I have a confession to make… I have led you astray for the past four years. I always represented our values as WBEM (win, build, equip and multiply); however that is the correct path for someone who comes to Southside; however it is not the correct path for the vision of our church. The vision for our church is to be turned INSIDE OUT and that begins with building, equipping, then winning and multiplying! It is so significant for me that I had the order of the banners changed to reflect this. Today I will unpack what it means for us to do just that, to be turned inside out as a church. It is biblical and it is based on the Son’s life and the way he ministered during his public life from his baptism at the age of 30.
OK, so what do we mean by that. Well it first starts by building dependence on God through prayer and through the community of faith in relationship with each other. We then get thoroughly equipped for every good work through the power of the Holy Spirit, teaching, instruction in righteousness. That is INSIDE….then we go OUT to be the church as missional and contagious followers of Jesus. We leave our safety nets to spread his net and we are contagious with the love of God. As people get near us the presence and love of God will rub off on them. It is natural, it is Spirit-led and it is based on the Son’s life and how He, Jesus Christ ministered when He was here!
There is a book called the Harmony of the Gospels and it lays out the events of Jesus’ life in the gospels side by side in chronological order. It is significant because He taught us how to minister.
Mark 1
Jesus taught:
Building prayerful dependence on God v9-12
Jesus’ public ministry began around the age of 30 when the Spirit of God descended upon Him as John baptized him in the Jordan River. Immediately following that He was led into the desert where He was tested for 40 days and what did He teach us there. The first step in His journey of ministry was complete dependence on God.
In every temptation He taught us a pattern, a life long practice of dependence on the Father. We are not driven by our physical desires, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. He taught us to reflect on the Word, to know the Word of God so that we won’t be deceived.
I know this might seem like stating the obvious, but everything in our culture will keep driving you away from that. Take for example the Athiest bus campaign that is presently taking place in England. (Article in the National Post) Can I tell you why I love God? (Answer in my time with Him – Psalm 14)
Early in his ministry he taught us where it all begins: It all begins with prayer to the Father. Ministry is birthed and revealed through prayer, it is cultivated and sustained through prayer!
Mark 1:35 Very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Luke 4:42-44 At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place
The revelation to be a church that is turned inside out was experienced together as the elders and staff prayed together. As elders we challenged each other to fast through a visioning time when turning Southside inside out crystallized.
Someone took the time to add up every command in the life of Christ. They discovered that there are 405 of them. 204 out of the 405 are disciple making commands! The other commands can be wrapped up into following 11 character qualities of Jesus. For example, walk as Jesus walked.
You can’t even begin to take a baby step without depending on God. We are to continue in Christ the same way that we received Him – live in Him Colossians 2:6
Building a team. Mark 1:14-20…the first small group! RELATIONAL
The next step in Jesus journey was that He gained followers through a variety of means. They were reached by the invitation of Jesus and in John 1:35-51 through the testimony of each other. The call was to first follow Jesus and we will see later how He equipped them to be fishers of men.
Building a ministry - It was a ministry of firsts!!
This was a foundational time during his ministry and it had to have the proper footings
First miracle: John 2 - turning water into wine – the ‘banquet metaphor’ of a new messianic kingdom and new way of cleansing from ‘ceremonial’ with the hands to a picture of the full and complete cleansing that would come through Jesus’ blood.
First cleansing of the temple at Passover: John 2 - He longed to return it to a house of prayer and the disciples remembered that ‘zeal for your house will consume me’ –passionate for the purposes of God and in a later cleansing He stated that His Father’s house was to be a place of prayer.
First conversation with the ‘religious’. John 3 He challenged Nick to be born of the Spirit. He needed to be ‘born again’ – A spiritual birth had to take place and that only comes through the leading of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is like the wind – you can’t control that. You can’t explain it, you can’t program it, but when the Spirit gets a hold of your life, it is truly inspiring and it is freeing.
First conversation with a woman John 4 with the woman at the well. He built a new way to worship – in Spirit and in truth. The worship of God is all about the location of your heart.
What stands out most to you about either one of these conversations?
First challenge – John 3, 4:34,35 He taught his disciples that people are ripe for harvest, that everyone matter to God from a late night secret meeting with a religious guy named Nick to speaking in broad daylight to the irreligious woman who had more men in her past than you have fingers on one hand!
From those very conversations He taught us to build an atmosphere of love….for God so loved the whole world. The call during this preparation period was simply ‘follow me’ Drink deeply from the living water! We are calling people to pursue Jesus passionately.
What are we building?
We are building a ministry of dependence upon God in everything we do here.
We are building a team
We are building a ministry of firsts! A place where people first experience the love of God, the intimate presence of Jesus, the wind of the Holy Spirit!!
We are trusting Jesus to do the miraculous here! We celebrate someone coming to faith in Jesus on the first Sunday of the year.
We want to live with clean temples – holy and pure for Him…God gets the glory in this body
We want to be a ministry of great conversations! Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner
We want to be a ministry that continues to challenge each and everyone one of us to greater devotion to God and others.
Make no mistake about it, Southside is here to strengthen the followers of Jesus – to build confidence and establish the authority of Jesus in prayer and in your life.
We are here to confirm and establish – as the HS works in you,to be a place for you to lean upon, to be an advocate for you and your family, to encourage you, to come alongside you, to sharpen each other in spiritual things as iron sharpens iron
And when does that happen?
It only happens when we are DEPENDENT – seeking God prayerfully John 15:5
RELATIONAL -strong in community Acts 2:42-47
So, what does this all mean for 2009?
• Southside is on the move! We are moving from just going to church to being the church
o As I have shared the elders and staff have been in deep prayer over the vision of this church over the past years
o We have sought your prayerful feedback through surveys, congregational meetings and a visioning session.
o We absolutely love how many of our new ministries are being birthed as you, our people are listening and following God’s leading – It is organic because it grows from the heart of God and it is Spirit led
o We are seeing our community respond with their attendance and time and time again we see how God is leading people to this place.
• So, where are we now?
o Our mission remains the same. We are here ‘to pursue Jesus passionately and connect people to their God given family.
Let’s overview our 4 values
BUILDING - So as a church we first are being turned inside for complete dependence on the Lord, cultivating the habits of prayer and devotion, getting connected to the body through the ministry of small groups
EQUIPPING - We will talk more on this value next week, but EQUIPPING comes as we learn to rely on the HS. Wednesday nights are also a great opp to be equipped for ministry through the various courses that are offered as well as I believe that we are equipped as we make ourselves available to serve.
WINNING - refers to a contagious spirit of reaching out to others in this place. It happens through one on one conversations, great ministry events, HP camps,
MULTIPLYING – happens as we see lives transformed here and people in our church step up into servant leadership positions here and take opportunities to be on missions team as part of our global focus.
• What do this mean for us all?
o We are creating a clear focus on our foundational mission. We want to do first things well and create build on the life of Jesus and His ministry priorities.
o There is an invitation to a deeper commitment for everyone to ‘call out of people what God has created them to be’. We do this as we become stronger in relationships. We have planned a “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner’ for Friday January 30th.
o We want to have greater effectiveness in the community and see more people come to faith in Jesus Christ.
• What will happen as a result?
Enrichment of ministries
o Some new ministries perhaps
o Changes in how we use and expand the building
• UPDATE:
o In the fall of 2006 we had formally completed an agreement of sale on part of our property and gaining more frontage on Derry Road as part of a swap of land as well. During a time away as elders shortly after we made the decision that we would tithe, that being 10% on the money that we received to honor the Lord and to keep a MULTIPLYING focus
After prayerful consideration, we identified ministries that have both a global and local focus. Next Sunday we will be blessing the following ministries:
1. Pathway Camp Ministries ministering on First Nations Reserves headed up by Rick and Liz Greer who were former members of this church
2. The Deck Milton
3. Crossings Community Church in Acton – a sister church plant
4. Partners International
5. Lois Belsey –GA for the building of a training center for youth and young adults active in missions in Papua.
We are only able to do this ultimately because of your faithfulness to tithe and to prioritize the ministry of Southside over all these years and keep the ministry and dreams alive in this place.
We will be using this money for the purpose of investing in ministry here and for ministry space. We believe that just like the talents given in the parable, this is money for the purposes of BWEM - investing our time talent and resources. It is ‘working money’ not money given to us to stop working.
So in light of that, we have formed a transition team that will enable us to fulfill our vision for ministry in a practical manner and they are:
Peggy Estey, Pat Hollingworth, Peter MacMillan, Dean Martin and Phil Dempster
Two initial priorities that we need to address are:
1. The parking lot to adhere to town bylaw requirements and to continue to invite the community ‘inside’ – the new parking lot will start to be addressed in the Spring. We also see a parking lot as a great opportunity for outdoor sports ministry as well
2. The Nursery will also be addressed to answer the safety and comfort needs of the children using the nursery will undergo a ‘face lift’ over the next few weeks to make Southside a more WINNING place.
• So - we are so excited! It’s awesome to be right here – right now! Today is another invitation for each of us to look for ways to step up our involvement in what God is doing. As we move forward, there will be announcements about ministries and activities – so, join in!
• There may be questions from time to time – ask any elder (name them, have them stand up) the transition team or myself about anything. It’s our intention to give everyone all the information they need to use their talents.
Questions For Discussion
1. In what ways can we practically create more dependence on the Lord in every area of our ministry?
2. How do you listen for God’s leading and in what ways has He spoken to you?
3. What foundational aspect of Jesus’ ministry do we need most in this place?
4. There are two practical ways that we can celebrate the value of building this month. 1. Please make a priority of coming to the Milton Mayor’s Christian Prayer Breakfast on January 28th at 7:15am. 2. Sign up for the Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner event on Friday January 30th at 6:30pm.
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