Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 <inaudible> my name is Mike
Speaker 1 00:00:06 Fueling and the lead pastor here at the village church. And we just finished a series on the 10 commandments. Next week, we start a series of short series in Holy week with Palm Sunday. Good Friday and Easter. So we have one kind of Sunday where we're going to do something a little bit different. Typically what we would do is we would open a text of scripture. Usually as we teach through a portion of scripture or a book, and then this morning we're going to kind of be everywhere. So I want to invite you to get your Bibles or your phones ready, and a one to ask. Would you go on a little biblical journey with me now? I want to warn you on the front end of this message. It's going to be fairly personal for me, for you, probably for everyone. And I'll just tell you some of my intentions on the front end, my intentions are not to hurt anybody's feelings for sure.
Speaker 1 00:01:02 My intentions are not to justify someone else's sin thought to take a side. I want to love you. Well, I want to love you. Well, as we look at our current moment, I am positive. Like one of the challenges of preaching sermons is you never quite know what people will do with your words, right? Like if you're a mom or dad or grandparent, like you get that, right. You just never know how your words are going to go out and then be used. But I think just for us in this room, and for those watching online, who are part of village church, we really want to bring God as much glory in this next year as we possibly can. Can I get an amen of that as your heart? Amen. Good. So there are going to be moments in this message where you're going to be tempted to be angry with someone in your life.
Speaker 1 00:01:45 It might even be me and maybe, maybe I'm going to deal with an issue where someone has sinned against you and you're still angry and that's okay. Paul says in Ephesians four, be angry, just don't sin. When you're angry, maybe I'm going to poke an idol. Of course, I'm not trying to poke your idol, but maybe I'm going to poke an idol. And then when idols are poked, our hearts have a defense mechanism it's called anger and defensiveness, right? And so maybe that's maybe that's what's happening, but just know this. I worked really hard, prayed a lot over this, got some really good counsel to make sure that this was a loving message, that it was truly helpful. Check my heart in this as well. So the title of this message is you're ready for it. Masks. And the main thing you may think, you know, where I'm going with this message and I guarantee you, I'm probably going to go in a different direction than most of you are thinking.
Speaker 1 00:02:37 Now, how many of you want to be me right now? Anyone like three of you do the rest of your life. So glad I am not that guy. Right, right now. So last week was a milestone for literally billions of people all over the world. It marked one year since our lives were assaulted by COVID, you've heard me and probably every leader in your life say this leading over the last year has been hands down. The single greatest leadership challenge I have ever faced. And I speak on behalf of business owners, managers, bosses, spiritual leaders, moms, and dads, grandmas, and grandpas. Really, if we love Jesus, all we want to do is the right thing. That's it. And so it's really hard to do the right thing when the future is so unbelievably and frustratingly unpredictable. But let me just say this on the front end, as pastor of village church is I have interfaced with y'all over the last year.
Speaker 1 00:03:27 I mean, this, you have been an utter and complete joy to walk through this with like, I've been trying to think of one person who I would say broached sin and a conversation I had with you. I can't even think of one. You've been honest, but you've been gracious. You've been emotional for totally understandable reasons, but you've protected unity. You've asked the hardest questions. I mean, I have never been asked more challenging questions and been like, well, I don't know. And you have fought for a spirit of unity in the process and there's no, but to this, like truly I am blown away. When I talk to my many of my pastor friends that is not the same, their churches have been divided. They have been fighting. I have an awestruck. And how you have kept the main thing as, as a church, the main thing some of you have had to stay home and you have not held a spirit of bitterness inside of you.
Speaker 1 00:04:22 Some of you have been here, some of you have been masked and you don't want to be some of you see people who don't take mass as seriously as you hope they would. And you want them to take it more seriously. I mean, we, we are a very diverse church when it comes to our opinions on masks, re-engagement health, safety, and politics, right? And it's really challenging for you and for me and all of us to make sure that in light of masks and all they represent that we keep the main thing, the main thing. So really this message is not a reaction to someone in my brain. I can't think of someone. It's not a reaction to a group of people. It's not even a rebuke, but this is our way of saying the future is beginning to take shape. We don't know when we don't know how, but there is, there is a future in front of us.
Speaker 1 00:05:13 That's beginning to get clear. And what I want to make sure is that we move into this future together. So you've heard me teach many times in this series. I kind of just pick up the together series regularly throughout the year. And to say, we need to get through this thing, keeping the main thing, the main thing in a spirit of unity, and somehow permitting some level of diversity of opinion and application of that in our church. So now as a country now, even in Illinois, which is funny to me, but we're beginning a, hear me hear me, don't read too much into this. We're beginning to see the end. I think maybe of mass shutdowns, does that feel about right? Like it's not there. You don't have like a specific timeline, but it's like we're watching this schools moved from six feet to three feet.
Speaker 1 00:05:58 In many scenarios, vaccines by all public metrics are working. Public schools are reopening beginning to by fall. They should be mostly back. See what teachers unions have to say. Private schools have seen COVID cases for sure, but they've been limited to a few people in classes and small groups, the concerns that many, many hat on the private school front, which I've stayed very, very close to detailed metrics of what's happening in the Chicago land area. In that level. None of it has played out like people feared, herd immunity is growing all good news trending. Well,
Speaker 2 00:06:31 It's not unreasonable. This is gonna be
Speaker 1 00:06:34 Blow your mind thought, okay, I'm not being a prophet here. I'm just saying, just consider this. It's not unreasonable. That COVID could be a non-issue as it pertains to most of daily life for 95 plus percent of Americans by this fall, that wonderful thought.
Speaker 2 00:06:55 Now, Prince the sermon
Speaker 1 00:06:59 A few times a year, I'll preach on a subject that is not necessarily out of a biblical tax, but we as Christians need to think about biblically. We need to process it through a biblical worldview. So here's what I want to do. I want to share it. Number one, three sections to the sermon. Technically four, if you count my very long intro, number one, I want to share with you two biblical mandates that COVID has caused most Christians to set aside two biblical mandates that we have generally speaking said, as it was an American church, I would even say as village church, it's been a real thing. We've set aside two mandates that the Bible has not given us permission to do. Second. I want to identify the five biggest ways Christians have responded to COVID and I want to share a biblical encouragement. And my guess is most all of us will fit into one or more of these responses. And I want us to, as we look at re-engagement over the next three, five, six, seven months, I want us to think biblically and critically about kind of who we are and what is re-engagement look like. Finally, I'm gonna share some, so what's all right, open up your Bibles. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 to 25. First the two biblical mandates COVID has caused us to set aside and here is the first mandate
Speaker 2 00:08:18 Serve one another, serve one another.
Speaker 1 00:08:25 Now, when I say it's a mandate that many have set aside, you may think this is going to be a fiery sermon, repent, et cetera. I really believe that for the vast majority of people over the last year, it has felt like a whirlwind. Like somebody has spun you around and you're trying to figure out which direction you're supposed to walk. And there is a temptation, I think for some of us who are maybe working a lot harder at serving others than other people are to be judgmental. And I would just say, this has been a year where I think God has been very gracious, but now we need kind of open our eyes and looked forward. And we need to really think about what is, what does this look like in the future? And have I been, if I've been one of those persons who has just not served really many people at all over the last year, here's what the book of Hebrews says.
Speaker 1 00:09:10 Chapter 10, verse 24. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day or the coming of Christ, the day drawing near let's draw out three ways. This happens. Number one, we serve one another intensely. Shall we look at the word considered verse 25. This does not mean consider where you want to eat McDonald's or Wendy's. This means to think intensely to innovate, to creatively brainstorm so that you might find a way if any way, to serve someone. The idea here is that the person says, I don't know who to serve, how to do it. And the word means, figure it out, get creative, get innovative. But here's what we do. If you, if you profess the name of Jesus Christ, we serve one another.
Speaker 1 00:10:17 Now what's interesting is we're not talking about the world, the community. In fact, I think village church has done an amazing job serving the community. But what I'm talking about is actually internally, there is a biblical command to take care of our house and to make sure we are loving and caring for the needs of those in our community. Look what he says. Number two, he says this, we are to serve one another weekly. Now this is interesting. He says in verse 25, not neglecting to meet together. The meeting together for this first century church really for the last 2000 years has met their time of weekly worship gathering together. That has been the application. That is what is in the mind of the author of Hebrews. That the people of God, we come together weekly. And as we walk into this place, we have been considering innovating thinking, finding ways that we might come alongside somebody and serve them and meet a need that they had.
Speaker 1 00:11:15 Number three, we serve one another. I look at this urgently in verse 25. He says this not just weekly, but all the more as, as the day gets closer to Jesus coming back, the world is getting more evil and more divided. And we, the body of Christ need to care for one another. We need to creatively look and think about what are the needs in front of us. And it's not just weekly, but this actually moves now all the more. And it goes to the rest of your week. We need to think about this. So it's just a very simple question. Have you considered intensely and lived a life of service to your church over the last year? Any year? That has been the most devastating year for so many people's lives.
Speaker 1 00:12:02 Number two here's the second biblical mandate COVID has caught has caused the vast majority of Christians to set aside worshiping God weekly. So verse 25 says this, not neglecting to meet together, not neglecting to meet together. This is weekly corporate worship. Now some of you are afraid of what I'm saying and what I'm not saying this last year has been incredibly difficult. And we're going to look at in a little bit, some of the nuances of people who are have comorbidities or pre-existing conditions or different scenarios. We're going to look at that. When I say this, I think God and personally myself have tons of grace. Let's be honest. If all of you came to worship every week, we couldn't do much with you. Like it would be really hard to fit you in this building. It just would not work right down. So I'm actually grateful.
Speaker 1 00:12:58 We've had time to think and to strategize and to be creative. And I appreciate the creativity of so many of you and Keith, our team in the back making online worship, but a real viable, doable thing for all the people who are creating worship services in their homes, inviting others to at like the answer is not necessarily come to church, be here, but, um, but really for many, many Christians over this last year, this simple mandate has been set aside. Now I want to ask you a question. I want you to imagine it's pre COVID and you are asked, the following question is worshiping weekly with a local church, essential for spiritual growth and mandated by God. How would you have answered pre COVID? I think most would answer with a very gracious yes. And by gracious, I mean, yeah, you get work, you get sick.
Speaker 1 00:13:50 You have to travel. Work happens. Life happens. But by and large weekly worship with God's people, it's a biblical mandate and the people of God prioritize this, not just for ourselves, but for our entire family, we make sure that it's a priority that every week we set aside time with God's people to worship. But in COVID it's interesting, this has become a debatable issue in a way that it never was before. So let me take you on a little historical journey. Let me share with you the evolution of this discussion and debate. Let's go back to pre 2000 the year, 2000 weekly church engagement on any given Sunday. If you went to church, you would have roughly it's crazy thought. Think about this 80 to 90% of your congregation there every single week and the 10 to 20%. And that's like a, that's like an empty Sunday.
Speaker 1 00:14:44 Most everybody would know where they were and why they weren't there. That was before technology, not a crazy exceptions included, primarily sickness, travel work sports was an issue, but not a ton, not, not, not a major issue every week. You knew who was there and why the ones who weren't there were not there. And then in the two thousands things started to change. So 2000 to 2019 attendance patterns really significantly shifted in the debate began to change. The expectations began to change the average evangelical. Uh, by the time you get to 2019 attended church, 2.5 times per month, meaning roughly on any given Sunday, you might have 60 to 70% of your church there on any given day. If you were in a mega church, this number went down to about 1.7%. And some of the reasons were sickness, travel, work, ease of transportation, the emergence of high speed internet online church, the pace of life increased general life burnout increase in. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the average evangelical when they weren't there, what they would do is they would find their churches podcast or they would watch online. And if they were in a group, especially that seems to be a significant indicator of whether or not people follow messages online. If they're in a group, they were likely to continue to listen and then to engage with their group.
Speaker 3 00:16:11 And then
Speaker 1 00:16:11 I think understandably things took quite a shift in the COVID era. So now in the COVID era, the majority of Christians, I just need you to process us. The majority of Christian students and children have not attended an actual church service in over a year.
Speaker 3 00:16:30 Let me just set parents
Speaker 1 00:16:36 A watch online, which is great and wonderful, but kids and students, more times than not, are not watching with their parents.
Speaker 3 00:16:46 Um,
Speaker 1 00:16:47 Barna has been super helpful on this. One of those who do not watch from home or who do watch from home, half of church, adults have not streamed a church service in the past for waste. These are people committed to their church. And when polled, half of them have not streamed a service from their church in the last
Speaker 3 00:17:05 Four weeks,
Speaker 1 00:17:08 Many Christian Americans, they didn't just stop attending church, but there are many who do not plan to re-engage in person whatsoever. I have a hundred, very few of them are extroverts.
Speaker 1 00:17:23 Now let's, let's look to the post COVID era. And I want you to really think about these numbers. I want to prophesy with you for a moment. I don't mean prophecy in the biblical sense. I mean, I want to prognosticate over the future and put some data together and figure out here's kind of some reasonable things that I think we actually a village church should expect. So as we're beginning to have line of sight to this new season, there are five areas. Number one, Sunday, attendance village church will likely restart sometime this fall. If you will, at 60% attendance in the fall of what we have pre COVID.
Speaker 1 00:18:01 Now the members, the village church will have less people in the building than before the majority who attend will attend less than ever before. We will slowly realize, and just process these numbers. We have actually grown by 20 to 40% from pre COVID of people who call village church, their home, even though we're only going to have plausibly three to 400 people, maybe on a good day in the building. So there could be well over a thousand people using participating, engaging in village church, but this is what's going to happen to churches all over America. What you're going to see in the building will not be a reflection of who that church actually is. Let's talk about volunteers,
Speaker 2 00:18:50 Village
Speaker 1 00:18:50 Church, based on what we're seeing right now, based on our numbers internally based on Barna research, based on a handful of other experiences that we've had, we'll restart with 30% of our weekly Sunday morning volunteers and the pressure to hire what was previously volunteer is going to be higher than ever before.
Speaker 2 00:19:14 Sorry about consumerism.
Speaker 1 00:19:17 Effectively village church will move from 20 to 30% consumers to 50 to 60% consumers. Let me define a consumer. It's someone who utilizes our resources, calls, village church, their home, but does not contribute both financially and in service, but are able, so you you're able to consume what we offer. You would call this home, but when it comes to serving or giving and helps us sustain the reality of life and ministry here, that's not something you're interested in doing. Uh, you always have a portion doesn't matter how awesome the church is. You always have people engaging, coming who are newer, trying to figure it out. Maybe some people aren't as spiritual, mature the consumer number. Isn't a problem when it's at 20 or 30 or even 40%, but once it hits 50, 60, 70%, you have major challenges. And what we are observing is that we are going to be moving into those numbers because of the impact that COVID has had on people, on their relationship with church.
Speaker 1 00:20:14 So about giving Ville church, we'll see giving go up because for many, this is the only way they feel. They can make a difference, which is wonderful. So the attendance feels lower. The giving will go up, but the needs are going to go up way past that. So we're going to be sitting in a position this fall, where the needs are up here, the giving is here and the volunteers are down here. Can you see the problem? So what happens is we have people like our incredible production and worship team would get up at five 30 in the morning, every single Sunday morning. And they're huge of one 30 in the afternoon, and they're going to be polling the majority of the way we have the same village kids, workers coming in and out and serving, and they're pulling the majority of the weight. And yet the amount of people needing the resources is going up and up.
Speaker 1 00:21:07 Can you see where this breaks? We're going to talk about some of the implications as we move on. I think for village church, I don't believe this needs to be our inevitable future. So one of the ways we've addressed some patterns as we just talk about them, honestly, like there's nothing to hide. This stuff is real. We're going to address some of the things that are going on. And some of you are watching online and you're wondering, Oh no, what's he going to say? And some of you were here and you're like, what's he going to say? But the best thing we can do is open the dialogue in a spirit of graciousness. And for us to say, here's where we're at. Here's what we're watching here are the needs. How can we come together as a local church and serve the people of God who are here, who are a part of this community, and also make sure that we are worshiping God in a way that is meaningful on a weekly basis.
Speaker 1 00:21:54 All right. The second part of my message, I want to shift, and I'm going to share with you five types of people that COVID is revealed in the church. Now don't worry. I'm probably going to address everybody in the room with one of these types of Christians or types of people. Um, and I, again, my goal is to encourage you. And if this is you put a mirror and just say, okay, God, if that's me, what do you want for me? What is my next step? How can I bring you the most amount of glory, particularly as it pertains to worshiping you weekly in a way that is good in right in serving the people of God and maybe not just weekly, but all the more so as we say that, see the day coming. So here's what I'll do. I'll identify a group. I'll explain it. And then I'll give a biblical,
Speaker 2 00:22:42 You guys ready? It's going to be fun. Group. Number one, the anti maskers again, you're all like, Oh no, Oh no. It's not even
Speaker 1 00:22:55 Well, unless you're a jerk, then I rebuke you. But
Speaker 2 00:22:59 This is those who refuse
Speaker 1 00:23:00 To wear a mask or a bitter about wearing masks. You may either feel inside or find yourself saying something like I don't want to wear a mask. And I'm kind of ticked off that I've been forced to wear one. That's kind of the, you know, the energy, the energy there. Um, it's not a sin to be an anti anti masker. Again, it's a sin to be a really mean person and an anti masker for the sake of assumption. I'm speaking to those of you who are anti maskers
Speaker 2 00:23:27 And your kind,
Speaker 1 00:23:30 I really appreciate a couple of things about anti maskers. Number one, I appreciate your convictions and your courage really, truly. Um, those are wonderful godly attributes for some, you're an anti masker because of health reasons. For some it's political reasons, neither of which bothered. I have one concern for anti maskers. One major one.
Speaker 2 00:23:50 Here it is.
Speaker 1 00:23:52 Have your politics interfered with your ability to weekly worship God and do weekly serve the church.
Speaker 2 00:24:05 What if there's a need in the church that requires you to wear a mask?
Speaker 1 00:24:14 Would you set aside your politics for the sake of your people? So my scripture for you is Ephesians chapter four, verse one through three. I wanna encourage you to open up your Bibles there
Speaker 1 00:24:28 As you open there. I challenge you to try to figure out of the five, which 2:00 AM I? Because there's two of them that I really identify with personally, but I'm not going to tell you, unless you ask me privately Ephesians four, one through three, Paul says, I urge you to walk in a manner in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, what a glorious, awesome privilege we have to bear the name of Jesus Christ. So much of the Christian life is learning what it means to honor that name and the way we live and the way we love Verse two says with all humility, meaning you put others' needs above your,
Speaker 2 00:25:08 Um, and I love this gentleness.
Speaker 1 00:25:12 There's a general tenderness in your heart and the way you navigate people, particularly the ones that are different than you with patients. Meaning sometimes you have to suffer long with other people. I mean, don't give me an amen out loud. Maybe give me one in your heart.
Speaker 2 00:25:26 And here's what he says. Bearing with me
Speaker 1 00:25:29 One another in love. Why should I come to church? So you can bear with one another in love. Welcome to the local church family. We're not everyone is like you. And we have to put up with some people who are weird and not like us, but they think where we're too, Where you have a diversity of people who think differently, but we are bound together, not by a mask or politics, but by the blood of Jesus Christ. And we debate politics. Why? Because Christians are open-minded people who love ideas. We can take a good debate. That's what we do. We're fun. Right?
Speaker 2 00:26:06 Right.
Speaker 1 00:26:10 And when our ideas are bad, we change them. When they're not consistent with God's word, we adjust them. We keep the blood of Christ center to what we do. We bear, we put up with we endure. Bearing is not fun, but it is what we do because we see past the thing that drives us nuts. And then I love this eager. There's an eagerness inside of you. And I'm so anti massacre. I want, I want to see this eagerness in you to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And that's not just unity with people who are anti maskers. It's unity with those who are pro maskers. That's hard, isn't it. If you're in, if you have a strong conviction, politically, it's interesting. This is now the age. When we have become more passionate about our politics, then we have the gospel.
Speaker 1 00:27:09 So if you're an anti master, I want to ask you to take time and pray over this text. And when I ask you what it might mean for your re-engagement plan over the next three to six months, as you look to serve one another, even those who have different convictions than you and what it means for you to weekly worship God at the same time, the second group of people I want to talk with are, would call the vulnerable it's those who cannot or should not leave home. So turn with me and your Bibles to first Corinthians 1222 here, Paul is going to use the metaphor of the human body to describe the local church.
Speaker 3 00:27:53 So it is,
Speaker 1 00:27:53 He uses the metaphor of the human body. He breaks the body up into two parts. He talks about presentable parts. This is like your face, your arms, your legs. Some of you not your feet. Then he talks about the unpresentable parts. This is the private parts of your body that need to be hidden and protected. And when I described the vulnerable here, they would be the unpresentable parts. Now don't take that metaphor too far. And I think you'll appreciate how this applies to you. And if this does apply to you are probably online right now and not in this room.
Speaker 3 00:28:28 So Paul
Speaker 1 00:28:29 Describes what many of the vulnerable may feel here. And if you have been or all are in this category, let me ask you a question. Do you feel dispensable? And I think most people who are in the vulnerable category are going to say, I absolutely feel like if I wasn't here, it wouldn't make any difference because the church often values people for what they produce and do more than for who they are. First Corinthians 1222 says the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are here. The word indispensable. If you're at home and you are vulnerable, you are an indispensable part of this body period. No questions asked.
Speaker 3 00:29:27 Okay?
Speaker 1 00:29:27 So he goes on as he discusses this, he has something to say to everybody else. And then there's a word for the, for the vulnerable on those parts of the body that we think less honorable the face, the hands we bestow greater honor. You're so beautiful. I love your hands, your feet, your manicure. It's beautiful. Pedicure. I don't know which one's, which,
Speaker 1 00:29:48 But on our unpresentable parts, they're treated with greater modesty, which are presentables parts do not require it. Let me summarize what he's saying here. We protect the unpresentable parts by not exposing them. We think about them intentionally. And our desire is to protect them. And there are seasons of people's lives where they need to be protected. So what do we do? We fight for them and we protect them and doggone it. If I have to wear a mask to go into your house, to serve you, I will wear a mask. If I have to lay aside some of my rights to love you and serve you. Well, I will do that because you are my brother and you are my sister verse 24. I have a word now for those who were in the vulnerable, here's what it says. God has so composed the body giving greater honor, honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
Speaker 1 00:30:49 So if you're in the vulnerable, what you need is a unique kind of care. And here's my encouragement to those of you who are in this category, gone are the days where people know what you need. Intuitively, secretly, those days were gone. About 10 years ago, maybe 15. Everyone's trying to figure out their own lives. It doesn't mean they don't have space to love you and serve you. Well, don't get me wrong. But their ability to Intuit who is not here, why they're not here and what their needs are, is decreasing exponentially. And so here's the challenge to those of you who are in the vulnerable, know this. We will move heaven and earth to love you and care for you to the best of our abilities, but we need you to tell us. And if you will tell us, we will work as hard as we can, to the extent of our human resources and our spiritual resources to love and care for you.
Speaker 1 00:31:48 Well, we're going to continue to offer online services and online Bible studies and zoom groups. We'll do everything we can, and there are limits to that world, but we need you to communicate. Um, it's very common, especially when you're hurting and you feel neglected for you to kind of just feel like people don't love you. And this is a time and it's hard enough for people to be aware of their own children and their own friends. Let alone maybe some of the people in their home or outside of their home. So if you're vulnerable, I'm gonna ask you to take time. As you think about you may never even have a re-engagement plan because of what's going on in your life. Maybe you've got this line of sight to a time, or you feel like you're gonna be able to go back to some kind of normal.
Speaker 1 00:32:29 And I wanna encourage you between that point in this, would you consider how you can help us help you? All right. The third category, the, the anxious or those who were fear and anxiety have begun to take control. No one chooses anxiety, no one wakes up and says, I want to be an anxious person. It's not how that works. Some are definitely more predisposed to it than others. Some have made a lot of decisions that have produced this, but nobody wants this. So some S some symptoms possibly include you freak out. When people come near your home, anxiety, attacks, obsessive thoughts, but we need to hear this. You speak of the virus around your kids in ways that creates fear of going back to normalcy. It controls your schedule, your values, and has positioned you at all costs to protect yourself. Even at the expense of worshiping God and serving others, the virus is now the main character in your home and not Jesus. And let me be clear. You may not. I've never met for the, let me rewind. There's always somebody more anxious than you,
Speaker 2 00:33:53 Which
Speaker 1 00:33:53 Doesn't mean that we need to embrace it and live in it without challenging it. We have to figure out Lord, how do I biblically experience these realities? And at the same time,
Speaker 2 00:34:06 Serve and worship you in a way that brings you glory.
Speaker 1 00:34:11 My scripture for you is first Peter chapter five, verses seven and eight first, Peter chapter five, verse seven says cast all your anxieties on him. Why? Because he cares her. He wants them like Jesus wants your anxieties. He wants to bear them with you. He wants to help you. He wants to come alongside of you. But verse eight is a really interesting verse that speaks to it's a warning to the anxious. Here's what, here's what Peter says. These sober-minded be watchful. Your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Watch the progression in the verse. First anxiety steals your clear thinking. When you're in the middle of anxiety, you're not clear headed level headed reasonable sober-minded. So he's acknowledging that when you're in the middle of anxiety, clear thinking begins to go away. Second, the devil sees this and the devil begins to isolate you, which before you pounce in devour, you isolate you corner. You exhaust, right? So then he begins to isolate you in third, when you're defenseless and isolated, he goes in for the attack.
Speaker 1 00:35:30 And some of you are feeling this, like this is so weighty and heavy. And, and, and I do not have a simple formula, but what I ask is that you take time and you pray, you go before the Lord and say, God, this is real. It is in my life. I don't know what to do with it. It takes up my mind and my thoughts and my every day I need help. Would you give me not just courage to do something different or to take a next step in the right direction, but would you give me wisdom to take a next step? And as you think about your re-engagement plan over the next three, five, six, seven months, may you begin now to address some of these things that are going to stand between you and obeying what Jesus wants you to do? I can't promise your anxiety will ever go away, but I can promise that the Lord wants to help you.
Speaker 3 00:36:21 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:36:22 Group number four called us the could be don'ts. It's kind of fun to say the good, but don'ts the could comma, but don'ts those who could worship and serve weekly. But, but don't,
Speaker 1 00:36:38 Um, I've spoken with a number of people in this category. And, uh, in this category COVID has been the greatest excuse to not do anything. Hey, would you serve? No, can't Y COVID like, literally, this is a thing. And it has become the reason why many people just are happy and I've, I've processed with many, many people. What I've been noticing actually is is that multiple people at village church have kind of own this. They're struggling through it as they're processing it, which I love like when you're struggling with something and you process it, that is incredibly admirable. And there are some things that I've heard people say, and they've given me permission to say this, and I can tell you who they are. But, um, here are just some things that people have said. I just really like staying in my pajamas. Amen. I'm going to preach my pajamas one day. It's going to be great. Now I won't. Um, it's just easier. I totally agree. We're used to it. Yup.
Speaker 1 00:37:44 At the same time, the body of Christ needs the whole body of Christ. And I understand that this is a struggle and it's challenging. And I'm not asking you to show up at five 45 in the morning. What I'm asking you to do is to begin praying about and thinking about what is a re-engagement plan for you. Look like the scripture I have for you is actually the scripture we started with, which is Hebrews 12, 24 to 25, a simple mandate, um, consider start putting your brain to work, get really innovative and creative. Consider how you can stir up one another to love and good works. Not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near,
Speaker 3 00:38:32 Okay,
Speaker 1 00:38:36 It's time to begin to put your re-engagement plan together. Um, if you're in this category, you're not the vulnerable, you're not the anxious. Um, COVID gave you a season of rest. In fact, I'll give you a common denominator that I've found with this group pre COVID. They were wiped out,
Speaker 2 00:38:52 Exhausted, just totally drained. And,
Speaker 1 00:38:56 And honestly, it was a break they needed. The world, gave them a reset button, and now it's getting really hard to kind of re-engage
Speaker 2 00:39:05 All right. Number five, the house divided.
Speaker 1 00:39:11 Those who are living in close community with one of the four other categories, you may even be one of the four of their categories, but if you are living in a home or a close knit community or family circle with somebody who has a different one of these categories, let me tell you major conflict can happen. In fact, everybody can just feel frozen because if one person moves it jeopardizes, the entire thing COVID has done is it's pushed, honestly, almost every person in America to face, head on what you really value. And when there are conflicting values or experiences inside of a home, it just freezes people. So here's my scripture for you. It's very simple. I'm not even going to begin to give you a next step because every circumstance is unique and complex. Here's my encouragement for you, James. One five. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives.
Speaker 1 00:40:09 I love this generously to all to anybody without reproach. It doesn't matter how terrible you've been this week. It doesn't matter what dumb thing you did. God's like, listen, I got a trillion dollars of wisdom. Anybody who wants it, you come get given it. Given addition, addition at you need wisdom. I got it for you. He is ready to dispense wisdom and you need an incredible amount of wisdom. I need to figure out how to keep corporate worship a Fang that is real in my life. I need to figure out how to love and serve people. But I also got to figure out with those in my home and my familial. Micro-communities like, how do I honor them and not jeopardize these things? God, it's too complex. I just need your wisdom. That wisdom is not waiting to hear me. It is not just simply a good, next step.
Speaker 1 00:40:54 Wisdom is both the right decision and the right way with the right heart. Like, God, I don't just need the right next thing. I need a whole bunch of things right now so that I can move into the future and do this in a way that brings you glory. All right. The third section. So what you ready? This is the longest section. I'm kidding. It's a shorter section. I'll you go as you re-engage let me help you prepare for what you might experience. I want to talk to those people who have not yet come back to church were just starting to kind of come back to church. So this is kind of a village church, family time for us to talk about what you're going to experience. Future ministry will look different than the past. Let
Speaker 2 00:41:34 Me just share with you how different we're hiring seven new staff this year, five of whom are full-time,
Speaker 1 00:41:44 Which means you might come back to
Speaker 2 00:41:46 Church and not know the majority of our staff or the people upfront. You may have never even seen them before. And for a
Speaker 1 00:41:56 Not mega church. That is a really significant shift in how we understand our community. There are going to be new people. In fact, over the last month, people have been coming back. They haven't been to church in a year plus, and as they come back, here's what I hear almost every time. I didn't know, like half the people
Speaker 2 00:42:13 There, some
Speaker 1 00:42:16 Of you you've been attending for a year and you've never been in the building, which is fine. But when you come in, there's people who have been here for 20 years. They're like, who's that person? Oh, they've been here for an entire year. Uh, wait a minute. They're leading.
Speaker 2 00:42:28 And it's going
Speaker 1 00:42:28 To feel like you don't know this place, but here's our, here's our elders commitment to you. Our commitment is that we are not going to compromise our values or lose our heart. But as God brings people into this community, we are going to make space for people to worship God and to serve
Speaker 2 00:42:43 One another. There's going to be new ministries.
Speaker 1 00:42:47 Pastor Mike Boyle started the perennials ministry. Different ministries are gonna look different village church digital, which is going to be a really significant shift in how we do training and give you content on the go is going to launch next month. I mean, there's going to be a hyper emphasis on personal discipleship, really launching summer into the fall. I mean, you're going to see a lot of shifts in how we do things. And some of the emphasis that we have as a church, if you have not been in the church, like you may not know this, but like we have been redoing whole sections of the church piece by piece. Our entire kids winging in the next six weeks is going to be finished being renovated, maybe eight weeks, maybe four. We'll see, but it's getting there and you're going to go through this building and you're going to look and you're gonna see a new website, new facilities, a new rooms and new furniture and new leaders and new staffing and new people. And it's going to feel
Speaker 2 00:43:34 Like it's not your home anymore, but I promise you this village church far transcends the building, the couches, the person who is standing here, the person doing announcements, it's bigger than that. And it's smaller than that.
Speaker 1 00:43:54 And so this is going to be a shift. And so I want to prepare you, as you think about your re-engagement plan, it's going to feel different. And that is okay.
Speaker 2 00:44:02 They're going to be new community groups, new community group leaders. And you may have never even heard of them before. You may jump into a community group and have never,
Speaker 1 00:44:10 Ever laid eyes on a single person that is in your group, but what binds you together as the blood of Jesus Christ?
Speaker 2 00:44:19 Let me
Speaker 1 00:44:20 Really practical. As it pertains to some more realities here at village church,
Speaker 2 00:44:24 Here's number two, we are stuck without an influx of volunteers. It's going to be really, this is like one of
Speaker 1 00:44:32 Those things like it's just going to tell you how it is and we're going to, we're going to process this together. So there are three, I think big decisions that our elders sooner or later would love to make. I think you would love for us to give clarity on the direction. Here are the questions we inevitably we'd love to have an unmatched service. We would inevitably love to move to two on mass services. And we would inevitably love to take registration off of our website as a requirement. I mean, that's the help inevitably. We're going to get back to some new reality and we won't have to do this anymore. Let me just take these one at a time. Um,
Speaker 1 00:45:12 We right now do not see a foreseeable pathway to an unmatched service for one major reason. We cannot staff village kids. So let me, let me tell you about what happened. If we did a 9:00 AM mass in a 11:00 AM on mast, the 9:00 AM, which already is under attended. It's going to get even more so because there are a handful of we'll call them anti maskers who attend this service would love to go to an unmasked 11 o'clock and you will, the 11 o'clock, which is already full, is going to have probably 300 people in that service. And then village kids is going to be swamped. Let me just give you like a picture two weeks ago. Now, no condemnation for this, by the way, like at all, just it's real. Uh, 27 kids showed up to village kids on registered. Well, we're already understaffed for S for only doing village kids in one service, right? And it's not even a full village kids program. So we're already understaffed 27 kids show up. Right? Imagine if we did an unmatched 11:00 AM without more volunteers, like significantly more volunteers, how many people would show up. And honestly you can't handle all of that in one, in one room or one area.
Speaker 2 00:46:28 And so we need, I mean,
Speaker 1 00:46:31 Uh, we're putting together the numbers, but probably 60 people to volunteer, to serve two months on one month off in village kids for the next year. Amen. We got an amen over there happens to be the interim children's ministry director.
Speaker 1 00:46:53 So you go back into the nineties, attend one, serve one. That's what you do. You always serve, you just serve. That's what you do. But it's interesting that the culture has changed and COVID has given us permission to live in the consumer side of things. So let me just tell you, here's what we do. When we look to serve people, I consider all whatever, consider how you might do this. Be innovative, or when the need is staring you right in front of your face. It's like, we need like 60 kids workers who are going to have awesome attitudes who are not going to cancel at eight in the morning because they're tired. We're going to show up and they're going to love, and they're going to serve these kids and they're going to commit. That's real. So people like, here's what I say. You want, you want to have an unmatched service. We got to actually, we actually have to have enough village kids, volunteers to staff, two full services. Plus all of the people who have started attending village church, since we've been in coven, plus all of the people who are going to be re-engaging slowly throughout the rest of this.
Speaker 3 00:47:52 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:47:55 We want to take off attendance limits. Eventually. Again, that's gotta be the right time, the right place. And, and our elders are committed to making a very wise, thoughtful, intentional decision. We communicate all of this to you in advance, of course, but inevitably, we want to get there, but we just need more volunteers. So our children can not be an afterthought. They just can't be. We're getting what we need. Our children are not. So two things stand between village church and these changes. Number one, committed and weekly volunteers. Number two, the elders being confident that the timing is wise, but both of these need to converse together so we can make a good decision. Now, the last step I'm going to change directions here. Be gracious with others as God has been with you. This year has been hard on everybody. And somehow I got to believe the election did make it easier.
Speaker 1 00:48:59 Many of us, as we look back, we've had dumb ideas and done dumb things and where his Jesus been next to us. So gracious. So patient we've sinned, we've overreacted. We've under reacted. We've been unloving. We've overcompensated. We've under compensated. We've judged other people for not serving. We, I mean, you name it, we've done it all. And Jesus has been so profoundly gracious. So rather than you call your friend and say, listen to this sermon, you can learn a thing or two just self-evaluate go before the Lord and say, God, I want to obey you, bring you glory. I want to worship you. I want to serve your people. I want to do it wisely. Would you give me wisdom? And would you give me grace with other people as they're trying to figure all of this out too and Manville church, amen. Why I'm going to pray for us now, and then we're going to celebrate communion together. But I hope, I hope my, my tone and everything has been loving to you. And I hope you see that our heart is to help you bring God glory and to love him in these crazy times. So let's pray together, father,
Speaker 1 00:50:02 We just confess. It's all, it's all nuts and crazy around us and the Lord. Would you just, would you, would you allow us to break through all of the chaos and be clearheaded? Sober-minded reasonable, intentional. We confess to you that there are a lot of roadblocks that are standing between us and making good decisions. We, your conviction, we need your help. We need your courage. We need your wisdom. We need your clarity. We just need you. And thank you for the blood of Christ. That when we didn't know what to do or did the wrong thing, we sinned. When we weren't loving. When we neglected you and neglected other people, you were standing there gracious covering us by the blood of your son. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for restarts. New starts third chances, hundreds chances because you give them and you were so unbelievably generous to us.
Speaker 1 00:51:07 We turn our hearts to communion and we remember what you've done. Would you just well up inside of us, gratitude to you and grace towards others. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. So we are bound together, not by Paul politics, not by our mask convictions, honestly, not even by village church. Although I love village church. We're bound together by Jesus and the blood of Christ and communion is a time for two things, repentance and remembrance. So maybe the Holy spirit is brought something into your heart where you need to repent. This is a wonderful time of a ton of silence and a moment where you can talk to the Lord and make things right. It's also a time to remember that whatever it is, you have done it, whatever your failure, the blood of Christ stands and declares that you are forgiven. And the spirit of Christ who dwells in you is your champion, your helper, and your supporter to help you take your next step.
Speaker 1 00:52:01 So we're gonna have a time of silence. And, and for those of you who are new to village church, if it's your first time welcome, uh, if you've trusted in Jesus, if you have believed in him for your salvation, uh, I want to invite you. Would you partake of communion with us? If you believe salvation is not by accruing a bunch of good works, but Jesus was good for you. It doesn't matter where you go to church for one in Jesus Christ, let's repent. And remember together, some of you have kids in the room. If your kids have trusted in Jesus and mom and dad, you're okay with it. They are welcome to partake of communion with us. And maybe you're here and you have not yet trusted in Christ. We're so glad you're here. Truly. We just ask that you not partake. These to partake is to make that declaration under your seat. You'll find some elements and there is a wafer on top and a juice in the middle. So if you'd open that, we're going to have a time of silence at the end, I'm going to read some scripture and then we're going to partake together as a symbol of our unity in Jesus said some time of silence with the Lord.
