Over
that past several weeks, we have been working our way through five practices of
a fruitful congregation. Today, we want to talk about intentional faith
development. To try to bring this idea into focus, let us look at a familiar text
through a new set of eyes. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Ephesians6:14- 18
In the same way, a congregation striving to work through intentional faith development must be working together. From the very beginning of the Church, we learn that they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers (Acts 2:42). Later in Acts we read about how the early church did more than pray and study, they worked to meet the real and practical needs of each member of the group. Community then is a critical characteristic of intentional faith development. Bishop Schanse puts it this way in his book Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations,
The followers of Jesus mature in faith by learning together in community. [list of groups] …by which churches help people probe God’s will for their lives and for the world, and bring people together to strengthen the Body of Christ by building friendships and relationships.
Let’s go back to our warrior as part of a unit. For anyone to be a contributing member, be it a battle unit, a sports team, a musical ensemble, or the body of Christ, we must all work together.
While my attempts at football back in the 9th grade were mostly about wearing the uniform and watching from the side lines, I was an active wrestler for 8th and 9th grades. What bound us together as a team was the work we did together. We worked harder on strength when we had someone else pushing us past our limits. We developed endurance as a team because no one wanted to be the weakest link. We gained in agility when our own agility was tested. I remember Coach Whitmer having us 140 pounders go against the heavyweights. I was afraid until I realized where they had strength on their side, I had agility on mine. Our desire drove us to get better, but our friendship gave us the will to endure the rigors of training. At the end of 9th grade, we all moved from junior high to high school. Many, like me, turned to other interests and other groups. Even though we were no longer part of the same team, we kept our relationships.
Turning to another aspect of intentional faith development, we find process. Not only do we build relationships in a group, we also build our abilities to become more like the person, wrestler, warrior, or believer we desire to be. Paul says it this way in his letter to the churches in the region of Ephesus:
...change the former way of life that was part of the person you once were, corrupted by deceitful desires. Instead, renew the thinking in your mind by the Spirit and clothe yourself with the new person created according to God’s image in justice and true holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24 CEB)In his discuss of process, the Bishop explains our Wesleyan heritage this way.
Christian faith is not static but dynamic. It requires cultivation. Wesley was as passionate about Christians maturing toward the fullness of faith as he was about inviting Christians into the beginnings of faith.
Using our Wesleyan lens to view God’s grace, we talk about prevenient grace calling us into relationship with God, justifying grace breaking down the barriers of our sinful state, and sanctifying grace continuing to make us into the image of God in Christ. Sanctifying grace, then, is the aspect of God’s grace that gives us the desire and direction to help us clothe ourselves “with the new person created according to God’s image.” We will always be in process, learning how to put on “God’s image” in new and changing situations.
When our United Methodist clergy are answering
their final set of questions before becoming elders in full connection, the
bishop asks the group “Are you going on to perfection?” The hopeful answer is “Yes, with God’s help.”
What other answer can there be? Do you
want to be led by a clergyperson who replied, “No, I will settle for 87.63 %?” Do you want to stand before God’s grace
someday and say “Lord, I tried hard for a long time, but then it was someone
else’s turn.”
The Greek word “teleios” used by Paul
and other writers is often translated “perfect” or “perfection.” It is
translated at least as often as “mature.”
You may feel more comfortable stating you want to become mature in
Christ, that you want to see others as God sees them, that you want to love
others with the self-sacrificing love of Jesus, and that you want to come along
side others with grace to encourage them as the Holy Spirit does. However
you word it, becoming perfect or mature is a lifelong task. Pablo Casals, a
famous cellist of another generation, when asked at age 80 why he continued to
practice the cello three hours a day, replied, “I’m beginning to notice some
improvement.” So it should be with us in our walk of faith. Why do we continue to be part of the Body of
Christ with our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service and our witness
for a whole life long? Each day, we want
to see a little more of God’s image reflected back to us in the mirror.
Before we wrap up, let’s take a look at
what intentional faith development looks like within our own community of
faith. Starting with the youngest disciples, we partner with Children’s Day Out
to provide a safe, Christ-center, nurturing place to grow for children in our
community. On Sunday’s, the time spent
in the Nursery/Toddler class is not just play time and a snack. Every week, we introduce and reinforce
principles of the faith. Weekly during
the school year, we have our midweek Logos program to allow for
intergenerational faith development as children, youth, and adults build one
another up in grace. The scouting groups we sponsor provide a place for boys
and their families to be brought into our house to learn and grow together. Many of our own youth and adults build
relationships that will last a life time right here in our midst. Our youth program reaches out to youth not
only in our group, but also to the greater community. Adults gather every week
to struggle with the Bible and life and how they fit together in our Sunday
school classes. The choir meets and
builds relationships as they work together to present an offering of praise in
celebration of the Lord we serve. The Bishop’s benchmark is 50 percent. In a typical fruitful congregation, at least
50 percent of the congregation is plugged into at least one faith development
opportunity outside of Sunday worship.
Not only does he give us a benchmark,
but the Bishop also gives us a set of measures to know if we are doing
intentional faith development in a comprehensive way. He defined three areas we should see within
our development opportunities. Each
group or event may focus on one area more than the others, but we need to
consider all three when we look at the broad scope of what we do. The
characteristics in the blend are educational, relational. and missional. Not
only do we need to learn about God, but we need to learn about each other in
the process. Not only do we need to
build strong relationships, we need to do so within the context of the Kingdom
of God. Not only do we need to build a
strong community, we need reach past the boundaries of our culture to spread
the good news.
Finally, we need to look at one more
foundational aspect of intentional faith development. We are concerned with
more than community, about being intentional.
Any group can build community. We
are concerned with more than process, about development. Anything we do in life
is part of a process. Without the faith
component of intentional faith development, we are just another
group. Without our stated mission of
making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, we are
just another group of people who love each other and are trying to do good.
Without the Holy Spirit in each of us binding us together, we are just a group
of people walking through the paces of an ancient religious practice. What the
Bishop calls us to is to be a community in process within the context of our covenant
with the King of kings and Lord of lords.
He states “In community, there is
a natural accountability. Covenanting together keeps us strong in our
convictions and habits.”
In a fruitful congregation, everyone
acknowledges that we cannot do this on our own.
Because we are the body of Christ and not a single organ, we all have
different contributions to make. We all have different gaps only each other can
fill. What helps you to be encouraged and equipped may simply not work for
me. What fits my schedule may not fit
yours. As we covenant together, we
covenant to complement each other’s differences. Let’s look at a specific as an example. If we wanted to host a Tuesday evening
covenant group for six weeks starting January, we would exclude anyone who
could not drive after dark. If a group
wanted to gather here at the church at lunch time, on Tuesdays instead, some
would be excluded due to work schedules. To try to reach out to the reality of
people’s lives, a fruitful congregation must offer a variety of options at
various times and days of the week. If
we base all our intentional faith development options from this campus, we
exclude people for whom more than one trip here a week causes hardships. As a
body of believers in covenant with each other, we promise to find ways for all
the members of the body to be in meaningful relationships offering
opportunities to explore God’s will for their lives and the life of the Church.
Over the coming weeks, we will be exploring new ways to grow in faith
together. It will take some time to get
it right. Some things we do will work
well and meet needs of various groups.
Some things we try will fall flat, but not for lack of commitment. But success or failure, either way we are
growing together as an intentional faith community. As we move together to find
that place of fruitfulness, let us renew our covenant to support intentionalfaith development in the life of this community of faith with our prayers, our
presences, our gifts, our service, and our witness in the name of the God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Krum 1st United Methodist Church - November 09, 2014
Krum 1st United Methodist Church - November 09, 2014
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