We Are Called
A church is made up of called
people – the Church at Thessalonica
I Thessalonians 1:2-10
2We always thank God for all of you,
mentioning you in our prayers. 3We continually remember before our God and Father your work
produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by
hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
4For we know,
brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5because
our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the
Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your
sake. 6You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in
spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the
Holy Spirit. 7And so you became a model to all the
believers in
New International Version Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
The
greatest meaning in life is knowing that you have a purpose, that you weren’t a
random accident that happened. You were
called by God from birth. God has known
your name longer than you have. At some
point in your life God was pleased to reveal his son Jesus Christ to us. When that happened you had an opportunity to
receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
The whole purpose for our existence, for our calling was to
tell others of the greatness of our God.
You weren’t called to serve alone but to serve with other called
people. That’s what a church is; a
gathering of people for whom God was pleased to reveal his son to them. It then becomes no longer “I am called” but rather
“We are called”.
Look at the church Paul started in the Greek city of
His usual strategy when starting new churches was to find the
nearest Jewish synagogue to worship in.
There he would teach in the synagogue from the Jewish Bible, what we now
know as the Old Testament, about Jesus being the promised Jewish Messiah. From those services he would find people for
whom God was pleased to reveal his son Jesus Christ to them. He would gather these people together for teaching
and fellowship. He liked to stay with a
new fellowship for awhile until someone could be identified as a pastor and
trained to lead this new church.
Things didn’t go according to plans in Thessalonica as is the
case with a lot of new church developments.
In Acts 17 we read about his success in verse four “Some of the Jews were persuaded
and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not
a few prominent women.”
That’s not a bad start but we read in v.5 “But the Jews were jealous; so
they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and
started a riot in the city.” In
verse 10 we read “As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to
That was probably one of the fastest church planting efforts
on record. They were at it for possibly
three weeks max. That would be like us
going to
Riverside Presbytery, the district of the Presbyterian church
of which we are a part is beginning the first steps to launching its first new
church in many, many years. The very
first planning meeting for launching a new church will be held in our
conference room. Our presbytery is considering
hiring a consultant from the
The reason Paul knew that this church was called by God was
because he says the gospel came not simply with words, but also with power,
with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.
When a task force from neighboring San Gabriel Presbytery went into
Chino Hills in the early 90’s they went trying to locate a hot spot for
starting a new church. They talked to a
lot of people. Twice they tried to
launch a Bible study at a home in the city of people who might be interested in
helping start a new church but twice
only the hostess showed up. What they
did not experience was the power of the Holy Spirit within those they talked to
nor of any deep conviction of a desire to turn to Christ. So they decided what they needed was to hire
professionals to come in and start a church.
That’s when they hired my wife and me.
What they needed was the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
If we understand a church to be nothing more than a gathering
of people that God has called and had his son revealed to them then our job is
simply to reveal Christ to people God has already called. My wife and I had the awesome privilege in those
five years in Chino Hills of being used to reveal Jesus Christ to a number of
God’s called people. But that gathering
in Chino Hills never became institutionalized.
It was never chartered as a Presbyterian church. It never spent time or energy buying land or
building a building. It spent its energy
on doing things that would reveal Jesus Christ to those who weren’t a part of
any church. We built houses for the poor
in
A church is nothing more than a gathering of God’s called
people. I took this call to be your
pastor not to make you into the church in Chino Hills or the church in
I came initially with only words like the apostle Paul
did. But without God’s Holy Spirit power
I am just words like all the other words competing for your ear. I can preach week after week after week and
none of it will make a difference unless God’s Holy Spirit power is
demonstrating God’s presence among us.
That’s what I see happening right now.
Three years ago this church was faced with the departure of a
popular, long time pastor and had a dwindling, aging membership. In an effort to discern what to do next a
consultant was hired to evaluate the situation.
She concluded what we should do is embrace our senior membership and
become a seniors only church.
That recommendation was overwhelmingly rejected by this church
in favor of a church program that would welcome people of all ages. That was an indication God was calling this
church in that direction. Your next step
was to call a new pastor who had the same vision. That’s how I joined the team. But I would have come only with words and not
with Holy Spirit power if the Spirit of God was not in your vision regardless
of how well I preached or how hard I tried.
Instead the gospel has come to you not just in words but in
power and in the Holy Spirit. Let me give
you a sample of some of the places where I see God taking us in the year
ahead. Our core product, the reason we
exist, is to reveal Jesus Christ to those in our community who don’t know
him. We do that every week when we gather
for worship. We also do it in a lot of
different places but the core product that we offer the community at large is
here in our sanctuary on Sunday mornings.
There are obstacles in our core product that hinder people
from meeting Christ. What we’re working
on is removing those obstacles for people when they come to worship with
us. For example when I drive into a
shopping center and weeds are growing in the parking lot I think something significant
is not going on there and maybe I should go elsewhere. This summer John Adams and his Property
Ministry with your financial support re coated, re stripped and landscaped our
parking lot. It’s now a beautiful first
impression for people who visit us.
The
next impression made to visitors is by the greeters and ushers. Joe
and Lois Simpson, members for a year now recently heard the call of God to
hospitality and stepped up to oversee a whole new ministry of hospitality from
greeters in that newly coated parking lot to fellowship events throughout the
year. Perhaps you feel called to a
ministry of hospitality because I know that God didn’t just call Joe and Lois
to work alone. God calls the right
people at the right time for the right job and this is a good example.
Our usher team does a wonderful job each week but they needed
a fresh orientation training course.
Neither Pastor Scott nor myself had the time to organize this
course. This fall Dick and Sally
McAlister initiated on their own the training and oversight of our ushers. If you’d be willing to usher, Dick and Sally
will help orient you.
One area that I had concern about when I first visited here
was our sound system. Some days it’s
adequate and some days it’s difficult for you to make out what I’m saying. No one I talked to was clear as to where we
could turn to get that fixed. Someone estimated
that it would probably cost in excess of $80,000 to redo our sound system. That figure made me believe that it just
wasn’t going to happen any time soon.
One day this fall I met Ron Van Ostenbridge before a worship
service and learned that Ron had been visiting our church along with his wife
Mary Ellen for several weeks. He told me
how much he really enjoyed our church and felt like this is where God was
calling them to join and to serve. He
also said that he was a retired engineer with extensive experience helping
churches set up their sound systems and wondered if I thought we needed any
help in the area of sound.
Ron did a recent study of our sound system and his educated
estimate is that the total cost will not be $80,000 but around $8,000 if we can
get volunteers to do some of the work. Would
you like to help? A church is nothing
more than a gathering of God’s gifted and called people. Ron was gathered to this church partially because
we needed his skills and partly because Ron needed to be here for his own
growth.
This summer I knew through prayer that God was calling us to
re launch our children’s choir that had been started last year by a Growth
Through Music student named Melody Drumm.
I also sensed that God was specifically calling us to start it September
10. I spoke with our music director at
the time, Charles Magnuson and we agreed to that launch date. It was going to
be a step of faith because in early August Charles was the only one we had to
lead it at
On August 8 Charles informed me that he was resigning as music
director to go into teaching. It was
during
It was a series of dizzying events leading up to September 1 when
Christopher Gravis was able to begin his call here as our full time music
director. Chris brought with him a
phenomenal up and coming young musician named Lara Urretia complete with a
master’s degree to accompany our services and freeing Chris to lead our
children’s choir at the
But it gets better. On
the day that Chris began the children’s choir, Mary Ellen Van Ostenbridge whose
husband I just told you about came to the practice. She has years of training in leading
excellent children’s choirs in previous churches and wanted to help in
ours. Then our own Joe Smayda stepped up
to accompany the children’s choir in their rehearsals on Sunday mornings. Now Mary Ellen has taken over the leadership
of the children’s choir so that Chris is free to develop a future youth choir and
some bell choirs.
That is only the beginning.
Where would we get the children for this children’s choir. Last spring Evelyn Rutherford, another recent
new member approached me about doing a
In August we had agreed to allow a coach from
One
day during the summer Janet Gall asked me what I thought we should do about our
tutoring program since Eleanor Lacy who had co-led the program for years had
moved to
Then
this summer I had a real burden for our multitude of homebound members. It came after my 88 year old mother spent a
few weeks with us this summer and I realized how much care she actually
needed. Pastor Scott, Lynn Browning and
myself designed a program whereby our homebound members can be visited every
month by a rotating team of elders and deacons and occasionally a pastor. It was an ambitious undertaking but one that
I believed God was calling us to.
Little
did I know that the Rev. Jim Karcher would come to my office in October to
inquire where he could serve in our church.
He was especially interested in the area of visitation to our
homebound. Did we need any help in this
area, he asked?
It
wasn’t over yet. One day I was about to
do the invocation at our Retired Seniors Sunday afternoon program and as an
introduction and welcome I told them that we were searching for a Director of
Senior Adult Ministries on a part time basis and then asked them to join me in prayer
for their program that day and in the months ahead. As I was closing my eyes the last person I
saw was Dr. Kathy Fagan, professor of psychology at
To
make a long story short, Dr. Fagan joined our staff on a part time basis for at
least one year to help us design a whole new ministry of outreach to our senior
adults in this community. She is an
excellent researcher and is in the process of accessing our needs, other church
programs and possibilities for our ministry here in the months and years
ahead. I am amazed to have her here on
this staff.
God
drew Coach Carter from
To
be a multi-generational, multi-cultural church accessible for everyone we need
a transportation ministry for our homebound and children. We need people who are willing to pick up
those without transportation and bring them to church. God is calling someone
to coordinate and others to drive in that great ministry.
But
our vision goes further. Spanish only
speaking adults are moving into
Del
Webb is building 600 homes in the west part of town for the 55+ community. We need to have programs ready for their
activity center and small groups to meet in homes of their residents along with
those in the Four Seasons development.
As
the center of our valley’s population shifts west we’re going to need to launch
a satellite service on the far western edge of the city beyond
God
is calling us to be the leading center for classical music in our valley. Orchestras, bell choirs, age appropriate
choirs, community wide music concerts will draw musically oriented people to our
Lord in this place.
We’ll also be developing a contemporary praise
and worship band to lead a new service for a younger generation perhaps in the
It’s
all coming together because God is gathering his called people to do these
ministries. My question for you today is
not do you feel called, because you are called, whether you feel it or
not. My question is where do you feel
called? Perhaps it’s one of the new
ministries I mentioned or maybe something different all together. What is God calling you to do?
If
you have an idea to do it there is a strong possibility that God is calling our
church to do that thing. What is God
calling you to give for these ministries including time and money? These are exciting times because the gospel
is not coming in just words but it’s coming in God’s Holy Spirit and in
power. This is a great time to be called
to the First Presbyterian Church of Hemet.
Study Guide
How did you feel called to your present church?
You were called to your present
church for a purpose to build up that church?
What purpose do you see yourself presently having?
What ministry would you like to
see your church do in the future? How
would you know if God was calling you to do that ministry?
Daily Bible
Monday Matthew
What sin was
keeping the young man out of heaven and his calling according to Jesus in this
story?
What sin is
keeping you out of heaven and your calling?
Tuesday Matthew
Why do you
think it would be so hard for a rich person to enter heaven?
What is left for you if you give up everything to follow Christ? How has that been true for you?
Wednesday Matthew 20:1-16
What situation
do you think Jesus was addressing when he told this parable?
“The last
will be first, and the first will be last.”
Who do you think would consider themselves last and who would consider
themselves first today?
Thursday Matthew 25:31-46
Who do you
think are the sheep and who are the goats?
What does
Jesus mean by “eternal punishment” in v.46?
Friday Ephesians 2:1-10
In
the end what saves us? vss 8-9
If
good works do not save us what good are they? V.10
Saturday Psalm 24
According to
David the author what belongs to the Lord?
How does this
understanding of ownership influence your generosity?