Church Identity and Culture - Leland Zehr

Good morning, Welcome to each one, Greetings, thank you for

being here. It's good to be with you. May the

grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with

all of us here this morning and the service. Welcome

to the teachers that are not from here. Glad to

have you back. So the topic this morning that I

have is a little bit of a different topic, I

guess subject that's been on my mind for on and

off for a long time, and especially as I should

relate to it, I personally have wrestled with it and

thought about it and prayed about it, and talked about

it and read about it and listened about it, and

just it's it's a real practical part of life, and

that is that is the subject of group culture and

more specifically church culture. And so the title that I

settled on kind of went back and forth with putting

words in and out, but church identity and culture. And

I'll give a little bit why I would put that

in there. And I don't know how that this is

for you. I know it's a bit of a maybe

a thorny subject or can be with some people. But

I want to remind us that what Jesus said about

the church that he wants it to be a glorious church,

a beautiful bride adorned waiting for her husband. And he

says that in Ephesians five, or Paul says that in

Ephesians five twenty seven, that he might present to himself

a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any

such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.

And that's a high ideal, and that's a good ideal,

and that's what we want to be. But sadly we

as humans miss the mark and mess up. And when

that happens, church life and church culture takes the brunt

of that, and it feels anything but a beautiful bride.

What is culture? And I want to lay a bit

of a foundation as we go into this, but I

got more than I can give this morning, and so

I'm going to have to divide my time up and

I want to hit some practical things. But what is culture?

First of all, culture and you listen to this as

is a set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices

that characterize an institution or an organization, or in our case,

a church. Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how

we wear it, our language, marriage, music, what is right

and wrong, or customs, techniques, ceremonies, how we set the table,

how we greet visitors and behave, and many many other things.

Culture influences and shapes us. It affects our beliefs and

our worldview and the way that we live, whether we

are aware of it or not. And this is true

on different levels. Culture is a reality in the life

of non believers and believers and countries. If you've ever

been to another country or a missionary in another country,

you know that the challenge of cross cultures is one

of the hugest obstacles to overcome to try to understand

the different mindsets and the value systems and the way

people think. And you can disregard all that and say

that it doesn't matter and they're wrong and I'm right,

or whatever the lens that I'm looking through. But if

we do that, we're not effective. We have to reckon

with this thing of differences of cultures. Different locations in

a country will vary in cultures. We know the Southerners

in the United States are kind of have the reputation

for being friendly and having a warm culture, and those

in the Pacific Northwest or maybe more straightforward and honest

and cold and a cold culture or some tool. The

Hillbillies and Rednecks have a culture in in in their

own way. Businesses have cultures, Schools have cultures, Families have cultures,

family traits. Often they do stem from our genetics, but

often it is the teachings and cultural values that have

been taught and brought down through families and generations. That

you know, when when somebody says something about Azara and

shakes their their head, I don't know what all they mean,

but I it makes me a little nervous. I kind

of think I might know what they mean. And and

so each one of us, when you say a last name,

often has a bit of a culture, a connotation that

goes with us, and we're not bound by them, but

they do influence us. We did not get here by

our own intelligence. We have come on the shoulders of others.

And sometimes it's good things and bad things, but it

is a reality. Some people like culture, some people don't

like culture. Some people are very against culture. Try to

avoid it, try to live culture free or be counterculture.

There's been different movements in secular societies. But whether we

whether we like it or not. We are affected by

culture and we can't escape this reality. It is, and

churches are no different. Some feel that church culture is

somehow in churches because of the spiritual aspect, we should

be able to kind of live above culture. It's just

kind of this spiritual relationship with God that matters, and

somehow culture we get above that. Some people try to

create a culture without a culture, just whatever is represents

form establishment, whatever. Don't do that? Do the other thing

change in our world in the United States, I say,

I would say struggles with that. They're they're trying to

resist anything that stands for something. But it happens in

churches as well. Culture is either determined. I want you

to listen to this. I'll say this more than once.

But culture is either determined by default or design, and

we can choose. It's just if you can ignore it

and then it'll be default, or you can be intentional

about it. Just a couple more things about the title.

Added identity into the title simply to make maybe just

remind myself and us that, especially in church life, I

think it's in important to remember that although local church

cultures vary from one congregation to another, there is in

the Christian Church. There is an identity that we must

stay that we must remember and stay in alignment with.

We can have a variety of cultures, but it must

fit within the boundaries of the culture with the head

of the church, Jesus Christ, and the Bible talks about

him being the cornerstone, the foundation, the parameters, and that's

very important when I build buildings, and one of the

first things I want to know when I go out

to a building site is where the building's going to

sit and what it's going to be squared up with.

Like you give me two corners of a building and

an elevation and then I can take it from there.

But if you just give me one corner, well that building,

you know, can pivot. But a cornerstone in the Bible

was something that set a building in a position and

aligned it and everything else fit around it. It squared

it up. And so a church and all our different

cultures need to fit within that. And I don't want

to go on and on about that, but I think

that is something that we need to always come back to.

It is what when when we get in all these discussions,

we need to come back to the head of the

church and what is true north. It's not just a

free for all. There there are some parameters also about identity.

Like Moses, our culture is shaped by our values, and

that's another thing that we should remember, our values whether

you whether you know it or not, You and I

have values and the things that matter to us. We

end up looking after more, seeing too that we have

time to attend to. But our values and who we

want to identify with are are some of the basic

thing things that end up shaping our culture, our outworking.

In Hebrews eleven twenty four through twenty six, it says

by faith Moses, when he was come to the years,

refused to be called the sons of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing

choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God

than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season,

esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures

in Egypt, for he had respect under the recompense of

the reward. And Egypt was and is a type of

the world, and Moses needed. He was adopted and raised

up in the Egyptian culture. But when he came to

the years of accountability, he had to make a choice.

There was the people of God, and there was the Egyptians,

and Moses chose to identify with the people of God

even though it cost him suffering. And that is still

a choice that you and I each one. We can't

flow through a culture, but each one of us needs

to make is what what direction are we going to

point and and put our identity with the world or

the people of God. The pull of the world's culture

and its values are are ever present, and it's annoying,

but it's just a reality on us personally and in

our church life. It is a constant current and pressure

and pull of of just down one step at a time.

That that is a reality that we in the church

need to just reckon with that what we're going to

be fighting against both on the inner and outward pressures

of of the desires of the world and not battle.

It's not a one one decision time decision. And again,

our culture is either determined by default or by design.

So what is the church? Just briefly on that we

know what the church is. The church is the assembly

of the born again believers, the followers of Jesus Christ.

And one clarification I wanted to make almost put in

local in this but the title is going to cumbersome

and heavy. So I just explained this that when I'm

referring to the church, we're referring to the local, visible church,

a group of real people that we know that we

are together with, living together. It's not the visible universal church.

That's not what I'm talking about this morning, but an

actual group of believers that are a part of each other.

So one point, do we need do we really need

church culture? And I'm gonna and is it biblical? Can't

we just follow Jesus and obey the Bible and keep

it simple like I had said before, Like, surely there's

a way, and maybe if we would all just be

spiritual enough, we wouldn't need to be caught up in

all these petty practical cultural details. Well I've wished that

and thought, maybe thought that at different times in my

life to be true. But I am, at least for

I don't believe it's true. I'm sorry if you wish that.

I think it isn't a reality as I look around

and as I live life. It's kind of like saying,

you know, a good Christian girl and a good Christian

man would get together and they would just be dedicated

Christians that they would automatically have a good marriage. There

would just be no friction because they're both believers and

it will just work out and it'll be seamless, all

questions will be answered. And if any of you are married,

at least for very I think you'd agree with me

that that's just not the way it works. Life is

practical even with Christians, and it doesn't eliminate. It definitely

is an advantage and a head start to be believers

and follow Christ in a marriage. But we still have

our different viewpoints, We have our different ways of looking

at things, and I think it should be done this way,

and you think it should be done that way, and

so we have to stop and we have to work

it out. If we're going to stay together, we're going

to go in one direction. And so that is how

a church is now. The reality is as the saying

goes goes, the devil is in the details, or if

you wanted to put a more positive spin on it,

version that God is in the details and culture and

the culture of a church is the details, and they

make all the difference, or a lot of the diference.

You know, we could gather many many denominations, from Catholics, Protestants, Anabaptists,

of all kinds. We could get in a big room,

we could sing gospel songs, we could sing a Salvation

we could preach a Salvation message. We could pray together

and all go home and agree with the service that

was we were a part of. But the practical outworking

and the lives that are lived out the details lead

to a completely different life in the lives of different people.

It is the difference of the church culture and the

practices that usually divide or cause church struggles. Group churches

and culture is a design by God meant to meet

some of the deepest needs of humans, the need to

believe to be a part of something bigger than ourselves

and we need help. God designed the church, and we

could go on and on about that. But I want

to to move forward in that a culture and a

practice of a church can encourage and anchor us, make

us stronger, or if it's a wrong culture, it can

it can make us weaker and drag us down. I

just want to take a little time, not a lot.

But the church culture has been something that the church

has wrestled with from the very beginning of the birth

of the Church. And if you read through Acts and

a lot of the epistols, they battled with us on

and on and on, and I think they resolved it.

But it wasn't without effort. It wasn't just they didn't

just live above it. They had to get practical with that.

And if you start an axe and just read through

that and keep in mind with that, you start running

into that the Jews and the Gentiles, and the Greeks

and the Jews and the differences. And this was a

new era because the Jews were God's people, and Jesus

came and was died and rose again. And now these

gentiles that were never a part of the Jewish culture

the church were maybe being invited in and people felt

different about that. And if you go to Acts fifteen,

I'm not going to read it all, but I want

to refer to that if you ever have a time,

read through the Book of Acts fifteen and into Chapter sixteen.

But I've thought of that, it is a very good

outline for difficulties and brethren's meetings in local churches. It

was a Council of Jerusalem where some of the gentiles

were coming into the church, and some of the Jews

felt like these gentiles needed to be circumcised and adopt

the law, and some others felt like, no, they didn't.

And so they came together and they sat together they

talked about it. It says there was much disputing. It

wasn't just it sounds like it was a lively conversation,

and they listened and they had a respectful conversation. They

looked into the scripture. They talked about, well, what does

the scripture say? And they considered the work of the

Holy Spirit and the lives of these gentiles. And after

much discussion, as you get kind of work through a

lot of that, they came up with a recommendation. And

the recommendation was that it was a kind of a compromise.

It was these gentiles need to abstain from certain things

pollution of idols and blood and fornication, but they didn't

need to be circumcised. And so they came to an agreement,

and all the brethren agreed and all the church, and

it brought peace. And so it was it was an

issue that they needed to work through, but it brought

unity and peace, and they were able to give and

take and settle on on an agreement the Reformation and

the birth of the Protestant and the Anabaptist church in

the fifteen hundreds. There again, we look back on that

and hold that up as probably more seamless than it was.

But if you read into the details of that, there

was very many differences and factions that came off of that,

and they struggled with working out the culture and how

they were going to do church life. I want to

read a little bit of scripture here, a chapter in

First Corinthians eight. If you'd like to follow along, this

would or read First Corinthians eight and a little bit

of nine, just to kind of try to make a

couple points here. And what I'd like you to notice

in these verses that I read especially is the attitude

and the spirit of those are involved here in Paul

especially and in relation to working out church differences in

people's different opinions. Already First Corinthians eight, and this is

talking about Christian freedom and brotherly obligation. How much freedom?

What do I need to do for my brother? What

am I free to do now? As touching things offered

unto idols? We know that we all have knowledge, knowledge,

puffa thought, but charity edifieth. And if any man think

that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing, yeah as he

ought to know. But if any man loved God, the

same is known of him. As concerning therefore the eating

of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols,

we know that an idol is nothing in the world,

and that there is none other God but one. For

though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven

or in earth, as there are as there be God's

many and Lord wards many, but to us there is

but one God, the Father of whom are all things,

and we in him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, but

whom are all things, and we buy him. Howbeit there

is not in every man that knowledge. For some with

conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as

the thing offered unto an idol, and their conscience, being weak,

is defiled. But meat con mendeth us not to God.

Neither if we eat, are we better? Neither if we

eat not, are we the worse. But take heed, lest

by any means this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling

block to them that are weak. For if any man

see thee which has knowledge, sit at meat in the

idol's temple. Shall not the conscience of him that is

weak be embolded to eat those things which are offered

to idols. And though the knowledge, and through the knowledge

through Thy shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died.

But when ye sin so against the brethren and wound

their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Wherefore, if meat

make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh

while the world stand lest I make my brother to offend.

And again Paul's words and attitudes towards his fellow brethren

here with a different view about meat. He is willing

to sacrifice, he is willing to lay down his own preferences,

things he sees that are not wrong. He's following the

example of Jesus in honor preferring one another. And in

verse eight he says that meat is it's neither here

nor there. It's not a bad thing. But in nine

he says, take heed lest by the means. This means

that liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them

that are weak. And then in verse twelve and fourteen

about when we sin against our brethren and offend them,

we sin against Christ. And I don't know how to

put that all into practical, you know, life. Sometimes that

can be used as a lever to get what I want,

and I think that's a misuse. I think the passages

for us that are considering the offenses of others, not

for me to come to you and try to leverage

you into doing or not doing what you want because

of this, but all of us, as we look around

and we know what is offensive or what other people

care about, to be willing to just adjust our life,

to be humble, to lay down my preferences, and to

have that spirit. Paul gave quite the commitment there. He

said he was ready to forfeit meet for the rest

of his life if that's what it took to make peace.

The next chapter, if you look just at a few verses,

some interesting verses in nine, starting at nineteen through twenty three,

I'll just read a few here. He continues on, For

though I be free from all men, yet have I

made myself servant unto all that I might gain the more?

And under the Jew I became as a Jew, that

I might gain the Jews. And to them that are

under the law, is under the law, that I might

gain them. That are under the law, to them that

are without law, as without law, being not without law

to God, but under the law of Christ, that I

might gain them that are without the law. To the

weak became I as weak, that I might gain the week.

I have made all things to all men, that I

might by all means save some. And this I do

for the Gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof

with you. And so to the jew he became a Jew.

And to those under the law under the law, and

not under the laws without the law, and the week

he became as weak. And so what is he saying here?

And again, I would just cautious caution us to be

careful with carnality in using and abusing this. It seems

like sometimes we can use this to our advantage. What

I want to do, And I'll go and eat with

the sinners and be with the sinners, and participate with

the sinners. But Jesus ate with the sinners. But he

didn't participate with the sinners. And Paul was not a

man that was an easy pushover. He wasn't just a

people pleaser that everywhere he went, I'll just be like

you and be like you. Paul was a man that

knew what he believed, that had a backbone, was not

afraid to debate, would stand up for what he believed.

But the key verses twenty three, he said, I make

all these cultural and racial adjustments that are not really

here nor there for the Gospel's sake. That I may

win others to crazy. Isn't for my own flesh. It

isn't for my advantage. But if I can adjust my

life in some way that will bless or not offend someone,

I'm willing to do that. I think that was the

attitude and the point that he made. If you go

into Romans just a few more verses, I'll read Romans

fifteen one through three. We then that are strong ought

to bear the infirmities of the week, and not to

please ourselves. Lest every one of us please his neighbor

for the good to edification. For even Christ please not himself.

But as it is written, the reproaches of them that

reproached the fell on me and so Jesus. Here the

head of the church led by example and laying down.

He didn't come to please himself, but he came and

was willing to lay aside his personal preferences for the

good of others. Now, there's a quote I'll say more

than once as well, and I think it's it's true.

And I would just say a few of the things

I have here this morning I've kind of gleaned from

others are not all original with me. In this quote

is one of them. One of our most difficult struggles

is not the inability to conform to a godly culture,

but our unwillingness to yield to the voice of another. Okay,

and then this unyieldingness keeps us from fully integrating and

identifying ourselves with the people of God. I'm going to

read that one more time. One of our most difficult

struggles is not the inability to conform to the godly culture,

but our unwillingness to yield to the voice of another.

And the unyielding, yieldingness keeps us from fully integrating and

identifying ourselves with the people of God. And that is

so true. That is that is the way that it is. Now,

I'd like to look at a few principles here, yeah,

in church, in building church culture, and a few hindrances,

but just I'll just touch on these. I already mentioned

some of them, but Jesus again, the cornerstone we need

to keep that. We can't just build a culture willy nilly.

But the chief cornerstone, Jesus is ahead. He's a cornerstone,

the authority of a high regard for the authority of

the Word of God. I think this is important. Without

the written word of God, we can just kind of

drift around in and be a little bit of wondering

stars In Acts too. Speaking of acts and the forming

of the church is a verse there. I want to

read Acts two forty two. It says, and they continued

steadfastly in the apostles, doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking

of bread, and in prayers. And I want to hit

on those four things a little bit more as we

go through. But there's four things. He's the early church

was continuing in the apostles, doctrine, and in fellowship, in

breaking of bread, and in prayers. But but what I

was talking about right now is a high regard for

the authority of the Word of God. To let that

be an anchor point in our church, in our church culture.

The third one, so Jesus, high regard for the thorit

of God. And then the fruit of the spirit, and

I want to think just a little bit about that. Yet,

the fruit of the spirit. If the spirit of God

is missing from our personal life or our church life,

then than we are just doing dead works. So we

need to keep that in mind. That the spirit. It's

more that often we think about culture is what you

see in the outward things, and it definitely involves all that,

But there's also a spirit in an attitude that is very,

very crucial in church life. And I probably can't overemphasize

that enough. What spirit are we of and what is

the fruit that comes out of our life and out

of our church? You know we are. We get pretty

good at I have orchard, I have grapes, fruit, and

I can get fairly good at looking at a piece

of fruit and and seeing if it's right, and if

I think it's right, if I pick it, And often

I'm right, but sometimes I'm not right. And that the

actual true test is when you when I bite into

that piece of fruit, and the taste that is in

my mouth is the final judge of if that that

was a good piece of fruit or not. Looks matter.

I don't like a wormy apple, but my children have

I've been trying to get them to stop. Or grapes

are ripening and they look right, but I'm seeing these

good sized clusters of grapes brought up on the porch

on tone. Don't pick the grapes. They're not quite ripe yet,

They're just not quite sweet. They're a little bit sour.

And so this thing of fruit, and the Bible talks

about the fruit of the spirit and the importance of

that in the Christian's life. Culture needs that, that inner fruit.

If it doesn't match, it's a it's a wormy, bitter

disappointment to people around us. And maybe this point is

especially for fathers and mothers and older people. I don't know.

But sometimes we learn just naturally. We look good. We

know what's expected. We know how to dress, we know

how to talk, we know how to present ourselves. We

don't call ourselves hypocrites. We're just we just do what's expected.

But sometimes plain clothes, conservative outlook talk can kind of

cover and help keep people off our back and overlook

other sins of the spirit, sins like gossip, and sins

like unkindness and impatience and anger or impurity or off

colored things. But I mean, he's a plain man she's

a plain lady. She looks plain. But if this happens,

I just want to say this that if this happens

and a person is plain and the outside fruit looks

good and sweet, but there's an inner bitterness, and then

that same person is hard on people about their externals

and you don't look like good fruit, that is a

sure way to drive people off. That is a sure way.

Children and youth can't get away far enough and fast

enough from bad experiences of church leaders and parents that

are a fraud that they have. The outside looks good,

but the inside is bitter. And so that needs to

be a part of a church culture and a personal life.

And it is true that youth, regardless of what your

experiences are, you're still responsible. You still have personal choices

to make. You're not off the hook. Two things can

be right true at once. An older person can be

a stumbling block and to someone and that's wrong. But

youth are still responsible to make great choices, and if

you don't, you're wrong. And that is just part of

growing up outward. Things are important. But the fruit of

the spirit, if it's missing, is makes our good works

evil spoken of If we live that way good fruit

comes from healthy roots. Good fruit is the product of

healthy roots. We need both. Now there's the other extreme,

talk just a little bit about that, but I'll just

talk real plain here. Often we'll see this in ex

Ana Baptists, and I don't know if what you consider yourself,

but or people that are in the process of leaving

what they were brought up in, and maybe they've experienced

that bad fruit, that bitter taste of home or church life,

and it's easy to conclude in that moment that all

form and all dead works, all obedience are dead works.

And so they run from the church, and they run

from the church culture, but they run right into the

loving arms of the culture of the world. That is

often how it goes, sadly, and I've I've I've watched it,

I've probably done it in my youth, where it's so

easy to resist the cultures of the world and our community,

but just embrace the cultures of the world. And where

does that? What what is causing that? Well, I would

just say that maybe we need to ask ourselves some

questions on like what is driving that? What is why?

Why do I resist this? And I'm so eager to

grab onto that one of our most difficult struggles is

not the inability to conform to godly culture, but our

unwillingness to yield to the voice of another. Now, I'd

like to shift our focus a little bit here for

their rest, it's a little bit more personally. At our

Halcy Church, you're all Halsey Mennonite Church. You're all welcome visitors,

and I hope you can be blessed with this or encouraged.

But as I thought about our group, and that's what

I've I don't think a lot about other groups. I

think about our group because that's where I'm at and

I'm a part of and I care about. And our

group is unique, like every other group is unique. We

got a lot of Anabaptist backgrounds here, some non Anabaptist background.

A little bit that I've thought of is we have

be Amish background, Beachy background, Eastern background, Nationwide background, Pilgrim background,

Whistler background, Baptist, German Baptist, and some of you were

adopted into homes as a child, and so you can

have a different perspective from that. And I probably am

missing some, but this variety of backgrounds I think is good.

I think can be good. I think it's a blessing.

It would worry me if we didn't have any variety

of background at all, and maybe we should have more.

But it also, just as people are, it causes challenges.

Just like I said, in a marriage, you have two

different family cultures that come together and blend, have to blend.

We have all these ten different cultures and people that

come together that are used to certain things, and then

we come together and we live life together, and so

we all have our unique quirks and ways. And a church.

One thing about a church, it cannot if it's going

to have a culture of its own, it cannot adopt

all the cultures although it has no culture. It's everything

and nothing, and so we give and take on that.

And a church wants to be flexible and it wants

to be accommodating. But if we accommodate everything that comes,

we are nothing as far as our culture of our own.

And so is a that is a just a reality.

We are unapologetically a conservative Anabaptist church. We're not perfect,

we're not better, we're not more superior than other churches,

but it's just what we are. By either default or

by design. You have either chosen to be that or

you just woke up here. I guess you'll have to decide.

But that is what this church has been. It has

its failures and weaknesses. A few questions for us to

consider is our church as sault and a light the

world that pleases Jesus? Are we known more known for

more than being good workers and good cooks? And just

this last week I was talking to an older man

and he I asked him if he was a Christian

and he said, I'm a Christian, but I don't go

to church. And then I was like, why not? And

he said, well, when he was a child, his parents

sent him off to church the children, but they didn't go.

And there just came a time in his life when

he was done with church. He quit going hasn't been

back since. And we talked. He was very respectful and

we had a nice conversation and I kind of talked

about my life and us and the Mennon Nights and

our faith and oh yeah, he said he's from central

Oregon and he said, oh, there's over in Labran there's

a store and a bakery and oh he was going

about their food and then PRETTY say, oh, there's a

bakery and a maddress. Yeah, the Mennonite p people there

in Mattress. And I said, well, I hope we're known

more for more than just our good food. And oh yeah,

he said, yeah, I think they were good people. I mean,

he doesn't know a lot of Mennonites, but they were

very friendly and nice. But I thought about that, and

I think, I hope and I think that we are,

but that we are assaulting a light to the world

in a lot more areas than just being thrifty. And

like I said, hard working, good cooks, straight front fence

lines and all the weeds pulled and whatever. All it's

good things. But are we a humble people? Are we

known to be generous in our business dealings? Or are

we hard bargainers that offend the local people around us?

Are we kind? Are we known to be holy people

that help and care about the needs of others? As

another question as an individual, now, this is the question

one thing about saying is our church. It's easy to

just kind of shrug that off onto the next guy

or the person beside us. But now I'd like to

ask you a personal question that applies to me as

an individual person in our church are you and I

helping the church, the culture of the church to identify

more with Christ or with the world like you personally?

Do you bring the average up more christ like or

more worldly down? Where are you putting your weight? Where

are you putting your finger on the scale of godliness

versus worldliness? In our personal life, daily interactions with others,

our Instagram posts, do we re represent Jesus or do

we just kind of fit in with all that filth?

You know, we represent Christ and we also you represent me.

What you do and what I do isn't just you

and I'm over here. It is us. And so that's

why I care, and that's why you should care about

what I do, is that we are in this together.

And I've used this illustration before. But you can be

in a boat and I can sit in the back

of the boat, and if I grab a drill and

start drilling a hole through the botto, I'm going to

tell you to mind your own business. You stay on

your side of the boat. That doesn't make sense. It

affects us all. We're all going down at some point,

and so church life, it matters the group culture. We

are in it together. Do you have a vision for

the future of the church. Have you thought about that?

It's good for us to do that. Sometimes we ministry

talked about that we probably don't have a sharp enough vision,

but we've done that. What is the vision? What are

we about? What would we want to be? Now? We

can't control all that. You'd be surprised how it feels

like you don't have much control. But we still need

to have a bit of a vision and a goal

as to what we want to be because church culture

will be by default or by design. Sometimes we know

what we don't want to be, but we have a

hard time knowing what we stand for. And that can

be something when we run away from our other churches

or problems or things that they didn't And you know,

all we care about going forward in life is to

not be that. But that doesn't get us anywhere productive

very well. We need sometimes we need to let that go,

forgive that mess, whatever it was, and think about what

do I want to be in light of Christ and

his church? Where do we want to be in thirty years?

What trajectory are we on? Are you thinking about the

little things and the impact that they have. Okay, some

things to build and strengthen our church community. I'll buzz

down through. Some of these are just things I thought of,

and I'm sure you could add to the list. Be

willing to sacrifice and lay down personal preferences for the

good of the group, like the Apostopaul and like Jesus,

and like those verses we said, respect the existing culture

of the church and other churches. We shouldn't have the

attitude that we got it together and we're better, and

everybody else on the right is a little bit off course,

and everybody on the left is a little bit off

that side, and we're all, no, that's not right. But

we respect people for where they have decided. We respect

the church for where we stand. We don't agree with everything.

I don't agree with everything. That wouldn't be possible. We

all give and take, We honor and respect each other

in the position of the church. Sometimes people I'll just

say this, and I don't think it's a huge problem,

but I think it is a reality. Sometimes people leave

other planer churches, if we want to call them that,

for whatever reason. Maybe there's good reasons, spiritual reasons, maybe

there's bad and carnal reasons all mixed in. But sometimes

it isn't long until those they come into this church

and get these freedoms, and then they're pushing the limits

on this church and causing stress in the church that

they come into. It's never enough. It's just always that

outward push, and that's hard on a church. We should

respect the old paths, even if we don't agree with them.

I think there's a place to change, and I don't

know if I have time to give any points on that,

but the old ways things we don't understand always, even

if they aren't like real comprehensive proof reasons why, they're

probably as good as my new idea likely, but I've

thought of it. In hunting a lot up in the hills,

you have a lot of time to think, and going

over mountains and train that I've never been in, I

have besides a map, I don't know what's over the

next hill and over the next curve, but all through

those mountains there's these old game trails that are leading

certain directions, And if I can have my way, I

will stay on a game trail, even though I don't

know exactly where it's going. I just know and I

just have experience enough that when I get off that

trail and take that shortcut. It Usually I find out

that that trail was there for a reason. There was

a cliff, there was a boulder, there was a creek,

and those animals for hundreds of years have went this

route because of a reason. And I think about that

sometimes as young people and even myself coming up through life.

I don't always understand stuff. But there's just path that's

wore down, this way of doing things. It might not

have super deep reasons, but it might have some reasons,

and to just respect it and be careful with that.

And I think absolutely think there's a time to change.

We've changed things here, you know that, and so I

just I think that's okay. But I would just say

this that I think there's a proper way to change,

and the proper way to change is like they did

in the Books of Acts fifteen. It was where they

all got together, they talked about it, and they came

to a consensus and they made a decision. It wasn't

one or two people pushing, pushing, pushing until the church

followed up. Okay, another thing that builds community hospitality, And

if you remember back in Acts two, one of the

things they did was they break. They broke bread together.

And I think that there's something and share and eating

and drinking together that God has instilled within humanity and

social beings that it can bond us together or be

one of the sources that bring a community and people

in general together. And of course in that it is

an automatic. We got to focus on the people and

not just on the plate of food. I mean eating

food together. Feeding together doesn't bring you together, but the

act and the social realization over food another one. Rejoice

with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

And I think about empathy and when others among us

are going through things, both good times and bad. If

they're good, don't get all jealous and kind of evil

eye towards them. Be rejoiced with them. They they got

that place, or they whatever, got an opportunity to get

to go in the mission field, or get the little

Bible school, or get to stay home. But weep with

them that weep. Also sorrows and joys build emotional on

friendship bonds. And I thought about the many blessings of

Godly culture that I have just received. I didn't work

for them, I just am blessed with them, and Just

in the last week or so, we had the funeral

for Priscilla, and I thought about how we do funerals,

and it is a blessing. It's a big deal. It's

a lot of work, but I think it's worth it.

And I think it's weeping and entering in with those

that weep in the family that goes through a time

like that. I thought about Michael and Sandra's baby while

all around our world, in our culture, there's thousands of

babies being killed every day and discarded. I wasn't there.

I seen pictures, but there's a very respectful service for

a little baby that never seen the light of day.

But what that does is reminds us of the sanctity

of life and that God is the creator. Life is precious.

People are grieving and that is that is a blessing.

People bought tickets and flu all the way to North

Carolina to help grieve over a baby. That's a blessing.

Our godly weddings, I think, are another one. Sometimes I

can get tired of all the hoop to do of that,

but I think it is important that we that that

is a big day, and that is a serious day,

and that is a stake in the ground. It's not

just a little happening with the half a dozen people

at the courthouse, but it is a series. It is

a commitment for life, and that we take this and

our friends come culture of family and home and and children.

We love children and we believe in families, and I

think those are all just godly things that we take programmed.

I'm running out of time. Another thing showing us about

building church, supporting and showing up. I think I'm just

if you need to go, you can go, but I'm

gonna finish because this is I've had this stuck on

me for a while, supporting and showing up at church

functions and services and prayer meetings, and I know we

can't always be there, and as luck would have it,

I'm gonna be hard on us about prayer meeting. But

I already think I'm gonna be gone this Wednesday. So

if you're keeping score, I mean, just show up and

pray for me. But praying together is underrated. Praying together

as a congregation is I think important and in relationships,

and sometimes there is boring, dead little prayer meetings. But

what if all of you were here for prayer meeting,

and you came every prayer meeting with sincerity and a

desire and a need and an awareness of the needs

of the church that are shared in other people. I

just wonder what that would do if we would commit

to that. It is discouraging for those that are carrying

prayer meeting on the shoulders week after week after week,

all by themselves. A while ago, we had a discussion

and pretty much everybody said, yeah, we want to keep

prayer meetings, but who's going to keep the lights on

at prayer meeting. I think it's something that we should

share together, and I think it would bring us together,

that there's something about getting down on our knees in

humility and praying together that I think it's a thermostat

of a church. Prayer is one of the first things

that goes in the life of a dying Christian, and

I'm afraid it's one of the first things that goes

in a church culture. A dying church culture be vulnerable

and honest, I'll just say, I forgot to say this.

I'm not very good at some of these I am.

I felt convicted in studying this. I hope I want

you to know that that I am not here and

you are here. Some of you are here and I

am here. Some of you do better at this than

I do. And yet I think they're good, that they're

important things. I'm not being vulnerable and honest with with needs.

It's I don't like that. I don't I don't like to.

I don't know why. I just I don't want to

burden people with the vulnerability of it all. It's probably pride,

I don't know, but I think it. I think it

builds church community to share on some level. I'll have

another point with that down a little bit. Be humble

and patient with others. Now, being aggressive with our ideas

isn't very productive, like cultural ideas and wishes whatever they

may might be, but it usually is a lot more

effective if we will will live out and be an

example and inspire people by by example. That works much better.

Have an outward focus as a church. I think there

is another We know that the illustration of a pond

that doesn't have an outflow gets stagnant and slime and overgrows,

and it isn't healthy to both personally and to look

out and to look for needs of other people and

minister in little ways, not everyone needs to know about it.

That's one thing that I just bless our youth and

I think is good. It's like it's a little thing.

But the children's club, I just I think that's good.

And you know, I don't know how it's affecting the children.

But if you do it with your whole heart, and you, minister,

I think that you and your little youth group that

does that will be blessed for that. Love each other

by this, Shaulman, know that your might disciples, if you

love one another and love is a choice. Few things

that hinder church culture and this here's where a little

bit of the opposite is. But gossip and backbiting and

a critical spirit and that thing about being open I said, vulnerable.

You know, when there's a lot of the other, then trust,

it destroys trust. And when trust is gone, it's just

like a domino effect, negative domino effect. People close up.

They're not going to share with certain people, They're not

going to share in the presence of certain people. There's

too much criticism, and so then there's isolation and there's withdrawing,

and there's distance, and there's walls, and it just has

a bad effect on people. Independent spirit is another one,

and I mean that's me too much try to fight

against it. But to get to the point where just

live and let live that isn't That is not healthy.

It's easy to do. But being dependent independent is It's God,

it's pros, it's nice, it's kind of do your own

thing when things are going good. But it also has

its negative effects. Again, the fruit of just everybody being

independent is isolation and loneliness. And the more independent we get,

the gaps get bigger and the misunderstandings become easier and

the walls get higher. Hey focus on money and earthly

pleasures over relationships. And we all need money, but when

that becomes our primary focus in life, use our money

to share and help with the needs of others. A

disregard for the church standards and practices. You know, externals

like clothes and hair are not everything, and then in

some churches they get overemphasized, and I just I don't

think it is that way here. It maybe gets underemphasized.

I'm not sure, but yes, and hair aren't everything, but

clothes are a pretty big indicator of what we want

to identify with. You know what, why do I go

to that racket Jean's and pay that price tag. I mean, why,

just something to think about. Why do I paint my nails?

Why do I do my hair the way I do

my hair? Why? Just it's what are we identifying with?

Just something to think about. Disrespect and disregard for the

opinions and others of brothers, maybe scoffing, lack of commitment, loyalty.

And I won't say much on this, Yeah, I just

think that's important. I want to show you something on

the board. Another one is maybe heavy handedness and authority

or discipline or all love and no discipline can have its.

And I won't show you a little bit on here.

So there's two different two different diagrams here. Don't worry

about this right now, but four different scenarios. And I

got this. This is an original with me. I got

this out of the Book of I Will build my church.

Finds it value oder but no for the sake of

the people listening, no love, no discipline equals a dysfunctional church.

Pastors scorn laity or independent and no communication. Much love,

no discipline is permissive church pastor is a good buddy.

Laity or disorderly surface communication, no love, much discipline, abusive

church pastors, hated laitier, bitter, strained communication, and much love

and much discipline, he says, is a dynamic church. Pastor

is a leader, laity is a is charactered heart communication.

And can I just say one thing. I don't want

to distract it if I use the board and write

up here and I misspell a word, will you commit

to putting your hand in the air and saying that

I misspelled it. It's a big distraction to people. I

did that last time and you all sat there so

kindly the whole service. I passionately said what I said

with a misspelled word behind me. So just do that, Okay. Now,

this is the three options of church government. While we're

talking about that, and I won't go into this, but

it just this is generals. Again, that's from the same

book Roman Catholic as Pope Priest, Laity Protestant Church. These

two came out of the Catholic. The Protestants were all equal, free,

just equality and congregation. Ana Baptist is a little bit

different of our role model of church and a servant

leader leading by servant, not by that top down. And

so that is the I think the biblical goal, but

sometimes we can get these mixed up and cross over

from each other. And I think we as pastors need

to try to do our part for sure in not

being authoritarian or not being too loving and non disciplining.

But I would just say that I think a congregation

plays a part in that you don't don't set your

ministry into a position where they don't belong either too

high or that they are responsible for everything. Like we

are trying to be a brotherhood and a family, and

so we're in this together, so it helps both. Now

one other thing, just skim ahead here. What about parachurch

organ organizations? What do they? How do they impact a church?

And I was amazed at when I got to thinking

about this that there's how many there are of Anabaptist

type people like that train for pastors and teachers, send missionaries,

humanitarian a teaching, Bible evangelizing. But in the last thirty

or forty years, our churches have been flood or not

our churches, but our communities have just been flooded with

these things. And they're good. I think they're kind of good.

I've been blessed by them. But I just wrote down

some off the top of my head. I'm not going

to read them all. Christian Aid Ministries, Salt Caste, WFTI, PSLI,

Youth Bible Skills. You know, there's a whole bunch of them, SMBI, Cornerstone,

Annabac Perspective, Anabaptists, Financial Strength to Strength, Kingdom Fellowship Week,

and I think that's happening here right now, All Nations,

Bible Translation, Mount zion E, sl I fifty eight, Plane Compassion,

Grace Press, Heart Care Ministry, Sunrise Gospel, Sunrise, The briand Voice,

I Go IBM M, ib M I am Ama Ana,

Baptist Sexual Awareness, Penn Valley, Kingdom Discipleship for Ministers, Church

Planners Conference, Fresh Start Shepherds, Will Deeper Life, faith Builder,

Faith Mission, and I could listen more. There's maybe forty

of them that I have here, and I'm sure there's

a bunch more. And these can be both a blessing

and a hindrance to our church churches. I would just

say that, just keep that in mind. I've been blessing

to have opportunities for singles and individuals and families to

serve and to bless in ways outside the church. They

can build the Kingdom in ways like coming together and

having a Bible skill together. But there's also some things

that they can take negatives. Maybe that can take time

and resources from the local church. We can get so

busy running around and being on all these boards that

the home congregation, the old, boring, non flashy needs of

our home get missed because we're doing all this just

something to be aware of. They can fragment a church.

You can be a part of that, and you can

be a part of that, and you can put all

your energy in that. You can put all your energy

and that we're going everywhere, but we're not doing anything together,

and so that can be a thing that can happen.

It can It can also provide an out for people

that are getting sideways with the old hard home congregation

and that working that out, and it can kind of

go as a refugee into these and and float around

and be not accountable. And that's one thing that maybe

it's just my own little problem, but people that can

can go and support all these things, but they aren't

part of a church themselves, just floating and feeding off

of all of this but avoiding accountability the whole time.

I think that that's wondering stars and that's not good. Okay,

I'm pretty well done and closing here the hall Sey

Mennonite Church. What are we? What do we? What are

what do we want to be? Well? I would just

say thank you for all that you have been in

r I would say that many of you, most of

you have been a blessing and cooperative and a lot

of these things we talked about and been a good

example to me in areas that I'm weak in, and

so I'm blessed to be a part of you. We

want to be a glorious church that honors Jesus Christ.

Our culture last here few things. We go from healthy

roots to our fruit. That is something that each one

of us has to do on our own, take care

of our roots. Our culture is either determined by default

or by design. And I'll read this other one as well.

One of our most difficult struggles is not the inability

to conform to a godly culture, but our unwillingness to

yield to the voice of another. This unyieldingness keeps us

from fully integrating and identifying ourselves with the people of God.

May God bless you and our church and the rest

of your churches. Wherever you're from, you have a song,

you want to just lead one song. Do you want

to close, Jason, or do you think we should just pray? Yeah,

let's just have one song and stand forfeit a blue

way past. I'm sorry for that, thank you for letting

me get it off my chest. And then we'll stand

and Jason, we'll have a prayer after the one verse