Possible Next Steps for Mercy Hill
This morning we’re going to do something a little different. I want to share with you some possible next steps which the elders think Jesus might be leading us to take here at Mercy Hill.
We elders and all the home group leaders are excited about these next steps. But these steps would involve some change for this Summer. And change is never easy. So this morning I want to share these possible next steps with you so we can pray and ponder and process this together.
Let’s start by taking a look at what the early church was like: What was the New Testament church like? To answer that, let’s turn to the first chapter of Acts. If you need a Bible, go ahead and raise your hand and we’ll bring one to you. Acts one is on page 909 in the Bibles we are passing out.
Start with Acts 1:8 –
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
Here Jesus promises to pour His Spirit out upon all of them – upon the entire church. And one purpose for this outpouring of the Spirit is to make them be His witnesses. So the early church understood that they were all empowered by the Spirit in order to be witnesses of Jesus.
Then in Acts 2 Jesus pours His Spirit upon the church, and everyone in the church went into the streets speaking of Jesus in languages they never learned, Peter gets up and preaches – and what’s the result? Acts 2:41 –
So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
Then all the believers joined together and were devoted to the apostles’ teaching, to prayer, to fellowship, and they had favor with all the people. And what was the result? Look at the end of Acts 2:47 –
And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Then look at Acts 5:14 –
And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.
And Acts 6:7 –
And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
Then skip ahead to Acts 16:5 –
So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.
So what was the New Testament church like? Every disciple was devoted to helping people come to know Jesus, and every group of disciples regularly saw people coming to know Jesus.
Let me give you a picture of what this looks like. To picture this, I need about 11 volunteers. One person over here; 5 over here; and 5 over here.
Everything starts with each of us coming to trust and love Jesus. There is a God, who has created us, and who commits to providing for us and guiding us and satisfying us with Himself – if we will trust Him and bend the knee before Him. But each of us has refused to acknowledge our Creator – and so we face God’s judgment.
But in astonishing mercy, 2,000 years ago God came to the earth in the person of Jesus, and God was punished in our place to pay for sin. And so now – when this person receives Jesus as his Savior, His Lord, and His all-satisfying Treasure – he is instantly forgiven for all his sin, Jesus’ power starts to change Him, and for the first time his heart is completely satisfied with Jesus’ presence.
But it doesn’t stop there. Jesus calls him to become part of a community of followers of Jesus. These people love each other, pray for each other, support and encourage each other. They don’t just meet together once a week. They are a Christ-centered community together. That’s what we are pursuing in our home groups.
But Jesus doesn’t just call us to love and encourage each other. He calls us to help other people come to know Him. Each Christ-centered community is called to join together to help people come to know Jesus. So this group sees these people over here – and goes to them to get to know them, serve them, love them, and tell them about Jesus. And then God works in their hearts and they receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior and Treasure – and become part of this Christ-centered community.
OK – let’s thank our helpers.
So how are we doing in being like the New Testament church? There’s lots of wonderful things that are happening here. I love how you love Jesus, serve each other, passionately worship, and are committed to unreached people groups. I love this church! But when it comes to every disciple helping people come to know Jesus, and every home group seeing people coming to know Jesus – that’s not happening very much.
And it’s not that our home group leaders aren’t being faithful. They are deeply faithful – loving and praying and shepherding and leading.
And yet, if we are honest, we have to admit that we are not fulfilling our mission.
So what’s the problem? I’m sure we could be more committed to prayer and more outgoing with our neighbors and more bold in witness. But as we’ve talked and thought and read and listened – we’ve come to the conclusion that we’ve neglected something that was a regular part of the New Testament church.
What we’ve neglected is training. Not preaching. We’ve preached about the mission lots. But training. Life on life training. On the job training. I have not trained the home group leaders in how to advance the mission themselves, or in how to lead a home group together on mission.
Think of what Jesus did. He wanted to raise up 12 men who knew how to advance the mission and lead churches in advancing the mission – so what did He do? He prayed for them and taught them and encouraged them, yes. But he also trained them.
And he didn’t train them by having a class every Tuesday night. No, he trained them by living the mission with them: he talked to the rich young ruler, and they watched and listened; he talked to the Pharisees, and they watched and listened; he talked to the tax collectors, and they watched and listened.
And this wasn’t just Jesus – this was a regular part of the early church. Barnabas trained John Mark by doing the mission with him. Paul trained the Thessalonian church by doing the mission with them. Paul trained Timothy and Titus and Silas by doing the mission with them. Just like Paul said – the apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers are to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
The early church pursued life-on-life training. But I’ve never trained our home group leaders by doing the mission with them.
Imagine that you’ve got a car which has no crankshaft. Now if it has no crankshaft – even though there’s gas in the tank, a working carburetor, cylinders, spark plugs, distributor, and alternator – that car’s not going to move ahead very fast. Because to move ahead quickly it needs the crankshaft.
The same is true with training. If a church has no life-on-life training, then even though there’s a lot of love, community, worship, Bible-preaching, correct doctrine, and prayer – the church is not going to move ahead very fast. To move ahead quickly, it needs training.
But there’s good news. Jesus is showing us what we’re lacking. He’s showing us what we are lacking because He’s got exciting plans for us.
So what are we are thinking of doing? So here’s what we are thinking. We want to ask each home group to give us your home group leaders for the summer – so that this summer we can have a Summer home group of home group leaders – in which we would work together on how to advance the mission, and how to lead a home group on mission.
In this home group we are going to meet weekly at Almaden Lake Park, have dinner together, share our lives, pray, and then plan how together we will advance the gospel in the coming week. Some guys might decide to play volleyball, invite other guys to join them. Some moms might take their kids to the park and meet other moms. There’s lots of possibilities. At the same time, we will all be advancing the gospel in our own neighborhoods, and inviting our neighbors back to the park to join us at bocce ball and volleyball and playtime with the kids.
So if you give us your home group leaders, what’s going to happen to your home group? We want to make sure that everyone else is cared for – so here’s three suggestions, which you can talk and pray about at your home group this week.
One is that you could keep meeting weekly, but divide into men’s and women’s groups and share and pray for each other. Another is that the men and women could meet at a different times from each other. A third is that maybe you want to do this in even smaller groups, maybe groups of 2 or 3 men or women meet weekly at different times. But it’s crucial that we continue encouraging and praying for and supporting each other.
So we are praying that this summer all of us home group leaders will learn how to advance the mission ourselves, and how to lead a home group on mission. But there’s one other factor that we believe is crucial – encouraging everyone to be in a home group that’s close geographically. Here’s why:
One obvious reason is that the closer we live to each other, the more we will experience community. But there’s another reason as well.
We are seeing that it’s not enough to encourage everyone in the home group to advance the mission in their own neighborhoods. That is crucial. But that’s not enough. What we need is for every home group to unite together to advance the mission in the same neighborhood – so we can do the mission together, and can be trained by doing the mission together.
Here’s an example. Most of you know the Smiths (using a fictitious name for Internet privacy concerns). They live near Georgetown and the 88 freeway. And they are praying about starting a home group this Fall. So those of you who live in that area could pray about being part of their group. Which would mean that you would meet weekly and pray and share God’s Word and worship and strengthen each other in trusting Jesus.
And it would mean that each week you’d talk together about how you could advance the gospel in the Smiths’ neighborhood. Maybe Mr. Smith knows a guy on his street who’s wanted to go see a movie – and some of the home group guys would join him and his neighbor and go to the movies – building relationship, getting to know each other, showing the love of Jesus. Maybe Mrs. Smith's got some moms who go to a nearby park so the kids can play, and some of the home group women could join her and those moms at the park. Or maybe the Smiths decide to put on a neighborhood barbecue on Friday night and you could help them do that – and meet their neighbors in the process. And through all of this the Smiths would be modeling how love people, how to have gospel conversations, how to reach out, how to share Jesus.
Now we’d all still be advancing the gospel in our own neighborhoods. But we’d give priority to joining with a home group in advancing the gospel in one neighborhood – so we can all work together and be trained together.
And can you see how helpful it would be to live close to each other?
So at the end of the summer we’ll have all the home group leaders share where Jesus is calling them to focus their ministry, then we can all pray about which home group to join. You can stay with your present home group if you want. This is between you and Jesus. Or you can change and choose one closer to your neighborhood. But we’d encourage you to seriously pray about one closest to your home.
OK – so that’s what we’re thinking. Now let’s hear how this sounds to you. If you think it’s a great idea – we’d love to hear. If you think it’s a terrible idea – we’d love to hear. We elders are called by Jesus to lead. We’ve gotten very encouraging feedback from the home group leaders. But we want to hear from all of you.