Encounters to Connection

Are we just trying to get people a brief encounter with God, or are we trying to help people make a lasting connection to Him? I love encountering God; a connection to Him inevitably starts with meeting Him. But if our aim stops there, then that’s all we’ll get; people who come to an event, be it encounter night or Sunday service, encounter God, and then go home and have it all slowly wane away, slowly choked out by the thorns of everyday life.

We as leaders are of course tempted to solved this by increasing the frequency of these big time encounters, to make the doses more frequent: quarterly, monthly, weekly even. All these efforts however, neglects the root problem that while we need to help people encounter God, there follows a need to nurture that encounter into a constant, life-permeating connection with God.

The community of believers must begin to help each other steward the passion that flows from these encounters; that they don’t simply get excited for the next event and become encounter junkies, but begin praying, reading the word, walking with others, shining in their world, and all the things that will help foster a lifetime of being a branch in the vine.

We leaders shall pave the way. We must spend comparable effort and time in walking with them on the ground, as we do leading them from the stage; to communicate to them via our actions that yes, there is more to this than encounter night, and I’m willing to spend my time and energy walking this next step with you.

Back to the Future (5/5) - To Infinity and Beyond ...

We dropped it all 3 years ago, shedding giant pieces of preconceived notions and cognitive dissonances. We stopped doing things just because we saw other people doing it, or someone convincing told us to, in order to chase after what was the real church that God wanted. Since then God has been giving us new pieces, reshaping old ones, as we journey to be led by Him, to be molded by Him, to be His people.

That work is ongoing, God’s definitely not done with us. By that I mean us, what’s going to change is not the organization, or the programs, or the structure. What’s going to change it’s you and I, taking risks by the Spirit’s leading, and by faith moving into God’s reality together.

We will be church.

Those of you who stick around are going to have to be OK with the responsibilities that come from such a perspective shift. I know most of you are actually really excited about that! Next week Dom’s going to talk about some practical ways you guys can get in on that action if you haven’t already.

Back to the Future (4/5) - Reality of Christ

"43And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles."

All of us grew up in a certain context, a certain perception of life we’ve been brought up in, a certain way of viewing the world. For most of us, that reality is a suburban, middle class family. This carries weight in our perception of God too, how many of you went to Sunday school most of your childhood life?

So most of you know what I mean when I say Sunday school answers. A happens then God does B; we do C, God responds with D. We’re brought up to think that God is very predictable, very explainable. And if you were a good Christian kid you’d spend most of your life gathering learning more of those A to B answers, until you think you understand everything about everything.

For the most part, God made sense, life made sense.

I know, we’ve never heard anyone say that outright, but I’ll admit, I was one of those know it all kids. Funny how all that changes when we begin to really dedicate our life not just to correct theology and zealous spiritual disciplines, but to the expansion of God’s kingdom on earth, to head out beyond our middle class circles to the depths of this world, things aren’t so neat and tidy then.

I remember Paul came back from his first day at volunteering, he looked at me and was like, this household I was working with had this kid who smears his feces on the wall. I was like, “OK.....”, I mean what the heck else do you say?

When we step out of our suburban comforts and and really engage in what James says is “pure and flawless religion”, you quickly realize that you have to throw out that little box of cleverly worded answers that we put God in because the bubble where those ideas came from has been so small. You’re confronted with the fact that, contrary to what you think you “know”, we don’t know very much about how God operates His universe.

Don’t believe me? Have a read through Job, where God essentially says, I’m God, you’re not.

Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I see so often people who pursue and trust in their theology and understanding so much that they revoke this verse, while cowering in their little church lives never bothering to venture out and see that the spiritual warfare going on today is so much greater, so much more real than their well-referenced theology.

I think about that family Paul worked with, I think about our neighbours whose hate filled, profane arguments stretches to wee hours of the morning, often with police sirens, I remember my mom’s bout with psychotic depression, and I am forced to face the question: do I think theology is going to solve that? Do I think that correct biblical cross referencing is going to heal that? Do I think that whatever effort this bag of flesh and bones can muster up will actually change that?

Do I really think that God’s redeeming hand comes from this set of zealously correct ideas, or this real, alive person we have to meet? None of us would deny God’s presence or power, but would we rather study it or live by it? Do we realize that God’s kingdom is so so much more than our knowledge and our efforts?

The more we step out of the basket the more we realize that if we want His kingdom come, His will be done, we need more than knowledge and zeal, we actually need Him, His presence, His power. That’s exactly what Jesus told his disciples before He left.

Acts 1:4-5 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

What happens right after is the Pentecost, the releasing of the Holy Spirit into the NT, the precursor to this Acts church. Jesus says, don’t go yet, you don’t have what you need right now. You’re not to go out on your own power, but it is my Spirit that causes such radical change. Just as I empowered the seventy two when I sent them out while I was here, I am empowering you now with the Holy Spirit as I return to the Father. I will not leave you as orphans.

Apostle Paul stands by this in His ministry, most evident in Corinth where we learned in the last sermon series on 2 Corinthians that super-apostles were coming in and persuaded many believers with their heady teaching.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

If I ever get a chance I want to walk with you guys through 1 Corinthians, it’s a very misunderstood and misinterpreted book. It’s often used to tell people that God does not display power or manifest in reality anymore, yet that’s the very thing that the Apostle Paul repeatedly says God’s kingdom is about.

1 Corinthians 4:19-20 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.

The gospel isn’t a doctrine to be learnt, it’s a person to be revealed. Transformation isn’t simply a change of what’s right and what’s wrong, it’s a change of what’s real and what’s not. It’s not simply a change of theology or morality, it’s a change of reality.

Am I making that distinction clear enough? Jesus said we are to be his witness, that means we had to have seen Him work, not spend ourselves studying His mechanisms and trying to do it on our own.

If we wish to live for Christ, we must be open, dare I say we should be eager, for God's manifest presence to change our lives, and the lives around us. It will not happen for long any other way.

God has equipped us with more than just a head full of ideas and a heart full of good wishes. He has given us His Spirit, the Spirit of the God of the universe resides in you to bring forward His agenda, that all knees bow and all tongues confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We must welcome the Spirit and release His sovereignty if we want His kingdom come, His will be done.

Last week I talked about how a lot of people left our church because we were too charismatic, too into the miraculous giftings. In hindsight, what we did poorly wasn’t that those things were bad and should be avoided, but that we didn’t use them to edify or to build up. They ended up being a spirituality measurement, a way for us to stand out from the rest.

People were hurt. We were hurt because that was what was taught to us and we kicked ourselves afterwards because we blindly followed persuasive teachers. It’s really from that episode that we began this road of discovery at our church. God gave us these past three years, years where we’ve had no teacher, to really hone in on His voice, to let Him teach us what it meant to live in His kingdom, and how we can help each other with it.

Even through all that though, I know walls have been built up in many of our hearts against the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I was definitely one of those people, who said I am not touching this stuff anymore, I don’t need it.

I went to retreat, I felt that the Spirit was really stirring (me and my sister have this sixth sense for that sort of thing) and people were pumped about what God was going to do at Westside. But I was sitting there just grumbling to God. Haven’t I seen this before? Haven’t I seen that the excitement in these people won’t last and won’t go anywhere? Why should I get back into it now? Didn’t we all see what happened last time?

I could feel God looking at me, his gaze softening, His reply though loud and clear. “Ken, you’re letting your worry of other people’s fakeness keep you from receiving the real thing. Even if this really wasn’t real for them, it can be real to you. What I’m asking you to step into isn’t their reality, I want you to step into mine. Will you come in?”

Well of course I said yes!

I want to encourage you all to begin to allow God to take those walls down. You were meant to be more that just a human being with some ideas about God that you’re working hard to live out. Jesus says that as you walk with me and minister my love you will go everywhere and be witnesses of what I’m doing.

Let’s stop being just servants with our head to the grind stone, and start beings sons and daughters that are getting to know the amazing wonder that is God’s business of redemption and glory.

Let’s not settle on just theology or morality, but begin stepping into the reality of Christ.

Back to the Future (3/5) - Scatter out of the Basket

"47praising God and having favor with all the people."

Last week we talked much of the importance of gathering together in love, and when you read further in Acts you realize that their love was visible to the everyone. They were engaged with the people around them.

Acts 5:12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.

I’m going to talk about why they were so scared in the next point, but at least we can see that people knew about what they did.

Matt 5:14-15 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

These four walls, for a lot of us, have become that basket. Many find their entire spiritual existence inside the church organization, inside the two hour service even.

We as leaders used to feel obliged to find everyone a place in this big church machine, to ask people to come in and be used by God. It was more comfortable for them, and meant more manpower for the organization, everyone wins right?

What does the great commission say though? Jesus said go and make disciples.

You find people missing the point in Acts as well:

Acts 11:19-21 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

Jesus told them to go out and be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, but they just bunched together and didn’t go anywhere beyond Jerusalem, never mind the gentiles. So this persecution broke loose, the one that stoned Stephen, and scattered them, and got the snowball rolling that allows Gentiles like us to be follow Christ today.

I realized that the person who God used to start this scattering was Saul, who in next chapters in Acts, as Apostle Paul, will continue the scattering, the spreading of Christ to the gentiles, only now for a completely different cause. I’m inclined to think that was God’s whimsical plan all along.

We talked last week about how we gather weekly to love and support, and celebrate what God has been doing, but just as the church was scattered to Antioch and beyond, we also are scattered weekly. There is just as much purpose in our scattering as our gathering.

We had a chance to lead encounter night, a night of praise and prayer for all campuses a couple of weeks ago. As you’ve noticed in Hamilton, praise is really simple, but we enjoy it just as much this way.

I do remember someone cautioning us that doing the same thing there will not have the same results. The comment was that in Hamilton most people come ready to praise God, that for laughter or for tears we’ve met God during the week, and we come looking to pour our hearts out and debrief with God, where as most other people are looking at that praise time as their main avenue to connect with God, and it takes them a while to restart their connection that was broken during the week.

That got me thinking about why our scattering is important. God called us to live lives that loved on others not because he needs us to, but because he wants to take His love, His promises, His ways off of the letters on the page, and into your everyday reality. As any proud father would, He wants His kids to see him at work. He wants us to see Him and meet Him and connect with Him every moment of everyday, to have us see what would happen if we poured out, repeatedly and unconditionally, His supernatural love.

That does requires us to get out of our seats, get out from underneath this basket, to more than just roam the world between services, but to engage it. Our friends, family, school, city.

We’ve already started some first steps, our Weds prayer meetings now on campus, many of us volunteer (CityKidz, teach ESL, working with the broken homes, etc.) Karen recently started to gather funds to buy more nutritious food for one of a homeless ministry downtown. I want Westside Hamilton to have a meaningful scattering when we’re not gathered, salt of the earth, light of the world.

But as we head out there, what do we engage them with?

Back to the Future (2/5) - We Love, He Builds

"And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved."

What do people expect a church to have? Typically you’d expect a church, or even a campus group, to have programs and structure, prayer meetings, child care, bible studies, services, coffeehouses, BBQ’s that sort of thing.

Last week we talked of this paradigm shift, this idea that we are the church. That church isn’t some abstract corporate entity that we can delegate our callings in Christ to.

When you put those two things together, you realize that when you say a church should have this or that, a church should reach out to people, a church should give to the poor, a church should be teach the Word, a church should follow God, you’re really saying that about yourself. When we say “building church”, we really are saying “building each other”.

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

God says you are the program, you are my priesthood, my nation. When you invite others to Westside Hamilton, you’re not inviting them into some corporate organization, you’re inviting them into your life with Jesus Christ with your brothers and sisters, as we each proclaim Him in our lives. That’s what we’re trying to equip you for, that’s what us leaders here are praying you’ll all grow to become. That you won’t be coming to church, you’ll become church.

That has significant implications when it comes to what we put our efforts towards. Listen to what Jesus says:

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Matthew 16:17-18 And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Jesus says you make disciples, I will build my church.

How many of us have ever lead ministry in any capacity? How many of us have ran a program/event and prayed that God would make disciples through it?

We had it backwards! I told you guys last week that’s what we did here, organizing and executing well designed events where we would try to invite as many people as we can fit in a room, praying fervently that the program will be successful in touching and transforming hearts and that they’ll come back next week.

What I didn’t tell you though, was how this mentality affected the people who were actually serving across Westside as we adopted this idol of excellence. How many people have taken our programs and their serving within them as a subconscious excuse to dump on the church their calling to share God’s loving touch everyday? Because, you know, that’s the church’s calling, and I’m already helping the church on the weekends.

God doesn’t need us to figure out how to convince people of His message, He doesn’t need us to figure out how to get them coming back week after week, He doesn’t want us to spend ourselves figuring out how to buy a building or hire enough staff. God doesn’t need us to design His church.

He says you go walk with someone, lead by example for someone (that’s what teaching meant in Jewish culture), you go be a witness and a minister of my love, my good news; that’s what will signal to them you’re mine, that’s what people who are truly drawn to me are drawn to.

That’s what we stand by here at Westside Hamilton, we love, He builds.

With all that said then, here are two things that are immediately different here as we watch God grow this community going forward:

1. Hearing God voice is of the utmost importance, to everyone.
   
   I don’t mean the pastor hearing this big vision and he just teaches what everyone should do for the next ten years, that’s not listening to God is it? We each must cultivate our ability to be directed by God ourselves. When Jesus says “my sheep know my voice”, we should take that seriously.
   
   I stand by the conviction that God’s will for this community in any given moment is the sum aggregate of what He’s called and gifted each of us to do. We’ll move towards God’s vision for us not by corporate planning, but personal obedience and submission to the Holy Spirit, as each part does its work.
2. Resting is a priority.
   
   I’m not saying Omm-ing and meditation is the only way to rest, but to spend more time being relaxed with God, whatever that means for you, for your time with God to not be this time where you’re striving so hard to extract something from God. When Jesus says “Come all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”, we should take that seriously.
   
   Add to that the less relaxed you are with God, and the harder it gets for you to switch your ears from your own voice to His. Not to mention if church is a gathering of souls that pour out God’s love, then we know that tired and worn out souls represent that very poorly.
   
   So while rest maybe unproductive for corporate expansion, it’s extremely important for souls that minister Christ.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, there’s a lot more to be revealed to us when it comes to following God’s voice as a community, but He is now starting to move this community to a place where He is the leader of everyone; towards a vision where my role as a leader will no longer be to act as your medium to God, telling you what to think, what to believe, what to do. Rather, as we start challenging you to take responsibility and steward the things that God reveals to you, we’ll help you walk with God and help you find your destiny in His kingdom not just here, but everywhere you go for the rest of your life.

Back to the Future (1/5) - Introduction

We’ve been looking at Acts 2, the first church found in the scriptures that date to thousands of years ago. Yet a great portion of our future, this church’s future, is found in these very verses.

At the end of the day, I don’t know if any of us are going be in this community forever. Some of us probably have a future away from McMaster. So God’s priority for us gathering here has never been to establish this long-lasting organization here at Mac. Rather I’ve always felt that God intends to shape a generation of young adults here that live life beyond the pew, to live love beyond the corporate church, for all of us to courageously discover how to engage this world everyday as God’s ministers, at school, at work, in marriage, with children, and beyond. That God’s kingdom consists of more than knowledge and righteousness.

God envisions his priesthood as more than just people who know ideas about Him, more than just people who sin less than other people who have all fallen short, but He wants a people whom He can use to see His kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. He’s equipped us for such, we have not been left alone to figure that out.

Certainly those of us who’ve been here for while know that we’re not totally there yet, that there is way more to come, way more that God intends to reveal. I’m going to talk about some of that today.

Right of the bat I’ll admit, today’s topics scare me, and you guys would know that I’m not usually scared of too many things about church. But I’m realizing as God brings us further and further out of these walls, the things we have to face are often unpredictable, uncomfortable, personal, even painful. If I truly surrendered myself to God I know it’ll change my life, in ways that are out of my control, out of my comprehension even.

So I have to warn you, there are some unknowns here for today’s topics.

I don’t know about you, I’d rather enter the unknown with God, than stay in the known with just other risk adverse people (who am I kidding, if you’re still at Westside in November you’re not risk adverse).

We’re entering the unknown. We don’t have a definite, hammered-out theological manifesto or a twelve step program to success for these areas, but we feel they are pieces that God is opening up to us, and we’re psyched.

So, in increasing order of insanity:

Acts of the Hamiltonians (5/5) - Coming and ... Being

God’s done a lot here in the past three years. There’s been a lot of heartache, a lot of tears, a lot of people turning away saying this is too much, too uncomfortable, too different; full of challenges they don’t care for and void of the niceties they used to enjoy.

We’ve been labeled everything from passionate to irreverent, eye-opening to heretical. So I guarantee it, walking with us is going to be challenging and difficult for some of you. If you stick around though, this community will be here with you to discover and meet more than a program or a doctrine, but the real living person that is our God.

So if you’re not sure about all this church and Jesus stuff, and you want to just come and chill and hang out with a bunch of people who struggle and chuckle to be more like Him, we’d love for you to laugh and cry with us.

If you are sure about Christ, and you want to join this family as your body of Christ here at Mac, here’s what I want you to wrestle in prayer with those around you after I’m done:

Will you come?

Will you die?

Will you let God raise you to give His love away?

Acts of the Hamiltonians (4/5) - Giving (Away)

"45And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need."

“Dying to ourselves” is a popular Christian phrase, coming from verses such as:

Galatians 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

You know what I realize about dead people? They don't own things. They don't hoard stuff, they literally have no ability to keep possessions to themselves. It’s not like a corpse can stand up and defend itself against grave robbers.

So is it any wonder that the NT is filled with radical, insane, completely nuts sort of giving?

Luke 3:11 And he answered them, "Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.

This is John the Baptist talking before Jesus started public ministry, and the next verse Jesus talks about what to do with your enemies.

Luke 6:29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.

It’s not just in the NT. The idea of giving is not new, it’s all through out the OT too. People giving in support of the temple and the priests and the poor and needy. 

I recently just read through Leviticus, proceeding through the books of the law. It’s full of regulations regarding when to give, for what, what to give, how much to give. What is quite different though in the NT is how God brings to the forefront the heart behind giving.

Mark 12:41-44 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."

Jesus didn’t raise the OT bar, He broke it.

It wasn’t about a monetary percentage, no longer about meeting a certain standard in order to obey God. At the same time, there is no longer this line where you can say you’ve done enough.

As if it wasn’t common sense already, it’s all God’s, everything you have. Now it boiled down to how much you realize that and how much you trusted God, that He won’t screw you as He voice calls you, one moment to the next, to surrender all that you are as His son/daughter.

Be very clear that I’m not talking about giving to Westside so we could be a bigger organization and so that staff can make a good living out of this. Sadly, in general only about 2-3% of an North American mid-sized church’s giving actually goes away from themselves, most of it comes back to them in staff, buildings and programs.

So I’m glad that most of us are not paid ministers, that whatever you give of yourself here for the most part never returns to you in terms of pandering staff, or well-equipped buildings, or elaborate events. Though I am almost certain those missing comforts will be sorely missed by some of you in your journey with us, and we’ll try our best to help you be stronger through it.

I want to tell you, in all frankness and honestly that here we give away what God has given us, without demanding some sort of return on investment, from this organization or from God, though I know He is faithful to our giving, and it does not go unnoticed.

We say that the old has gone the new has come, that the old self died. Well, surrendering what you have is a defining part of dying. Giving up ourselves, our stuff, our time, our energy and efforts, that everything we have received in our new selves to our Lord as we pray your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Whom, or perhaps more appropriately, what are you giving yourself to these days? Is it eternal? If its not it’s not worth it.

Will you spend your life giving God’s love? Would you trust that God won’t screw with you when you do, and that’s He’s got lots more where that came from? I’ll talk more about this next week.

Acts of the Hamiltonians (3/5) - We are "family"

"42And they devoted themselves to...the fellowship...to the breaking of bread.....46And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts"

I use quotes because I don’t want to imply that we should compare church to your family. There are a lot of families who aren't loving nowadays, so I know this is a hard one to visualize and relate to for a lot of you.

When you ask someone to describe their church, what do they usually say?

You usually get a recount of the service: how moving was the music, how inspiring was the teaching/sermon (if you’re talking to a theology buff it’s usually about how they don’t agree with it), how organized they were, how advanced their AV system is, perhaps a mention of the smile on faces of the ushering team (or sometimes lack there of). You realize nowadays those are the elements that people take as the dominant characteristics of a gathering of God’s people.

John 13:34-35 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."

God's people is to be known for the way they radically display their love, His love, not their knowledge or teaching or music or operational prowess.

That makes perfect sense when you remember Jesus saying the two most important commands were to love God, and to love your neighbour as yourself. And I’m not so sure how many of you would personally feel loved if we spent ourselves putting on this fantastic show every Saturday, just like the video.

That’s what we realized two years back, when we had ten people on the band (we ran out of AV channels or stage space for that matter), and three bible studies going on with increasing levels of intellectual difficulty (we even named them that way, Perspective 1, 2 and 3), we were pushing a hundred for our Saturday service as we created larger and larger corporate structures to cope with the increasing number of people who just wanted to come and sit and consume and “grow”.

Craziest thing is that we wanted that, we felt driven and called to give them the best spiritual experience two hours can buy.

We used to have a ton of meetings back then specifically as to how we’d run the 2 hour service better. Our operations checklist to prepare for the service reached to 27 separate tasks at one point before we even got to 4:30pm. I specifically remember one meeting where we sat around and discussed how we could make our newcomer process less set up and obviously scripted, to make it seem more like our guys just happened to want to get to know their assigned person.

The plan we came up with was for the ushering team to secretly text the newcomers team a physical description of their newcomer assignment during the praise time, so that they could have the rest of the service to find that person to make sure they approached them after service.

Funny enough in the end we had to scrap that plan because we got really poor reception in our old room. I have to tell you though, when all the gears meshed right, the show was super slick.

Yes, people enjoyed coming to that, that service even sort of “worked” in terms of getting people excited for a little while about attending our events.

Then the floor fell out, us leaders were tired and burnt out, most only cared to sit through the show, the fad of being the “hip church for students” went to some other safer, non-”charismatic” churches, as did the crowds. We went through three years of this flurry of activity but saw that in the long-run most hearts didn’t transform. There was lots of motion, but when the dust settled, there was no movement.

We were left to wrestle with the question that went surprisingly unanswered (well we never asked it really) in our 3 prior years of “building church”: What is church?

We prayed, we dove into scripture, we laughed, we cried, we listened to God, we shouted at each other (well no, it was just me shouting at people), it finally dawned on us that church wasn’t an idea or an event or a place, it was a people belonging to God’s love. Believers don’t come to church, they become church.

And what we were doing was never going to prompt people to that for long, for most it didn’t even prompt them out of their Saturday seats. We realized that no amount of organizing or doctrine or excellence or attractiveness could ever compensate for a gathering of people who don’t love one another; no corporate event, no corporate structure could ever substitute for the soul to soul connection of God’s love.

So we got off the stage, got off the fancy platform that we had built, and refocused our lives to touching individual hearts and raising them to love others. For our gatherings we’ve pursued a different atmosphere ever since, keep it simple, keep it freeing, keep it joyful, keep it loving.

Acts 2 gives this picture of people's lives intertwined together. It wasn't a gathering where you didn’t even know the name of the person sitting beside you, never mind love them. People didn’t gather so they could, you know, not talk to each other for two hours every weekend. People didn’t gather to individually interact privately with their own God. Why gather if you spend most of the gathering not caring about the people gathered with you?

When the Apostle Paul scolded the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11 about messing up the communion meeting, what was his beef?

Many will read the few verses about drinking judgement and examining themselves themselves and think that the Apostle Paul was talking about their lack of reverence.

But if you read the whole chapter, the whole book actually, Paul was really getting at their divisiveness, their lack of love, mentioning in verse 33 a remedy for their situation was to wait for each other before starting the meal!

That this meal was supposed to be about you celebrating Christ together, without segregation, without favoritism, with generous hearts tied together by the bond of Christ and the Corinthians made it into a showy, class divided, every man for himself event. That’s what the Apostle Paul was upset at, that they gathered in His name but didn’t represent His love at all.

Being part of the body of Christ, being church, isn’t about you and God. It’s about us and God, being a body that is truly joined together.

Simplest part of that is showing up.

Every year, someone will do this. Someone will regularly come to the service, leave right afterwards week in and week out, and sometime later talk about how they’re not growing, or finding community here or they feel left out and no one’s feeding them.

This kills me every time, it’s like a needy girlfriend telling their boyfriend that she feels so lonely that he’s never around. And the boyfriend is like, well you never show up to our dates!

Participating in a body of Christ is not supposed to fit into a two hour service. If you want to be part of this family, if you really consider church to be God’s people and not just an event you attend, then surprise, you need to spend time loving and connecting with your brothers and sisters.

We pray together every Tues, Weds, Sat. We have bible studies on Sundays. Small groups. We always go out for food after service, I dare say that we have a communion meal together every weekend. People randomly show up at Ward and hang out. Those are just as much “church” time as right now.

Being part of church, being part of the body of Christ, actually becoming more like Christ, is not about the attending good programs and joining the right organization; not about coming, sitting and expecting some other human being to reach you and feed you.

It’s about playing a part in the loving, reaching, shaping and supporting of other brothers and sisters and as they play that part for you; to become church for each other and the world around us.

That’s what you’re called to give for each and every community you walk into, however new you are. There have been some some new believers here who have done more to love this community than people who have sat through church services for decades.

God’s love, it’s in you to give.

Acts of the Hamiltonians (2/5) - Loving ← God

"And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.....and the prayers....praising God"

How many of you grew up in a church? I’m sure most of you heard many, many, many sermon on the spiritual disciplines you should have with God, I’m not going to remind you to pray or the read the bible or come and share your praise. Frankly, why follow God if you don’t care to talk with Him, or know Him, or find him worth praising?

So I’m not here to remind you to love God, because here’s the thing, Luke wrote about their devotion here not as a reminder for us to act, but an observation of what believers naturally did.

Look a little earlier in the chapter:

Acts 2:37-41 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

When you read the whole chapter of Acts 2 you see this progression beginning with this altar call that Peter gives: they believed/repented, were baptised, they received the Holy Spirit, and then what? And then they lived this way. We forget to connect those two passages because there’s this section title in between them. This lifestyle in Acts 2 came as a result of this progression of events.

As some of us are finding out nowadays, there’s no way they could have lived this way out of their own volition and will to buddy up to God and be saved. They were able to live this way because they were saved. Because God redeemed them and transformed them to be His sons and daughters.

1 John 3:19 “We love because He first loved us”

Hence the backwards arrow in the title. Our transformation, our becoming more like Christ, our role in His kingdom, does not stem from our love for Him, rather it stems from His love for us.

The change in wording is subtle, but the difference is huge.

Colossians 2:13-14 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Most of us have have luckily gotten past the idea of earning our salvation before receiving it, but there are still many that are trying to make payments after being saved; who listen to the voice that says “do you realize that you owe God even more now that He’s saved you?”, who live like the term of their debt has been extended rather than canceled.

But Jesus said in Matthew 11:30 His yoke is easy, His burden light. In Matthew 11:28 He said come all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Apostle Paul said in Galatians 5:1 that it is for freedom that Christ has set you free.

The cross has done it all. Christ has answered all of God’s demands for us, we don’t owe God a dime.

That’s probably one of the hardest thing to accept for both believers and unbelievers alike, that in Christ you are free. Free to be more than just a follower or a servant or a soldier. You are free to be a cherished child, a trusted friend, a beloved bride.

I see so many believers, myself included not so long ago, who have missed out on that identity, who strive to perform in their walks with God, to know more, to act more, to meet more of what they perceive to be God’s righteous demands, to get it right so that God would be happy with them and be closer to them.

That’s why there’s such obsession with correct doctrine and why there’s such risk aversion with practices of our faith, often to the point of bitter division, because we think what if we get it wrong? God would be so pissed with us.

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We forget this. After a while we start paying attention again to this voice condemning us for our inadequacies and ugliness and our not meeting God’s standard. Take a guess who that is! We begin to think that even though God might not take heaven from me, he would definitely at the very least distance Himself if I mess up.

Romans 8:38-39 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

His love, for our eternities which includes this very day, is not going anywhere, as for the voice that says otherwise:

Romans 8:33-34 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Who stands for the accusations against us? Jesus. Not us.

Colossians 3:3 “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God”

We discussed this in our Colossians study last year, that God doesn’t see you or your ugliness when He sees you, He sees Christ. The cross did it all.

So here’s the mixup, do we think that Jesus will love us, justify us, make us right before God, and then God will turn around and throw a fit and condemn, punish, and abandon those that Jesus just made right? I can see some crappy parents or boyfriend/girlfriend turn back on their word and doing just that, but God, who planned this to begin with?

I don’t think so.

I think we all know this, but have we received it, have we allowed it to set us free?

We tend to complicate God’s word, but His gospel simply says believe that I’ve saved you. He is saying to His children, those reborn by His Spirit, that I already cherish you, I’m not just near you, I’m already in you, I already love you.

You couldn’t have earned those things before being saved, you don’t have to earn them after.

What I ask of you now are no longer demands for payment. I delight in you and I am inviting you to what your Father is doing. I want you equip you and train you, give you everything you need to be part of my family business.

To be encouraged and empowered, fully freed by the cross, convicted that His presence, His love for you is not about how “correct” we manage to be, that acknowledges God, and gives Him all the glory for the transformation He does in you and your life.

This is the foundation of what it means to be God’s people, to be church, being a people that is fearlessly, with increasing portion, realizing and acknowledging God’s constant love for them, who pours out of that overflowing abundance.

So where does all this overflow go?

Acts of the Hamiltonians (1/5) - Introduction

It’s a funny video, and those who’ve ever visited different churches, especially in the states would eerily realize that’s exactly how church is supposed to look like to a lot of people. But what causes me to chuckle every time I see this video is that we used to want to be like that here. That’s what we wanted to be like two years ago, but ever since then God’s been revealing so much to this community about what it means to be church has been constantly transforming us and revealing to us His kingdom.

So I guess it’s no surprise that a brother once remarked that this church always seems like a moving target, that it’s changing all the time and doesn’t have any stability. In my heart I giggle a little bit and realize wow, isn’t that wonderful thing! God never stops shaping us and transforming us to be His people, His church, that dynamic picture that we see in the New Testament (NT).

So today, and next week as well, we’ll be walking through the quintessential piece of scripture that has now come to shape and define this community here at Westside Hamilton:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42-47 

There’s such a vivid picture of God’s kingdom, of His body, His church, of a people who lived beyond the pew. I’m certainly not going to say that we have all of these pieces that are described here, but this week we’ll take a look at some of the things that God has done here up till this point, and next week look at the pieces that God has just begun to open up here as we chronicle our journey of being the NT church.