Good morning, this Sunday is going to be different. Once a year, we set aside a Sunday to report about the (1) state of the church and (2) affirm our slate of Elders for 2016. Our leadership team has put together a booklet loaded with statistics about our missions, leadership team, finances, mortgage/debt, upcoming budget, attendance, membership growth, even our website traffic. You can take a copy for your family at the end of the service.
If I were to describe the purpose of Lakeside in the most dramatic terms, I would say we exist to turn atheists into missionaries. In the most extreme sense, an "atheist" is a person who stands opposed to God. Now maybe they deny his existence... maybe they feel threatened by the idea of God... maybe they've been the victim of religious violence, or a spiritually abusive person... maybe they have a scientific/rationalist paradigm that doesn't permit faith, maybe their pain prevents them from seeing God.
Atheists come in all shapes and forms. Yes, some are militant/hostile... Some laugh/scoff at the notion of God... some believe God to be a great fiction... Some are just ambivalent (they don't care either way, God's not relevant to their life)... Some deny any knowledge of God is even possible... Some are atheists because (quite simply) they have never heard the name of God because no one has preached to them.
A few years ago we had two Chinese men walk from UIS to our church on a Sunday. As we spoke, I realized they had never heard of God. They couldn't understand what our church was, who we were singing about, they'd never seen Bible.
At the other end of the spectrum we have people who are totally devoted followers of Jesus, i.e. "missionaries." Now I am speaking of missionary in the broadest sense. A missionary is a person who has embraced God's call on their life to tell people about Jesus. You can be a missionary to "Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, as far as the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8) You can be a missionary to your family, your neighborhood, your workplace, your school, a facility (whether hospital, nursing home, school, prison). You can be a missionary to your city, your county, your state, your country, a distant land. God sends his people forth everywhere, into every knook/cranny of world.
A missionary is not ashamed of God. They feel a sense of urgency about Jesus' Kingdom and mission. They believe on Jesus for eternal life. They are becoming like Jesus in character and life. They can't stand the thought of not serving God. They build up the body of Christ, the Church. They have a fire burning deep in their soul to make Christ known. They can't help but preach (1 Cor 9:16). So they sacrifice their time, treasure, and talents (indeed their very life if necessary) to advance the gospel of Jesus.
If we as a church are not moving people along this spectrum from Atheist to Fully Devoted Christ-Follower Missionary we are failing. We are not being faithful to God. We are not bearing the kind of fruit Jesus commanded us to produce.
Now, it might be overwhelming to think about a person moving from extreme atheist to missionary! So our Elders adopted a three-fold purpose statement to guide every aspect of Lakeside's ministry.
[Symbol] FIRST, We exist to help people FIND GOD.
I want you to think about the very first time you came to Lakeside. Do you remember? Think about where you were in relationship to God pre-Lakeside. In fact, I would love for you to help me speed up a research project...
Some of you became a part of Lakeside because of biological conversion. Maybe you've just always been here, you grew up here, you've never not thought of God. When we get to teach a child about Jesus from birth, and they graduate through our excellent children/youth ministry, it's a slam dunk. If you became part of this church, Lakeside, on your connection card write "biological" by your name.
Some of you became a part of Lakeside after you transferred from another church. You were already a believer, you were attending a church, you already knew the name of Jesus. Maybe you were Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, a Presbyterian. Maybe you moved to Springfield, and needed to find church home. Maybe you didn't like your old preacher; maybe he didn't like you. Maybe they didn't have programs for your kids, I don't know. But you chose Lakeside. If you came to Lakeside from another church, write "transfer" by your name.
Now some of you became a part of Lakeside after being a prodigal son/daughter. What I mean is maybe you new Jesus as a child. You attended church. You went to church camp. You read your Bible. But then you spent your life running from God. You got wild. You rebelled. You did your high school/college thing. You did the single thing, you sowed your wild oats, you started your career/family... but then you hit a dead end and cried out to God for help... and you came to Lakeside to start all over with God. If you came a prodigal, write "prodigal" by your name.
If you want to know how Lakeside is doing helping babies, transfers, and prodigals find God I would tell you we are doing AWESOME. Lakeside has extraordinary membership growth.
But what about conversion growth? How many people come to Lakeside with absolutely ZERO church background, w/no Bible knowledge, not knowing the name of Jesus, not growing up in S. School ... like those Chinese men? I've got sad news. The churches in Springfield blowing up in attendance (including Lakeside) are NOT growing through conversion growth. We're not helping very many FIND GOD for the first time. We are reaching the "reached". We're drawing people from other churches, we're rearranging the Kingdom, we're standing on the shoulders of some other church.
Truly helping a person FIND GOD for the first time is very hard work. It requires that we leave the shallow waters and venture into the deep blue waters, people previously untouched by the gospel. It requires that we lay the foundation for faith itself--that we boldly tread where no church or Christian has tread before.
One way you know you are truly dealing with a conversion--is a person sincerely asks, "What is faith? Why I believe? I only trust science. Who is God? How can God be three and one? Are miracles for real? You don't really believe God created everything do you? Why should I trust the Bible? What about other holy books/religions? Who is Jesus? How could someone like Jesus come from God, let alone rise from the grave? How can Jesus be fully divine and fully human? Why would God ever show grace to someone like me? Why should I show grace to anyone? I don't like Christians, their against everyone. I distrust the church. I don't feel loved by God, or Christians."
Not only are millennials the largest generation, but they are the first generation to grow up without any church connection or Christian foundation. We can do better. We aren't satisfied with our conversion growth rate, not even a little bit.
[Symbol] We exist to help people FOLLOW JESUS
The search for God inevitably leads to the foot of the cross, to Jesus. We exist to help people become fully devoted followers of Jesus. From a "relational" standpoint, this means believing in Jesus for eternal life. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. To know Jesus is to know eternal life. We don't worship a generic "god" but a Living God who has revealed himself fully, perfectly in the face of Jesus.
Relationally, following Jesus means becoming fully like Jesus through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes us "whole" and "holy." We are justified by Jesus' shed blood through faith alone... but it's the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us, and heals us. It's through the Holy Spirit that God imparts his divine nature unto us, and makes us a new creation.
Relationally, following Jesus means building up the church at Lakeside. This church is the bride of Christ, purchased and redeemed by Christ's shed blood. In response to Christ's love, he asks that we use our time, our talents, and our treasure to invest in this place and build up this church. This is a generous church.
Lakeside has tripled in size since being at this location, and it's because you serve, you give, you invest. We believe God is preparing us to triple in size yet again. The way we've staffed this church, remodeled our spaces, built children's space, the way we are expanding parking, the way we are building ministries... it's so one thousand people will come here every weekend to FIND GOD, FOLLOW JESUS...
Relationally, following Jesus means being sent out, it means being sent to bless this city. We got to be where people are hurting. It's not the healthy who need a doctor, it's the sick... it's those with hurts, hang-ups, and bad habits, and divided hearts, and messy lives.
Now in terms of activity, what does following Jesus look like? (1) It looks like Attending Worship. This gathering is electric. There is nothing more powerful than God's people gathering for worship to celebrate Jesus. There is no more powerful testimony than hundreds of people lifting their hands to King Jesus.
(2) It looks like Connecting to a Small Group. From elementary all the way through adults, we have groups for everyone. Small Groups are the backbone of this church, the spinal cord. Our groups is where we actually practice being the Church... our groups pray together, learn together, eat together, serve together, go on mission together. Daniel Thompson, our Spiritual Life Minister, Brad Owen our Student Minister, Shelley Kuchar our Elementary teacher architect our group life.
(3) It looks like Serving on a Team. We want you to use what God has given you to actively build up the church. It's awesome that you attend, but if you never get involved serving on a team you are robbing this church, and God's Kingdom, of your contribution. God has given you so much and will bless you when you serve him. Olivia Huber, our Director of Involvement, helps get people plugged in at Lakeside.
(4) It looks like Giving Financially. We ask all of Lakeside' Leaders to tithe. The Elders, the Staff, Small Group Leaders, everyone. Each family giving 10% to our CORE FUND deepens this church's impact. Giving over and above to the VISION FUND enlarges our church's impact. As EASTER approaches, we want to take up a special offering for our parking lot. We need to raise $140k to build parking lot debt free. The Parking is our next strategic step for fueling growth.
(5) It looks like Sharing Faith. Christ want you to be his ambassador, reaching out to the unreached. You know I loved churched people. They're easier to work with. The ground work has already been laid, the footings have already been poured. But God isn't calling us to reach other Christians... he's calling us into deep blue waters, to reach out to people far from God, to reach people who don't do church.
So how well is Lakeside doing helping people follow Jesus? We have more people in small groups then ever before. We have more people serving on team, and serving out in our city, than ever before. People are rolling up their gifts and investing financially in this ministry. But we can do better sharing our faith!
The last part of our vision is to help people flourish for God's glory. So I am not going to unpack this in depth. Let me just say this... we win people to Jesus, we build people up in Jesus, and we are doing more now than every before, training people to make disciples. We use the Jethro Model of Leadership development. Remember Jethro, Moses's father-in-law? Moses was burning himself out, laboring for God. And Jethro said, this isn't good. Distribute the work! Appoint those who can lead 1s, lead 10s, lead 50s/100s, who can lead 1000s.
We're not content with you being an awesome follower of Jesus. We want to be a church that reproduces disciples. I want to tell you about an opportunity coming up soon for those of you who want to lead others. Let's suppose you want to learn how to lead one other person to faith. Let's suppose you want to lead a small group of ten people. Let's suppose you have the capacity to lead 50, 100 or even 1000 people. Suppose you want to help Lakeside triple, to help us build 1000 strong...
Coming up in April, we are taking anyone interested to First Christian Church in Decatur that a few years ago was the size Lakeside is now... but that made some strategic decisions, and tripled in size. This is a church doing everything we've talked about today, and can inspire us, encourage us, and help us achieve our vision. We want to take 50-100 leaders to Decatur. It costs $5, it's a Saturday, it's an invitation to you who want to get serious about reproducing yourself. You can mark interest on connection card, we will caravan over there from our parking lot.
In Matthew 9:35-38, "Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."