FROM THE PASTOR'S PEN... August 2010

MULTIPLICATION

Please get out your Bible and read the Gospel passage John 6:1-15 first before reading this article.

The passage you've just read is a true event which includes a supernatural miracle accomplished by Jesus involving the MULTIPLICATION of a boy's five barley loaves of bread and two fishes so that about 5,000 people could be physically fed. Those 5,000 plus people were there already being fed spiritually by Jesus. Jesus was in the process of making disciples(followers) of Himself. He was meeting the total needs of the people around Him by the power that does not come from just any man but from God. When Jesus first saw all these people coming toward him and his disciples, Jesus turned to Philip in verse 5 and asked Philip, "Where are we to buy enough bread for these people to eat"? Then in verse 6 the writer describes what Jesus was thinking with the words, "He said this to test him (Philip), for He Himself already knew what He was going to do."

I am convinced that Jesus already knows now and has always known what He is going to do with the lives of you and me and all of History, which includes His bride - The visible Church on earth - that's us at St. Paul's Lutheran Church. His mission for every local church is wrapped up in His Great Commandment found in Matt. 22:37-40 which basically says God wants us to love Him totally (100%) and love our neighbor as ourselves. The purpose of calling His church family together in places all over the world is so they would know for sure they are loving Him totally as well as loving their neighbor by accomplishing His Great Commission for us as found in Matt. 28:19-20 which has one command or imperative wrapped up in one simple word - GO. This means as a church family, we are to go out or away from our gathering together, as well I suppose of going away from our routine or comfort level when we gather together, into all places in the world witnessing about Jesus Christ in word and deed (Acts 1:8). For us, we are primarily starting to go into Gaffney, Chesnee, Blacksburg, S C and around Cherryville, NC. The participles which follow the imperative 'go' in Christ's Great Commission include at least three things as follows: 1) Make disciples (followers) of Christ 2) baptize them into the visible body of Christ (His bride - the church) 3) and teach them to obey (have intimacy rather than just cognitive knowledge exclusively) everything (not just the parts we like or that make us comfortable) that Jesus (taught) commanded us to do. All churches are to carry out the above mentioned Great Commandment and Great Commission if they are passionately in love with Jesus.

For where we are in the time span of St. Paul's Lutheran Church's life, I am positive that He has already given our church the exact people He needs to accomplish His Mission. We are different than any other church in whom He has called together to be members of St. Paul's. He has given us a very unique VISION to accomplish His Mission. His mission is extremely simple and clear. However, His Vision takes more than a little prayer, thought, and discernment. His vision for our unique church family is very liquid so will change from time to time (unlike His Mission or Purpose for all of His churches). I believe that I've personally prayed and studied enough, gone through (with the help of others) our past annual reports, constantly asked the current members, observed our church first hand as an interim pastor several years ago, asked people who aren't members of our church, and constantly asked current church members what they think God's unique Vision for St. Paul's should not only look like but be like if we were totally committed to being the Church of Christ here in Gaffney.

There is good news and bad news in all of this. I'll let you in on the double secret, awful, despised, intolerable bad news first by using the most dreaded word in the vocabulary of any church that has ever existed. Before I write this word, viewer discretion is advised. Some of us may want to simply skip the next sentence because very few doctors make house calls these days. The terrible awful word no church wants to hear is, is, is, is, is, : change.

Now that you are revived and have gotten up off the floor from your fall about three hours ago, and have the phone number ready to call the proper authorities to have the Pastor found (since he has now gone into hiding), placed in a straight jacket, and kept under close scrutiny for 72 hours of observation, I will repeat that we need (I didn't say want) to change in what I would call a corporate 'mindset' so that we don't die off in peace, but grow in excitement.

The good news is that this particular way of changing will be exciting, fun, fulfilling, welcomed by you (in hindsight maybe) based on the strengths we already have, not as sacrificial as one might imagine, will in no way be antithetical to our Lutheran heritage, will take St. Paul's to it's next spiritually logical level, but most of all, will bring glory to our God.

Our unique vision for the near future involves what happened in John 6:1-15. The key world revolves around 'multiplying'. It involves a mindset change that understands we can remain a church for another decade or so barely surviving like a weed if we continue to add several members each year (and lose about double the number of members we add each year) or we can catch the vision found all through God's Word that we have been called to multiply rather than add. Look at it this way from the John 6 account, if Jesus would have asked His disciples to just go collect what food they could find from the crowd of 5,000 assembled, I don't believe there would have been enough to feed everyone. The young boy had two fish and five loaves, but I don't think everyone was there with food according to the implication found in the text. So by just adding what was there, the people would have either left or starved. However, by the power Jesus already had, He multiplied what had been provided and there was so much as a result of that multiplication that the disciples gathered up twelve baskets of leftovers.

The mindset change needed by St. Paul's right now is somewhere wrapped up (to be uncovered by us and put into practice) in the vision of:

Multiply Rather Than Add

Multiply Rather Than Add

MULTIPLY RATHER THAN ADD

We may or may not end up with the following simple vision phrase which follows, but it encompasses the idea:

2011 Vision for St. Paul's:
GO OUT to the Groves with Fishes and Loaves

Council met on Saturday, July 10, to wrestle mentally and spiritually with this mindset vision change. We already started tweaking and desire for the entire congregation to tweak it too. But in general, there seemed to be a great deal of unity in the belief that we haven't been called by God at St. Paul's to turn into a weed which could die off in peace by just one incident of getting sprayed by a tiny bit of Round Up. Instead, I believe there was a deep seated sense of unity that we have been called to be like a tiny mustard seed to grow into a larger life producing organism of significance.

I am hoping this lengthy diatribe in our newsletter will cause us to want to know more, want to seek for God's discernment deeper, and become united in what He can do of major significance through us in Gaffney and even past our own borders.

We already have some fabulous action items dealing with the "How To's" of carrying out this mindset change of multiplication rather than addition. We have three principle or primary means to evaluate if we are remaining united in our vision as well as judging (in a healthy way) if we are being effective in carrying it into fruition in the future. Those three areas (not in order of priority):

1. An overemphasis on Children's Ministry
2. Closing the Back Door/Spiritual Intimacy
3. People Flow Events

If you would like to not only see the current actual blueprint of finer details in these priorities and even help tweak, add or subtract, ask why these priorities rather than something else, then Council would not just want, but would be ecstatic if as many people as possible would go over them just like we did on one of the following (hour and a half) gatherings or ask the pastor to arrange a more convenient time to present this blueprint:

1. Aug, 1, Sun. 1:30-3 p.m.
2. Aug. 4, Wed. 6:30-8 p.m.
3. Aug. 21, Sat. 10:30-noon
   

Fasten your seatbelt for fun and fulfilment!

Sincerely...In His Grip,        

Soli Deo Gloria               
Pastor Bucky