Have you ever wondered why churches do certain things they do? Churches do some crazy things. I want to show you a few picture of things church’s do that make me go: Why?
Like who came up with the idea of choir robes? Who was sitting around one day and saying, “you know, I think we should have men put on dress-like robes and stand in front of everyone and sing.”
Stage Thrones.
Church signs. I’m ok with informational church signs. I’m even ok with inspirational messages out of the Bible. But cheesy clichés? Why?
Over the next few weeks we’re going to be talking about why we do some of the things that we do at Hub City Church. And more importantly, we’re going to find out why you should care and why it’s important to you to know why.
And it really all comes out of our mission. In case you don’t know yet, our mission at Hub City Church is to make disciples who make disciples. A disciple is someone who hears from God and does what he says. And the job of the church is to make disciples. But it doesn’t just happen. It’s not some magical formula. It doesn’t happen by osmosis. It’s a process that involves three distinct roles or parts. The church has a part to play, you have a part and God has a part.
Over the next four weeks we’re going to talk about the church’s part and you’re part in the whole discipleship process by looking at why we do what we do.
If you think about it, we really we only do four things at Hub City: We do a worship gathering, we do small groups, we do mission, and we encourage individual spiritual disciplines. That’s it. We’re pretty simple.
But if you look at that list here’s what I think I know is true of you. You love one or two of those. The other two you’re not so fond of. You’re comfortable in one or two, but the others are a bit of a stretch for you. Like for me: I lean heavy into the worship gathering and spiritual disciplines environments. Those are where I’m most comfortable. Small groups and mission are more of a stretch for me.
But I know that I won’t grow fully as a disciple if I’m just doing the worship gathering and spiritual disciplines. I need to be participating in all four of these environments. And so do you, because each of these environments is intentional and important. Each of these is essential for your growth as a disciple of Jesus. If you’re not participating in one or more of these then you are missing out on something important. You’ll be a lopsided disciple.
Today we’re going to talk about our worship gathering. I thought we’d start here because, well, we’re here, and when most people think of church they think of an hour on Sunday morning. We know this, but church is NOT an hour on Sunday morning. It’s so much more. But actively participating in a worship gathering is an important part of what it means to be the church and what it means to be a part of Hub City Church.
So, why in the world should we meet together for worship once a week? Why should we give up time on our day off to get together with a bunch of other people to sing songs and hear somebody talk about God’s Word?
One answer that we could give is that it’s always been done. The church has been gathering publically to worship for two thousand years. It’s part of our history. But the reason, “Because we’ve always done it,” has always been a lousy reason for me. If the only reason we have is the reason that we’ve always done it, then I’d drop it in an instant. I’d love more sleep on Sunday.
Thank goodness we find another reason in the Acts 2:46 says, Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. Now, remember that this is right at the beginning of church history. The church had just grown from 120 disciples of Jesus to over 3000 people in one day, and then new people were coming to faith in Jesus on a daily basis. So what this verse tells us is that the early church made it a habit at the beginning to meet on a regular basis in a public place for the purpose of worship and the study of God’s word.
What that means for us is that a public worship gathering has a Biblical basis and foundation. We do this because it was something that the first Christians modeled for us to do.
Now, almost all churches have some sort of weekly worship gathering. Like I said earlier, it’s the thing most of us think of most when we think of church. But in case you haven’t noticed, we do things a bit differently around here. We meet in a movie theater for crying out loud. We like to laugh. We have a band instead of an organ. We don’t dress up.
Why do we do what we do? Why do we design our worship gathering the way we do? I want to give you four words that answer that question. Write these down.
Motivation. First, we want our Sunday worship gathering to be motivational. By that we mean we want you to leave here motivated to do something. I want you to do something in response to our time together.
James 1:22 says, 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
We want to motivate you to do something. That’s why I ask you to make a commitment to do something on a regular basis. That’s why we have a place on your connection card to mark what kind of commitment you’re making. Part of our reason for doing a Sunday worship gathering is to motivate you to do something. Actually, I am going to ask you to do something at the end of our time.
Momentum. By momentum I mean excitement. We think there should be excitement when we come together. We should leave excited. Getting together in this kind of environment should be exciting.
Teaching. This really should go without saying but the reason I say teaching is because I want you to know something. Either I want you to learn something new or be reminded of something that you need to be reminded of.
Now each of those three things makes sense. That’s what we expect, but the next word I want to share is what stretches us and makes us at times, uncomfortable, but is so essential to our DNA here at Hub City Church.
Guest. What I mean by this is that everything we do at Hub City Church’s worship gathering we try to do with guests in mind. Most churches do the opposite here, but we want to always keep in mind those we are trying to reach. I know we’re not perfect at this, but it’s very important. And we find that it’s important to God too. Look at Isaiah 40:
3 Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! 4 Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. 5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken!”
This is one of my favorite passages. It shapes so much of what we do around here. And here’s what it’s saying: We have a part to play in preparing the way or clearing the way for people to come to know God.
Let that sink in for a minute. God is speaking in this passage, and he tells us to clear the way or prepare the way for others to come to him and for him to reveal himself to others. That’s an incredible responsibility. Talk about a weighty statement.
God is saying to you and to me that we have a part to play and that our part is to get rid of the barriers that keep people from God and that keep God from people.
And something incredible happens when we do our part: When we get rid of the barriers what happens? The glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together. That’s what I want to see happen. I want God to reveal himself to you. I want God to reveal himself to the 165,000 people in our county who are lost.
What this means for us is that our job is to do what we can do to get rid of barriers that keep people from knowing God and that keep God from people. So let’s talk about a few things we do to be obedient to this.
We meet in a movie theater. I don’t know if you know this, but we intentionally chose to meet in a movie theater over a school or some other rented facility. And the reason why is that everybody loves to go to the movies. We want to meet in a place where people like to go. We want to meet where people who are far from God like to go. Now, we don’t have to meet in a movie theater. Maybe one day we won’t meet in a movie theater, but us intentionally meeting in a movie theater is something we can do, and when we do our part to get rid of barriers then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together.
We have a great band. I’ve got nothing against hymns, piano and organ. But who in your circle of friends turns on the radio to the hymn station? My dad doesn’t even have traditional church music on his MP3 player. Church music or bad music can be a barrier. Good music and quality musicians help us do our part to get rid of barriers so that then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together.
We like to laugh. I love using humor. I love our videos. I don’t know if you know this, but about a year ago we had a couple walk out in the middle of one of our videos. They said it was too shocking. So they left. But we don’t just do videos for the fun of it. We don’t create videos to entertain. We use humor and videos because laughter gets us to open up. Most people think that church and laughter are polar opposites, but God is the author of humor. It’s a gift from him. Funny videos and humor help us do our part to get rid of barriers so that the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together.
We dress casually. A few years ago a friend of mine in Easley did a survey of a bunch of people who weren’t a part of any church. He asked them: “why aren’t you a part of a church,” and their number one answer was: “I don’t have any dress clothes.” Clothes can be a barrier. That’s why we say “come as you are.” Dressing casually helps us do our part to get rid of barriers so that then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together.
Those are some of the reasons why we do some of what we do. If you’re wondering about something else as it pertains to the worship gathering please email me and I’ll blog about it. But now we have to ask: Why in the world does this matter to you?
Let me give you a couple of reasons. First: We’ve set up our worship gathering not only to tear down barriers for you to connect with God, but as a safe environment for you to bring your lost and unchurched friends, so that they can explore what being a follower of Jesus is all about. That’s why we talk about inviting people so often. That’s what this environment is for. What that means is that if we’re not inviting people then we’re wasting this environment. To do: Invite people.
But I think most important in this whole discussion is that this has a personal application. Remember, we want to motivate you to do something. You may recognize the Isaiah passage. It’s used in the Matthew 3 as a description of John the Baptist. John the Baptist came to tear down barriers to prepare the way for Jesus.
If you remember, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day had made it very difficult for people to connect with God. They had all of these rules and rituals that people had to follow. John the Baptist came preaching a simple message: Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. It was the complete opposite of the religious leaders who had created all these barriers that were keeping people from God.
Which leads to a very important question that each of us needs to ask ourselves: What barriers in my life are keeping people away from God? What barriers in your life are keeping God away from people? Seriously, we all have things in our lives, if we’re really honest, that are barriers to others coming to know God.
Let me give you a few examples. Maybe how you talk is a barrier. It could be talking bad about others. It could be a tone. It could be that your mouth needs to be washed out with soap. Our speech as Christians is to be wholesome, beneficial and life-giving.
Maybe your arrogance is a barrier. Do you come across as better than others? There’s nothing that turns people off faster than arrogance.
Maybe you’ve got a habit that’s a barrier. It could be an addiction that people can see. It could be a hidden addiction that keeps you from fully giving your life to Jesus.
Maybe fear is a barrier. You’re too afraid to invite your friends or tell them about Jesus and it’s a barrier that is keeping God away from people.
What barriers are in your life that are either keeping other people from God or keeping God from other people?
What I want to ask you to do this is to honestly admit one barrier in your life that is keeping people away from God or keeping God away from people. Admit it and get rid of it. Some of the barriers you’ll be able to get rid of quickly. Some will require some help. Write it down.
Public worship gatherings are incredibly important. However, this one gathering cannot be expected to fulfill the New Testament descriptions of deep, challenging, life-changing relationships that should exist between followers of Jesus. We’re going to talk about that next week. And then reaching the world requires us to go out to penetrate society, rather than simply offering more centralized services. That’s what we’re going to talk about in three weeks.
