A welcoming community

At the beginning of the year we asked God through a week of prayer and fasting to speak to us about what we have been called to do. One of the promises we felt he gave us was that we could expect to gather 70 people to the Vineyard in the coming year.

 

So we need to get to work and so we have talked about getting near to those who are far; about the importance of prayer in sharing our faith and last week I talked about how the compassion for other people that naturally rises in us can be squashed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I ask people what they think of when I say the word “church” or “Christian” I get a very wide variety of responses ranging from the mystical and weird to the bitter and hurt to the boring and predictable.

Our motto says Love God, love people, love in action … I would love people to use those words when they described church or Christians. We have work to do in getting that message across.

 

Acts 2:39

Context – here was an (uneducated) Jew speaking to other Jews about a Jew named Jesus. Peter was making a radical statement. He was re-adjusting their lens, switching from black and white to HD colour. Can you remember an occasion when someone said something to you and the whole world looked different as a result:
– When you got a job offer
– Someone told you they loved you
– You realised that Jesus has forgiven all of your past

Here, Peter was telling a group of narrow-minded and partisan people that the kingdom of God they thought they had all to themselves is actually for everyone. The book of Acts is largely a story of the early followers of Jesus crossing one social, political, gender, race, cultural boundary after another as they told more and more people about Jesus and extended his kingdom across the known world.

Let’s apply this today - the Jesus we worship and follow is not our little secret in the Vineyard. He is the hope and saviour of everyone in Leeds and we are hugely committed to making him famous in this city and beyond.

This is why we need to get near to those who are far, why we need to pray fervently, why we need to allow his compassion to grow in our hearts. So that the people around us experience life change as they encounter the love and power of Jesus.

We want to be part of a community that is making a real difference – love in action.

 

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So we face outward to those who are far, but we also face inwards, to those who are coming near and who are near to God. We are a home for those who are following Jesus.

 

We are trying to create a community of faith where you can care and be cared for, love and be loved, know and be known. And that is not something that can be done by good intentions alone; we depend upon the presence of God in our lives to make this work.

When someone decides to follow Jesus the first thing they need to do is join with a group of like-minded Jesus-followers to learn and share and worship and to do life together. It is crucial.

Cloud and Townsend say,

“Virtually every emotional and psychological problem, from addictions to depression, has alienation or emotional isolation at its core or close to it. Recovery from these problems always involves helping people to get more connected to each other at deeper and healthier levels than they are.” **

 

Medical research demonstrates that from infancy to old age, health depends to some degree upon the amount of social connection people have.

This week I learnt from a farmer about something called “symbiotic community”. This is the phrase sometimes used to describe how plants (or animals) can’t grow healthily on their own. They need to be surrounded by other plants and the bio-diversity of nutrients, sun, rain, carbon-dioxide and so on.

 

We need each other. God in his immense creativity and mysterious wisdom has made the church a symbiotic community - the place where we do life together. It is described beautifully in:

 

Acts 2: 42-47

Here is a description of the first days of people who had given their lives to following Jesus finding life and healing in community. Many diverse people growing together in an environment in which they were fed and watered by God’s nutrients. They ministered to each other sacrificially, they learnt about Jesus and worshipped him. They looked after the community around them so that they grew in favour with the people in their city.

The challenge about this is that you and I have one thing in common – we are both human and no matter how hard we try we are not going to get it right all the time.

Some of you are thinking, I committed myself to other people before and got hurt. If that is the case I can only say I am sorry and encourage you to take a risk and try again.

I want us to grow a community where we have loads of fun, where we can learn and share, where we can worship and celebrate, where our children can learn too and build a bank of fantastic memories. Let’s eat together and party together. Let’s go through the great times and the tough times together.

We are a group of people who are doing their best to follow Jesus and share their lives together. It is called the church. A community of faith, a congregation. The practical way this works out is:

Weekly worship

It is really important to join with the rest of the community in corporate worship and learning. This is important for keeping in touch with the overall life of our church, for giving your children a place to grow in faith, somewhere where the gospel is regularly explained and you can bring your friends. I, and others, will teach the bible and explain how to follow Jesus, give an opportunity to respond.

Small groups 

To know and be known. A group of between 4 and 12 people who usually meet weekly at someone’s home. They are all a bit different but they all provide a small enough group where your name will be remembered and where you can remember other’s names. Where you can pray for and support people going through difficult times, and be supported yourself. Places where you can join in with other people’s celebration and share your celebrations too.
  

Reach Out 

Giving away what we have received - feeding the hungry, repairing gardens and houses repair. Supporting the Debt advice centre or the child contact centre. Joining the team going to the London Olympics. 

Finding that you have a place to serve

For example lots of people help on a Sunday to ensure that this place is welcoming, the children have toys to play with, your coffee is hot and the band is in tune. Or you can help run our party events or offer time doing administration. Working with children and young people.

 

Not just consumers but participants. Doing life together.

 

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Perhaps you are sitting there thinking, well that’s all very well David but these people around me aren’t being terribly friendly. You know what? You might find that they are thinking exactly the same. This isn’t a one-way street. I have points in my life when I am under pressure and struggling and if you happen to have to deal with me at that point you might find that I am short with you or don’t listen properly. I shouldn’t but I am human and not yet fully sanctified and you will have to forgive me and we move on. And I will do my best to do the same when I catch you on a bad day.
 
Let me read to your from one of Paul’s letters where he describes how we should live with each other, listen out for the phrase one-another.

 

Romans 12:9-16

If we each do to others what Paul describes here - then we will be on the receiving end of each other’s love and care.
This is the sort of community into which we want to welcome our friends and family and the stranger.

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Let us also remove every obstacle

 

Let us prepare a way for people to come. What does that mean?
I mean that sometimes we are just careless:
• inaccuracy on the website
• being forced to park at the top of the car park because regulars have taken all the spaces nearby
• being ignored as they stand in the street wondering where to go next as we chat to our friends right beside them
• each person should be welcomed with a smile and eye contact
• children should be made to feel special
• the words on the screen should be large enough to read and be spelt right
• we should start and stop when we say we will
• if someone comes to your group, do they know how to get there and what to expect?
• will we do strange and unexplained things and tell in-jokes?

 

Sometimes the obstacles are more serious

 
How can I really be someone who is welcoming if, when I find out about their life, I can’t help but raise an eyebrow? How can I say, “come as you are”, if a person’s lifestyle or behaviour offends me? How can I say, “love people”, when my reaction to someone’s story is one of judgement?

 

What good is it if someone who is desperate to know Jesus comes on Sunday morning or visits your housegroup and feels ignored or judged or rejected?
• I don’t want to and I don’t want you to try and fix anyone. I want you to point them toward Jesus.
• I don’t want to and I don’t want you to judge anyone’s behaviour or life choices. I want you to introduce them to Jesus. • People who want to come near, people like us who are searching, hungry, broken, lonely – don’t need our judgement and confrontation. They need Jesus.
• Jesus is the one who confronts our sins whilst offering forgiveness.
• Jesus is the one who judges our behaviour whilst offering mercy.

The amazing thing is that God chooses to use his people to bring people to Jesus, to point people to him. That happens through weekly worship, through housegroups and children’s groups, one on one, at the work place, over the garden fence, as we live our lives in his power, taking risks for the kingdom, making sacrifices for the king and changing the world soul by soul.

 

I stand in front of someone as a representative of Jesus; he is in me and lives through me. So how does he look at every single person I look at? With enormous, self-giving, sacrificial love. Every person is precious to him and in need of his touch. So I must be careful to remove every obstacle to someone discovering Jesus’ love.

So let us repent, and as we receive his forgiveness and are grateful that he has rescued us, may we open our arms wide to the guest, the newcomer, the seeker, the questioner, the hungry and the broken.

We are working with the Lord to see 70 people gathered to the Vineyard in the coming year. We do that by facing outward and vigorously engaging with our society as followers of Jesus. Doing things that will make a difference and being ready to introduce people to Jesus when the opportunity arises.

We will also gather by welcoming people into our community. Whatever stage of the journey they are on, whatever clothes they are wearing, whatever age, whatever state they find themselves in, we say
 
“You are welcome, come as you are, sit with me as we worship, learn and pray together. Come with me to meet a group of people who will care for you and for whom you can care, who will love you and whom you can love, who will know you and by whom you will be known. Come and eat with me. Come and party with me. Come, let us journey together as we seek after Jesus. Come and serve beside me and let us, with the power of Jesus, go and change the world”.



** Henry Cloud and John Townsend, How People Grow: What the Bible Reveals About Personal Growth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 122.