Virtue #8 – Flourishing Churches Work Well with Others – 8 Short Verses

Lectionary Readings for March 6, 2022      1st Sunday In Lent, Year C
Deuteronomy 26:1-11     Bring your first fruits to the Lord and celebrate God’s bountiful provision with everyone.
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 v15 “When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them.” ~ God
Romans 10:8b-13  v12 Remember that the Lord draws no distinction between Jew and non-Jew—He is Lord over all things, and He pours out His treasures on all who invoke His name.
Luke 4:1-13 The Temptation of Jesus after His baptism and 40 days in the desert.

But this week, we’re looking at numerous verses from the Old and New Testaments as we wrap up our eight-part series looking at the virtues of flourishing churches.

A Meditative Exercise for Lent

This image of a hot air balloon preparing to take off seems perfect for the season of lent. Why? Because if you want the hot air balloon trip to go well, you’ll doing everything you can to eliminate whatever unnecessary items (i.e. weight) might be holding you down and you focus on doing whatever is needed to ensure a successful flight.

Lent is a season of preparation during which we try to let go of anything holding us back in our relationship with God and do things that help us deepen our relationship with God. Why? So that God can lift us to new heights, expand our vision of what’s around us, and lead us where we need to go.

• How are you reconnecting with God this week?

• Are you giving up something that holds you down?

• Are you doing something that helps God lift you up?

Peace through Leadership Quotes

“How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in peace and unity!”  ~ Psalm 133:1

“If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.”  ~ Archbishop Rev. Desmond Tutu

It is good indeed when we can all live together in peace and unity – which does not mean that we all must agree on everything all of the time. By doing the hard work of finding ways to talk with and connect with people we don’t like or people who may consider us enemies, we can begin building small bridges that lay the foundation for building bigger bridges in the future. For lent, let’s give up hopelessness & pessimism and embrace hope & optimism that relational bridges and peace can be built.

Any time I preach or lead a group, regardless of age, I start the same way. I’m going to say three short sentences. Please repeat each sentence, with enthusiasm.
God made me. God loves me. God has plans for me.

Preface to Today’s Scripture Reading

We’re now at the end of our eight-part series based on the book Eight Virtues of Rapidly Growing Churches by Matt Miofsky and Jason Byassee. As I’ve mentioned, I prefer the term “flourishing” to “rapidly growing.”

To recap, flourishing churches share common virtues. First… they believe that God has worked and will continue working in the life of their church in miraculous ways. Second… they quickly integrate new people into the life of the church. Third… they love where they are and, more importantly, the people who live in their community. Fourth… they relentlessly work to connect with and welcome others into their church families. Fifth… they elevate the practice of giving generously. Sixth… they work as teams. Seventh… they connect well with skeptics, including their own skepticism.

The eighth virtue is that flourishing churches work well with other organizations. For our church, this includes working well with our denominational leadership – our District Superintendent, our Bishop, and everyone at our Conference office in Sacramento. Having strong connections with “headquarters” means we have access to people and resources that help us overcome obstacles; it also means we can take advantage of training or funding opportunities when they become available.

Working well with local and regional organizations has also benefited our church tremendously. Consider how much greater our impact has been in our community thanks to our relationships with Crossroads, Adult / Teen Challenge, the Salvation Army, the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, Grocery Outlet, Morning Glory, Lassen Family Services, Lassen County Social Services, Rotary, Soroptimists, the Monticola Club, and more! Whew!

Let’s open our ears, minds, and hearts as we hear verses that encourage us to work well with others.

Read Romans 12:4-5; Proverbs 11:14; Ephesians 4:11-12; 1 Peter 4:10; 1 Corinthians 1:10; Ecclesiastes 4:9-10; Hebrews 10:24-25; Nehemiah 2:4-8

This photo of an Amish barn-raising is perfect for Nehemiah’s story because it conveys how much can be accomplished when we work together. Nehemiah was a devout Jew – not even a priest – who had the courage to ask someone with power and resources (the king) to make an incredibly generous donation so that Nehemiah could accomplish what God put on his heart: rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. Because Nehemiah worked well with others (i.e. the king and the people of Jerusalem), he was able to accomplish FAR more than he could have on his own. Because he worked well with others, his community benefited from the generosity of someone they had never met (the philanthropic king).

Churches are also a lot like orchestras. Some work well together and delight communities while others experience conflict and often disband. Many of you have performed as part of a musical group at some time in your lives. All of us enjoy listening when the performers and support people are all working well with each other. This image of an orchestra nicely captures that concept for what it does and does not show.

Obviously, the orchestra sounds best when everyone is playing the right notes with the right timing. But the players need a conductor to lead them. And they all need a composer to write the music, printers to produce the sheet music, and craftsmen to make the instruments. Oh, and they need to play somewhere, so we need architects, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, audio/video experts, and interior decorators to create the venue. When all of those entities work well with each other, musicians and listeners alike are able to enjoy heart-warming and soul-moving performances. When those groups do not work well together… you get an unpleasant mess. Churches are no different; we are communities of inspiring joy when we work well together.

The apostle Paul often described the church – people who follow Jesus’ teachings – as the living body of Christ. Internally, every living body (including the church) needs to work well within itself in order to properly function. All of us have discovered the hard way how a strained back muscle aches with even the slightest movement – our bodies are intimately connected. 

Externally, every living body (including the church) depends on so many other bodies to support it. Babies need parents for… everything, people need farmers to feed us, builders to house us, teachers to educate us, and friends to love us. Each of us needs to work well with others in order to survive and thrive in life.

The living church is no different. In our Bible Study group, Pam reminded us that we Christians are all connected through our baptism; we are all members of “one holy, catholic (meaning universal), and apostolic church.” In the Methodist tradition (which builds on other Christian traditions), our baptismal vows include agreeing to work together toward the same end of loving God, loving ourselves, and loving others.

Maryel pointed out that a good example of this commitment to cooperation can be seen in how our community works together during wildfires; the past two summers demonstrated how much we can accomplish under pressure when we work well with others – including firefighters who traveled from across our nation and across the world to help us.

I’ll never forget the family from Chico who drove their BBQ grilling operation up here, set up in Lassen Community College’s parking lot, started cooking, and with the help of volunteers they’d never met before, served a free, hot meal to anyone who walked up. They did this for three straight days. For free. When I asked them why they came, they said without hesitation, “We lost everything in the 2018 Camp Fire. We remember being tired, hungry, and anxious. We knew folks could use a good meal. We just prayed God would provide volunteers and donations.” That is working well with others.

Maryel also noted that working well with others is part of what gives people, organizations, and entire communities the resilience needed to get through tough times. Lord knows we’ve all needed extra resilience these past two years. Locally, we’ve endured massive wildfires, prolonged power outages, and a prison closing. Nationally, we’ve dealt with bitter politics, Covid’s persistence, and now a war involving a nuclear super-power.

We need each other to survive and thrive in every aspect of our lives – mentally, physically, socially, and spiritually. We need to worship together, serve together, eat and drink together, laugh and cry together – just like Jesus did with His friends and His enemies. As we aspire to be a church that flourishes in our community, we must continue working well with others. And by doing so, we will demonstrate and experience what it means to be part of the Kingdom of God.

Amen? Amen!