The Disciple Factory

Each year I am going to take this Sunday, the first Sunday of the year, to remind us of what our purpose is, why we are called together as the Presbyterian Church of Islip; what are we doing and where are we going? What are the overarching marching orders we have been given, and how do each of us fit into the plan? What gifts do each of us have and how can we use them to God’s glory here in Islip?

Ultimately our marching orders come from Jesus Himself, who gave His disciples, including us, one last command before He left earth, after His resurrection. It is called the Great Commission and comes as the last word in Matthew. Matthew 28:16ff

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Let’s pray.

Along with this text, I want us to think about our mission statement, which I think also can be helpful to directing our steps as disciples and servants of Jesus Christ. Part of the deal is that we can get distracted; we can get hung up on things that really don’t matter. You’ve seen churches, or maybe just heard about them, that have lost their way in following God. They’ve decided that recycling is super important, and have de-emphasized other things in order to focus on recycling. Don’t get me wrong, recycling is important. But it is not the most important thing. Many churches get distracted by all sorts of things like that; good things, but not the most important thing, which is Christ Himself. And that’s what today is for. To remind us what we are doing, and to take our spiritual temperature and see if we are healthy, or if we need to do things in a new or better way in some areas.

So here is our Mission Statement; it should also be on the screen and in your bulletins. Read along silently with me as we take a look again at what it says.

We, The Presbyterian Church of Islip, are called to continue nurturing a viable, growing faith community; to maintain a strong lighthouse in support of God’s will in this world.

As we seek to discern God’s plan for our lives in His Kingdom, we provide a Christian climate for growth in Spirit and love.

We are called to serve Jesus Christ and one another.

We live to further God’s Kingdom in this world and fulfill the Great Commission.

We believe our mission includes(but is not limited to) members sharing the love of God in Christ by:

-Actively witnessing to our neighbors, colleagues, families and friends by word and deed

-Building faith in God among the same.

-Supporting God’s Kingdom throughout the world.

We dedicate ourselves to making our vision and mission a reality with God’s help.

I want to suggest to you that an appropriate image for us is a Disciple Factory. This church should be dedicated to the production of disciples of Jesus Christ. We help out in the production of other people as disciples, but we also need to make sure that we are putting ourselves in places where we can grow as disciples of Christ; growing both in terms of knowledge of God, and in the love of God and other people. Everything we do, the maintenance of this building, for example, should facilitate the production of disciples. If there aren’t heated rooms, space for teachers to teach little ones about God and His interactions with people, then we’ll be in trouble. If there isn’t a nice sanctuary to worship in, that would lead to all sorts of stresses this family system doesn’t need. So the people who maintain this place have an important job to do, but the maintenance of the grounds is only to support the overall mission of the church. There is no point, for example, maintaining this place as a historical monument, or as a wedding chapel. I’m not interested in that, and I would guess you aren’t either. This space is dedicated to the production of disciples of Jesus Christ.

The worship that we do each week is designed, and hopefully is successful, in encouraging disciples, in leading people in faithful and creative worship of God. From the reading of God’s Word, to the prayers prayed, to the memory verses for us all, to the hymns and worship songs, this worship service is designed to help produce disciples. In addition, there are small groups that help produce disciples. I have heard wonderful stories from folks attending the small groups about how they have grown while attending the small groups. The encouragement of fellow believers, the time spent discussing Scripture and how it applies to our lives, the encouragement to step out and forward in faith that comes from a small group is something we should all take advantage of. In a sermon I cannot apply every Scripture accurately to every person. In sermons I try to give people the tools to look at Scripture accurately and with the eyes of people to whom it was originally written, but it was also written to us. The best ways to think about how a Scripture applies to our lives is in the small group setting. The truth is I am just one person, and I approach the text to get something out of it for us corporately as me. I overlook all sorts of angles and places where the text might apply in a different way than I had thought of.

Additionally, I should tell you there is another Bible Study group starting on Monday night, where we are going to take a look at Romans. It is my humble opinion that Romans is Paul’s best letter and most deeply theological, so I am looking forward to participating in that study myself. I encourage you to take advantage of this study. I think it will challenge us all, and help us to become better disciples of Jesus, because that is what it is designed to do.

Let’s take a look at our statement. The first and most interesting image is that of a lighthouse. A light house is traditionally assumed to be stationary, a solid building standing against the elements, pointing the way in the darkness. There is an old joke about a destroyer captained by a Navel Commander. The destroyed sees a light in the distance and hails the light source. “This is the Commander Stumme, adjust your course”, was what the commander sent to the other vessel. “This is private Smith, you adjust your course” Came the reply. “This is Commander Stumme, on the bridge of a destroyer, you adjust your course”, screamed the Commander. “This is Private Smith, on deck of a lighthouse, you adjust your course…”

But having gone out to the Fire Island Lighthouse, and gone through the museum there, I learned about lighthouses. Not only did the lighthouse warm ships away from treacherous and dangerous areas, but lighthouse crews also risked their lives on many occasions as they rowed out into the Atlantic to rescue people from ships that were stranded and/or sinking. The crews manning the lighthouse risked their lives to save other people. Even their families suffered because their families were out there, mostly alone, supporting the husband who was in charge of the lighthouse. They did not have the amenities of folks who lived in Islip, or Bayshore or Babylon. They suffered hard lives in order to save folks they didn’t even know. Not only did they keep the lighthouse functioning, but they were active participants in saving people’s lives.

It isn’t enough to stand around and wait for the world to come knocking down our doors. The time has past when the culture around the church looked to the church as a place to find ultimate truth. People are looking in all sorts of odd places to find truth, and purpose and meaning in their lives, but they aren’t looking in churches. For many modern people, it simply doesn’t occur to them. We have to be going out into the world and grabbing people to put them in the position where Christ can save them. It is our job, this year, this month, this week to head out into the world to proclaim the saving nature of a personal relationship with the God who offered up His life for theirs. It isn’t enough to stand here on the corner of Cedar and Main. People aren’t curious about church anymore. They think they know what church is; rituals they don’t understand, based on a Book they don’t think they can read by a God who they aren’t good enough to know. Hopefully that’s not who we are. Hopefully this is a church based on God’s grace and love, standing on the promises of His Word to us, the Bible, and His ultimate Word to us, Jesus Christ. It is our job to go into the world, and make disciples.

This place should be a disciple factory. The people that we bring in, the people that we are raising up in Sunday School and in small groups, those are the disciples that excite me, the Heaven rejoices as it sees. How are you participating in our disciple factory? How are you bringing people in, and raising them up? How are you being discipled? We all have to see ourselves as both being disciple makers, and being discipled, being raised as disciples ourselves. If you are lagging back, keeping yourself and your talents for a time when we really need you to step up; that time is always now. There is never a better time than now to start raising up disciples, reaching out to a hurting world with God’s love, and at the same time, stepping out in faith in Christ to start learning more about God and how we can serve Him better.

A huge part of being a part of the disciple factory is service. I can’t explain it, but as you give yourself away in serving other, God uses that to strengthen you, to build you up, to make you into a better disciple. This place would not happen at all without people who are willing to serve other. Sometimes the serving is a simple as turning on a coffee pot so that we’ll have coffee at the fellowship time. Sometimes the service looks like going downstairs and giving up a Sunday every month or so in order to work in the nursery, or to teach a class at Power Express so that those teachers can get a Sunday off. Sometimes it looks like Faith in Action; driving someone to the doctor when they need a ride, or making sure people who are struggling to make it have something to eat, and decent clothes to wear. Serving one another is Biblical, it is important and we don’t do it enough. Is it too little for you, to be a servant of God? I can think of few things that God uses more to change our hearts and minds into His image than serving other people. Why is it so hard to find people who are willing to serve? Are we so concerned with ourselves? Being concerned and thinking about ourselves all the time does not make us better, more stable people. It changes us into neurotic, self centered, bitter messes. Is that who we really want to be? Or are you willing to take the time, to make the effort to serve God?

Our ultimate example of this type of behavior, putting ourselves out there to serve has to be Christ. Christ did not need us. Christ did not need to serve us at all. He is already perfect, He is already perfected, He is already in Himself a disciple factory. But because of love, Christ served us. He came from Heaven, to us; He was incarnate-made flesh and lived with us for 30 some odd years. And then He served us in His death, becoming the necessary, but painful, sacrifice for you and for me. Then He served us by rising from the dead, and offering that resurrection to us. And even now, He sits at the right hand of God, serving us by praying for us. Jesus life was one of service, and if we seek to be His disciples, which I pray is our prayer, then we ought to be serving one another as well. Serving others is a part of us becoming better disciples, a part of the disciple factory, and the hope is that others will be attracted to this disciple factory as they see us lay our lives down before Christ, letting Him use the service we offer to change us into His people more and more.

The key to our mission statement, the key to the Great Commission, the key to our lives is that God is involved. This church means nothing without God. We are to be found in Christ. If we are not in Christ, then our serving will be draining our resources and our energy. But if we are in Christ, serving becomes a joy we look forward to. If we are in Christ, then the part that we are to play, the role God has for us to fulfill in this disciple factory is not frustrating or troubling, it is not a pain in the neck for us, but it is wonderful. People who are serving God where they are supposed to be serving God, in His Name and power, in the gifts that God has given to them in order to serve Him as part of the disciple factory, glow. They just glow with God’s love and grace, they are excited about all the things God is doing and are amazed that God would use even them to accomplish His goals, to expand His kingdom further into the world. If we have not God, we are spinning our wheels, and producing nothing of importance. But if we have God, then get ready for the ride, because it will be exciting.

I have been impressed in the last year of how truly crucial it is to purify ourselves in order to be better used by God. This is not to say that I think we can be perfect at some point. I don’t. Humans are so intrinsically messed up by Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden that we will always incline toward sin. But if we are to move forward with the mission set before us, we all have to purify ourselves. We have to get rid of the crap of this world; the bad tv shows, the bad influences musically, the bad novels and articles and magazines. We have to trash the impurity in our lives. You have to trash the impure stuff in your life. I truly believe that we are moving in a direction, following Christ, making disciples and being discipled, that is troubling to the enemy. The enemy cannot hurt us, for Christ has promised to always be with us. But the enemy can tempt us, can threaten and intimidate us and if we are not seeking to be pure before God, in order to be used by God, then I suspect that we are going to be vulnerable and we have the potential of being a plant in good soil that is choked by the cares of the world.

We have to be willing to get our lives purified and get ready to go this year. We have to purge ourselves of any lying, any deceitful ways of living, and ways of living that we know God doesn’t approve of but we do anyway. We have to get rid of any addictions; drinking, drugs, attention, pornography, shopping, whatever it is, we need to get rid of it. Get it out of our lives with God’s help, to His glory. This is going to be a serious year for this church. If we are serious about making a difference for Christ and His Kingdom we need to know there are forces that will oppose that plan. I’ve read the Bible; I know in the end God wins. But before He does, making a difference for His Name in this place will not be a cake walk. Therefore we have to get out of our lives anything that can be used against us; anything that is displeasing to God has to go. We are all going to be needed around here this year, and I don’t want any of us falling away after false idols, after things we think will make us feel better when in reality only Christ is the cure for what ails us.

This is a new year, and a new day. We have the same marching orders, but in a new time, and we cannot do the same things in the past that we have done. We cannot let temptations remain in our minds, we have to learn to give those things over to God, and get control of our thought lives. We cannot do things the way they’ve always been done because we are cranking up the spiritual notch around here. And that’s good, but it will be challenging. Get ready. A great way to get ready for the year is what has been prepared for us today, the rememberance and celebration in the Lord’s Supper. He will win the battle; because it was already won 2000 years ago on the cross.

Let’s pray.