Nascar season is upon us. Personally, I’m not Nascar junky. If I wanted to stand on hot asphalt all day, getting roasted under the sun, screaming at cars… I could do that in our church parking lot. Your friends would be like, “Hey what’s with your pastor shouting in your church parking lot?” And you could be like, “I think he’s practicing his sermon.”
But there is one thing about Nascar that is beyond cool—totally worth the price of admission. It’s that moment the start flag is waved… and those 700 HP engines roar to full throttle… and their power pierces your ear drums… and that toxic cloud of C02 exhaust washes over you… and the draft from all those cars accelerating to 200mph swirls through your hair (well, Lara’s at least…)… that is a definitely a MOMENT! How does Darrell Waltrip capture the moment? Anyone know? “BOOGITY, BOOGITY, BOOGITY!”
“Boogity, Boogity, Boogity” is how Jesus feels about the power of His Kingdom. It’s how Jesus feels seeing His people united together, being of one mind and purpose. I don’t think we could overstate the collective power of God’s people coming together as ONE. There is no greater spectacle on earth. In Matthew 12:22-32 Jesus says this about his Kingdom: “Every kingdom divided against itself is headed for destruction… No city or house divided against itself will stand… if Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?”
How quickly a Nascar race would devolve into a Demolition Derby if every driver began racing in different directions. How quickly the Kingdom of God would implode, or more likely some Church, if that church began serving their own interests. In Matthew 12:30 Jesus warns, “Anyone who is not with me is against me, and anyone who does not gather with me scatters.” Spectacular things happen when were united as ONE in Christ.
Part of our human nature is to look for TANGIBLE WINS. A tangible win is something you can see, touch, smell, taste, or feel. Tom Brady’s Six sparkling Superbowl rings or a trophy is an example of a tangible win. There it sits gleaming under the lights, for all to see. What are some tangible wins in the Church?
In the Church, big attendance is a tangible win. Not everyone in a crowd is sold out for Jesus, but the simple fact a person is listening tells me there is some of receptivity! To me a big crowd is a win because it represents “potential” impact. More folks attending Lakeside all the time. We plan to grow at least 10%, past 500, this year!
In the Church, every baptism is a tangible win. In baptism, a person pledges their allegiance to Jesus. They confess their need for forgiveness. They invite the Holy Spirit into their life. They become a member of Christ’s body. No, baptism isn’t “everything.” But it is a beginning! Just because a person gets baptized doesn’t mean they’ll never visit pit road or get a tune-up back in garage. But we’re right to be thrilled every time someone trusts Jesus. Last year was one of our biggest years for baptisms!
In the Church, generosity is a tangible win. In recent weeks we’ve talked about leveraging our talents and abilities, we explored Jesus teaching last Sunday about sacrifice. Sacrifice enlarges God’s Kingdom. I saw a quote this past week that read, “Your faith is someone else’s hope.” Generosity gets the Bible translated into whole new languages so entire people groups come to know Jesus. Generosity mobilizes church planters. It enables our Bible College (LCU) and Church Camp (LSCA) to train a whole new generation to serve Christ. We gave over $87,000 last year to mission partners, that 11% of our CORE Fund! We invested nearly $100,000 in the next generation. We invested nearly $250,000 in adult ministries.
In the Church, vision is a tangible win. Last year we refinished our parking lot. There is still some entrance work to do this Spring. It’s hard to get excited about something so mundane as a parking lot. Is that really a Kingdom win? To me every one of those parking spaces represents a potential family touched by our ministry. We originally planned to complete the parking lot in several phases, over several years, but that would have cost us so much more. By doing it all at once we were able lock in a low interest rate, low concrete prices, and avoid waiting money pouring/tearing out transitions from the new lot height to the old lot height. The lot cost over $300,000 but we’ve paid off $90,000 with existing cash. That 90k is money we’d previously set aside.
Last year we set a goal of raising $250,000 toward remodeling this worship center. As of January, we’ve collected nearly 50% of our goal (117k). People have asked about the $250k vision goal so let me explain a few things. When you take out a loan, you pay principal/interest every month. At Lakeside, we’ve always made principal payments out of our Vision Fund. Let’s say we owe $5000 each month in principle, but we all give $10,000 one month to Vision. $5000 goes to principal, and the other $5000 would go toward our $250k goal. Let’s say one month we only give $4000 to vision, but we still owe $5000 in principal. That would set our vision goal backward $1000. When I say we’ve reached 50% of the 250k, we did that while reducing our debt $64k!
Here is the bottom line. Our only obstacle to remodeling this worship center is debt. Generosity enables us to decimate our debt. As we strive toward our 250k goal, that money isn’t going to be sitting in some account. To remodel, we have to decimate our total debt. Every dollar we pay on principal saves us interest cost. Whatever money we don’t have to pay on interests cost goes toward reducing principal. It all becomes one gigantic snowball rolling down the hill. Principal that’s paid, saves interest, pays down more principal…
Hey, I’m not an accountant either! Debt is the obstacle. Last year our generosity obliterated a whole boatload of debt. Our generosity is accelerating the timeline for us to renovate this worship center. Giving is a tangible win. We should all be excited. Feel free to hang around for the Annual Meeting if you want to parse the numbers!
So, part of our human nature enjoys these kinds of TANGIBLE WINS. A tangible win is something you can see, touch, smell, taste, feel, count, calculate, spreadsheet. But here is the problem. Most of the wins in the Kingdom of God are INTANGIBLE WINS. When it comes to intangible wins, you can’t always see them, or touch, smell, taste, feel, count, calculate, or record them.
In Matthew 13:24-30 Jesus tells a parable about the Wheat and the Weeds. He says, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left. When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. The landowner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’
“‘An enemy did this,’ he told them. “‘So, do you want us to go and pull them up?’ the servants asked him. “‘No,’ he said. ‘When you pull up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them but collect the wheat in my barn.’””
If our only motivation in serving the Kingdom is achieving tangible, concrete, measurable results, we’re going to be really discouraged. That’s also true whether your parenting, educating, counseling, encouraging, shepherding, disciple-making. There are so many things in life that just cannot be measured. Sometimes a person will ask, “Jon, how is your church doing?” How should I answer? I could say, “Well, we’ve had baptisms, attendance is up, we’re blasting debt away, we’ve got big plans.” But in reality, every time we sow a good seed the evil one is right their sowing weeds!
“Here are a dozen marriages being strengthened/restored, but here are a dozen marriages dissolving…” “Here is a list of fifty people who were baptized or added to the church last year, but here is a list of fifty people who have fallen away.” “Here is a seed that’s bearing fruit 100x, 50x, 30x what is sown. But here is a seed Satan snatched before it ever germinated. Here is a seed that germinated, and quickly sprang to life, but withered months later. Here is a seed that was flourishing but got choked out by the worries of this world and seduction of wealth.”
As I’ve gone along in ministry, I’ve leaned more heavily into certain hobbies. Whenever I turn a pen on my lathe, it’s something tangible, and beautiful that I can hold, and take pride in. When I carve some log, I can rest back, and admire something my hands have created. But in the Kingdom of God we don’t always have that luxury. The Wheat and the Weeds grow together. They obscure each other. And so, in the Kingdom of God the focus should be more on long-term faithfulness than immediate fruitfulness, instant gratification, fast results. Trust Jesus when he says, “God’s gonna sort it all out!”
What are some of the INTANGIBLES we care about at Lakeside. One of our intangible wins is Helping People Find God. Anytime I meet a new person, or strike up a new friendship, I assume God has brought that person into my life (and vice versa). That person might be a neighbor, a church attender, a waiter/waitress… I don’t control the timeline. I don’t control the outcome. They aren’t my project, I’m not their project. I’m simply Christ’s ambassador. Maybe I can care for them. Maybe I can connect them to the Kingdom of God. Maybe I can cultivate spiritual dialogue. Who knows, maybe I’ll get to share the good news of Jesus and call upon them to trust Christ. Sometimes I get blessed helping people find God, sometimes I get burned. Sometimes there is a spark, sometimes there is a fizzle. No matter how many weeds spring up overnight, I’m still jumping out of bed the next morning and sowing more wheat. How about you?
One of our intangible wins is Helping People Follow Jesus. Generically, following Jesus means loving God and loving people. But specifically, we understand following Jesus to mean four things. First, is a person Believing/Abiding in Jesus for eternal life? People turn everywhere in search of life, but are we turning to Jesus? Second, is a person Becoming like Jesus? If you’re walking with the Holy Spirit, you will be filled with the fruit of Christ’s character—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. You are being sanctified, you are being filled with power, there is victory. Third, is a person Building Jesus’ Kingdom. Are you putting the talents/abilities God’s given you to use? Are you making sacrifices to build up your marriage, your family, the Church? Are you serving others, administering God’s grace in its various forms? There are 30 one-another commands in the Bible. Are you living them out? Fourth, is a person Braving Jesus mission in the world? It’s our whole church’s responsibility to help people Find God.
Now, how can you measure these things? Just because a person attends worship does it mean they believe Jesus? I don’t know. Just because a person prays, fasts, or reads their Bible does that mean they’re becoming like Jesus? I hope so but I don’t know. Just because a person is a member of our Church does that mean their actively building Jesus’ Kingdom? I don’t know. They say 20% do 80% of the work. 20% do 80% of the giving. I don’t assume anything. How do you measure whether a person is braving Jesus’ mission in the world? I don’t know—but I can tell you Lakeside exists to help people believe in Jesus, become like Jesus, build Jesus’ Kingdom, and brave Jesus’ mission. No matter how many weeds spring up overnight, I’m still jumping out of bed tomorrow and sowing more wheat. How about you?
One of our intangible wins is Helping People Flourish, Thrive. If you have the capacity to Lead 1s, 10s, 100s, 1000s… are you realizing your fullest potential? I think Lakeside is a GREAT church. Right now, our Elders are exploring what it might look like to partner with other churches to help them become a GREAT church. What if Lakeside isn’t just a church, what if we have the potential to be a movement within the larger Kingdom of God? There is a lot of wheat to sow. Let’s sacrifice and pray for tangible wins. Let’s grow our attendance—we are few dozen short of breaking 500 barrier! Let’s grow our generosity and decimate our debt. Let’s preach, teach, baptize, and build what needs to be built. But let’s also help as many people possible find God… follow Jesus… and flourish. Boogity, Boogity, Boogity.