Grace Series: G is for Growing

Pastor Burcham's Sermon

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

This morning, we start a series of messages on the vision Gloria Dei has for its ministry. A vision is a statement that wants to paint a picture of what we hope and we pray is God's plan for our congregation, if you will. If you could catapult into the future and take a snapshot of what Gloria Dei would look like and say, “That would be the ideal situation. That's how we envision our ministry to be,” so a vision statement isn't where we are right now but it's what we're going to be, what we're striving for, what we're trying to accomplish and turn into a reality.

It's a series of messages that I've wanted to share with you for quite some time. I've thought about it all summer long. These last two weeks, I've been trying to prepare for this morning's message. But I have to tell you it's been tough. I struggled and I toiled and I sweated and I looked and I tried this way and I thought that way, and I said to myself, “How? How can one preach on a vision statement? How can I convey the passion I have for the ministry of this congregation? How can I convey the passion I have for the vision we share together in ministry? How can I make it more than just words on a piece of paper, a cleverly turned phrase built upon on the acronym of GRACE? How can you preach on something like that? How can I convey what I really feel in my heart?” And I have to tell you, the last couple of days, I have been a bear to live with. You can ask my family and you can ask the staff. It hasn't been pleasant as I've tried to find a way to convey that message.

And it comes down to this: Before we launch forth in talking about the specifics of the vision, before we talk about each one of the phrases of Growing and Relationships and all the rest, I came to the conclusion the only way the vision has meaning is if it's real. In other words, where does the vision hit the road? Where does it become a reality? Where does it make a difference? What is our ministry really all about? And what is the vision all about?

I'll tell you what our ministry is about. It's about a young man named Brandon . Brandon didn't grow up in the church. In fact, for whatever reason, his family just didn't attend church at all, had no idea what it was about, and, frankly, had no interest in it at all. But Brandon got himself a girlfriend. And she was a good Christian gal. And she literally dragged him to church. Week after week, 11:00 service, I could still point to where he sat. Brandon would march in because love will make you do just about anything, won't it? So he's going to be there with his girlfriend and he'd march in and he'd sit down. And he'd sit up real straight and he'd just stare forward. Didn't sing a note. Didn't really look at me when I was preaching, just sat there. To the casual observer, you would think Brandon 's just doing time. Sooner or later, he's going to drop off. But you'd be wrong. Because God was working in his heart, and seeds were being planted. To make a long story short, this past spring, that girlfriend became a fiancé. I had the honor of being there and officiating at their wedding, but I had the privilege the day before to baptize Brandon in the name of the Triune God and to hear him confess to me his faith in Jesus as his Lord and Savior. That's why I have a passion for the ministry of this congregation. That's why I believe in the vision of Gloria Dei. It's people like Brandon .

It's people like Jeff. Jeff first stepped into our sanctuary as part of the installation crew of our projectors and screens. He was just here doing a job. He had been here a couple of days and, all of a sudden, he noticed the drum set over there. And so he looks over at the drum set and he's kind of scratching his head. You see, he grew up in the church but, as he described it, church for him was you walked through the door, you shut up, you sit down, you stand up, you sit down, you stand up again, you sit down, and then you leave. He said it was stodgy, it was stuffy, and it meant nothing to him. And if he had a choice whether he would be there or not, he'd choose not to be there and, for a long time, he had chosen not to be there. Well, Steve Kohtz, our Director of Worship, struck up a conversation with him as he looked at the drums. One thing led to another and you can either call it coincidence, I call it the hand of God, we were in need of a drummer at that time for our praise band. Before you knew it, Jeff was playing drums because he's an excellent drummer. And then before you knew it, he was here every single week with his family. I just talked to him two days ago. He said to me, “If you'd have told me five years ago that I'd be in church on a regular basis, I would have laughed at you. But now I want to come.” He says, “In fact, as I look back at my life and I see some of the worst things that have happened in my life, I can see how God brought about some of the biggest blessings in my life.” That's why I have a passion for the ministry of this congregation. That's why I have a passion for the vision of this congregation. It's people like Jeff.

It's people like Steve. Now Steve is different than the other two. Steve is a lifelong Christian, grew up in the church. Married a Christian gal. Been faithful to worship here every single week that he's attended. Well, Steve decided to go on vacation with his wife. You couldn't think of a worse scenario of what happened. She got sick. Then she got really sick. And thousands of miles from home, he had to watch as his wife died in a hotel room. I still remember driving out to Steve's house when he came back into town, and I was praying to God. I said, “God, what am I going to say? What words can I give? How can he be so devastated at what has happened in his life? What am I going to say to the kids? God, I'm relying on you because I don't have an idea.” As it turns out, I didn't have to say anything. And what maybe Steve and his family don't know is they ministered more to me than I did to them. I walked into that house and, certainly, there were tears, there was sadness, and there was grief but there was a presence there, People. There was the presence of God in that house, the presence of a strong faith of a strong family. All those years of that faith being built up and nurtured and strengthened and, through their tears and their sadness, they talked about joy, joy that his wife was in heaven, joy that Mom was up there, and an utter confidence in each and every one of them that one day, they would be there with her once again. That's why I have a passion for this ministry. That's why I have a passion for the vision of Gloria Dei because that's what it's all about. It's about lives being changed. It's about people coming to faith. It's about people growing and being nurtured in their faith so when they hit the valleys in life, when the tragedies strike, there's something there, the presence of God is holding them up. That's why I have a passion for this church. That's why I have a passion for our ministry, and that's what the vision is about. It's about lives being changed and people being built up in their faith.

Vision isn't just words on a page. It isn't just a clever acronym. It describes what we want to become, that says this is the ultimate goal. This is where we see God leading us so more lives can be changed and more people can be built up in their faith. That's what the acronym of GRACE is all about. It's about God's love. It's about His undeserved love to us. In other words, it's about God's grace.

This week, we lay the foundation, the foundation of the rest of the vision because it's built upon that first statement, the statement that says we're going to be about growing. We're going to be a church of tremendous growth. What that means is this will be a place where you can grow in your faith and commitment to Jesus Christ. This will be a place where you can come and you can experience incredible spiritual growth, the seeds of faith will be sown, and those seeds will be nurtured and they'll take root and they'll grow and will become strong and vibrant and mature in our faith and our commitment to God. That's what the growing in our faith is all about. That's what it means to be a place of tremendous growth.

As we dive into the vision, there are three aspects I believe to that vision of growing and having tremendous growth in this congregation. The first one is this: it is the vision of a congregation that expects and is excited about growth. A congregation that expects God is going to be active, expects the seeds of faith are going to be sown, expects people will grow in their faith, and we're going to be excited about that and we're going to celebrate that. How can you not be excited about growth? How can you not be excited about seeing what God is doing?

It was about a month ago. I came home from the office, kind of been a long day. I walked in through the garage, walked directly into the kitchen. There my wife stands behind the kitchen counter. In one hand, she has today's mail. In the other hand, she has about three ripe tomatoes. She has this big grin on her face. And she's kind of animated and she goes, “Guess what? Guess what?” Well, judging by what she had in her hand, I said, “We might be winners in Publisher's Clearinghouse?” Nope, picked the wrong hand. She said, “No, you dummy. The garden! Look at these tomatoes! You have to come and see. Come on, come on, come on. You have to see.” She insisted I go into the garden and see what had happened. Now I expected to see tomatoes. I expected to see cucumbers. In fact, months earlier, when the seeds were put into the ground, both of us expected we would have tomatoes. Both of us expected there would be cucumbers there and there would be peppers and all the rest, but you know what? We were excited. We were excited to see how it grew, to see the miracle of God that this seed that got put into the ground and now, through watering and nurturing, all of a sudden, it produces this harvest there. Growth is exciting even when you expect it to happen. Scripture talks about that, and it uses the same analogy of seeds and growing. St. Paul , when he talks to the Church at Corinth , says, “I planted the seed. Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.” Or Jesus speaking to the people in parables says, “Take the man who went out to his field and he planted a mustard seed.” Now a mustard seed is no bigger than the tip of my pinky here. And He says he planted a mustard seed and yet look what happens? It grows up so large that it's the tallest in all of the garden. It practically becomes a tree that birds can perch upon. He says, “Isn't that amazing what happens?” Now Paul wasn't talking about tomatoes, and Jesus isn't interested in making mustard. He's talking about spiritual growth. He's talking about the seeds of faith that are being sown and how that seed of faith germinates and it takes root and then, when it's watered by the Word of God and the sacraments, it grows and it becomes strong, so strong it's like a mighty tree that's standing up so you can weather any kind of storm. That's the vision. If we're going to be a place of tremendous growth, then we're going to expect growth is going to happen. We're going to expect God is going to be active in our ministry. We're going to expect people are going to come to faith for the first time or maybe they're going to return to the faith. We're going to expect people are going to grow in their faith and become more confident and mature and then we're going to be excited about it. And we are going to rejoice, rejoice with every person who's baptized, rejoice with every new member that joins, rejoice with every person who goes through one of the valleys in life but experiences the power of God holding them up and keeping them strong. We will expect growth and we will be excited about the spiritual growth God grants us.

If we are going to be a place of tremendous growth where people grow in their faith and commitment to Jesus, then the vision is of a congregation that offers dynamic and meaningful worship. A congregation that offers dynamic, meaningful, relevant worship. The reason I say that is because I need to take a small tangent here. It's utterly important we understand growth comes from God. God is the one who creates faith. God is the one who nurtures and causes faith to grow. St. Paul says, “I planted the seed. Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.” The next verse down says, “But God is the one who makes it grow.” God is the one who is responsible for everything that happens around here. God is the one who calls people to faith and God is the one who nurtures their faith, but God has told us there are certain ways in which He has promised to work. There are certain avenues, there are certain tools, there are certain means where He says, “I'm always going to work in.” He says, “I have the freedom to work outside of those, but you have my promise. When you're looking at these, you know I'm going to be active and I'm going to be working.” He says, “When my word is preached and the gospel is shared,” God says, “I will be active.” God says, “Through the preaching of that word, people come to faith. Through the preaching of that word, people are growing and are strengthened in that faith.” God says, “Through the sacraments, through Holy Baptism, people come to faith. Through the Lord's Supper, people are strengthened and grow in their faith as they receive the body and blood of our Lord and the assurance of their forgiveness.” God says He will always work through His Word and through His Sacrament. Where is it we find the Word and Sacrament on a weekly basis? It is here in worship, here in worship where God uses His tools.

That means we better do a good job at worship. We better do an excellent job at worship and offer dynamic, meaningful worship to a variety of people. That means there will be a variety of styles. There are a variety of ways in which we can worship God. God has not mandated one way in which we should worship Him. God says we are to worship Him, we are to offer Him our praises, and God also says He's going to come down and He's going to feed us through the preaching of His Word and through His Sacraments but He doesn't tell us what style. God doesn't tell us it has to be an organ nor does it have to be a drum. God doesn't say it has to be a guitar nor does He say it has to be a horn. God says to worship Him. And if we are going to have meaningful worship for a wide variety of people, that means there's going to be variety in worship.

Let me give you an example. Two weeks ago, Saturday night service ended. I'm standing in the back. A woman comes up to me. She says, “I just want to tell you this service is so meaningful to me.” She says, “Just the music, the message, the atmosphere, when it's offered, everything is just really hitting home with me and I'm coming to church now more than I ever did before.” It wasn't 12 hours later after the early service that I was standing out in the narthex when another person came to me and said, “I want to tell you that was a great worship service. It was so good to sing the liturgy again and just to go back. That has such deep meaning and the rich tradition that is there, this really hit home for me.” Now, Folks, you can't get much different than Saturday night and this service but people are ministered to at both. It's meaningful to both. It's the vision of a congregation that is more concerned with doing every worship service with excellence than worrying about worship wars of traditional is better than contemporary and blended is better than both or the rest. It's a congregation that embraces the diversity of worship and celebrates the fact they're able to offer different styles of worship so people of all tastes, people of all walks of life can be engaged in worship, can have a meaningful, relevant, dynamic worship experience. That's the vision of our congregation.

If we're going to be a place of tremendous growth where God's means of grace are being used to feed His people, that means it's a place of a variety of worship and it means, in that worship, God's Word will be preached and it will be preached with clarity and relevance to people's lives. That means where God's Word is clear, we will be clear. We won't back away from the controversial subjects. We won't back away from the tough subjects. If God's Word is clear, we will be clear whether it's popular or not. But where God offers freedom, then we're going to celebrate the freedom and we're going to enjoy the freedom God has given to us. Each and every week, it's the vision when you walk out those doors, you take with you some nugget, you take with you some portion of God's Word that has a direct impact on your life, that it's relevant to your situation, that it's applicable to your life. That's a place that has tremendous growth where people are growing in their faith and commitment to Jesus Christ. If we're going to be that place, then it is the vision of a congregation that offers countless opportunities for people to grow in their faith. It's the vision of a congregation that no matter what is your age, no matter what stage in life you are, there are opportunities for you to be engaged, opportunities for you to study God's Word, opportunities for you to grow in your faith and your commitment to Christ. It's the vision of a congregation, a congregation that doesn't apologize for its size, that doesn't make excuses for its size, that doesn't deny its size but instead celebrates its size. If God blesses them with 1,000 people on a weekend, we praise God for all the blessings there, a congregation that says if we're able to offer a wide variety of programming, we celebrate God has blessed us so much, we're able to offer that variety, we're able to do so many things. It's a congregation that offers an unlimited amount of opportunities so every person can get involved so the preschooler can come and learn about the love of Jesus and go home singing about it, so the grade schooler can come and have that foundation of the biblical stories of the Old and New Testament from which their faith can be built upon, the junior higher can come and can find courage to go back and face those difficult years, the senior higher can come and be equipped to go out into the world whether it's at the university or the workplace when all of a sudden reality hits and they're surrounded by a whole lot of bad influences, they're equipped to do that. It's the place where the young couple can come together and have a solid foundation for their marriage and when the young family can come together and they can have a place where they can grow and nurture as one another and grow strong together. Or the empty nester can find other people they can talk to and relate to. And the list can be endless as every person who comes through the door can find a place where they can be engaged in ministry and they can grow in their faith. That, My Friends, is a place of tremendous growth. That is a congregation where people are growing in their faith and commitment to Jesus. That's the vision of Gloria Dei.

And I need to share with you, I want to share with you the vision is becoming a reality. I say this in all humbleness and all praise and glory to God, but I think you should know God is active here and we are marching towards the fulfillment of the vision. For the first eight months of 2006, on an average, 126 more people per week are worshiping than in 2005. On an average, 126 more people are in worship where the Word and the Sacrament are present, where they're getting nourished and fed by God's Word. We need to praise God for that, celebrate God for that, and be excited about that. This morning is about the vision becoming a reality. This whole weekend, as of this weekend, there are three opportunities for families to send their children to have a Christian education, three opportunities, one on Saturday night and two on Sunday morning, done so the classrooms aren't overcrowded, they can have that one on one time with the teacher and they can have that foundation for their faith. As of this morning, there are five different times when you can come to worship. There are four different styles of worship so you should be able to find a style and a time that is meaningful for you, that engages you, that causes you to grow in your faith.

The vision is becoming a reality, but it's not there yet. We have to keep marching on. We have to keep striving for it and looking for opportunities for it and discovering how is it we can make that vision a reality that Gloria Dei can be a congregation of tremendous growth, a place where people are growing, growing in their faith and commitment to Jesus, a place where that vision isn't just words on a page. It isn't just a clever phrase or acronym we put up on the wall but it stands for something. It stands for lives being changed.

It's the vision there will be more Brandons, more Jeffs, and more Steves. That's why I have a passion for this vision and for our ministry, and I pray you share that passion with me. Amen.

Copyright 2006 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church