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This story from Acts is one of my favorite in the Bible. It’s the biblical vision for the

church. I try to share this story as often as I can. On my first day of work at Chain of Lakes I

shared this story with the seven families who gathered with me at the office in the Rice Lake

Professional Building. I preached on this story at our Grand Opening last January. I’ll talk

about this story on significant days at Chain of Lakes Church.

If you wanted to learn one story from the Bible that could help us develop as a new

church, learn this story.

Can’t you just feel the energy in this story? The people mentioned in this story deeply

loved and cared for each other. Their love and care originated in the gift of faith from God.

They understood that they had been given the promise of salvation through Jesus Christ; they

realized that the promise of the gift of the Spirit was a promise made for them; they eventually

saw amazing things happen in their community. They loved and cared for each other so much

that they would share their possessions and goods with each other. God couldn’t help but bless

this group with new people. The spiritual energy couldn’t help but bring new people to the

community. When people are in love with God and each other at this level, amazing things

happen.

As we move into 2011 at Chain of Lakes I want us to experience this spiritual energy. I

so want us at Chain of Lakes to experience this spiritual energy in Acts 2.

Today we’re going to talk about the church. It’s Vision Sunday. In this sermon I want to

do three things. First I want to share some teaching about the church. Second I want to share

with you why I’ve dedicated my life to the church. Third I want to ask some important questions

for us at Chain of lakes to ponder as we prepare for a new year.

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As I begin I’d encourage you to get out this brochure that is in the bulletin. On this

brochure you’ll find a place to take notes. Because of the teaching emphasis of this sermon, I

encourage everyone to take notes today. I believe that you’ll hear something today that you will

want to remember. In this brochure you’ll find a devotion. This week I shared Scriptures and a

devotion that teach us about the church. And you’ll find a place for prayer requests.

First what is the church? I asked the question on my Facebook page this week. One

person responded that the church is the community of people. That’s right.

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The English word church comes from the Greek word eklesia. Eklesia is made up of two parts.

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Ek means out of. Kaleo means a call. Put the two together and we have Eklesia. A church is

called out. The church is called out to be a community.

Eklesia is used at least 100 times when the Old Testament was translated into Greek. The

word was used 77 times in the New Testament.

There are all sorts of phrases for the church in the Scriptures. You might want to write

these down.

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The church is known as the “body of Christ.” The “temple of the living God” The “flock of

sheep.” In one place it’s even known as the bride of Christ.

In the Presbyterian Church we have what is called a Form of Government. We are

hopefully in the process of changing it. In the new Form of Government the church is called

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the body of Christ. Christ gives to the Church all the gifts necessary to be his body
community of faith It’s a place where we entrust ourselves to God alone, even at the risk of
losing our life
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a community of hope. We rejoicing in the sure and certain knowledge that, in Christ, God is
making a new creation

a community of love. We are a place where sin is forgiven, reconciliation is accomplished, and
the dividing walls of hostility are torn down

a community of witness. We point beyond ourselves through our word and work to the good
news of God and the transforming grace in Christ Jesus our Lord

We Presbyterians have a book called the Book of Confession. A Confession is a

statement that a group of people have made at a certain time in history. Here are some responses

to the question, “what is the church” in our own history.

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The church is an assembly of the faithful called or gathered out of the world, a communion, I
say, of all saints, namely, of these who truly know and rightly worship and serve the true God in
Christ the Savior. 2nd Helvetic Confession.

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The catholic or universal church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect,
that have been are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the head thereof. And is the
spouse, the body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. Westminster Confession

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Here’s a definition of the church that has been given in the past 100 years.
The Christian church is the congregation of the brethren in which Jesus Christ acts presently as
the Lord in Word and Sacrament through the Holy Spirit. Barmen Declaration

Even though you and I aren’t chartered as a church by the Presbyterian church, we should take

comfort in these definitions. By these definitions you and I are a church.

I want to give you a test on the church. It’s a multiple choice test.

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How many churches are there?

1 3 millions

This might be the most important piece of information you take from this sermon. There

is one church. There are millions of congregations. There is one church. There are different
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denominations of a church. In our area we have Methodist and Catholics and Lutherans and

Nazarene and Baptists and some congregations who are not part of a denomination. Despite

these many denominations there is only one church.

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How many branches of the church are there?

1 3 millions

There are three branches of the church. The Catholic branch is the oldest branch; the

Orthodox branch separated from the Catholic branch in the 11th century. The Protestant branch

came into being in the late 15th early 16th century. Most congregations in our area are Protestant;

though the number of Catholics in our area is probably about the same as the number of

Protestants.

What is the vision of the church? Another way to ask this question is to ask the question,

“what do we want to be when we grow up?” In fact this is the title of this sermon. It’s very

important to remember that we at Chain of Lakes have only been worshipping on Sundays for a

little more than a year. We’re still a baby. We don’t operate with the smoothness and efficiency

of a most established and mature organizations. We’re just a baby.

“What do we want to be when we grow up?”

We have a wonderful Purpose Statement and eight very powerful Core Values. Imagine

what we will look like if we powerfully live out this Purpose Statement and Core Values. Can

we think of one adjective or adverb that would describe us if we live out our Purpose Statement

and Values? The word I have is blessing. When we powerfully live out our Purpose Statement

and Core Values we will be a blessing to the people who participate at Chain of Lakes and we
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will be a blessing to the world. What do we want to be when we grow up—I would love for us

to be a blessing.

That’s the first part—what is the church—it’s the eklesia—a group of people who are

called out to be together. We’re united by our devotion to Jesus Christ. We at Chain of Lakes

are a congregation that make up the one church. Our vision is to be a blessing—to share the

spiritual energy that is in this story in Acts 2.

Let me share a little of my story. I’m coming up on my 2nd year as the Organizing Pastor

of Chain of Lakes. But in many ways I feel like I’m still getting to know you. I want you to get

to know me. This is why I frequently share some of my stories. When I grew up I was forced to

go to church. At certain times I was forced to go against my will. I will always believe that the

choice to go to church for an elementary child should be made by the parents. After a couple

years of protesting my attendance at church, the community started to grow on me. I gradually

chose to go. The adults in the congregation started paying attention to me. They expressed an

interest in me and my welfare. Even if I found worship to be a bit boring, I still enjoyed the

people. Eventually the church allowed me to use my gifts of playing the violin and singing.

Though I was forced to go to church I eventually chose to go to church.

My parents were influenced by a pastor who believed the church should be involved in

the community. Because of his influence my dad took a sabbatical from teaching at college and

we worked for a social service agency in downtown Kansas City. I saw poverty. I grew up with

a desire to stop poverty. It wasn’t fair in my mind that some people had money and other people

didn’t have money. Because of this experience in Kansas City I wanted to see the church stop

poverty.
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In college I went to worship almost every Sunday. I was like many college age folks—I

wanted to change the world. I was inspired by Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez. I wanted

to put a stop to poverty in the world. I looked at the world and saw quite a lot of suffering.

Over time I had to make the decision of whether I would be a pastor, a teacher, or a

lawyer. As I reflected on history I came to the conclusion that no long-lasting change has

developed in our country without the participation of the church. Put most simply I believed that

to have a strong world we needed a strong church.

My perspective on the church changed when I went to work for a conservative

Presbyterian church while I was in seminary. I was touched when I saw a group of people who

were deeply committed to worship and prayer and Bible Study. There was a spiritual depth to

these folks that I found very appealing. They were grounded.

I’ve had the rare opportunity to be part of liberal congregations and to be part of

conservative congregations. I’ve come to believe that the future of the church partly rests in the

interweaving of the best of the liberal tradition and conservative tradition.

This is who I would love for us to become at Chain of Lakes. I want us at Chain of lakes

to value highly the faith practices of worship, prayer, and Bible Study—faith practices that are

highly honored in the conservative church. While we do that I want us to value being involved

in the world. I want us to serve the needs of the world and the needs poor, and on occasion try to

change the causes of such poverty—the work of justice. I want us to be aware of what is

happening in the world and to always be asking how our faith can make an impact on that

situation. I believe that the success of our congregation will depend on how well we interweave

these traditions. When we do this successfully we will be a blessing.

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If you identify yourself as a conservative person and say, “Paul you’re kind of liberal

when you want to be so involved in the world,” I would say—you’re absolutely right.

If you identify yourself as a liberal person and say, “Paul you’re kind of conservative

because you talk a lot about prayer and reading the Bible and attending worship,” I would say—

you’re absolutely right.

I want us to be a place that is appealing to both liberals and conservatives. In fact I want

us to be a place where we’ve so tightly woven together these traditions that people on the outside

can’t put a label on us. Instead we identify ourselves as an authentic Christian community where

strangers become friends; friends become disciples; disciples impact the world.

It is an absolute blast creating a church like this. This is the type of church that the world

needs very badly.

I want to wrap up by asking two important questions for us to consider in 2011. Our

number one goal for 2011 is numerical growth. The way that we answer these questions will go

a long way towards determining whether we will grow in numbers of people in 2011. The

questions are this:

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Do we exist for ourselves or do we exist for the world and the needs of the unchurched?

It’s really easy to get comfortable in a congregation. We get to know people and we like them,

so when we gather we naturally talk to those people. We don’t intentionally try to exclude new

people from our congregation. But it’s just easier to talk to and spend time with the people we

know instead of focusing on the needs of the unchurched. This week I think I’m going to have

my Annual Review as a pastor, and I’ll share with that group that the biggest mistake I made in

2010 at Chain of Lakes church is I let us get too comfortable. We got comfortable with each
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other. We lost our sharp edge to meet the needs of the community and the needs of the

unchurched.

I believe that we get satisfaction most not when we get to know a small number of people

in our congregation, but when we bless people outside our congregation. When we go out of our

way to identify and meet the needs of people on the outside.

I’m changing in 2011. My job in 2011 is to help you feel uncomfortable. In fact one of

my personal goals in my work at Chain of Lakes in 2011 is to help you feel uncomfortable. In

fact I’m putting something above my desk where I’ll ask myself, “How am I doing at helping our

congregation meet the needs of the unchurched and the needs of the world?” When we do that,

we will grow in numbers of people.

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What makes our church different from other churches? There are some marvelous

churches in the north Metro. Most of us drove by a marvelous church to come to worship at

Chain of Lakes today. It’s important for us to ask the question, “Why would an unchurched

person drive by another marvelous church to come to Chain of Lakes Church? An unchurched

person will drive past a number of marvelous churches if that person discerns that something

special and distinct is taking place at Chain of Lakes.

It’s the people—there are good people at other churches

It’s a family—other churches are families.
Our sense of distinctiveness isn’t because of our people or that we’re a family.

My hope is that our distinctiveness comes from a sense of spiritual energy. When a

newcomer walks in the door at Chain of Lakes church it’s important that the person feels that

something important is taking place. Even if we can’t meet the needs of every person in every

age group, there still is something special taking place. Something palpable exists in the air.
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We’re like the early community in Acts that shared that energy. This energy comes from our

faith. When people leave our congregation on a Sunday it’s very important for the person to say,

“I felt something there today. Something took place that was very special. They might not be a

large group right now, but something special is going to happen there.

These two questions are like a mirror with which we hold in front of us. We can learn a

lot about ourselves when we reflect on these questions. Do we exist for ourselves or for the

needs of the world and the unchurched? What makes us distinctive? Is there a sense of spiritual

energy in our community?

I want to close by saying I love being the pastor of Chain of Lakes church. It’s a

tremendous privilege to be the Organizing pastor of a new church. Not many people in their

lifetime get the opportunity to start a new church. I’m having a lot of fun on this journey of

starting a new church. I shared that if you like roller coaster rides you’ll like starting a new

church—there are a lot of ups and downs. I love roller coaster rides. I’m proud of what we

accomplished so far as a church. I completely believe that we’re going to grow in numbers of

people in 2011. I believe it because I have faith in you.