HEARTBEAT

The last time we gathered together for Heartbeat,

someone said to me afterwards,

you were just so relaxed,

and it was just great to see you so relaxed and casual up the front.

So I'm going to do that again tonight.

Just bear with me for a moment.

OK, ready to go.

So I think 12 months ago,

we sat in this room,

and we had this in front of us,

Heartbeat, November the 8th,

and it was our picture for what was ahead,

it was the input, in fact,

the entire input of what I gave and talked about.

It was in the beginning of our series on radical,

what it meant to be a radical disciple of the Lord Jesus

and the radical choices that we need to make as a church.

And one of the questions that Stuart Wendy put in front of me

as we were doing the preparation leading up to this

is it would be good to highlight some of the markers,

the changes, the progress we've made in the last 12 months.

Because if you were here 12 months ago,

you would know that this was a time of an element of uncertainty.

We picked radical because of a chance for us to really,

we needed to really focus on what we're doing as a church.

We just found out that Sam Lowe,

one of our ministers here,

was leaving after eight years of ministry,

and it was a time of change and flux for us

and what it meant.

And so I think there's a lot,

when I look back at the last 12 months,

there is so many things to celebrate,

where 12 months ago,

I might have been feeling a little bit uncertain

about where we were or where I was

and how we're going to move forward.

God has just kept pushing us forward

and been building momentum throughout the course this year.

And yet at the same time,

in many ways, it's been a hard year.

I feel it.

I feel like it's been a hard year.

There's been a number of things which have happened,

which I didn't want to happen.

And yet what God does,

he just uses those times to continue to sharpen us.

And so we, as I said,

back in November the 8th last year,

where plan was to move to two congregations,

we've done that.

And our translation team,

which was like two or three people,

has grown to,

we celebrated last time around 14 people,

something like that.

And can I just put out a bit of a thanks here tonight

for Flora and Dorothy,

who have just taken the My Purpose Checkup document

and totally translated the thing

in the last week or two

or in that timeframe.

They just got onto it.

And under their own initiative,

and I just want to say that is superb.

That's a massive amount of work.

So thank you for that.

So we've seen that change.

We saw miraculously with the provision

of the money we raised on Vision Sunday,

as well as the increase we saw in our pledging.

The Barnets,

which we were not expecting to be able to do this,

but Barnets came on full time just after Easter.

And so we were intending on employing a children's pastor.

And we've not just got a children's pastor,

we've got a children's pastor

and a maturity pastor wrapped up into one.

And so that's worth celebrating.

We've just celebrated boom.

That didn't exist 12 months ago.

And one of the things of bringing a children's pastor in

was in fact to start an after school kids ministry

that has now started.

And I think James has done a phenomenal job in that

by building the team first.

But he spent a lot of time preparing the team,

building for it.

And so I'm just so excited about that.

We were looking to employ Takeshi and John.

And frankly, you can say boom all you like,

but no one can say it like Takeshi.

And he ought to be,

he's not here, is he?

He's studying for exams.

I'm assuming he shouldn't have been here.

But yeah, so we've been able to employ these guys

and they've done a fantastic job

and helped in a big way in the transition

from three congregations to two

and turning us more transcultural.

We got a faculty approved to move furniture.

That went through.

10 years ago, that would have been a bun fight.

Now it's not.

Now it's actually a move forward

forward because we wanted to see more and more people

seated in this building here in the gospel.

So while we haven't broken the 200 barrier,

which we talked a lot about this time last year.

In fact, the goal for that was to do it between,

you know, 2018 and the end of 2020.

2020, we have building momentum in that direction.

And it's fabulous.

So we're now almost halfway through our vision series for this year.

As you know, our theme is His Purpose, Our Purpose, My Purpose.

And I was asked a really good question

about a week or so ago, a couple of weeks ago.

And the question was,

why this, why now?

Why this, why now?

Why His Purpose, Our Purpose, My Purpose?

Why this and why now?

And my answer is,

because it's all about breaking the 200 barrier.

That's why we're doing it now.

In case you're new to this,

the 200 barrier is, if you like,

a cultural barrier that the vast majority of churches face.

Very few, in fact,

something like only 10% of churches

will ever break the cultural barrier of 200 members.

I introduced it to us at Heartbeat last year

and set the goal that we'd break it before the end of 2020.

The 200 barrier is where a church,

either deliberately or just by the fact of inertia,

decides, subconsciously or consciously,

to stick below 200 members

because it's the way they like things to be.

And I said,

God may choose to never grow St. Paul's,

but for us to deliberately limit the size of the members of St. Paul's,

I find that morally, spiritually reprehensible.

We've got to do everything that we can to grow God's kingdom.

And so one of the key aspects of breaking the 200 barrier

was the need to align the church

around the mission, vision, values and strategy of the church.

That's one of the key elements of breaking the 200 barrier.

And there's at least about eight of them,

but this is one of the key ones.

Alignment is about all ministry pulling in the same direction.

What happens when every ministry pulls in the same direction

is that it forces out the personal agendas

and the personal preferences

that abound in churches that prefer to stay small.

And it causes us to focus on God's mission.

That's what it does.

And so that's what this vision series is about.

It's about alignment.

It's about giving us clarity on our purpose,

on how St. Paul's, in fact, not just St. Paul's purpose,

but how St. Paul's, in fact, structures itself,

how we balance and how we resource these five purposes.

The ministry one's hiding behind me here

because ministry is what we're doing tonight.

So it's balancing these five purposes.

In fact, at this heartbeat last year,

I mentioned six crucial decisions churches need to make

in order to grow in size and depth.

And three of them have to do with this one, ministry.

Have to do with leadership, service, ministry choices.

The course that some of you have been introduced by me,

from me, called Breaking 200 Without Breaking You,

mentions eight key strategies for breaking the 200 barrier.

Five of the eight have to do with this one,

the way we think about ministry,

the way ministry gets done.

And that's our focus tonight.

And the shift that we are looking to do in the next 12 months

is to move away from a church of individuals

filling roles on rosters, plugging gaps, doing a task,

to being a church where we do all of the work of service within teams.

That is, we're doing it together.

We're serving together as opposed to me just doing my bit

that I want to do in my time.

Now, this is simply a flow on from what we looked at last Sunday.

If you were here on Sunday,

you would have heard from me

about Christ-exalting connectedness in God's family.

God's intention is for all of humanity to magnify him.

That's week one.

Week two, God's intention is to draw us together in order to magnify him.

Week three, which is coming up,

now that he's drawn us together to magnify him,

what is his intent for each one of his children?

He wants every one of his children to grow up into the likeness of his true son.

He wants all of his children that he brings into his family

that he gathers to himself to grow up into the likeness of his son,

to have the character of his son.

Week four is that he doesn't want us just to grow up into the likeness of his sons.

He wants us to grow up into the ministry service attitude of his son.

That's God's internal purposes.

And when he builds up his church in that way,

he sends us out into mission.

That's week five.

So let me just take you to the Bible really quickly on this one

and the idea of teams.

Jesus modeled something for us in terms of relationships.

From all of his hundreds of followers,

he chose 72 for a special ministry.

Luke chapter 10, he sends them out two by two.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

Doesn't send them out by themselves, sends them out two by two.

And Jesus knows,

Jesus himself didn't,

knew that you could not know 70 people closely.

And so he also,

amongst that 72,

had his 12 for a closer partnership in life and ministry,

where he specifically instilled stuff and did things with them that he didn't do with the 72.

In Mark chapter 3, verse 14,

Mark 3:14

it says he appointed 12,

designating them apostles that they might be with him.

But even 12 are sometimes too much,

and especially if you're an introvert.

And so Jesus has a closer bond with Peter, James and John,

just three of the 12.

And on a number of occasions,

it was just those three who had a special time of development with Jesus.

Often, in fact,

at the most significant times of Jesus' life and ministry,

those three were there.

And sometimes even three is more than some kinds of friendships will allow.

And Jesus seemed to have a particular bond with John,

which John mentioned several times in his gospel,

because he got an opportunity to do that.

The disciple who Jesus loved.

By the way, that's me.

I'm talking about you.

Don't know what it says about the other 11,

but anyway.

But five times in his gospel,

he refers to himself as the disciple who Jesus loved.

And so Jesus had his crowds,

he had his 72,

he had his 12,

he had his three,

and he had his one.

And as he put his mission and his church in motion,

he not only modeled these various levels of relationship,

he sent his ambassadors out into teams

with different levels of relationship.

See, life and ministry for Jesus

was life and ministry together.

It was not even for him,

it was a solo affair.

Life and ministry for him

was life and ministry together.

Then you get to the Apostle Paul

and he follows the same pattern.

Christian ministry appears,

is a ministry together,

service together.

I don't think it's an accident

that in every single church,

the Apostle Paul planted,

go and read Acts on this,

he appointed not one elder and pastor,

but multiple elders.

And when Paul and Barnabas,

they had their tiff and they fell out,

and they were wondering what to do

with John Mark who abandoned them

on the first mission,

these two giants of the faith

did not have a falling out and disappear

and do their own thing.

They formed new teams,

got the blessing of the church,

and then they were sent out.

Barnabas took Mark with him,

he sailed to Cyprus,

Paul chose Silas,

and he departed in Acts 15, 39, 40.

When he met Timothy in Acts 16,

he asked Timothy to travel with him

as his ministry co-worker,

even though Timothy was the junior,

learner,

just a kid,

learning still.

And over the next six years,

of the 13 letters that Paul wrote,

he addresses them to the churches

as coming from him and Timothy,

even though Paul was the one who wrote.

He wanted to send it from the team.

Now, of course,

the pattern of our life together

is not just a matter of ministry,

strategy,

or partnership.

I said on Sunday,

the New Testament is just,

is just this dominance

of connectedness language.

And so I want to take us

to one of those passages now,

really quickly,

1 Corinthians 12,

12 to 27.

If you've got your Bibles,

if you've got Bibles apps or whatever,

open them up now.

I'm going to jump through this really quickly.

I want to see six things,

briefly,

this is not six,

this is not a six-point sermon,

it's not double length,

this is six things,

really briefly,

that highlight

about life together in here.

So,

first of all,

it says,

the church is a body

that's made up of many parts.

Made up of many parts.

And without the parts,

there is no body.

Church is made up of many body,

many parts.

It's a body made up of many parts,

but without the parts,

there is no body.

I went looking for my Mr. Potato Head today.

When I say mine,

it's the kids.

You know,

it was beside my bed,

but not anymore.

I went looking for it today,

because it would have been great

to have it here in front of us,

but imagine Mr. Potato Head

and

with just the body,

but no bits attached to him.

That's the picture here,

that it's not a body

without the parts.

Number two,

verse 12,

the unity of the body

is achieved

through the diversity

of the parts.

That is both the diversity

of the people

and the diversity

of the gifting

of the people.

Verse 12,

the body is a unit,

though it be made up

of many parts,

and though all its parts

are many,

they form one body.

So,

you'd have Mr. Potato Head,

you'd put all the arms on

and the hat on

and the legs on

and nose and the ears

and everything,

you go,

there it is.

It's now looking

like it did on the box.

It's functional.

Number three,

third point,

the diversity of the parts,

all the diversity of the parts,

all the difference of the parts,

serve the unity

and the function of the body.

So,

verse 14,

now the body is not made

of one part,

but a many.

If the foot should say,

because I'm not a hand,

I do not belong to the body,

it would not for that reason

cease to be part of the body.

And if the ear should say,

because I'm not an eye,

I do not belong to the body,

it would not for that reason

cease to be part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye,

where would the sense of smell be,

or sense of hearing be?

What?

Yeah, that's right.

If all I couldn't hear,

that's right.

It's the Bible right here?

If the whole body were an ear,

where would the sense of smell be?

And so,

if you had my Mr. Potato Head here

and just had all the arms,

you go,

well,

that's dysfunctional.

That doesn't,

and yet,

that's how we often work church to be.

We often have church in that way.

When we work church to be the homogenous unit principle,

where we like,

gather with like,

then it looks like a dysfunctional,

weird looking Mr. Potato Head.

Number four,

all the parts need each other

if the body is to function correctly.

In other words,

whatever your part is in the body,

don't ever say,

I have no need for that other part over there.

Verse 20,

the eye cannot say to the hand,

I don't need you.

And the head cannot say to the feet,

I don't need you.

On the contrary,

those parts of the body

that seem to be weaker

are indispensable.

And the parts that we think are less honorable,

we treat with special honor.

And the parts that are unpresentable

are treated with special modesty,

while our presentable parts

need no special treatment.

But God has combined the members of the body

and has given greater honor

to the parts that lack it.

So the negative warning here

is don't say,

I don't need those other bits.

I don't need those other bits.

Paul says here

that those who we view as weaker

or unnecessary or unimportant

are absolutely necessary.

every,

I mean,

this church functions

on the gifts of so many people

working together.

Sunday by Sunday,

you see that.

There is so many things

that happen in the background

that you don't even see,

that you know.

And without those things

not functioning,

the place starts to fall apart

real quick.

see what happens

if the person

who normally cuts the grass

doesn't turn up

for three weeks.

The so-called unnecessary bits.

See what happens then.

The person who

most of you don't see

who weeds the gardens.

How quickly it would deteriorate.

How quickly people would say,

well,

no one's living there.

Verse 22,

on the contrary,

those parts of the body

that seem to be weaker

are indispensable.

They're not just optional,

they're necessary.

Not just helpful,

they are necessary.

Number five,

let's have the same care

for one another

so that,

this is verse 25,

so that there should be

no division in the body

but that its parts

should have equal concern

for each other.

If one part suffers,

every part suffers with it.

If one part is honoured,

every part rejoices with it.

These verses are all about

what James would call

favouritism.

Certain parts

that we'd want to honour

over more,

others,

James would say,

no, no,

there's no favouritism

with the church

and this is saying

care for everyone equally,

honour all equally.

It's no mistake

that this description

of the body

is immediately followed

by 1 Corinthians 13.

The great chapter of love.

Whatever our gifting,

it is only effective

if it is used in love.

Number six,

if only my Sunday sermons

move this quickly.

Number six

is an encouragement

to trust in God

who composes the body

as he wills to compose it.

To trust God for this.

Verse 18,

in fact,

God has arranged

the parts in the body,

every one of them,

just as he wanted them to be.

Let's give thanks to God

that he has chosen,

that he has ordered,

that he has appointed,

that he has distributed gifts

at his goodwill

for the unity of the church.

That ought to encourage us,

it ought to humble us,

regardless of whether

we hold a prominent place

or we don't have

a prominent place

in the body.

God has given you

your place.

And yet,

this text

ends

with this

final challenge.

We're told in verse 18

that God arranged the parts

to everyone

that he wants them to be,

but somehow,

verse 18

doesn't negate

verse 31

where Paul says,

but eagerly desire

the greater gifts.

In other words,

grow up

in your service.

Now,

you can't get

the greater gifts

unless God chooses

to give them to you,

but presumably here,

their earnest desire

and preparing

of themselves

is seen

as a preliminary

to receiving

the greater gift,

at least in some cases.

And so,

the challenge here,

I think,

and this is something

we're intending on

deliberately picking up,

quite intentionally picking up

in the next 12 months

in St. Paul's,

is to,

is the challenge

to go further,

the challenge

to train,

to develop,

to equip others,

to recruit,

to seek new opportunities

to serve.

That's the individual

challenge for us all.

And,

and the other thing

that we're seeking to do

is that this

connectedness

and interdependency

culture

that you see

in the New Testament,

the language

of the New Testament,

is something

that we traditionally

really emphasize

through community groups

and we're going to

continue to emphasize

that through community groups

when everyone in the community

groups and connected,

but it's also

the way we want to see

our ministry done

amongst us.

Connectedness.

Working as part

of a team.

Can I just divert

a little bit here

and emphasize

this point?

I've been here

for

nine and a half years.

possibly

the greatest delight

I have had

as a senior minister

of St. Paul's

is the team

that I work with

day by day.

That,

that's for me,

stands out

as the high point

of my nine and a half years

at St. Paul's.

Without a doubt.

And I would extend that

to talk about

wardens and parish council

as well.

Without a doubt.

I have the privilege

of working with

a number of staff

and,

and a good number

of staff

over

the time

that I've been here

and a good number

of that,

those staff

for some time

who have

all contributed

to my growth

as a disciple

and contributed

to me

in ministry,

in sharpening

my ministry skills.

We have worked

closely together.

I said to someone

recently,

when Sam left,

it really hurt me

in the sense of

I really felt

his loss.

Think about this.

I work with him

for five days a week.

We traveled,

as I said,

I think it is farewell.

I've been in hotel rooms

more with Sam

than anyone else

apart from Nat.

We work together

closely

five days a week

for eight years.

That's equivalent

of 40 years

of Sundays.

That's equivalent

of 40 years

of Sundays.

Together,

as a staff team,

we have had

greater impact

than any of us

could have had

individually

exercising our gifts.

We have collectively

deepened

and expanded

the ministry

of St. Paul's.

I want to suggest

that the reason

that we continue

to push forward

as a church

is because

you have

a phenomenal

staff team.

I'm not talking

individually.

Every one of us

individually

is weak

and we have

our failings

and our blind spots

and our

bits where we're

not gifted at.

But collectively,

we are strong.

we are strong.

And collectively,

we've had a greater

impact than any of us

could have done

by ourselves.

And I would suggest

that collectively,

we have deepened,

we've expanded

the ministry.

God has made us

all very differently

and yet collectively,

we make up

for our weaknesses.

We've all grown

together in

gospel conviction.

We've grown

together in

character

and we've grown

together in

ministry competencies.

We have

fellowship,

we have

encouragement,

we have fun

and we share

the burdens

and the joys

of life.

Sometimes it feels

more like the

burdens and the joys

but we share the

burdens and the

joys of life.

If you've never

noticed it before

and this is

not,

if you think

this is me

being proud

then forgive me

for that

but just hear

the point.

We have

modelled

something,

the staff team

over the last

nine years or so

and particularly

increasingly so

in the last

four years

have modelled

something as

a staff team

that the church

should see,

acknowledge

and duplicate

in all its

ministry teams.

I think it's

the best

illustration I

can throw in

front of you.

It needs to be

duplicated in

every ministry

team.

We want to

see it deployed.

We are modelling

something that we

want deployed

across the church.

everyone

serving as

part of a

team,

loving each

other,

growing in

character,

in competency

and together

you will

achieve more.

Every

member of

St Paul's

serving as

part of a

team on

purpose.

Now,

I have

gone over

my time

already.

Do you

want to

just watch

the video

for a

little bit?

Is that

alright?

And then I'll

come back.

Let's have a

break there.

So it is

turning into a

sermon.

The six

points are

over by the

way.

So this

is just a

bit of a

taster for

team ministry

if we can

get that

up.

Before we

do,

let me just

hit a couple

of things.

As we

move on,

one of the

things I

said some

time ago

was that

each church

needs clear

expectations on

what are we

expecting for

our disciples.

So what's

our discipleship

pathway?

What does it

mean to grow

up to be a

member of

this church

and to

grow as a

disciple of

this church?

And secondly,

what is the

ministry pathway?

I'm happy to

say that both

of those things

have now been

developed for

St Paul's.

The

discipleship

pathway,

it's right

there,

it's up in

front of me,

it's up there,

has been

developed.

And you'll

notice that

each one of

these five

purposes is

reflected up

there.

The goal we

have for every

member of St

Paul's,

including myself,

is to continue

to reassess,

am I on

purpose?

For God's

purpose,

for my life,

for this

church,

am I aligning

myself with

it?

Am I growing

in each one?

Which is my

weakness one that

I need to work

on and have a

plan in the

next six months,

12 months,

to get better

at that

particular

purpose,

whatever it

is.

And so you've

seen that

rolling out

through the

course of

this vision

series.

I want to

commend James

again for

that and

developing that

for us.

Secondly,

on your

seats,

you've got

this big

thing.

You'll

notice that

all of our

ministry teams

are connected

in one way or

another to our

five purposes.

purposes.

And this is

just a snapshot,

if you like,

a visual image.

Thanks, Jess,

for putting this

together of how

every ministry

at St. Paul's

is connected to

one of these

purposes,

bringing greater

alignment to

every single

ministry team.

You know where

you fit,

what your purpose

is,

and how your

purpose fits

into the

mission and

vision of

St. Paul's.

That's what

this is all

about.

Not every

single ministry

team is there,

and you'll

notice there

are two

things,

such as

ministry

support,

which is

not quite

red,

it's an

orange,

it's out

there a

little bit.

Ministry

support's

job is

effectively

to support

the five

purposes,

and next

gen,

because it

is a

unique

ministry

and that

certain

requirements

are there

because you're

leading young

people,

it sits

over slightly

to one

side,

and because

of the age

of the people

that are there,

it sits to

one side.

However,

all five

purposes get

worked out

in next-gen

ministry.

We just

want to

separate them

out and

make them

slightly

distinct because

there are

certain higher

requirements for

leaders in

that area.

So ministry

teams,

we've got

alignment as

a disciple,

where you

fit.

As a

disciple,

my expectation

as a member

of St. Paul's

is to grow

in these

five purpose

areas.

Where do I

serve?

In one of

the teams,

in one of

the five

purpose areas,

and our

goal for

every member

is that when

you are in

a ministry

team,

if you move

over to

ministry pathway

now,

is that you

will know

at what

level you

fit,

who you

report to,

and what

your job

description and

expectations are

within that

ministry team.

So that's the

ministry pathway.

We like to

see everyone

fit into the

ministry pathway,

and on

top of that

is that what

sits over the

top of a

ministry pathway

interacting with

a ministry

pathway is

ministry grid,

which is what

that lady just

mentioned in the

video.

It's a whole

training program

that's,

it's an online

training program

designed to

develop you in

whatever part of

the ministry

pathway you

fit.

And so the

intention as you

move forward

is not to

hand someone,

there's your job

description,

we need you to

help out at

boom,

we'll see you

if something

goes wrong.

And there's

your job,

go and fill

that function.

Ministry is

part of your

discipling,

it's part of

your connectedness

of growing a

disciple of the

Lord Jesus.

And so our

plan as we

move into,

to roll it out

totally between

now and the

end of next

year is for

every person

to know where

they fit in

ministry teams,

to be placed in

ministry teams,

to know where

they fit in

that ministry

team,

to be developing

in that ministry

team and to be

coached in that

ministry team so

that you've got

relational connection

as you develop.

That's the plan

to roll out,

that's our major

agenda,

is to get the

members of St.

Paul's engaged

and on purpose

in the next

12 months.

We see it as

crucial in us

breaking the

200 barrier.

So, by this

time next year,

I would love to

be standing in

heartbeat and for

everyone here to

be able to say,

I know what my

role is,

I know how this

role serves the

vision,

I know how this

role is connected

to the purpose,

one of the five

purposes,

I'm on a

team,

I know every

member of my

team,

I know who my

leader is,

and I'm being

coached and

developed personally

and intentionally

by my leader.

That's what I'd

like to see by this

time next year.