©2003 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

01/26/03

Assumptions Pt. 2

1/26/03 Assumptions Pt. 2

I must admit I came away from our time together last week a little surprised.

I simply didn’t expect

quite such an enthusiastic response to the things I shared with you.

If you weren’t with us,

I shared 7 assumptions about the people I teach

that I bring to every teaching time we share together.

I’d warned you the week before

that I was probably going to do this,

and I think that warning may have had something to do

with the response my words generated.

I’m guessing, of course,

but I think it is very possible

that many of you were expecting

that at least some of my assumptions about you were going to be negative,

and when you discovered that I assume very good things about you

it came as both a surprise and a relief.

And I also think that, whether consciously or not,

some of you may have made another connection as well.

I think you may have realized

that what I shared last week

were not just my assumptions about you,

but they may also have mirrored your God’s assumptions about you as well.

I do hope you allowed yourself to make that connection

because it would be a correct and accurate one.

Everything I shared with you

came directly out of what I see God telling us about ourselves in His Word.

When He approaches us,

whenever and wherever He involves Himself in the lives of His children,

He does so on the basis of that new heart He has created within us.

He is the One who has already accomplished that recreative work in our lives,

and He knows that the problems we now face

are not problems at the spirit level,

they are problems that grow out of those lies

that are still deeply imbeded within us,

lies that war against those longings for righteousness and faithfulness to our God

that form the core of the new life of Christ within us.

When we reached that pivotal point in our study of the book of Romans

where, after spending eleven chapters revealing to us

the transformation God has already accomplished within us through Christ,

Paul then turned his attention

to the practical changes that God wants to bring about in our lives,

and at that point he makes the most remarkable statement.

Talking exclusively to Christians,

He says, ROM 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

ROM 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

He doesn’t tell us to present our hearts to God.

We’ve already done that,

and we are now and will forevermore be His holy ones at the spirit level of our being.

He calls us to bring our bodies

under the leadership of that new spirit within us,

and then he tells us that we do that

through the renewal of the mind,

through allowing His Spirit

to show us those lies within us

that are resisting the leadership of our new hearts,

and then, when we recognize those lies,

replacing them with His truth.

But His approach to us

is always one that recognizes and assumes

the presence of that new heart.

We, on the other hand,

begin from the outside.

We look at all of the areas

where our performance is inconsistent with the longings of our heart,

and we anticipate rejection,

and disapproval,

and condemnation.

It isn’t that our performance doesn’t matter, of course.

It’s that it doesn’t matter for the reasons we think it does.

Everything our God tells us about our life with Him in Christ

is designed to cause us to run toward Him,

to rest in Him,

to know with absolute certainty that,

ROM 5:1-2"... having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand...”

All of which is to say

that I think it is possible

that one of the reasons some of you found last week so encouraging

is because it may have helped you to realize in a new way

that God’s assumptions about you

are not at all what you may have been thinking.

This I can tell you with certainty -

if you really knew what God was thinking about you,

rather than running from Him,

or hiding from Him,

or trying to keep Him forever at arm’s length,

you would run toward Him with all your strength,

and fling yourself into His arms.

But, I’m not really going to reteach

what I taught last week.

I want to take what I did

and take it one step farther.

Following our time together last week

one of our elders (who just happens to play the keyboard for us on Sunday mornings)

mentioned that he thought there was another whole set of assumptions

that it would be good for us to address.

He suggested we really need to spend a morning

talking about some of the key assumptions about being a local church

that form the foundation of our lives together here at PBF.

I’m objective enough about Peninsula Bible Fellowship

to know that in some ways

we may appear to be a rather strange little group of believers.

When it comes to doctrine,

I don’t know of anyone

who is more conservative and committed to the absolute authority and reliability of Scripture than I am.

To the best of my ability

I seek to live my life

and to conduct my teaching

under the absolute and unquestioned authority of the Word of God.

But at the same time,

what we do here,

and what we don’t do does look rather different from many other church groups.

That is not just a coincidence.

Just as I bring to my teaching

certain assumptions about you

that determine both what I say

and what I do not say,

so those of us who have been placed in leadership here at PBF

have certain assumptions we have made

about the purpose and structure of the local church,

and those assumptions have a tremendous impact on both what we do

and what we do not do as a church.

Before I share some of those with you,

since very few of you have been with us since the beginning,

you might appreciate a little history about where we came from.

The church began as a home Bible study in the fall of 1982.

Sandee and I had no part in it’s beginning.

In fact, we were living in Dallas Texas at the time.

Within a few months of the start of that Bible study

those involved in it decided that they wanted to move toward becoming an established church.

Both Sandee and I had some history in the Soldotna area

prior to our move to Texas,

and I was known to most of those involved in that Bible study.

The eight or ten families in the group wrote me

asking if I would consider returning to Soldotna to pastor the infant church.

I agreed, Sandee, Joni, and I returned to Soldotna,

and in the spring of 1983 I became the first

and to date the only pastor this church has ever had.

I believe that nearly all of those

who were involved in that original group

assumed that we would follow the typical pattern of most new churches,

building our own building,

and then increasingly structuring ourselves in ways that followed the traditional approach.

In other words,

I think many of those who were involved with us in the early days

were simply hanging on until we became a “real church”

and I became a “real pastor”.

But now, here we are, nearly 20 years later,

with no building of our own,

no interest whatsoever in getting one,

and a church structure and an approach to church life

that is so informal as to be almost invisible.

I believe that what many people notice first when they visit us

is all of the things we don’t have.

We don’t have a building of our own.

We don’t have a schedule of meetings that takes up three or four evenings a week.

We don’t have any church committees.

We have no public business meeting.

We don’t pass an offering plate up and down every row each week.

We don’t advertise,

we don’t recruit,

we don’t try to compete with other churches,

we don’t even put a sign outside on Sunday mornings telling people who we are.

How many of you here this morning

found us through the recommendation of someone who was already going here?

That’s just the way it should work -

it means that the first day you came here

you had at least one other person

with whom you had some sense of belonging.

I have thought a great deal during the past 20 years

about what it means to be a church

and to function as a church in this American culture.

Though we rarely talk about it in these terms,

one of the greatest enemies we fight

when it comes to functioning effectively together as Christians

is the brutal reality that religion in America is an industry.

Without even thinking about it consciously

we relate to local churches

as what they so often are - independent local businesses

that are in competition with one another

for a limited clientele.

In some ways it’s not unlike what happens between McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Arbys.

Whoever has the best product,

at the best price,

with the most attractive surroundings gets the business.

With churches,

the ones that have the best programs

with the best music

and the “right” doctrine

and the best facilities get the most people.

It certainly isn’t wrong for churches to build buildings

and establish programs that meet needs in the lives of those involved,

but the great challenge in our society,

and the one we have wrestled with for the past 20 years

as we’ve tried to find our way as a local church,

is finding an approach to being Christians together

that prevents us from becoming consumed by the industry aspects of Christianity in our nation.

Which brings me to what I will call the basic Biblical operating principles

upon which we as a church have attempted to build our life together.

1. The first one I’d mention

is the understanding that we are not a business,

we are the body of Christ,

a group of His people who all stand equally significant,

equally valued,

equally loved before our God.

In subtle ways

we try to reinforce that each time we get together.

We keep two microphones open and available to anyone who wants to use them during our times together.

When I finish teaching

I frequently invite your responses.

I don’t sit on an elevated platform above my fellow Christians,

I sit with you

because I’m one of you.

Those of you who have, out of respect,

addressed me as “Pastor”

have probably heard me respond by saying, “Just call me Larry.”

It’s not because I’m not your pastor.

I certainly am.

But the use of the term

can create the perception

that I possess some sort of special or elevated standing in family of God,

and I do not.

I am your brother in Christ,

and my calling and yours are identical -

to use whatever gifts God has chosen to give us

for the growth of His family

and the presentation of His love to the world in which we live.

I think perhaps this understanding of us as the family of God

has had a major impact on our decision not to build our own facility.

From the very beginning

we have wanted to structure ourselves in such a way

that, as much as possible, our identity as a church

grows out of who we are,

and how we relate to one another,

and how we live out our walk with Christ before the world,

rather than our identity growing out of where we meet.

What I consider to be the first real church I was ever involved in

was the group of believers I was a part of in Trinidad in the early 70's.

For a while during that year

we met in an unused chicken coup

that had abundant evidences of its former use inside it.

Then we moved to the living room in the home of one of the families in the valley.

It was always hot in the tropics,

and when we packed ourselves into that living room Sunday evenings

every door and window in the place was wide open.

And, as we sang and then studied the Bible together,

we grew accustomed to many of the nonchristians from the valley

gathering in the darkness around that house

just to listen to us and watch what was happening to us and in us.

It wasn’t the building that drew them.

It was the amazing discovery that something was happening in our lives

that they couldn’t understand.

And let me emphasis here

that I in no way mean to suggest

that I think it is wrong for a group of Christians to own a building.

There are times when the work that God is seeking to do through some group

demands the construction of a facility

that provides them with the tools they need for that work.

But I do think

that in our society

a church building can often make it far harder for a group of believers to stay focused

on the things that really matter.

What matters,

all that really matters in any church group

is what’s happening between us and our God

and what’s happening between us and one another.

As part of the literal Body of Christ in this community

we carry with us the high calling of presenting our Lord to those around us.

When they look at us

we don’t want them to see our building,

we want them to see our lives.

2. The only programs we want

are the programs His Spirit creates through us.

This concept has had a profound affect on the way we have developed as a church.

In practical terms,

what it means is that

rather our starting with a mental blueprint

of all the things we thought the church should be doing

and then trying to motivate people to do those things,

we started with the belief

that whatever God wanted us to do

He would give individuals within the group a heart for.

And if He didn’t do it,

we wouldn’t either.

Of course, from the very beginning

my own personal commitment to this concept has been crucial.

Rather than approaching my role here

from the perspective of trying to figure out

what I thought a “good pastor” was “suppose to do”,

I began with the belief

that God both could and would give me an understanding

of how I could most effectively fulfill my role here

within the limits of my gifts and abilities, strengths and weaknesses.

I know there have been times

when some of my fellow Christians

have become intensely frustrated with me

because I wasn’t doing something they thought I should be doing.

But the truth is,

when it comes to our life together in the Body of Christ,

it is neither safe nor right to allow others to define for us

how the Spirit of God should express Himself through our lives.

From day one we have been talking about Christ’s presence within us

and His commitment to live through us.

But for many of us

this whole concept is really hard stuff

because we live in a culture in which the Christian industry around us

is built upon the rigid division between “clergy” and “laymen”

even though there simply is no such division in Scripture.

Certainly there are those whose time investment justifies them being supported financially by their fellow believers.

And there are a wide diversity of gifts

distributed by the Holy Spirit throughout the Body of Christ.

But the heart of what God says to us about the church

is that we truly do all stand equal before our Lord,

and that He will equip each of us

with our own special contribution to the life and health of the body as a whole.

And one of the foundation pillars of our life together here at PBF

is an approach to church life in which,

rather than creating programs and then trying to find people to carry them out,

we want to learn how to trust God to give those of us involved in this church

the desire to do whatever things He wanted us to do.

And I must say I am thrilled with the way I see that happening.

One of the many fascinating statements made by our Lord when He was here

concerned His description of the way this whole area of our doing is suppose to play out.

He said, MAT 5:16 "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

We human beings are really great

at figuring out ways of doing good works

so that people glorify us.

But the challenge is to do what we do

in ways that bring glory to our Lord.

And so often I find myself thrilled

at the way I see that happening within our church family.

There are times, of course,

when what He does through us is clearly visible to the body.

A few years ago

the Lord gave Gary and Jill Leiter the desire to take a bunch of our kids on a mission trip to Mexico.

I didn’t tell them at the time,

but the truth is, when I first heard what they were planning to do

I thought they were out of their minds.

It wasn’t something they thought they should do.

It certainly wasn’t something the church board told them they were obligated to do.

It was something they clearly had a longing to do.

It turned out to be the beginning

of what has become a major part of the life of our church family.

During the years since that outreach began

I believe it has had a greater impact on the lives of those who have gone

than everything else combined that our church has done with our kids.

This year we will put between 8 and 10 thousand dollars into that program from the general fund.

And that is apart from the 10 thousand more

the kids will raise on their own.

And those who go

come back feeling as though they have been highly honored

to have been able to be a part of that program.

But it all started simply as a result

of something God’s Spirit placed into two people’s hearts.

But in reality

the vast majority of what God’s Spirit is doing through us

are things most of us never see,

because they take place between individuals

with no structural recognition whatsoever.

They are things that flow naturally out of our lives

as we learn how to listen to and follow the leadership of our God.

I get little glimpses of them sometimes and they just thrill me.

I’ve had one family ask me to point out the car of another family in the parking lot

because they had something they wanted to put in it.

They didn’t want recognition.

They just wanted to quietly help one of their fellow believers.

So much of what He does through us

takes place without anyone else knowing about it

as God gives us eyes to see

and then hearts to respond to the needs He shows us.

But learning to think in these terms,

learning to think outside of the structure, the organization, the program

takes a long time

because we have been trained in the past

to think not in terms of the life of Christ through each of us,

but rather to think in terms of the organized institution doing what it does through structured programs.

Sometimes some structure and organization is essential.

The planing that goes into those missions trips is massive,

and rightly so.

But the key in this whole thing

is learning to think differently about ourselves within the family of God,

and about the life of Christ through each of us.

3. The third pillar principle of our life together here at PBF that I would mention

is that personal faithfulness to the life and leadership of the Lord in our lives,

not involvement in the church program,

is the only valid measure of our walk with the Lord.

We keep no attendance records,

if you miss one, or two, or ten Sundays

you’ll never hear me say, “Why weren’t you in church?”

You may hear me say, “I’ve missed you.”,

but if I say that it’s because I really have missed you.

You see, if what we do here is of value to you in your walk with Christ

you’ll be here

and you’ll feel a real sense of loss when you’re not.

And if what we’re doing here is not of value to you in your walk with Christ,

then there is absolutely no value whatsoever in you “going to church”

just for the sake of “going to church”.

4. And then just a final word about our governmental structure here.

One of the many things people sometimes notice being missing

in our church life here

is a regular monthly “business meeting”

in which the congregation votes on church issues.

We’ve never done that and we never will

simply because we see no place in the New Testament

where the mind of God was determined on the basis of a 51% majority vote.

Though it can take a wide variety of structural forms,

the pattern given to us in Scripture

is one in which God reveals the character qualities that must be present in the lives of those who hold leadership roles in the local church.

Then the church body trusts God’s Spirit to work through those leaders

to protect the Body and direct its growth.

We here at PBF are lead by a board of Elders.

Currently that board is made up of myself,

Chuck, Paul Moses, and Roger Whitaker.

The board meets whenever one of us thinks we should meet.

As the primary teacher here at PBF

I recognize those three men as the authority God has placed over me in my role here.

I am certainly not the head of the board.

I am one among equals

and, in regard to my teaching and the employment aspects of my relationship with the church,

I am absolutely under their authority.

So, there it is - probably more about us than you cared to know.

But at least once every 20 years or so

it’s good for us spend a little time talking about who we are.