Sermon: "The World Outside the Window"

Delivered September 9, 2007 by Rev. John Schmidt.

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Well today we get a chance to celebrate a little bit. We are dedicating the new courtyard and underneath it on the bottom floor the "New Big Space;" that's its name right now. I don't know whether that name will change. That is what the kids have named it; the "New Big Space." I want you to take a look at that later today. We've got a chance to celebrate the whole remodeling of that part of the building and get a chance to walk around and take a look at that.

But this time of year is also the start of our ministry year. We pretty much follow the academic calendar and things ramp up this time of year. There are new adult classes and new children's Sunday School, and new things going on with our students and youth. It's a time when we have new small groups forming and it's a time when Alpha starts. Alpha is starting this Wednesday. Alpha is a great time. If you have any questions about the Christian faith or just exploring it and haven't made decisions or anything, but just have questions, Alpha is a great place to have those questions and ask those questions. What we do is we get together and we have a meal, someone else provides the meal, that is a real good part of it. About half of us here live like that all the time when somebody else is providing the meal, but the other half of us don't. It's a great time and we watch a video of a good speaker presenting things that are worth thinking about and then we break up in small groups, talk about it and ask our questions. It's nonthreatening and very low-key and then it's a great time to meet people as well. If you have those sorts of questions or if you a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, but just want to have some time where you get a fresh look at some of the basic truths of the faith, Alpha is for you. There will be a spot out in the concourse where you can sign up for that and ask some questions.

This is the time when all of that sort of stuff picks up and gets started. It's a time every year where we as a church spend some time reminding ourselves what the mission of the church is. We have done this every year that I have been here and maybe did it in the years prior to that, but we've got to remember why we exist; what our mission is, because we do not define ourselves. The creator of the universe, the savior, the person who has given himself for all of humanity has defined our existence and given us a mission and we have to be careful to always come back to that and so we spend some time thinking about that together. It's important for any movement, for any organization to remind itself of what its basic mission is. Otherwise, we can get off course.

Some of you may have already heard the story about a life-saving club that formed itself. There was a rocky seacoast and all kinds of ships were getting in trouble out there and a group of people decided they were going to make a life-saving club. They were going to get themselves a little rowboat and when ships got in to trouble they would row out and do what they could to save the people who were in dire need. And so they did this and they built their skills. They got good at that and then they realized that they could help more people if we had a larger boat that had a motor on it. So they did what they could to get a larger boat, to get a motor, but then they realized that a boat this valuable, we better put it in a shed and protect it. So they built a shed too, out on the beach. After a while they realized they were spending so much time out there that they built a cabin on the edge of the shed so that the people could have a little bit of shelter there while they were staging their rescue missions.

Now after a few years of living like that they realized that there is so much bad weather and they were out in the surf at the worse kinds of time; so lets put a cabin on the boat. So they get a little bit larger boat and they put a cabin on it and a stronger motor and they used that and then they realized that they could use the cabin for more functions if we make it nicer. So they redesigned it and made it bigger and they called it the lodge now; not the cabin and they put pictures up inside of all the famous people in their organization that have saved people in the past. And then finally they got tired of the boat they were using and made a decision; let's get a nice boat, one that is comfortable. Let's get a cabin cruiser. Now it was no longer useful anymore going out in to the surf, but it was great in deep water. It was a nice place to be. Then they added a pool at the lodge and they started to use it as a summer seacoast resort. They didn't go out in the water anymore, because you know its kind of dangerous out there when it's storming. They only use the cabin cruiser when the weather was good. Now this organization, their mistake wasn't that they got a bigger boat. Their mistake was they forgot their mission. They forgot why they existed.

Central Presbyterian Church is at a landmark moment in its life when we are building a bigger boat and it is absolutely essential now that we remember why we exist, what our calling is, what our mission is, so that we don't make the mistake of going off course. Now it's easy to find out what the mission of the church is. You can look anywhere in the Bible and get a sense of what God is calling his people to do in this world. We are going to look at some words of Jesus. They come from the Book of Luke, Chapter 24 and I am going to begin at Verse 45. It's the very last chapter of the Book of Luke, which is one of the first books in the New Testament; one of the gospels. These are important words, because this is a major moment in Jesus' ministry, because Jesus has died, he has been resurrected and he is now in this period of time when he is spending special time with his followers telling them that their lives will never be the same. That he has given them a mission that they never had before and every word that he says counts. So lets take a look at Luke, Chapter 24, Verse 45. Speaking of Jesus:

"Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

Let's pray: God, we thank you for this word. Open our ears to what it says, open our ears to the thoughts that we have together about your word and direct us Lord the way that we will open our hearts to your purpose, your mission in our lives. For we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

I want to point to five things quickly that are right in this passage about the mission of the church. The first thing comes up in the very first words of Verse 46. The church has a mission that begins with God. He told them "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day." The church has a mission and this mission is born out of what God has already done in the world. God has done something. "God so loved world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life." God sent his son. That is the historical, foundational reality of what God has done first, and then our mission grows out of that. Even what we do now, we find ourselves doing ministry in a place where God has gone before us. We are always catching up with God. We are always joining God in mission. So we join a mission. We have a mission that comes from God.

Let's go now to Verse 47. "And repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name." We have a mission and we have a message and that message is about Jesus Christ who died and who was resurrected. Our message is about repentance; that fact that we are calling people to turn from their normal way of life, from their old way of life, from a way of life that doesn't satisfy, that hurts other people, that hurts themselves, that hurts the heart of God. To turn and walk in an entirely new direction and to follow Jesus Christ. And what we proclaim is that people who believe in Christ and turn, receive forgiveness out of the grace of God. This is our message. This is what Jesus told them at the very foundation of the church. The church will always have to preach this message to stay on course. Repentance and forgiveness in his name.

The church has a target for this ministry as well that comes out also in Verse 47. "Forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem." He gathers these disciples together and he says that your mission and the message that I have given you, you are to proclaim it from the very doorstep of your house to the very ends of the world, to nations that you don't even know yet exist. He is telling this to fishermen, to small businessmen, to tax collectors. You have a mission that goes to the very end of the world. That is still the target for the church. We can't define it as something less. We can't decide, 'oh well we will be interested in overseas, but we won't be interested in our own neighborhood.' It's not our choice; from our doorstep to the ends of the world.

The church has a role to play: Verse 48. "You are witnesses of these things." These people had seen Jesus Christ minister. They had watched him heal. They had seen him die on the cross. They saw his body being buried. They saw him resurrected and spoke to him and touched him. They witnessed these things and it's out of this experience that they are called to share with other people. It's not that they've got some message to memorize. They are called in to an experience of God and out of that experience they are to share with other people. That is still true today. We are called first to witness something, to experience something, to draw close to God, to sense his reality, to sense the healing power of God in our own lives, in our own relationships and out of that experience to share this good news with other people of forgiveness. We are called to be witnesses.

Then finally, the church has a power source: Verse 49. "I am going to send you what my father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." Here people have been with Jesus for three years. They have already made great sacrifices. Despite this incredible experience, despite seeing Jesus resurrected in the body and touching him, they are still told that they have got to wait, because the task that I have given you, the mission I have given you is too big for your own power. So wait, because I have a gift to give you of my Holy Spirit that will give you the power to do this task.

So Central is now in this flow of history because we are a church under the same command that he gave these disciples. Our mission as a church is a reworded version of what Jesus said: Moving people towards Christ by being a community of faith, which loves, encourages and equips them in Christ sending them out to serve. That is what we are all about. The same commission that Jesus gave those disciples is what motivates us as a church. We move people towards Christ. We point to him. Then we make disciples. We try to help people build their relationship with God and give them the tools so that they can then be sent out to serve from immediately outside these buildings to the very ends of the earth. Our vision as a church builds off our mission. It describes a little bit how we are going to do it. Moving people toward Christ; well to be a church without walls, moving people toward Christ, where we live, work and play. And what this reminds us is that we are not a group that collects money in order to give money to professionals who are going to share Christ in the world. We are the missionaries. It might be close. It might be on campus. It might be somewhere else in the world, but it's us. Moving people toward Christ where we live, work and play. It doesn't have anything to do with property or place. It has to do with our calling and our gifting.

So what does this mean; if we have this vision and this mission, what does it mean across the next year or 18 months for Central Presbyterian Church? That is what I would like to talk about for a little bit today. There are three things that are going to be important across the next year or 18 months that we decided have to be priorities for us in 2007/2008.

The first one is we have to improve the quality of our discipleship. We are all called to be Christ followers. We don't just make a little decision and that's the end of it. It's a first step. That decision to follow Christ is the first step of a whole lifestyle and we are called to get better at that. The session has said this, "Discipleship is the central calling of every Christ follower." It's not negotiable. It's not extra. It's the central calling of every Christ follower. And this is the rule; the session is committed to providing an environment where each disciple of Christ is encouraged to attain spiritual growth and accountability through life-transforming relationships and spiritual practices. It's a way of saying that it's your responsibility to follow Christ and to grow. It's not the churches responsibility. It's not the staff's responsibility. What our responsibility is, is to create an environment where you can build authentic relationships with people; where you can learn what it is like to have the sort of relationship that has some accountability; where you are encouraged to having life-changing experiences with God through the development of basic spiritual disciplines.

Because of this focus right now on improving the quality of our discipleship, next week we are starting a series on discipleship called, "The Five G's". We will be talking for weeks about discipleship. We have staffed for spiritual growth. George has a position that is not defined as a department. He is associate pastor for discipleship and equipping. It means that he has the responsibility of helping the church look at people from their very first steps with Christ to sending them out to serve; to build a church culture that helps continue to do that, as we have done it in the past. John Sackett has just come on board as an interim director for small groups to help build a better coaching environment, to help small group leaders, to increase the number of life-journaling groups. In our young adult ministry there is a conscious effort to try to build groups among our young adults that also have the input of older, more mature Christians. We've got Oasis and small group programs and Worldwind and Storm with student ministry. We've got children's Sunday School and all of its facets. We have adult Christian education that is trying to have moments where we wrestle with what it means to be a Christian in a particular environment, with particular issues or focusing in on the basics of our Christian life. Young adults have had spiritual permanence events. Last summer, we had Postcards from the Edge as a special event. We have women's ministry that is focusing in on discipling women. All of that is important, but the most important focus for the future at improving the quality of our discipleship is a mindset. It's a mindset of building those deep accountable relationships. It's mentoring. It means that we need to be looking for people that are a little bit ahead of us, can support us, can challenge us and build relationships with them and that we also need to be looking at investing our lives in other people to help them in their walk with Christ. That is the most fundamental culture shift that is going to help us to improve the quality of our discipleship.

Just this week someone came to my office. A woman came in to the life of this congregation a few years back and didn't have as much experience walking with God, as she has now. She wasn't even from this denomination. She came in to the life of this congregation and started to learn things quickly about walking with God. And then all hell broke loose in her life. It's been a real tough time. But she didn't come to my office to share about how tough things were. She came to share how in the midst of it her walk with Jesus Christ had deepened. Her Bible study was fresh and powerful. Her prayer was focused. She was sensing a deeper relationship with God and one of the things that she shared was that part of God doing this in her life was connecting her with other women who were a few steps ahead in their walk with God. People who could really hear it as it was, who could pray with her, challenge her, support her and be challenged and helped by their relationship with her. That God was doing something fundamental and real in the life of the congregation and she wanted me to be encouraged by that and I was. And I am encouraged because its not just happening in her life, but its happening in the lives of other people. This is bedrock stuff. Believers encouraging, supporting and challenging other believers. So we need to improve the quality of our discipleship.

Let me hit a few more. The second one is increasing the effectiveness and the effect of our outreach. I have mentioned already the Alpha course; an amazing gem that has built leaders in our church. It has connected people in small groups and introduced people to Jesus Christ and called people to faith. It's happening twice a year in our life. It's a wonderful thing, but it's not the only thing. We've got the First Impressions ministry that tries to meet people at the very moment they come on the property and make sure their first experience here is good. We have a preschool here. 65% of the preschool are people who don't go to our church and this preschool has a wonderful impact on the lives of these little children and every year two or three families join the church because of that. We are staffing for evangelistic impact as well. Renee Newman is on staff here at the church in part to help our focus on the campus and to help college students impact the campus. Cheryl Troxell is now part-time on staff working on First Impressions and equipping and connecting people; trying to keep this process moving, of helping people continue to have deeper experiences of Jesus Christ. We have groups that spontaneously form to help other churches. We have a group that is helping another church, Hamilton Presbyterian Church, develop a contemporary worship service. We have other people in the church that are helping them reach out to the kids in the community. But the more fundamental thing that is going on in the community is what you are doing in relationships where you live, work and play. That is the real fundamental stuff. It's when you are inviting people to your small group; you are inviting people here to the worship service, children are inviting kids to Sunday school or to youth group or maybe you are not inviting them anywhere, you are just talking to them and supporting them in the middle of a crisis and loving them and in the midst of this growing, deepening, authentic relationship you are sharing with them about Jesus Christ. That is what we want to increase the effectiveness of: your capacity to support, love and share with the people around you.

The reason why we have got to do that is because we know that there are hundreds and hundreds more that God wants to call to himself through the ministry of this church. We are building new space, but the reason we are building this new space is not because we want more comfortable environment and its not because we want to build ourselves up in some sort of way, it's because Jesus Christ has loved the world and died for it. And it says in the Book of Hebrews that for the joy set out before him, he was willing to face the cross. Part of that joy I am convinced is that he knew that what he was going to do would be effective in countless millions of lives and that he would have many brothers and sisters. And so we are expanding, we are focusing on reaching out because Jesus deserves it and he one day will be satisfied, but he is not satisfied yet. He won't be satisfied until heaven and earth are brought together in one unified harmony under his Lordship.

The third thing we are going to focus in on is increasing the impact on our community. Impact the community with compassion. We've got M&M kids that are learning how to serve. We've got Second Sunday for mission. We've got high school volunteers. We've got all kinds of community missions ministries: Baltimore Christian School where we work with them, Helping Up Mission, Habitat for Humanity, HopeSprings. There are new anti-violence initiatives that some people are exploring. Others have a heart for impacting schools. We don't know how yet. Part of our focus over the next 18 months is making more of an impact on the community around us and you can be part of that. What we are working towards is a day when teachers and parents, policemen and firemen, judges, elected representatives are going to be thankful. They might not know how to thank God yet, but they are going to be thankful that we are here, because we will have impacted their lives with compassion and love. One of the worst things that can happen to a church is for it to go out of existence and nobody even notices except you don't turn on the lights anymore. We are looking forward to the day that our impact is so deep, our compassion is so real and so powerful that people would notice and people are going to care and be thankful that God has called us to serve them.

There is big window in the courtyard. When we go over there and worship you are going to see it. Now I am going to warn you; we've talked a lot about this window. We have been thinking about it, because we are talking about looking in it. You know people are going to be able to walk down the street and they are going to see this window and "Whoa, there is something going on in that church" and that is because we have been the stealth church on York Road. Nobody has even known that we were here. We have had people argue with members and say, "No there is no church on that corner. I have been here 20 years and there is no church there." I don't know who is paying me if there is no church here. So we have been thinking about how now people can see us and we will light it and we will have pretty bushes and all that. That is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that when we go in there, when we look through that window we see our mission field. When you look through that window you are going to see a sign that says York Road, right outside the window. That is the start of our mission field. Those are the people we are called to serve; from there to the very ends of the earth.

It's a big task so I want to go back to the scripture, back to Verse 49 one more time. "I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." We are called to a world-embracing mission that calls people to a new way of life that demands that we come in to a new way of life that puts us in touch with the living God. That is not something we can do in our own power. And so Jesus tells these disciples to wait for power from on high. We can't do it by ourselves. And so, as we celebrate this new tool that God has given us, I want us to do something more important. And so that is why I would like to call for next week to be a week of prayer. From tomorrow to next Sunday a special time of making extra opportunities to seek God in prayer, to seek his face, to wait upon him and in particular I want to focus on Wednesday and Thursday and ask that we consider those days of prayer and fasting. Now some of us can fast for more than one meal. Others might only be for one meal. Others might want to fast from media. You might want to pull the IPOD ear-buds out of your ears for a while and turn off the TV and use some of that time to seek the face of God. We already have prayer meetings on Wednesday in the evening at 7 o'clock and Thursday morning at 6:30 a.m. here. Join some other people in praying this week. Because the task is too big. God wants us to do this. God is calling us to do this, but God knows that we can't do it unless he is empowering us to do it. This goes with our verse for the whole year. Joshua 3:5: "Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you." This is one more way for us to consecrate ourselves, to be ready to seek the face of God.

So we are on the edge of something new here at Central Presbyterian Church. Today we are celebrating the opening of a new part of the facility. We are celebrating a new tool that God has put in our hands, but let's celebrate something even bigger than that; let's celebrate our mission as a church given by God and let's celebrate the incredible power of God that is going to make it possible to live in to that vision.

Let's pray: God, we are not able. We are excited, we thank you for the incredible calling that you give us, but we need the power of your spirit and so Lord help us to now seek your face and wait upon you as we look to you for the future you have called us to. For we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

© 2007, Rev. John Schmidt
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org