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Well hey good morning my name is Greg Hampton I'm one of the pastors here if

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we've ever met I would love to meet you and maybe have a coffee with you or meet

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with you outside of the walls of of this church building. We are just about halfway

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through our series called The Church Called Tov. It's based on a book

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called by the same name and the subtitle is forming a goodness culture that

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resists abuses of power and promotes healing and I wanted to make sure that

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we're communicating clearly about this that we aren't doing this because we

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think that we are all of these things that we've achieved all of these things.

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The point isn't that hey we're going through this book that that is a is

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page by page describing everything about us. No the point is is that some of

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these things we are in some ways our church is very told is very good in

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other ways we need to keep on growing and we need to know what we think maybe

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God is asking the church to be like so that we know what we're inviting people

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to because it matters if they know that they're coming to a place that's safe

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for them that is a place that's going to embrace them and make them a part of the

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family and this is true of every church every church needs to grow in this way

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and so today the element of Tov of goodness that we're going to talk about

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is people first the people first culture that resists what's called

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institutional creep speaking of people first how about them fast food joints

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right oh yeah they're like the epitome of people first right they are the

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pit the pinnacle I'm gonna give you a list of places and then I'm gonna give

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you the year that they that they were founded and just so that you can kind of

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see like how long these places have been around and then I'm gonna ask the

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question so Arby's has been around since 1964 I don't know why everyone trashes on

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Arby's I like Arby's people like give it such a hard time they I like their food

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Burger King 1953 Domino's 1960 Dunkin Donuts 1950 KFC 1930 McDonald's 1940

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Pizza Hut 1958 Popeyes 1972 Sonic 1953 subway 1965 Taco Bell 1954 Wendy's 1969

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in White Castle the oldest of them all 1921 102 years old they they all every

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single one of them started small every single one of them started with one

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store and within most of them except for White Castle most of them actually

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started to expand to other stores within a year within five years they were they

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had many many store stores so now which one of those restaurants do you think

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has the highest customer satisfaction in the country any guesses Wendy's okay and

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which one of those that I listed do you think has the best employee experience

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in the country trick question none of them none of those places even cracks the

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top 15 McDonald's KFC Wendy's Dunkin Donuts Subway and Burger King are all

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listed as the worst food chains to work for in America why do we think that the

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people that founded those companies hoped that one day they would be so big

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that people would consistently have a bad experience working there or going

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there did they hope that the culture that had been created in those

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environments might leave a bad taste in the mouth of their customers or that

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those customers would start being treated like numbers if you go to the

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McDonald's that's up on 30th and 18th in Rock Island their sign is so old it

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says billions and billions served but it actually says aliens and aliens because

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the B is like been busted out and it's just like decayed so much but that

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speaks to how people in a way were treated like numbers look at how many

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people that we have served we have kept track and counted them institutional

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creep can be illustrated with one question how many of us feel that if we

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had a negative experience at any of those restaurants that our input would

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have a chance to affect change in that organization institutional creep is the

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reason that almost none of us would think that us saying something would

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change anything institutional creep inches us away from relationship with

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those that we serve and with those that we follow turns people into customers and

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customers into numbers it turns leaders into managers and pastors into presidents

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and CEOs you can find this problem in just about every part of the Bible an

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institutional mindset that creeps in so that God confronts kings about it and he

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has prophets confront priests about it Jesus confronts religious leaders about

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it we even see it happen with Jesus and his own disciples that he speaks to them

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about it because with power and position and influence with numerical or

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financial growth institutional creep will want to sneak in so let's open our

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Bibles and see what we might have to learn today I'm gonna be in two

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different sections I'm gonna be in Matthew 14 in Acts 6 if you don't have a

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Bible we have Bibles on the shelf out there they're blue on your way home

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today you're welcome to take one home with you and or if you'd like a digital

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one you can download a lot of Bibles are just free on digital app stores Matthew

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is the very first book what's called the New Testament or the Second Testament

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and then it goes Matthew Mark Luke John acts see any of those you know you're in

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the right neighborhood and you're welcome to turn to one or both of those

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and then we have a tradition that when we read the scriptures as part of the

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message we want to give it our full attention one of the ways that we can do

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that is by standing together as we are able if you prefer to sit you're welcome

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to do that but if you will join me in giving the scriptures your full

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attention now let's go ahead and read Matthew 14 starting in verse 14 when

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Jesus landed and saw a large crowd he had compassion on them and healed their

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sick as evening approached the disciples came to him and said this is a remote

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place and it's already getting late send the crowds away so they can go to the

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villages and buy themselves some food Jesus replied they do not need to go away

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you give them something to eat act six starting verse one in those days when

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the number of disciples was increasing the Hellenistic Jews among them

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complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being

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overlooked in the daily distribution of food so the 12 gathered all the

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disciples together and said it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry

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of the Word of God in order to wait on tables brothers and sisters choose seven

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men from among you who are known to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom we

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will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention and

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prayer to the ministry of the Word let us pray

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God we thank you for the scriptures pray that we still have them I pray that

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whatever you have for us to learn today I pray that it would stick that would

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become a part of the framework of our faith that our faith becomes stronger

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that we would become more like your son Jesus amen thanks y'all you can have a

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seat all right so first thing I'm gonna say here is that Jesus wasn't gonna let

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the size of his following or the popularity of his ministry let

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institutional thinking creep into the way that he led or the way that his

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disciples were expected to care about people I say this because Jesus those

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those people ended up where they were because of Jesus they ended up where

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they were because of the disciples they ended up where they were because they

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wanted to be a part of what he was doing and when they were hungry Jesus took

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responsibility for where he had led them fast food restaurants have expanded

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globally it's not the customers fault that the company chose to expand they

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are responsible for the experience their customers and employees have most

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churches that grow significantly hoped that it would happen even did things on

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purpose to try to get it to happen so when a church grows it is still our

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responsibility to care for the people at 150 at 200 or more like we did when it

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was 50 or 75 or 100 it is still our responsibility to care I think that's

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the example that we see set by Jesus he doesn't just feed his disciples he just

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doesn't say hey you guys are the ones that are closest to me oh you're my 12

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you're my 72 I'll multiply enough bread and fish for you guys no he takes

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responsibility for every man woman and child that had followed that had shown

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up and he tells the leaders his disciples don't dismiss them you do

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something do something you do something let's we can do something now act six is

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regularly used as an example of what pastors are supposed to do hang with me

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here okay because I'm about to say something that some of you probably

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maybe you disagree with maybe you've never heard a pastor say before but it's

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in the Bible it led to growth and so we assume that it was the best choice that

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the disciples could make but all you have to do is turn back in your Bible a

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few pages and you see places where Jesus was encouraging them to do something

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that looked different from that turn back you'll find the time where they

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didn't want the little children to come to Jesus turn back you'll find the time

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where they didn't want responsibility for feeding the crowds turn back a

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little bit you'll find the time where they saw someone casting out demons in

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Jesus's name but they wanted to tell him to stop because he wasn't part of their

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group turn back you'll find the time where they wanted to call down fire on a

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town because they hadn't accepted their message immediately you turn back you

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will find times where Jesus constantly drew them back to the heart of the

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father to the humanity of who people were and reminded them that's not their

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fault we're the ones leading let us care for them the same way we would care for

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each other so I'm honestly not sure first of all not everything that is in

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the Bible is prescriptive says it in my notes when we read the Bible not

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everything in it is a prescription that's telling us what to do a lot of it

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is describing what happened when we read certain Psalms and it says oh that I

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could bash the heads of my enemies against that and the other it is not a

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prescription of what we're meant to do it is describing the feelings of what

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they wanted to happen there's so many things in the Bible that we read and we

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go oh that's prescribing that's how I should do it that's not always true and

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I think that in this encounter in Acts 6 it is something that is describing what

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happened it doesn't mean that it's the way that we're always required to do

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that because it pulled those disciples away from caring for people with their

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own hands groups movements institutions as their power and influence grow they

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have a way of changing how they treat people but Knight and Beringer remind

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us in order to have a people first culture it sounds simple we have to

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treat people as people it's not as simple as it sounds because as an

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organization grows treating people as people becomes more difficult because it

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means we have to know their names and their stories today we gave you name

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tags for reason because your names matter

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you do not have to go to a church of thousands to feel like no one knows your

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name you can feel unknown and lonely in a room of 50 60 70 people just as easily

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as a church of 700 Scott McConnell is our first impressions director and we

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have agreed we think it's we're kind of into the idea we have agreed that we're

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gonna have a name tag Sunday once a month why once a month why once a month

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because I know some of you probably already hate the idea some of you love

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it some of you hate it maybe you're an introvert maybe you're private maybe

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you're new and you don't want anyone know your name yet and you just happen

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to show up on a day where we said hey here's a name tag maybe you put

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together the perfect outfit this morning and you this name tag just does not fit

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the motif it does not fit the look you matched everything and then we gave you

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a green name tag I get it but anonymity is an institutional element and the

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family knows each other's names and so once a month and you ready for this part

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one random Sunday a month of Scott's choosing I won't even know until he

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tells me one Sunday a month we are going to hand out name tags at the door oh the

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second element of being people first is to enfold others into the community

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which means that we don't just learn names we learn each other's stories this

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one means a lot to me because of experiences that I've had I worked at a

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church in Georgia between 2007 and 2010 we were just about 45 minutes outside of

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downtown Atlanta Brennan was just little and Liam it was actually born in Georgia

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and because it was a church plant and because we didn't have our own building

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the leadership team didn't really see each other all that often and that was

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okay for them because they all already knew each other they were all from

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there they had all either been led to the Lord or discipled by the senior

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pastor that we were working with and for 18 months in I still felt like a

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stranger I didn't feel like any of them knew me so I told my pastor we had the

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idea that every staff meeting we would grill someone who'd everyone on the team

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would ask one person a question so if we had 12 people in the room there would be

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11 questions for that one person every time we had that all staff meeting this

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would happen a different person would get grilled we did it and it went great

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we got through everyone on the team I learned a ton about all of them and then

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we moved on but they never grilled me I was the one that brought it up but then

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I was never asked any questions

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Renee Brown says connection is the energy that exists between people when

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they feel seen heard and valued when they can give and receive without

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judgment when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship she's

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talking about feeling known guys there can be a pretty big difference between

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people thinking they know you and you feeling known I'll say it again there can

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be a big difference between people thinking they know you and you feeling

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known those are not always the same thing and our stories have something to

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do with that some of you probably literally been in a conversation with

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me we're mid conversation I'll say oh hey do you know so-and-so then maybe

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I'll even introduce you to them and then I'll tell you something about them and

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then I'll say oh I think you guys have this in common and then I'll hang around

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for like 30 seconds and be like hey I'm gonna let you guys keep talking because

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caring about names knowing stories helps us and fold each other into a connected

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community helps us develop a people first culture this is also how we resist

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turning people into numbers right so I'm I've been a pastor for depends on what

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you count I guess for 22 23 years in some way I've been a pastor and we've

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had this church for coming up on it'll be ten years in January and I've been

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asked many times by people so how many giving units does your church have how

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many giving units does your church have what they're asking is how many

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separate households in your church give money because for them it is some kind

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of measurement of the health of the congregation and my answer is always

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yeah I don't really know I'm not sure yeah I don't know I can tell you whether

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I think that are giving is healthy right now or not but I don't yeah I don't I

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don't know sometimes their reply this has happened more than once well can only

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improve what you're willing to measure now I care about our budget all right I

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care if people are giving I care that if God has asked you to give something that

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you follow God that's important but I didn't become a pastor so I could measure

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how much any of you give I did not become a pastor to improve the percentage

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of giving units in a congregation I became a pastor so that people would

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know how much they're loved you are not giving units we will never have a

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banquet for the top givers of our congregation I'm very sorry and who I

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spend time with will never be based on how much you gave to this congregation

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people are people not numbers when we humanize each other when we treat people

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as people when we know each other's names and stories what happens is we see

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the image of God in each other we are reminded again that we are family that

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we are siblings McKnight and Beringer says that if we treat someone less like

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less than family we're doing it wrong because the most common word in the New

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Testament for Christian believers by far is not church it is siblings or brothers

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and sisters I said it last week now that doesn't mean that a family always gets

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along doesn't mean that we all believe the same things it does not mean that

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we agree about everything that is not the point it does mean that we love each

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other actively because we believe in Jesus we can generically love anyone you

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heard we can generically love anyone oh I love the people of fill in the blank

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region we can love anyone generically regardless of who they are but to love

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who someone is to know their name their story and to love them specifically that

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is family years ago I was talking to a mother after a daughter had come out as

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lesbian and the mom was accepting but she was clumsy and how she would say it

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she'd say Greg I love my daughter I don't care if she's a lesbian and I told

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her but she wants you to care she wants your love for her to include caring

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about who she says she is that is an active love that is taking a love that

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we so often in Christianity make generic and we make it specific people don't

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want to be loved generically they want to be known and loved specifically none

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of this comes easy and that's why just like last week we got to the end and we

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said in the only way we can do this is by the Holy Spirit we need the help of

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the Holy Spirit to see each other the way Jesus sees us to feel for each other

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the way Jesus feels for us to embrace each other as family the way we are

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embraced by him now none of this is really sounding like it's specifically

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about the leadership of a church and how the leadership of a church

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specifically is at fault for institutional creep so let me let me

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keep going here a little bit part of the reason is because I want to be kind to

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pastors as well because pastors are people too pastors and leaders are meant

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to be in the community part of the community and as far away from a

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pedestal as possible in order to do that the people and pastors of a congregation

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they all need to treat the church like a family all of them instead of like a

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business all of them all of them all of us need to treat a church like family

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and not like a business so much of the last 40 years of church development in

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the United States of America has focused on teaching church leaders how to act

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more like business leaders and how to lead their churches like businesses

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Eugene Peterson he's every every favorite every pastor's favorite pastor

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but they don't they wouldn't have ever wanted to pastor his church and I'll

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tell you why Eugene Pat Eugene Peterson has a ton of books about what it means

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to be a pastor what it means to to lead a church to care about a community the

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theology of what it means to pastor and so so many pastors lean on his books as

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they're trying to do these great incredible things which often include

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trying to grow as big as they possibly can but in 30 years Eugene's church was

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never bigger than 300 people so many of us have been tempted into wanting

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Eugene's message with a different result Eugene said I was watching both the

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church and my vocation as a pastor in it being relentlessly diminished and

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corrupted by being redefined in terms of running an ecclesiastical business the

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ink on my ordination papers wasn't even dry before I was being told by experts

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so-called in the field of church that my main task was to run a church after the

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manner of my brother and sister Christians who run service stations or

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grocery stores or corporations or banks hospitals and financial services many of

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them wrote books and gave lectures on how to do this this is the Americanization

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of congregations it means turning each congregation into a market for religious

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consumers an ecclesiastical business run along the lines of advertising

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techniques organizational flow charts and energized by impressive motivational

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rhetoric Eugene was a pastor that pushed back against the industrialization of

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church he saw church leaders being lured and drawn into a leadership culture that

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was beginning to forget we are pastors

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listen

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for me I'll speak for myself the very sad reality is that that culture has

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become dominant over the last 40 years church leaders were convinced they had

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to treat their churches like businesses and after 40 years of being treated like

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customers so many people that have gone to churches have learned to be consumers

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to subconsciously or even not so subconsciously treat the church

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community that is meant to be a family like it is a business like it is a

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restaurant like it is something that can be consumed not something that is lived

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but a tove church has a culture where all the people the pastors and the

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people remember to treat each other as equals like people like brothers and

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sisters created in the image of God that are meant to be there for each other so

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here's my advice show up early stay late jump into a community table whenever you

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can go to the men's morning gathering for coffee go to the women's gathering

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once a month if you if you can manage be in a service together and learn each

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other's names as often as possible let the Holy Spirit literally show you how

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the scriptures tell us that because of Jesus we are already connected to each

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other it is us that so often turns something that is a family into

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something less than look around go ahead look around every person in this room

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has a name every person in this story in this room has a story and everyone in

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this room is loved by Jesus the exact same way you hope to feel loved by Jesus

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and maybe you get to be part of them feeling loved by Jesus amen let's pray

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Jesus I pray that you help us to love like you loved that we would not avoid

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putting our hands to the work that causes us to have to be with each other

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that in the moments where we say oh we should send them home so they can get

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something to eat that we would hear you say why don't you feed them and that

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instead of going well that's not possible that we would then expect for

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you to do something miraculous that enables it every church got in America

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in the whole world needs for you to do something miraculous so that we is so

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often people that began as strangers would somehow become feeling like we are

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family that seeing each other would not feel like I should do that to want to

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see them let your Holy Spirit help us know the balance of that but it's never

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move into an area of shaming people into any of this let your Holy Spirit help us

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to see with your eyes to embrace each other as you would embrace

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amen