Special Study: Membership and Leadership in the Church

READ 1 Peter 4:10-11 & 5:1-5

In a time where the church is seen as increasingly irrelevant and, in some cases, extreme, church membership and leadership may be two of the most important areas where the church can demonstrate a counterculture, yet compelling, picture of the gospel. These are two areas that – if we get wrong – will only further marginalize and distance the church from its neighbors BUT - if we get these two things right – they have the power to persuade people that the gospel might be worth listening to. Peter shows us that how gospel brings into a being 1) a beautiful and attractive community of grace and 2) a revolutionary yet appealing approach to leadership that is found nowhere else.

MEMBERSHIP

The gospel calls us to make three important shifts in order for us to be a part of building communities of grace in our specific churches.

1) From Consumers to Stewards:

Peter writes, “As each has received a gift, use it… as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” Membership in a church community begins with the conviction that we each have been given a gift or gifts from God to use to build & strengthen the community. God chooses to use people to deliver His empowering favor & strength (ie his grace) to other people. Stewardship (in the original language - oikonomia) is an economic term used to describe a household manager entrusted to manage the resources of the owner. Instead of approaching church as church shoppers (How can this church meet my needs?) we need to approach church as stewards (How can I use my gifts to help this church’s ministry & mission?).

2) From Competitors/Comparers to Servants:

From a very early age, we are taught to use our gifts to compete, compare, to gain advantage over others, to get attention – to win. Peters says it should be different in the church – we are to use our gifts to “serve one another." Competition and comparison in community are the antithesis and opposite of grace. Grace implies that we are equally broken, sinful and in need of God’s strength and salvation and that we are all equally valuable and significant to God. Competing and comparing breaks down relationships – everything is about winning. But a servant says, “I’m not here to find a way to win at your expense; I’m here to help you win at my expense.” A serving community models the gospel – Jesus lost everything (that was rightfully his) so we would win everything in Him (that we don’t deserve).

3) From Concealors to Sharers:

Many people are comfortable with and even excited by the idea of receiving gifts to use in meaningful service to build a community but the idea of sharing our needs, struggles and asking for help is another matter.  The word Peter uses for God’s “varied or manifold” grace (poikiles) is same he used earlier in the letter to refer to the “various” trails we experience in life (1:6). Peter means for us to see the connection. God’s varied grace meet us in our various trails– as we share our need for help and give our gospel community the opportunity to pour grace into our brokenness, pain and need.  

LEADERSHIP

In 1 Peter 5:1-5, Peter turns his attention to the leaders of the church. In using the metaphor of a shepherd tending a flock, Peter is undoubtedly drawing on his own call to leadership in the church by Jesus. At the end of the Gospel of John, Jesus calls Peter to feed his lambs and tend his sheep.

This metaphor also utilizes the shepherd leadership of Jesus Himself, the “Chief Shepherd” who laid down His life for the sheep (John 10:11), as the model for leadership in the church. Leadership in the church must always mirror and follow the leadership of Jesus, not whatever models are current and dominant in the culture models. When Jesus’ model is followed, the church portrays a leadership style that is found nowhere else.

1) The Team

If anyone had the right to claim the top of the organizational chart in the church – it was Peter! He was the leader of the 12 disciples. He was the clear leader of the early church. He was told by Jesus – “Your name is Peter (rock) and on this rock I’ll build my church." But Peter does not pull rank but says “I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder.” There could be no clearer or stronger way Peter could tell us that leadership in the church is meant to be team leadership. Gospel leadership is not about building yourself up – it’s about building a team that shares leadership.

2) The Job Description

Peter uses three “titles” interchangeably for the leadership role in the church – elder, shepherd, overseer. These are 3 different ways of looking at the same role.  He then highlights three areas that leaders can damage and harm others – leading out of duty and burden, leading for shameful gain (financial gain or self-promotion) and leading with a domineering and overbearing style. When church leaders fall into any one of these things, they do permanent spiritual damage and drive people away from the gospel.

In contrast, a leader in the church should be a joyful, eager example of the cruciform life (suffering to glory). A good shepherd always never tells the sheep to go anywhere he hasn’t been and is willing to lay down his life for the well-being of the flock. This job description of the leader is not to tell people what to do but to show them how to live in grace.

3) The Uniform

In v5, Peter addresses everyone in the church -“all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” In his commentary on 1 Peter, Douglas Harink says, “the verb 'clothe itself' appears to derive from a word probably identifying a garment or apron a slave tied over other garments in order to perform certain menial tasks.” This has special application to the leaders of the church. You should be able to pick out the leaders by the uniform they are wearing – they should be the ones wearing the apron of humility. This means leaders in the church lead with an awareness of their need, weakness, fragility, limits and own sinfulness. Church leaders know it is possible that God would actually oppose our church/community. If we become a community of ungrace (pride and self righteousness), we can expect God to be absent. Only to a humble person/community can God pour out us grace. So leaders in the church must always live in and lead from a posture of humility.

Questions

1.     What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2.     In her book, Living into Community, theologian Christine Pohl writes, “The ways we’ve been formed by church and culture have not given the skills or virtues we need to be part of the very communities we long for and try to create. While we might want community, it is often community on our terms, with easy entrances and exits, lots of choice and support, and minimal responsibilities. Mixed together this is not a promising recipe for strong or lasting communities.”

Do you agree? How have you seen this affecting your own approach to church? What do you think are the most important parts of the “recipe” for building a strong and lasting community?

3.     How are you tempted to approach church as a consumer? Do you have a sense of the gift or gifts God has given you to steward to help build into the ministry and mission of the church?

4.     A servant says, “I’m not here to find a way to win at your expense; I’m here to help you win at my expense.” How might this impact your approach to church?

5.     Do you struggle with concealing your needs and struggles? Why do we have a difficult time making our needs knowing to our church community? Have you experienced God’s grace strengthening you through others after you’ve shared a need or a struggle?

6.     Why do you think there is a growing distrust and suspicion about church leadership? What is your experience with healthy and unhealthy leadership in the church?

7.     Which of the 3 aspects listed above regarding church leadership is most important to you? Why?

8.     Peter essentially says the church is doomed to fail without humility. Why is humility so crucial? Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “How can I possibly serve another person in unfeigned humility if I seriously regard his sinfulness as worse than my own?” What would it look like for church leaders to lead with this attitude? What difference would it make? What difference would it make for the people you lead (at work, in the family, etc)?

Groundwork for the Soul: Sermon Study Guide #2 - Back to the Basics

READ Matthew 3:13-17

If we are following along in the story Matthew is telling we should be surprised by this passage. The suspense has been building. In Chapters 1 + 2, we read that a baby has been conceived by the Holy Spirit. He is “God with us." He is the fulfillment of the story God has been writing in history. He will save His people from their sins. Then John the Baptist appears and builds even more suspense. “There’s someone coming after me mightier than me, I’m not worthy to carry his sandals, He’s coming with fire!” In v13, Jesus comes onto the scene and… His very first act is to come forward to be baptized with sinners in the Jordan river. What? John is confused. We are underwhelmed. Why did Jesus get baptized? The answer to this question brings us back to the basics about Jesus and back to the basic questions in our souls.

WHERE AM I? - LOCATION  

Jesus’ baptism could be thought of as his inauguration ceremony. At an inauguration, a new leader has the opportunity to send message about his/her priorities and plans. This is exactly what Jesus is doing. In being baptized, Jesus says, “Here is the statement I’m making: I’m being baptized not because I need to repent of my sin, but to show you that I’ve come (not with the fire of judgment) but to meet you right where you are – broken sinners in need of a new start.” Jesus starts his ministry by fully immersing himself into humanity’s struggles and suffering due to sin. His baptism was the beginning of Him bearing this with us and for us. Here’s what scholar Fredric Bruner says about this:

“The first thing Jesus does for the human race is go down with it into the deep waters of repentance and baptism. Jesus’ whole life will be like this. It is well known that Jesus ends his ministry on a cross between two thieves; it deserves to be as well known that he begins his ministry in a river among sinners.”

This is so important for us as when we are doing groundwork in our own souls. The question we should start with is: “Where am I?” Jesus’ baptism frees us to ask and answer this question honestly and truthfully no matter where we are. The most important spiritual moments for us almost always begin when we honestly ask and God graciously shows us “You are here."

We don’t have to fear God coming against us if we admit we are struggling.  Jesus came to be with and for sinners desiring change. He never leaves us where we are; but He always begins with where we are – no matter how broken and messy it is.

WHO AM I? -  IDENTITY  

Jesus baptism is also His introduction to the world by the Father.  After he is baptized, the heavens open up, signifying that God is revealing himself to the world in Jesus. The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus signifying that He comes out of the waters of judgment and sin in order to bring a new creation by the power of God’s Spirit (see Gen 1:3; 8:11). But perhaps the most notable part of the introduction is what is said, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” Even though we can safely assume that Jesus already knew this was true of him, in his humanity, he needed to hear it as confirmation before he started his ministry. This shows us that even for Jesus the issue of identity was primary. He had to get this right before anything else started.

It’s the same for us. The question “Who am I?” is one of the most basic questions of the soul. Where do we look for our sense of self? Our sense of worth? How we answer these questions affects everything else in our lives. There are two common approaches to question of identity – the first being the more traditional approach and the second the approach of modern western culture:

1)     I am who others say I am – The voices of others: This could be the voice of our parents. We find our identity in their approval, affirmation, or to prove them wrong about what they have said about us. It could be the voice of a spouse or a loved one – their approval defines us. The problem of this approach is that we feel great pressure to meet others’ expectations and if this is all we are, we lose ourselves. Our Identity is lost.

2)     I am who I say I am – My voice: This approach rejects the idea that others give me my identity – only I can do this. I create my identity. This could be through my career, success or achievements. It could be through my looks, my fitness or the image I want to portray to others. It could be being the perfect parent, the perfect Christian or the perfect __(fill in the blank)____. Though it may appear liberating at first, it turns out that our own voice is just as demanding, critical and confusing as the voices of others. We never know if we are enough. We end up living in more pressure and insecurity.

Christianity tells us the only source of a secure and liberating identity is found when realize I am who God says I am. Because Jesus came to fulfill all righteousness for me and forgive all my sin, when my trust is in Jesus, God says to me, “You are my beloved son/daughter, in you I am well pleased”

WHY AM I HERE? - PURPOSE  

In addition to being Jesus’ inauguration and introduction to the world, Jesus’ baptism was also His commissioning into ministry. The words in verse 17 are the combination of a few key Old Testament passages – Psalm 2:7 (the Messiah King) and Isaiah 42:1-2 (the Suffering Servant). Together they give Jesus his mission: Your mission is to bring the world back into submission to my rule and to set everything right that’s gone wrong; to bring lasting justice to the world without harming or breaking fragile and sinful humanity. How is this possible? Only by the cross. At the cross Jesus took on the identity of a sinner separated from God so we could have his identity as a beloved son. He lost the voice of the Father, so we could recover it.

In recovering our identity by His sacrificial death, Jesus fulfills His mission. He crushes our sin without crushing us.

When we recover our identity as God’s beloved children and hear the approving voice of the Father, we begin to willingly surrender to God’s reign in our lives. Even more, answering the question of identity with the gospel enables us to answer and pursue the question of our calling free from shame and fear. Shame (the feeling that we are not enough, defective and don’t matter) is evil’s chief weapon against the joyful release of our creative capacities for the glory of God and good of others.

We can only find and fulfill our callings if we are free from having to prove ourselves; when we have nothing left to prove. The voice of the Father – “you are my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased” -  frees us from the voices of shame and fear to discover and fulfill our calling in God’s kingdom.

Questions

1.     What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2.     By being baptized Jesus is telling us, “Before I show you how to get out of this mess, first I want you to know that I’m with you in it.” How does this free us up to be honest with our struggles? How would you rate your own ability to be honest and vulnerable about your struggles and sin?

How would you answer the question, “Where am I spiritually today?” 

3.     Which of the two approaches to identity most characterize your own sense of identity, self and worth – the voice of others or the voice of yourself? Do you agree that we all sense a pressure and feel anxiety in basing our identity on the voice of others or ourselves? How does this look for you?

4.     Look up Psalm 2:7-12 and Matthew 12:15-21. At Jesus’ baptism these two passages were brought together to commission him to ministry, telling him: Your mission is to bring the world back into submission to my rule and to set everything right that’s gone wrong; to bring lasting justice to the world without harming or breaking fragile and sinful humanity. How does the cross make this possible?

5.     What difference would it make in your life if you believed that – at all times – God the Father says of you, “You are my beloved child, in you I am well pleased”? How would this address your battles with shame and insecurity?

6.     “We can only find and fulfill our callings if we are free from having to prove ourselves.” Do you agree with this statement? How does the need to prove ourselves keep us from being joyful in what God has called us to do?

Groundwork for the Soul: Sermon Study Guide #1 - Prepare

READ Matthew 3:1-12

This series of sermon studies is designed to help you walk through the season of Lent. This season of examination and repentance provides us a yearly opportunity to do groundwork for our souls. We begin the journey of Lent in the wilderness with John the Baptist. Interestingly, all 4 gospel writers thought we needed a preparation from John before meeting Jesus. This is how Jesus is meant to be encountered – by first going through John’s 4-step orientation. 

STEP 1 - TREK TO THE WILDERNESS

The prophet Isaiah (quoted in v3) wrote that the wilderness will be the place to look for God’s great coming into the world to lead people to His full and final restoration. It will be like a second exodus journey through the desert into the promised land of new creation. John’s ministry shows us that we must trek to the wilderness in order to be prepared to meet Jesus and to know Him more deeply. Why the wilderness? Two things happen in the wilderness that are precursors to spiritual insight and growth – 1) We are stripped of our comfort. When we are too comfortable & cozy, we tend to drift into spiritual compromise. We have to go from our normal routines to see this. 2) We are shaken out of our complacency. The Jordan river was the site of Israel’s original entrance into the land. Baptism – at the time – was practiced only for Gentile converts to Judaism. John’s message is, “We are starting all over!”. The one who will be prepared to encounter Jesus is the person who is not ashamed to start at the beginning - again and again.

STEP 2 – TURN COMPLETELY AROUND

In the wilderness moments of our lives, we are ready to hear John’s message, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”. To understand what John is saying, we need to make sure our understanding of the word “repent” is correct. “Repent” means to change your mind. The Hebrew equivalent is translated “turn”, “come back”. “Repent!” is not God saying to us “You are bad. Be good or else!”; it’s God saying, “You are lost, come home! You’re going the wrong way, turn around!”. John is calling for us to ask, “Where am I headed in the wrong direction?” “What do I need to turn away from in my life in order to turn toward God?”

John’s call to repentance was not a cause, when you feel like it message. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. He’s saying that, in Jesus, God’s restorative and transformative kingdom has come. The time for repentance is now. We often have false sense of urgency about matters of secondary importance and a lack of urgency about matters of primary importance. John’s message is meant restore a proper sense of urgency to our spiritual lives.

STEP 3 – TAKE AN HONEST ASSESSMENT

In v7-10 John sees religious leaders/professionals coming out and he has some very challenging things to say them. It turns out the people who thought they were closest to God and the most prepared to meet Him were the farthest from God and least prepared. Why? They were the wrong measures to assess their faith. John provides us with three ways to test the genuineness of our faith:

1.      Fruitfulness (v8) – Just as fruit is the natural byproduct of a healthy tree, spiritual fruit is the natural result of true repentance. Is my faith producing more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control in my life? If not, we need to re-examine where our faith lies.

2.      Presumption – In v9 John calls out the religious leaders for their presumption. They presumed they were spiritually superior because of the ethnic heritage &  their leadership positions. We need to learn to repent – not just of our sin – but of our goodness; our self-righteous presumption that leads us to think we were better than others.

3.      Leadership – In calling them these leaders a “brood of vipers”, John is referencing a common belief that viper babies killed their mothers. It was quite an insult. John was saying they were not only in need of repentance, they were a danger to others. Leaders with no spiritual fruit, filled with the pride of presumption can do great spiritual harm to others. True leaders are lead repenters – the first to say “I was wrong. I’m sorry”.

STEP 4 – TRUST HIS REFINING PURPOSE  

It’s important to remember the reason why John is taking us through these steps of preparation is to prepare us to meet Jesus; to lead us to Him. He says in v11, “Ultimately I can’t change you, only he can, I can’t transform you, only He can.” John comes with a baptism of repentance (preparation); Jesus comes with a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire (transformation). How does Jesus’ fire baptism cleanse us without consuming us?  The answer is that Jesus underwent his own baptism (Mark 10:39) at the cross. The fire of Jesus’ passion against our sin is not directed at us by at refining us and removing sin and brokenness from us. This is why in our wilderness seasons, in our times of repentance and confession, we can always trust He is not condemning us but refining us to be more like Him.

Questions

1.      What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2.      The season of Lent is what we might call a “chosen wilderness” – a time to fast or forgo comforts in order to hone our spiritual readiness and receptiveness. How do you know when you’ve become to spiritually comfortable and complacent? What causes you to drift into these? How have wilderness seasons helped you come to know Jesus more deeply?

3.      Do you have a hard time with the word, “repent”? How does it help to know it is God calling us to “turn around”? Martin Luther’s 1st Theses (of the 95 that began the Protestant Reformation) was – “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent”, he wanted the whole life of believers to be a life of repentance.” Do you agree? What does this look like for you?

4.      Which of the 3 assessments above is most challenging to you? Why? How might you respond in this area in repentance? 

5.      Is there an place in your life where you sense God is currently refining you? Are you struggling to remember God’s refining purposes are good? Share with the group (or a friend if you are reading this on your own) and pray for faith and perseverance.

Gospel Rhythms: Sermon Study Guide #6 - Sabbath Regularly for Worship and Rest

READ Gen. 2:1-3; Deut. 5:12-15

Of all the gospel rhythms, establishing a regular Sabbath is probably the most difficult and countercultural of all. Yet, the gift of Sabbath may be the most important place for us to start in structuring the rhythm of our time around the gospel.     

GOD’S RHYTHM OF SABBATH

The word Sabbath (Hebrew word for “stop”) first appears in the book of Genesis where we see God’s creative work as happening in a 6 + 1 pattern - 6 days of work and 1 day of rest. So. The foundation and starting point for our rhythm of Sabbath is God’s own rhythm of Sabbath established at creation. This pattern first shows us the importance of work. As we work hard, with creativity; bringing order and blessing into the world in our paid or unpaid work – we image God. Work is what most of our life is all about. But it’s not all our life is to be about. There is one whole day that is holy, different and set apart from the others. It’s a day to stop, rest & enjoy the good fruit of our labor like God did.

The Sabbath reappears next in the 10 Commandments (Exo. 20) as commandment number 4. It’s significant to note that taking a regular Sabbath is 1 of God’s top 10 priorities for the human race. Sabbath is a part of how we love God and neighbor. From this we see that Sabbath is both a part of God’s created order and His moral order for the universe – it’s a part of the way things are and ought to be.

OUR REFUSAL TO SABBATH

If a 6 +1 pattern is a part of God’s created & moral order and if Sabbath is a gift God has given to us, why do so many of us refuse it? In our culture, almost everyone would say - to some degree – their lives are often characterized by the 3 O’s:  Overscheduled, overcommitted, overwhelmed. When asked, “How are you doing?”, our most common response is “Busy!”. We suffer from “hurry sickness” and often feel like we have no choice but to stay busy. But what’s driving this busyness syndrome?

In the modern world, where our identity and worth are largely individually constructed, the major place we look to derive our identity and worth is in our work and productivity. The more we work and accomplish, the more we feel worthy, the more we feel that we matter in the world; that we are somebody. It’s why, when we first meet someone, after asking their name we ask, “What do you?” The formula is who we are = what we do.  In this environment, SO Sabbath sounds like a threat to our very identity & worth. We keep going because –we afraid of the void and vulnerability that awaits when we stop. 

GOD’S REASONS FOR SABBATH  

If we are ever going to stop refusing the gift of Sabbath, we need to see what we are refusing. Here are 4 reasons why God has given us this gift.

1. Rest – God has given us the Sabbath so that we would stop and rest. God wired the need for regular rest into our humanity so we would remember what we are - human beings not human doings. We are not what we do. Stopping to rest regularly give us space to accept and acknowledge two fundamental truths about the world: 1) We are human and have limits 2) Only God is sovereign and in control. These two fundamental theological truths are put into practice when we Sabbath.

2. Release – Deut. 5:15 shows us that the rhythm of Sabbath releases us from living in a slavery mindset.  God is saying, “You were a slave (you couldn’t rest) NOW you’ve been released. Don’t live as a slave anymore to anything or anyone because I am your only Lord and Master.  Under Pharaoh, it was never enough. You were only valued because of what you did and how well you produced. So I give you 1 day a week dedicated to remembering that I redeemed you because I value YOU – not because of what you have done.

3. Replenishment – What did God do on day 7? The text doesn’t say, but we can infer the answer from what is said about the other 6 days. God was savoring ll the good He made. It He didn’t do it alone but invited humanity to stop and savor the goodness of life and creation. Work – even the best work – depletes us; Sabbath savoring replenishes us.

4. Re-centering - The Sabbath is carving into our life regular intervals of time to remember the truth that we are not the center of the universe – God is. The 7th day is a Sabbath to the Lord” (Exo 20:10, Deut. 5:14). It’s God’s day. It’s His weekly intrusion in our time to show us the world doesn’t revolve around us.

OUR RHTYHM OF SABBATH

How can we start or restore a regular rhythm of Sabbath to our lives? Is it even possible? Author Mark Buchannan in his book Rest of God says, “You can only enter the Sabbath day if you first have a Sabbath heart”. In Jesus’ time there were many who zealously observed the Sabbath day but never experienced its benefits. The reason they were so zealous about Sabbath rules is the same reason we are so zealous in our refusal to stop. What drove them is the same thing that drives us. Iit’s not about the work on the surface - it’s the work beneath the work. The work to prove ourselves, to perform, to build an identity, to prove our worth. They looked to external religious appearance and performance, we to achievements/productivity.

The gospel can bring us rest from the work beneath the work. There are 2 extremely significant moments in the Bible when God announced “It’s finished” – 1) Gen 2:1 “the heavens and the earth were finished”, 2) John 19: 28, “Jesus, knowing all was now finished said “I thirst”… when Jesus had received the sour wine he said, “it is finished”.

 Because Jesus perfect work for us, we no longer have to work to prove our identity. We are loved by God despite our failures and sin. Because of Jesus’ perfect work for us, we don’t have to prove our worth. The cross shows us how much God values us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We can rest.

Questions

1.        What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2.        What is your initial reaction to the idea of a regular Sabbath? Are you drawn to this? Skeptical? Uninterested? What questions do you have?

3.        How does understanding God’s Sabbath as the basis for ours help us

4.        Bridget Shulte, author of Overwhelmed How to Work Love and Play when no one has the time says, “We’ve made busyness almost like the price of admission for modern life. We talk about it as a status symbol. If you’re not doing anything there’s something wrong with you, you’re a loser. So when people are not busy they create it to fit in… Our culture right now is gearing us all toward a crazy, insane lifestyle nobody wants.”

Do you resonate with this? How do you see this at work in your own life? How have you dealt with this powerful pull toward busyness and hurry in your life?

5.        Which of the 4 reasons for Sabbath do you feel you most need in your life right now?

In Emotionally Healthy Leadership, Peter Scazzero writes, “Sabbath is the one day of the week I most believe and live out a fundamental truth of the gospel. I do nothing productive, and yet I am utterly loved.” How does the gospel free us to truly rest? Why is it so hard for us to rest in the reality that “it is finished”?

Gospel Rhythms: Sermon Series Study Guide #5 - Engage People Intentionally To Help Them Move Toward Jesus

READ Colossians 4:2-6

This passage is the very last section in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Most of this letter is focused on the church’s formation – on how Christians mature by going deeper into Jesus by faith. But before Paul ends his letter with his final greetings, he connects our formation to our mission. He reminds them that they are partners in the mission Jesus has given to the church that every person might hear a clear and winsome communication of the Christian faith in the context of a loving community (the church) or a loving friendship. In this passage, we can find 4 key steps for engaging people intentionally to help move them toward Jesus.

1. PRAY FOR OPEN DOORS

The image of the “open door” is a frequent image used in Scripture to describe God’s work of opening hearts and minds to be receptive to the message of the gospel. When and where doors are open (there is receptivity) – it’s a sign that God is at work. It’s important our efforts to engage others with the gospel begin here for a number of reasons: 1) Some doors are closed – Not everyone is ready. Some are resistant. We don’t force our way in because only God can open the door. 2) Prayer opens doors – Somehow in God’s mysterious purposes, He uses our prayers for specific people/places to open doors. We can’t open doors (through our persuasion or skill); but God can open any door. We should be steadfast and consistent in praying for open doors. 3) When a door is open, we can be confident God is at work. If someone shows interest and receptivity toward the gospel, we can have great boldness knowing God is actively working in a person’s life.

2. MOVE TOWARD PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE DIFFERENTLY

When Paul tells the church to “Walk with wisdom toward outsiders”, he tells us where we should walk and how we should walk in a world that doesn’t share our faith. He tells us to walk (ie live) toward people who believe differently than us. We live in a very difficult and divisive time. Instead of moving toward people who believe different, many are getting further and further apart from people on “opposite” sides of the “aisle”. There is a danger in this environment that we all only walk toward those people who already believe like us. But this only deepens the divide, suspicion and tension. Christianity calls us to move us toward people who believe differently than us not away from them.

He also tells us how to walk - with wisdom. Wisdom is the thoughtful, balanced & practical application of our faith to the real issues of individuals and communities. Walking in wisdom means the goal is not to win an argument but to show and share the difference the gospel makes in someone’s life and in the life of a community. Communicating and demonstrating the wisdom of the gospel in the real issues of life requires genuine friendship. We need to know the real issues and struggles people are facing and be willing to share how the gospel is making a difference in the issues and struggles in our life.

3. BE INTENTIONAL IN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS  

When Paul says “making the best use of the time”, he’s using the language of snatching up bargains in the marketplace. In essence, he’s saying, “don’t miss out on opportunities that arise for significant conversation”. Here are 3 aspects to living with this kind of intentionality:

1.      Providence of God –  Remember it’s never an accident or coincidence that you are connected to the people in your relational network. It’s a part of God’s plan.

2.      People NEVER Projects –Engaging people is never about making people a means to an end – or even worse an “evangelism project”.

3.      Purposeful Presence – Be intentionally about where your routines; where you frequent, shop. We tend to be so relationally scattered and spread thin. When we intentionally limit our choices, we create opportunity for meaningful relationships.

4. ALWAYS SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF GRACE

When Paul says our “speech should always be gracious”, this is best understood as addressing both the manner and content of our speech. Often people’s perception of conversations about religious is that these kinds of conversations quickly become: Abrasive, combative, impersonal, preachy and condemning. Paul says this is never how it should be. Any time we talk about Jesus we should do it graciously, tactfully, courteously – how we speak about our faith is what makes it salty -inviting/appealing.

Gracious speech also means that when we have an open door to have a meaningful conversation about faith with someone doesn’t believe in Christianity, we should always center the conversation on grace. Why? Because grace is the salty seasoning that sets Christianity apart from all other worldviews and approaches to life. The gospel’s message that we are accepted and loved by God not because of what we do but because of what Jesus has done for us is the salt we want people to taste. Successful engaging is not always convincing or converting (only God does this) but asking, “Did they get just a little taste of grace, enough to make them thirsty for more?”

Questions

1.      What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2.      What is your initial reaction to the idea of having faith conversations with people who believe differently than you? Do you agree that Col. 4:2-6 provides us with a way to approach these conversations in way that removes the guilt and pressure for Christians and is actually inviting and welcomed by those who are not Christians?

3.      How are you moving toward people who believe differently than you do? Do you have meaningful relationships with people who are not Christians? Are you able to have discussions about the real issues and struggles of life with them? What’s hardest for you about this?

4.      Which of the 3 aspects of intentionally above is most helpful to you as you think about growing in engaging people intentionally?

How does centering our conversations on grace help relieve the pressure and fear we often feel about engaging people? How might sharing the impact of grace in our own lives change the way we talk about our faith with those who don’t share it?