ABC's of Faith

The ABC’s of Faith: CONNECT, DEEPEN, ENGAGE”
Brimfield Faith UMC
January 3, 2010

Acts 2:42-47; Mathew 22:37-40; Matthew 28:19-20

INTRODUCTION
Happy New Year… looking back… I love coming to worship… Sense God’s working…
In June of 2007, Michelle and arrived at Brimfield Faith. It was my first appointment out of seminary. The church was on its last leg. Attendance had plummeted to under 50 each Sunday. We had maybe 5 kids total in the church. Morale was low and there were very few leaders in the church. There was a very real possibility that the church would have to shut its doors in the near future.
In hopes of turning this around, we formed a Leadership Taskforce that was given the task of promoting congregational ownership of the church. We wanted to get the people of the church to understand that this was their church and to make it thrive again, everyone needed to be involved. The taskforce helped communicate the urgency of the situation and began to cast new vision for the future. To make a long story short, in 2009 we started to see a significant in momentum and energy in the church. God started to move as we focused on reenergizing worship. People’s lives started to be impacted and we started reaching new people with the Gospel.
Last spring one of our new members made the statement that it felt like something really big was about to happen at the church. Momentum was gaining, new people were joining, God was moving. I’m not sure that the really big thing has happened yet but there were a significant amount of victories that happened over the last year. We had 16 new members, did almost 10 baptisms and saw an 30% increase in worship attendance from the previous year.
One of the changes that came from the work was that our mission statement was tweaked slightly to reflect our new values: The people of Faith CONNECT, DEEPEN and ENGAGE their faith in order to share Christ’s love and make disciples. I like to call it the ABC’s of faith. We want all believers to become disciples by connecting to Christ, deepening with God through relationship and engaging their faith in the community. If you do these three things, Christianity will be more than just something to do on Sunday mornings. Your faith can impact your life and the lives of those around you if you will seek to participate in these three components of discipleship. We are seeking to create systems that will guide you and people new to Brimfield Faith UMC into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

CONNECT
The first component of the process is CONNECT. Since January 2009 we have been working towards the vision, “To create vibrant worship that CONNECTS our community with Christ.” The Christian journey begins through a relationship with Jesus Christ. There is a divide between a fallen, broken humanity and a holy God. On our own, we cannot restore our relationship with God. We need Jesus Christ to bridge the gap and restore us to Christ.




The Sunday morning worship service is the initial venue by which we learn to connect with Christ. 99% of first-time guests come to our church on Sunday mornings. That is why we want our worship service to be a place that folks unfamiliar with the rituals of church can learn to connect with God. We want to effectively communicate with the culture of our community. This means we need to speak their language and use mediums of communication that they understand. Practically, this is why we have a praise band, project our service, and why I preach in the issues and topics that I do. We want people to be able to make a connection between faith and their everyday lives.

DEEPEN
Many Christians in America have connected to Christ and their faith stops there. They have prayed to receive Christ in their hearts, received the gift of salvation, and attend church on Sunday morning. Christianity is simply about what God has done for them and what God can do. Unfortunately, there is much more to a deep, rich faith. While we have placed much emphasis on the CONNECT ministries of the church this past year, as we move forward towards become a more vibrant church, we must go deeper with God through relationships. In Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus summarizes the point of Christianity: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Christ is calling us to deepen our faith in God through loving relationships with God and with others. The primary way we do this in the church is through small groups and Sunday School classes. We added an adult Sunday School class that Chuck Graham is the primary leader for. They have been watching and discussing videos that address issues of deepening one’s faith.
This area of growth is so important and so neglected. In college, I was involved in a small group that was crucial for my spiritual growth. Guys that I am still friends with. Guys that challenged me to go deeper in my faith. To actually live it out. It was key for me to become a fully devoted follower of Christ and to hear the call to ministry. I wouldn’t be here today without my participation in a small group.
It is going to take time, but if we are going to become a church that impacts this community for Christ everyone must deepen their faith. We need to pray for each other. Hold one another accountable for their actions. Encourage one another in faith. We need to seek to love one another as fellow followers of Christ. The world will try to bring us down, distract us, and mislead us. We need one another for strength. Having relationships rooted in faith helps us to go deeper with God and to understand Christianity is not a Sunday morning endeavor.

ENGAGE
The last component of become a fully devoted follower of Christ is to engage your faith in the community. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus is preparing to depart from his disciples and gives them one final charge. It is frequently called the Great Commission. It reads as follows: “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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” We are called to have our faith make a difference in the world. I think this is a good thing because I don’t know anybody that wants to be a part of a dead faith. I don’t believe that anyone wants to call themselves a Christian and not have it impact their lives at all.
Jesus’ ministry on the earth radically transformed the world. As we are connecting and deepening our faith in God, a transformation is occurring. We are being born anew, given a new heart and a new spirit. We are becoming filled with God’s love and we should be experiencing God’s abundance. When this transformation begins, it will continue when we allow our faith to reach beyond ourselves. In America, we often think of religion as a private affair. That is a bunch of malarkey. Christianity is a personal faith but not a private faith. That is why we deepen through relationship, but it is also why we engage our faith with others.
To engage your faith means a three of things. First it means to engage in acts of service. Serve as a Sunday School teacher, a Kidz worker, an usher, a greeter, a sound tech. Maybe you attend a work day at the church. We serve God as an act of worship. And we grow in our faith when we engage our faith.
Second it means we engage in acts of compassion. We feed the hungry, care for the poor, visit the lonely, and heal the sick to name a few. We work towards justice and promote peace in a broken world. We seek to usher the kingdom of God into the world. Food cupboard
Third it means we engage in acts of witness. We share our faith with others. We reach out into the community. We are invitational: Brimfest, friends to Christmas Eve or other events. We tell others about how our faith in Christ has made a positive difference in our lives.

CONCLUSION
When we engage our faith, we are able to help bring the process full circle, because to engage our faith with the community assists others to connect with Christ. I dream of a church where all believers connect, deepen, and engage their faith in God in order to make disciples. We are becoming that type of church as you become that type of Christian. God is calling us to become ABC Christians. It’s not complex. It really is as simple as A-B-C. It is a process that will leave your life completely different and I believe incredibly better.
I believe 2010 is going to be an amazing year for Brimfield Faith. I see God doing tremendous work as we remain obedient to his call to become an ABC Church: a church that connects, deepens, and engages faith. I see him giving us greater influence in our community. I see him drawing significant numbers of people, especially young families to our church. I see him opening up the heavens and releasing his supernatural power. The potential of this church and the destiny of this church are phenomenal. I want you to be a part of it. Realistically, it cannot happen unless each of you partner with God and make it happen.
I want each of you to play an integral role in it. As we conclude this morning, I want to take a few minutes to pray. Ask God where you are on the process. Ask God what are the next steps in your faith journey. Whether this is your first time in church or you’ve been here for 80 years, there is a next step in your journey. Do you need to connect or reconnect to God? Do you need to deepen your faith through relationship? Or is it time to further engage your faith in the community?
Let’s take a few moments to reflect now.