Church Called Tov - People First

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

change anything institutional creep inches us away from relationship with

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

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

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

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

has prophets confront priests about it Jesus confronts religious leaders about

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the number of disciples was increasing the Hellenistic Jews among them

complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being

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

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

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

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

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

prayer to the ministry of the Word let us pray

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

are responsible for the experience their customers and employees have most

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

organization grows treating people as people becomes more difficult because it

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

tags for reason because your names matter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I was never asked any questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

consumers an ecclesiastical business run along the lines of advertising

techniques organizational flow charts and energized by impressive motivational

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

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

was beginning to forget we are pastors

listen

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

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

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

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

to subconsciously or even not so subconsciously treat the church

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

amen