Last week I asked everyone who was new to Lakeside in the last year to stand up. Several people told me that they thought more people stood up than remained seated. This is great news! But it also means that not everyone here has been acquainted with our church's rich heritage and the principles that shape the movement we are part of.
Five distinctives of the Christian church.
In the coming weeks I want to highlight five distinct features that define who we are. First, we are committed to a book that all Christians can believe. Second, we are committed to a creed that all Christians can accept. Third, we are committed to a unity that all Christians can achieve. Fourth, we are committed to a faith that all Christians can live. Last, we are committed to a name that all Christians can wear.
Several years ago I was working in marketing with Lewis Memorial Christian Village. They had just built several dozen duplex apartments and it was my job to sell them. So we put together an open house to sell these duplexes, and I personally wrote a letter to all the area churches encouraging them to tell their membership about our duplexes and the benefits they offered. There were so many churches in the Springfield area that it took me several days just to enter each of them into our computer. There were almost two hundred fifty churches!
Our congregation is just one of two hundred fifty congregations in the greater Springfield area. So why one more church? What niche have we carved out for ourselves across the vastly divided church landscape?
Our background.
The truth is that churches like Lakeside didn’t start out as "one more church" on the vastly divided church landscape. It is more accurate to say that our church began as a unity movement within the body of Christ (or the Church at large) some two hundred plus years ago. During that time our fledgling nation was just being established. Immigrants were streaming in from all over Europe in order to escape religious persecution. The Revolutionary War had just ravaged and demoralized our nation. Alcoholism abounded everywhere, even among clergy and church leaders. Post-war tensions and hatred remained at peak levels. Moral and religious restraints were being loosened. Colleges and universities were adopting atheistic positions denying the existence of God and Christ. Our frontiers were being greatly expanded under the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. A spirit of rugged individualism and independence abounded everywhere. People were living for the moment and giving way to their passions and appetites. Our nation was on a moral and spiritual drift away from God!
It kind of sounds like I’m describing life today's world, doesn’t it?
So where was the Church in all this? Well, the Church wasn’t doing so hot. Church membership was in rapid decline. Religious interest was at an all time low. People had other priorities. The American Church was dividing into denominational camps, and had become deeply entrenched with infighting. There was disagreement about how one was to become a Christian and how to be saved. There was disagreement about what a Christian should believe and how he should live. Creeds were being developed and adopted by congregations as tests of fellowship. They were saying to people, "You must believe everything on our list. Otherwise you are not a true follower of Jesus Christ." Confessions of faith like the Westminster Confession and the Philadelphia Confession were being used in the place of scripture for instruction. Churches were dividing over political issues, manmade creeds, personal preferences, denominational labels, and the like.
No wonder the Church in America was in rapid decline! In Matthew 12:25 (NIV) Jesus said, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand."
And so certain men like Thomas Campbell, Alexander Campbell, and Barton Stone, to only name a few, decided it was time for the Church to take action. They concluded that the Church must be united in order to accomplish her mission of making disciples of all the nations, and especially in America! They believed that the secret to attaining that unity in the Church could be found in Jesus' prayer in John where he prayed in John 17:17 (NIV),"Sanctify them by the truth; your word is the truth.” He prayed in John 17:20-21 (NIV) and in John 17:23 (NIV),"I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one..." May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."
Quite specifically they believed that unity could only be achieved to the degree that men would set aside their manmade creeds and tests of fellowship. Instead, men would embrace God’s word, the scripture as the foundation of truth in their lives. They noted that the Church in Acts achieved tremendous unity even as it grew simply because they devoted themselves to the word of God. (Acts 2:42)
They noted that in Matthew 7:26-27 (NIV) Jesus taught us to take his words and make them the foundation of our lives. "But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rains came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
So our church emerged on the vast church landscape as part of a unity movement. This movement sought to restore God’s word to its rightful place both in the Church and in our personal lives and this movement was called "The Restoration Movement." Therefore the first and most distinct feature of our church is that we are committed to the book all can believe. We are committed to the Bible.
The popularity of unity in today's culture.
For the rest of our time I would like to switch gears a bit and interact with our culture. We live in a day when achieving unity is fashionable. Every day we are indoctrinated with messages of tolerance given by the press, school teachers, politicians, religious leaders, and other well-intentioned people. Rodney King, the infamous videotaped beating victim of the Los Angeles Police Department, best captured the spirit of our day when he asked, "Why can’t we all just learn to get along?"
We live in a day when churches and entire denominations are setting aside their traditional articles of belief and are merging and uniting with groups that they have traditionally been opposed to. For example, the Methodist Church is now called the "United" Methodist Church.
Over the years I have seen this illustrated in the Unitarian Universalist congregations throughout the United States. The mission of that denomination as described in their own words on their website is, "to maintain a diverse membership that respects different views" and "to serve as a visible example of a tolerant religious community welcoming others to join."
I looked at the website of one Unitarian congregation and found the announcement fascinating! On Sunday they might have transcendental meditation. Last month one of their churches had a speaker talk about reincarnation. On Easter they held a discussion called, "What does Easter mean to you?" At another time they had a lady come with her library, chimes, and prayer beads and they learned all about the Buddhist religion and its history. They had another lady come and offer a "refreshingly pro-feminist" view. Their board recently passed a resolution that states, "As a welcoming congregation, the board of supports participation in gay and lesbian rights activities in the community."
On their website I found a statement defining what is distinctive about their church. "What is this church? It is not the building, except to the extent that we have chosen it and made it ours and adorned it with the fruits of our time, treasure, and talents. It is not the minister, except to the extent we have called him or her to inspire and guide our spiritual lives. It is not the music, except to the extent that we make it when we blend our voices together and produce sounds lovelier than any one of us could make alone. It is not even the beliefs, for we Unitarian Universalists have no single unifying belief— only the combined beliefs of each one of us. This church is the people. Without me, without you, this church is nothing. It does not exist. Buildings may fall down, ministers may retire, music may go out of tune, and beliefs may falter. No matter. We are this church. Without us it is nothing, but with us, it can be ANYTHING."
What is fashionable in our culture is unity, at the expense of truth. There is no truth. Truth is oppressive. Truth is intolerant. Truth is hatred. Truth is a control mechanism. Truth is the greatest threat to civilization. There is no absolute truth. So the Unitarians have no single unifying belief. Their only belief is that we should believe everything and nothing at the same time.
I believe that our church has an unprecedented opportunity before it. Our Restoration Movement plea has real appeal and relevance to our culture. Our culture is seeking unity and that is just what our church is all about. The only qualification or difference is that we are offering unity grounded in the truth of God’s word.
Unity founded in truth.
There is a passage of scripture in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV) that we should check out. Paul says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
And then a few verses later in 2 Timothy 4:1-5 (NIV) Paul tells young Timothy, "In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage— with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry."
Notice what Paul affirms about God’s word in these verses. He points out that the entire Bible, all scripture, is God-breathed. These scriptures have their origin and their source in God almighty. Everything God wants us to know about our destiny, life-purpose, child-rearing, marriage, word, family-life, relationships, and salvation is found right here. We have God’s word to teach one another, to rebuke each other, to offer correction, and to train one another in righteousness. We have God’s word to equip each other to do good works and to do good deeds. We have God’s word to teach the standards by which God will hold us accountable on judgment day. We have God’s word to help us discern between truth and error.
God has not left us in the dark, and so he has given us his word. And he expects us to use his word and put it in the center of our lives. Paul tells Timothy how useful scripture is, and then immediately tells him, "Now preach it! Teach it! Use it to encourage, to correct, and to rebuke! Put it in the middle of your life and ministry. Use it as a lifeline. Use it as an anchor. Stay grounded in it no matter what the consequence, because someday men will come. And to suit their itching ears they will gather around them teachers who will want to achieve unity at the expense of truth!
So to wrap up this message I want to leave you with several thoughts. At the end of your life, what will be your destiny? You can entrust your soul to men's words. You can believe in reincarnation, purgatory, angelic existence, reuniting with mother earth, or an all-inclusive heavenly eternity. Or you can entrust your soul to God’s word and begin preparing yourself for an eternal existence with him in his kingdom.
In the present, what should you believe? You can believe in men’s words. You can entrust your children, marriage, family, and personal development to human wisdom, self-esteem lingo, tolerance, multiculturalism, and the whole melting-pot belief system. Or you can believe in God’s word. You can trust the instruction of the creator who made you and who designed you to live a disciplined life, a life of righteousness, a life of loving God, and a life of loving your neighbor as yourself.
In the present, how should we achieve unity? Should we achieve it by way of our culture? Should we compromise our values? Should we ignore our consciences? Should we silence our talk of sin and guilt? Should we ignore God’s coming judgment? Should we increasingly numb ourselves to every immoral lifestyle or agenda that seeks validation? Should we sell out? Or should we draw closer to God's truth and achieve a unity that glorifies God?
We have the better way. We have the way of Christ and the way of truth.