God's Plan for Church Transition and Growth

You know it's going to be good when you're preaching and somebody starts with amen before you say anything. It's a warm crowd. Well Todd and I were preparing together last night, that's something else, a house full of people, well both nights we felt like we had to come up here. That's kind of distracting. When you're doing something creative, you know, sometimes you have to get up and just kind of let things sift a little bit, you know, so I find myself in Dad's office. Really in two different ways, or maybe in two different aspects, God laid really very similar things on Todd's heart and my heart. And on yours too, I'm just going to read off the hymns, in the presence of Jehovah, guide me O thou great Jehovah, be thou my vision, how great thou art, and you're going to sing and God will make a way. Now I'm something of a preacher, so I still have something to say, but that's right along the lines of what God's been laying on our hearts. Forty-four years ago, this church was not in very good shape. Talked to Richard a little bit about that. There's a handful of dedicated believers, unfurnished building, a mountain of debt, and it experienced a huge decline in numbers. Because I'm happy to say that you're a little better off having Ed Doyle here. I know you've had highs, you've had something of a decline, and I can tell you that that ate him up. I don't think you have any idea the hours he put in between, you know, trying to work with God to try to turn things around and, you know, trying to do his due diligence with the foundation. We probably don't know. All I know is that I noticed he was tired. Well, God has given you a transition point, and I want to talk about that today. That church was in bad shape, but God had a plan for that church. He had a guy in mind to lead it forward in that plan. Use that guy to build that church and build other churches, start new churches, build future Christian leaders, develop the people who stayed, develop new people who came. Now God's plan for this church might be to bring a new pastor right away. If they're smart, maybe not next week, but they'll start sending their resumes in real soon because this church is a catch. This is the kind of church that a lot of guys would love to have. I'm not going to pretend to know your plan moving forward or God's plan for you moving forward. That's for you guys, your leadership to discern over time, through prayer, by consensus with each other. That's what he taught you about how to determine God's will together. It might be that he's going to bring somebody right away, or it may be that he's going to test you, and you may have to wait a little while. Maybe your life went through that. You guys have gone through that trying to look for staff, so you know what that's like. But either way, the way to navigate through that really is the same answer. I have told you about the ministry of that guy that God sent to start you off in that plan he had for this church yesterday, and it was to get you ready. It was to prepare you for the work of ministry. It was to prepare you for the next stage in the life of this church. And that's exactly what he did because whatever God has in mind for the next stage of this church, his intention is to bless this church. And right now, we're experiencing terrible sorrow. It's a dark day in the history of this church, but his intention, as I talked about Romans 8, 28, is to bless this church, and bless this church even through this experience. His intention for you is to thrive through this time, certainly to survive, but to thrive through this time. You see, we're shocked, but God isn't even surprised by all this. He was preparing you for this very moment, for this stage in the life of this church. So I talked a little bit, I just mentioned that it felt, the thought that came to my mind is that for dad, it was promotion day, Tuesday. For you, it's graduation day. So the question that you face is, are you willing to step up and let God use you? Because that's the purpose for which he called you to this life he gave you, and that's the only way to thrive as a church. You can thrive right now, even after this loss, even during this loss, because you can go through this together. You just need to remember two things to thrive. First is you're qualified, you're competent for spiritual leadership. I'm going to use 2 Timothy 3, 14 through 17. And I'm not used to it, but as a tribute to dad, I'm going to use the ESV that he's been using on his Facebook, which actually I think I kind of like. 2 Timothy 3, 14 through 17. I'm going to say it three times. Sometimes dad just said it once, and I was like, what was that? I spent half the time trying to find where he was. 2 Timothy 3, 14 through 17. Of course, dad tried to keep it short for you guys. I'm going to try that too, but, you know. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed. All you really have to do is to do what you were taught. And for maybe a lot of you, that's just going to involve taking the next step. You may not even be conscious of the things that dad taught you that are going to help you move forward with this. But that will kick in as you take the next step, especially as you act together in unity, as Todd talked about. Because together, as a whole, you get it, and you're going to remember all those things, and you're filled with leaders that have been brought to the point where they can exert the kind of leadership that's necessary here. It's just all too common for churches in transition. I know this because I tried to start a business when I was in seminary to work with churches in transition because so often it's such a mess. And for Baptists, we try to make that a period where we're guided by the Spirit of God. And what I found is that I didn't do any statistical study. I wasn't a statistician back then, but when you heard people talk about those kinds of experiences, they were filled with chaos and pain and suffering, not the fruit of the Spirit. And I mean, there certainly are those cases, there really are. But it's just too common for churches in this kind of scenario to pull back, to shrink back and wait for God to save them with somebody He's going to bring in. That is not God's preference. You remember God's first option for the kingdom of Israel was for it not to be a kingdom ruled by a human king. It was for them to be these tribes, and He'd raise up a leader. And in the meantime, He led them directly. That's what He has in mind for you right now. And I want you to keep in mind, as big a deal as Dad was, I mean, as talented as he was, he was smart, he was articulate, he had a lot of things going for him, but he had a lot of weaknesses. I do not think he was an extrovert, and he took a job working with people, you know. But God made him into the kind of man who God could use to get done what he needed to get done. And he took all those things that Dad had, and he maximized them in Dad. And he filled him with his spirit, and you know, God in many ways overcame a lot of his weaknesses or, you know, worked through him anyway. And that was the secret to Dad's humility, is he didn't see himself the way other people saw him. He saw those weaknesses, and he... I want you to understand that God led you through Doyle. Now Doyle's gone. God is not. God leads you through... He didn't just lead you through Doyle. He led you through a variety of people here, particularly over the years, but he leads you... And this was essential to Dad's ministry of philosophy, that he made sure that... I mean, certainly he had a big imprint here, but he made sure that he didn't minister like a bull in a china shop. He wanted to facilitate you doing ministry. And it was... I mean, he persistently taught his staff that very thing. So, knowing from whom you learned it, imitate Dad, as I said yesterday. You've seen the kind of person he was and became. Be what God intended you to be by mimicking Christ's life, as that was demonstrated to you by your spiritual leader. Fifteen, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. The NASB says that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. What the Scripture tells us is that as you follow God and you submit the things you have, the little things that don't seem like they're even very much, but even the things you're really good at, your strengths, you submit your strengths and your weaknesses to God. And you'll use all of them. You'll use your strengths and you'll use your weaknesses to build His kingdom. That's when you know the Spirit's working through you, is when what God produces from you is beyond what you could have done for yourself. That's exactly what dad taught me about ministry. And you've been taught the Scriptures. You've had the life of Christ demonstrated, that Christ has for you demonstrated in front of you. You've had Scripture taught to you by a world-class teacher, a world-class teacher. So do what you were taught. One of the things He taught you that He went over, over and over and over again with us and from the pulpit, is that there's a cycle to building a relationship with God. You have to come before God willing to do whatever He tells you to do, and this is something you should do every day. You have to ask God for what He wants. You have to listen for His voice, and you have to obey what you hear. You need to follow through when Christ tells you something. So Todd just had you reflect on things God might have talked to you about this week, or listen for what He's telling you right now. He talked to me right while I was sitting there. That's why I think Todd was supposed to settle emotion for me to come up and I didn't see it. Because God was dealing with me about something. When you ask God to show you something, and you mark off that time, and a thought comes to your head, and it's consistent with the Spirit of God and with the Scriptures, then you know that God's talking to you. And guess what? If you want that to continue, then you need to do what He told you to do. God doesn't fool around. He's a merciful God. He's patient. But when people don't really want to relate to Him, He backs off. And so if you want to have that dynamic relationship with God, it's got to be a two-way street. You ask Him to tell you what He wants you to do. You listen to Him, and then you follow through. You obey what you hear. And then once you do that, you become even more willing to obey. And so the cycle builds on itself. And soon, you're building a relationship with God. You're walking together with God. You're working together with God. So having had the life that Christ has for you, demonstrated to you, having had Scripture taught to you by a world-class teacher, having had done what you were taught, then the only thing you need to succeed is to take responsibility for yourself, feed yourself Scripture. That's all this verse is saying. Once you've had the life Christ has for you modeled in front of you, and once you've been taught the Scriptures so that you understand how to read and how to study, how to understand the Scriptures, and a lot of you know that better than you think you do because you sat into this teaching for at least a little while. And that makes you qualified. And the only thing you need to do to build your qualifications is to continue to live that life that Christ has for you and to continue to feed that life with Scripture. That should be the air you breathe. And when you do that, you'll be qualified to do anything God asks of you. That's what this verse means. So there used to be a commercial where you'd see a young kid, you know, in some way he was struggling with things, and then along would come this older kid or guy, and he'd have it all together, you know, usually he'd have a hot girlfriend, you know, he's probably pretty muscular or some sort of athlete or really smart. And it turned out all he had to do was drink his milk, and it'd say, got milk? So got Scripture, got Bible, because at this point that's what you need, and that's all you need. Some of you need a little bit more than that, but you have that here amongst each other. You need to feed yourself Scripture, you need to spend time with God like He taught you to, and you need to be in fellowship with each other. Dad was radical about church attendance. I can tell you, he was a forgiving guy, but if you weren't here, he noticed. And he wanted us to be in church. And one of the things I learned, and I came into the youth group, and it had been a strong youth group, and then, you know, the older class that had all the leadership, they graduated. And we went from this, one of the big youth groups in town to this little bit of youth group. I mean, I showed up sometimes, you know, it was just like us guys, you know, and whoever was teaching us, and they had to be really dedicated, you know. So that's a tough situation. I remember Sandy Oberle, when the cave was here. I don't know if she's here today or not, but Sandy Oberle and Scott McCreary, I think, one time were over at our house. I don't know if they were babysitting us together or what, but they were over for something. Well, I know I had several interactions with the two of them together. Sandy Oberle was over at our house by herself, babysitting us, and well, I mean, I was young youth, so I guess I wasn't a baby, but I guess I still needed observation. She asked me to come in there, and she talked to me, and she asked me to consider whether or not God was calling me to be a leader in that youth group, because she had the wisdom to see that they were going to leave, and then who was going to lead it, and that always amazed me. She had that wisdom, and, you know, I was a shy kid, you know, and I was like, oh, man, are you kidding, but, you know, that just stuck in my mind, stuck in my mind, and it was a call from God. He wouldn't leave me alone about it, and I didn't know what to do, but I knew what I'd been taught. I mean, the first thing was we showed up, and then I knew I had friends here, and just, you know, sometimes they wouldn't come, so I started calling them and asking them, are you going to be there? Would you come? And pretty soon, they started getting more consistent, and God just blessed that, and, you know, more friends, more calls, and pretty soon, you know, we started to grow, and when I left here, it was bigger, I think, than it was before. I don't remember, you know, because when I first went in, I don't know how big it was. It was bigger than me, and it seemed really big, but it was really big, and in fact, it was really big on Wednesday night. I think one time we had, like, 40-some kids here on a Wednesday night. It was crazy. God just blesses that simple obedience, that simple willingness to, I don't know what to do, but I'm going to do whatever he tells me to do, you know? I'm just going to take the next step and put one foot in front of the other, and I can't tell you how many simple country preachers out there build a successful ministry just by doing that, and they don't have anything over on you. So you had the advantage of having been taught the life that Christ has for you by demonstration, by world-class scripture teaching, and now it's time for you to do what you were taught, and you're going to find yourself confident. Now's the time for you to step up and let God use you to build his church. I want to use Ephesians 4, 12 through 16. Well, not all of it. I'm going to skip a little bit of it, but I'll read it all to start off with. Ephesians 4, 12 through 16, and some of you may remember that we did a final post on Dad's Facebook account, and this is the scripture we used. Because this was Dad's philosophy of ministry. Verse 11 is about all the different things that God calls people to do, apostles, teachers, preachers, pastors, whatnot. And he calls them for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, for the equipping of the saints. That's you. This is a primarily Catholic town. That's not people who died and had miracles work through them. In the Bible, the holy ones were the common person in the pew, the common person of God. For the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. That's you, the church. Until we all attain to the unity, as Todd talked about, of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, as a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects to Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together, the whole body is the church, and the members are you, being fit, fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. And that's what you are, isn't it? The fellowship of love. So you have everything you need. For the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, that deeply believed that you were assigned the tasks of ministry. He persistently taught, as I referenced before, every staff member that came through here, a lot of his lay leadership, that when he or she fails to develop and delegate to church members, that he or she, when he or she does the ministry task himself or herself, then that staff person or that lay leader is taking someone's job away from them. Someone out there that God's called to do this. Maybe even being disobedient to God, taking a job that God didn't want them to do. He just went through, you know, the first part of the Old Testament, and he went through this storyline where the people of Israel came up to the Promised Land and sent in agents to scope things out, and they came back with largely a negative report except for Joshua and Caleb. And they decided, we're not crazy, we're not going in there, these people will kill us. And began to grumble and complain and, you know, accuse God of leading them into a trap. And so God said, you know what, I'm sick and tired of your complaining. I'm sick and tired of your grumbling. I brought you to this place that I promised your fathers and everyone since then, and I promised you, and I've led you here, and it's ready for you to take. You're ready to take it. And they wouldn't do it. They wouldn't follow through. And so the Lord said, all right, you don't want it, so I'm going to wait until you're all gone, and then I'm going to lead the next generation, and I'll lead them in there. And then, of course, they saw the light. We're sorry, God. We're sorry, God. And then they ran in to try to take it, and they were slaughtered because God didn't go with them. Whether you try to work or whether you sit on your backside when God doesn't tell you to do that, you're a disobeying God, and God won't bless that, and His work will not get done. So that cycle I just talked about, that's the key. You don't just die. Sometimes God wants you to do things that you're not necessarily cut out for because the church needs to work. I'm not saying that's not true. I've done that myself. But you do that when God tells you to do that. And otherwise, you hang back and you wait for God's man or woman to be called to do that. Sometimes obeying God is stepping out and getting busy. Sometimes obeying God is sitting back and waiting for Him to act or for Him to bring the right person to do this. Many of you have been here long enough that God has prepared you and you're ready. And so, the only question that really remains for you is, are you willing to do whatever God asks? That's always where God starts. And so many...you hear so many stories of people in ministry and missions that say, I told God anything but that. Well, it's not just people in ministry or missions. One of our dear friends and a linchpin member of this church in the old days was Greg Davis. And he did all kinds of...he was Sunday school director. Well, he said, I'll do Sunday school. Carol, you take care of the little kids. And he wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole. And to this day, he's a preschool teacher. To this day, he's a preschool teacher in a partner's own CPA firm. But he's a preschool teacher because God took...and so often, what you hold back from God is the very thing that you need to give Him. It's human nature. You don't want to give up the thing that's most precious to you, the thing you're afraid of, or the thing you value, or that sin you enjoy. You can't admit it, but you can't turn your back on it, whatever it is. If you want to live the life that Christ has for you, you've got to put it all on the table and you've got to say, whatever it is, God, that's what I'll do. And I tell you what, if you're not willing to do that, then it stops right there because that will be the issue for you until you resolve it. And God will work on that issue and He'll work on it in a variety of ways. Sometimes He says, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. It just depends on who you are and what God knows you need. Sometimes He's just nice and gentle and patient and He'll just work with you for years and He'll just wait. But He will deal with that issue. The easy way is to hear what I'm saying, hear what God's telling you, give it all to Him. If you made a profession of faith to Christ, then that's what you said you were going to do in the first place. And the easy thing to do, not the easy thing, the simplest way to live is to follow through and do that. It's hard, it's scary, because we're built to try to control things, try to protect ourselves, but you're never safer when you've turned everything in your life over to Jesus Christ and you want instead, and Paul talks about this, he had so much going for him as a Jewish leader and he said, I count all of that as trash, as rubbish. Actually it's a cuss word. I know, you know, we're not supposed to cuss in church. There's a cuss word in the Bible. Paul says, I count it all, insert word here, for the surpassing value of what Christ had to offer him. He traded his life, he saw it for the counterfeit life that it was, and he traded it for the life that Christ had for him. Fifteen says, 15 and 16 say, we're to grow up in all aspects to Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by whatever joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Many of you have been taught much. You're spiritually more mature than a lot of the people in this church. It's your obligation to speak up, to get involved. God's prepared you for this moment, and now He wants you to use what He taught you. That's what this moment is for. And I can tell you, Dad had the highest view of the lay people of the church, but of this church particularly. He had the highest view of you guys, and he thought you were capable. He thought, well, he thought you were the way that God would get stuff done. Your involvement will build up the church. Your lack of involvement kills the church. So if you're not here, then attendance is low, and that's discouraging for everybody. So of course, it starts with being here. And during the funeral, somebody came up to me and said, I know what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to come to church every Sunday. Amen. That is where it starts. It's that simple. And Dad would say, that's a great start, and we'll look forward to seeing you on Sunday night and Wednesday night as well, if you can make it. He was very understanding. People have jobs and stuff where they can't make it, and the Christian life is not about coming to church. The Christian life is every minute of every day living in fellowship with God and with each other. But boy, you don't pass on an opportunity to live in fellowship with each other if you're a people of God. That is how God gets His work done. I've seen so many people tell me, I don't need to go to church to worship God. Maybe, but you've got to go to church to serve God. And if you want to live your life trying to worship God and not serve God, you have a deep and tragic misunderstanding of the life that God has to offer you. Because those two things, well, I can't tell you the number of times I've sat there and heard Dad define for you worship as the service of God. And of course, we call it a worship service, don't we? In fact, that's the thing that I think set apart Dad's vision of what heaven was like. I don't know, well, there's very few other people that I came across in seminary or ministry leaders or whatever. The kind of cliche view of heaven is this, you know, never-ending worship service, and I picked up this from Dad and one of my best friends from seminary, Chess Ward, who admired Dad too, he, the other day, threw this back at me. One time in seminary, we came across and I heard somebody talk about that. I leaned over him and I was like, boring. That cracked him up. He was studying music and became a worship leader, and I was giving him a little jazz. But Dad's view of eternity with God was not just sitting, standing, and singing praises to God. It was serving God. In some way, there's going to be a way in which we are able to actively serve God. Just like we do here. So you have to get involved. That's the only way the church can be built up. During this period, without a pastor, it's really the only way the church will grow even with a pastor. I've never seen, back in my consulting days, I would tell churches this, and, you know, that was half of my life ago, and I've still never seen a church that was successful when they decided not to work with their pastor. The only way that you're going to be successful in a church is to be involved and to work together. And you have to be willing to take whatever God's given you and use it to build up His kingdom and His church. I work for a Christian charity called Christian Heritage, and to my delight, when I came to work there, they have a men's, well, both a men's and a women's Bible study and prayer group every week. And they're filled with spiritual mature people, they screen to make sure that people at least have a basic spiritual maturity. They're willing to pray in front of other people, for example. But there's also at least one preacher that works there, and there's varying degrees of spiritual maturity. But I'm the only one that had the advantage of having seminary training and things like that, and somehow I'm able to remember a lot of that. So we'd have Bible study, and so I'd throw things in there and ask questions, and I don't know. A few months went by and we finished the series we were in, and I think I missed one or something, I don't know. I was talking to somebody and asked what we were going to do next, and they said, well, we talked and we think we just want to do whatever you want to do next. We'd like you to lead it from now on. And I was delighted because I love doing that kind of thing. And so I started doing that. But pretty soon I started to find that when people started to talk about the Bible when they were speaking in front of the company or even just in a small group, they would start to give disqualifiers, you know, well, I'm not a Bible scholar, but, you know, they talk about a verse and what it says, and that kind of grew. And so one of the men's Bible studies, we were running kind of late, and I said, well, instead of talking about the scripture I had this time, I just want to give a complaint. I don't want to hear that anymore. My being here does not disqualify you from talking about the Bible. There's a lot of you here that, in fact, when I came here, before I was here, this group was running great, and you guys would trade and you would share with each other what you thought scripture meant. And when I came in here, that's what you were doing. I got a lot out of hearing what this meant to you. Well, that's going to be true here too because God's working in each of your lives who have committed to follow Him, and as you share that with each other, as you talk about what the Bible means to you from your perspective and your walk with God, then it'll enhance the walk of the other people in this fellowship. It's hard not to have a pastor, a focal point of this person to teach you scripture, but you can teach each other scripture, and a lot of churches don't get that. Find a way to do that with each other. Each of you has a relationship with God, and you have something to contribute. The living God is at work in you, and that's all that dad had going for him to do a work like this. The living God was at work in him, and that same God is at work in you. Have confidence in that work. Have confidence in that God. So you're going to thrive through this time in the church's life? You've been given the life that Jesus has to offer. You only need to take hold of it and demonstrate it for the people around you. As you grow and you work, God will make it clear what body part you are in the church's body. You'll hash that out with Him through experience of serving Him, and then you'll build the church simply by doing what He asks. Some of you may have rejected or just have yet to accept the life that Jesus offers you, the life He lived in front of us, the past life Doyle demonstrated to you or to the people here. Now's a great time to seize the moment and get it on the ground floor, the new thing that God is beginning to do amongst these people. To take hold of a new life. We're going to have an invitation, is my understanding, and I'd like for you during the invitation to pray about what it is that God wants you to do now. I don't want – I'm not telling you it's time to move on. It's not time to move on. There's a process here that Todd talked about. You're going to have to work through. We're certainly having to do that, and we're doing it – we're really doing it together. It's all about the same thing. I try to tell everybody I could at visitation that very thing. Go through that together. Go through that with God and with each other. And as you go through that, then He's going to communicate to you what it is He wants you to do. So I want during this time for you to reflect on that. Ask God what it is that you haven't given Him. What is it that you're holding back that He wants you to deal with? And I want you to face that and decide, are you willing to give your entire life to Christ? To let Him have it and let Him do what He wants with it? That abundant life that I talked about yesterday doesn't come any other way than that. And that's certainly true with a thriving church. It doesn't come any other way than to have people who are willing to do that. Or if you have done that, ask God what it is He wants you to do next. In light of this new information, what does He want you to do? What's your role? And if all of you do that, then God will guide you through this time. He'll help you grieve together. He'll help you heal together. And then He'll help you grow together. And that's how God works all things for good for those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. Maybe that you want to come down here and talk to somebody about that. I'll be here. I think somebody from the church is coming up. You can talk to whoever you want. Maybe you need to talk to somebody during the week. Just call them up. I know a lot of you call Doyle. You talk to God about it. We're Baptists, and we think you ought to go directly to God anyway. But then God can bring somebody to your mind. Go talk to him or her about it. And now, that's what you need to do. Or there was some reference to talking to people at the state level. You know, the leadership's going to do that. You're going to talk to leaders that you have available. So maybe you want to come up here and just express to somebody your willingness to do what God has for you. Or maybe that you have never committed your life to Christ, and you need to do that. We'll be here. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I want to help you and ask that you'd help us with this. That's a bigger thing than us. I want to ask that you would draw near to us and that your presence would be evident to us. And I want to ask that you would be with this church, that you would bless it, that you would reveal your plan to them, that you would help them through this time of heartbreak, and that you would heal them, that you would make them an asset to each other, that they can rely on each other through this, and that they can grow out of it, grow through it. I want to ask that you would make us who you want us to be. In Jesus' name, amen.