Can church exclude?

Does your church exclude people?  Are there people who are not allowed on the premises?  I guess we'd all be quick to say no.  But there are a range of ways of excluding people.  Not inviting them and not making church accessible to them are two simple ways we ought to think carefully about in regards to church.

Who are we not inviting?  Is there a segment of the population based on class, ethnicity, or some other factor who we are simply not reaching or building relationships with.  We will most naturally share the gospel with those we come into contact with everyday, work colleagues, parents at the school gates, those who we play sport with and so on.  But what about everyone else?  Does geography or class exclude them and if so what are we going to do about it?

Not making church accessible is another way we might exclude someone or a group of people.  We all know our buildings have to have disabled access, those with physical disabilities must be able to gain access to the building.   We ought to think about our services in the same way.  Is someone who is low literacy able to access this service or does the sheer volume of reading exclude them?  Is someone who is autistic able to access the service?  What about someone from a different ethnicity or tradition or class?  What assumptions about people's lives do we make in this service?  Is the service so monoculture that others will not be able to access it and will therefore conclude that church is not for them they are not really wanted, they are excluded?

There are things you can do to overcome that.  The quality of welcome and follow up goes a long way towards overcoming these barriers.  But just thinking through your service with an eye and an ear to those who may come along and feel excluded and making small changes may make a big difference.

Danger!

There are a number of dangers we face as Christians to our ongoing discipleship. One of them that Luke seems to stress is distraction.

It is there in chapter 8 as he tells the parable of the sower, in the third soil the seed doesn't bear any fruit because they get distracted by life's worries and pleasures, its there illustrated in the Stilling of the Storm as the disciples allow the waves and wind to distract them from who is in the boat with them. It comes up again in his call to discipleship - Jesus expects undistracted disciples who follow him as a priority.

And it is there in the story of Mary and Martha. Having just taught the expert in the law that loving God devotedly means loving humanity practically, Jesus surprisingly warns Martha of the danger of being distracted by serving. Martha isn't distracted by something bad but by something which is good, but the issue is she doesn't choose what is better, what is needful.

It poses the question am I serving God at the expense of my relationship with him? Or am I serving God as an outpouring of my relationship with him?

Do's and Don'ts when leading worship

I found this little table helpful in terms of things to do and avoid when preparing and leading a service:

Do
Be welcoming
Be relational
Be natural
Be prepared
Be deliberate
Expect unbelievers
Be sensitive
Be flexible
Communicate with those taking part (especially preacher)
Plan what you sing carefully
Make eye contact
Signpost what is happening
Dress appropriately
Ensure everything is visible
Pray with others beforehand

Don't
Be disorganised
Be late starting
Leave dead time
Use in-jokes
Read off notes
Try too many new things
Speak in a monotone
Mumble
Use humour at expense of others
Pack too much in
Use a church voice
Get on a hobby horse
Choose your favourite songs

Are there other things you would add?

Transformed not conformed at work and in the church

We were looking at why and how to worship God in our service together yesterday. We worship God because we keep his mercy in view but what does it look like to worship God in church?

Looking at (12:3-8) it means humbly using your gifts, be it prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, showing mercy, and that is not meant to be an exhaustive list. Paul paints a picture of worship as active humble service of one another.

You may be sat there thinking I’d love to serve but there isn’t anywhere to get involved. Can I assure you this morning that there are loads. Speak to Someone here or in your church and serve. Maybe you aren’t sure where to serve just ask where there are needs.

Worship in the church is putting God’s word into action and serving others.

What does it look like to worship God in the workplace?

The Bible leaves us in no doubt that work is worship. But it also doesn’t duck the joys and struggles of work. We are made to work, it is how Adam and Eve worship God in Eden, but after the fall work becomes frustrating and it is still that way now. The Bible is realistic about your office situation, about how difficult your boss can be to work for, about the conflicts you face, about days when you just don’t want to drag yourself in.

But it also says you worship God through your work, be it as a mum changing the 5th nappy of the morning, as a cleaner, a teacher, a civil servant or a pastor. They are all the same there is no hierarchy of worship. The mum worships as she cares for her child, the cleaner worships God as they clean just as the pastor does as he prepares a talk.

The key to true worship at work is having a transformed mind.

I read this week that the average time spent productively working in an office environment was less than an hour a day. The rest was spent chatting, making coffees, rearranging desks, checking email, surfing the internet and taking breaks. How do I worship God at work? I don’t conform to the world but am transformed so that I work productively.

We avoid eye-service. A manager once walked up to an employee and said why aren’t you working, to which the employee said because I didn’t see you coming. The true worshipper will not be conformed so they work only when the boss is around but transformed.

There is a danger here and that is that work or career becomes what we worship. The Bible doesn’t call us to worship work, or to have unrealistic standards but to worship through our work.


Worshipping God at work affects our attitudes as employees to our employers and as those in positions of authority to those under our care. (Romans 12:12-21) outline love in action, Titus 2, Colossians 4, Ephesians 6 all call on us to worship God through our work relationships.

That means we don’t engage in the office snipping, no matter how much we’d love to chip in. It means that as a Christian boss we are known to be good to work for.

Worship is living to please God with a renewed mind seeking God’s will, it is all encompassing, though we have just thought about two areas. In short worship is living every moment for God’s glory as a response to grace.

Worship is not just an activity in our life it is the activity of our lives. Worship is the only right response to the grace of God in Christ.

Maundy Thursday

Commemorates the Last Supper and Jesus washing of his disciples feet, it was the day on which Jesus commanded his disciples to "love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

It is something well worth pausing and thinking about today in a world centred on me and I. Contrast Jesus who in the midst of betrayal, knowing all that was going to befall him undertakes to wash his disciples feet as a sign of his love for them.

What will I do today to love my brothers and sisters as he has loved me?

How I view the world

God rules! That is the big message of the book of Daniel. Daniel and his friend serve great kings in the worlds eyes, great empires in the worlds eyes and yet Daniel outlasts them all. Why? Because he is not some flunky who attached himself to a king or a court and sought to gain favour. But Daniel serves the God who he knows rules the world, who hold history in his hands.

As I've been studying Daniel I find that an amazing challenge. I know in my head that is what the Bible teaches and that it is true. But what about in the way I live, does that show? Daniel can live as he does, living for God, in an alien pressured and pagan environment because he knows that truth as more than just a theological truth but as a living breathing reality.

It means he can stand for God when under threat, when facing persecution because God is sovereign and Daniel can put his trust in his God for the outcome.

But Daniel also gives us a view of the world that we need, it is found in the apocalyptic visions in the second half of the book and it is a reminder that we sometimes limit our living to the world pulled over our eyes to blind us. When in reality we as the people of God are engaged in a spiritual battle and therefore need spiritual weapons.

My prayer is that these two truths inform my mind and heart and transform my service of God while he continues to give me breath.

Work in the service of God

How do you view your job? A necessary evil? A means of simply putting bread on the table? Something that gives me value and worth? Something I enjoy?

We are encouraged today to live for the weekend, or if you are a teacher for those blissful 13 weeks of the year, when we stop our work and do what we actually want to do.

But the Bible has a lot to say about work and no where more so than in the book of Daniel. The big emphasis on Daniel is on the Sovereignty of God, its why 6:26-7 provide a neat summary of ch1-6 and a bridge into ch7-12. God is sovereign and one of the direct consequences of God's sovereignty is that Daniel and his friends are able to live as they do. They are exemplary in their service of the King (whichever king that may be), they excel, they stand hand and shoulders above everyone else in terms of knowledge, wisdom and understanding but also in terms of character. They serve the Sovereign God as they excel in serving the king.

So often we live for the holidays, or in church circles see church work as being the ultimate work in service of God. Such attitudes are rubbish. God uses Daniel and his friends excellent service to speak to kings! The work place is the front line in the battle between the temporary kingdom of the world and the eternal, indestructible kingdom of God. We are to excel in serving God as we excel in our workplace.

When it works

Church is family. We had that illustrated to us this morning as we had a dedication of two youngsters and then afterwards a baptismal service of two ladies, followed by a family lunch. It was amazing to see the church full of toddlers running around standing at the front playing along to some children's songs, doing the actions to our God is a great big God and then being taught by believers who had worked hard to make the gospel accessible. It was a privilege to see our own young people some as young as 4 working hard to make those who don't normally go to church, or to our church feel at home. To watch the church family serve others.

Then to see a fantastic team effort of service as the church set up and packed up two venues, held a normal service and a separate baptism service and then catered with a cooked turkey lunch for 80+ people was amazing. It was a great example of the church at work serving one another and God so that people could invite friends and family to come and hear the gospel.

Its days like today that give us a glimpse of the church's power and place in God's plan as it works to bring his living word to the world. Praise God.

Concentration

I am always reading in the news papers about peoples declining concentration span, people site evidence such as shorter adverts, shorter scenes in soap operas, fewer people reading as a pass time. My question is what does this mean for the church?

Does it mean the church should pander to the prevailing trend in culture? Or should it buck the trend and encourage people to "stop being so lazy and pay attention"?

The irony is that amidst all this talk of shorter concentration spans, films haven't got any shorter and my hunch is that actually today people watch more films. Yes the scenes chop and change but the storyline remains and we manage to concentrate on it. The challenge for churches and those leading and preaching is not to bemoan the culture or berate the people it is to innovate the service.

The Bible is the inspired word of God and is the thing which "equips his [God's] people for works of service..." (Eph 4:12). It must be the focus of our meeting together or we fail to do what church is designed to do. The issue is over how we do it. Does it have to be a 30 minute monologue? Could it not be interactive and involve congregation participation at least on easy observation questions? Could you break into groups to discuss personal application, either during the service or in groups over coffee? Could you use physical objects, sights, smells, pictures as effective school teachers do? Or use video clips or song lyrics - though do so with care? If we want people to be devoted to the word our job as preachers is to get them engaged with the word.

What about the service itself. Familiarity is great it makes people feel at easy, it makes them comfortable. But it can also make them lazy, they don't have to engage their brain because they know what is coming next, so why not freshen up the service, innovate, CHANGE. Why not introduce a slot about something cultural and the gospel, the latest TV sensation, or a internet phenomenon like Facebook, or break the gospel talk in 2 to do communion in the middle... It may shake a few people but if you explain that it is so that we engage with the Bible, so that we can better devote ourselves to it I don't think many would complain for too long.