Serve Together, Family Rules, 08 February 2015
09 02 15 Filed in: Sermons | Family Rules
Series Overview: The purpose of this series is to cast a vision for a healthy church family, noting particular strengths and weaknesses of Scio in the process.
Big Idea: A healthy church family serves together.
Introduction
I’m going to go out on a limb and say something so radical it may cause great shock, so I’m glad you’re sitting down! Are you ready…
Our culture is different than the various cultures of the Bible.
Whoa! So scandalous!
I state the obvious because there are many ways to treat the Bible. An atheist might say it’s a collection of fairy tales (by the way, last week Yahoo News reported newly discovered tablets that they say, “Is a remarkable confirmation of the historical reliability of the Biblical text.”). Some mainline or liberal Christians might say the Bible is a good book with some truth and wisdom. Adherents to Liberation Theology interpret Scripture through the plight of the poor.
The Christian & Missionary Alliance statement on scripture says
The Old and New Testaments, inerrant as originally given, were verbally inspired by God and are a complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men. They constitute the divine and only rule of Christian faith and practice.
Simply put, the Bible is our authority. It is the only rule of faith and practice for us. But how do we read understand the Bible? In the past I have introduced three steps:
Too often people skip the first two steps and, instead, read a verse and try to apply it. God doesn’t change, but culture changes…and Jesus changed many things through His life, death, and resurrection.
Last week Jonathan mentioned the difference between families during biblical days and families today. Joseph Hellerman notes three central social values of the ancient Mediterranean world:
The Bible never makes mention of a personal Savior. Community was everything. In many cultures today, it still is, but in order to understand the language of the Bible, it is essential to recognize the group came first, not the individual. In fact people did not make major life decisions on their own. Hellerman writes, “Faced with decisions that people were never meant to make in isolation, we self-destruct emotionally and relationally, we never grow up, and we turn to therapy or medication to prop us up against a world that is just too much for us to handle on our own.” He adds, “The great majority of people on this planet never needed therapy until society began to dump the responsibility for making life's major decisions squarely upon the lonely shoulders of the individual.”
Most of us would agree today, except with so many broken and fragmented families—as well as families that live thousands of miles apart from one another—it’s not uncommon for one’s closest relationships to come from church, work, neighborhoods, schools…or Facebook.
The closest family tie was not the contractual relationship between husband and wife. It was the blood relationship between siblings. Brother or sister was their most important relationship.
When we speak of family, it’s more than a cute way of talking about one another. It wasn’t a negative term describing dysfunctional relationships. It was the primary language used in the early church to speak of deep commitment to others related by blood…Jesus’ blood.
In Love in Hard Places, D.A. Carson suggests that ideally the church is not comprised of natural “friends” but rather “natural enemies.”
“What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything of the sort. Christians come together, not because they form a natural collocation, but because they have been saved by Jesus Christ and owe him a common allegiance. In the light of this common allegiance, in light of the fact that they have all been loved by Jesus himself, they commit themselves to doing what he says – and he commands them to love one another. In this light, they are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake.”
Family Rules
We’re past the midway point of our series Family Rules. In case you missed some of the rules…
Today we come to one of the most challenging of all for us as a Scio family: serve together.
Serve together. That’s simple, right. In fact, it’s imbedded in our mission statement:
We exist to fulfill the Great Commission and follow the Great Commandment by
• serving our communities
• sharing our story
• sending disciples to bless the nations
so that God is glorified.
Serving our communities. I see two great challenges facing us with regard to serving our communities:
1. Serving. Being a servant is not the most popular role in our culture. In fact, it’s probably the least desired title. Servant. It goes against everything within us that yearns for power and prestige. Who wants to be a servant? Evidently Paul. This educated scholar begins the book of Romans writing these words:
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— (Romans 1:1)
Evidently Jesus. This is how Paul described Jesus…and instructs others:
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness. (Philippians 2:5-7)
The next verse is even more ludicrous!
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:8)
We could spend hours reading verses about serving in the Bible. Most of us know serving is what we’re “supposed” to do, whether we like it or not! We have some fantastic servants in our Scio family. But there’s another issue we face as a family.
2. Serving together. It’s no secret that few of us leave near one another. Geography makes being a family on mission together difficult. Vulnerability require proximity. If we don’t even see each other, it’s hard to imagine serving together, right?
A few years ago I saw a video about a church in Tacoma, Washington. It seized my imagination for a church doing life together as a family on mission.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc4tsw3kCok&spfreload=10
It’s not always fun and comfortable, but they are living out their faith every day…together. They are serving together. They are eating and loving and growing together. They look to me like the early church, a close-knit, extended family.
They also live near one another. We don’t. For four years I’ve been challenged by this. I’ve prayed and read and conversed and done everything I know to do in order to address this issue of serving together. I’ve come up with a few thoughts.
When we made The Flip a year ago we wanted to do more than just change the name of Sunday School to Life Groups. We wanted to create small groups that would not only gather for an hour on Sunday but also be given the mandate to serve together monthly. Some Life Groups have been more effective than others, but the mandate remains. Serve together on Sunday. Serve together midweek. Just serve together!
On February 21, our young adult Life Group is going to serve at the Scio Township recycling day from 8 AM to noon. You’re all welcome to join us (just wear warm clothes!). So far it is the only need I’ve been able to extract from the Scio Township office.
Our two midweek Life Groups are uniquely setup to serve together as their gathering are not restricted to an hour on Sunday.
2. Serve with your neighbors.
Gather those that do live nearby, whether they attend Scio or not, and bless the community.
3. Serve with your biological family.
Some of you have a small group living under your roof! Serve together.
4. Serve on Sundays.
One of my desires for Scio is that nobody serves alone. Whether that’s setting up coffee, playing on the music team, ushering, or leading a Life Group, serve with others.
I’m delighted to say even I don’t serve alone. That’s not to say I’m surrounded by people 24/7, but I am not the sole leader, the sole decision-maker, the benevolent dictator of Scio! I am one of eight elders who guide the spiritual direction of Scio under our Senior Pastor, King Jesus. I also serve alongside our five deacons who do so many things behind-the-scenes with everything from facility maintenance and communion preparation to benevolence and potlucks.
In a healthy natural family, the parents usually set the course, prioritizing the health of the family and the needs (and even sometimes wants) of everyone else above their own. That’s what the elders and deacons seek to do, looking out for the best interests of the family.
One of the great things about being a family is we all have different strengths and weaknesses that can complement one another. Paul wrote:
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. (1 Corinthians 12:4-6)
He then uses one of my favorite metaphors in the entire Bible, the human body.
Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. (1 Corinthians 1:12-20)
When we serve together, we not only experience the joy of friendships, we also learn and grow from one another and experience synergy, more together than the sum of the parts. Or to borrow a famous acronym, TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More!
I recently heard someone say it’s not what you do, it’s who you do it with.
My sister proved this to me when we were children. Our least favorite job every summer was…pulling weeds! We whined and ached and complained about working under the hot sun seemingly every day! One day Tami returned from her friend’s house, clearly delighted about her visit. I asked, “What did you do that was so fun?” She said, “We pulled weeds together!”
As a family, we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We are to serve one another and serve our communities. Of course, serving together means relationships which means the potential for conflict and compromise. That gives us opportunities to become more like Jesus as we listen, humbly submit to one another, and love each other.
So What?
Serve together. I’ve come up with a few thoughts, but I need your help. We need your help! If you’ve got an idea, share it with me. Share it with one of the other elders. Share it on our white board in the hallway. Send me an e-mail and I’ll post it in the Scio Soul. It’s not enough for us to be a safe, comfy family. We are to be a family on mission, God’s mission to seek and save the lost, to make disciples, and to serve together.
For Further Study
When the Church Was a Family: Recapturing Jesus' Vision for Authentic Christian Community by Joseph H. Hellerman
You can listen to this message and others at the Scio podcast here. You can also subscribe to our podcast here.
Big Idea: A healthy church family serves together.
Introduction
I’m going to go out on a limb and say something so radical it may cause great shock, so I’m glad you’re sitting down! Are you ready…
Our culture is different than the various cultures of the Bible.
Whoa! So scandalous!
I state the obvious because there are many ways to treat the Bible. An atheist might say it’s a collection of fairy tales (by the way, last week Yahoo News reported newly discovered tablets that they say, “Is a remarkable confirmation of the historical reliability of the Biblical text.”). Some mainline or liberal Christians might say the Bible is a good book with some truth and wisdom. Adherents to Liberation Theology interpret Scripture through the plight of the poor.
The Christian & Missionary Alliance statement on scripture says
The Old and New Testaments, inerrant as originally given, were verbally inspired by God and are a complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men. They constitute the divine and only rule of Christian faith and practice.
Simply put, the Bible is our authority. It is the only rule of faith and practice for us. But how do we read understand the Bible? In the past I have introduced three steps:
- Discern what the text originally meant.
- Discern what the text means for us today.
- Apply.
Too often people skip the first two steps and, instead, read a verse and try to apply it. God doesn’t change, but culture changes…and Jesus changed many things through His life, death, and resurrection.
Last week Jonathan mentioned the difference between families during biblical days and families today. Joseph Hellerman notes three central social values of the ancient Mediterranean world:
- In the New Testament world the group took priority over the individual.
The Bible never makes mention of a personal Savior. Community was everything. In many cultures today, it still is, but in order to understand the language of the Bible, it is essential to recognize the group came first, not the individual. In fact people did not make major life decisions on their own. Hellerman writes, “Faced with decisions that people were never meant to make in isolation, we self-destruct emotionally and relationally, we never grow up, and we turn to therapy or medication to prop us up against a world that is just too much for us to handle on our own.” He adds, “The great majority of people on this planet never needed therapy until society began to dump the responsibility for making life's major decisions squarely upon the lonely shoulders of the individual.”
- In the New Testament world a person’s most important group was his family.
Most of us would agree today, except with so many broken and fragmented families—as well as families that live thousands of miles apart from one another—it’s not uncommon for one’s closest relationships to come from church, work, neighborhoods, schools…or Facebook.
- In the New Testament world the closest family bond was the bond between siblings.
The closest family tie was not the contractual relationship between husband and wife. It was the blood relationship between siblings. Brother or sister was their most important relationship.
When we speak of family, it’s more than a cute way of talking about one another. It wasn’t a negative term describing dysfunctional relationships. It was the primary language used in the early church to speak of deep commitment to others related by blood…Jesus’ blood.
In Love in Hard Places, D.A. Carson suggests that ideally the church is not comprised of natural “friends” but rather “natural enemies.”
“What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything of the sort. Christians come together, not because they form a natural collocation, but because they have been saved by Jesus Christ and owe him a common allegiance. In the light of this common allegiance, in light of the fact that they have all been loved by Jesus himself, they commit themselves to doing what he says – and he commands them to love one another. In this light, they are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake.”
Family Rules
We’re past the midway point of our series Family Rules. In case you missed some of the rules…
Today we come to one of the most challenging of all for us as a Scio family: serve together.
Serve together. That’s simple, right. In fact, it’s imbedded in our mission statement:
We exist to fulfill the Great Commission and follow the Great Commandment by
• serving our communities
• sharing our story
• sending disciples to bless the nations
so that God is glorified.
Serving our communities. I see two great challenges facing us with regard to serving our communities:
1. Serving. Being a servant is not the most popular role in our culture. In fact, it’s probably the least desired title. Servant. It goes against everything within us that yearns for power and prestige. Who wants to be a servant? Evidently Paul. This educated scholar begins the book of Romans writing these words:
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— (Romans 1:1)
Evidently Jesus. This is how Paul described Jesus…and instructs others:
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness. (Philippians 2:5-7)
The next verse is even more ludicrous!
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:8)
We could spend hours reading verses about serving in the Bible. Most of us know serving is what we’re “supposed” to do, whether we like it or not! We have some fantastic servants in our Scio family. But there’s another issue we face as a family.
2. Serving together. It’s no secret that few of us leave near one another. Geography makes being a family on mission together difficult. Vulnerability require proximity. If we don’t even see each other, it’s hard to imagine serving together, right?
A few years ago I saw a video about a church in Tacoma, Washington. It seized my imagination for a church doing life together as a family on mission.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc4tsw3kCok&spfreload=10
It’s not always fun and comfortable, but they are living out their faith every day…together. They are serving together. They are eating and loving and growing together. They look to me like the early church, a close-knit, extended family.
They also live near one another. We don’t. For four years I’ve been challenged by this. I’ve prayed and read and conversed and done everything I know to do in order to address this issue of serving together. I’ve come up with a few thoughts.
- Serve with your Life Group.
When we made The Flip a year ago we wanted to do more than just change the name of Sunday School to Life Groups. We wanted to create small groups that would not only gather for an hour on Sunday but also be given the mandate to serve together monthly. Some Life Groups have been more effective than others, but the mandate remains. Serve together on Sunday. Serve together midweek. Just serve together!
On February 21, our young adult Life Group is going to serve at the Scio Township recycling day from 8 AM to noon. You’re all welcome to join us (just wear warm clothes!). So far it is the only need I’ve been able to extract from the Scio Township office.
Our two midweek Life Groups are uniquely setup to serve together as their gathering are not restricted to an hour on Sunday.
2. Serve with your neighbors.
Gather those that do live nearby, whether they attend Scio or not, and bless the community.
3. Serve with your biological family.
Some of you have a small group living under your roof! Serve together.
4. Serve on Sundays.
One of my desires for Scio is that nobody serves alone. Whether that’s setting up coffee, playing on the music team, ushering, or leading a Life Group, serve with others.
I’m delighted to say even I don’t serve alone. That’s not to say I’m surrounded by people 24/7, but I am not the sole leader, the sole decision-maker, the benevolent dictator of Scio! I am one of eight elders who guide the spiritual direction of Scio under our Senior Pastor, King Jesus. I also serve alongside our five deacons who do so many things behind-the-scenes with everything from facility maintenance and communion preparation to benevolence and potlucks.
In a healthy natural family, the parents usually set the course, prioritizing the health of the family and the needs (and even sometimes wants) of everyone else above their own. That’s what the elders and deacons seek to do, looking out for the best interests of the family.
One of the great things about being a family is we all have different strengths and weaknesses that can complement one another. Paul wrote:
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. (1 Corinthians 12:4-6)
He then uses one of my favorite metaphors in the entire Bible, the human body.
Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. (1 Corinthians 1:12-20)
When we serve together, we not only experience the joy of friendships, we also learn and grow from one another and experience synergy, more together than the sum of the parts. Or to borrow a famous acronym, TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More!
I recently heard someone say it’s not what you do, it’s who you do it with.
My sister proved this to me when we were children. Our least favorite job every summer was…pulling weeds! We whined and ached and complained about working under the hot sun seemingly every day! One day Tami returned from her friend’s house, clearly delighted about her visit. I asked, “What did you do that was so fun?” She said, “We pulled weeds together!”
As a family, we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We are to serve one another and serve our communities. Of course, serving together means relationships which means the potential for conflict and compromise. That gives us opportunities to become more like Jesus as we listen, humbly submit to one another, and love each other.
So What?
Serve together. I’ve come up with a few thoughts, but I need your help. We need your help! If you’ve got an idea, share it with me. Share it with one of the other elders. Share it on our white board in the hallway. Send me an e-mail and I’ll post it in the Scio Soul. It’s not enough for us to be a safe, comfy family. We are to be a family on mission, God’s mission to seek and save the lost, to make disciples, and to serve together.
For Further Study
When the Church Was a Family: Recapturing Jesus' Vision for Authentic Christian Community by Joseph H. Hellerman
You can listen to this message and others at the Scio podcast here. You can also subscribe to our podcast here.