied with a specific activity or service, but the body of Christ embraces and speaks into every aspect of human existence. And you're sort of getting out here. I mean, if you're in a dog owners club, you're expected to talk about dogs. If you're in a fitness club, you're going to talk about fitness and how many kilograms you're losing and what your heart rate's like getting down, whatever. If you're in a sports club, you talk about the team, the next fixture, your competition. If you're in a car club, you're talking about your car, some clubs have policies in terms of restricting the amount of talk that takes place on private issues. You get caught talking too much about, you know, people's marriages and gossiping and they'll tell you to, the president will tell you to shut up. We don't want to have any of that sort of private talk here. Let's just keep the main thing, the main thing. The Church of Jesus Christ, the range of topics we cover in any day, let alone a week, is unbelievable. If I and Sam and Michael could open our diaries and if you could see the kind of pastoral context we have in any given week, if you talk to Helen Solomon, you would be amazed. There is no topic. There is no area of human existence that is off the agenda here at Northside. We want to see what God has to say about every aspect of human life. And you know, pastors are among the last of the professionals who have access to people at all levels. You know, we've reached such a level of specialisation these days that you can be at an ear nose and throat specialist paying, you know, 150 bucks for the session. And as you're leaving saying, "Oh, by the way, look, I've got this little scratch on my arm." Could you give me a bit? He won't even look at it. I won't even think. I'm sorry. I won't even comment on that. Because he probably would know that he says that's not his field. Where's pastors? We can move into every situation, transcend all the different professional areas of specialisation. And that's a reflection of where the church goes in terms of its embracing all aspects of human life and existence. First Corinthians 12, verse 25 and 26, look at this, very pertinent to what I'm saying at this point. And so there is no division in the body, but all its different parts have the same concern for one another. If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it, no matter what's happening. The heart is praised, the other parts share its happiness. So we're not special, we don't specialise in certain every aspect of your life. Can be ministered to by the church of Jesus Christ if you'll allow his spirit to work in that way. Well, here's the final thing. In clubs, you pay a price. In the church of Jesus Christ, the price has been paid. Think of a club you'd like to join, the Qunas Club, get to the airport, all those free drinks and free sandwiches, the Ferrari owners' club, complete with Ferrari. You've got to have a Ferrari to be part of the club. Think of a club you'd like to join and somebody says, "Don't worry, I've taken care of it. I've paid the price. You can join. It'll cost you nothing. You can join and experience all the benefits." Well, Jesus Christ has done what we couldn't do. He's paid the price for our sins and its acceptance of his gift of love that gains us access entry into his body, the church. First Peter, second chapter, verses 24 and 25, Christ himself carried our sins in his body to the cross so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. It is by his wounds that we have been healed. We were like sheep that had lost our way, but now we've been brought back to follow the shepherd and the keeper of our souls. Guys, we gain entry into the worldwide church of Jesus Christ on the basis of God's grace. Not on the basis of anything that we can do to earn it or to pay for it, the privilege. It's just a privilege. It's a free gift of God's grace. Just another, just another club, I don't think so. Hardly. Just another club. There's a sense of unity and purpose and togetherness and mutual dependence in the church of Jesus Christ when it's operating as it should that is like nothing else. I have not regretted one day of my commitment to serving the church of Jesus Christ. I have mixed widely in other circles. I'm a member of many different clubs at my stage of life. I enjoy my involvement in many of those clubs, but when I want to talk spirit to spirit, when I want to talk to people who understand where I am, really understand where I am, I talk to the members of the body of Christ. That's where I find people are the most authentic. That's where people are the most real. That's where it's more than organization, it's an organism, a living, breathing organism. There's one fun final difference. You join a club. You join a club. You fill out the forms. You pay the price. You join a club. That's a commonality. There's a sense in which the church of Jesus Christ joins itself to you and there's another huge difference. Let me remind you of that passage in Romans 8, verse 15 and 16. For the spirit that God has given us, has given you, rather, does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid, instead the spirit makes you God's children. By the spirit's power, we cry out to God, "Father, my Father, God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children." If you don't join the church of Jesus Christ, it enjoins itself to you. The embrace of God through Jesus Christ is coming to each and every person constantly. Most resistant. Most go, "I'm sorry. I haven't got time. I wouldn't be good enough. I'm not interested." But the spirit of God is constantly joining himself to the people of this world and he takes the initiative. It is initiative. He wants everybody. The Bible says he is willing that none should perish. That's probably the ultimate difference. We don't join the church of Jesus. He joins himself to us. Our response is simply to open up and say, "Yeah, thank you. I feel the embrace. I feel the embrace. I want to be part of this worldwide living organism that is bringing in the kingdom." But it's changing me from within, that ultimately has the power to change communities and whole societies and whole countries. So where do you stand tonight? Have you been thinking that the church is kind of like another club? Have you been wondering how you might either, A, resist that invitation to join or maybe to get into the club? Can I just... It's not a club. It's the body of Christ. And you have a path. There's a path for you. It might be a finger. It might be a hand. It might be an eye. Whatever your gifts are, there's a path for you to play in the transforming regenerative work of a living Christ in this world, in this area, in your area, in your world, in your sphere of influence. Where do you stand tonight? You can join and embrace. You can embrace the arms of Jesus Christ that are reaching out to you tonight. You can receive Christ tonight. You can come back to Him if you've drifted. You can settle this matter once and for all. We'll be praying. We'll have prayed to Him up the back. We would love nothing more than a pray with you, whatever your need is. But get this matter right. Get this settled. Allow the embrace of Jesus Christ to unfold you tonight. Let's bow and pray, shall we? Well, Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the opportunity you have given for all of us to consider the claims of Christ. Thank you, Lord, that in all of this, you take the initiative. Your spirit joins Himself with our spirits to declare that we are the children of God. If nothing we can do, nothing we can earn, nothing we can get ourselves ready for, all we can do, Lord, is just let your embrace enfold us and take us to where you want us to go and so Lord dispel any idea of the church being something we join and pay our dues and get our kicks from and just a little ticket to heaven, help us, Lord, to realize that this is your body. Your regenerative, transforming body in the world may we tonight settle the issue of whether we are part of your church, discovering where we fit in, we're still on the outer and maybe not be satisfied with being on the outer tonight. May we allow your embrace to unfold us fully through Jesus Christ our Lord, we pray, Amen.