Sermon Follow-up Video: Turn Around

Sunday's Sermon Follow-up Video: Grace

A Pastoral First

This morning at the conclusion of our second service at FCF we had two families come up to join our church. Each of these families went through the process of church membership and are great families to have for our ministry. Now families joining FCF have been somewhat of a regular occurrence with our growing church...but what happened during that time was a first for me.

As a Pastor, one of things I take pride in is remembering names. While I don't know everyone that comes to our church, I try to remember the names of people I have the privilege of meeting personally, especially ones who are committing with us.

As these couples came up front to be welcomed into our church family, I introduced the first couple. The second couple I had the privilege of meeting at their house on Tuesday. A great young family, three cute kids and just recently committed to helping lead our new Faith Kids Worship Service. As I moved to introduce them...my mind went totally blank...I had forgotten their names!

It was wholly embarrassing and impersonal. In that moment, something I take pride in became humbling. The first thought of course was "this can't be happening to me." Secondly I thought "I certainly am not old enough for this to be happening."

What made this situation more interesting, was the response of the family. I had just preached a message on grace (from our What is Salvation Series). While the theme of the message was on God's grace in salvation, this family exemplified that grace in their response to me.

While I am certain it won't be the last time I forget someone's name, I am certain I will never forget their names now. But in greater ways, I am thankful for new families that are willing to demonstrate grace and Christlikeness...even to their very human Pastor.

Missional...Really?

The buzz word in today's Christian community is Missional. In books, blogs, and conference sermons, today's Christian leaders are crazy about being missional. It doesn't take much to realize that the word missional comes from the word mission. The roots of this word are found in the idea of being a missionary. Taking the gospel from the church to the community.

But while many Pastors, church leaders, and conference leaders use this word to describe themselves and their ministries, are we really going people or churches? Are we missional or just creative attractional ministries? It seems there are many who can talk the talk of missiology, but few who actually are building churches that are missional in focus...many with missional attitudes but are clearly attractional in nature. What are some characteristics of missional churches?

Certainly, there are things that are missional about attractional values and there are things that are very attractional about missional attitudes. The question really lies are we actually sending people, incarnationally, in the community or are we trying to build an attractional place for the community?

J. Andrew Kirk describes the importance of this idea in his book, Shaped by God's Heart, passions and Practices of missional Churches,

"The Church is by nature missionary to the extent that, if it ceases to be missionary, it has not just failed in one of its tasks, it has ceased being the Church."


Doug Ehrgott with Horizon International makes this beautiful observation concerning missional churches and lives.

“A missional ministry is one based on obedience more than outcomes."

My observation:
Many church leaders are more interested in the statistics of success than they are the impact in the kingdom. Some live in fear of obediently changing...while others are constantly looking for the next model they can adopt to life and ministry. Our call of missional ministry begins with simple obedience to God's call of mission (Matt. 28; Acts 1:8)

Differences and Descriptions of Attractional and Missional Churches:

- Attractional ministries are characterized by a sense that “Professionals” do ministry in a place.
- Missional ministries are characterized by a sense that people do ministry EVERY place

- Attractional ministries are where people come together to worship
- Missional ministries are where worshippers go into the world

- Attractional ministries focus on people coming into the “church” event
- Missional ministries focus on people being the church in the world

- Attractional ministries celebrate people coming in
- Missional ministries celebrate people going out

- Attractional ministries focus on masses seeing Jesus
- Missional ministries focus on masses showing Jesus

- Attractional ministries are about the need of salvation for mankind (man centered)
- Missional ministries are about the reign and glory of God in salvation (God centered)

Truly missional ministries/lives perceive mission as the essence of their existence. It’s not size, growth strategy, or creative ideology. It’s centered on the spread of the gospel to the nations for the glory of God.
So are you living a missional life? Are you leading a missional ministry? Or are you just missional in word…but not in deed.

We are Casey Anthony!

As most people, I was amazed at the outcome of the Casey Anthony trial. It had seemed that the evidence supported a guilty verdict. Who wouldn’t question how a mother could not report her child missing (supposedly for 31 days) or would lie to police not once or twice, but on four occasions. Why would anyone believe her?


The reality is none of us know the truth behind the case…were the jurors persuaded by her defense? Or was it the difficulty facing the prosecution to layout the evidence? Or was it the evidence itself that didn’t add up? Except for Casey Anthony, her daughter Caylee, and the Lord, no one knows what really happened. We can speculate…but we truly don’t know.

In fact yesterday, I was in the checkout line at Walmart when the cashier proceeded to tell me why she thought Casey was guilty. Obviously, any person that has followed the case wants justice. In fact, we yearn for a world of justice (except when it’s concerning ourselves). Solomon’s desire for justice led him to these statements, “I saw something else on earth: In the place of justice, there was wickedness, and in the place of fairness, there was wickedness. I thought to myself, “God will judge both the righteous and the wicked; for there is an appropriate time for every activity, and there is a time of judgment for every deed. “ (Ecclesiastes 3:16-17)

While we will continually see injustices happening in the world, Solomon points out that injustice should lead us to the reality of our own humble state. One day both the righteous and the wicked will be judged. Everyone will stand before the ultimate judge, Christ.

See we have much in common with Casey Anthony…we are guilty of sin before a Holy God. We can try to cover it up, hide it, or deny it, but the evidence is clear…guilt is our verdict (Romans 3:23). However, our Judge offers mercy...not injustice. See injustice means that the guilty go unpunished. But our guilt was punished by our Substitute, Christ on the cross. He took our death penalty…and through faith in Him, stands as our competent lawyer before the Judge. While the evidence leads to clear guilt, the verdict is in, NOT GUILTY!

"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world."                             1 John 1:8-2:2