Church Alive: Look Both Ways
What are the ingredients of an alive, vital church?
The Christian movement began with a focus on who's not here.
Almost every denomination begins with a focus on who's not here.
Read here this description of how hard it was for John Wesley to change his ways, and begin the practice called "field preaching."
Almost every local congregation begins with a focus on who's not here.
Read historian Bill Hardt's description of early Methodist activity in our area. Look at other posts on his blog site.
Read here the text from the historical marker placed in front of BUMC.
Over time, it is easy for any denomination or congregation to place most of their focus on those who are already here.
This is a movement from mission to maintenance. A church begins as a movement, but may find itself becoming just another organization. (Read this opinion piece by Ralph E. Bauserman on what this looks like.)
Look at the focus on growth - on "who's not here" - in the second chapter of Acts. (You may want to re-read the entire chapter, but at least look at these key verses.)
ACTS 2:1. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. (According to Acts there were 120 gathered believers.)
ACTS 2:41. So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
ACTS 2:47. The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Numbers are important only because numbers are people – people who need the Lord. People who are precious in his sight.
Alive churches have an intentional focus on who’s not here. Alive churches look both ways – they look inward, and they look outward.
Read Bill Hybels's article about how his church (Willow Creek) had to place a disproportionate emphasis on those who weren't there in order to be faithful!
This truth is embedded in the heart of Jesus' teaching - for example, this passage from Luke 15:1-7.
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
This truth affects everything about how we do church. What do you think - how would your behavior be different if you lived up to this calling? What would look different about our church?
Here is an interesting opinion piece - "Are We Ready for Real Modern Day Circuit Riders?"
Look at this interesting article by Josh Hunt - "What Do All Growing Churches Have in Common?"
What do you say when you see cookie crumbs at church? Choose one.
1. I gave money for that carpet and I expect it to be clean.
2. When I was a youngster, we knew better than that.
3. I'm afraid that is what happens when you let "those kids" from the community in "our" building.
4. Isn't it wonderful to be part of a church where so many lives are being touched!
(If you need help with this multiple choice question, then you truly need help!)
posted by Robert Stutes at
6:10 AM
2 Comments:
Want more insight into early Methodism? Here's a bit from my genealogy:
REV. JOHN McGOWAN (1726-1780) The following is an extract from "The Life and Times of John Wesley" by Rev. Luke Tyerman, Vol. 2. pages 407 and 408.
REV. JOHN McGOWAN (1726-1780) The following is an extract from "The Life and Times of John Wesley" by Rev. Luke Tyerman, Vol. 2. pages 407 and 408.
"From Hartlepool, Wesley proceeded to Stockton, where Methodism had been fostered, if not introduced, by John Unthank, a farmer and local preacher, at Billingham, who besides meeting a class at Stockton and another at Billingham, met a third at Darlington, a distance of fifteen miles. He died in 1822, aged 83. One of Mr. Unthank's first converts was John McGowan, son of a prosperous baker of Edinburg, and intended for a minister of the Church or Scotland (Presbyterian) but who, at the age of nineteen, joined the rebel army of the Pretender, and fought at the battle of Culloden (1745.) He then fled to Durham and apprenticed himself to a linen weaver, and was now (1761 tossing a shuttle in the vicinity of Stockton. Mr. McGowan became a local preacher, but being Calvinistic in his sentiments, he left the Methodists in 1766 and became the minister of the Devonshire Square Chapel, London, where he continued until his death in 1780. His "Dialogues of Devils" and "The Shaver" and other works, making two octavo volumes, were once in great repute. He was a man of good natural abilities, and of lively imagination, a hard student and a laborious preacher. His death was triumphant, some of his last words being:--"Methinks I have as much of Heaven as I can hold."
"After preaching at Stockton, Wesley went to Darlinton, and preached there. Here Methodism had been introduced by Unthank and McGowan, and its meeting house was a thatched cottage with a mudden floor.
Rev. John MacGowan, VDM., minister to the Church of Our Lord near Devonshire Square, in Bishopgate Street, London, author of "Dialogues of Devils", "Life of Joseph", "The Shaver" &c., ... born in Edinburg on the 23rd October, 1726,.... He died on the 25th November, 1780 aged 54 years...
His body is interred in Bunhill Fields, London, under a stone with the following inscription:-- 'Here lies John MacGowan, V. D. M., who, at the hand of God merited nothing but the final destruction, yet through grace he was enabled to hope in a finished salvation. For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians, 2:8."
(And, speaking of "field preaching")
"
Rev. Ebenezer MacGowan, born in London 17th February 1767 emigrated to the United States of America, 1784,... " (end of extract.)
REV. EBENEZER McGOWAN was the youngest of the children of Rev. John McGowan.
After his father's death, he left London and came to America to live when he was only 17 years of age. He settled in Dinwiddle County, Virginia where he became a minister. He was ordained deacon by Biship Francis Asbury on March 10, 1798.
Author had an old sheepskin parchment signed by Francis Asbury, "Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America" which "sets him apart for the office of a deacon in said Church". This old parchment uses the "long s's" and is dated "This the tenth day of March, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand, seven hundred and ninety-eight."
In 1816 he and his family and slaves came in oxcarts over the mountains into Tennessee. He settled in Rutherford County about seven miles northwest of Murfreesboro. He bought 1184 acres for 2500.00 from Alpha Kingsley, recorded in Deed Book K parge 537. The forest were dense and the roads that existed were little more than rough lanes. The bears roamed freely and the area was known as bear wallow. Here in this wilderness he built a log house for his family and quarters for his slaves. He was one of the first Methodist ministers in this area and held services at several churches in the county. He wanted a place for the people of his community to worship, so he began holding services in his home. Being small of stature, he stood on a stairway and preached to his congregation. As the community grew there was need for a larger place of worship. Rev. MacGowan gave a beautiful grove, containg 4 acres of land across the road and a few hundred yards southeast of his home. He donated the cedar logs and helped in the construction of a little church, nestled in the recesses of the grove, deep in the wilderness of the newly settled country. It stood just back of where the parsonage stands now. He called the church Bethel, which also became the name of the school and community. Some people believe the church was built in 1827, but, according to the family history given by direct descendants who have information from Rev. MacGowan's children and grandchildren, it was built in 1818. The MacGowan home, where Bethel was founded, and actually the first parsonage has been torn down
His wife, Frances Baugh, was born 2/1/1779.
Two old letters written by Rev. Ebenezer McGowan to his daughter, Martha, give us an insight into his character. In these letters he admonishes his daughter to "live for eternity, keep death in view, cultivate a close walk with God, pray frequently and fervently, and all will be well in the end." In the first letter, dated in 1831 he tells her that he has had it in mind for some time to give her a Negro woman for her personal servant, and he mentions several by name, trying to find out which one would suit her best. In the other letter, dated in 1837 he tells her about the relatives, and particularly about her brother, James, who had recently suffered a complete nervous breakdown, saying that he was unable to go to see him at this time of the year (winter) on account of his age and infirmities. All through these letters runs the thought that he is much concerned about the welfare of his children. I have a copy of his will, dated in 1850. In it he donates to certain men as trustees of the Methodist Church "the site whereon Bethel Meeting House now stands." Each of the children was to receive about 20 acres of land in addition to what they had already received, the balance, (about half) to go to his wife, Frances, and at her death, to his daughter, Martha Ann (Hutchinson) "including the mansion house, garden and spring, all weaving apparatus, plantation implements, carriages of both kinds, &c." He also wills to his daughter, Martha Ann, four Negroes, Aaron, Maria, Harriet and Jack. Awthor's mother used to talk to her children about her childhood days in Tennessee a great deal, and often mentioned these Negroes.
Great work.
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