THE RISE AND FALL

Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations:

INTENTIONAL FAITH DEVELOPMENT=

Acts 2:42-47=

Excellent churches grow faithful disciples.

A sermon pr= eached by

Dr. William= O. (Bud) Reeves

First Unite= d Methodist Church

Hot Springs, Arkansas

February 1,= 2009

At sev= eral points in our marriage, we have gone through a phase of making sourdough bread. (We meaning Karen.) A friend will give us a bag or bow= l of starter, and we will enjoy making the bread for a while until we get tired = of it and throw it away. If you = have ever made sourdough bread, or any other kind of bread that comes from a starter, you know how that works. The starter has the yeast culture that makes the bread, and you have= to feed it for a number of days with flour and sugar. Then, at the proper time, you add = the other ingredients for the bread, mix it up, let it rise, knead it, bake it,= and you have several delicious loaves of fresh, hot sourdough bread.

Our fa= ith in Jesus Christ is similar to sourdough starter. First, for it to work, it has to be fed. We have to nourish our f= aith, or it will die, just like the starter.&nbs= p; But when our faith is fully developed, just like starter that is made into bread, it is really, really good.&nbs= p; You are probably having to swallow right now, just thinking about th= at hot bread, slathered with butter, warm in your mouth… OK, enough! And finally, our faith is like sou= rdough because it is meant to be shared. Sourdough starter can be kept for generations, and the more you give= it away, the more it makes. I su= ppose if everyone gave and received sourdough starter to its full capacity, eventually everyone in the world would have a loaf of bread.

WeR= 17;re not really talking about bread-making today, although I do have you primed = for communion now! We are talking= about INTENTIONAL FAITH DEVELOPMENT.= We are talking about deliberately = and purposefully growing our faith in Jesus Christ. It’s what faithful disciples do. It’s what excellent churches do. It’s one o= f the five practices of fruitful congregations.&= nbsp; In his book by that title, Bishop Robert Schnase describes what intentional faith development looks like.&= nbsp; See if this sounds like First United Methodist Church of Hot Springs= :

Intentional faith development describes the practice of churches th= at view the ministries of Christian education and formation, small group work,= and Bible study as absolutely critical to their mission and consistently offer opportunities for people of all ages, interests, and faith experiences, to learn in community. They cons= ciously and deliberately cover the whole age spectrum, fostering faith development outside of worship during the course of the year for children, youth, young adults, singles, couples, middle-aged adults, and older adults. They support and maintain existing= Sunday School classes, studies, choirs, and women’s and men’s organizations, but they also continually fill the gaps with short-term, long-term, and topical small group ministries and start new classes especia= lly designed for visitors and new members.&nbs= p; Churches that practice Intentional Faith Development know the secret= of small groups and constantly offer new possibilities for people to engage Ch= rist by engaging one another.[1]

&= nbsp;

I think intentional faith development is one of the things we do best. We have a tremendous array of opportunities for learning and growth in our church. Whether you are young or old, ther= e is a program for your age group and station in life. Still, less than half our members = are involved in a small group. So= why is this important? Why do exc= ellent churches pursue intentional faith development?

Intentional faith development builds community. In a large chu= rch, it is critical to develop lots of small-group ministries, because we are too big for us all to be one big happy family.= Small groups for faith development let us get to know others in a de= eper way, to share life together, to support one another in crisis, to have companions along the journey. This is one of the blessings God gives his children—to live in community.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pa= stor, theologian, and martyr for the faith, said, “Christian brotherhood is= not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Ch= rist in which we may participate.”[2]

The ea= rly church excelled in building community.&nbs= p; From the day of Pentecost, they ate together, prayed together, worshipped together, shared their goods with those who had needs, “and day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”[3]

Christ= ian community is all about relationships. Small group ministries allow us to build relationships, and in those relationships, our faith is developed.&nbs= p; Developing faith can take a thousand different forms, from education= al to missional. The bottom line= is, our small groups know us. The= y miss us when we’re gone. The= y know our struggles and our joys, and they are there for us to support and to encourage our journey. Living= in community, we find that we have a spiritual home from which we can face the world.

In her= book Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott shares an incident from the childhood of her pastor that illustrates our need for community.&n= bsp; As a child of about seven, she got lost one day. She ran up and down the streets of= the big town where they lived, but she didn’t recognize a single landmark. She was very frightened. Finally a policem= an stopped to help her. He put h= er in his squad car, and they drove around until she finally saw her church. She pointed it out to the policema= n, and then she told him, "You can let me out now. This is my church, and I c= an always find my way home from here."

Anne L= amott comments: “That is why I have stayed so close to [my church]—because no matter how bad I am feeling, how lost or lonely or frightened, when I see t= he faces of the people at my church, and hear their [comforting] voices, I can always find my way home.”[4] Community like that develops our f= aith.

Intentional faith development also communicates content. Relationships are very important, but there are a= lso things you need to know to be a strong Christian. You need to know the Bible. You need to know something about o= ur doctrine. You need to deal wi= th life’s tough issues on a deeper level. It’s good = to know your spiritual gifts. It’s good to experience the means of grace consistently. You need to engage your time and e= nergy in mission and ministry. It&#= 8217;s important to develop intentionally the content of your faith. Haphazard religion doesn’t have much muscle to it.

I see = a number of our church members at the gym where I go. They are disciplined and diligent = about their physical fitness. It is= good at our advanced ages to take action to keep our bodies fit. HOHUM, our older adult group, and = our Pilates class exercise together, and we have a constant stream of people using our walking track and fitness room in the Christian Life Center. This is all good. Like physical fitness, intentional= faith development seeks to build up the muscles of our spirit, to make us faithfu= lly fit, so we can be in shape to live for Christ in an unfit world.

Sylves= ter Stallone is known more as a movie star than a theologian, but in his latter years he has returned to the Catholic faith of his childhood. He realized that the pursuit of fa= me and wealth and the poor lifestyle choices he had made were ultimately empty. As a result, Stallone increasingly= values his Christian heritage. "The more I go to church," he said, "= ;and the more I turn myself over to the process of believing in Jesus and listen= ing to his Word and having him guide my hand, I feel as though the pressure is = off me now." As part of this transformation, Stallone is on a new training regimen: "You need to ha= ve the expertise and the guidance of someone else. You cannot train yourself. I feel the same way about Christian= ity and about what the church is: The church is the gym of the soul."= = [5]

Learn = the content of the faith, and you will have a healthy spiritual body: eyes to s= ee the needs of the Kingdom, to see God at work in the world, ears to hear the Spirit’s message to you, a mouth to speak the word of Good News, arms= to reach out in love to others, legs to walk the walk of a disciple of Jesus, = and a heart to be in communion with God.

Finally, intentional faith development supports the process of salvation. <= /span>One of my favorite verses of Scripture is Acts 2:47: “and day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” Salvation i= s not an event; it is a process, a day by day walk with God, learning and growing intentionally along the way. = Our mission is not merely to “get people saved”—to have an initial experience with Christ. Our mission is to initiate people into Christian discipleship. We are all about making disciples = of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. John Wesley called this “sanctification”—being made holy. Disciple-making is a process.

We wan= t to support the process with a system of intentional faith development. A seeker, who knows little about t= he faith, can come into our church and be welcomed and become a member. A member can continue the learning process to develop into a disciple. A disciple can deepen his or her faith, discover his or her spiritual gifts, and become a minister, engaging in meaningful action to support God’s ministry in this church, this community or the world.

Our ho= pe is that people will engage in this process of intentional faith development. New people or new members can take= the Plug-In class to get better acquainted with our church, its vision, and our ministries. Acquaintance lead= s to membership. Membership leads = to involvement in a small group, which creates discipleship. Discipleship engages us in ministry. And ministry change= s the world. It doesn’t happen overnight, but as it happens, it makes a difference.

One of God’s children who has entered into the process of intentional faith development is an Irish rock singer named Bono. Famous for his music and his band = U2, Bono has always been up-front about his Christian faith, and in the last few years has been very involved in social issues, such as the AIDS crisis in <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">Africa. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, knighted by the Queen, and was Time’s Man of the Year. He talks about the process of his faith development:

Your nature is a hard thing to change; it takes time…. I have heard of people who have life-changing, miraculous turnarounds, people set = free from addiction after a single prayer, relationships saved where both parties "let go, and let God." But it was not like that for me. = For all that "I was lost, I am found," it is probably more accurate to say, "I was really lost. I'm a little less so at the moment." And then a little less and a little= less again. That to me is the spir= itual life. The slow reworking and rebooting the computer at regular intervals, reading the small print of the service manual. It has slowly rebuilt me in a better image. It has taken years, though, and it is not over yet.[6]

God is= not through with any of us yet. J= esus invites us into the process anew or for the first time. He welcomes us with radical hospit= ality. He touches our spirit through pass= ionate worship. We engage with him in intentional faith development. In the process, we are transformed. Next week, we will talk about how that transformation propels us into risk-taking mission and service.

Today,= Christ invites us to his table. We celebrate this communion to remember him.&= nbsp; But we also do it to develop our faith—intentionally. Here we build community. Here we communicate the content of= our faith. Here we support the pr= ocess of our salvation. And we are = better because of it. This is the tr= ue bread of life. Come and worship. Come and enjoy. Amen!