SCRIPTURE: multiple
DATE: 1-7-18
It’s good to be with all of you this evening — both of our campuses together — for a communion service. And — as always — one thing I want you to know is that God loves you and I love you too.
SERMON INTRODUCTION
A few months ago — just after you voted for me to be your pastor — I held five vision meetings for life group participants. During the meetings, we had a get to know Pastor Josh and my wife, Emily, time. I caught everyone up with how Gateway is organized — now that we’re a multi-site church. And then we had a question and answer time — during which I answered more than sixty questions — which was every question you asked.
One other thing I did was have you fill out a survey — and a total of 286 surveys were filled out. The survey was brief and anonymous. After asking your age, gender, and how many years you’ve been at Gateway — I asked four questions.
What are Gateway’s strengths? List no more than three.
What are Gateway’s weaknesses? List no more than three.
What’s one thing that must change at Gateway?
And…What’s one thing that must never change at Gateway?
Now before we get to your responses — to give you an idea of who filled out the survey — this picture shows that 55% were women and 45% were men.
This next picture shows you the breakdown of how long those surveyed have attended Gateway.
7% have attended a year or less. 31% have attended between 2-5 years. 25% for 6-10 years. 14% for 11-15 years. And 23% for 15 or more — that’s those who’ve been here since the Norcrest days.
Finally, the ages of those who filled out a survey. 11% were between the ages of 18-29. 31% were in their 30s. 14% in their 40s. 20% in their 50s. 13% in their 60s. And 11% were 70 years old or older.
Overall, I think this is a pretty good snapshot of our church — pretty evenly spread between genders, length of time at Gateway, and age.
Now — for the rest of our time — I’m going to preach the most non-sermon I’m comfortable preaching — because I don’t want to waste your feedback and I definitely don’t want you to think that we — or that I — didn’t hear you.
But more importantly, I need your help.
Because some of your feedback indicates we’ve got some areas we need to grow in as a church — but we don’t know what to do — I don’t know what to do — so I need your help. But we’ll get to that in a bit.
So — to layout where we’re headed for the next 35 minutes or so — what’s going to happen is I’m going to share your feedback, explain it the best I can, take us to the Bible, and then give us some points of application. That’s why I said this will be a bit uncomfortable for me because I like my sermons to begin with Scripture and let the Bible lead us, but tonight your feedback is what’s driving the direction of this sermon.
And before I go any further, let me say that I’m only going to highlight things that were mentioned over and over and over again. Meaning — based on your feedback — these were obviously our strengths or obviously our weaknesses. So I won’t be sharing some random thoughts from one or two individuals — I won’t be sharing things that “Pastor Josh wants to see changed at Gateway” — what I’m going to share are overwhelmingly — according to you — our strengths and our weaknesses.
So some of you may be disappointed because you pointed out a strength or weakness, but no one else did — or not enough did — to make it rise to the top. It’s not that we didn’t hear you — there just wasn’t enough feedback to make your particular strength or weakness rise to the top.
Obviously, we have to take into consideration if this is a matter of biblical obedience — what matters most is what the Bible says not how few or how many people raised a topic — but none of the things that came up in small amounts were of a “we’re not being obedient to the Bible” nature.
And — I know — in even saying that — that if you raised the concern you may disagree with me. But know that I wasn’t the only person to sift through your feedback. Others went through your feedback with me and came to the same conclusion.
So — for instance — as much as I appreciate the person who said the one thing that needs to change at Gateway is…that “Josh needs a raise” — well that’s not gonna be the focus of our time.
Same goes for those who gave us comments about the smokey stuff or that we need to have an American flag — or a Christian flag — in the sanctuary. We heard you. We saw your feedback. But your concerns did not rise to the top as what the congregation — your peers — your fellow members — deem to be our greatest strengths or weaknesses or things that must change.
So let’s begin by looking at what you said is our number one strength. Then we’ll look at two weaknesses. And then end by looking at what you said is the one thing that must never change at Gateway. OK? So that’s where we’re headed.
MAIN POINT 1
Let’s begin with our number one strength. By far — overwhelmingly so — you said that Gateway’s greatest strength is its “preaching and doctrine.” Now this could sound like a “pastoral stacking of the deck” — picking a strength that makes us pastors — or me, in particular — look good — so here’s a graph showing just how wide the gap is between “preaching and doctrine” — being what you said is Gateway’s greatest strength — and everything else you mentioned.
Eighty-three percent of you mentioned “preaching and doctrine” as a strength. That equals 136 more mentions than the next strength listed. Like I said — this is by far what you believe to be Gateway’s greatest strength.
We lumped preaching and doctrine together because your remarks for both were so similar. What kind of feedback did you give us? You said things like…
- Believing very strong in the Bible.
- Being Bible based.
- Bible based messages.
- Bible based preaching.
- Bible based sermons.
- Bible based teaching.
- Bible centered.
- Bible focus.
- Christ-centered sermons.
- Commitment to the Word.
- Messages.
- Sermons.
- And preaching — to name a few.
And it thrills me that we’re a church who values God’s Word and sees our greatest strength to be the preached Word of God — because this aligns beautifully with Scripture.
Paul writes to Timothy, “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching…Practice these things (make sure your church values the Bible and it being preached…), immerse yourself in them (I love that picture. A pastor who immerses himself — and his church — in the Word of God), so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Timothy 4:13, 15-16 ESV)
In a second letter to Timothy, Paul writes, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Timothy 3:16-4:5 ESV)
According to Paul, we’re to be people of the Word. We’re to be a church that’s centered on God’s Word. All that we do — both when we gather and as we scatter — is to be done according to God’s Word. So the preached Word is to be the focus of our time — the center of our attention — our main activity — when we gather to worship.
And for this to happen, it means hard work for the preacher and for the congregation. For the preacher is to work hard at preparing his sermons each week and the congregation is to work hard at preparing themselves to hear and respond to God’s preached Word each week.
I recently read a small book written by a pastor who was in his last months of battling cancer. He knew he was about to die, so the book is his — “I’m dying and don’t care what you think, so here are my thoughts on what the church is supposed to be about” letter to the church.
And about the preached Word of God, he writes, “In practice, if a preacher is to be a true servant of God’s word, he will have to give the best part of his days to studying the Bible for himself at his desk. It will mean the pain of hard and disciplined preparation, and prayer for God’s help to apply the message of the passage into the realities of the society and individual lives of the hearers. The best sermons are those that have cost the preacher most…if the congregation is to be adequately fed on a Sunday.”
That’s the hard work of the pastor who regularly preaches. He’s to spend a large amount of his week in God’s Word — reading it, studying it, memorizing it, meditating on it, obeying it — and preparing the sermon so the congregation will be fed rich truths when they gather together. As William Perkins, a Puritan pastor, reminds the preacher, “You are a minister of the Word; Mind thy business!”
And the church that values God’s preached Word, will guard the pastor’s time so he can preach the best sermons he can. That’s why here at Gateway, we’ve given the preaching responsibilities primarily over to one pastor — me — and have given many other pastoral duties over to the campus pastors. One thing that was shared at the vision meetings is my role as the senior pastor and the role of the campus pastors.
And I’ve been given the tasks to preach God’s Word and to lead the Session to follow God’s vision for Gateway. Those are my primary duties — that’s where my time is to be focused.
The campus pastors have been tasked with managing their staff, shepherding the people of their congregation, and to lead their campuses in local outreach and evangelism.
Now the campus pastors will preach throughout the year, but we want the majority of their time spent — not in preparing sermons — but in shepherding people because the responsibility of pastoring Gateway Church has become too big for one person — the congregation has become too large — so we’ve divided the pastoral responsibilities between us. I focus on preaching. The campus pastors focus on shepherding and evangelism.
And we understand that this will take some time for everyone to understand — who does what — do I go to the senior pastor about this or my campus pastor — we know it will take time — we’re just trying to organize Gateway Church so we continue to walk according to God’s will and experience His favor in even greater measure.
All of that to say — we agree with you. We’re thankful that the preaching of God’s Word has been a strength of Gateway Church and we want to ensure that it continues to be our greatest strength. For everything else we do as a church rises or falls with the preaching of God’s Word.
Now to some of our weaknesses. We’ll look at a practical weakness you brought up and then a spiritual weakness we need to take a real hard look at in 2018.
MAIN POINT 2
First the practical weakness. Fifty-six of you mentioned “poor communication” as a weakness. Additionally, nineteen of you said “communication is the one thing that must change” at Gateway Church.
Our God is a communicating God and He has communicated clearly to us in the Bible. So God values good communication and we value it at Gateway — and — we want to continue improving the way we communicate to you.
One of the ways we’ve shown our value of communication — which you may not be aware of — is we’ve beefed up our communications team.
A little over a year ago we had zero full time staff in our communications department — which tells you we didn’t actually have a communications department. The first thing we did was shift Jared McBride’s role — we moved him full time into communications because — he had a desire to serve you in this way — but also because you were giving us feedback — even back then — that we needed to improve our communication.
This year, we brought on a part time admin who helps Jared. And we’ve recently created a new position — which we’re currently trying to fill — on the communications team to help our communication become even better. So we’re making some necessary changes — even as to how we use our staff — so we improve this weakness you have pointed out to us.
But there’s something about communication I have to bring up. And it’s the fact that communication isn’t only sent; it must be received.
Communication is a two way street. And often — what can be easy to do in this area — is — to use an illustration Jesus gave us — is to see the “speck in our brother’s eye while ignoring the plank in our own.”
Now as a staff, we’re continuing to work on our sending of communication — but can I ask a favor of you? Can you work hard at receiving our communication?
Here’s what I mean — and I don’t want this to feel like I’m deflecting your criticism — I’m not. I’ve already said we’re beefing up our communications department with more staff and are working on how we communicate, but I can’t ignore these other factors either.
For instance, our weekly email has 1,670 people who receive it — so we communicate to over 1,600 of you via email each week. We send out announcements, event updates, ways to sign up for things, inform you about stuff happening at Gateway, and so on to nearly 1,700 people each week.
But of those 1,670 people who are sent the email, only 460 of you actually open it — that’s 30%. So 70% of you get information from us sent to you, but you don’t open it. So — could I ask you to help us improve our communication by reading our email? And — of course — not everyone has signed up to receive our weekly email — so — if you haven’t — could you? Go to our website — gatewayepc.org — to sign up.
What about Facebook? Our church Facebook page has 2,196 followers. Of the 2,196 of you who follow us — who can see what we post — the info we’re communicating to you — of our recent posts we have roughly 32 interactions — a like, a love, a haha — I’m not on Facebook so this all sounds silly to me — we get about 3 comments and 10 shares per post. So of the nearly 2,200 of you we communicate to on Facebook, only 45 of you — or so — give us any indication that you receive what we share. The average video we post is watched for 10-15 seconds and then you move on — don’t you love that we can know all of this about you — kind of scary, right — 10-15 seconds and then you move on. How do you expect to know what we’re communicating in a video if we only have your attention for 10-15 seconds?
Is there anyway you can work harder at receiving the info we communicate to you via Facebook?
We have info on our app, we have pre-service slides — that only a few of you are here early enough to view — a special email is sent to Life Group leaders nearly every week, we have a website — and — we have announcements during the worship service.
Now worship service announcements are like prime real estate for most churches. We try to reserve our announcements for the most important things going on at Gateway. But it’s so easy to tune out during the announcements. I know I do it from time to time and I’m sure — if you’re honest — you do to.
Now I don’t say all of this as an excuse on our part — we’re working hard to improve our communication — but — and you know this — communication works both ways. So open the email each week. Pay attention during the announcements. Show up five minutes early to watch the pre-service slides. Like us on Facebook and interact with our posts. Stop by the What’s Next Wall.
Download the app on your phone or tablet. Go to our website. And if all else fails — call the church office. We want to communicate with you — we’re not trying to keep secrets — I promise. Let’s all make it a goal to improve our communication in 2018.
That’s the practical weakness you mentioned — and now to the rather odd spiritual weakness. I say “odd” because it’s a bit of a mystery to me — the reason why it shows up is baffling — I can’t quite figure out why it comes up.
Now before I tell you what this weakness is, let me remind you that the people invited to the vision meetings — where these surveys were filled out — were all Life Group participants. That’s an important detail to remember — all of the feedback is from Life Group members.
So here’s the spiritual weakness you brought up. It’s kind of a combo — two things — two weakness — by far the greatest weakness you mentioned again and again — were “feeling disconnected” and what can only be described as “I’m not being discipled.”
Your feedback to us — about where we are weak as a church — is that you “feel disconnected” and you’re “not being discipled.”
How many of you mentioned this? 172 of you — that’s over 60% who filled out a survey.
Now why is this puzzling to me — why does the feedback of “I’m not connected” and “I’m not being discipled” seem odd?
Do you remember who filled out the surveys? Life Group members. And the goal of life groups is to get you “connected to one another” and life groups are our ministry where you are “discipled.” And the very people involved in our life groups are saying they “don’t feel connected” and that they “aren’t being discipled.” So we’ve got a problem.
What exactly did you say? You said it…
- Can be hard to connect
- [It’s] Easy to feel lost in the crowd
- [It’s] Hard to get to know people
- Life groups and serving don’t help as much as they should
- [Gateway is] Impersonal
- [Gateway can be] Clicky
- People keep to their groups
- Lack of discipleship
- Discipleship opportunities
- Weak in the area of discipleship
- [Lacking] Programs that disciple men and women (somewhere between life groups and Joshua’s Men/215)
And — overall — 24% of you said “being disconnected” and “not being discipled” is the one thing that must change at Gateway Church.
Now if those who had filled out a survey weren’t life group participants, we’d have to go down the road of “Well why aren’t you actively participating in the ministry we have for connecting you to others and discipling you?” But that’s not our situation. Everyone who filled out a survey is participating in our ministry designed to “connect you to others” and “disciple you.”
So — Houston — we have a problem. And I’m not pointing the finger at the staff who currently oversee our Life Group ministry nor am I pointing the finger at the staff who created our life group ministry.
All I’m saying is this: You’re telling us that things aren’t working — something about Life Groups isn’t working — you’re not connected and you’re not being discipled. So we need to do something.
So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to host “think tank” sessions with you to solve this problem. I’m not about to tell you how we’re going to fix this — we’re going to figure this out together.
I’m not about to say “Here’s the big change we’re going to make with our Life Group ministry” — because I don’t know what needs to be done. So I need your help. And I’m inviting you to meet with us to discuss how we — as a church — can better connect you to one another and disciple you.
So over the next few weeks, open up the emails we send you — listen to the announcements in the services — watch Gateway’s Facebook page for updates — check out our website — stop by the What’s Next Wall — so you know when these “think tank” sessions will take place. We want your help — we need your help — and your feedback is not only welcomed — it’s needed.
And know that your concern aligns with Scripture. Jesus’ familiar words — known as the Great Commission — are “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18b-20 ESV)
In recent weeks, I’ve seen more articles about the state of discipleship in US churches than ever before. I think we’re at a shifting point in the US church, where many are seeing a lack of disciple making and they’re unhappy about it. We’ll engage with some of these articles — we’ll talk about the pace of life and how our busyness keeps us from growing and connecting to one another — we’ll throw out ideas on how to improve how we connect and make disciples — this is going to be a very interactive experience and your voice will be heard and you will have influence. So — again — watch for upcoming announcements about these “think tank” sessions which will take place in the coming weeks and months.
And please be patient as we think through this together. The temptation is to move real fast or real slow — make lots of changes or make no changes — and neither usually goes well. But we won’t ignore your feedback — we can’t ignore your feedback.
MAIN POINT 3
And — finally — we return to something more positive — the one thing you said must never change about Gateway. And please forgive me if it sounds like I’m repeating myself.
The one thing you said that must never change at Gateway is its “doctrine and preaching.” What you said is our greatest strength is also the one thing — by far — that you said must never change.
One hundred and sixty-nine of you — that’s 66% of you who answered the question — said Gateway’s “doctrine and preaching” must never change. The next most popular answer had 18 mentions. So by far — what you believe is Gateway’s greatest strength — is what you do not want her to waiver on. You do not want Gateway to surrender when it comes to her doctrine. And you do not want Gateway to concede when it comes to her preaching.
And my promise to you — as your pastor — is that this will not happen. A couple of weeks ago — I preached a sermon on Jesus being the life of the party. And in that sermon I talked about the eternal fire that many are headed to even though they think they’re headed to God’s eternal party. And some of you — more than I imagined — came up to tell me how courageous I was. One person said that the message was a “thinning out the crowd message” — because it’s not a popular message — it’s not a message people want to hear — but — he said — it is God’s truth.
I don’t know about it being courageous — but it is truth. And I’m in know way claiming to have it all together — and I hope I won’t ever give into cultural pressure — but what I can say is that I will never knowingly waiver from God’s Word.
Though it may be hard to say — and even harder to hear — if God’s Word says it — I must say it. If God’s Word proclaims it — I must proclaim it. If God’s Word declares “this is truth” — I must declare “this is truth.”
I hope to do so lovingly, tenderly, and graciously — but I know that God’s message can be unpopular — even among church people — and no amount of love, tenderness, or grace will cover up the cutting effect God’s Word can have on the human soul. And no amount of love, tenderness, or grace can cover up the hardening effect God’s Word can have on the human soul either.
But know that I love you. And I will do my best — by God’s grace and strength — to preach the Word. In season and out of season. When it’s what you want to hear and when it’s not what you want to hear. When you come to Gateway Church I want you to be confident that God’s Word will be faithfully preached.
CONCLUSION
So we have much to be thankful for here at Gateway Church and we’ve looked at some things we need to work on as well. And as we submit ourselves to God’s Word and allow His Spirit to lead and guide us — we will continue pressing forward — becoming the church God has created us to be.
At the beginning of this sermon, I mentioned I was going to highlight strengths and weaknesses that were mentioned numerous times. But I did say if anything did get mentioned — no matter how many or few times — if it was a matter of biblical obedience — that we would not ignore it.
And one thing some of you mentioned was the infrequency we’ve been taking communion at Gateway. And I do see this as an obedience to Scripture issue. I’m not sure we can put a specific number of times a church should celebrate communion each year, but we’ve definitely not been feasting on the grace found in the Lord’s Supper as often as we should. Thus our meeting tonight.
And going forward in 2018, most months we’ll take communion together. Sometimes it will be in evening services — like this — so we can gather together as one church from both campuses. Other times we’ll take communion during our weekend worship services. Think of this as one step in a better direction for us as a church.
Again — please know that we’re listening to you — we really are — because we love you and we value how God is speaking through you to us.
BENEDICTION
Jesus paid it all. All to Him we owe. Having feasted on His grace, may you go living for Christ alone. Amen.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.