Would you open your Bible with me, please, as
we come to our study for this morning? We are
turning to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. I make no
pretense that this series during the month of
January is an exposition of the Scripture. It
is not. But I think that what we're saying is
based upon Scripture and is the elaboration of
biblical principles about building the Church.
There was a man who dreamed of the house that
he wanted to build. With the design of that house
fixed in his mind, he bought the lumber and other
materials and began his work. His friend saw
his effort and asked if he might labor at his
side. Certainly he replied, and so they worked
together. And it was not long before yet another
friend, who had always wanted to build a home,
asked if he could join them. Of course, he replied.
For weeks the three of them labored together
side by side, each man constructing the house
that he envisioned. So if you can imagine a split
-level, ranch -style antebellum mansion. you
can see the dream home that became a nightmare
because the three men working together did not
share a common vision of what they were building.
You see, building a local church that is a living
building of believer priests can also result
in a nightmarish experience if there is no common
vision laid out as to what the church should
look like. My aim in these Sunday mornings is
to share with you my heart what I believe God
would have our church look like as we grow together
in the 90s. Now frankly, there is some risk in
doing what I'm doing, partly because of time
constraints, although there are those who argue
that I know no such constraints. But in a situation
like this, one cannot say everything that might
be said about every subject that comes up. And
so there are loopholes that are left, and there
are question marks that are maybe left in minds.
And that can be a little dangerous. As I was
driving home last week, I was thinking about
the message. And as I did so, I thought, you
know, you may have given the congregation the
impression that there's never a place for a designated
gift by what you said. And so I thought this
morning maybe I should just clarify with you
that that was not what I was saying, but rather
I was saying that in that basic gift of the first
fruits that we give, that monthly foundational
gift that we give, I believe that that ought
to be given to the total ministry that God calls
us together to do. We have practiced that in
our own family for years, but we also give designated
gifts above and beyond that as God lays it on
our hearts. For example, there are a couple of
causes that our church budget does not address
and we feel strongly about, and so we give some
above and beyond giving toward those. And from
time to time, there are special requests to come
up in our church, and we give designated gifts
in that direction. So I just wanted to balance
that out a little bit this morning, in case I
had left some of you with that question mark
in your mind about last week. But without articulating
some kind of a common vision, the danger is that
the church will accomplish nothing, or perhaps
even worse, will accomplish the wrong thing,
and thus will come under the judgment of Christ.
Is that not what happened in part at least to
the churches in Asia Minor? To whom the Lord
said, repent or I'm going to remove your lamp
stand. You will lose your ministry, you will
lose your witness. I think it's important that
we see together a common vision of the kind of
church that we're seeking to build here at Grace
Church, Roseville. Thus far, we've said that
we believe God wants this to be the kind of a
church where the Word of God is faithfully taught
with relevance to real life and where it is obeyed
by all of us. We've said that we want to see
this church be the kind of a church noted for
loving acceptance of needy and hurting people,
while at the same time pursuing holiness. We
want ours to be the kind of a church where members
allow for differences of opinion and conviction
on disputed issues, where the Scripture is not
clear. We want this to be the kind of a church
in the 90s that works to keep its basic ministry
simple and uncomplicated while at the same time
meeting the essential needs of its members. And
we said last week again that a church, we want
this to be the kind of a church where everyone
joyfully participates in the financial support
of the total ministry. Now with those five items
out of the way, I want today to move on quickly
to number six. I believe as we look into the
90s that God wants us to be the kind of a church
that seeks to provide options for involvement.
The day for having just one set of possible involvements
in a church is over. At least it's over in a
larger, more sophisticated urban area. The church
that will be effective in ministry in the next
quarter of century is the one providing options
for people. Now, there is but one foundation,
and that foundation is laid for us here in chapter
3 of 1 Corinthians, where the apostle says in
verse 11, no man can lay a foundation other than
the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
And he has said in verse 10 that he had laid
that foundation in proclaiming the gospel to
them. But now he says there are others who are
building on that foundation, and we are doing
the same thing today. In Grace Church, Roseville,
we are building on a foundation that's already
been laid. But what kind of a church are we going
to build? We want to build the kind of a church
that's going to minister effectively in the generation
God has called us to be a part of. And to do
that, I believe that we need to be the kind of
a church that provides options for involvement.
People today want the ability to choose. That
is an expectation in our culture. We are the
culture of cafeterias and buffets, of supermarkets
and full -service institutions. I heard someone
say recently that the church that makes it in
the next 10 years will be the full -service church.
Now what he had in mind is the point I'm trying
to make this morning. It's the church that offers
options to people. so that they can choose what
they want to be involved in. The day to say to
people, well, we have this on Sunday morning
and this on Sunday night and this on Wednesday
night. You can take it or leave it. That day
is over. Because most people will leave it rather
than take it. Rather, in our culture today, we
need to develop the kind of a church that offers
an array of selections to people, if you please.
All of them, hopefully, good. But saying here
is what our church is able to provide to you.
Now you choose. And by the way, how can you be
involved in our church? Here are those options
also for you to select from. It goes both ways.
Recently I was in one of the large department
stores in our area and I was amazed as I walked
back one quarter of that department store to
see on one side of the aisle a travel agency,
on the other side an investment firm. In front
of me was a dental office and to another side
was the optical service. All of that was just
on the other side of electronics and home furnishings.
You see, that's the direction of retail business
in the 90s. It's the one stop store where people
have the option of doing their everything that
they may want to do. Now the church that's going
to be on the cutting edge in the 90s is the one
that works toward diversity in its ministry.
One that gives interested people choices. Now
at the same time, the essential needs that everyone
has must be simplified. Those two things seem
to be contradictory, don't they? As we talk about
more options, and yet trying to make the ministry
simple. We talked last week about the essential
needs of every believer. I don't think there's
an exception among us. We all need these three
things. We need worship, We need relationship
and we need ministry. But the challenge that
we face in the simplicity of the needs is to
provide options in each area. So that in worship
we provide options for people. In relationships
we provide options. In ministry we provide options.
That's the point I'm making. In worship, we need
to provide options. Options perhaps of times.
We do that now. We have a service at 9 .30 and
a service at 11. Perhaps there are other times
that we need to be considering as we move into
the 90s. Maybe a Saturday night worship or a
Friday night worship or a mid -week worship ought
to be considered. Now as I throw these things
out, And please don't feel like that we're offering
this next week. I am just saying these are things
that can be considered. They may also be unconsidered
just as fast. But the point is that we need to
think through options. Options perhaps as to
place of worship. Is this worship center as temporary
as it's been intended to be? Is this the only
place we can worship? I know of one church that
offered its career men and women, at least some
of them, the opportunity to worship completely
away from the church campus in a cafeteria. They
rented the cafeteria, began worshiping there,
and hundreds of single men and women now meet
there for worship every Sunday morning. They
don't go to the church campus at all. They worship
there, together, in that cafeteria. In that neutral
setting, they found an interesting opportunity
to reach out to people who are turned off by
the institutional church. and who are rather
intrigued by the opportunity to worship in the
cafeteria. We need to offer options in style
of worship. Traditional worship is very effective
at meeting the needs of some people. Others need
a different style of worship, a more contemporary
kind of worship. There are some who find it very
comfortable to come to church and sit and to
listen and to stand up and sing and sit down
and maybe to laugh once in a while and to go
out and they feel good about that. But there
are others who say, well I'd like to say amen.
Someone said to me last Sunday, I said amen twice
this morning, but not loud enough so anybody
could hear me. You see, not enough of us know
CPR to take care of all the problems that would
arise if that would happen. We have some who
who are coming to grace who come out of backgrounds
where they have lifted their hands in worship
before and They say we're afraid to do that Lest
it may offend some people I said hey, don't worry
about it If you feel like lifting your hands
and worship then lift your hands and what would
all of you just lift your hands right now See
people who do that don't have weird muscles in
their arms. We we all have the same muscles and
can do that Now just like an amen, lifting hands
can be a show. It can be empty. But for some
people it's very meaningful to lift their hands.
But in this kind of a setting, they find that
difficult to do. As a matter of fact, tonight
in our evening service, we're going to begin
trying to create a more contemporary kind of
worship service. where that sort of thing may
not feel quite so abnormal. I hope that you will
come this evening. We're going to do this for
a couple of Sunday nights. We have a break that
we've planned in for something special and then
a couple of more Sunday nights in February. And
what we do on these Sunday nights may or may
not affect what we do on Sunday morning. But
I invite your participation and your comments.
about the new more contemporary style of worship
that we're going to experiment with beginning
this evening. My point is this, that if we're
going to be on the cutting edge of ministry in
the 90s, we need to be offering options in worship.
And we need to be offering options in relationships.
I suppose if there's any really strong point
in our ministry now, it may be this area, because
we have a lot of opportunities for people to
develop relationships. We're talking about relationships
in the sense of a place or a partnership where
there is genuineness, where there is transparency
and mutual caring. We probably need to work on
how do we simplify this area. So far we've been
saying to almost everyone, well you need to be
a part of a small church and you need to be a
part of a flock. Now maybe the time is going
to come, I say maybe the time is going to come
that we'll need to say to people, you should
choose either a small church or a flock in order
to simplify ministry in your life. and to try
to accomplish then in both of those realms the
best of both worlds. We need to provide options
in relationships. We have a practical problem
when it comes to small churches, and that problem
is space, especially during the prime hours of
ministry on Sunday morning. Next fall, our children's
ministry will continue to expand just by the
birth of more babies in our church. And as that
happens, more rooms are needed. Right now we
have some rooms where there are between 50 and
60 kids in Sunday school. That's too many. It's
impossible to teach a Sunday school class like
that. We have some rooms where there are two
grades meeting together, two classes meeting
together in the same room with just a visible
divider, but we can't continue doing that with
children or we lose them. And so more rooms are
needed for children's ministry. That means less
room is going to be available for the traditional
small church as we've established it. And so
options for relationships to some extent may
be forced upon us by the very fact of our circumstances.
We need to offer options in ministry. I'm thinking
of ministry inside the walls where there are
lots of options. In fact, a couple of years ago
we put together a booklet. that outlined some
200 possibilities for ministry, basically within
the structured program of the church, within
its walls. But then you move outside of the walls,
for most of us aren't geared to think, and the
options multiply far beyond that. We need to
encourage more options of ministry outside the
structured ministry of our church. We need to
take our ministry beyond that which is already
established and which we do on Sunday or on Wednesday.
For example, we need to encourage ministry to
special need groups or target groups. Did you
know that 27 million people in the United States
cannot read? Some of those people live right
here in this city. Wouldn't it be interesting
for a Christian or a group of believers or maybe
a flock group to say, you know, we'd like to
create a ministry to help illiterate people.
Or perhaps there are others who would be interested
in providing health care for those who are poor.
I know of one church that has established a clinic
staffed by its own doctors and several hours
a week they open that clinic to the poor community
in which it exists and they offer free medical
care and dental care to the residents of that
community who cannot afford health care. What
about legal assistance? Again there are churches
that have lawyers that have banded together and
they've opened a place in the inner city to provide
free legal advice to those who are oppressed
and cannot afford the kind of excellent legal
advice that most of us can get readily. Single
parent families abound. Are there some who might
see it as a ministry to create a big brother
or big sister network for kids who have no father?
In some cases, no mother. And you see, doing
all of these things that I've just mentioned
with a view to preaching Christ to these people.
Make no mistake about it. We're not just doing
this to meet social needs. The point is that
we do these things that we may call cultural
key kinds of things. Ministries that open the
door. To the culture out there in the mainstream
as it is so that we can enter into that culture
and Then after we've done that present Jesus
Christ to them Options in ministry abound the
only thing that is hindering us is our own lack
of imagination and creativity It doesn't mean
that we have to recreate the wheel in every case
There are some ministries that are already established
that might be suitable for some people's visions.
For example, someone may say, well, I have a
vision to work with young teenagers who are with
child and unmarried. Well, there's already a
wonderful ministry in the Twin Cities called
New Life Family Services that you can plug into
and minister with them. Or someone else says,
I'm burdened about chemical abuse. And I would
really like to learn how to counsel people who
are involved in that terrible tragedy. Well,
just in a few days, we are going to be associating
with Midwest Challens. They're going to be moving
into Delwood North. And they'll be available
to train people in our church and will be involved
in doing that. How to help people involved in
chemical abuse. And we need to understand that
it's not the church's job to create all of these
ministries. Please, no one come to me and say,
well, you know, I'm really burdened for working
with people just getting out of prison. When
is the church going to start something? Because
if you come and say that to me, I'm going to
say just as soon as you're ready to start. You
see, it's not the church's responsibility to
start all of these things. It's our responsibility.
as individuals or as groups as God would lead
us together to envision what God might have us
do for the kingdom's sake in our region. The
church can certainly give its blessing. The church
can help recruit other people if that's needed.
The church can help perhaps get it organized.
The church can't support it financially. But
God can. What would God engender in your heart?
Maybe it's within the walls. Maybe you're doing
right now exactly what God has gifted and called
you to do and working with a wanna or children's
ministry or ushering or whatever it may be. But
maybe it's something more or something else that
God is just starting now to give you a vision
for. I want you to feel free to develop that
vision. I want you to use your God -given imagination
to be creative and innovative, and just see what
He might have you do. I would encourage you,
if you are interested in doing something like
this, that we're talking about in terms of ministry,
to read a book by Frank Tillapaugh entitled Unleashing
Your Potential. An exciting book that will help
structure some of your thinking. It'll answer
some questions you may have. It'll set you on
the right tracks as you get started, even in
the early stages of just dreaming. That's called
Unleashing Your Potential by Frank Tillapaugh.
My point in this part of the message this morning
is to say that we need to develop the kind of
ministry here that provides options for involvement.
In worship, in relationship, in ministry, And
those options are not just provided for us, they
must in some cases be created by ourselves. But
we as a church can encourage the mindset of creativity
and innovation. We can learn to see ourselves,
not as a narrowly focused church that has one
program, take it or leave it. But we can learn
to see ourselves rather as will you pardon the
term, a supermarket church that allows for options
and choices in involvement. If you go to the
supermarket and you want green beans, you're
going to have choices to make. Do you want the
regular cut green beans or do you want French
style? Do you want green beans or do you want
green beans with red pepper pieces in them? If
you want tuna fish, you've got to decide if you
want white tuna or light tuna. If you want it
in water, you want it in oil. If you want cereal,
you're going to have to decide if you want sugar
in it or you want it without sugar. Or you want
oats or you want bran or do you want wheat or
do you want corn? You see, we're into choices.
Our whole culture is into choices. And we as
a church, if we want to be effective the next
10 years, 20 years, must apply that to ministry.
I believe that God in the next ten years wants
us to be the kind of church, number seven, which
performs its functions and continually creates
new forms for them. Now I'm hesitant to talk
about this because you're going to have to listen
closely to what I'm saying. This is not easy
to understand if it's your first pass at this
kind of language. But I want you to notice the
two key words in that statement. A church which
performs its functions and continually creates
new forms for them. Functions and forms. Now
we live with those all the time, but we don't
often think about them in terms of ministry.
Function is what we do as a church. It's what
we must do if we're going to be a church. Function
is what the New Testament says that we must do
as a body of people if we are an ecclesia, a
church, a called out people. Now we as a body
of leaders, as elders and staff have talked about
this. And we see that there are at least five
functions that a body of people have to be doing
if they want to call themselves a church. Else
it's a Bible study, else it's a parachurch ministry,
else it's an evangelistic ministry or something,
but it's not a church. A church must be in the
first place involved in worshipping together.
It must come together corporately as a body of
people to worship, and that includes the observance
of the ordinances, baptism, and the Lord's Supper.
It involves praying together, worshipping together.
That's one function. A second one is to proclaim
the gospel. A church must do that if it's a church.
It must proclaim the gospel to its community
and to the whole world. There are times that
that proclamation will be very confrontational,
maybe event oriented. There are times when it
involves the building of relationships with people
to earn the right to present the gospel in a
trusting setting. I'm including under this also
being salt and light in our community, in our
culture, confronting injustice, confronting oppression.
I'm including a lot under this heading, but the
point is that if we're going to be a church,
then we must proclaim the gospel. Number three,
we must encourage relationships that provide
for life sharing and personal growth. A body
of people, if it doesn't do that, is not going
to function as a New Testament church. Because
relationship is a part of it, it's a vital part
of it. Number four, the function of a church
is to teach and obey the Word of God. And number
five, if it's a church, it must organize itself.
The New Testament talks about two offices, elder
and deacon. But the body of people must organize
itself sufficiently so the direction, discipline,
and function are achieved. Now as we've looked
at Acts and as we've looked at the Epistles of
the New Testament, we believe that to boil it
all down, those are the five functions of a church.
Wherever it is, whatever the culture may be,
whatever the time setting of the church, the
300s, the 1500s, the 1900s, or the next century,
those five functions are the essentials of a
church. But the second key word is forms. The
function is what we are to do. But form has to
do with how we do our functions. The form has
to do with how we do our worshiping, our proclamation
of the gospel. our relationships, our teaching
of the Word, our organization. And frankly, as
you look at the New Testament, you find very
little to guide you in terms of forms. Why is
that? Because forms need to change with the times,
with the place, and with the culture. The functions
do not change, but how those things are done
had better change or the church will become irrelevant.
I would encourage you, if you like to read, and
many of you do, to get a hold of the book by
Gene Getz entitled Sharpening the Focus of the
Church. It will challenge you along the line
I'm talking about this morning. Gene Getz talks
about three lenses in that book. They are the
lenses of Bible and history and culture. And
he says that as we sharpen the focus of the church
and what it should be doing and how it should
be doing them, we need to get all three of those
lenses into proper focus. We need to look at
what we're doing through the lens of the Bible
to make sure what we're doing is right. And to
whatever degree the Bible describes how to do
it, that we're doing it the way the Bible says
to do it. We need to look at our ministry through
the lens of history and learn from the past the
right and the wrong, the good and the bad way
of doing ministry. We need to get out the lens
of culture and see if what we're doing can be
focused better in light of the culture in which
we're in. It's an interesting book. I've also
read a chapter out of a book entitled Community
of the King by Howard Snyder in which he says
some helpful things along the line of what we're
talking about. I hope that you'll listen as I
read this. It's not easy to listen to somebody
read. It's not going to be long, so hang in there,
I quote. A church which intends to grow and serve
the kingdom of God must be structured in harmony
with the biblical understanding of the church.
This is not to say that a church structured otherwise
will not grow, for churches with the most diverse
structures have obviously grown and survived.
But a church not structured in harmony with biblical
principles will never achieve the quality of
growth and the authenticity of discipleship which
God intends. And so he begins to lay out now
in his chapter some of those principles that
he's talking about. He's going to use the term
church structure, but interpret that as we're
using it today, ministry form. He says first,
church structure or ministry form must be biblically
valid. Although this principle should be obvious
and fundamental, it's frequently violated. Structures
are formed or spawned which are basically contrary
to the Bible. They become unbiblical traditions
and rigid institutions. We need to ask some hard
and to some people shocking questions. Is the
traditional Sunday school structure biblically
defensible? By the way, I don't know that he's
saying it's not, but he's asking the question.
It's a good question to ask. Do believers really
worship or encounter God in our church services?
Is the Word of God really taught and heard? Do
believers really speak the truth and love to
one another or just say nice meaningless things?
Do our structures take seriously the gifts of
the Spirit and the priesthood of believers? Secondly,
he says, church structure or ministry forms must
be culturally viable, must be compatible with
the cultural forms of the society in which the
church finds itself. And third, he says, church
structure or ministry forms must be temporally
flexible. They must be open to modification as
changing circumstances warrant. Now, without
the benefit of those specific words, nonetheless
our elders have been working through this matter
of forms. And some of us have asked the question,
yes, we are to teach the Word of God, and we
are to teach it, for example, to children. But
are we doing it the best way? We need to ask
ourselves, do we have Sunday school on Sunday
morning and a one on Wednesday night with the
best results? You say, which one are you threatening?
Neither one. I'm simply asking the question.
We need to ask ourselves questions like that.
How are we going to teach our children? And are
we doing it in the best form possible for the
90s? We are to provide relationships. Is small
church the best way to do it? What does a small
church look like anyway? Well, we have a certain
model for small church. Are there any other models
for a small church? As a matter of fact, one
of our small churches is thinking and praying
and talking through another model right now.
It involves at least at this point in their thinking
not meeting at all on Sunday morning as a small
church. A meeting on Sunday night and three Sunday
nights of the month meeting in small groups in
homes and the fourth Sunday night coming together
as a larger group. What's wrong with that? Nothing.
If it works. And if it doesn't, it needs to be
adjusted. Do you understand the point I'm making?
As we get into the 90s, we have to look at our
functions. Those things that God has surely said,
if we're going to be a church, we must do. And
we must look at those functions to see how best
to do them. And to create new forms for carrying
out these functions. As the elders have talked
about forms, we have come up with several guidelines
that we think are important to help us form new
things. In the first place, we think the forms
of ministry that might be developed here at Grace
Church should be culturally sensitive. In other
words, they should grow out of the culture so
long as the forms are not morally tainted by
the culture. should be consistent with our culture.
Secondly, we believe that our ministry forms
should be considerate of the weaker brother.
In other words, we need to be careful and aware
that some believers have different convictions
on certain lifestyle issues where the scripture
is indefinite. We talked about that last week.
And so as we create ministry forms, we want to
be considerate of that truth so that a form of
ministry we come up with won't cause other believers
to stumble who are weaker in the faith. We think
another guideline is that ministry forms should
be flexible and temporal and not allowed to become
permanent and fixed, for that limits future possibilities.
Number four, ministry forms must be prayerfully
organized and set in motion, bathed in prayer.
Ministry of forms number five should be held
accountable for doctrinal and moral purity by
church leadership. In other words, church leadership
won't have direct control perhaps over some forms
that are developed. For example, let's say here's
Jim out here. Well, Jim is such a... Here's Hector.
No, here's Zven. Here's Zven in our church. And
Zven says, he and only. want to start a ministry
out here somewhere. They have chosen an option
to work with this group of people in St. Paul,
and they're burdened about that. And they say,
what do we do, church? And we say, well, God
bless you. We'll help you if you need help organizing
it. We can't support you financially. We'll pray
for you. We'll help you recruit people, but go
do it. We want to release them to do it. Encourage
them to do that. God bless Zven and Oli. in that
effort. And the only thing that we want to hold
them accountable to is doctrinal purity. We don't
want them getting off base and starting a cult.
And moral purity. And we have recently done some
discussion as to what those two things mean to
us as a church. I want to go into that this morning
though. Number six, a ministry forum should be
encouraged as fulfilling personal vision and
burden. We want Zven and Oli to have that burden
for that group of people out there. And we want
to encourage them to fulfill that personal vision
that God has given to them saying, I want to
do this for God. We want to say, charge, go to
it. Number seven, we want ministry forums to
be perceived as part of the life of the body.
In other words, when Zven and Oli go out there
to do their work, we don't want them to feel
like they're being chopped off from the body
in that work. We want them to feel some connection
to us because they're a part of our membership.
So as they and maybe a couple of other, maybe
Hector can get involved in that, and a few others.
Get involved out there. We want them to feel
like that they're an extension of Grace Church.
And so they want to come back to us and share
testimonies with us. Maybe reports to us. That's
exciting. But we believe that those are important
guidelines. Here's my point. In the 90s, it must
be the kind of a church that examines the way
it does things. and which prayerfully seeks new
forms for ministry that will enable us to do
what God has called us to do with effectiveness.
We want to avoid ruts. A rut is just a grave
with both ends knocked out of it. We want to
avoid that. You say, do we really need new forms?
Listen, how should facts like these affect what
we're doing? Number one, in 1957, 77 % of moms
were at home during the day if they had small
kids. In 1989, 17 % of moms were at home during
the day if they have small kids. How do you think
that affects forms of ministry? How do you think
that affects the traditional vacation Bible school?
that met during the daytime in the summer when
the kids were off of school and depended largely
upon moms who were at home volunteering their
time to help and to teach. Do you think that
has any effect on it? A dramatic effect. Effect
number two. How should this affect us? The fastest
growing segment of our population is families
headed by single mothers. Single parent families
now are one out of every five single parent families.
How does that affect what we do? Fact number
three, more than half of the population of the
United States will shortly be single adults.
Should that have some impact on the way we plan
for the future? The way we do our teaching? The
way we do our relationships and so on, of course
it should. Get this one. Fact number four, by
the year 2000, the majority of Americans will
be over 50 years of age. I'll even be getting
close to that. Then some. How does that affect
what we do as a church? Fact number five. The
trend of the last quarter of a century of people
moving from the farm to the city is now being
reversed People are leaving the city and going
back to the country So that we have today not
just rural and urban, but we have what I heard
someone call recently urban Does that affect
the way that we the times that we have ministry,
how often we do things. Fact number six. Black,
Latino, and Asian populations will outpace white
populations in the 90s so that everyone in some
major cities will be a minority. In some of the
major cities of America, no longer will there
be a majority of any race. Fact number seven,
by the year 2000, one futurist by the name of
Sam Dunn predicts, quote, the special status
of the church in the eyes of the government will
be all but eliminated, close quote, in the next
10 years. In other words, probably he is saying
by the year 2000, churches will have no tax preference,
will be paying taxes on our property. Probably
there will be no chaplaincies in the armed services.
Probably there will be no conscientious objection
allowed for military service. Probably there
will be no advocacy of religion in any public
-funded institution. Does that affect what we
do? Fact number eight. The current of social
change is toward individualism and privatization.
That's a whole other subject and one that dramatically
impacts ministry. But you see the point? If we're
going to remain on the cutting edge of ministry,
we've got to adapt new forms for our functions.
Now what does this require of us if we're going
to become this kind of a church? It's going to
require qualities like trust, flexibility, sacrifice,
innovation, patience, imagination, faith. Those
kinds of qualities are going to be essential
for all of us. There are some who are not going
to like this kind of church. because to them
values would include sameness, predictability,
smallness, harmony, and status quo. And the fact
is that as we become the kind of a church I believe
God wants us to become, what we're looking at
is change, diversity, conflict management, and
bigness. Jesus Christ has called you and me,
who name him as Lord, to be the church in the
90s, to proclaim his word to this generation.
If we're going to do that, it is going to require
the best from every one of us. Let's pray. Sing
with me again this chorus. Be glorified today.
Sing it again. In our church, Lord. Be glorified.
Be glorified. In our church, Lord. be glorified
today. Amen. Well, thank you for being here.