Gaining By Losing, Week #2
Gaining by Losing, A study adapted from the book by J.D. Greear by the same name. • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 4 viewsIs our church more of a Carnival Cruise or a Aircraft Carrier? Why is that important?
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Is Church meant to be a Carnival Cruise or an Aircraft Carrier?
Is Church meant to be a Carnival Cruise or an Aircraft Carrier?
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Does it have good family ministry facilities?
Some believe it to be the cruise liner.
Some believe it to be the cruise liner.
Does the pastor preach funny, time-conscious messages that meet my felt needs?
Do I like the music?”
Can this church improve my religious quality of life?
Does it have good family ministry facilities?
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 27). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Does the pastor preach funny, time-conscious messages that meet my felt needs?
Do I like the music?”
These are Carnival Cruise questions.
If their church ever ceases to cater to their preferences . . . well, there are plenty of other cruise ships in the harbor. In fact, often they get involved with three or four of them at once. After all, the music is great on Cruise Liner A, and the kids enjoy the youth program at Cruise Liner B, and we do most of our fellowship and Bible study with friends at Cruise Liner C, and we occasionally listen to the podcast of the angry young pastor down the road who tells the funny stories.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 27). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 27). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Does this sound like a cruise liner?
Does this sound like a cruise liner?
What you win them with, you will keep them with.
What you win them with, you will keep them with.
Other Christians believe their church is more like a battleship.
Other Christians believe their church is more like a battleship.
The church is made for mission, and its success should be seen in how loudly and dramatically it fights the mission.
This is certainly better than the “cruise liner”; however, it implies that it is the church institution that does most of the fighting.
The role of church members is to pay the pastors to find the targets and fire the guns each week as they gather to watch. They see the programs, services, and ministries of the church as the primary instruments of mission.
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Does this sound like a battleship?
Does this sound like a battleship?
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 28). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Remember our Coach vs. Star Player conversation from Discipleshift.
Remember our Coach vs. Star Player conversation from Discipleshift.
The church should be more like an aircraft carrier.
The church should be more like an aircraft carrier.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Aircraft carriers equip planes to carry the battle elsewhere.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 28). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Root bound
An Aircraft Carrier cannot be root bound.
When you are on an aircraft carrier, he said, the goal is to keep the battle as far away from you as possible. You load up the planes to carry the battle to the enemy.
When you are on an aircraft carrier, he said, the goal is to keep the battle as far away from you as possible. You load up the planes to carry the battle to the enemy.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 28). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Churches that want to “prevail against the gates of hell” must learn to see themselves like aircraft carriers, not like battleships and certainly not like cruise liners.
One iceberg sunk the titanic and ended the voyage.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 28). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
One well targeted round can sink a battleship.
No single threat can destroy the onslaught of the Aircraft Carrier.
Why? Because not all the planes are on board.
Stick of dynamite
Churches that want to penetrate their world with the gospel think less about the Sunday morning bang and more about equipping their members to blast a hole in the mountain of lostness. -Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 29). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 29). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Why the Future Belongs to Churches That Send
Why the Future Belongs to Churches That Send
1. Increasingly, in a “post-Christian” society, unbelievers will simply not make their way into our churches, no matter how “attractive” we make them.
For years, the Western church has enjoyed a common Christian language with the culture through which we could communicate the gospel.
Working with a Jehovah’s Witness
Steve Timmis cites a recent study in Great Britain in which 70 percent of Brits declare that they have no intention of ever attending a church service for any reason.
Not at Easter. Not for marriages. Not for funerals or Christmas Eve services.
For more than two-thirds of the people in Great Britain, nothing will carry them naturally into a church. In light of this, Steve comments:
That means new styles of worship will not reach them. Fresh expressions of church will not reach them. Alpha and Christianity Explored courses will not reach them. Great first impressions will not reach them. Churches meeting in pubs will not reach them. . . .
The vast majority of un-churched and de-churched people would not turn to the church, even if faced with difficult personal circumstances or in the event of national tragedies.
It is not a question of “improving the product” of church meetings and evangelistic events. It means reaching people apart from meetings and events.
We need to load up the planes not the pews.
We need to load up the planes not the pews.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (pp. 30-31). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 29). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
This means that if we don’t equip our people to carry the gospel outside of our meetings, our events, our gatherings and programs, we are going to lose all audience with them.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 29). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 29). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 31). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
2. Multiplication beats out addition, every time.
Perhaps you can remember this math conundrum from middle school:
If you have a choice between receiving $10,000 a day for 30 days, or getting $0.01 doubled each day, which would you choose?
Almost every middle school student chooses “$10,000 a day” — because . . . think about what you could buy by the end of the week!
$70,000 is enough to buy ten PS4s gaming stations with accompanying widescreen TVs . . . and enough left over for a used BMW! And in thirty days, you’d have $300,000!
But your math teacher probably pointed out to you that choosing $10,000 a day instead of $0.01 doubled daily would leave about 10 million dollars on the table.
Doubling your penny daily, however, would net you $10,737,418.23 in thirty days!
In four months you’d have $13,292,279,957,849,158,729,038,070,602,803,364, compared to only $1.2 million if you had taken on the $10,000 a day.
Multiplication always beats addition.
Multiplication always beats addition.
One Boat can launch an attack one at a time, but one Aircraft Carrier can launch multiple attacks.
One Boat can launch an attack one at a time, but one Aircraft Carrier can launch multiple attacks.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 31). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Many churches still pursue success via the “$10,000 a day” model.
Tell aspiring megachurch pastor Bob that you have a program by which he can add 1,000 people a month to his church for ten years straight, and he will likely faint with joy.
Before the first year is done, he will be invited to speak at conferences all over the nation, and Christian magazines will have his face splashed across their front covers. Leaders would line up around the block to buy his books and have him sign their Bibles.
Yet if Pastor Bob trains up just one person each year to lead another to Christ, who in turn trains another person who leads another person, and they each do that for thirty years, by year 30 they will have won nearly a billion more people than he would have by adding 1,000 people every month.
But here’s the rub: Netting $10,000 a day feels much more gratifying — at least at first — than getting $0.01 doubled during that first week.
If you choose the doubled $0.01 route, after a week you would only have about $2, whereas your friend who chose $10,000 would be bouncing about town with $70,000 in his pocket. He’d be placing a down payment on a new beach house, and you’d still be living in your parents’ basement.
In the same way, focusing on attendance growth — adding 1,000 people a year — feels much more gratifying to church leaders. The successes are immediate. You can brag about them. But this is not the road to long-term, kingdom growth.
We grew by almost 1,000 people, which qualified us for Outreach Magazine’s one hundred fast-growing churches for the fifth year in a row. But that’s not the milestone I’m talking about. This year the attendance at the churches we have planted grew by more than 1,100 people.
If we take the long view of ministry, growing and sending out disciples will take priority.
We will focus on sending out planes.
We will focus on sending out planes.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 33). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 32). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 32). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
3. The presence of God accompanies those who send.
that your way may be known on earth,
your saving power among all nations.
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,
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Jonah-An Example of Israel
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
John
The church is now Jesus’ vehicle for the completion of his mission.
The church is now Jesus’ vehicle for the completion of his mission.
Jesus finished the purchase of our salvation, paying the full price for our sin on the cross and shattering the powers of death in the resurrection, but the mission of salvation is not yet complete.
As Martin Luther said, it wouldn’t matter if Jesus died a thousand times if no one heard about it. Through us Jesus continues the work of salvation that he commenced in his death and resurrection (; ).
Christopher Wright says, “God’s mission is what fills the gap between the scattering of the nations in and the healing of the nations in .”6 God’s worldwide mission, he says, defines every believer’s primary responsibility until Jesus returns.
Special Forces
Special Forces
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 33). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 34). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
We think of missionaries as God’s “super servants,” Jesus’ Navy Seals. The word “missionary” is never used in the Bible, however, not even once. That’s because all of God’s people are sent; all of God’s people are commanded to go. There is no “special class” of sent ones.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (pp. 33-34). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 34). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
As Charles Spurgeon used to say, “Every Christian is either a missionary or an impostor.”
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 34). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
4. Jesus’ promises of “greatness” in the church are always related to sending.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
Jesus tells us that the church of “ordinary Christians” empowered with the Holy Spirit is of greater value than His earthly presence.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 35). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Because we will be empowered and He will be interceding.
Because we will be empowered and He will be interceding.
120=successful
and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
Fairlawn needs to be an Aircraft Carrier not a Carnival Cruise.
Fairlawn needs to be an Aircraft Carrier not a Carnival Cruise.
What would be needed for that to happen?
What would be needed for that to happen?