1 Year Anniversary
Recent studies have shown just how devastating the last few years have been for churches in America. 63% of Americans claim to be Christians, But here’s the sad reality of this. Just a decade ago, that percentage was 75%. Not only that, but projections show that if this continues, by 2070, in less than 50 years, this number could drop to just 35% of the US population claiming to be Christian. Let that sink in. It gets worse though. Out of those 63% who claim to be Christians, only 9% of them hold to a Biblical worldview, which means that they believe the Bible to be accurate, reliable and relevant today. 9%! As relative and feelings-based truth become the norm, Biblical illiteracy rises.
In 2019, the last year a study was done, 3,000 churches were planted, while 4,500 closed their doors for good. 12 churches, every day. Guys, this is really scary stuff. And when we look at this, and hear the sad reality of the state of the church in America, we have to ask ourselves the question, how do we do our part to change the trajectory? What can we, little Family Church, do, to remain faithful in our worship, faithful in our stewardship, and faithful in the mission and vision that God has placed before us.
Our mission is simple, we at Family Church exist to glorify God by making disciples. We want everything we do to have the glory of God as the end goal, while making disciples who love and follow Jesus.
And here we are on the doorsteps of year 2. We are opening the door to see what God has in store. But let’s just look back real quick to see what God has done:
October, 2020: God confirmed and rooted the dream of planting Family Church
February, 2021: Started gathering and meeting with Core Team
April 10, 2022: Officially launched Family Church. And if you were a part of things then, you remember that it was all the work of God that allowed us to open the doors. He was faithful. He was kind to us. And over the last year, He has continued to be faithful, and so kind to us.
Over the last year, God has established healthy structure and rhythms in our Sunday morning worship service, as well as in our Kids Ministry and our City Groups. And these are the things that all church planting experts say should be priority during year 1. So, great job everyone :)
But now, here we are entering year 2. We have a lot to look forward to, but a lot of work to do. Before we get into those specifics, I want to set the stage for us by looking at Matthew 5:13-16.
Read Matthew 5:13-16
We cannot miss what Jesus is saying here. He doesn’t say, act like salt, or act like light. He doesn’t say strive to be salt and light. He says you ARE salt, you ARE light. This isn’t a choice that we get to make. As followers of Jesus, this is a major piece of our identity now. And when we think about it like that, then the weight of it hits a little differently. Let’s break them down.
SALT
Salt has many functions. The one mentioned here by Jesus is to add flavor to food. But there are other uses that apply to our identity as well. How about this one:
Salt is one of the earliest known preservatives. Without refrigeration, they had to do something to keep their meat from rotting. The best way to do that was by covering it with salt. In other words, without salt, meat would decay and rot. It was so essential, in fact, that in the ancient world wars were fought over it, because salt could determine life and death in a time when fresh food was not readily available.
If you’ve been paying any attention to modern culture and worldly values, then you will have noticed that sin and corruption are causing mass decay and death to morality and biblical values.
We live in a world in which Christians can be gunned down in their schools because of the beliefs that they hold, and people have empathy for the one holding the gun. We live in a world in which every individual has the freedom to hold to their own truth, but when Christians hold to ours, we are hateful bigots.
Another implication of salt as an identity piece is that, in the ancient world at least, is that it was a “figure of speech that implied sparkling conversation, speech dotted with witty or clever remarks.” This is why in Colossians 4:6 Paul says, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” It was indicative of “flavourful discourse,” speech which was “preserved from corruption and rendered wholesome.”
But here is a sobering thought by theologian John Stott: “When society goes bad, we Christians tend to throw up our hands in pious horror and reproach the non-Christian world; but should we not rather reproach ourselves? One can hardly blame unsalted meat for going bad. It cannot do anything else. The real question to ask is: where is the salt?”
And herein lies the challenge for us. One pastor used the illustration of a salt shaker. We gather together once a week, and we hang out with all the other grains of salt, and then we think we are good because we sang loudly and listened well to the message. But here’s what this pastor says, “God wants to pick up this sanctuary and shake you out all over this city.”
Let me ask you one more question in regards to salt. And I love this one. What happens when you have too much salt? It leaves you thirsty. When the world is confronted with salt, real, gospel-centered, Christ-like salt, they will be left thirsting for Jesus!
There’s one more piece to this, though, and we cannot miss this warning. Read vs. 13. The Greek word behind losing taste is “moraino” which has as it’s root the English word “foolish.” When salt becomes foolish. In other words, when salt loses its effectiveness. When it becomes unable to preserve and prevent decay. This happens when a Christian allows his heart and mind to be conformed to the world rather than to the image of Christ. This happens when our feelings drive our truth and we twist Scripture to fit our emotions.
An author named Brennan Manning said, “the greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” How sad a reality is it, that most people who are opposed to God and are opposed to His church are opposed because of what they have observed in the lives of Christians? There is another identity piece that Jesus uses.
LIGHT
Read vs. 14-16.
Again, this isn’t an encouragement towards being a light, it is the reality of our Christian identity. You ARE the light of the world. This is a privilege that we cannot overlook. Jesus walked this Earth and was purest light of the world. He shown the character and nature of God everywhere He went. It was who He was. I read this great illustration this week.
Picture Jesus like the sun. He is the perfect source of spiritual light. When the sun goes down, what takes its place? The moon. But where does the moon get it’s light? From the sun. The moon reflects the light of the sun. So Jesus shines His love on Christians who reflect that love to the world. And there are 2 ways to think about that here in the text.
A.. A City Set on a Hill - The city is elevated above everything else. The lights shining from the city (candlelight at this time) would have been visible for miles. The light is so powerful that even at a distance somebody can see it shining.
B.. A Lamp - How foolish it would be to be in darkness, light a lamp, and cover the light. What happens then? The darkness continues to dominate. But what do you do? You set that lamp in an elevated place so that it shines throughout the whole house.
Let’s expound on this a bit. As believers, how foolish it would be to be identified as a child of God, carrying the love of Jesus in a profound way, but keeping it to ourselves. Darkness is thick. Darkness is heavy. The only solution to see any type of change in our world is by the gospel being proclaimed, and that happens by the way that we, Christians, live our lives.
This is why Jesus says “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
How do people see Jesus in us? It’s by loving and serving others in a way that points them to Him!
Application
So here we stand, again, entering into year 2 as a church. And I want to clarify that the church is not this school or the ministries or the events, it is the people of God that gather here on Sundays. And here’s the question that I want to ring in our ears all year long. If Family Church closed it’s doors, would the surrounding communities miss us? If we ceased to exist, would it leave a hole?
In just a minute I’ll share some of the ministries that we will be adding this year, but this, this is one of the main goals that we are setting before us. The goal of becoming salt and light in our neighborhoods, and in the surrounding communities. This means local outreach and service projects. This means partnering with Olive Chapel. This means community events. This means evangelism training. This means block parties. So goal #1 is this:
1.. When we celebrate our 2 Year Anniversary, we can say with a resounding YES that our communities would in fact miss us if we closed our doors. How do we measure that? Are we getting more phone calls and emails from people in need? Do we have new people, new families coming to Family Church as a result of a specific serving opportunity? Let’s set that before us and work together to become a place that is known for its love for a world that desperately needs Jesus.
Alright so what else.
1.. Student Ministries
2.. Men’s / Women’s Ministries
3.. Local Outreach / Global Missions
4. Membership Class (Spring and Fall)
Here’s the thing. It’s going to take all of us working together to make it happen. Listen, I love all of it. But I can’t do all of it, nor SHOULD any pastor. That’s the beauty of the body of Christ. Every body part with different functions working together to make the whole body work properly. So listen, many of you have been serving faithfully for a long time, and man am I thankful for that. Some of you, some of you are ready to do more. In the coming months we are going to be asking some of you to step into leadership roles in different areas. We need someone to lead our women’s ministry, our men’s ministry, our student ministry. Make it easy on me, and you come to me and let me know that the Lord has already been pressing this on your heart :)
Listen, though. I can’t tell you how privileged I feel to be the one that God has called to lead this church forward. If you can’t tell, I love what I do. I love what God has done, and I am so, so excited to see where He takes us this coming year. Let’s keep His glory as the central goal of everything we do, live out our identity as salt and light, and be amazed at what God is going to do.
