This video sets up this message really well....A Thousand Questions.
Converge defined is the intersection of two lines that come together at a point and it our desire that your life and faith will converge in a new and fresh way. It is my hope and prayer that as we learn what it means to cultivate, to plant and reap in our relationships that faith will not only take root in our lives, but in the lives of others!
From the 1890s through the early decades of the 20th century a social awakening, known as the "social gospel", spread throughout most of the Western world. This Protestant movement, based on the idea that no personal salvation was possible without social salvation, led to a wide range of social reforms. One of these was a new emphasis on nature and the importance of improving the landscape in and around the cities: around homes, around institutions.
Now while the ‘social gospel’ dealt with trying to reform society from the ground up literally, my judgement call is that we need to get back to our roots. It is all too easy for the church to become ‘institutionalized’. Right? You’ve heard that saying, ‘I don’t believe in the ‘institutional church’ On the other hand it isn’t the social gospel that we need but the fact that we need to socialize the gospel! Here am I Lord, send me!
The transforming power and presence of Jesus is the best kept secret in the universe. It’s time for us to understand the spirit behind the harvest that Jesus saw and to begin and the church to be the living organism that Jesus always believed it was! For us it is recognizing that its not as much about ‘Back to Church’ Sunday as the Church of England is challenging everybody to go this Sunday as much as it is for us to go and ‘Be the Church!’
John 4: 34 Then Jesus explained: "My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.
35 Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest.
Jesus is telling his followers that there is incredible potential and that they don’t ‘have to wait’ for it to happen. Spiritual thirst is all around them and God has already gone on before them to prepare the hearts of the people.
Where does the spiritual act of cultivating happen? Does it happen in a service on Sunday morning? Is it merely that people get through the doors of a church? Is that our job? Does that measure our success?
It is so easy to lose our way, to become comfortable, to be so ingrown that we don’t even realize we have moved so far from Jesus’ missional passion!
Some of you already think you have a pretty good idea about what church is all about…and some of you have been doing your best to break down the stereotypes…
Some of us have laughed at how bad Mr. Bean makes it out to be and then there’s the reply to our question…I already feel awful, why would I want to go to church….it will just make me feel worse.
Here’s the truth.
Church is about people, relationships formed around a desire to know Jesus Christ more than it is a physical place or structure. Possibly you may be here because someone dragged you here and you are wondering what is this all about?
This place is about discovering the grace ‘that leads us home’ finding that acceptance in Christ’s perfect forgiveness
Cultivating is about developing Christ-like friendships, bringing Jesus into our world. Church should happen in restaurants, offices, dare I say pubs.
I’ll never forget how my brother Lloyd would like to stand on his chair and pray really loud so the whole restaurant could hear. Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to do that. However, on the other hand if you are going to pray before you eat in a restaurant be sure you tip well!
Church can be two people having a honest conversation about faith, time spent in prayer for family, friends, clarity and direction in life, church can be the heart and desire to listen to others.
Why Should I Cultivate? Why should I make the effort to get to know someone?
Because Jesus showed us how to really love others…plain and simple.
We develop Christ-like friendships with others because we are calling spiritually lost people to a relationship with Jesus Christ, not merely getting people to say a prayer.’
Jesus taught us to:
· Open Our Eyes
John 4:35 Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest.
The first step is to learn what it means to open up our eyes. Jesus was not just interested or polite with the spiritually lost, no, he got involved in their lives and became their friend. He really didn’t care if people saw him hanging around with ‘questionable’ people. He didn’t avoid those people, he was actually drawn to them, he was drawn to their great need.
I , Jesus, the Son of man, feast and drink, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of sinners: But wisdom is shown to be right by what results from it. Matthew 11:19
‘If we fraternize with a perceived enemy of the faith or morality, we run the risk of creating other enemies – sometimes even within the household of faith.’
Mark Galli in Jesus Mean and Wild
His plan was straightforward and quite simple… open your eyes! Look to the fields as they are ripe for the harvest. They are the people that cross the natural paths of our lives every day.
When I am with those who are oppressed, I share their oppression so that I might bring them to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ.
Start finding common ground with the people on your path, those who live near you, those who you work with.
It also means that we don’t begin by telling people everything that we don’t have in common and in doing so, alienate them.
Even though they are not in this passage, they are found elsewhere and I want to touch on two other things we need to do well as followers of Christ
· Listen – open your ears
James 1:19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,
The problem with listening is not with the intent of understanding, but in readying our reply.
By listening, we affirm our friend’s value and dignity
Time magazine did a study on Canadian Spirituality and here is what they found…
8 in 10 Canadians believe in God - you don’t have to convince people that there is a God.
7 out of 10 Canadians consider prayer to be very important - most people won’t turn down the opportunity for you to pray for them.
6 in 10 believe in heaven and hell - When a young man shared with me his fear of going to hell this week, I knew right there I had to share the gospel. Sometimes you get the wonderful opportunity to cultivate, plant and reap all at once.
6 in 10 believe that children do not get enough spiritual or religious teaching in public school. Parents want a place that their children can learn values not violence, they know that giving them everything they want isn’t the answer.
Only 3 in 10 believe it is very important to belong to a religious group. They probably won’t be ready to come to church
43.2% of Canadians identify themselves as Roman Catholic….that number jumps to 85% when Jehovah’s Witnesses come to the door….just kidding! J
8 in 10 Canadians state that having an inner spiritual life is important. Can you share about your inner spiritual life, what God is doing in you.
6 in 10 Canadians say they are interested in learning more about religious or spiritual matters. People are more open that we think or realize.
The number of people claiming affiliation with the Muslim faith increased nearly 130% from in the last ten years. Hindu and Sikh adherents increased nearly 90%
Irshad Manji, who grew up with her family in Richmond, BC and who has now wrote a book on ‘The trouble with Islam’.
The ground is already being broken for us and the opportunity to speak into it is certainly there. One of the things that I did in my previous ministry was look to connect with people intentionally. One day as I came into Mac’s Milk, I prayed, God enable me to connect with the man here and I’ll never forget reading his nametag, “Ashraf”. Now while Ashraf may mean nothing to you, it meant everything to me as I have a cousin in Egypt by the same name who is also Muslim. It would lead to many conversations about the Koran, the festival of Ede and Passover and we had amazing talks all because of a simple prayer. I learned about the Koran and he learned about Christianity.
· Care – open your hands
Mark 10:43b whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.
45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
This is one area that I affirm highly here at Grace and what amazes me so much. The tangible acts of love are really felt in this place and without care we don’t have a voice.
What does it mean to plant?
John 4:36 The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike!
Where do you plant? Or better…
Where is a level playing field for you?
Being in church is not a level playing field.
I know exactly where I am on a level playing field, I know those who I most easily relate to. The people who I connect with love to play sports, talk sports, eat wings and have a pint. It is really amazing how people open up when you are on their turf. I can say that I often have deeper conversations on spiritual things there then I do have here on a Sunday morning.
In Lord of The Rings, The Two Towers, the King of Rohan is advised to make use of his strengths by riding out and charging the enemy on horseback but he settles for safety by hiding behind the fortress of Helm’s Deep. Likewise, the local church is designed to plunge forward in attack but she has fallen into a defensive posture, seeking refuge in her own fortress of buildings and programs. We expect people to show up and they don’t just ‘show up’ unless they have already been churched. It is so important for us to know and our friends to realize that this isn’t about being a ‘church goer’! The point is being connected to the most amazing family in the world our God given family, and when we get that right it is really irresistible. We have to go to them, not expect them to come to us.
We were never meant to stand still, to just maintain what we have, but we are to press forward. We were never meant to guard what we know, but give it away. We are not called to retreat but to advance.
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18
Jesus promised us that the gates of hell would not prevail. Notice that the gates are not an offensive weapon. Police don’t pack loaded gates. Terrorists don’t hold victims at gate point. There are no gates of mass destruction. It is time that we stop being intimidated by the gates of hell. It is time for us to put Satan on his heels! We are called to move into his territory
A couple of neat stories from this past week on planting.
Bryan Bitton was out walking and bumped into a lady in his neighbourhood walking her dog this week She said to him ‘How are you, what are you doing?’….There was no intentionality about it, but Bryan just told her exactly what he was doing and he happened to be praying. As it turns out, I would later come to discover that Brian prays out loud when he walks his dog…so people don’t think he’s crazy! Apparently it works for Bill Clark too!
I prayed for divine appointments that day with Bryan and then what unfolded on Tuesday was really quite incredible.
Sharon drove the van and met me at With The Grain for lunch as I drove the Cavalier there. We would first connect with Dr. Anne Marie and we shared about her marathon and the upcoming Ride For Refugees and then we connected with Katie Franks who works there and again, another great conversation.
From there we decided that we needed to ditch the car so we weren’t travelling separately so it was my job to find a street on the way home so we could hit Stone Road Mall. I started up London St. and hit construction at Willow Rd..back track and it was down a side street and now we are on Paisley…can’t turn onto the Hanlon so we ended up on Stephanie Street. I park the car, but Sharon is not comfortable with it so I hit a side street and proceed to cross back over Stephanie when Josh Carabin crosses our path. It turns out that he too had been taking a number of detours and he also was feeling strongly like he needed to talk with us. So, there begins an incredible God conversation about listening to the Spirit! From there we finally make it to the Key Center to get a tag for our cat. It is George who works at the Key Center there and he has a brother in Milton who runs the Key Center there. It turns out that his brother lives on Sunnyvale St. where Sharon and I lived and we make this instant connection. George happens to be Catholic and we end up talking about life and work and eventually spiritual things and it happens so naturally.
What does it mean to reap?
So we come back to John 4:36,37
Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying “one sows and another reaps is true.
Jesus goes on to say that He has even gone ahead and done the hard work of preparing the heart of the people in advance for you.
There are some of us who are living too comfortable, getting good teaching, soaking it up and that is all good but at some point you have to learn to give it away, that is your faith
The fastest way for your faith to grow is to take the opportunity to share it with someone else.
Does anyone remember one of the first times that they shared their faith? How did you feel? What happened to your faith afterwards?
I will never forget sharing my faith on the streets in Buffalo in grade 9, scared spitless, with fire in my belly. I remember one man I shared with and his remark was, “Son, I’ve lived on the earth a whole lot longer than you.” It struck me that we have the greatest credibility with our peers.
Church should happen where life happens!
You have heard the saying, ‘It’s Worth The Drive To Acton’ and it still is, but it isn’t the Old Hide House, it is a really neat place called Roxy Coffee and Crossings Community Church. They took over Manny’s Roadhouse and completely transformed that place.
I also want to tell you about Jay who goes to Southside and was invited by a friend. He was part of the drugs and alcohol at Manny’s before he knew Jesus and when he heard about the transformation of that place, he knew he needed to go there. It mirrored what God had done in His life!
Reaping is telling Jesus’s story well and how he changed yours. He is in the life changing business. Right from the beginning people were drawn to him, everyone from the spiritually smug to the down and out prostitute, from tax collectors and the wealthy to the lepers and the sin-sick. People gravitated to Him and there was something about Him that drew people in. He had life and life more satisfying that anything else could ever offer us.
John Ortberg writes in ‘Faith and Doubt’
“I never have heard anybody say, ‘I used to be greedy, but now the story of the Big Bang has made me generous. I used to be afraid, but now random chance has made me brave”
I used to be addicted to alcohol, but now the ‘law of natural selection’ has set me free.
Live a life that demands an explanation.
Go organic with Jesus and let faith grow in you!
Questions On Converge
Week 1 An Introduction to the Organic Church
Icebreakers
What are you three top ‘hotspots’ in Guelph that you would recommend to others?
What were some of Jesus’ favourite places to connect with his disciples, and where did he connect with people?
Getting Into The Word
Read John 4:31-38
What is the ‘hard work’ of spiritual harvesting that Jesus refers to in this passage?
Read Matthew 11:1-18
What was Jesus’ referring to by ‘the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it?
Jesus and John had very different approaches to advancing His kingdom? Are both needed or is one better than the other? Where do you see each approach in today’s world?
Life Application
What is your approach and why?
What is the ‘hard work’ for us today?
What is a favourite spot for you to connect with friends?
What are some ways that you could open your ‘spiritual eyes’ to see people as God sees them?
Homework!
Go on a prayer walk this week to a place where God leads you. Go by yourself, go with your spouse or with your small group…
First begin by praying where that should be… ie…your neighbourhood, downtown, around the university campus and ask God to see people there as He sees them. All I want you to do is just watch and listen for how God may be speaking to you about how to pray.
