Good morning. Well, this has been a long week of training to be a Resident Assistant in the dorm at school. Then on Saturday I had to help 15 freshman move into the dorm, and today I have to go back and help 10 more returning students in. So, needless to say, I am worn out.
But today as we continue our series on the Rick Warren book, The Purpose Driven Church we are going to take a look at another powerful chapter. We have looked at what drives our church, and that we have to have a firm foundation. Today we are going to look at Defining Our Purposes.
To start I would like to read a verse that I read last week as well. It is in I Corinthians 1:10, and in the Living Bible Translation it says, “Let there be real harmony so that there won’t be splits in the church… Be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.”
When it comes to defining our purpose, it is very important for everyone to be on the same page as to what the purpose of the church is. You have noticed this in all 3 sermons now, unity of purpose on everyone’s part. In order to become a purpose driven church, we all have to have harmony among us.
So defining our purpose. Listen to what Rick Warren says about defining your purpose. He says, “Leading your congregation through a discovery of the New Testament purposes for your church is an exciting adventure…
It is exciting to see apathetic members become enthusiastic as they rediscover how God desires to use them and their church.”
So, as we rediscover our purpose, it can be a very exciting and enthusiastic adventure if you are willing to go on that adventure together. You see, it is not our job to create the purposes of the church, but it is our job to discover them. Remember, it’s Christ’s church, not ours.
So, when we are discovering the purpose of the church, we need to find the answer to 4 questions.
1. Why does the church exist?
2. What are we to be as a church? (who and what are we?)
3. What are we to do as a church? (what does God want done in the world?)
4. How are we to do it?
We may be innovative with the style of ministry, but we must never alter the substance of it. In other words, we can change the wrapping, as long as we don’t change the gift or the message.
Now, we have already looked at the idea that a good purpose statement is short enough for everyone to remember, yet it has a profound meaning that describes what our church is about. We also talked how ours does both of those.
It simply is: Gather, Grow, and Glorify. That is easy to remember, yet it has a deeper meaning that describes what we want our church to be.
Today, let’s look at some other things that help to makes an effective purpose statement.
First, It Is Biblical
An effective purpose statement can be supported with passages of scripture. Remember, we do not create the purposes of the church, we discover them. Christ is the head of the church and he established the purposes of the church long ago. It is up to us to discover and apply the biblical purposes of the church. This can go back to having the foundation set firmly. If we set a firm foundation of our purpose statement or our mission statement we will be using biblical texts to do so.
Second, It Is Specific
Listen to what Rick Warren says in this section. He writes, “Purpose statements need to be simple and clear. The biggest mistake a church can make when developing a purpose statement is trying to cram too much into it. The temptation is to add in all kinds of good, but unnecessary, phrases because you are afraid of leaving out something important. But the more you add to your statement, the more diffused it becomes, and the more difficult it is to fulfill.”
He goes on to say, “A narrow mission is a clear mission. Disneyland’s purpose statement is “To provide people happiness.” The original mission statement of the Salvation Army was to “Make citizens of the rejected.””
So, by having a specific purpose statement we can convey our mission in a clear way. I believe that we here at Fly Branch Church of Christ have just that in our purpose statement. We are here to Gather, to Grow, and to Glorify.
And Finally, It Is Transferable
A purpose statement that is transferable is just that, it is short enough that everyone can remember it and pass it on to others around them. The shorter a mission statement is the better. Warren says, “Although the purpose statement for every biblical church will include the same elements, there is nothing to keep you from saying it in a fresh, creative way. Try to make it memorable.”
That is exactly what we have. It is the 3 G’s that our church is all about. Gathering, Growing, and Glorifying.
People vary rarely remember sermons or speeches. In fact, I bet nobody can tell me in detail what I preached about last week. What people remember are simple statements, slogans, and phrases. I bet that few people know any speech that John F. Kennedy gave, but I’m sure you all know his statement, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” We don’t remember any sermons preached by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but we do remember his famous phrase, “I have a dream!”
So, it has to be short, memorable, and it has to say the important purpose of our church, and by saying that we here are Fly Branch have a purpose of gathering, growing, and glorifying God, we do just that.
Listen to what Rick Warren had to say next. He writes, “In the first months of Saddleback I led our new church in the process I have just explained to you. Finally, we concluded that although many passages describe what the church is to be and do, 2 statements by Jesus summarize it all: The Great Commandment found in Matthew 22:37-40, and The Great Commission found in Matthew 28:19-20.”
Let’s go ahead and look at these 2 passages at this time. If you would turn with me to Matthew 22:37-40 we will first look at The Great Commandment. Here in Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus says, “1”
The Great Commandment was given by Jesus in response to a question that he was asked. One day he had someone ask Him what the most important command was. He responded by telling them to love God with all of your heart, and equal to that is to love your neighbor as yourself.
Later, in some of His last words to His disciples, Jesus gave the Great Commission to them and assigned them 3 important tasks. Go make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to obey everything He had taught.
If you would turn to Matthew 28:19-20 we read The Great Commission that we have read each week so far. Here in Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus says, “2”
Rick warren says that a great commitment to the great commandment and the great commission will grow a great church. So, do we have that great commitment to those great commands and commissions?
Now I know that I have mentioned the 5 New Testament purposes of the church before, but today we are going to take a look at each of those 5 purposes. A purpose driven church is committed to fulfilling all five tasks that Christ has ordained for His church to accomplish.
Purpose # 1: Love The Lord With All Your Heart
Listen to what Rick Warren had to say about this purpose. He writes, “The word that describes this purpose is worship. The church exists to worship God. How do we love God with all our heat? By worshiping Him! It doesn’t matter if we’re by ourselves, with a small group, or with 100,000 people. When we express our love to God, we’re worshiping. The Bible says in Matthew 4:10, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.””
Notice that the word worship comes before the word serve. Worshiping God is the church’s first purpose. Rick Warren goes on to say, “Throughout Scripture we’re commanded to celebrate God’s presence by magnifying the Lord and exalting His name. In the New American Standard Bible it says in Psalms 34:3, “O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together.” We shouldn’t worship out of duty, we should worship because we want to. We should enjoy expressing our love to God.”
So, the first purpose is to love the Lord with all of your heart. And now we know that that is accomplished by worshiping Him. So, does that fit into our mission statement anywhere? Yes it does. When we gather, we usually worship God at those times. Also, our final purpose is to glorify God, and that comes through worship as well. So, in our purpose statement we do love the Lord with all of our heart.
Purpose # 2: Love Your Neighbor As Yourself
Listen to what he has to say about loving your neighbor as yourself. He writes, “The word we use to describe this purpose is ministry. The church exists to minister to people. Ministry is demonstrating God’s love to others by meeting their needs and healing their hurts in the name of Jesus. The church is to minister to all kinds of needs: spiritual, emotional, relational, and physical. In Ephesians 4:12 in another translation says, “equip the saints for the work of ministry.””
So, a big purpose of the church is to love others. Now how does our purpose statement cover the idea of loving others? Well, we could consider the idea of growing as loving others. In order for us to grow, we have to be showing others love, or else they won’t be coming. We can also look at the idea of glorifying God as loving others. We are told in God’s word to love others and to love our neighbor as our selves, and to consider others better than ourselves. That is love. And when we do that, we are glorifying God. So, yes, we do love our neighbors as ourselves in our purpose statement.
Purpose # 3: Go And Make Disciples
Warren says here, “This purpose we call evangelism. The church exists to communicate God’s word. We are ambassadors for Christ, and our mission is to evangelize the world. The word go in the Great Commission is a present participle in the Greek text. Is should be read “as you are going.” It is every Christian’s responsibility to share the Good News wherever we go. We are to tell the whole world of Christ’s coming, His death on the cross, His resurrection, and His promise to return. Someday each of us will give an account to God regarding how seriously we took this responsibly.”
Now, the idea of evangelism is so important that Christ actually gave us 5 Great Commissions, 1 in each of the gospels, and one in the book of Act. In Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:47-49, John 20:21, and in Acts 1:8 Jesus commissions us to go and to tell the entire world about the message of salvation and the story of Jesus Christ.
Now, do we cover that idea in our purpose statement here at Fly Branch Church of Christ? Yes, we do. When it comes to growing, again we mean personally as well as numerically. When we grow in number, we are growing others personally. So, when we grow, it is a result of evangelism. Also, you could look at it as another way that we are glorifying God.
Purpose # 4: Baptizing Them
In the Greek text of the great Commission there are 3 participle verbs: going, baptizing, and teaching. Each of these is a part of the command to making disciples. Going, baptizing, and teaching are the essential elements of the disciple making process.
Baptism is the part of the church that makes believers part of Christ’s family. It is the adoption into His family and into a brotherhood and sisterhood of believers. In Ephesians 2:19 in the Living Bible it says, “You are members of God’s very own family… and you belong in God’s households with every other Christian.” Again we can accomplish this by the growing and glorifying stages of our purpose statement. When we grow, we come to a point in our life where we have to make the decision to become baptized. And by baptizing people we are glorifying God in our efforts.
Purpose # 5: Teaching Them To Obey
Listen to what Rick Warren had to say about this section. He writes, “The word we commonly use to refer to this purpose is discipleship. The church exists to edify, or educate, God’s people.
Discipleship is the process of helping people become more like Christ in their thoughts, feelings, and actions. This process begins when a person is born again and continues throughout the rest of his life. In the NCV bible, in Colossians 1:28 it says, “We continue to preach Christ to each person, using all wisdom to warn and to teach everyone, in order to bring each one into God’s presence as a mature person in Christ.”
As a church we are called to reach people, but we are also called to teach them how to obey Him. If we simply reach them and stop, there is not change. However, if we teach them how to obey what God has given us, then we can have a huge impact on their lives.
So, do we cover that in our purpose statement? Again, yes we do. When it come to gathering and growing we accomplish this task. When we gather, we are learning about what God has said. We are teaching others as well as ourselves how to better obey God. And as we grow, we learn more and more as to how to obey our God.
Listen to how Rick Warren ends this chapter. He writes, “Every great church has defined its purposes and then somehow figured out a process or system for fulfilling those purposes. The Central Church of Seoul, Korea, was built on a fully graded Sunday School system. Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, grew due to a personal evangelism system. In the early 1970’s, many churches were built around a system of bringing attendees to church on buses. In each of these cases, church leaders clearly defined their purpose and then developed a process to fulfill those purposes.”
Warren goes on to say, “I cannot overemphasize the importance of defining your church’s purpose. It is not merely a target that you aim for, it is your congregation’s reason for being. A clear purpose statement will provide the direction, the vitality, the boundaries, and the driving force for everything you do. Purpose-driven churches will be the churches best equipped to minister during all the changes we will face.”
You see, purpose driven churches are not only the ones that will last, they are the ones that will still be able to minister to those around them even when everything that we know now changes. So, does our purpose statement accomplish each of these 5 New Testament Purposes? The answer is a loud yes. We here at Fly Branch Church of Christ have a mission to gather, grow, and glorify God.
Now on a final note, remember that the church is not the building, it is the people that make that building full. That is me, the leaders, and especially all of you. So, our personal mission statements should be the same as our church. Would you please repeat them with me? We exist that we might Gather, Grow, and Glorify The Lord.
Let’s pray |
