Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction

            I have been looking forward to this day for quite a while now.

After the last number of months when we often felt rejected because we could not find a church, your acceptance and welcome has restored our spirits.

Your help in moving us here and cleaning the house and your words to us have made us feel so encouraged and we are very glad to be in a new church and a new community and a new home.

I am so thankful that I have a new job and am looking forward to doing it.

We are also glad to be specifically here in Rosenort, in this church.

This is not something to be taken for granted.

I was very involved in the Mennonite Brethren church and was very comfortable there.

Leaving the MB conference was not easy.

You have never had a pastor from outside the church never mind outside the denomination and I believe you were comfortable with that.

This is a change for both us and you, but the whole process which has brought us here was one which was directed by God.

This is where God wants me and I rejoice to be where He has called me.

As I begin ministry in this church, I want to begin by pointing in a direction.

What I want to talk about today is some of the basic ideas of what our work together will involve.

I want to point in a direction and let you know that it will be my intention to lead in this direction.

Whatever I do will fit with these ideas.

They are not new ideas, and I want to say right up front that I appreciate the legacy of this church.

I have read a little of the history of the EMC and also have read a little of the history of this church.

I appreciate that God has led you in the past.

I have met some of you who were leaders in the past and those who are leaders today and I appreciate the spiritual concerns and the genuine Christ like spirit of your leaders.

The direction I will point in will not be a radically new direction, but will have continuity with the past and with the direction which your current leaders already affirm.

Having said that, I do not intend to say that we will keep on in the same way.

I hope that together we will grow and become more and more faithful in doing the work of God in this community through this church.

How will we do that?

! I.

We Are God’s Church

            I have been watching with some interest the “Great Comeback” campaign of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

It has become very evident that the essential thing for them is to field a football team that will win so that they can stop being a team that loses on the field and at the box office.

That is their primary understanding.

Several times over the last few weeks I have been working at a company called “Naylor Communications.”

As I have worked in various areas of their three building plant, I have seen posted all over the place, from the cubicle walls to the storeroom walls a poster which declares the mission of Naylor Communications.

I assume that all aspects of the business revolves around that basic mission statement.

In many areas, we hear about the bottom line or the mission of an organization or the primary understanding of a group.

These concepts form the basic perspective from which these organizations function.

When we think of Rosenort EMC, what is the bottom line?

What is the basic perspective from which we function?

Sometimes when pastors get together they will say something like, “At my church we…” They will go on to brag about all the good things that are happening at their church.

We all do this sort of thing.

We may not be quite as bad as pastors, but all of us have probably said, “at our church.”

I know that it is not our intention to communicate that it is our personal church or that we have built the church or that we own the church.

It is just an expression and in our hearts we understand that what we are really saying is something like, “at God’s church, which we attend…” or “at God’s church in the location which we are a part of…” And yet, our words are sometimes more true than we mean.

The degree to which we communicate that it is our church has less to do with what we say and more to do with how we act and unfortunately, too often, we communicate by our actions that we mean that it is our church.

Have you ever felt jealous when someone went to a program in another church?

Have you ever been upset when someone stopped attending your church and went to another?

Have you ever felt that your church or denomination was superior to another?

Have you ever been angry because a program you felt strongly about was not accepted by the church?

Have you ever stopped giving because the church decided to build or remodel and you did not agree with the plans being made?

If you have ever felt any of these feelings, you have affirmed that you believe that it is indeed your church.

If we are honest, we have to admit that we have all done these things.

The problem with this kind of thinking is that through it we get a small view of God’s kingdom, we are in danger of competing with other churches to the detriment of God’s work and we start building our kingdom instead of God’s kingdom.

So as we begin our work together, let us reinforce from Scripture what we know to be the case and that is that this is God’s church.

I want to look at just a few passages which remind us of what we already know and I hope that we can heartily affirm this perspective, not just in words, but in how we minister at Rosenort EMC.

In Matthew 16:18 when Jesus asked his disciples “who do people say that I am” Peter affirmed that they recognized that he was the Christ.

To this Jesus replied,  “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

This is a wonderful promise that encourages us to do God’s work no matter what because it will stand.

In the midst of this promise, we see the phrase, “I will build my church.”

Whose church is it?

Jesus says that it is His church!

Even though Peter was important and would be significantly involved in starting the church, there was no doubt that it was not his church, but Christ’s church.

The statement, “I will build” affirms that Jesus continues to do the work of building His church to this day.

In the church in Corinth, there was some confusion about whose church it was because of the divisions which arose among them.

Paul asks them what they think they are doing by saying that “I follow Paul” or “I follow Apollos.”

He goes on in I Corinthians 3:7, 9 to state this fundamental perspective that it is God’s church.

In verse 7 he says, “God causes the growth.”

In verse 9, he links all, the workers and the church members as belonging to God.

The only legitimate slogan is “we all belong to God.”

No individual in the church no matter what importance or leadership role he or she has, has an independent importance.

Our importance is in the light of being servants of Christ.

There are many other passages we could look at, but let me point to just one more.

I Corinthians 1:2 is representative of a number of greetings which occur at the beginning of letters.

In the letter opening the church is referred to as the “church of God.”

As I begin ministry with you, I want to affirm that it will be my intention to try to function from the point of view that this is God’s church.

I trust that we will share this as our basic perspective.

! II.

The implications of being God’s church

But what will it mean in the life of this church that we are God’s church?

When we peruse the history of the church, we see far too many times when the church has not acted like God’s church.

When the church in Corinth was at war because of its divisions, it was not acting like God’s church.

When the churches in Revelation received their warning, they were not acting like the church of God.

When the Catholic and Lutheran churches persecuted the early Anabaptists, they were not behaving like the church of God.

When the Anabaptists in Russia cared more about who was in and who was out than about reaching out to their neighbors, they were not acting like the church of God.

When churches have split and criticized each other and competed, in our day and age, they have not been like the church of God.

What are the implications of recognizing that we are God’s church?

!! A. Be God’s people

In answering this question we must recognize that it is not what we do that comes first, but who we are.

If we want to affirm in the life of this church that it is God’s church, we will have to first of all be the people of God.

Being comes before doing.

We as Mennonites are good at getting to work, but that is the wrong order.

Being God’s church means that we are characterized by certain things in the life of the church when it is gathered and in the life of the church when it is scattered.

!!! 1.

A People In Love With Him

Our boys are not really great game players.

Whenever we would suggest to the family, “let’s play a game” our daughter was always ready to do that, but our boys sometimes had to be dragged into it.

Imagine our surprise when we heard that they had gone to the home of their girlfriend and played games with her and her family.

What made the difference?

They were in love.

As Christians, we are often duty bound.

We will do the right things, but our heart isn’t in it.

That is why the starting point for being God’s church is beginning with love for God.

As God’s church, we must be a people who are in love with our Redeemer.

Not that that is a hard thing.