Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTENTION

They knew the cadets were waffling.

Some were pulling south, others north.

They knew that the only hope they had to unite them was to appeal to their sense of patriotism and duty.

So on that February day they marched them into the chapel to celebrate what they designed to be a unifying event.

They thought that just maybe the words of the father of the country would serve to unite these rebels and yankees.

The year was 1861.

In far off South Carolina, Fort Sumter was about to become the birthplace of the bloodiest war in America’s history.

All of this turmoil was a real problem at West Point.

Since the military academy included men from all the states in the union, there was, of course, a great division.

What had once been a place of great unity began to stress under the same controversy that divided the country.

That’s why they had the celebration.

Surely a little meditation on the farewell address of George Washington would remind them of where their real loyalties lay.

After the service was over the cadets returned to their quarters and the West Point band marched across the campus playing the Star Spangled Banner.

When the cadets heard it, they ran to their windows.

Those from the south began to shout “Dixie,” while those from the north shouted out the words to the National Anthem.

So much for unity.

What was wrong?

Both groups respected Washington’s memory and both groups surely appreciated his birthday, but the event that was supposed to have unified them only caused more division.

Why was that?

It was because both groups perceived the event differently.

Those from the North honored the celebration as an attempt to emphasize the importance of remaining one country.

Those from the south saw the celebration as a vain attempt to prevent them from leaving.

You see, their perceptions brought them to different and quite divisive conclusions.

That’s always the way it is: Perception determines response; what I perceive to be true will often decide how I respond.

That’s especially true in church.

I bet you’ve tried to witness to people who want nothing to do with the Lord, haven’t you.

Now they may not even know anything about Peace Church, and they may even like you personally, but they have a perception of Christianity and the church that causes them to have a negative response.

We’ve all seen it: perception determines response.

And the same is true for people inside the church.

How you perceive your church determines what you do or refuse to do for it.

If you see church as a place for you to come and have your needs met, for instance, you will hang around as long as we’re meeting your needs.

But if we, for some reason, don’t scratch your itch, you may decide to move on somewhere else to try to get it scratched.

Perception determines response.

Which just leads me to ask: What is your perception of Peace Church?

What is your vision for our future?

Why do we exist?

You see, your answer to those questions will really determine whether or not you’re happy here.

Your answer to those questions will really determine just how long you stay here.

NEED

So that’s what my message is about today.

I want to describe for us what I believe our vision ought to be.

Now that can be a dangerous thing.

You see I realize that when you really come to understand what our vision is, you may realize that you’re wasting your time here.

You may come to realize that the way you see church and the way we see church are so different that we’ll never be able to reconcile.

If that happens, I must tell you, I will be sad, but I’ll feel as if I’ve done us both a favor.

After all, life’s just too short for us to waste time, right?

And you might be saying, “Well, what do you mean, exactly, Rusty?

What do you mean when you say that we don’t see church the same?”

Well, I mean that first of all, you may not agree with our philosophy.

There is a philosophy of the way church works that we follow.

Now we believe it is biblical and that it is what God is leading us to do, but I must tell you that there have been good people who have disagreed with us and that’s ok.

God never called us to all be alike or to even all be in the same church.

But here’s what I do know: If we are to move forward together, we’ve got to have the same vision!

Others of you don’t disagree with our vision, you just aren’t willing to be involved in it.

It isn’t that you won’t agree with it, its just that you either think you’re to busy, or you just don’t care enough to be involved.

My goal today is to paint such a vivid picture of what I believe God wants to happen here that you walk out of here determined to be a part of it.

Which brings me to one more group.

You’re the ones who just feel out of step.

You like Peace Church and you really enjoy it, but you’ve never really gotten connected and you feel a little out-of-sync.

I want to suggest that the reason you feel that way is that you’ve never really had explained to you just what we’re trying to do here.

Today could move you to take some first steps of involvement that could make you an integral part of team ministry like you’ve never been before.

Listen.

I want to tell you about the vision of Peace Church.

BACKGROUND

So just what is that vision?

Several years ago, we, as a staff, began to ask ourselves some questions about our purpose.

We looked around and saw that different people entered this church and had very different experiences.

Some came in, grew in the Lord, assumed leadership roles and went on to do some powerful things for the Lord.

Others came in never really did much of anything and ended up leaving before very long.

We realized that the last description fit far too many people whom we were trying to reach, so we decided we needed to change that.

We decided that we had to become very intentional about the way we approached spiritual growth.

We decided to design a process by which a person could come into our fellowship, perhaps with very little church background and grow in the Lord to the point that they could become a powerful witness, an effective minister, and even a great leader for Christ.

That process we have chosen to call the Journey, and it is that process which I see as the vision to which God is calling this church.

We don’t want you to join here just to have your name on the roll.

We don’t want you to join here just because you want to belong somewhere.

We want you to join here because you sincerely want to go somewhere.

We want you to come here in order to take “The Journey.”

What is that journey like?

Well, it includes four steps and it is our desire that everything we do here at Peace Church fall into one of these four steps.

Now, today we’re going to take a look at those four steps, and as we do, I am going to try to show you how these four steps define all that we do and how each one of these steps may challenge the misperceptions you may have about church.

The first step in the journey is this:

DIVISION: CONNECT:

EXPLANATION

Now the vision of connection contrasts a prevailing attitude many have about church.

Since the 1980's, consumerism has infected Christianity.

Many people view church like a mall.

They see themselves as shoppers who are going from church to church, much like they would go from store to store in the mall.

If a particular church doesn’t have what they think they need, they move on.

Now there’s a whole lot wrong with that picture of church, but the one of the biggest is that it’s impact is to destroy the very essence of what Jesus intended the church to be.

You see, the New Testament teaches us that church is not a mall, it’s a body.

We are not to simply go to church to see if our needs can be met, we are to go so that we can become part of a living organism the New Testament calls “the body of Christ.”

That means we don’t just brush by one another as we pursue our own designs: we genuinely and intimately connect with one another.

Can I give you a biblical example of this?

The Apostle Paul wasn’t always the grand leader of men and writer of letters.

At one time, he was the arch enemy of the church who sought the lives of other believers.

In fact, chapter nine of Acts begins with this description of Paul: Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord . . .

I love the way the Message renders this.

It says: All this time Saul was breathing down the necks of the Master’s disciples, out for the kill.

But we all know what happened: On his way to Damascus, Saul meets Jesus and his life is forever changed.