Time to GET SERIOUS

OK. This isn't a recent sermon. It's a compilation of four sermons from 2006 (headed PRAYER, SMALL GROUPS, WORSHIP and EVANGELISM). You need TIME for this!

Where is the Methodist Church going?

As part of my Foundation Training for Ministry in the Methodist Church I prepared four talks on the Future of Methodism. Having concluded the assignment I developed and delivered these talks at my own church, Trinity Methodist, Winterton.

What do I see as the future of the Methodist Church in the UK?
Meteoric Church growth is being experienced in many countries, with Methodists at the forefront. That’s good news. However, here in the UK we are seeing a disastrous decline. And it’s not just traditional Methodists who are leaving our churches. Young people, and many older, are also leaving.
Josh Hale, a Minister in the UK on a year’s placement, asked his congregation ‘Who thinks the Methodist Church is in crisis?’ I said ‘It is!’, but although I was one of the first to make a statement, most people in the room (including Josh) held the view that it is not in crisis. Perhaps the cultural differences between North America and the UK influenced his comments. However, statistical returns from his native land also point to decline.
As I have said, on a world-wide scale it’s good news, but I couldn’t help feeling after that service that far too many of us in the UK are burying our heads in the sand. We have got into a deep rut where hope is thin, and power scarce. Where is the vision without which ‘the people perish’ ?
It’s time to look to the future, face realities and get serious with our discipleship. If we do, that is if we are prepared to work at this, I do believe the decline can be reversed.

1. Prayer
At Peniel (Genesis 32) Jacob had reached crisis point in his life. He had, for all of his life, got away with doing things his way at the expense of others, including his brother Esau who he was about to encounter 20 years after Jacob had stolen his birthright. All the signs showed Esau set for revenge the following day. Faced with this danger, Jacob does what he can to protect his family and then goes down to the brook alone. Here he meets with the God of his forefathers in human form (a Christophany…early manifestation of the second person of the Trinity), and there follows a unique occurrence, a wrestling match. Jacob knows who he is wrestling with and is singularly determined to keep a hold. It is his only hope. If he loses or allows the man to escape all is lost. It’s the last chance saloon. Perhaps from God’s point of view it was time to bring Jacob to his knees. This schemer needed to change his life and his name (Jacob means ‘deceiver’), and obey God as Abraham had.
Wesley, prophetically, feared for the future of the people called Methodists, that they might deteriorate into a ‘dead sect’ having the form of godliness but not the power. This is the key issue. Like many Methodists today, Jacob had a form of godliness inherited from his forbears, but no power.
There is much in Christian teaching and modern hymnody about ‘surrendering to God’ and the inherent danger of passivity and even ‘Quietism’ (a heresy of the early 18th Century). But Jacob is not surrendering here, rather he is ‘laying hold’ on God and he is permitted to do so…the GodMan he wrestles with does not destroy him, but sees in Jacob a deep desire to be changed and allows him to fight for what he most wants. Jacob demands to be blessed. ‘I won’t let you go unless you bless me’, he cries out. Many of our Methodist forbears knew what it meant to wrestle with God in prayer. Often 19th century chapels and those of the early 20th century Welsh revival are named ‘Peniel’.
Oh for the blessing! That we might have today that which they wrestled for and gained in large measure.
In his book, The Power Of Crying Out, Bill Gothard writes: 'The most significant difference between the prayers of God's people in Scripture (so powerfully effective) and our prayers today (so seemingly ineffective) is this: there was a fervency in the prayers of biblical saints - a fervency that is inherent in crying out. When we grasp this fact, the pages of Scripture come alive with sound!'
David said: 'In my distress I...cried unto my God: He heard my voice...' (Psalm 18:6 KJV). The Hebrew word that describes David's outcry is shava, a higher pitched cry for help.
Again the Psalmist says: '...I called to You for help and You healed me' (Psalm 30:2 NIV). We know from our own families that a true father's or mother’s heart hears their children's cries, and that their children naturally cry to them. In the same way, crying out to God is our child-to-father impulse, planted within us by the Holy Spirit. '[Because we are His children],' Paul says, '[We] have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father"' (Romans 8:15 KJV). The Greek verb here for crying out is a strong word usually translated as 'shouting.'
Forget dignity and decorum! Desperate situations call for desperate measures. We must allow the Holy Spirit to cry out from within us. We must wrestle in prayer for when we are really serious, we may be sure God will intervene and will undoubtedly bless us.
Someone once said ‘God has no grandchildren’, and we must understand that clearly. Each of us is responsible for our own relationship with God. Our Methodist heritage will not get us to heaven. Passivity, complacency, will not get us anywhere in the Christian life. We need to repent, return, receive. All of these are active, I suggest; even receiving, for we must reach out to receive a gift. It is not ours until we make it ours.
Therefore it is time to pray, and I mean active, Spirit-filled prayer. Of course there is a time for stillness and meditation, and surely this is part of our daily prayers. But as we come together to seek first the Kingdom, there is a deep longing, ‘as pants the deer for water, so my soul longs after you’.
William Arthur, a leading Methodist of the 1850s. Arthur argued that the primary need (of the ministry) is the power of the Holy Spirit; he believed that it’s absence is our corporate responsibility. ‘Prayer is the condition of obtaining this power. Prayer, prayer, all prayer – mighty, importunate, repeated united prayer’. He goes on to insist that a Church’s members must be ‘mighty in prayer’.
So we need to pray, to cry out to God, to wrestle in prayer, to pray all night if necessary as many have been doing this year. To refuse to ‘let go’ until the blessing is ours.
Let’s get serious about prayer. Methodism has a future if we can get this right.

2. Small Groups
In this context we may include fellowship, teaching and discipleship, support and accountability.
Let’s look at Small Groups, their value, and how they can be instrumental in growing the Church.
Most of us having been brought up through the church, have come to believe that the strength of the Church is primarily in its Sunday worship. That is the mindset we need to change. The numbers games…bums on pews. The real strength of the church is in relationships, vertical and horizontal. Again this is how the early Methodists began. They were to attend the parish church on Sundays…..but the dynamic, the spiritual powerhouse was not there but in the weeknight Class Meeting. A small group for each member, where each member would undergo a spiritual check-up, give testimony, confess his struggles and hurts and receive valuable loving support . This has been lost to Methodism. I have never attended a Class Meeting in my church. And if we trace the history of Methodism we may conclude that the decline of meaningful Class meetings was the start of the decline of Methodism.

But things are changing.
Graham Carter President of the Conference 2006-7, says:
'In order to achieve the discipleship we are called to, we need each other. And we need each other in a special way. The Church Life survey of a few years ago showed that Methodists were good at what we call "fellowship", but not good at experiencing God’s presence. It’s clear that for many ‘fellowship’ equates with friendliness, and this is not enough.
What has been lacking in the Church for some time is the element of accountability for our discipleship. How often are we accountable to each other for what we do as we try to keep following the way of Christ? Does anyone ever ask you how your discipleship is going? We’re afraid of that because it sounds too much like facing judgement – measure up or you’re out. But that isn’t how Jesus treated his disciples. He once told Peter to "Get behind me Satan" and warned him that he would deny that he knew Jesus, but the risen Christ still challenged him to "Feed my sheep." Peter had to be accountable, but accountable in love and trust.
We need to develop the practice of meeting in small discipleship groups where a high level of love and trust can grow and we can watch over each other in love. In such groups admitting our failure becomes not a fearful thing, but a way of building a firm platform for encouragement and growth. The Time to Talk of God report and study guide has been helping us to take the risk of speaking about our faith and understanding to one another. We all have to start from where we are and not where we’re told we should be. Only starting honestly from where we are, with all our doubts and uncertainties and journeying with each other, will faith grow.'

One of the really useful things we have discovered here about Alpha Course is the ‘Small Groups’ after the talk. As the weeks go by each group member begins to realise how valuable the group is….starts to let go of the masks and dares even to ask for prayer. As I have already suggested, in a small group you can relate at a much deeper level than you could ever achieve in a Sunday morning worship, not denying for a moment the value of this hour But if we are serious about loving one another then we need to get into real fellowship.

Three pastors went to the pastor's convention and were all sharing one room.The first pastor said, "Let's confess our secret vices one to another. I'll start - my secret vice is I just love to gamble. When I go out of town, it's cha-ching cha-ching, let the machines ring."The second pastor said, "My secret vice is that I just love to drink. When I go out of town, I like to take a little nip of something."The third pastor said, "My secret vice is gossiping and I can't wait to get out of this room!"
The lesson to learn from that one is obvious enough.
Across the world churches are rediscovering the immense value of small groups, for support and accountability. A group of people who can be trusted to bear one anothers burdens and humbly pray for each other in absolute confidentiality. These groups are often called cells. The idea is that a living cell will not only grow but multiply. So will the small group as other people want to become part of them. But these ‘Cells’ are just an updated version of the earliest New testament home groups we encounter in Acts, and Mr Wesley’s classes. Here we discover Methodism’s heritage.
So it’s time to get serious….with small groups for fellowship. The Greek word for fellowship is Koinonia, and the best way to describe it is in the words of Jesus Himself: ‘Love one another as I have loved you’. The Greek word is ‘agape’…utterly self sacrificial love.
‘Love one another’. ‘How?’ ‘As I have loved you’….a love which is utterly selfless and sacrifices all for the loved one. Risks all…and as Paul says ‘always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, love never fails. That’s what you call real love.
Now people of God…..’by this (agape) love all will know that you are my disciples’, says Jesus, ‘because you have this love one for another’. Young/old, black/white, native/foreigner, educated/uneducated, intelligent/with learning difficulties, rich/poor, Anglican/Methodist, employed/unemployed, student/retired, trendy/old fashioned, musical/tone deaf…(I could go on)…love one another as I have loved you.
It is within this context of deepening fellowship in small groups that we develop a shared ministry as each member discovers their gifts and uses them for the upbuilding of the whole. It is in this context that mutual support develops mutual accountability and even discipline. ‘You are my brother (sister) in Christ, therefore I love you unconditionally, therefore I can help you live as Christ commands, pray for you, share your struggles, and you can do the same for me. Let’s open our Bibles and learn together, grow together, journey together’.
Let’s get serious about small groups. You and I all need to be members of a small group for support and accountability. Let us begin to develop these groups now.

3. Worship
It’s time to get serious about Worship. I have read twenty or so books about worship. I have done a college course on worship. I have led worship for 35 years….and still a full understanding of what worship really is about eludes me. I do not get the chance often enough to simply ‘be’ in worship, I am often leading. Nevertheless, I want to share with you today my thinking on the future of the Methodist Church in the context of worship.
In many chapels up and down the land people meet on Sunday to go through the motions. It isn’t worship, that’s why it never attracts.
Revival when it comes will change everything. There will be a rediscovery of worship as God desires it.
The outcome will be that the hymns we know and love will mostly vanish…perhaps only 30 or so will carry forward. The next generation of Christians will sideline much of what we are used to now, (even so-called ‘Contemporary Worship Songs’, which almost always lead me into God’s presence, will decrease in importance). People will come and go at a time that suits them. The how and the when and the where and the what will change. The future will be completely different. There will be a rediscovery of worship with links to ancient forms and styles. The packaging will be different but it will still be Trinitarian Christian Worship. Scary? Maybe.
How can we in the Methodist Church worship effectively in the days ahead? How can we be sure we are worshipping at all when we meet, rather than just filling time with what we think is good stuff?
We need to ask the question: What is worship? Why do we do it?
Well,...praising God for who he is, thanking Him for what He’s done, allowing Him to mould our lives, cleanse, heal and make us holy.... comes into it.
Most important, we need to consider that in the life to come we will be worshipping God all the time. So how can we prepare for that? How can we make our worship on earth reflect the worship of heaven? Can we reach the dizzy heights in worship where we say we don’t want to stop?…..on earth as it is in heaven? Can we not at least make this our aim….worship permeated with the presence of God?
John Henry Howard in his book ‘Transformed Church’ 1910 writes:
"We leave our places of worship and no deep and inexpressible wonder sits upon our faces. When we get out on the streets our faces are one with those of the people coming out of the theatres and music halls. There is nothing about us to suggest that we’ve been looking at anything stupendous or overwhelming.
I remember an old saint telling me that after some services he liked to make his way home alone by quiet paths so that the ‘hush of the Almighty’ might remain on his awed and prostrate soul. This is the element we are losing."
And if this sense of awe was declining then, a hundred years ago, how much more now. How we need to rediscover this. The Bible tells us Moses face shone from being in God’s presence. Does yours or mine? I long for the time when the worshipping people go out of the church doors and passers by ask,
‘Where have you been.?’
‘What’s happened to you?’
We are driven by the clock…by time. Where does it say in the Bible we start worshipping at 10.30 and finish by 11.30 please tell me. The worship I read about in the Bible is 24/7.
Getting serious is about coming into God’s presence and waiting on Him. ‘Sorry God, can’t wait any longer, unless you want me to come back with a chicken as a burnt offering.’ People, God doesn’t work by our timetable. I’m sorry, but He doesn’t. It’s no wonder our worship isn’t worship. If this gathering makes no difference to you today then you haven’t met with God, you haven’t worshipped. You might feel a kind of warm feeling because you’re with the friendliest group of people in the community !!But you haven’t worshipped.
So how can we get worship right?
First, by saying to God, ‘You are Lord of my time. You have given me a certain time on Earth to prepare me for Heaven. Lord, you decide how much time you want me to wait for you. Forgive me for my shallow worship and self-serving. Help me to worship you and serve you alone.’
Most of our morning services are now 90 minutes. Good. We’re doing 24/7 prayer. Good. We’re moving forward. Don’t let us look back. Time in God’s presence can never be wasting time, but gaining time, always gaining time.
Let’s go to the words of Jesus: ‘in Spirit and in Truth’.
‘in Spirit’….worship must be Spirit led. In all our preparations and prayers we are invoking the Holy Spirit. The expectation of all worshippers must as we have said be an encounter with God in worship. If He is pre-eminent style, time, liturgy, music, environment, being secondary to this, will serve rather than be themselves the focus. The Spirit will bring to bear the deep awe and reverence, the ‘stupendous and overwhelming’ John Henry Howard was convinced had been lost.
I reckon that is what I have come back with from many hours alone with God on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. A sense of awe. Walking or standing many many times on the edge of immense cliffs, aware of my own mortality, where a gust of wind or a false step might end my life. You know. That’s sobering. The God who holds my fragile life in His hands showing to me, little me, His awesome creation…the immense cliffs, the roaring sea… the tiny flower, the butterfly. The whole world of wonder. Stupendous, overwhelming, deep awe.
Listen. The same awesome God is here by His Spirit…..can you sense that. You want to stay?
Worship must be ‘in Spirit and in truth’.
'In truth' ...means a number of things. Here are some: From our side; Honesty and Openness. I come ‘just as I am’. No pretence, nothing hidden, nothing held back. There is conviction of sin whenever we are this open. Repentance is needed, opportunity must be given. Broken relationships restored and healed. With open hearts and minds. With sincere faith. (David Perry ‘s HOT is all here…Honest, Open, Trusting). From God’s side, ‘in truth’ means; the Word comes to us.…we are led 'into all truth’ by the Holy Spirit. Proclamation of and hearing the Word takes place. Our understanding of Biblical Truth is deepened. His truth ‘sets us free’ to be truly and fully the People of God.
Getting serious about worship means to ‘let go and let God’ as we come before him.
Let’s discover real worship and make it relevant, and allow God to meet us.
In His presence ..may He renew, restore, refresh, equip, encourage and enable you to be the gift He intended you to be.
Response: Imagine Jesus standing before you. What is He saying to you? What do you want to do about it? I set the Communion rail for you to kneel at. Come and kneel before Him. Don’t be afraid. Today, maybe for the first time you will leave here and someone will say, ‘What’s different about you?’ ‘I’ve been to Church, Jesus was there.’

4. Evangelism
The Methodist Church needs to rediscover how to do Evangelism in the 21st Century.
How many short-term missions have come and gone with little evident impact?
The old style Cliff College Hit & Run evangelism doesn’t really work very well today, does it?
What does work, then? That’s what we need to discover. It’s the question every church leader worth their salt wants to know the answer to.
This morning can we spend a little time looking at Evangelism in 2008 and how we can all be a part of it. Yes, all of us.

i. If necessary use……
Francis of Assisi is credited with the phrase "Preach the gospel and, if necessary, use …..what?." A group of trainee evangelists was once asked to fill in the blank in the sentence. A large number of them replaced the blank with the word "force" - not quite what St. Francis had in mind. Words ! "Preach the gospel and, if necessary, use words."
This is an important issue. Not all of us are good with words. It’s not failure to admit to people that we’re not very good at explaining the faith. We might be petrified at the thought of trying to convert people. However, the implication of this phrase of Francis of Assisi is of course that we can be preachers without words. I want to say to you this morning that each of you can be a powerful influence to those around you, you may be unaware of it, but by simply following Christ in daily living, your life and mine can be a compelling witness to our Faith. In this sense you, too can be an Evangelist.
In that famous jungle encounter, Stanley said of Livingstone ‘If I had spent another day with him I would have been compelled to become a Christian, and he never spoke to me about it at all.’
What sort of a challenge do you and I present to unbelievers? Let’s turn to scripture: "When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13). The world’s looking for people who look and act as though they’ve been with Him. They’ll be convinced only by the God we know; the One Who’s met all our needs. So today we need to pray, "Lord, others are watching; help them to see You in me!"
A number of years ago, I went to a posh Insurance dinner some distance away. Great meal, I love my food, and I love humour, but some of the jokes going round were not ones I would wish to add to my Cybersmile list. I guess I must have shown that in my body language, or in some other way have shown that I was a Christian, because one guy there, who I didn’t know, found out my phone number and gave me a call. He said, ‘You’re a Christian, aren’t you?’ I said, ‘Yes’. He had a particular serious problem which was affecting his business and asked if he could come over from Sheffield to see me. I was able to listen to him and talk through some issues with him and he went away much happier. I haven’t seen him from that day to this, but I always remembered the importance of being an evangelist even without words.
The subject of ‘Influence’ could keep me going for several sermons. But let’s move on…

ii The Journey of Faith
It’s important to remember that God is already at work in people’s lives. Wesley called it ‘prevenient grace’. When we come onto the scene we need to be aware of that and not think this person or that person’s a hopeless case. God’s doing his work before we arrive on the scene.
We need to remember, too, that the process of bringing another to faith requires a series of people and events usually over quite a long time. All Christians have a part to play. It does not rest upon one person having all the right words to say at a specific time that will instantly convert the unbeliever .
At Alpha we were talking about our ‘journey of faith’ whereby each person may move step by step towards conversion and beyond to growing discipleship. This view is positive in that it shows that just as I am on a journey so are you, and so is everyone. We need to journey alongside people where they are, so they can get to know us. You and I can help people move on another step. It may be that you will be the one who will hear them say; ‘Now I know I’m a Christian’, but up to that point many believers may have done their bit too, through influence and prayer and maybe even words.

iii Invitation
We don’t read much about Andrew in the gospels, but where we do come across him he is always bringing people to Jesus. ‘Come and you will see…’ Andrew is credited with bringing Simon Peter his brother to meet Jesus. How important that encounter was!
The teenage Billy Graham was not interested in spiritual matters. When an evangelist visited his local town – he rejected invitations to attend, even his good friend Albert McMakin couldn’t persuade Billy to come along. However Albert owned a truck and offered 16-year-old Billy the powerful incentive of driving to the meeting – that swung it. Billy drove a truck full of young people to the revival meeting and was captivated by the message, triggering the 180 degree turn that his life took. Every Christian knows the name Billy Graham, while Albert McMakin is virtually unknown. We can’t all be Billy Graham, but we can all be an Albert McMakin and engineer an invitation.
Simple, isn’t it, an invitation. I am an unashamed Alphaholic. Debbie thought I said alcoholic the other day and nearly fell off her chair. A simple invitation is all it needs…you might have to come too….with the person you invited. That’s ok. Please don’t knock Alpha. If you do knock it you’ll have to answer to big blokes like Ian or Steve, and an even bigger bloke called Bob. Men are coming to faith, women too, through Alpha. We praise God!
This is an invitation which works. Why does it work? Because doing Alpha people discover Christ for themselves…no pressure. An easy, relaxed voyage of discovery.
Well, maybe even words, too…
Explaining the faith can be a difficult thing to do. Whatever words we use, we can never fully explain the mystery of salvation and God’s love. He doesn’t expect us to be brilliant at articulating the faith, just to share what we’ve experienced as a result of being a Christian and knowing God’s love and forgiveness in our own lives.

Conclusion: Not so much our ability, but our availability…
How many times have I said this ! ?
Here at the end we draw together the four aspects of the Future of Methodism we have been examining. For if we are to pray, be involved in small groups, worship effectively, and witness to those we meet we must find time to do so. We may feel totally inadequate, that God passed us by when it came to talents, gifts, skills and abilities. It’s not true, but whatever, we have time. We can make ourselves available for the Kingdom of God. If we do not, Methodism will go down the pan. God will raise up another people to do what we have failed to do.
If however we choose to make ourselves available for Him…He will do in us and through us 'far more than we can ever ask or imagine'. Let me encourage you to open the door to Jesus and let him in.
The future of the Church depends on this. Many people, especially the young, are seeking spiritual things. They need to see Christ is alive, that the Holy Spirit makes a difference …before they choose dark spirits instead. You and I can show this ‘difference’ in the home, the workplace, wherever we may be as we make ourselves available to God.