Last week began this series of weekends about defining the things were looking for in life.
Last week – looking for purpose and passion and how God always gives us a place to seek His purposes passionately . . . great week.
This week were gonna talk about looking for faith – friends and family and I want to speak with you about the rhythm of community.
Answer this question. How do you move into deeper levels of faith and relationship at Lakeview Church? It seems so big. How does that happen? How do we get inside? How does it work?
Today, I’d like to give you a blue print or a picture in works that I believe will make this a whole lot clearer for all of us.
I Discovering Faith in the Foyer
Think with me on these pictures today. Picture this. Say you are in your home and a guest comes to your house, maybe they’ve been invited maybe not, but their plan is to only stay for a minute or two and you know how that goes. They really just popped in – they’ve just dropped by to see you – not gonna stay long and so you stay in the foyer or the entrance of the house and you talk there. They’ve even left their shoes on – because they’re not staying. But it’s an interesting thing about foyers and entrances they aren’t designed to really get to know anybody. There’s no place to sit down really and there are closets and coat hangers and shoes in the way and maybe there’s a bit of a tight hallway, so communication isn’t easy. At our house we have stairs at the entry so to have a conversation in the entrance our family usually has to be up high and the guest down low in order to have room to gather and talk. And in the foyer there’s always those awkward moments, especially if someone just dropped by and they say they’re not gonna stay. But then they stay anyway for like 15 minutes in the entrance. Well if your house is like our house we would probably offer for them to come into our home 5 times in those 15 minutes . . . “are you sure you can’t stay? Can I get you a coffee? Come and sit down.” And we say that because we realize that the foyer is only a place to start a conversation and it’s not designed to stay.
And so as a family we want to host people through that entrance and environment, we want to lead them through to the rest of the house. And if you think about it, it’s kinda funny what happens in the entrance to a house. If I’m ever dropping by someone’s house especially if I’ve been there I’ll be in the entrance and as I’m standing and talking because I can’t stay. What I’m doing is I’m usually looking into the rest of the house anyway I’m leaning in and trying to see what the kitchen’s like and what that flooring is on the family room floor and how big their T.V. is I’m interested in going deeper, but I don’t.
Funny to the conversation that does happen in the entrance especially if your guests are new and they don’t know you well usually its – kinda surface conversations a bit awkward perhaps, but pretty basic. But normally, if someone’s only in the foyer of your home and they’ve never been there before your not telling them about your deep dark family secrets or your marriage conflict from yesterday or why you all eat supper in your underwear on Tuesday nights.
The foyer is for discovery, but it’s basic level 1 discovery and so in our home we try to remember that it’s designed with guests in mind, and so if we’re good hosts we guide people well through that new environment they’re in.
Now where am I going with this? Well here at Lakeview over this next year we are expecting 100’s of new guests to come to our house (this church) and some of you might be guests even this morning. We’re also expecting 100’s of you who have been here for a while and who call this church your home church we believe you’re gonna invite 100’s of more guests during the next year to join this church family. And all these new people and families and kids coming in will be in the discovery stages of faith and when they enter this church for the first time it will feel like they will be in the foyer the whole time. Meaning they might see the whole church, but in their minds they’re just looking around and they’re new and are just discovering their faith and it’s a bit awkward really being in the foyer.
So, 2 things.
First, if that’s you today you’re welcome here come, and look and see not just a building, but come and look and find faith be bold in your discovery. And number 2 we’ll do our best as a church, (hear that) we’ll do our very best to guide and host you through that foyer faith discovery season.
Let me tell you a quick story from Jesus’s life and then we’ll come back. In Luke 19 we find Jesus walking from town to town – doing his thing – He’s teaching people about God and healing some of them miraculously. He’s being Jesus, but the biggest thing He’s doing is interacting with people and helping them see a different picture of God and allowing them to see with fresh eyes spiritually.
Let me tell you this story in my words as you read it on screen. Familiar story.
Luke 19: 1-7
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.' "
Anyways, there are large crowds following Him and literally throngs of people are lining the streets in this one town to see Jesus and to seek faith and in this story, a man names Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus and seek faith as well, but he’s to short to see over the crowd. I feel his pain. So he decides to climb a tree to have a look – (he takes an extra step that requires extra effort in his life to see Jesus).
Great story. Jesus sees that extra effort and honors it as a step of faith, (not just a height restriction) and He goes under the tree to see Zacchaeus. Picture – 1000’s of people perhaps, they all stop when Jesus stops there’s a guy up a tree and Jesus looks up and creates a foyer experience for Zacchaeus. Jesus says “Zacchaeus come down immediately I must stay at your house today and so he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
And suddenly Zacchaeus had a guide and a host to lead him through the foyer of faith in order to discover more of his soul. And you know what? Jesus had all kinds of time and energy for people exploring their faith.
And Jesus created all kinds of places in His life for people like Zacchaeus. People who were seeking spiritually and who needed a few questions answered. But they were people who also needed to feel welcomed and open and they needed to be hosted and lead and guided to their faith.
Now let me get back to this church. Here at Lakeview we consider our weekend services a foyer faith environment. We try our best to design these weekends so that a guest would feel welcome and so that someone who is just visiting, (may be for the first time) so they would feel welcome. We try hard to design these weekends with guests in mind. Right from the parking lot, to the kids areas, to the music we choose and the message you hear. We want you to be able to discover faith and church at your pace not ours so we’re pretty intentional on our weekends. To pick music that will peak your interest and the message is almost always designed with those seeking faith, with guests in mind.
Our kids ministry, goes out of it’s way to make sure your kids have an incredible time and that they’re in a safe, fun and exciting environment to discover God for themselves.
Anyways, you just need to know that Lakeview church knows what it feels like to be a guest and we know how hard it is to come in those doors for the first time, and we know how awkward first steps with God can be, we get that. And I can say that with confidence, because most of us are pretty new in our faith as well. Most of us have come to this church, and to know Jesus in the past 5 or 10 years and so we get how tough those initial first steps are. And we want to do whatever we can to help you find faith. So, hear our heart today as a church. If what you’re looking for is a real and authentic faith walk, then we would love to help you begin that and these weekends are a great place for that to develop and we’d love to help guide you and lead you to your faith.
Now, here’s the deal . . . (next step).
After you’ve been here a while you’ll probably have a sense that there is just some thing more needed for you to develop life within this community. Because really if you stay in the entrance if all you ever see is the foyer environment – you’ re probably not going to meet to many people in any kinda depth level.
And so if you find yourself looking for community and relationship at a different level then we’ve got to go to a different room in the house.
II Finding Friends in the Living Room
See, when people visit your home or mine and they get past the foyer. Usually we take them to the family room or the living room where there are big couches and soft chairs and a coffee table for coffee or at our house it’s usually for nachos.
But whatever whether it’s nachos or coffee, the living room is just a better environment for interacting and for getting to know one another than the foyer. We move from being a quest in the foyer to friends in the living room.
And so if that’s you and you’ve been here for a while and maybe you’re looking for some thing more than the weekend service and something a little more intimate than 100’s of people at a time well then, maybe the living room is for you.
Now, in our church if I’m gonna be honest we’re kinda remodelling the living room, with hopes that it will soon be a space that can help provide an environment for many of you to move from being a guest to becoming a friend. And really we’re remodelling and renovating our living room physically, but also as an organization.
At Lakeview our living room environments are where we like to create spaces and places where people can get out of this big crowd and let you begin to relationally connect with people of the same age and stage of life, that’s the living room.
Really, the living room is where people engage in this church and these environments are provided in a lot of different spots;
H. S. ministry – Great place with usually 50 or so students to hang out and get to know one another.
Kids ministry – has specifically designed its program so it’s not all big crowds – foyer stuff.
Young Adults – this fall – starting a time on Sunday nights specifically for young adults go get together – relationship.
Alpha – Group of about 50 – 60 people – great way to meet people – develop friends and find God.
Taste of community – Designed to connect people together (new program this fall.)
Backyard BBQ’s - all summer – hopefully it continues.
Physically ample opportunity when phase II of our facility opens – coffee shop, other areas just sit and talk across tables. I’m picturing a really big living room – like 10,000 square feet.
Now, I said our living room here at the church is being remodelled – well that not just physically, we’ve also known for a while that we need to do a better job at connecting people to each other in this community and
so we’ve also done some remodelling on staff. Jacqueline Kroeker started here in July and she is our new Connections Pastor.
Her whole job is about renovating the living room so we can find deeper levels of relationship and friendship and connecting points at this
Church.Remember that name Jacqueline Kroeker, she’s gonna lead us to the living room.
Now, let me show you how Jesus did this whole living room thing – great story.
Luke 5:27-32 right at the beginning of Jesus public life.
And at this point in his ministry Jesus was choosing his closest followers – 12 disciples. He’s choosing the guys who would spend the next 3 years with Him and eventually lead the movement after He died.
And so he sees Levi sitting there, a tax collector and it says that Levi was a sinner, a bit of a crook. He took a little extra money from the people and lined his pockets with it.
Great story, because Jesus obviously knew that Levi’s destiny and potential was more than him becoming just a better and better thief. Let’s read it.
Vs 27 & 28
Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
I love how to the point the scriptures are and how immediate Jesus call on our lives is.
Levi, got up, quit is job immediately and left every thing.
Now folks, that’s foyer stuff . . . Levi says, I’ve made a decision to begin to seek after and follow Jesus.
But watch what happens next, they go to the living room.
Vs 29 – 32
Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law complained, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
This folks is a great picture of who Jesus is, sitting at a feast in a living room environment with a few dozen people who don’t really know Him, but they’d like to.
See folks, Jesus is all about relationship and conversation and laughter and celebrating life and I think by in large the church has got that wrong over the years. We don’t do enough laughing or eating and drinking together. We don’t do enough dancing or talking or celebrating and we’re often to busy to really get to know each other and so we tend to stay in the foyer relationally and we don’t get to the living room.
Jesus set an example for us to . He went to party’s, and he showed up at banquets, and he laughed and He built great relationship, and so if that’s where you’re at and if that’s what your looking for as a next step then lets get working on finishing the living room of our church. Jacqueline, our new Connections Pastor could use some help I’m sure. Don’t wait for her to call you. She’s new and doesn’t know you yet, but she’d love your help and support to create spaces in the life of this church where people can move from being a guest to becoming a friend.
Look for things like Alpha and Young Adults and a Taste of Community. Those are great living room environments.
One more room and we’re done.
III Becoming Family in the Kitchen
In the family and home I grew up in I had 3 brothers and mom and dad and we lived on a farm, in a house that was quite small for the number of people and growing boys in it. On the farm our kitchen was also the dining room and the kitchen dining room was also the best space for our family to gather together and it was really the only place big enough and because of who my mom was the best place to gather was always around food – and so our supper table became our family spot. Right there in the kitchen with 6 of us around the table is where we worked out life and talked about the challenges of life. Finances or health or relationships and that’s where we laughed at the crazy parts of life. And the kitchen table is where we prayed as a family and where we learned about faith, and it’s where we shed some tears growing up as well.
See folks, by the time you get to the kitchen table you’re not a guest in the foyer and your not just becoming a friend in the living room you’re family by the time you get in the kitchen and that’s where you kinda let it all hang out.
But guess what? To many people in the kitchen never works, 100’s don’t fit there. Here’s what I mean.
Folks, let me cut to the chase on this one. At our church this kitchen table picture is really the goal of community.
And at this church the kitchen table is called small groups.
Small groups are regular gatherings of 6 or 8 or 10 or 12 people – usually not more than 12 and they don’t change much those same 12 people gather together every week or 2 and their only goal is to share life together. They share life and faith and family and they share relationships that go deeper than most people think is possible and as a church small groups are where we have seen incredible life change happen over the years. Examples: People going through grief or loss have been comforted – people going through family changes have been supported – people going through health struggles have been visited and prayed for and people who have something to celebrate have been joined in that celebration.
Small group’s are awesome environments to develop faith and family and to find deep level relationship in the church. And if you’ve been at Lakeview for a while then you’ve heard me say this before. We may be a church with 1000 or more people attending or connected to it, but really, we’re a big church made up of lots of little churches with 10 people in them. And the ultimate goal of our church is not to see 1000’s come on the weekend, that’s great, but it’s not the ultimate goal.
The ultimate goal and the ultimate final destination at Lakeview church is for everyone to be in a small group. To be family sitting around the kitchen table sharing life. And whether you’re a kid or a teenage or a adult, we just really believe that there’s power in family and that real life change happens best in small groups as you interact with your faith. We’ve seen it over and over and over so again if that’s you and if that’s where you’re at and if that’s what you need and want – check out small groups info – take initiative. Contact Elizabeth Nickel on staff.
Folks, just so I’m clear let me wrap this up – we want to host and guide you through the foyer, we want to help you discover your faith - take your time, but we don’t want you to stay there.
We want you to see the living room and find some friends there, but the ultimate goal is to have you become a deeper part of our community, a integral part of this family. And that just happens best in the kitchen. |
