Future Church: Growth + Change | Part 5

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, today we're concluding our series Future Church.

We spent the last five weeks diving into the book of Acts and studying the early church, looking back to how the church began to help us understand how we are to be the church today.

And through the last few weeks, you can't help but say, you know, this is a church of high impact.

The early church was on the move and was making incredible impact.

The apostles teaching with power, they were doing miracles and wonders.

I mean, you just saw the spirit moving, and lots and lots and lots of people were coming to know Jesus.

And the question for us today is how do we become a high impact church in the heart of the Silicon Valley?

Like, is that early church, that church of impact, that church on the move, was that just for then way back when?

Or could that be for us here in the heart of the Silicon Valley?

Well, today I want you to put on your leadership hat, if you will.

In fact, I want to talk to you as leaders, that we would together say, okay, how do we do this together as a church?

In fact, we're going to look at uh Acts chapter six, and it's really a case study in leadership or a case study in church leadership.

And so as I read it, would you begin to have the eyes and lens or begin to think with the eyes and lens of a leader?

And so if you got your Bibles, would you pick it up at or open them up to Acts chapter six, verse one?

It says, In those days, when the number of the disciples were increasing, literally multiplying, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because the widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

Okay, first, what in the world's going on here?

So, one, we first see the numbers increasing.

In fact, what's incredible, scholars tell us that the church at this point is probably somewhere between the uh 15 to 25,000 people.

Isn't that amazing?

And so, you know, growth is exciting, but also growth brings so much challenges with it, too, right?

And here's one of the challenges.

The Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews.

Now, let me explain this for a second because most of us don't really know what's going on here, because we think of, oh, you're you're Jewish, but there was actually two different types of Jewish people in Jerusalem.

In fact, they would have different types of synagogues, one for the Hellenistic Jews and those for the Hebraic.

Now, the Hebraic Jews were the Jews who were born really in Jerusalem, who spoke Aramaic as their primary language.

They certainly spoke Greek, but Aramaic, and so they would read the scriptures in Hebrew.

And so when they would worship, they would worship in Aramaic or Hebrew.

Uh and this was, you know, they had just kind of a little bit of this elitism that, like, hey, we're really, you know, following uh God's law the way it was intended to.

Now, the Hellenistic Jews had adopted the Greek culture.

Many of them lived outside of Jerusalem, and some would move back to Jerusalem, just feeling like it, you know, they wanted to die in, you know, or live their final days in their homeland, in their home country, in the city of God, Jerusalem.

And so their primary language was Greek, and they spoke Greek and they adopted the Greek culture.

And so there was this rift, there was this vision.

And here's what's interesting is these Christians now, they stepped into a new life in Jesus, but they brought some of their old patterns into this new life.

And so we're seeing an injustice take place.

They're being overlooked.

Uh, and there's a challenge here of the distribution of food for those who are in need, the widows.

And so it goes on.

So, how are we going to solve this problem?

We have a leadership crisis on our head.

So the 12 gathered all the disciples uh uh together and said, It would not be right for us to neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.

Jesus gave us a calling, he gave us a job to be a witness.

And so we got to be witnesses.

We can't be uh waiting on tables.

And so, what's the solution?

Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the spirit and wisdom.

In fact, in your Bible or maybe in your notes over wisdom, just write the word skill.

Wisdom is literally the skill of navigating life well in God's universe.

And this is the skill, these were skilled people in a particular area of administration and organization.

And then he goes on and says, We will turn this responsibility over to them, and we'll give our attention to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

Well, uh, this proposal uh pleased the whole group, and they chose.

Now, notice this they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, Philip, Procorius, Nicanor, Timon, yeah, and Peraminus and Nicholas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

Now, what's incredible is all of these names are Greek names.

So when they're trying to solve the problem, they say, let's choose those whose hearts are most deeply connected to the problem and want to be a part of the solution.

They presented these men to the apostles who prayed, they laid hands.

The laying on the hands was the sign of blessing, the giving of authority, and the commissioning for a specific task on them.

And it continues on.

Says, so the word of God.

So here's the result of this leadership decision in the midst of this leadership crisis or challenge, the word of God spread.

The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, high impact, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Those who were serving in the temple began to become followers of Jesus.

So, what do we learn?

This is a case study, if you will.

What do we learn in this leadership case study of how today we can become a high-impact church?

How we can become like the church, how it began.

The first thing I want you to see is a high-impact church believes that growth is normal, it's expected, and it's imperative.

That healthy churches grow.

Now, on the flip side, let's be honest, not all growing churches are healthy, but healthy churches are growing.

I want you to pay attention to this because there's a tension in our day and age around numbers and growth and all these sort of things.

But Luke is so intentional about counting and numbering and telling us the progression of the church.

In fact, in the first 19 chapters, there's approximately 18 different times where he says, and the Lord added to their number, and the number increased.

I mean, I'll just read a few.

Acts 1, 15, that tells us that the disciples were numbering 120, then Acts 2, 41, then 3,000 were added to their number.

A few verses later, Acts 2, 47, it says, And the Lord added to their number daily those who are being saved.

And then Acts 4, 4, and grew the number to about 5,000 followers in men.

Acts 5, 15.

I mean, it just goes on and on and on.

See, a healthy church.

And I want to say healthy because I think if you might have a hard time when I say a high impact church, a healthy church.

Let me define what a healthy church or a high impact church really is all about.

A healthy church is where lost people are coming to know Christ.

And the Lord added to their number daily, where lost people are coming to know Jesus.

Where we're seeing a healthy church sees people come to know Jesus, and then found people are growing to maturity.

Where there's the progression that you're becoming more and more like Jesus.

It's and maturity, by the way, is not how much you know, but it's how much you obey.

See, for some, and this isn't maybe necessarily as much today, but it used to be I'm mature because I know so much of God's word.

And man, it's so good to know God's word, get into God's word.

We got our Bible reading plan.

We want you in God's word.

But mature person is the one who obeys what they know.

And Jesus had said, if you love me, you will obey my commands.

Lost people coming to know Christ, a healthy church sees this happening consistently.

Found people are growing to maturity, then mature people are reproducing their life.

If you're spiritually mature, then your life is being reproduced in other people's lives.

Matthew uh 28, 18 through 20 is the great commission.

It's not just for the super spiritual, it's for every single believer.

It says, therefore, go, or literally, as you're going about your day, make disciples.

And so a mature follower of Jesus is making disciples, has a heart for their friends or maybe family members or neighbors or coworkers.

You know, in our all church update, I gave a little bit of a challenge and I had a three by five card and I said, Would you, leading up to this Easter season, write down the names of people in your life who do not know Jesus and start praying for them?

Pray daily that God would begin to move and draw them closer to you, to himself, that they'd come to know him, and then look for opportunities to share in some way about Jesus.

I did that, I shared this story in our all-church update.

I did that in high school.

God used a, you know, a scrawny 17-year-old kid, and I don't know where I got this idea, but I just started writing down names of friends in high school.

And over the course of that year, I saw all, you know, I don't know, I can't remember 12 or 13 names.

All of them come to know Christ.

See, mature people are reproducing their life, and a healthy church then goes on to say where they're meeting significant needs in the community.

Did you see that?

That the early church took seriously the needs of the community.

The early church said, you know what, this both spiritual and physical, that we're gonna proclaim the gospel of Jesus, and we're gonna address and help the poor and correct injustices.

This is a healthy church, and literally, I stole this from my dad, what he calls a high impact church.

This is what it means for us to be the church.

And where we begin to get in our hearts and minds that okay, as a high-impact church, growth is normal.

It's expected.

In fact, it's imperative for us to grow.

The second thing, then, is that a high impact church understands that the mission never changes, but the methods continually change.

The mission never changes.

See, the growth of all what was happening, it caused some problems for these early followers, right?

And the early church adopted its organizational, thank you very much, structure in order to minister effectively to the needs around them.

In fact, when it said it chose seven men, it actually was taking the best organizational, administrative strategies of its day in Judaism from the synagogue and from the the way towns were organized, that they would, the city council would have seven.

And he said, let's do that.

That we're gonna take whatever the best strategy is for organizing as long as it aligns with God's word, and we're gonna leverage it and use it.

And the mission was always the same.

What's the mission?

Make disciples, to reach those who are far from Jesus, to bring people into new life in Christ.

But our method is constantly gonna change.

How we organize is constantly gonna change.

The structure is to support the size of the church.

The structure isn't to be worshiped, the size isn't to be worshiped, Jesus is to be worshiped.

The mission never changes, but our methods will continually change.

You know, we said we exist to awaken this generation to new life in Jesus.

That's our vision, that's what we're about, that's what we're getting after.

And yet, how we do that will change.

It has to change because we're about reaching this generation.

And we're gonna figure out okay, how do we connect uh with this generation?

How do we, like we said, all the way back in part two of this, how do we begin to speak the language of this generation that they would hear the gospel in their own language?

Part of that's music, right?

And and by the way, the greatest worship music on the planet is the one is the time when you came to know Christ.

That is the greatest worship music.

Right?

The minute you really gave your life to Jesus, oh, that is the greatest.

And that's the reason Delirious is the greatest worship band of all time.

Except most of you probably don't even know who Delirious is.

But that's when my life was being shaped and formed by Christ.

And yet, here's what we know about music music is the language of the soul, music is also the language of a generation, and so our music is gonna be brought in such a way that it's speaking the language of a generation to lead them to Jesus.

And so there may be a day.

There may be a day where I'm not in love with the style of music, and who cares because it's about this generation.

We're gonna fall in love with the vision, we're gonna fall in love with the mission, we're not gonna fall in love with the method.

And here's why this is so important.

When we do this, it compels us to die to our preferences and change for the sake of those who are not yet a part of the family of God.

And we would die to our preferences.

I don't prefer this.

And the people that I am so incredibly grateful for, when we started eight and a half years ago and is basically a college ministry, you know, with um uh tons of young people, were the few gray hairs that came and said, This, I I don't, I don't see anybody like me.

But I like to be a part of what God's doing here, and I'm gonna show up.

This music doesn't it doesn't meet me, but I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna serve and I'm gonna be here.

Why?

Because they fell in love with the mission, not the method.

High impact church.

Growth is normal, expected, it's imperative.

The mission never changes.

That stays the same, but our methods will continually change.

And then it goes on, and I notice this uh with um the disciples' response.

It requires healthy leaders, healthy leaders to embrace the law of focus.

Well, what does a healthy leader look like?

You see, the apostles they responded so healthily.

Like we know unhealthy leaders, right?

Unhealthy leaders that they make everything about themselves, unhealthy leaders that will not give up control, unhealthy leaders that have to micromanage everything that's going on around them.

Unhealthy leaders who don't know their limits, and so they are then the lid of growth.

See, a healthy leader embraces the law of focus.

The focus is getting clear on what is it only you can do.

There's this clarity on what only you are called to do.

You notice that the uh Peter and John and James and all the rest, they they were so clear on their calling.

And it wasn't about a lesser, you know, uh thing or a greater thing, it was about being clear on your calling.

It's like we've been called, Jesus gave us a job.

We have to preach the word of God, we have to sit in his presence because that's that's developing the health and heart of a leader to be able to lead well and wisely.

And so there's things that we can do, but we're not called to do.

And if we can do it, but we're not called to do it, that means we're stepping into areas that other people are gifted to do it.

And so we're gonna focus the law of focus on what is it only we can do.

And when we embrace what is it only we can do, then notice what they did.

They handpicked godly, capable leaders to do the ministry.

I and I love this because if you're a leader, I I want you to I want you to think about this.

I want you to think about the reality of this handpicking.

He chose.

Oftentimes, we need to look around of who are the capable?

Like they they have the capacity.

Remember, I had you, you know, write skill above wisdom.

They they have this skill in this particular area.

These seven men, they they were gifted in administration and organization.

They had skills that the 12 didn't have, and they were spirit-filled, they were godly.

And so you delegate responsibility, not just task.

And so a high impact church then unleashes God's people to do significant ministry.

It un a high impact church doesn't have just a few people to do a few things, and everybody else is watching.

A high impact church says, you know, gross normal.

Yep.

And by the way, our mission never changes, but how we do things, that's gonna change.

And so we're as leaders, we're we're going to be healthy and focus in on what is it that we're called to do and then unleash, unleash God's people to do significant ministry.

Think about this.

If this moment didn't happen, it would have limited the impact and the scope of what the disciples and what the church could have become.

If they decided, hey, we're gonna focus on on, you know, oh, we we have this need.

And here's here's what here's what people do.

They go, like, well, if it's important, then the pastor should be a part of it.

If it's important, you know, Peter, you should be a part of this.

We have this need.

We we this is an injustice.

This we we need this ministry now.

And the gospel would have been limited because they would have been diverting their energy to things that are important but not part of their calling.

And people who are gifted never would have utilized their gifts to bring supernatural good to the community of God and those around them.

Well, we need, by the way, spirit-filled, wise, women and men ready to take up the towel of service and say, okay, I want to leverage, I want to leverage my expertise, I want to leverage my skill for the sake of the gospel.

Now, the reason we struggle with this is there's there's an American model of ministry uh that that we've adopted and inherited that many of us think about.

And the American model of ministry looks something like this pastors are the star players, and God's people are the supportive fans.

Like pastors, like you know, you come into church and you know, depending on where it is, it's an audience, and you're standing up on the stage, and it's like, whoa, and then when you talk about your church, sometimes you're talking about your pastor, something you're like, pastors are the star players, and they're on all these sort of things.

And then God's people are the supportive fans, like, oh yeah, that's great.

I want to talk about my church.

That's not God's design for the church, and that keeps us stuck from being a church of impact.

God's design is simply this pastors are the coaches, God's people are the star players.

My job, when you show up online, when you log on, when you are joining into one of our groups, the job of our staff is to help coach, help to equip.

Like our Sunday service, I want you to think of it instead of like, I'm watching an event, is I'm a part of a huddle where the coach is pulling us around.

And I know not everybody's sports, so I'll try to keep it not as, you know, uh sports related, but but where you go like, and I'm going like, okay, here you go.

Okay, you got this, you got this, you got this.

The coach isn't on the field, the coach is helping those that are out there making the plays.

See, that's my job.

It's our team's job at awakening is how can we equip?

How can we empower?

How can we how can we give the ministry away and empower God's people to be the star players, to unleash a significant ministry, not insignificant and just task-driven things, but significant ministry.

In fact, let me tell you about small stars at awakening.

Let me tell you about a number of them, and I don't have time to tell you about all of them.

Let me tell you about Reed Burke, who has been a part of our church forever before we planted as a church, and he has this um incredible skill.

He works at he's an engineer at Yahoo, and guess what?

He said, I'm gonna leverage my expertise to strengthen and build up the church.

And so our website is because of Reed Burke.

We had did live stream.

We're one of the very first churches in America to do live stream.

Why?

Because we had Reed Burke and other technical people who were able to do it and our transition into church online and all these sort of things because of his skill, not because of a staff person's skill, not because the pastor did it, because Reed Burke, an all-star.

Let me tell you about a guy named John Overmeyer, who's retired now.

He was, you know, in the tech management, highly gifted in administration, leads a small group.

But he said, I, you know, I'm gonna leverage my retirement and use my management and my administration skills.

There is so much behind the scenes that you'll have no idea how organized, how systematized, how everything's held together because he's one of those seven types of people that is just leveraging their skill, their um influence to strengthen the church.

Let me tell you about a gal named Annie Chang.

Annie Chang's just this amazing woman who's looking around and saying there's a need in the church.

And as we're growing, the care of, you know, is growing as well, like the need for people to be cared for.

And so God birthed a vision in her heart and she's said, Hey, do you think I could start a care team and uh where we just begin to minister to people?

And I mean, she started this and it started small, and then all of a sudden there's 30 people in her group, and I mean, the the needs they're meeting, the people they're praying for, the way they surround people in their hurt and their pain, and then it just keeps building from there.

Within the care team was a gal named Angie Chang, and she said, Well, I want to care for the homeless.

It's amazing.

And so she started our homeless ministry.

She started.

See, we're talking about people who are starting significant ministry.

In fact, as we look at this last year and the ministries that have begun, they've been started by our all-star people, God's people.

She started this, and we're able to minister to the most vulnerable in our society because of that.

I think of Eric and Amy Frampton with our racial justice and reconciliation team.

I think of uh Caleb and Maddie and the YP team.

Uh, they're these young professionals go, hey, we want to reach young professionals.

I mean, I think of Melissa, who many of you see at the connection table every single week, and she serves with such love and care.

And and yet she hasn't, her job is HR.

So she brings that expertise in how to make things better and more organized, and how for us to do this as a church, and she leads a small crew.

You see, pastors are not the all-star.

Never designed to be.

That's not God's model.

The coach, God's people are the star players.

You are the star player.

And the question then is how do we get there?

How do we become that high-impact church where we go, okay, growth is normative.

We're not going to be about our method, but we're gonna marry, we're gonna our mission, it is just permanent.

Where we're gonna embrace the laws of focus and healthy leadership and unleash God's people to significant ministry.

Well, let me just give you perhaps the next step wherever you're at.

Okay, so maybe you're uh just starting to join us online.

Maybe you started attending over the course of COVID and you've been watching for a few Sundays.

Um, maybe uh you're just starting to check church out.

Let me give you what I call just simply step one.

You're in the explore stage.

Would you take time and really explore and say, do I want to join the movement of what God's doing at awakening?

This is what we're about.

Join the movement.

And so take time.

Actually, do this.

Say, I'm gonna commit for the next month, and I'm gonna attend whether it's online or in person, and I'm gonna really discern I'm in the exploration stage.

And after Easter, we have a class called Intro class.

It tells you all about who we are, what we're about, and where we're headed.

Would you take that next step?

In fact, I like to talk about the intro classes.

Most times we're never taught how to like, you know, um find a church.

I want to teach you how to find a church and how to really be a part of that church.

And so, step one, maybe that's where you're at.

You're exploring and you're deciding whether you're going to join the movement.

Step two, maybe you've been exploring, you've been around, you've been hanging out, you've been maybe here for a few months.

Would you engage?

Would you engage?

And the first step to engagement is experiencing community.

There's like two main ways that we experience community.

The first is in our small groups, our groups that happen throughout the week, where you would engage and go, okay, that's where you begin to do life on life, where you're uh you're able to encourage others, and others are able to encourage you.

Our groups are simply growing together to become more like Jesus.

The other way that we experience community is when we serve.

You know, pre-COVID, close to half of our church was actually serving in some way.

And we needed it, the setup and teardown and all those sort of things.

Um, but when you serve, you feel apart, don't you?

The minute you begin to feel like you're contributing and you just look, and there's so many ways where you're going, like, I don't know different things that you can serve both digitally and in person.

And where you just go, okay, what are those ways that I can serve?

What are those ways?

And you just fill out a connection card and we'll get you connected in that way.

Well, you may be going, like, Ryan, there was a class for explorer.

Is there something here for me to engage?

Absolutely.

It's a class or an environment, really, that we call startup.

And it's to jumpstart you into community, into the life of our church.

Well, many of you, you're like, I'm exploring, I've already explored, and I'm engaged.

I'm in a group and I'm serving in some way.

What's the next step for me?

And it's to lead, to join the movement, to go, you know what?

I want to be one of those stories, one of those all-star stories that you're telling me about.

And I want to live on mission.

I want to embrace that it's not Ryan or Chris or Christina or Felicia or Nassim or whoever else is the all-stars.

It's not staff.

No, our job is to equip, our job is to empower.

And you're to live on mission, on purpose for Jesus.

And so would you begin to say, okay, God, what are you doing in me?

And what do you want to do through me?

And God's starting to burst something in you, and you go, guess what?

I have a dream.

All those things.

I have a dream about what God would want to do.

And it's not like, oh, Pastor, you need to do this.

You know what it is?

It's like, okay, I have the Spirit of God in me.

I have this skill set.

I would love to leverage these in this way.

In fact, we have a course we call Leadership Essentials to help you grow in your leadership.

And for some, you're like, I don't really feel like a leader.

Well, you all of us have influence in some way, which means we get to lead in some way and think about your sphere of influence.

And we want to help you grow and develop in that.

Would you out of this series, future church?

Would you take the next step?

What is your next step to take that we might be a high impact church?

A church where lost people are coming to know Christ, found people are growing to maturity, mature people are reproducing their lives, and we're meeting significant needs in the community.

That's what the early church was.

And that's God's heart for our church today.

Jesus, thanks so much for your grace.

Thank you so much for your word.

Thank you that this isn't something for way back then, and it's something for us today.

It's your heartbeat for our church and the church.

And so, God, I ask that out of the sermon, you would give each person just the wisdom, the discernment to know what the next step is and then the courage to do it.

For many, it's just filling out a connection card and saying, I want to serve, or I want to, I want to know more about something.

God, would you give them the courage to do it?

And would we would you make us your kind of church for your glory in Jesus' name?

Amen.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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