Well here we are. We’re at the end of our month long focus on what it means to offer our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness for Christ and his church as we prepare for a new year of ministry together.Over the past several Sundays, we have been seeing how these five membership vows are important marks of a Christian. And being faithful in these five areas are at the heart of what it means to have a vibrant and growing church.
I’ve noticed in my own life that when I make a personal commitment in each of these areas; prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness, my faith becomes more alive and I feel like I’m making an impact through the life of the church. I believe God is calling our church to be a fruitful, life transforming, and Christ centered community of faith so that we can fulfill our mission which is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world.
This is the kind of church that I hope and pray we all want to have, a church that’s making a difference in the name of Jesus Christ.
Just out of curiosity, I decided to google the phrase “boring churches” on the computer just to see what I would get. I thought the first website it gave me was some sort of joke. It was a website on how to find 25 boring churches. And then I found out that it was simply a website that had a list of 25 churches located in the city of Boring, Oregon.
And then I thought to myself, “What would it be like if I was the pastor of First Boring United Methodist Church in Boring Oregon?” And so I did a little search and discovered that there are no Boring United Methodist Churches in Boring, Oregon.
Now, maybe somebody here has been to the city of Boring, Oregon. I haven’t. It’s probably not a bad place to live, but I wonder how their Chamber of Commerce puts a positive spin on the name of their city.
As we conclude our “Marks of a Christian” month long journey, I want us to think about the early church and how it was anything but boring. In fact, it was in party mode, ever since the Holy Spirit came upon it on the Day of Pentecost, fifty days following Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday.
The Holy Spirit was forming those early Christians into an exciting, life transforming, world view altering, hope-filled, resurrection-empowered, risk-taking community of faith. We can see the five marks of a Christian that we have been looking at this past month right here in our Acts scripture passage.
First of all, notice they’re emphasis on prayers. We are told that they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Notice that offering our prayers is the very first vow we make when we join the church. They could have gone alphabetically with these five marks with the first one being gifts. Instead, the list begins with prayers.
I don’t think that it’s by accident that prayers lead off the list. The Acts 2 church knew the importance of making prayer a priority in all that they did. And it wasn’t just something they did once the Holy Spirit had come upon them on the Day of Pentecost. They had been praying in the Upper Room together ever since Jesus had ascended to heaven. In fact, one chapter earlier in Acts chapter one, Luke is careful to point out that they were constantly devoting themselves to prayer.
What a great way to describe the people of a church! They devoted themselves to prayer. I can’t think of a higher compliment to give to a church. That church is known for their prayers.
The Acts 2 church was not only devoted to prayers. They also offered their presence in worship. They were a church of both prayers and presence. In Acts 2:46, Luke tells us, “Day by day, as they spent much time in the Temple.”
In their Jewish tradition, the Temple was the central place where everyone gathered for worship. Why the Temple? The Temple was the place where heaven and earth overlapped. Even though the early Christians believed that God was present everywhere, the Temple was seen as that central place where God was uniquely present.
A friend of mine who’s a pastor told me about an embarrassing thing that happened to him one Christmas Eve at his church. When the service began, he got up to welcome everyone and he said, “It’s so good to welcome you to our Christmas Eve service tonight. I haven’t seen many of you since last Christmas Eve.”
He said that people in the congregation started laughing because they thought he was referring to the Christmas and Easter crowd who only come to those two services each year. But he was innocently referring to the people who travel from out of state each year to see their families at Christmas time.
Perhaps the reason people laughed at his unintended joke, was because deep down, we know that our presence in worship on a regular basis is an important part of what it means to be followers of Jesus. Weekly worship attendance offers us a rhythm that helps our faith to deepen and grow.
The church year is divided into distinctive seasons that are designed to help us as a community of faith to experience the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. A month from now, the church year will begin with the four week season of Advent to prepare us for the birth of Jesus Christ, which then leads us to the Christmas season as we celebrate the coming of Christ into the world to be our Lord and Savior.
From Christmas, we enter a season of growth as we reflect on the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus. From there, we begin the Season of Lent, a 40 day period that is meant to help us think about our sins and our need to be completely dependent upon God, just as Jesus was when he was in the wilderness for 40 days and nights when he was tempted by the devil.
Following those several weeks of self-denial and contemplation for what Jesus did for us when he suffered and died on the cross, we celebrate Easter and Jesus’ resurrection and we call this time, “The Great Fifty Days,” which concludes on Pentecost Sunday, the day when God sent the Holy Spirit upon the church.
And then, for the next several months, from June through the end of November, we go back to reflecting on the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus. This is a time for steady growth as we worship together as disciples of Jesus Christ.
By worshipping regularly throughout the year, we actually experience the fullness of who Jesus Christ is. Presence in worship is a key mark of a healthy and growing church.
The Acts 2 church was also involved in gifts and service, two other marks of a Christian that we have focused on during this sermon series. For gifts, notice how Luke says that they had all things in common and would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all as any had need.
And for service, we are told that many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles and toward the end of the Acts passage, Luke tells us that they had the good will of all the people. In other words, it was through their service to their neighbors and to their community that people were being drawn to the good news of Jesus Christ.
And the fifth mark, witness. Notice that the church was growing because of the witness of the Acts 2 church. The last verse of that chapter says, “Day by day, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” The people of the church were sharing their faith with those around them and letting them know why they were doing what they were doing. It was all because of the power of the risen Christ.
As we conclude our sermon series on “Marks of a Christian,” I want to spend some time thinking about the importance of commitment as we offer our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness to Christ and his church in this coming year. I mean, we can have the best intentions in living out these five marks of a Christian, but without commitment or setting some goals, we’re going to be less likely to follow through and be the church that God is calling us to be.
If you read the daily devotional readings this past week on the theme of commitment, you probably noticed that one of those daily readings was from Ohio State football coach, Jim Tressel. Jim Tressel is a member of “Thee Northwest United Methodist Church” in Columbus, and he has written the book, “The Winner’s Manual.”
In that daily reading, Coach Tressel refers to “The Goal Sheet” which he invites each of his players to complete. He writes, “In the yearly evaluation process, I’ll talk with a player about something he’s written down. In the ‘General Thoughts’ section beside the Spiritual/Moral component, it says, ‘Above all else, I realize that my spiritual beliefs and my moral values will shape my life. I will do what is right.’
“If a player writes in that section of his goal sheet, ‘I want to go to church more,’ I may look at him and say, ‘Okay. That’s a good goal. But define ‘more’ for me. What is it? Do you want to go to church once a month? Twice a month? Every week? This is your goal, not mine.’
Coach Tressel goes on to write, “We urge each player to get as specific as possible so that we can evaluate how he’s doing with that goal. If the player is a Christian and writes down, ‘I want to read the Bible more,’ I’ll have him put a number on that. Do you want to read the Bible every night? Twice a week? This type of exercise helps a player focus and decide what’s really important in that particular area of his life.”
Hopefully, many of us have received this 2011 “Prayers, Presence, Gifts, Service, and Witness commitment form” in the mail this past week. Coach Tressel would call this our goal sheet in what it means to live out our faith. We were invited in this mailing to prayerfully consider making specific commitments in each of these areas. Those of you who didn’t receive this mailing, we actually have extra forms in your pew for you to complete in church today or you can take it home with you and return it later.
You’ll notice that at the bottom of the one side of this commitment form, there are small boxes corresponding with each of the five marks. By checking those boxes, you are indicating that you are making a commitment in each of those areas.
If you’re not a member of the church, you’re more than welcome to fill out this form, but we certainly do not expect you to do so. You are our guest. This is something that our church membership focuses on each year around this time.
The form is pretty simple. For prayers, we are asked to indicate that we will intentionally pray for the church, for its leaders and it’s ministries on a regular basis.
For presence, there’s a checkbox that says we will be physically present in worship when we are in town and are able to attend.
For gifts, we are to indicate how much of our financial resources we will give to Christ and the work of His church.
For service, it’s a little more extensive of a process because this commitment form lists over one hundred different ministries and opportunities to serve through the church. We’re to check the ministries that we are serving in now as well as other ministries in which we have an interest.
And for witness, we are asked to signify that we will be intentional in sharing with others the good news of Jesus Christ and invite people to church.
A little later in the service, during the offering time, we are invited to come forward and place our completed commitment forms as well as our regular Sunday offering in a designated basket. After we have come forward, I’ll lead us in saying the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer together which is a prayer of commitment.
I want to close by going back to that first Acts 2 congregation for just a moment. I can’t help but notice that we are told that there was a sense of celebration among those first Christians. Eugene Peterson, in his translation, says that they were exuberant.
Exuberant. It means full of unrestrained enthusiasm and joy. It also means to grow and produce abundantly. They were exuberant because they were an Easter people who were living out the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
When I was a junior in college, and announced to a fellow student that I had accepted a call to go into the ordained ministry, she gave me some of the best words of advice anyone could ever give.
She said without any hesitation, “Promise me that you will help your future church to have fun because that’s why I don’t attend church. Christians are some of the most boring people I know.”
I remember her grabbing me by my shirt with both fists, and with this determined look in her face as if she knew what she was talking about, she said it again, “Promise me!”
And I told her, “I promise you, I won’t allow my church to be boring.”
Thank God, there are no boring United Methodist churches in Boring, Oregon.
And let’s make sure there aren’t any in Lancaster, Ohio either.
A promise is a promise.
Marks of a Christian - Commitment
Pastor Robert McDowell
Acts 2:41-47
October 31, 2010
“Marks of a Christian” Sermon Series:
• October 10 – Prayers & Presence
• October 17 – Gifts & Service
• October 24 – Witness
• October 31 - Commitment
Boring Churches
Non-Boring Churches:
Prayers
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” – Acts 2:42
Presence
“Day by day, as they spent much time together in the Temple…” – Acts 2:46a
Gifts
“All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and good and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” – Acts 2:44,45
Service
“Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles…and having the good will of all the people.” – Acts 2:43,47a
Witness
“And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” – Acts 2:47b
A High Level of Commitment
• Coach Jim Tressel, “The Winner’s Manual”
• 2011 Commitment Form
A Promise
1) Prayers for the church
2) Be in worship unless out of town or unable to attend.
3) Financially support the work of Christ and his church.
4) Be involved in at least one ministry in the life of the church.
5) Share your faith with others.
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