All right, so I'm Ricky. If you're new here, thanks for being here. Thanks for being in the house of the Lord today. Turn to John chapter 13. We're going to close out our series on mission this month, kind of a mini series on mission as we start the year. We're going to close it out with a little bit— something a little bit different. We're going to have a really honest conversation about where we're at as a church, where we are facing challenges in the COVID era, and how to move forward together.
I've been reading a book on Winston Churchill and his leadership of England during World War II before America, dragging its feet, finally got into the war. And so for a period it was just England facing all of the sort of Nazi armadas and armies themselves. And he had a leadership quality that I want to try to emulate for our church this morning. He was always brutally honest. With the British public about where they were, but he was also always relentlessly optimistic about their chances. He had the British public believing even if America never got in the war, they would win single-handedly against all of Europe, which I think is pretty remarkable.
And I think that's helpful. It's helpful to just be honest and straight, like, this is where we're at, and this is why I believe that, that that we will not be defeated. And so I'm gonna just be honest upfront at the top of the message here with some of the challenges that we face as a church in the COVID era. So I'm gonna just go through these.
So the first one is that I think after a year of isolation, both physical and social and all kinds, we are feeling relational distance from one another in the church. If you're feeling that, I'm feeling that, I think we're all feeling that. Many of us have come out of 2020 with, you know, having endured some hits. We got tagged a little bit. We may have taken financial hits or personal hits. We may have lost people. I know many people in our city especially have lost a relative in this last year.
We face a situation where we cannot, as a church, design a perfect safety plan or set of safety restrictions for our church that everyone will agree with. It's just, it can't be done. We have tried and it is not possible.
In our community groups, we've had some good times of fellowship, but we've also had a number of groups and a number of members struggling to get traction in their group, just saying it's not the same to try to connect with the screen, or, you know, I can't go to somebody's backyard, or this isn't working for me for one reason or another.
6 · Identifies the fourth challenge: Sunday volunteer teams are facing shortages because longtime servants have been benched due to health concerns, and the church now requires more volunteers than normal since exposure and symptoms result in frequent absences
On our Sunday teams front, I think all Sunday teams over the last year have faced shortages because in terms of volunteer base, we used to have two things working for us as a church. One is we had a small, probably too small group of people that were super servants that would serve like every week, just crank it out. But many of those folks, some of them have been benched because maybe they're caring for an aging relative and they can't take on additional risk, though hopefully that will improve in the near term. Or maybe we've run into this thing a few times where you almost need more volunteers than normal because anytime somebody gets exposed, they may stay home stay home from church. Anytime somebody's sneezing, we're like, 'Don't come. Please don't come. No, no, no, no.' You know? 'I feel warm today.' 'Okay, that's fine.' You know, just— this is where we're at.
7 · Identifies the fifth challenge: the church's normal pattern of replacing transient members has broken down because COVID has stopped new people from visiting churches, creating a net loss as longtime transients depart without replacement
And we also face an issue where about a quarter of our church is usually military or transient, people that are here temporarily, federal workers, that kind of thing. But one of the things that's happened is those waves are normally kind of on top of each other, keeping a constant group. But as the group that has been with us longest is kind of ebbing out, and I see some of you and I'm like, oh no, we're going to lose them. As they're ebbing out, we have not, because COVID got another wave of folks, of reinforcements, right? Because frankly, most people are not out there just checking out churches during the pandemic as a hobby. So if you're connected to a church, you're kind of plugged in, but if you're not, then you're waiting.
8 · Identifies the sixth challenge: the kids ministry exemplifies a vicious cycle where families won't attend without kids classes, but the church can't staff kids classes without more families attending and volunteering
And then our kids ministry kind of exemplifies the catch-22 we're in with our volunteer base. Many of our folks at church, maybe you're here watching this at home, many folks are not attending because we don't have kids ministry, because maybe they've tried to bring their kids and it feels it's been a distraction, or they've tried to work through it, or one reason or another they're waiting for that. But we can't open more kids classes unless we have more people coming and more people volunteering. And so you end up in this sort of vicious cycle where, you know, folks aren't here and aren't involved, but then they And to get them back involved, we need people to bring them in the first place. And so you just end up like, ah, I don't know how to get out of this.
9 · Identifies the seventh challenge: the spiritual drift toward consumerism, where disconnection leads to withdrawal which deepens disconnection, and where people treat church attendance as contingent on preferred services being available rather than as commitment requiring their participation to restore those services
And I'm worried a little as a pastor that we, on a spiritual level, we could get caught in kind of a cycle as a church that becomes normal, where people don't serve and don't participate in CG or don't participate in church because they feel disconnected. And so they back off, but because they back off, it furthers the problem of their disconnection. And I think that's what we're all gonna face coming out of this. And I think spiritually, as we've walked through the last year, we all face a drift towards sort of looking at the church through a more consumer lens, right? We can feel like, 'Oh man, why isn't the library back up? Come on, library,' you know? And we can kind of look at the services around and just be, 'Ah, the church should be doing this. Why isn't this in place?' And I'm just gonna be super frank with you. We've had a few folks that have attended our church tell us they're no longer attending because we don't have certain kids ministry classes or because we don't have certain ministries running. And they're like, 'I'm gonna go to a church that has that up and running.' And maybe that's one end of the spectrum. And then maybe on the other end of the spectrum, people are watching online and they're waiting to be able to reenter, but they're waiting to reenter church life until a certain point. Until certain, you know, women's Bible studies are back or something. But we can't get those things up and running until we have more people participating. So we end up in this cycle.
10 · Acknowledges that these challenges are widespread across churches and validates the congregation's struggles by sharing his own family's difficulties with health risks, discouragement, and the logistical complications of serving during COVID
And I think we're not the only church alone in this. I think many churches are facing the same thing. And just in the fall, as we felt like we're starting to get some momentum, we got hit with that COVID spike in October, November, and it kind of derailed a number of our plans. And so, listen, I get it. I get why people are not— able to fully participate. I mean, we— my family, we have health risks. Well, some members of my family. This has been a hard year for us. Maybe it's just hard to get out and do something because you just feel like, man, I'm discouraged. I don't feel super spiritually good. I don't feel like going to church. And we've felt that as well. I've had physical challenges. I had relapse of my— some concussion symptoms. One of my kids had a major kind of health issue. And serving at the church, often because of COVID and because, you know, you don't have as many babysitters and stuff available, it just is more complicated.
11 · Shares a personal story about the chaotic Sunday morning routine with his kids to illustrate how serving at church has become logistically more difficult during COVID, even for the pastor
Normally, I was joking with the first service that normally, you know, before the first service, you know, as a pastor, you know, I used to have kind of time where I could just have the manuscript and have a coffee and just be kind of pondering things before the Lord. But in order for Jen to serve on the production team, it means I've got the kids in the morning, right? And so I'm trying to get everybody out of the house and I'm like, 'All right, guys, let's go, let's go.' Everybody's like— and I'm asking them, 'Are you ready?' And they're like, 'We're ready.' And I'm like, 'Cohen, where are your shoes?' And he's like, 'I don't know.' And I was like, 'Who knows where your shoes are?' 'Mom knows.' 'Well, Mom is at church. You gotta find your shoes.' And so, and there's shoes all over the house. They're everywhere, but none of them, we can't find two that match and we can't find two that are his size. And he's like, 'I don't know.' And I'm like, 'Do you live here as well? Like, what is happening?' And so I'm bringing the kids and Jenna and I are doing a complicated handoff. We're getting, you know, one of my parents to watch the kids and it's just, It's one of those things that's like, man, it feels so hard to just show up and serve where normally it wasn't like this. I think we're all feeling that.
12 · Pivots from the catalog of challenges to catalog God's faithfulness: successful outreach events reaching unchurched people, heroic volunteer service, financial stability while other churches folded, debt-free completion of the kids wing, and new community groups forming
And it doesn't mean, I just wanna hear this, it doesn't mean everything is going badly at the church. Man, the Lord really has provided for us. I mean, I'm just so encouraged at some of the outreach stuff we did toward the close of the year. We were handing out meals at Thanksgiving. We did the big East, the biggest thing we did last year was the Christmas parking lot outreach. I saw, you know, people posting about it on Facebook. Some guy that I don't even know, maybe he's watching today, which would be awesome, but he checked in that he was at the church for this thing, and his friends replied, 'You are at church?' And he's like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, what? Everybody know Pastor Austin? Yeah, yeah.' Like, but, and I'm like, that's the guy we want in our church parking lot, the guy that never shows up to church, right? I mean, that's encouraging, guys. And we've seen our Sunday teams, the folks that have been able to commit, man, they have served heroically week in and week out. We've even financially, we've seen the church hold steady in terms of our finances. I mean, I know some churches, frankly, guys, that through— like a good friend of mine, through the pandemic, his church folded. They just stopped meeting. They dissolved as a church, sent their members somewhere else. Because of financial hits as a result of the pandemic. Not only that, but we've still been able to build the kids' ministry wing, and we're going to finish this because people have kept to their pledges. We're going to finish that building debt-free, which is insane, and it's going to be done in the middle of April now. So, like, that's huge. And even in the community group world, you know, we're struggling with disconnection and stuff. We're starting a new group. We just started a new group. And we're gonna start one more in a couple months, God willing. And so God is at work.
13 · Frames the sermon's theological task: before calling the church to push through the challenges, he must first answer the question of why the church is worth the effort, preventing marginal post-pandemic connection from becoming normal
But here's what I wanna lay before you. We're kind of in this moment where we have to push through this season as a church and get our relationships and our, you know, teams and all of the church back online so that we can function to serve one another and serve the city around us. We don't want it to become normal that people live with only a marginal connection to the body of Christ or to a local church post-pandemic, which is a concern I have. So that's why we're going to look together at John 13, because before we make this sort of push as a church where we're going to have to, you know, really buckle up and serve some extra in some cases, we're going to have to press in with one another, I want to ask the question, why? Why is it worth it to do this?
14 · Reads John 13:34-35, establishing Jesus' command to love one another as he loved us as the foundation for why the church matters
I'm gonna look at just 2 verses, John 13:34-35. This is God's word, and Jesus says to us, 'A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.' another. This is God's word.
15 · Transitions to the sermon's main structure: three reasons to love the church drawn from John 13 and expanded through the whole Bible
And I think this is just so clear because sometimes we can just say, okay, why is the church worth it? Why is the church worth it? Jesus tells us why. Now I'm going to give you 3 reasons why we are called to love the church, kind of stemming from that verse, but going out, expanding it to the whole Bible.
16 · Establishes the first reason to love the church: it is precious to God because Jesus possessively claims it as 'my church' and relates to it as a bride, the most intimate human relationship, meaning God's love for the church is not distant ownership but passionate commitment
First reason to love the church: because it is precious. Amen. In this verse, Jesus says, that he loves us. He loves the church. He loves you, Christian. If you're sitting in this room or watching online, Jesus loves you. And notice that in Matthew 16:18, that famous passage where Jesus says, 'On this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell won't prevail against it.' We often think about the gates of hell and, you know, but the most important part of that verse is is what he says about the church. He says that it is his church. 'On this rock, I will build my church.' He doesn't just say the church, I'm gonna build a church. No, he says my church. It's possessive, right? And this possession of Jesus of the church, of God of the church, is not a distant ownership. It's not like, yeah, I have a vacuum, that's how I, yeah, it's my vacuum. No, it's, Jesus is tapping in later on into this, this thread in scripture of God speaking to his people as his bride. You see this in places like Isaiah 54. You see it in places like Ephesians 5 and Revelation 21. God calls the church his bride, right? The closest human relationship that you can possibly have is that. And Jesus says, that is what it's like. That's how I I love love you. you, right? Why are we to love the church? Because it is precious in the sight of God, because Jesus loves it.
17 · Amplifies the preciousness of the church by citing Jesus' statement that laying down one's life is the greatest love, then highlighting the marvel that God would send his Son for sinners and call them friends and bride rather than bringing deserved judgment
Just one verse, I mean, one chapter over, Jesus says in John 15, 'Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.' I mean, the fact that Jesus would take us, people like us, sinners, people far from God, people cut off from God, People, man, we've seen the kind of stuff that lives in our hearts. Man, this last year on the world stage, we see all this stuff coming out of human hearts. God sees all of that. God sees that coming out of our heart and he looks on that and rather than just judge or just bring wrath, he sends his Son for us and then calls us friends. He calls us his bride, right? Why are we to love the church? Because it is precious. To the Lord. And if it is precious to the Lord, then it should be precious to us. We love the church because it is precious.
18 · Establishes the second reason to love the church: it is essential to the Christian life, not an optional enhancement
Second, we love the church because it is essential to the Christian. Writing an article about what constitutes essential and the relationship between the Christian and the church in 2020, Brett McCracken says this: For decades now, we've conceived of church not so much as something but before which we are accountable and through which our Christian identity is realized, but as an optional enhancement to our own personally curated spiritual path. Meaning like, well, I'm following Jesus, and if that church can help me, like, sure, yeah, I could work it in. That's the way we often, as Americans, see the church. And so this is what it results in. It results in this attitude. Church is not essential, we assume, because Christianity is just as easily practiced solo at home. Give me a Bible, some inspiring worship music, maybe a few spiritual podcasts, and I'm good. Do we really need the church to be spiritually healthy? And I think the whole New Testament would answer, 'Yes, we need the church to be spiritually healthy.' The church is essential to what it means to be a Christian. Think about when the church forms in Acts chapter 2, The gospel is preached. What happens to all the people that believe in Jesus? Acts 2:47 says, 'And they were added.' And then more people were saved, 'And they were added.' The question is, added to what? Added to the church. They didn't just send up, you know, individual one-on-one Bible studies and say, like, you know, 'Okay, great, you just kind of do your own thing.' No, they brought them into a people. You know, there's a clear understanding in the New Testament in these letters that there is a definite group of people where people sort of know this is this body, right? That is assumed throughout the New Testament.
19 · Demonstrates from the epistles that every Christian addressed is part of a church (Phoebe, Philemon), then explains from Ephesians 4 that the varied gifts of the body are necessary for Christians to mature, meaning the church is not just God's design but essential for discipleship
And let me just give you an observation here. Every Christian in the New Testament that's addressed in the epistles is addressed as being part of a church. There's no churchless Christian in the letters of the New Testament. For example, Phoebe is not just Phoebe, she is Phoebe from Cenchreae commended to the church in Rome, meaning she's from one church, she's coming to this church, that's her dynamic. Even the letter to the Philemon, right? You think, well, that's a letter to an individual guy. There's a reference to the church that meets in his home, right? This is not just a guy that's out there, this is a guy hosting the church. And not only is this God's design, not only does this bring God unique glory, but it is essential for the care and maturing and discipleship of Christians. In Ephesians chapter 4, Paul talks about the varied kinds of gifts in the body and says that these— this mutual ministry of different kinds of people ministering to one another is necessary until, quote, we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so so that we may no longer be children. What is Paul saying there? He's saying this, that you need the one another ministry of the church, the different gifts of the church, the life in the church in order to mature into who God has called you to be as a Christian.
20 · Uses a hypothetical scenario comparing elite one-on-one discipleship from famous Christians (D
Look, if we could set up the perfect scenario for you as an individual Christian, right? We could get, we get D.A. Carson, New Testament scholar, to come in and teach you about the letters of the New Testament. And we get, you know, Chris Tomlin or Bob Coughlin come in, teach you about worship and prayer. We get Billy Graham, we resurrect him, he teaches you about evangelism. You know, you got these 3 or 4 Bible studies going. You would not be as mature in that scenario as you would be as a member of a local church. And one of the reasons for that is everybody thinks they're mature in a one-on-one Bible study until you show up at community group You see a bumper sticker for a political candidate you don't like, and you're like, 'Grrr,' you know? Bible, and then the Lord's like, 'Oh, is there something we can work on there? Great,' right? You need, or maybe somebody's having a party, they don't invite you, you're angry, right? You need the person that didn't invite you. You need the body of Christ to help reveal where you're at, but you also need those different gifts to help mature you. You need people gifted at different things that have different perspectives. This is the design of Christ. Christ.
21 · Applies the doctrine of the church's essentiality to the listener's actual sin patterns and life struggles, asserting that God's design for addressing these is the church
So look, if you are like me and tend to be at times ill-tempered or impatient or selfish or self-serving or clueless in parenting or frustrated in your work, if that is you, if you have any needs for any maturity in any area, God's design is to help you with that through the church. The church is essential to the Christian.
22 · Establishes the third reason to love the church: it is the vehicle of gospel mission
Third, the church is the vehicle of gospel mission. Look, over the last year, so many needs in our world have sort of been raised to the surface. We see the brokenness of our world, I think, especially as Americans, better than we ever have, right? Like this, this is real. Like, just even as Americans, the reality that we will die and it may be sooner than we think, we've come face to face with that, right? And the brokenness relationally in our country and around the world, the conflict, the disagreement, you know, all of that has kind of gotten flushed out and exposed. And what is the solution for all of that? Now, there's good practical solutions, good ways to love one another and love your neighbor, but the ultimate solution for the ills of the world is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every deep longing and hurt of the human heart is, if it's truly from the Lord is answered in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That longing for, 'Man, I don't want to be alienated. I don't want to be isolated.' That's answered in the gospel. 'You know, my body is broken.' That's answered in the gospel. 'Everything in my relationships is broken.' That's answered in the— like, all of this, and especially starting with you being alienated from God himself, which leads to all of this sin, is answered in the gospel. The church, listen, So the church is essential because it answers the question, how does the gospel get from this book to them? How does the gospel go from just a message on a page to human beings that need it? God's design is that it comes through the church.
23 · Demonstrates from Matthew 28 and Acts 1 that the Great Commission was given to the disciples as a group representing the church, not to individuals, establishing that mission is inherently corporate
Look, this is implied, and we often forget this, in places like Matthew 28 where you have this Great Commission, right? 'Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.' Everyone's like, 'Yeah.' That is not an individual commissioning. That is preceded by the verse that the disciples went to the mountain and Jesus came and said to them, right? So the disciples who represent the 12 tribes of Israel, representing the people of God, they receive the commission as a group. So what is that? That is the church in miniature. That's the church in representation. Jesus doesn't just say, 'Hey, Peter, come here. I got a mission for you. Okay, you do this.' And Andrew, 'Okay, I got a mission for you. You go do this.' No, he gathers them together and says, 'You guys, representing the church, receive this commission.' Same thing in Acts chapter 1, where it talks about being witnesses. Jesus says, 'You'll be my witnesses, you know, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth.' When does he tell them that? 'When they had come together, he said to them.' Meaning that they, these disciples, are together, receive it together, take it together. And this is what we see in the New Testament, right? We see churches sending people. We see churches reaching people.
24 · Cites Mark Dever's message to a campus fellowship distinguishing the local church from parachurch ministries: only the church has God's promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against it, making it uniquely backed for mission regardless of circumstances
Look, let me just end this mini section with a comment from Mark Dever. Years ago, Mark Dever's a pastor in the D.C. area. He goes to a— he's a big local church guy, which I think is awesome. And he gets invited to preach at a campus fellowship in the D.C. area. And he said, they said, 'You can preach on whatever you want.' So he goes, 'Great, I'm gonna preach about the local church.' And so he starts his message by saying, basically, that the verse says, that the verse does not say, 'The gates of hell will not prevail against my campus fellowship.' The verse says, 'The gates of hell will not prevail against the church.' And what he's, and he goes from there to explain, we can be grateful for campus fellowships, we can be grateful for nonprofits, we can be grateful for orphanages, but the essential ingredient for mission, the essential ingredient, the only God-designed, God-set-out, God-structured thing that we have is the local church. And only the local church is backed by God's unique promise that the gates of hell, come hell or high water or whatever else, come COVID or famine or war or whatever else, the church will be left standing. It is backed by the promise of the risen and resurrected Son of God himself.
25 · Steps outside the argument to speak pastorally about three people the church lost in 2020 (Lydia, Maggie, and one unnamed), showing how their stories testify to the essential nature of the church—Lydia's family walked through loss with the church, Maggie returned to God through the church's outreach
Why do we love the church? We love the church because it is precious in the sight of God, because it is essential for the Christian, and because it is a vehicle for mission. And look, I think, I was just thinking this week and praying this week about the 3 folks that our church lost. In 2020. And I think they do more than any of all— anything that I could say to illustrate the essential nature and beautiful nature of the church. I think in Lydia, in this beautiful girl that was part of our kids ministry, her family's testimony was the church was essential to them. That them walking through this with people was essential to them. That hearing the gospel from teachers who loved Jesus and invested in their daughter was essential to them. And you think about Maggie, who used to sit right here. And you think about how did she come to find a church family? How did she come to return to a God that she had heard about years ago but had not been in a church in years? How did that happen? It happened because people from our church went and knocked on her door and asked her if she needed anything. And faithfully invested in her and shared and talked to her about Jesus, right? The church was essential to that story.
26 · Transitions from why we love the church to how we love the church, establishing that Jesus defines the shape of love by his own example ('just as I have loved you'), preventing us from filling in our own comfortable definitions
Why do we believe that the church is worth all of the work, the blood, sweat, and tears, and late nights, and spilled coffee, and, you know, frustrations, and conflict resolution? We believe it because we see it. We see its effect on the lives of people like this. All right, so that's why we love the church. All right, how, how then to love the church? Well, Jesus answers that in John 13. He says, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. I would prefer him not to have said that. I would prefer him to just say, just love one another, 'cause then I could fill in my definition of love. You know, I'm an introvert. I don't love hanging out with people all the time. So my definition of love is I will text you every once in a while praying for you, right? That's love to me. And Jesus says, uh-uh, buddy. Just as I have loved you, you're to love one another. Right? He shows us the shape of love. So what does that look like? I just want to highlight— it's a lot of things. I want to highlight 4 quick things real quick here at the end.
27 · Establishes the first way to love the church: commitment modeled on Jesus' pursuit of us when we turned away
First, we commit. We commit to one another. Jesus committed to us. When we turned aside, when we turned away, he pursued us because we were precious to him and he was committed to us. And so, as a result, the church was committed to one another. Acts 2 says the church was devoted to fellowship. Romans 12:10 calls the church to be devoted to one another. This is what I call, like, the mailman commitment to one another, right? The mailman's motto, like, through wind and rain and shine and snow and whatever. Like, if people don't want to go to work, tough. You're putting the little khaki shorts on and the safari hat, and if you're a mailman, you're out there. Man, like, that is what we are talking about.
28 · Surfaces the pastor's central fear that the pandemic will normalize treating church attendance like gym membership or grocery store preference rather than covenantal commitment
And I have a huge fear for our church and the church in America coming out of this pandemic. I— my fear is that we will normalize marginal, casual commitment to a local church, that we will begin to treat local church like nothing more than a gym or a favorite grocery store or a favorite brand or whatever.
29 · Documents the phenomenon of pandemic church-switching based on safety disagreements, preaching style preferences, and ministry availability, enabled by the ability to sample multiple churches from the couch
And look, I've— let me just be super real and frank for a minute. I've talked to a number of pastors in our city and elsewhere, and even our own experience as a church is that there's an unusual number of people switching churches right now in the pandemic. And sometimes that is because they— the church made a statement about safety they disagreed with. Not a doctrinal thing, just a wisdom call. And so they're out, right? Or because the church said something, you know, that they didn't like, and then they've started to listen to other, you know, once you're at home on the couch and you can just flip through everybody's service, you can kind of tailor to, you know, I like this guy's preaching style better, or this band is more acoustic and I kind of like that. So when I go back, I want to do this, right? Or, you know, I really want this type of ministry and my church can't offer it right now, so I'm going to go over here.
30 · Forbids normalizing church-switching based on preference by contrasting it with Jesus' covenantal treatment of us, calling instead for long-haul commitment and care
Now, I'm not saying there's never a good reason to change churches. I think there's totally good reasons for doing that. I am saying this. We cannot normalize changing churches like changing gyms. We cannot normalize changing churches like, hey, I used to go to Albertsons, but Sprouts came in, and it has that cool barn design in the inside, and it makes me feel better, so I go to Sprouts now. We can't do this. This is not what the Lord, this is not the way the Lord treats us. We must not treat one another this way. We commit, we care, we dive in for the long haul.
31 · Establishes the second way to love the church: care modeled on Jesus' deep, attentive knowledge of our needs, joys, and sorrows
We care, we care. What does it look like to love the church? It looks like care. 1 Corinthians 12 says this, 'For God has so composed the body that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer. If one member is honored, all rejoice together.' And when I look at that verse, I think that's the way Jesus has cared for us, right? This deep, attentive, committed care that knows our needs, that knows our joys, that knows our sorrows, that knows the ups and downs and can enter into those things and bring care to bear where and when we need it. Man, that's the way Jesus treats us and that's the way we're to treat others.
32 · Catalogs New Testament one-another commands (bear burdens, teach, show hospitality, build up, pray) to demonstrate that biblical care assumes tight-knit relationships
We're to, you know, just examples from the New Testament, we're to bear one another's burdens, Galatians 6. We're to teach one another, 1 Thessalonians 4. We're to show hospitality, with hospitality to one another, 1 Peter 4. We're to build one another up, Romans 14. We're to pray for one another, James 5, right? And all of that assumes relationship and care that is tight-knit.
33 · Applies the doctrine of mutual care by forbidding delegation of care to leaders, instructing members to follow up with absent brothers themselves, and giving concrete examples ranging from meal delivery to daily encouragement for depression
And what that means is this, it is not just one group's responsibility in the church to care for the people in the church. It's not just your small group leader's job if you're in a small group to care for people, right? If you see somebody in your group that's never on the Zoom call, calls, don't think, 'Man, I hope our— my small group leader follows up with that guy. I haven't seen him in forever.' No, like, you do. That's what New Testament Christianity is. You follow up with the brother. You say, 'Hey, man, I haven't seen you in forever, man. What's going on?' It may be that they're hurting. It may be that they're sick. It may be that something's hard, right? You intentionally get to know the details of one another's lives, right? And it could look like anything from dropping off a meal to a senior saint who's real isolated to To knowing somebody's battling depression and giving them daily encouragement, whatever it means, that's what we want to be pursuing.
34 · Transitions to the third way to love the church: serving
Third, serving. What does it look like? It looks like serving.
35 · Grounds the call to serve in Jesus' footwashing, explaining that in Jesus' day this was the task for the lowest servant, and that Jesus' command means we are called to intensely practical, messy care
And this passage in John 13 comes right after Jesus' example of washing the disciples' feet, right, the task for the lowest of the low. Like, all the servants, whenever the foot washing came around, ranked each other and were like, okay, who's— Who's the lowest man? If Gary, Gary's the guy, you know, 'Oh man,' you know, that was washing feet in Jesus' day. Jesus says this, 'If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you also should do.' 'just as I have done to you.' Now church, this means that what we're called to is intensely practical care and service. It means getting into the weeds with people. It means dealing with messes.
36 · Applies the call to serve with concrete examples (joining production team at 7 AM, holding babies in COVID era) and grounds the obligation in Jesus' intensely practical service through his death on the cross
And it means just practical stuff, right? It means helping people practically that need help. I mean, if you join the production team, it means getting here at like 6:00 AM I think they get here at like 4:00 in the morning. I don't know. When do you guys get here, like 7:00, something like that? All right, 7:00. All right, well, it's not as heroic, but it's fine. It's good. Or holding babies, you know? You're like, you think the last thing you want to do in COVID era is hold a baby. You know, those little boogers, like, they're not the most sanitary, right? And yet you feel like, well, I've gotten vaccines, and yeah, I'm ready. I can do it, you know? But I don't want to, right? That's what it means. Jesus served us in the most intensely practical way. The most practical, personal way possible through his ministry and death on the cross. That's how he's washed our feet. He calls us then to wash others' feet.
37 · Addresses the American preoccupation with freedom by exposing Galatians 5's subversion: freedom is given for service, not self-interest, and Christ used his freedom to serve us
And let me just add this. I think this is helpful. Hear me when I say this. You know, one of the things that we've talked a lot about in the last year is freedom. And as Americans, you know, what are the limits of government overreach and all that stuff. We've talked a lot about freedom, but I want you to hear how God says to to use our freedom. In Galatians 5, he says this: 'For you were called to freedom, brothers.' And all the Americans are like, 'Amen, amen, Paul.' You know, just wait. 'Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh,' meaning yourself, the sinful part of yourself, 'but rather through love serve one another.' Paul is like, 'Hey, you got freedom in Christ. You've got freedom. Amen, we got it.' Now he says, take the freedom. Okay, take the freedom, die to yourself, serve people. And we're like, nope, I don't like that part. That's why Christ has given us this freedom to serve one another. How did Christ use his freedom but to serve us?
38 · Transitions to the fourth way to love the church: stretching beyond comfort
Fourth here, stretch. Jesus' love for us was not comfortable or convenient, it was costly. I'm using that word stretch to try to sum up the New Testament sections where the body of Christ is exhorted to hang in there with one another, where they have differences of conviction or wisdom or preference. And this year has brought this out of all of us, right? Some have decided all kinds of things. Some have decided, I can have fellowship and see people. Others decide, you know, I can't, I'm not gonna see people. Some are in faith to take risks, some are not gonna take any risks. And sometimes what's behind those decisions are not good things. It may be anger or fear. Is behind something. Or it can be good things, like, you know, matters of trying to care for an aging relative, or things, you know, views about the future, or whatever.
39 · Establishes the fourth way to love the church: being stretched beyond comfort
Here's what I want to say. In this season, in 2021, loving the church will look like being stretched, being a little uncomfortable for the sake of the body of Christ. Colossians 3:13 says this, just, I love this. It says, just bear with one another. One another. Like, it's just an assumption. There's gonna be stuff in the church, stuff in relationships that's just gonna have to be borne with, right? You're just gonna have to go, oh, okay. You know, somebody makes an unwise comment, you know, somebody accidentally, you get sick from COVID and somebody makes a comment like, yeah, well, told you that was gonna happen. And you're just like, thank you, Frank. You know, not helpful. Like, sometimes you just gotta bear with one another.
40 · Adds mutual submission from Ephesians 5:21 and 1 Peter 5 to the command to bear with one another, explaining that on non-sin matters we simply comply with leaders' requests even when we disagree
In two places, in Ephesians 5:21 and 1 Peter 5, we're called to submit to one another, meaning that sometimes if it's not a matter of sin, sometimes we'll just have to say, okay, I'll just, I'll go with it. This is what my community group leader's asking me to do, I'm gonna go with it. This is what, you know, we're having to do in this ministry, I'll go with it.
41 · Applies the call to stretch with bilateral examples: Zoom-averse people enduring screens for fellowship, outdoor-group members enduring cold and health checks, and people willing to follow church restrictions temporarily if they can follow them elsewhere
Look, loving one another in this season is gonna look like all of us being stretched. It may mean that you don't like staring at a Zoom screen after you've been on Zoom all day, but that's the only way to connect with some folks in your group or some folks in your life, and you do it for the sake of love. Or it means that if you're in my— if you're a guy in my community group, I will make you sit out in 32 to 31-degree weather while we fellowship. And that's just life. You have to pack a— you have to pass a kind of a health check before you come. Before you joined my group. And I really did do that to the guys, and I'm sorry, especially for Moe, who had to sit on the far side, away from the fire, right? It means doing that stuff for the sake of love. It may mean that while our restrictions as a church exist, and they will not exist forever, but while they exist, you have to stretch to be willing to follow them for a time. And let me just encourage you, if you can take precautions visiting an elderly relative, Or if you can take, you know, be subject to restrictions in order to wear a mask and go inside, you know, a store that you need to go into, I think you can do the same in the church.
42 · Applies the call to stretch in the opposite direction: when restrictions are lifted, those who think it's too soon must consider taking godly risks for fellowship, paralleling missionary families taking health risks to serve in Africa
But similarly, it may mean that our restrictions are lifted and relaxed. For some folks, they will be lifted too soon and relaxed too soon. And you'll have to decide, can you take a godly, reasonable risk for the sake for the sake of fellowship and involvement. I'm not saying— look, I'm not saying you got COPD, sign up for the nursery. Like, that's not a great idea. What I am saying is there is a category for godly risk. Look, if we as a church, right, can applaud a family, a missionary family moving to Africa where there's malaria raging and there's inadequate medical care and we think, 'Yeah, that's good, that's a godly risk,' we need to be thinking there may be some godly risks that we need to take. As well in the middle of this.
43 · Adds further examples of being stretched: volunteering outside your gifting, restarting friendships despite political or COVID disagreements, all summed up in Jesus' command to love as he loved
It also may mean that to volunteer, you have to work outside your comfort zone or preference, or, you know, you may be gifted at this and we're like, 'Great, I love that. We can use that in 6 months. We really need you to do this right now,' right? It may mean that you gotta restart some friendships. You gotta work through some awkwardness that you've had differences with your friend in politics or mask wearing or quarantine bubbles or rules for your kids, and you'll need to to work through that in fellowship with them. All I'm trying to say is summed up here. Jesus tells us, 'Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.'
44 · Pivots from theological argument to practical action plan, invoking Churchill's relentless optimism and framing the pandemic as potentially one of the best things to happen to the church if it produces greater mission focus
Now, I wanna just end by really practically going over what the next few weeks are gonna look like, next few months are gonna look like as a church. So we started the message with sort of the Winston Churchill brutal honesty about our challenges. I wanna end with the Winston Churchill relentless optimism. 'Cause there is so much room for optimism. I really do believe, guys, hear me when I say this, I really do believe this can be one of the best things to ever happen to our church if the Lord uses it to strengthen us, deepen us, and force us to be more on mission in our church life than we've ever been. Wouldn't that be a gift?
45 · Lays out the first practical goal: filling 6 nursery slots in the 9 AM service this month to enable a full kids ministry ecosystem where parents can serve while their children are in class
So for the next few months, this is what we're looking at, all right? Super practical details. With our kids' ministry, We do see it as crucial to being able to serve church families and church— and serve outsiders. So really practically, we need 6 more slots to be filled in the 9:00 AM service to bring the nursery back. We can do that. I'm saying in faith this week, I bet you anything we can do it, right? If I got to make Vince do it and me and Vince are doing it, we fill 2 of the slots, we'll do it, man. Let's roll. You got that? You good with that? Okay. All right. We got it. We got 2. Okay. So Theresa won't let me. Oh yeah, that's right. That's right. Okay, yeah, never mind. Well, okay, yeah, she keeps rejecting our attempts to serve at times. So we'll talk to Theresa about that. Something about being too excitable and it's not good for the kids. So the— that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna get 6 slots filled. We're gonna start the 9 AM nursery and then we wanna do the next class. And we're gonna probably do one combined class temporarily, 2 to 5-year-olds. And then we will have a whole ecosystem in the 9 AM. Meaning that if you got kids and you want to serve, we'll actually have, you know, classes for your kids to be in while you serve. That's kind of the goal. So that's our first goal. I think that can happen in the next month. I think that can happen this month. I think we can get there.
46 · Lays out the second goal: the kids ministry wing will be done in mid-April, enabling two full services of kids ministry, possibly requiring families with kids to attend 9 AM while others move to the 11 AM service
With our kids ministry wing, we're going to be done in mid-April. And I believe with that, we're going to see more families beginning to attend and visit. And I think by God's grace, we're going to leverage that into, you know, more volunteers. Volunteers and be able to have 2 services of kids ministry. And at some point, we may need to ask folks that have kids that want to participate in that to all go to the 9:00 AM. And this service may get more crowded because we take— hey, people in the 9:00, if you don't have kids, if you can keep your kids with you, if, you know, whatever, come to the 11:00. We may have to do that for a season.
47 · Lays out the third goal: restoring community group health through attendance, participation, leader volunteering, and practical hospitality (backyards, firewood), predicting this will restore relational connection
Now, our community groups. With our groups, we need to get all of our groups healthy and active. We need people showing up, we need people participating, we need people volunteering to lead, we need people's backyards, we need people's firewood. And I believe that as that happens, that feeling of connection is gonna return in many ways in our church.
48 · Announces a February prayer meeting as the fuel for all other restoration work, and predicts that once kids ministry and community groups are restored, all other ministries (women's meetings, men's breakfasts) will follow
We're gonna do a prayer meeting in February. I see that as crucial to all of this, and we're gonna keep praying throughout the year, God willing, because that's gonna be the fuel for, for for what we're doing here. And once we have those things in place, I think kids ministry and CGs are kind of critical. They're the gaps right now. Once we have those, I think all the other ministries will begin to come online again in some form, right? So if you've been like, man, I'm dying for a women's meeting, I'm dying for a men's breakfast, where are the breakfast tacos that Joe always buys us? They're coming. They are, we are gonna get there.
49 · Predicts that by summer all ministries will be restored including VBS, framing this not as service provision but as preparation for God-given outreach opportunities when people will be asking questions about death, marriage, and parenting—the church must be ready with open doors and the gospel
And here's what I believe in faith. I believe in faith that by summer all of our ministries can be back online in some form. And I believe in summer we'll have a Vacation Bible School in a new kids' ministry wing, and it's gonna be awesome, and our kids will love it. And here's why I believe this is critical, right? I'm not into this for just like, let's provide services that everybody in the church likes, right? Here's why I believe this is critical. I believe that in the summer and fall next year, God is gonna give us opportunities for outreach, right? But we think of what we've done just being in quarantine. And we've set apart Vince for this work on our pastoral team to lead us in this area. And I think people are gonna be asking questions. I think people are gonna be looking for answers after this last year. I think people are gonna be thinking about life after death, maybe for the first time in a long time. People are gonna be looking for marriage help and parenting help. And I very much as a church want us to be here with our doors open and our arms open saying, 'Come in, come hear about the gospel of Jesus and how it changes and interacts with every part of your life, with your parenting, your marriage, your fears, your hopes, all of that stuff. Come hear about Jesus,' right? That's why we're doing this. Not just so we're like, 'Oh, I like church again. It's nice, we have the donuts back.' No, we want people like Maggie to come to our church and find hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what we're—
50 · Concludes by framing the restored church as 'leaner, meaner'—more useful for mission because it will have a culture of normal sacrifice that produces church planters and missionaries, making the pandemic season something to thank God for
and here's the thing. Church, I believe that if that happens, if we come back as a leaner, meaner church, in a sense, we're going to be more useful for mission. I believe God can use us to plant churches and send out missionaries because that's just going to be the culture of the church that people come into, where it's normal to sacrifice and serve and care and give of yourself. And that's the environment that church plants and missionaries come out of. And we will look back and say, 'Thank you, Lord.' Thank you, Lord, for that season. We became a better, clearer picture of who you called us to be. Amen.
51 · Closing prayer offered by Todd, thanking God for the testimony of his love through the church, asking for faith to emerge stronger from the pandemic, and committing the congregation to respond to God's call like Isaiah with 'Here we are
Well, I'm— we're going to end, and I'm going to have Todd just come and close us in prayer. So Todd is one of those guys that I respect deeply in the area of mission, both the way he operated in business for years and the way he operates now. So I'm going to have him lead us together as we close in prayer. Stand with me if we pray. Oh Lord, we thank you for just the testimony of your love for us in this sermon, Lord, the testimony of your church that you died for, Lord, that you are the head of, Lord, that you didn't just save us and leave us to flounder on our own in this world, that you saved us and you called us together as a body. Lord, you uniquely gifted each one of us to fit perfectly into that body, Lord, to work together. Then you called us as a body to be your ambassadors of reconciliation. You say, 'I'm making my appeal through you.' Lord, thank you for that. Thank you that you bring us alongside you to work with you in your redemption of mankind, Lord. Thank you for that. Father, we, we just proclaim together in faith, give us faith for this next season, Lord. Help us to emerge out of this season stronger, Lord, with better perspective of your call in our lives. Lord, Father, I just pray that, Lord, help to lift our eyes and heads above our circumstances, above the challenges and difficulties that we're in, to see you and to be led by you, Lord. Lord, because you say that when you search for me, you will find me. When you search me with all your hearts, Lord, help us to look to you in this time, Lord, in faith that you have called us at this time to further the gospel in our city. Lord, help us to be a church that responds like Isaiah responded when you said, who shall we send and who will go for us? Lord, help us to respond. Here we are. Send us. Send us, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.