Acts 2:41

Speaker 2: Take your bibles, if you have them and turn to the book of Acts. Acts chapter number two is where we're going to start

Speaker 1: this evening, and some of you are

Speaker 4: like, No,

Speaker 2: no, he's going back to the beginning of acts. I thought we were almost done that Sunday morning and we all

Speaker 1: spend a whole lot of time in there. It's just just for reference to get us started.

Speaker 2: So if you're there, go ahead and stand. If you're physically able in honor of reading God's Word Act Chapter number two verse number forty one. The Bible says then they that gladly received his word were baptized in the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. Tonight we're going to continue with our series called A Refresher Course. And we're going to talk tonight about becoming a church that is good and welcoming new members, welcoming new members. So let's pray. Ask God's help for the evening their only father. Think first time that we can spend together looking into your word. I pray that you give me the words you say. You help the folks that are here to listen and apply with here to their lives. It's in Jesus name. Amen.

Speaker 4: And you may be seated.

Speaker 2: Uh, two things, if I could in two groups of people.

Speaker 4: First, all of

Speaker 2: our Wednesday night crowd, that's all that came on Sunday morning and left that front row of parking spaces almost completely open.

Speaker 4: Way to go, man.

Speaker 2: I wasn't even really paying attention at first. And then somebody came up to me and said, Hey, did you notice the whole front row is empty in the parking lot? I was like, No, I didn't notice I looked. Sure enough,

Speaker 4: it was all empty.

Speaker 2: So that was awesome. And then into the service, I saw several people moving forward in the pews, moving closer to the front. And I was like, Oh my word. People actually listen. But it was very encouraging and I appreciate that. And you know, just like we talked about, we did. We had some couples. Some folks come in late Sunday morning and all of them were able to find a spot near the back because there were seats open for them. So thank you all so much for doing that. That was awesome. I was very encouraged by that. The second group I'd like to come in is our kitchen staff. It's Kathy, and her team did an excellent job this evening. I love the stromboli. It's one of my favorite meals that they do. You take this Imogene hot rolls and you put all kinds of meat and cheese in the middle of them. How could you go wrong? But then the soup was great as well. And so thank you to all the ladies that helped worked so hard to prepare those meals for us every week. Kathy, I was thinking, you know, maybe you could convince for the MC to come in one one of these weeks and and do breakfast for dinner, and he could get his men's breakfast team to come cook on a Wednesday and y'all can have a week off.

Speaker 4: Yeah, I

Speaker 2: had that thought as I. Why have we never done that?

Speaker 4: Well, we all have to do it. I would even try to help.

Speaker 2: So anyway, it's very good. Tonight, I want to talk to you about this matter of church membership and how we can. As current members, most of us here, current members of the Baptist Tabernacle, try to improve and do not the one doing a bad job, but do a better job at assimilating and incorporating new members into the church family.

Speaker 4: Um, we're

Speaker 2: we talked last week about being a visitor friendly church, and that's kind of the first step that somebody takes coming for the first time to a strange place. People you don't know, it can be very daunting, very intimidating. And so that's that's a very important time in our ministry to that person. But then let's say somebody has been coming for a while and some people visit for a few weeks and they say, Hey, this is where we want to establish our membership. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer to to see someone make that step of membership. I don't ever want to pressure someone into membership that's not ready for it. Now, some of you that have joined like I felt pretty pressured. I wasn't trying to pressure anybody into membership.

Speaker 4: But I mean, yeah, I

Speaker 2: want people to join the church. Don't you want your pastor to want people to join the church? I mean, that's that's part of his job. You would hope that he wants people to join the church. If he didn't want people to join the church, then he probably shouldn't be the pastor of that church. But I think our church is a pretty great place. You know, I'm very thankful for this. There's so many things about this church that I love. I want lots of people to experience what it's like to be a member of this church. I think I've got it later on in my sermon. So I'm going to spoil it. I'm just going to say it right now. I was so encouraged on Monday at the funeral for Miss Daisy Pippin. There were a lot of our church members here, but the ones that were here

Speaker 4: ministered to Brother Bill, where the bill

Speaker 2: was here down at the front saying goodbye to his his wife and was really struggling with them being about to close that casket. And one after another, after another of our members came up, put their arm around him, gave him a hug, prayed with him there at the front, shook his hand and it was,

Speaker 4: uh, it was a lot

Speaker 2: to see and to watch, as in real time, people were ministering to one another and coming together as a family to support a member of the body that was hurting. And I, I I hate for brother bill that he had to go through this, but I was so grateful for them, especially the men of our church that came alongside him, some that had walked that road already themselves. And it was just it was a great blessing. But membership is not just a practical thing. Membership, I believe, is a

Speaker 4: biblical

Speaker 2: matter. It's not. There's a there's a movement out there today that says membership is not important, that you can just be and a tender that you do not have to join somewhere in order to be a part of that church. But I want you to think about this with me. I think it's it's not only provable from the Bible, as you can see from verses like acts to forty one, but it's also provable by just simple logic in the eyes of God. What is the Baptist Tabernacle?

Speaker 4: Is it the building?

Speaker 2: No, is it the nonprofit organization recognized in the state of Oklahoma?

Speaker 4: No.

Speaker 2: What is the Baptist Tabernacle?

Speaker 4: The people? OK, well, if it's the people, then

Speaker 2: which people are we talking about? Is it the people who happen to show up to any given service? We regularly have visitors in all of our services. Our is the first time visitor, a member of the Baptist Tabernacle. And what if they're saved and baptized, I mean,

Speaker 4: shouldn't

Speaker 2: we make them a voting member on their first visit?

Speaker 4: How do we

Speaker 2: know who is a part of the local body and who isn't a part of this local

Speaker 4: body membership?

Speaker 2: Here's another way to think about this. I am the pastor of the Baptist Tabernacle. I have a responsibility for the people that are a part of the Baptist Tabernacle. So who am I primarily responsible for pastoring

Speaker 4: the members of

Speaker 2: the Baptist Tabernacle? I am not the Chief Shepherd. The Chief Shepherd is responsible for the care and oversight of all of God's lands. I am only an under shepherd. And so I am tasked with the oversight of a portion

Speaker 4: of the flock.

Speaker 2: A limited size. So how do I know which sheep I'm responsible for and which ones I am not membership? This doesn't get talked about enough.

Speaker 4: But are you familiar

Speaker 2: with the Greek word for church in in the New Testament? I know what it was. You a hint? The book Ecclesiastes is pretty close to the Greek word for church.

Speaker 4: I know what it is. You can say it,

Speaker 2: and

Speaker 4: we'll all applaud.

Speaker 2: Ecclesia Ecclesia Achalasia means a cold out assembly. Do you know what the primary usage of Ecclesia was before the Christians came along and started using it as the term for their gatherings?

Speaker 4: It was a political gathering.

Speaker 2: I would have been a political gathering that could have been members of a certain political

Speaker 4: party, but they had to be members.

Speaker 2: You had to have a form of voter I.D. at their time to prove that you weren't a spy from the opposition. You were a member of that party in Athens. It was well documented that in their Xia's, their assemblies, in order for you to vote and have a say in the direction of the city, you had to prove that you belonged to that city. You had to prove your citizenship. You had to prove because this way, your membership to the city of Athens and so even built into the word ecclesia is this idea that membership is to be understood. What happened to the converts in acts to forty one after they were saved and baptized? The verse tells us that they were what

Speaker 4: added

Speaker 2: unto them. They had received the message of the gospel. They'd been baptized by immersion, the only form of baptism that the early church knew. And so through these two criteria, the Bible tells us in verse thirty one that there were added unto them the first church in Jerusalem, 3000 people in a single day. Now, I think it's also important for us to note that it says there were they were added unto.

Speaker 4: If you're going

Speaker 2: to add to something, you had to have something before that you're adding to.

Speaker 4: Right.

Speaker 2: I believe that Jesus Christ started the church during his ministry. The church didn't start at Pentecost.

Speaker 4: It doesn't have

Speaker 2: talked about a whole lot, but that is what I believe. And that is what this church believes is that Jesus started his church. So how can the current members let's just think about the first church there in Jerusalem. How could those hundred and twenty assimilate three thousand into their membership? Well, it wasn't without some pain.

Speaker 4: Remember, there were

Speaker 2: there were fights that kind of broke out among them because of the the care of the widows. And so there are struggles. It's not something that just comes, you know, like flipping a switch. It's a process and it takes work. It, if I could say it this way, it's not something that's just going to occur on its own. It's something that we are going to have to on purpose, decide we want to get better at this. OK, if we just sit around and say, well, things will, oh, we'll get better, but we're not going to do anything about it, then things will not get better.

Speaker 4: It's like your car. You realize your car,

Speaker 2: unlike your body, does not have the ability to heal itself. And so when you hear a noise in your car

Speaker 4: and you think, Oh, it'll go away, yeah,

Speaker 2: if it goes away, it probably means you've got worse problems than before.

Speaker 4: I've a friend, Billy Taylor.

Speaker 2: He lives here in the city. He's he's an electrician now. But when I first met him, he was in high school and Billy was sent to college with a an old gold Saturn. Like, You know what? I'm talking about

Speaker 4: old

Speaker 2: the old Saturns. It was, I mean, it was a junky car.

Speaker 4: And but he didn't take care of it.

Speaker 2: And one day his engine seized up. Somebody asked him, Will Billy? When was the last time you changed the oil?

Speaker 4: It's like never. Well, Billy,

Speaker 2: that's probably why your engine seized up. You see, our cars don't fix themselves. They don't improve themselves. They don't maintain themselves. They need action to be performed upon them in order for them to operate correctly and for our church. It's not just going to do what it's supposed to do on its own. We have to give attention to some of these things. So the first thing I want to point out to you is in the very next verse acts two forty two, where the Bible says that those new converts, those new members of the church in Jerusalem, says they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine. Remember, doctrine is just another word for teaching

Speaker 4: and fellowship

Speaker 2: and in breaking of bread and in prayers. And so right there in verse number forty two, we get our first glimpse at the two things that we say have to be included in a. New Testament church, the teaching of God's word and fellowship among believers,

Speaker 4: those are a given, but I want us

Speaker 2: to look at two other practical step we can take in order to welcome new members into our church. In order to cover those two things, I need you to first turn to the Book of Philemon.

Speaker 4: In the book of Phi Lehman, there's no

Speaker 2: chapters, but in version 15,

Speaker 4: Paul

Speaker 2: is writing to fire Lehman, and he says this says for perhaps he that he there is a man named on pessimists. Perhaps he therefore departed for a season that thou shalt receive him forever. Not now as a servant,

Speaker 4: but

Speaker 2: above a servant,

Speaker 4: a brother beloved

Speaker 2: specially to me. But how much more under thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord, those that are unfamiliar with the letter to fire Lehman? Here's a quick refresher on that. Summers was the one who carried this letter from Paul back to Phi Lehman, but on estimates was a runaway slave that had found himself imprisoned with the Apostle Paul and during their incarceration on estimates, gets saved. He accepts Jesus free gift of salvation. And so as after a little bit of time has gone by on this estimates has gotten saved. He's been disciple by Paul and then he is freed from the jail and after he is freed, Paul instructs him to return now to his master. This man, named by Lehman and by Lehman, was another Christian, and Paul gives the letter to Annette Smith to deliver to his old master, and this letter has been preserved for us in the Bible. In the letter, we see the verses that we just read, where Paul instructs by Lehman on how he is to welcome own estimates back. Paul has told them that he no longer returns solely as a servant, but as a brother beloved. You see, prior to onset SMRs salvation by Lehman and on Smith's had a relationship, but it was of a certain sort. And so now that unless Smith is returning, Paul says, Listen, buy Lehman. You guys are going to have a different relationship that needs to

Speaker 4: trump your former

Speaker 2: relationship. It is a relationship that is grounded in their shared belief and relationship to Jesus Christ. You see

Speaker 4: him

Speaker 2: as a brother, as a co-chair

Speaker 4: with with

Speaker 2: by Lehman. His old status needed to be secondary to his new status that of a brother in Christ. Now let me ask you, this had on estimates done anything to qualify himself for such an upgrade in his treatment from Fire Lehman.

Speaker 4: No, he had

Speaker 2: he had run away from him. There's there's strong probability in saying that Onassis had probably stolen from by Lehman on his way out of town. But as Paul says at the university, No. 16 by Lehman and own estimates now share a strong

Speaker 4: bond in the Lord.

Speaker 2: And so this bond is something that you and I share with any person that joins our church. Oh brother, Gary, surely not any. No. Yes, any person. Because if you go back to X to forty one, there are two things that are required in the first church and in our church in order for someone to be a member. They have to be saved and they have to be baptized. And so if somebody is saved, then you and I share a bond with them that should supersede any prior relationship we would have had with this person. Or let me say it this way. Any lack of relationship we might have had with this person. You see, we share the same bond with them, the Philemon and Omni's, Smith shared. This is a bond that overcomes any hurdles that may exist in our relationship. How many of you have lived in the Collinsville area? Sky took Goolagong Claremore, Alaska, or whatever the case may be for 15 plus years,

Speaker 4: 20 or more years,

Speaker 2: 30 or more years

Speaker 4: 40, 50,

Speaker 2: 60,

Speaker 4: 70, 80,

Speaker 2: 90. All right. Simon Jean, I would I would guess you probably know a lot of the families that have been in Collinsville for a long time. I would guess that a lot of you that have been in this area for decades, you know, quite a few people around

Speaker 4: here, and it's

Speaker 2: possible, although maybe we're not from this imaging, but there's it's possible for the rest of y'all that there are some folks out there that you don't necessarily like. They may not necessarily like you. Everyone likes Miss Imogene. I mean, how could you not?

Speaker 4: What would happen if that

Speaker 2: guy from high

Speaker 4: school who stole

Speaker 2: your girlfriend shows up with her

Speaker 4: to church? You know you're

Speaker 2: about 60 years old now, but still, you know, I mean, you

Speaker 4: just bugs you a little bit. They come and

Speaker 2: they visit for a while.

Speaker 4: They want to

Speaker 2: become members here, and so they transfer their membership, or perhaps they get saved and baptized and become members of this church. Are you able to recognize the bond that exists between you and them through Jesus supersedes the relationship you had previously? Maybe it's not a relationship you had previously. Maybe it's someone who you would just never have a relationship with. Maybe there's somebody of a different ethnicity than you. Maybe it's someone at a different economic status with you.

Speaker 4: Then you,

Speaker 2: they come and they want to become members of the church and they go through the process and they join the church. You recognize that now there is a a bond between you and that person that supersedes any differences that would have prevented you from having a relationship with them previously.

Speaker 4: See, we're supposed to welcome

Speaker 2: the people that come to become members of this church the same way that Paul told Philemon he was supposed to receive own estimates. Remember, Lehman and own estimates had a past on estimates had run away from his master. Paul even hints at the possibility that own estimates had stolen from his master. Lehman had been betrayed,

Speaker 4: but as a Christian

Speaker 2: was to receive on estimates as a brother. What are some practical ways that we can accept new members as a brother?

Speaker 4: Think about it.

Speaker 2: Maybe your brother is a member of the church,

Speaker 4: so

Speaker 2: you can kind of already start to think, OK,

Speaker 4: well,

Speaker 2: if I would do this for my

Speaker 4: brother,

Speaker 2: I should probably do it

Speaker 4: for my

Speaker 2: Christian brothers. Joe moved here to

Speaker 4: peek

Speaker 2: over that giant computer. Joe moved here to he moved a lot,

Speaker 4: so he needed

Speaker 2: help unloading his trailer.

Speaker 4: Of course, he picked the third

Speaker 2: level of the apartment complex to live on.

Speaker 4: Is there

Speaker 2: no pasture? He didn't get to choose. You just what's available? No, he had the opportunity

Speaker 4: to get the first floor.

Speaker 2: So no one of you on the third floor, they have ceiling fans. That's not how he talks. But when he said, I need

Speaker 4: help, we wouldn't helped him. There's been times that I felt sorry for him

Speaker 2: sitting there all

Speaker 4: alone in that apartment.

Speaker 2: I'll call him and say, Joe,

Speaker 4: when I come over to the house, isn't it? Yes. Like, cool, you

Speaker 2: watch the boys and mean at are going on a day

Speaker 4: to.

Speaker 2: It still says, yes, I'm like, man.

Speaker 4: Bring him, you know, take him out to lunch.

Speaker 2: If he was to break down, he's not going to call my dad. He'll lose four hours ways. He's not going to call my mechanic brother. He's four hours away to. He's going to

Speaker 4: call me and

Speaker 2: I don't care what time it is want. Go help

Speaker 4: him. You know, he calls

Speaker 2: me up and he's he's upset. He's a man. He doesn't cry, but he's upset, you know, an emotional about something. I'm going to listen. I'm going to. I'm going to be there for him. I'm going to try and care for him and be a help to him.

Speaker 4: Why? Because he's my brother and I love him.

Speaker 2: It's 10 years difference between us. We're not in the same stage of life.

Speaker 4: I don't even

Speaker 2: remember what it was like to be at his age. Single No Kids. What in the world? Remember what that was like? We don't have a whole lot in common, except for the fact that we're brothers and nerds. So he has four brothers, I bet your thoughts. Oh yeah, we thought we've got a past. Thankfully, he's not the brother that told me that they were going to laugh at my funeral. That would be Andrew.

Speaker 4: But he's

Speaker 2: my brother. And so I would do whatever I needed to do to help him. And if you have that kind of relationship with with one of your siblings, then you

Speaker 4: know what

Speaker 2: you would do for a brother, even after they've hurt you, even after they have spoken ill of

Speaker 4: you, you would

Speaker 2: still go and help them if they were in need. If they called you and said, Hey, I need, I need this. Will you help me? I'm stuck. I'm lost. I I don't know what to do.

Speaker 4: You would do it. I think it was last spring.

Speaker 2: Alicia's sister, Amy,

Speaker 4: called and she was in

Speaker 2: a tremendous amount of pain and Alicia said, I'll take you to the

Speaker 4: doctor.

Speaker 2: And so she called me, she's Amy's got to go to the doctor about one o'clock in the afternoon. I think it was a Wednesday evening and I was trying to get ready for Wednesday night. I said, Yes, you go, I'll go home with the boys. And so, you know, we upended our day.

Speaker 4: Why?

Speaker 2: Because her sister needed help. I'm sure all of you have. If you have a sibling, you can tell a story about how you were willing to upend your life. You were willing to overlook past relationship issues and previous hearts in order to try and help this person that you loved. That's the picture. That's the standard that we were to have when it comes to receiving a new member into our church that we would receive them as a brother. We love it. We would show them hospitality. Hospitality means I'm going to host you. My house isn't good for hosting.

Speaker 4: Post them,

Speaker 2: post them to your Sunday school class, post them to sit on your pew with

Speaker 4: you.

Speaker 2: Post them to the next church activity. Say, Hey, we've got a pizza night and gym night. Would you come and sit at our table? Now we don't know anybody yet. That's fine. You can come sit with us.

Speaker 4: Host them.

Speaker 2: Include them.

Speaker 4: We've got a

Speaker 2: couple of folks in our church that have made it a point to include new members in their social

Speaker 4: group.

Speaker 2: And I hear about these things happening and it just fills my heart with joy. Somebody new will join. They go out with a couple of their friends and they will call up different ones and say, Hey, we're going on this activity, we're going to go bowling, we're going to go out to eat, we're going to go do this or that. Do you want to come? I think that's that's amazing. That's perfect. That's exactly what needs to happen. Hospitality also show them care. Part of showing care to someone is being patient with them

Speaker 4: when

Speaker 2: you're hurting, when you're sick. How much patients do you have

Speaker 4: in our lives?

Speaker 2: We're welcoming in a new member. You know what? Sometimes they're going to you're going to invite and they're going to say, No, thank you. That's not your cue to say, Well, we tried. Never again. Be patient. Ask them the next time. Be patient with them. Be assistive. You know, offer assistance. Offer to show them around, offer to introduce them to somebody, but just show them care. If we're going to be a church that welcomes new members, we have to receive them as we would a brother be loved.

Speaker 4: But the second thing, if we're

Speaker 2: going to be a church that welcomes new members, turn to the future in chapter four, we have to help them find their place in the body. Visions, Chapter four, verse number 16. Bible says from whom? That's Jesus.

Speaker 4: The whole

Speaker 2: body fitly joined together in compacted by that which

Speaker 4: every

Speaker 2: joint supply is according to the effectual working

Speaker 4: in the measure of every part,

Speaker 2: make an increase of the body under the edifying of itself in love. This church is the local manifestation of the body of Christ. We are to be the hands and feet and mouth of Jesus in this community. That's not something that falls on the pastor and the staff and the deacons and the trustees and the Sunday school teachers, according to verse 16. That is something that every joint and every part has to supply. So if you're a member of this church, whether you're a Newtown member, your time, I don't think you say that. Whether you're a newer member or a long time member, you have a role to fill within this local body. No parts of the body are intended to be useless. There are no vestigial organs in the body of Christ. The verse says that every joint, in every part supplies what the body needs.

Speaker 4: There is no stipulation on

Speaker 2: which joints should be supplying the body.

Speaker 4: All of

Speaker 2: them are expected to contribute

Speaker 4: when

Speaker 2: someone goes through an organ transplant. When is that organ supposed to start contributing right away? Otherwise, something didn't work. I told you before I got this sixty seven Volkswagen Beetle sitting in my garage and I started it up, let it run for a while yesterday and I was just thinking about all of the many hours I've spent on the inside of this bug. I mean, and just not having a clue what I was doing, I got it when I was 15 years old and I've maybe driven it for the Mate 30 miles in the

Speaker 4: how old am I?

Speaker 2: That's been almost 20 years, you know? But there be times back, especially when I was in high school, I had no YouTube. I had no access to YouTube. OK, if you were teenagers, you would be like, but you're not. So you don't care, you know? You know how it is. And I I'd have one wire not in the right

Speaker 4: spot and one wire out of this here

Speaker 2: while not huge out of this hat. Well, it's not heavy, either. It's not complicated, OK? One wire out of the whole car out of place and the whole thing wouldn't work. It messed up the operation of the entire vehicle.

Speaker 4: One wire.

Speaker 2: How many members have to be out of

Speaker 4: place in order

Speaker 2: for this church not to operate the way it's supposed to operate? I think all we have to do is look back to the Old Testament and ask the question how many Israelites had to be living in sin in order for God to take a tiny city like aiye and put a woman on the Israelites?

Speaker 4: Just one Aitkin stole

Speaker 2: the accursed stuff, hid it under his tent and God said, You will not go. You will go no farther until this is fixed. You see, we need everybody to contribute and we need them to contribute as soon as possible. We want every new member to get plugged in the ministry as soon as possible. Oh, does that mean you're going to be a deacon in a week?

Speaker 4: No, but it

Speaker 2: doesn't mean that you have to have a position in order to minister. What happens when the members of the body aren't ministering? What happens when we're watching the church membership and someone starts to back out of all of their ministries or a new member comes in and months go by, perhaps years go by and they never get involved in a ministry. What does that mean for that person?

Speaker 4: Well, it usually means

Speaker 2: that something's wrong. The percentage of people that stay at a church for more than five years without being involved in a ministry is very

Speaker 4: low, very low.

Speaker 2: It is the exception. If someone stays where they do not get involved, when someone starts pulling out of all their ministries. That is a warning sign. Sometimes it's a sign that the church has overstretched them. They've asked too much of them. Sometimes it means that that person is preparing to leave. We're going to this is this is a much easier message than next week, next week we're going to talk about how we as a church should respond when someone does leave the church. I'm so grateful for the fact that we have seen many, many more join the church than we have seen leave the church over the last four years.

Speaker 4: But there have been a few. How do we

Speaker 2: respond when that happens? You know, before that happens, we should do everything we can to

Speaker 4: try and bring healing.

Speaker 2: Get them plugged back in. Try to get back on the same page as we once were. One of the ways that we can help people stay in a good place and in our church is by helping new members

Speaker 4: to get plugged in.

Speaker 2: A person that is plugged into a ministry is much more likely to be happy. Isn't the word

Speaker 4: complacent? Isn't the word Klein

Speaker 2: you people are supposed to help me,

Speaker 4: huh?

Speaker 2: We're not leaving until we figure out what this word is. What is it? Somebody said it content. Who said that? Thank you, teacher content. A person is plugged in. The service is much more likely to be content with their church if they're active in serving. You know why? Because when you're active in serving, you don't have a whole lot of time to be active and complain. How can we help new members get plugged in the ministry? A couple of things. How can we help them find their spot in the body? Number one, wherever you're spot in, the body is served there with joy. Serving your place with joy, make ministry

Speaker 4: appealing, don't

Speaker 2: make it look appealing, make it appealing if you show up in the nursery every time it's your turn and the other ladies that you're serving with are like the garbage and they're shooting in these stinking kids. Nobody should ever say no stinking kids. You're not in the right ministry, if that's your attitude. But let's just pretend that it happened. No one's gonna want to be in the ministry with you. It's going to sound like a horrible

Speaker 4: thing,

Speaker 2: man. If you're in the ministry and if you're in the nursery and you're making ministry appealing, you're going to view that job as a blessing. You're going to view it as important and vital as it is to the service. We get to be in here. We get to watch over these precious little ones. We get to invest in their lives and show them the love of God. Make ministry appealing. You're going to be in junior church. Love those kids. Have fun with them.

Speaker 4: Serve with joy.

Speaker 2: How could you not have a happy face when those little kids come in, you know, and they're just so full of energy? They love being at church.

Speaker 4: Most of them,

Speaker 2: you know, and they sing the songs way better than we do. I mean, they're singing out. They're loud, they've got all kinds of energy. They don't know yet that you're supposed to stand still and scowl.

Speaker 4: During the singing, there's

Speaker 2: they're having a blast. You told them, Jesus loves you, and they're like, Yes, he does.

Speaker 4: Serve with joy.

Speaker 2: Make ministry appealing

Speaker 4: if we

Speaker 2: that our members made ministry appealing and people would be like beating down the door to get into your ministry. Not to brag, but I felt like I made the youth group

Speaker 4: pretty fun,

Speaker 2: I was having to turn people away from the youth group. Hello, I don't need any more adult helpers,

Speaker 4: but we want to go rock climbing.

Speaker 2: All right. If you really want to work with the teenagers, you can sign up for the all nighter. Oh, I think God's calling me somewhere else. Serve with joy.

Speaker 4: Number two, this is a big one.

Speaker 2: Avoid acting like your ministry is your kingdom. You're not the king or queen

Speaker 4: of

Speaker 2: your ministry. I'm not the king or queen. I'm not I'm not the king of the pastorate. If I if I was gone tomorrow, God would bring another man to be here and the pastor of the church. I am not

Speaker 4: irreplaceable. You be careful

Speaker 2: how. Please don't take this the wrong way.

Speaker 4: You are not irreplaceable.

Speaker 2: Your ministry is not your kingdom. It's not your right. It is a privilege to serve. Is a privilege to be in the positions that we are in.

Speaker 4: And so when

Speaker 2: a new person

Speaker 4: comes, it may be

Speaker 2: that they are more skilled in a certain area.

Speaker 4: Maybe if we had someone that

Speaker 2: was a talented pianist that wanted to

Speaker 4: play.

Speaker 2: I know for a fact my wife would not be offended to let them play. Well, you know, it's just like any tigers, any tigers. Sometimes sometimes new members don't feel like there is anywhere for them to serve because the current servants are acting like they own this. I've served in this position for X amount of years and I will serve in this position until I die.

Speaker 4: What if that wasn't God's will for you?

Speaker 2: It's not your kingdom. Are you building your kingdom or you building his three? Be active proactive about inviting people to join your ministry. This goes in with that part of not treating it like your kingdom. Be proactive, inviting and inviting people to join your ministry. Treat your ministry as a training ground

Speaker 4: for

Speaker 2: other ministries.

Speaker 4: Maybe they don't

Speaker 2: rise through the ranks in your ministry, but the experience that they gain in your ministry allows them to go to another ministry and put those things into practice their. You it's not the the Sunday school director's job to make sure the the next crew of Sunday school teachers is being trained. They can't be in every class training. But you do have a Sunday school class, could adopt someone and help train them to teach. Those of you that are serving in the nursery

Speaker 4: could adopt a

Speaker 2: young mom or someone that's not involved and train them to serve in the

Speaker 4: nursery.

Speaker 2: Miss Kathy, I think about the kitchen a lot, the different folks that you have brought in and helped had help in the in the kitchen training, different ones to handle different parts of all of the jobs that take place there in the kitchen, I think that's great. That's what needs to happen is bringing new people in, getting more people involved, teaching them how to do the things that that you've already been doing so that they can then do it somewhere

Speaker 4: else or

Speaker 2: in the case of you can't

Speaker 4: do it anymore.

Speaker 2: Be proactive about recruiting people to your ministry. Andrew Murray, who wrote many books on prayer, he said, left the church awake to her, calling to train the feeble list of her members to know that Christ counts upon every redeemed

Speaker 4: one to live

Speaker 2: wholly for his work. This alone is true Christianity.

Speaker 4: We have a job

Speaker 2: to train others, and you may be teaching the third and fourth graders, but you could also be teaching another teacher. You could go and teach another class. I'm so grateful for the people that speak up and volunteer for things

Speaker 4: and say, Hey, I'll serve here,

Speaker 2: or Hey, is there anywhere I can get involved?

Speaker 4: Can I can I help out there? No, not

Speaker 2: everyone's going to volunteer for a position. Some people are waiting to be asked. I remember when I was a youth pastor used to frustrate me. It's just reality, it's how people work, no matter their age. There would be teenagers who would not come to an activity unless I asked them to come to the activity.

Speaker 4: I'm not talking

Speaker 2: about going, you know, announcing it in the youth group, saying, Hey, all of you should

Speaker 4: come. No, if

Speaker 2: I didn't go to this one individually and give them a personal invitation, they weren't

Speaker 4: going to be there.

Speaker 2: The same is true with ministry. Or if we're just going to sit around and wait for people to volunteer to fill the holes,

Speaker 4: we might get a few.

Speaker 2: But we're going to miss out on a lot of good workers. We have a lot of ministry options here at the church for people to get involved with. There are some things perhaps you may not have thought of that you could get involved in. So I'm not a teacher. I'm not good with people. That's fine. You don't have to be. We have a transportation ministry

Speaker 4: picking up

Speaker 2: folks that need rides.

Speaker 4: Randy, raise your hand

Speaker 2: with Randy helps that ministry brother Jared Michael

Speaker 4: Taylor.

Speaker 2: They go and they pick up different ones and bring them to church

Speaker 4: people who

Speaker 2: really can be used to only be able to come on a Sunday morning. And now they get to come Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night because somebody is willing to go and

Speaker 4: pick them up.

Speaker 2: We have some who go out every Wednesday afternoon. They come to the church. They load up their car with meals, the same meal that you're going to eat. The Wednesday night fellowship meal ladies have prepared take home boxes and bags to deliver. They'll go out. They'll deliver sometimes. Twenty five meals to our shut ins are widows and some of our widowers who can't get out. We've lost some of our drivers over the years. So more and more our people are having to leave earlier because they're delivering so many meals. It's Cathy helps them with that. And if you were interested in, I know she'd help you get a route that you could, that you could go and bring some meals to folks. Of course, I've mentioned the cooking. You think a Wednesday night fellowships, but you know it goes beyond that. We have funerals here from time to time. We need help with the cooking and for the funerals. Several people will sign up to bring something that's a ministry opportunity. We have special events also that need kitchen help. The nursery is always in need of more workers. Ohana Alana has grown and it needs workers. Junior Church, the music ministry. The Music Ministry has become so multifaceted. You've got the choir, you've got the orchestra,

Speaker 4: we've got

Speaker 2: the piano and the keyboard. We've got specials. I've told you this from the very beginning. I want to have a special on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. We don't have the people involved in that right now to be able to see that happen,

Speaker 4: but

Speaker 2: I'd love for it to happen. Visiting the widows and the shut ins this past Sunday, meeting with the Deacons for the first time, we went over the different widows that need to be checked up on. But you know, it doesn't have to be a pastor or a staff member or a deacon that goes and checks on them. Readers security ushers. So there's a lot of opportunities. It's not just officers and senior school teachers and and the youth group. There are many areas of service here at our church and every believer has a gift given to them by God, which they are to use in order to edify and build up the church. People that will use their

Speaker 4: gift

Speaker 2: will experience the joy of contributing to the body of Christ. Those of us that our members who have found our place here in the body of

Speaker 4: Christ

Speaker 2: need to be active in helping other new members find their place as well. Is the church membership, I believe, is biblical. And I believe that we should receive new members as brothers, though we may not have an established relationship with them. Or maybe you've got a bad relationship with them. In the past, as a brother in Christ or sister in Christ, we receive them as a brother beloved, and we should also help new members find their place in the body.

Speaker 4: And if we will do

Speaker 2: these things, and I believe we will help our church become a more welcoming, more assimilating place as God continues to send us new members, we can get them plugged

Speaker 4: in

Speaker 2: and the chances are that they will stay here at this church and serve God with us for many years

Speaker 4: to come.

Speaker 2: That's their only father, we think for this day. Thank you for the time that we can spend looking at these things and God, I pray that you would help all of us to be aware of the need that we have in our church to not only welcome our new members into this body, but to also help them find their place in the body to serve and to contribute to this local assemblies efforts to reach Collinsville in the world with the gospel. Lord, we love you so much and thank you for all you do for us. It's in Jesus name, I pray.

Speaker 4: Amen.

Speaker 2: Thank you all so much for your good attention. Would you stand with me as we prepare to be dismissed? One announcement that I wanted to share with you this coming Sunday night after the service? The teens are going to have a snack activity. So what is a snack? It's Sunday night after church. It's a secret. The teenagers don't get to know until they come, but it'll be a variety of different things from time to time throughout the year. Just activities after the service on Sunday night give the teens a chance to have fun and fellowship with one another. And so please plan on that this upcoming Sunday to be in prayer for all those that could not be here with us due to illness, that they would get better soon and that the Lord will help us to stay healthy and that we be able to get through this current wave of different sicknesses that are going through all areas, not just our church. Church is an easy target to say, Hey, I got it at

Speaker 4: church, but if you went to work school to work

Speaker 2: out, you went to the store. You know where you got it. But if you want to say the church is the reason, I guess you got big enough shoulders will take that. Let's pray. And then after we're done, praying will be dismissed their. Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the folks that we're able to be here, as well as those that are watching on the livestream. Bless all of them for setting this time aside. Help us now as we go from this place, I pray that you would keep us safe, that you would direct us to be witnesses for you. And it's in Jesus name. I pray. Amen.

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