September 16, 2007 Sermon

Teach
Matthew 28:16-20, I Corinthians 3:7-9

Learn about, and follow, Jesus.

Ten years ago the steering committee that started this church held frequent marathon meetings. We knew we did not feel God leading us just to create a traditional Presbyterian church like the ones from which we had come. But we did not agree on what God was leading us to do. We discussed everything: how to hold coffee hour, where to put the portable coat racks, whether to have a choir (no), should we say the Lord’s Prayer (yes), do we need Deacons (eventually we realized yes), what about women’s circles (not yet). But one traditional ministry of Presbyterian Churches received our immediate and unanimous support: teaching.

Learn about, and follow, Jesus.

Our steering committee named today’s passage from I Corinthians the foundation of our church’s mission statement. From it we derived our slogan: “Growing and sharing our love for Jesus Christ.” From it we derived our mission statement: “The Northern Lakes Community Church exists to make disciples and send apostles. Disciples follow Jesus. Apostles tell the world about Him.” We see the connection between growing our love for Christ and making disciples. We see the connection between sharing our love for Christ and sending apostles. And it all fits together under a biblical umbrella. But far too often churches put great effort into creating mission statements, only to ignore them. We wondered: How can we at NLCC take real action on our mission statement that will change the lives of the people God calls us to reach for Christ?

The steering committee wanted to create a church that walked its talk. So we made a list of six actions the church would take, three of them to make disciples and three of them to send apostles. We print these, too, in our bulletin. One reads, “(NLCC will) teach the Gospel (of Jesus Christ).” Teaching about Jesus helps make followers—disciples—for him. We mean to teach Jesus at this church so people will build their lives around Him. Learn about, and follow, Jesus.

Jesus himself commanded his followers to teach. When Jesus spoke the words we just read he had already been crucified and risen from the dead. Now, as he meets his followers at a pre-arranged spot on a hill in Galilee, he gives them their marching orders: “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all I have commanded you.”

Go. Make disciples. Baptize. Teach. The Great Commission stands on these four imperatives. We should not overlook the first: Go. At a church I previously served we tried to convince the members to reach out into the world beyond the church building. But most of their grandparents had belonged to that church and many of them saw no reason to bring new people into it. “Besides,” they would tell me, “people know where we are.” But other people in that church wanted to grow it—and to grow the spiritual lives of those who attended, new and old. With their backing we paid for a survey of the surrounding community. Though the church sat on one of the busiest corners in the county, less than 17% of its residents could place it on a map. Even when we think people know where to find Jesus, they often do not. We must go to them.

Go, Jesus told his followers. He added, “Make disciples of all nations.” He meant, “Make followers of me out of people from every race and tribe.” We at NLCC have set making disciples as one of our two primary goals. But do we really reach out to every kind of person? There are precious few tribes located Up North. Oh, we do have actual Native Americans, mostly from some variation of the Chippewa Tribe, but otherwise the ethnic mix here tends to a blend of German, Pole and/or Scandinavian, plus a smattering of all sorts of others. (I am one-half Scots, with helpings of Swiss, English and possibly Irish thrown in.)

A wide variety of people live here. I walked down just one row in the high school parking lot and saw bumper stickers mocking our current president and the one before him, as well as that previous guy’s wife; a couple of stickers extolling hunting, but others calling for gun control; six endorsements of different musical groups; fish decals and the word “Darwin” eating a fish; a portrait of Bob Marley smoking dope with words in favor of doing so; one “Stop the war NOW,” demand, three somewhat less angry appeals to end the fighting, and several that read, “Support our troops.” I did not see one instance of the most popular message of five short years ago: “United we stand. In God we trust.”

We live in a somewhat diverse community in a pluralistic society. We do not have to wander far to meet Jesus’ call to preach the Good News to different tribes and nations. And we should do both: preach to the divergent types of people right here among us, and support people who go everywhere, near and far, to all kinds of people, in the name of Jesus. We must teach people about the Jesus we follow. Learn about, and follow, Jesus.

With that in mind we fast-forward to the fourth of Jesus’ imperatives in the Great Commission: “Teach(ing) them all I have commanded you.” Considering all the things Jesus taught, this is a monumental task. We had better get busy! Here at Northern Lakes Community Church we teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in several ways. But no matter how often or diversely we teach, our efforts will not bear fruit unless you take advantage of them. Hence, this commercial for our teaching ministries.

The lead-off hitter in our lineup of teaching ministries is the Sunday School. At this time I step aside so elder Steve Turner can give a personal testimony to the power of Sunday School to help form disciples of Jesus Christ.

[Follow-up comments from Steve’s words.]

We also teach in small groups. Usually these groups read the Bible, or at least a study guide based on the Bible. Usually the members feel inadequate to the task of “teaching” the Bible to each other. Yet almost always these same people who feel they cannot teach will relate lessons they learn from each other. I believe this is evidence of God’s Holy Spirit working through everyday people. In fact, all teaching relies on the Holy Spirit, which is God at work in and through us. So we find teaching going on in youth groups, in sermons, in the nursery, at committee meetings that include prayer and reading, at our Tuesday morning and Wednesday evening Bible studies. Look at the calendar in your bulletin to learn which of these opportunities to learn fits your schedule.

I wish to lift up one, final teaching ministry. It is called Children in Worship, and it will start the Sunday we open our new building addition. Linda Riggins has recruited a staff of teachers who will offer excellent content to preschool and young elementary children. This program will take place during the latter two-thirds of our worship services. We have offered it in another church we serve and I enthusiastically endorse it. My children remember many of the lessons they learned in it more than ten years ago.

Learn about, and follow, Jesus. Take advantage of the teaching opportunities we offer here at Northern Lakes Church. Accept your own calling to teach the Gospel, even if “only” by living a life worthy of his disciples. Let the whole church accept the power of the Holy Spirit to change lives, often through teaching. Learn about, and follow, Jesus.