What people are saying about Emmanuel's identity and vision

At the end of my Jan. 18 sermon, people were invited to offer their reflections on who we are and where we are going as a church. There were too many to read as part of our closing that Sunday, but here are the responses:

CHURCH REFLECTIONS
As shared by the congregation on Sunday January 18, 2009

 Emmanuel is a welcoming place where I along with others can come to be refreshed and renewed every week. It is a family with members who care about one another and pray for each other. It is a body of believers who are living out their faith through service and vocation.
 Church is about being followers of Jesus. Coming together in all our diversity, strengthening and encouraging and upholding one another, so that we can go out and use our gifts in the world.
 The church, to me, is a community where I am safe to learn, grow, share my gifts, and receive encouragement & instruction. It is a local community but it is also a global community and it is so important to me to be reminded that I’m part of a church that experiences life and worships God both as I do and also differently that I do.
 A body in Christ, to stand together for God, to encourage one another, to grow in our weakness for the better in Christ.
 A gathering and/or bringing together of people who most otherwise would not know; a foundation for life; learning, understanding, accountability & growth ; a place to be sent from → to the world ; people who are hurt, broken and not sure what to do next.
 Emmanuel has great people; we are unsure of Emmanuel’s vision & identity ;we like the stand that we have taken with homelessness ;we like that our Pastor is involved with the other Pastors in Abbotsford dealing with the homeless issue ; maybe we could talk throughout the year(especially for the newcomers and us who forget!), from the pulpit, what our decided vision is so we can keep the vision clear and teach, from the pulpit, how to ACHIEVE OUR VISION ; do non-Christians ever get invited to ask Jesus as their savior from the pulpit? [yes, but probably not enough! Thanks for the reminder]
 Emmanuel is home
 We are moving from self-preservation, to a church without walls, which is good; Future, we need more engagement with our community needs/needy.
 Emmanuel’s global connections and worldliness is to be cherished as an extension of the church gathered
 We are: a mix of races, ages, and personalities gathered together to worship God; kind hearts bonded by faith in Jesus Christ; at peace; a family; a light in the world, shining brighter together; an advocate for “the least of these”; always learning
 People working together to share the Good News of Jesus; people sharing and caring for each other
 Diversity : people, music, giftedness, interests & involvements; Creativity: music composition, poetry & other writing, preaching, banners & paintings, drama & dance; Sincerity: wants to be the church that God calls it to be, wants to reach beyond its walls, wants to be inclusive & inviting, wants to move ahead
 Emmanuel Mennonite Church is a people gathered to worship, learn and be inspired to scatter, to live and share the good news with fellow humans, welcoming them to join the gathering and scattering community of believers at Emmanuel or any other believing peoples.
 Emmanuel to me is first and foremost a place of worship. In addition it is a place to gather with fellow believers to fellowship, to share and to grow in Spirit.
 We are a community of believers following Christ and looking to Him for guidance in our daily activities and thoughts.
 A warm community with a united purpose; a place to belong
 Centered on God, Christ, Diverse, inclusive, Including the whole church of the world, mission, schools
 Reference to the constitution and our purpose was a good reminder; inclusion of the children (children’s time) is a good visual reminder that all are part of the church and that all can participate.
 To thank all people who have given generously to (a) support efforts both in the community and church-related efforts (MEI, MCBC, MCCanada, MEDA, MDS, etc) (b) complete the gym payments but to remember, once these payments are over to move that generosity to all of these good efforts. I love this church for its generosity of time, money & talents. We are very fortunate to have leadership that appreciates our Anabaptist heritage. I also think we have the polity right. That is never to be assumed.
 The church should be a place of acceptance and love. We are all different people worshipping the same God in different ways. Church is community – a place of fellowship, learning and inspiration. It is a place of rootedness from where we grow and reach out into the world.
 A major role of the church is –or should be- “for the equipping of the saints” I see this as renewing, refreshing and repairing/preparing the community for the forwarding of the Kingdom of God. We are to be the Kingdom Here and Now- we need to embrace this truth and clarify our vision and our influence in our community.
 We are a welcoming, friendly, and hospitable group of people who love each other, our communities and God; how we put actions to our beliefs, we try and address issues in our community (i.e. opening the building to the homeless)
 I wholeheartedly endorse the expressions of who we are as expressed in the songs & sermon this morning
 A welcoming, warm and friendly place
 Church is my family
 The mountain of Jesus
 As we begin to invite others to join us on “the bus”, we need some practical tips for welcoming them, including them on the journey, worshipping with them, etc.. Especially if they have little or no Biblical/Church background. Besides “tips”, we need a very big heart! Light must go into very dark places sometimes-where the light is needed so much.
-tip #1 – Be aware of those who are new & the help they need in finding the Scripture passage, songs, etc.

OBSERVATIONS? ADDITIONS? PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ADD A COMMENT!

The Church Gathered: Identity and Vision

For a number of different reasons, we haven't been able to get an audio version of our sermons on the website yet, but for those who are interested here's (most of) the text of this morning's sermon:

The Church Gathered: Identity and Vision

In the actual "preaching moment" I used different pictures to illustrate this sermon (mostly courtesy of FreeFoto.com), but I haven't figure out how to add them to the blog yet!

When Gary and I got married, his mother said to me, "You’re not our daughter-in-law—you’re our daughter." After raising three sons of her own, she was finally delighted to have a daughter, and that’s how I felt for many years. So it was a privilege to write a family tribute for my mother-in-law—my second mother in a way—for her funeral which was on Friday. There were so many memories—from Gary and from his two brothers, so much from her almost 83 years of life on this earth that it was a challenge to convey everything she meant to us and all that she was, in just a few moments.

I feel somewhat the same way about the church—that when it comes to who we are as a church, when it comes to our identity and vision, it’s a real challenge to convey everything the church means and all that the church is in just a few words or in a few moments.

Our church constitution says that our purpose as a church is “to make disciples of all nations.” That’s drawn from the words of Jesus at the end of the gospel of Matthew that we’ve already heard this morning. I talk about making disciples of all nations in every baptism class and every membership class, it’s a core value for our Sunday school and for our youth ministry, it shapes our worship and our life together as a church in many ways. We don’t have it as a banner at the front of the church or in our bulletin every Sunday, but that might be a good idea to remind ourselves. Making disciples of all nations: that was the identity and vision for the church when it first began in January 1981, and it’s become very much a part of our DNA as a church. But now as Emmanuel turned 28 years old as of January 4, it’s a good time to ask ourselves, “What is our identity and vision as a church today?” Are we still making disciples of all nations? Or to put it another way: Who are we as a church, and where are we going?

Last year, I highlighted this question for our pastoral evaluation committee, and this year I’ve highlighted it in my annual report for the whole congregation. Who are we, and where are we going?

To some people, the church is all about rules, something like a police department.  At the other extreme, some people today may think of the church more like a movie theatre where the most important thing is being comfortable and being entertained. For some, the church is more like a school where priority is given to learning. Or like a hospital where the most important thing is healing. Sometimes we may act as if the church is a museum where the main purpose is to preserve the traditions and artifacts of the past.

Over the last while, I’ve been thinking of the church more like a bus. We’re not a museum where things are meant to stay the same forever, we’re not a movie theatre where the main thing is to be comfortable, we’re not a police department where rules are the most important thing, we’re not just a random group of individuals who happened to stumble into the same place, but we’ve all gotten on the same bus, and we’re going some place together.

Matthew 28:16-20 have been very formative verses for Emmanuel over the years. They’re as close to theme verses that we have, and they help to define what kind of bus, what kind of church we are: "Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

This gathering of disciples took place after Jesus had risen from the dead, and before he ascended into heaven. It wasn’t yet an established church—there were no committees and no council, no paid staff, no church constitution or other structure, just 11 of Jesus’ disciples who had come together.  But if we think of this as the very beginning of the church gathered, it’s clear that the main thing that these 11 disciples had in common was that they were followers of Jesus. V. 16 says they went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. They went because Jesus told them to go. They followed him. That was their purpose, their identity, their vision—to be followers of Jesus. V. 17 goes on to say that the group included those who worshipped and those who doubted.

I’ve always loved that little detail in the text—because sometimes we tend to think of the church as only those who believe and have all their questions answered. But there is room for doubt even in the church. As followers of Jesus, these 11 disciples were not all perfectly faithful. They did not have it all together. Some of them doubted—they had questions, they had fears, they had anxious moments. Some worshipped, and some actually doubted. Yet even those who doubted had come to the mountain in response to Jesus. They didn’t let their doubts stop them from following him. They were just as much a part of the group as those who worshipped.

The rest of Matthew 28:16-20 are Jesus’ own words—outlining his authority, giving the group instructions to go and make disciples; promising that he would be with them always to the end of the age. The focus of this text is on Jesus’ words of instruction and promise. These followers of Jesus were not focused on who was worshipping and who was doubting, they weren’t concerned with defining who was in and who was out, they weren’t focused on their diversity whether it was good or bad or something to be celebrated. But they focused on Jesus’ instruction and on his promise. That’s what gave them unity and focus and identity and direction.

If the church is a bus, then it’s a busload of followers of Jesus. Some of us worship, some of us doubt, some of us might be looking out the window, or asleep at the back of the bus. But on this journey together, we are all called to follow Jesus, we are all instructed to make disciples of all nations, we all receive the promise of Jesus to be with us always.

Who are we as a church, and where are we going? May God continue to give us identity and vision, and guide us on our journey together. Amen.