[00:00:01] Welcome to the River Church podcast. We're all about bringing the life, hope and love of Jesus to everyone around us. For more information, check out our
[email protected] Good morning everyone.
[00:00:14] You alright?
[00:00:16] Sure. Okay, cool. Well, I'm going to talk about church membership, this weird thing called church membership this morning. But first I, I want to start with a confession.
[00:00:32] See, I've got commitment issues.
[00:00:36] I struggle to make decisions, right. And my wife will tell you, especially if I'm going to purchase anything. You know, I'm one of those people that researches it to death.
[00:00:46] Do you know to go, is this the right, is this the absolute right thing?
[00:00:52] Is this the best thing that I'm going to. So I research it and I struggle to make the decision, you know, that final commitment decision. I struggle to sort of get there because I worry about have I made the right decision.
[00:01:08] And then you also get that whole thing of fear of missing out, right? Oh, if I get this, then I can't get that. And maybe that's got some things that I won't have. If I have this and it's like, oh, if I commit to this then hey, I'm going to feel, I'm going to miss out. But also that thing of then having made a decision, you feel trapped.
[00:01:31] Do you ever experience this? The trappedness of thing of like, oh, I can't back out of this now. Oh, and so you kind of, all of those things, you worry about making any decisions because you're sort of stuck in that place.
[00:01:45] And our modern society, right in the western world, we have choice, don't we?
[00:01:50] We have absolutely so much choice. We're overloaded with choice.
[00:01:57] Who's ever had dinner? Decision paralysis.
[00:02:02] Okay, yeah.
[00:02:05] What are we going to have for dinner? I mean it's kind of an everyday thing in our household I think at the moment.
[00:02:12] And friends of ours, he's up there, Luke and Hannah, Hannah's out there, introduced us to this prospect of takeaway night dice.
[00:02:22] Have you ever seen these dice that you can get that sort of say, you know, if you're going to have a takeaway, that's your takeaway night. You know, dice that say all the different varieties of foods and you know, what meat to get with it and what, and you rolled it and it tells you what to do.
[00:02:40] And I, I think that it sounds like a good thing, but I think you probably roll it and go, yeah, I don't want that.
[00:02:48] It's one of those things, isn't it? But choice seems good for us, doesn't it choice seems good, we really value freedom in our culture. The ability to choose seems to be something that we really value. But the thing is that sociologists point to an increasing choices may be a good thing to start with, but it reaches a point at which it actually decreases happiness.
[00:03:14] Do you know, evaluating options can just be overwhelming. We can struggle with it. I've got too many factors, too many things to try and compare. How do I compare this to that?
[00:03:28] We get that self expectation, hey, I need to make the right decision, I'm using my money, therefore I need to make it. And it's the stress come from that and also that whole thing of post choice regret.
[00:03:42] And so we can see in our culture how our culture moves towards a kind of low commitment thing.
[00:03:51] So examples are mobile phones.
[00:03:55] You know, go back 15 years or so, every mobile phone you get it, it's a two year locked in contract, that's it. But now more and more I move into a SIM only, I'll buy a phone separately, I'll get a SIM only contract and It'll be a 30 day. You know this I think, I think some stats said it was more than 50% of contracts. And now that whole rolling thing, you can see it in the gyms, the gym models, you know, it used to be hey, you have to sign up for a year, that's it, you're signing up the whole year. But the gyms that are doing well, the franchises that are doing well are those that just offer a month by month rolling contract and lots of other things. Online services, streaming, broadband, loads of things now that you used to have a year, two year contract that are now the things that are doing well is we want choice, we want to be able to change our mind if something else better comes along.
[00:04:51] Now I wonder, have you ever thought about how this affects church?
[00:04:56] How does it affect this change in the way that we think as a culture? How does it affect our relationship to church?
[00:05:06] Because I think now that people are now much more likely to switch churches than they ever have before.
[00:05:16] And because of this thing of wanting choice and being able to choose it. But the thing with this choice and the thing with the thing of going, the lack of commitment I want to be able to choose is that the factors that affect that choice are really, I think predominated around me, around me, centric choice about church. And we see the rise of maybe named brands, churches that offer something about themselves that you can follow up on the Internet and think I'm going to get that when I go to this church. With this big global name and maybe an honest reflection. And here I don't want to offend everyone. I'm not trying to offend everyone.
[00:06:08] But an honest reflection is the reason that you are here today.
[00:06:14] Is that more about, do you know the style of the worship or that you enjoy the preaching? Maybe not after today, but is it more about what you are getting out the kids, your kids really enjoy the kids work? Is it more about what you're getting out of it?
[00:06:33] Rather than this is a place where I feel I, I can work out God's calling on my life here.
[00:06:43] How much is it about how I can get my needs met rather than I can live out God's commission on my life?
[00:06:52] And like I say, I'm not trying to purposefully put you off. You're running for the door right now. I'm not trying to do that. But what I want to do this morning is to look at what does the Bible say about church?
[00:07:06] What does the Bible say? And how does that instruct us about how that we should relate to church?
[00:07:14] Is that okay with you this morning?
[00:07:16] Okay, so I want to give you four quick pictures, images of the church that come from the New Testament. I want to see the church as God commissioned Jesus, God intended Jesus commissioned as New Testament describes.
[00:07:33] I want to see the church how the New Testament puts it in front of us. And then we try and think about how does that affect us here at River Church.
[00:07:44] So the first one. Oh, there we go. Commitment shifts. The first one is from one Peter.
[00:07:50] And this passage, it reads out here, Peter writes to a church. He says, but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. And Peter goes on to say, once you are a people now, once you were not a people, now you are the people of God.
[00:08:22] Peter uses language and says, you are a people, a priesthood, a nation. These are all descriptions of communities, of a gathering of a large number of people.
[00:08:35] They're not just descriptions of individuals. Wherever you go, he's addressing a group of people. You, here you are, this thing now, I don't know if you've watched. Did anyone watch some of the Winter Olympics?
[00:08:51] Yeah. And it was quite easy when you looked out into the crowds when they did, you know, pictures of the crowds at different points. It was quite easy to identify different groups of people, wasn't it? How did you do that?
[00:09:07] All the flags, you know, so you could go, oh, you look over There you're the British ones, because you're the mad, crazy ones with your flags. Shouting. It's. Is it just a British thing to have the name of where you live on the flag? I don't know. It's such a strange thing, isn't it? I don't see anyway.
[00:09:26] But you had Germans, you had Italians, Austrians, Romanians, Bulgarians, loads of countries that were represented, but you could see them by their flags. They were broadcasting, hey, this is who we are, and we are supporting our athletes there.
[00:09:42] And I think Peter's language here is something that identifies the characteristics of this people, right? Because he says, you're a priesthood, you are a group of priests.
[00:09:56] He's saying you're a people that bring God to the people and the people to God. So priests do. He says, you're holy.
[00:10:04] You're people that behave like God.
[00:10:08] And I'd argue here that the action that Peter describes here to declare the praises of God is something that the people do together.
[00:10:19] It's a you all. You know, we don't have.
[00:10:22] In English language, we don't have a you plural. If you're Southern American, you have a Yule kind of, you know, you all kind of. We lack it in our language, but yeah, it's a you all, you all people, you're you together.
[00:10:36] You are set to declare the praises of God.
[00:10:41] And I'd say that the local church, God's people in a particular place, is made up of people who are identified and identifiable with that church.
[00:10:53] From that you follow? Is that okay? Okay, that's the first one. Second one, the body of Christ.
[00:11:01] 1 Corinthians 12.
[00:11:03] Paul writes to the church in Corinth, just as a body, though one has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.
[00:11:13] For we were all baptized by one spirit, so as to form one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free, and we were all given the one spirit to drink.
[00:11:25] And just verse 27, he says, now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it.
[00:11:34] Now, before I talk about it, I want to go.
[00:11:37] Some people read this as just going, hey, you're talking about the church, what's called the church Universal, right? So the global church, everyone.
[00:11:46] And there's a definitely a truth in that, right? So whether you are Catholic or Protestant, whether you're Lutheran or Presbyterian or, you know what, whatever, new frontiers, catalysts, and all the other spheres, we won't name them. They're not quite as good as catalysts.
[00:12:06] You Know, whether you're American, African, you know, Middle Eastern, whether you're, you know, Asian, we are all baptized into one spirit. There is one Christ.
[00:12:20] And that's absolutely true. But notice Paul is writing here to a particular church who are going through some disunity problems, right? They're breaking up. And he's saying to them, no, you are the body of Christ.
[00:12:37] And he's saying to them, you here in this local place, you are the body of Christ.
[00:12:43] So the local church is like a manifestation of the global church. And as the global church is united together, so also one church in one particular place is united together.
[00:12:59] And I think Paul here, through this image of the body, represents or tells us that the body is an active.
[00:13:06] It's a functioning whole. Every part is playing its part.
[00:13:13] And in this passage, just before this passage, Paul had been writes in about the spiritual gifts given and talks about a lot the different gifts we had Olu here this morning, that was given out a tongue was one of the spiritual language, one of the gifts that was written. And it's like these are. These gifts that are given are for the building up of the church. Right? To make the church strong.
[00:13:40] And so I'd say that the local church needs to be an active body with everyone taking part to see the advancement and the building up of the church.
[00:13:52] Happy. Good. Right. Okay, number three, we're getting there. The temple of the Holy Spirit. He writes earlier in the same letter, don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that temple. For God's temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
[00:14:19] Now we roll back, we look through history of the Bible. We see that God's presence was a sign of God's blessing. It's something that through the Old Testament they sought. They said, God go with us. God be with us.
[00:14:36] Because we're in a harsh land. We have a difficult time. And we know that we can only succeed if you are with us. So we want you to be with us. And I know that. I've taught many times the New Testament teaches that when we commit ourselves to Jesus, to follow him as Lord, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in each and every one of us. Right? We are each and individually a temple of the Holy Spirit.
[00:15:05] But I'd argue from some of Paul's writing here and in Ephesians and Peter that actually we are temples of the Holy Spirit individually as we join together as a local church to be a temple of the Holy Spirit amongst you know, as one together.
[00:15:24] So Paul will declare in Ephesians he said in him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. And Peter we use in his first letter he would talk about people of the church, local church being living stones that are building together. He's using the analogy of a building living stones upon one another.
[00:15:53] You know, as we are a temple, as the local church is a temple of, of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit isn't just something that is static.
[00:16:05] The Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit is an active part of God. He wants to do things amongst the church. He wants the church to be glorious for God, to represent God, to be the glory of God in the world.
[00:16:24] And so God's presence in the Holy Spirit is an active presence. It's a transformational presence. It's trying to build up the church as we work together.
[00:16:37] You know, that's the whole thing of being built together. We are being built together by the Holy Spirit.
[00:16:45] How does that happen?
[00:16:47] How are we built together or how is the local church built together? Well, it's all of the things that the one anothering things that the New Testament sets out for us to do.
[00:17:00] Loads of do not don't do these things, but loads of do. Give encouragement, love for one, I care for one another, encourage one another, build them up, have kindness upon one another, show compassion, show forgiveness to one another, have patience, submit to one another, serve one another, all of these things. And I'd say that the local church is made up of people who are integrated and invested.
[00:17:28] Do you know they are part of the transformation, the sanctification process of every member as the Holy Spirit works that out.
[00:17:39] So that's number three, last one, last one. The household of God.
[00:17:45] So in 1 Timothy he writes, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the foundation of the truth. And Paul writes in Ephesians 2 says that you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household.
[00:18:14] Now one thing through the New Testament is there's lots of different images of God's people being a family.
[00:18:23] Actually the whole family thing is probably the most used, most common image of the church.
[00:18:32] And so we are told we are sons and daughters of God, aren't we? We are adopted into his family, but we're also sons and daughters of Abraham as well. That's another thing coming through. We are Brothers and sisters who have one father. And this image goes again and again. Actually, the most common greeting across acts, across the letters, is brothers and sisters.
[00:19:00] That's how they regard one another.
[00:19:03] And alongside that, family sense is the thing of being a household.
[00:19:07] Now, I don't know about you, but households in the New Testament times perhaps differ to nowadays because they weren't just about living under the same roof. Right?
[00:19:18] We don't just sort of live under the same roof. That's a household. That's what it is. It's more than that. It's about identity.
[00:19:27] Let me bring a really bad analogy from the Harry Potter series, okay? So when every student reaches Hogwarts for the first year, they go through this initiation process.
[00:19:42] Do you remember what that is?
[00:19:45] The Sorting Hats. There we go. You've watched it. The Sorting Hats.
[00:19:50] And that hat sorts them into houses.
[00:19:55] And these houses are known for different characteristics.
[00:20:00] Maybe something about bravery or wisdom or courage or cunning or deviousness.
[00:20:08] So the household, the house has a characteristic. They are all members of that house and they work together for the benefit of that house, whether on a sports or test. You know, house points.
[00:20:25] The kids these days still get houses. They do, yeah. Yeah, okay. House points and things like that. I don't know, maybe it was an old thing when I was back at school.
[00:20:36] The church is God's household.
[00:20:39] And members of the church are identified by the master.
[00:20:45] We are under. Paul actually uses the term servants or slaves even to push it further.
[00:20:53] But we are servants of the master. The church. We are servants of the master. And as such, all the servants, the members of the household, work on behalf of the master.
[00:21:05] And when they conduct themselves in and outside of the house, they're representing the master. Not only that, but they work for the household.
[00:21:17] They're working for the benefit and the advancement and the growth of the household. So I'd say that the local church is made up of people who are bearers of God's name and builders of God's house.
[00:21:31] They represent God in their actions and they work together to the building of the church.
[00:21:40] Now that was a lot, wasn't it?
[00:21:43] Four images.
[00:21:44] Now I'm going to try and struggle to remember them.
[00:21:48] Who wants to shout them out for me? Four images.
[00:21:52] Temple, the body.
[00:21:55] Chosen people.
[00:21:57] Household of good. Fantastic. You're all there. That's it.
[00:22:02] Question and answer session over. No test is done. You passed.
[00:22:07] But how do we apply this?
[00:22:10] Because we want to.
[00:22:13] We want to believe God at his word.
[00:22:16] And if the Bible instructs us something, then we should put it into practice, right? If we read God's Word and we say, yes, I agree with that, and we don't do what it says, what are we called hypocrites?
[00:22:33] And Jesus had a problem with the hypocrites of his time.
[00:22:37] So we want to read the word, understand it and go, right, how? I'm going to try and work out how that gets applied in my life, right? That is what I believe it means to follow Jesus into, you know, following him as a Christian. And so we try and learn as best as we can what God's word said. And then we try and put it into practice with all humility, knowing that none of us gets it right. Perfectly okay. We're all limited in our ability.
[00:23:08] But our theology instructs our practice, right? How we understand it. So how does our theology, how does our understanding of these images of the New Testament, of the church in the New Testament, how does it instruct what it means to be River Church?
[00:23:26] So I'd say those things.
[00:23:28] The church is identified. Members of the church are identified and identifiable.
[00:23:34] They are active, they are advancing, acting, advancing the kingdom, the church. They are integrated with the church and invested.
[00:23:45] They are bearers of God's name and builders of God's house.
[00:23:49] And to be part of this, I believe that there needs to be a formal process in which individuals self identify with this church and the leadership recognizes, and the rest of the church recognizes those people that are part of that church.
[00:24:13] Now let me just unpack this a little bit. Because I said formal process and you're going, why does it have to be formal? Well, it has to be formal because of accountability.
[00:24:24] As I said in the introduction, I struggle with commitment issues.
[00:24:29] I don't think I'm alone.
[00:24:32] I think we all struggle with commitment issues. And that's a massive problem with the church in Western society because I think a lot of the church has become consumer minded and perhaps consumer oriented as well. The church in many circumstances ended up looking like a service provider. Right?
[00:24:53] It's a thing that meets people's needs. Hey, we can do this for you. We've got great, fantastic music, we've got an amazing global preacher. Or we come and do care for you in ways that meets your needs.
[00:25:11] And so people make the choice about the church because of a church that meets their needs. And maybe they give a little bit of money now and again just to feel better about themselves.
[00:25:24] But I don't think any of those images of the church represented the church as a service provider.
[00:25:32] And because relationships are never one way, I Think accountability goes two ways, right?
[00:25:41] I am accountable to you, you are accountable to me.
[00:25:46] Everyone here is accountable to one another.
[00:25:49] And because there are different roles in a church, different body parts doing different things, that accountability exists in different ways. Okay? As an elder, as part of an eldership team, I am countable to you to lead with spiritual vision, to teach biblically, to direct and oversee the activities of the church, to pray for you all.
[00:26:17] Everyone in River Church who's a part of River Church is accountable to submit and follow the eldership in those terms, in our leading, in our teaching, in the way that we direct the church.
[00:26:31] Everyone in River Church, including all of the elders, are also accountable to each other. To love, to care, to, to encourage, to challenge, to serve one another.
[00:26:45] Some people in the church have been delegated authority to lead and direct over a ministry.
[00:26:54] Some people are gifted in particular ways that the eldership might delegate responsibility over particular tasks, be it some things that you don't see, like admin or finance or things like practical pastoral care.
[00:27:10] But for all of that to work, for all of that to work, we all who are part of River Church need to stand up and say, I am part of this church.
[00:27:20] And we need to say that to the eldership.
[00:27:24] And the way that we do that is through a formal membership process.
[00:27:30] Now, as I said, theology instructs our process.
[00:27:35] And so I believe that the best way, this is what church is, you know, that we work out that biblio instructed practice in our theology.
[00:27:44] Now, just an aside, right? Well, it's not really aside.
[00:27:50] I want God's best for you.
[00:27:54] I want God's best for you.
[00:27:59] And I believe that that is worked out in a church where you are aligned to the teaching of the eldership.
[00:28:07] Right?
[00:28:09] You need to be aligned to what I'm saying here. You need to be aligned to how we as an eldership teach and direct.
[00:28:17] I think that is the best way. That is the way that God wants to work out his best in you.
[00:28:26] And so to be part of River Church means to be aligned to what I'm teaching here this morning, to get on board with what it means to be a member of this church. Not because I need people to feel rotors or volunteers or things like that. Because I believe that this is the best, this is God's best for you.
[00:28:48] This is how God works out his process, His Holy Spirit, sanctifying your lives, making you more like him. That's what I believe.
[00:28:56] Do you know that's what I believe he does. And this is what I want for You. And so to be here, to be part of River Church, you can only do it, you can only get God's best if you're aligned to the teaching of the church. And I want to acknowledge that although there is some teaching like we don't do it perfectly right, we don't work it out perfectly.
[00:29:26] And more recently going multi site, there's been lots to do and we've tried to work out everything slowly and the formal membership process is actually something that's been on pause since we've gone multi site as we try to get everything as much as we can in place. But this week I've got a course that's starting, we've got a load of people that are on that course and it's important that everyone goes through the process to say, yes, I am in.
[00:29:58] You might have done that 10, 20, 30, 40, did you do it on day one you're just like you're a member, de facto you did it. But everyone does that to say, yes, I'm into the eldership and yes, that we can say that to everyone here, hey, this person is a member, you can go to them, this person is a member. You know, you can look to encouragement from them now.
[00:30:29] Great.
[00:30:30] And yeah, I think it's not only the best for you, but this is the best for the church.
[00:30:40] The church is the chosen people of God. A royal priesthood meant to declare the praises of God to the world, to be a light to the nations. We are a city on a hill, a light, you know, there to display it.
[00:30:56] And I believe that this formal accountability between one another is the way that we become everything that God wants for this church and every church across a nation.
[00:31:12] This is not just a tick box exercise, this is us becoming everything that God wants for us.
[00:31:19] And that is the thing that I want to declare to you. So I want to try and be as clear as possible. And maybe I've messed up some things, so in a minute I'm just going to do a bit of Q and A. You might have a question, you might not, but before I do that, why don't you turn to the person next to you just for a minute and say, is there any questions you have?
[00:31:43] Are you someone that struggles with commitment?
[00:31:47] Do you have difficulty committing to a 12 month process, let alone committing to a church?
[00:31:53] Is there anything that's holding you back from committing into River Church? Is there something better that the church could do? Is there something that could help you make be more integrated, form more relationships, be more invested, be a better builder? Of God's church. Maybe that. And then I'm going to ask if anyone's got any questions. Is that okay?
[00:32:16] Yeah. Go on, then. Turn to the person next to you.
