Ephesians 4:1-16

William F. Schnell

August 2, 2009

I was hoping that our recent scare with the flu bug contracted by our Workcampers last week wouldn’t adversely affect our attendance this morning. I believe I heard our Moderator say that, so far, our average weekly attendance is up 8% over last year. That is the good news. The not so good news is that our attendance last year was down quite a bit from the preceding year or two, so at best we are just getting back to normal. But I will take that as a healthy development and, perhaps, a response to a sharpened focus we are making in the direction of community outreach.

So many variables affecting church growth are beyond the sphere of our influence. Two years ago when I noticed that our attendance patterns were slipping, I naturally looked at what we were doing and how. Had we changed anything to account for this? When nothing of note presented itself as an answer, I went to the local clergy association and discovered that our experience was being mirrored in virtually every church in Aurora. That alerted me to watch for larger cultural currents and, indeed, the mainstream media began to report on a declining interest in organized religion in our culture.

Were we on a slippery slope that would take us the way of many non-churched European countries, or was this a cultural blip that would self-correct in time. The jury is still out in answer to those kinds of questions, but it is clear that we can no longer take new members for granted. We must redouble our efforts to reach out into the community in a positive and welcomed way (which basically means discerning needs that we, as a congregation, are positioned to meet with the resources at our disposal and organizing to meet them). And that is exactly what we are doing by opening up our facility and grounds during the 4^th of July parade and with our second annual Eldercare Expo in September.

Having said that, we want to proceed in measured steps so that our ego needs, masquerading as evangelistic fervor, do not get the best of us. I think a fascinating "Question from the Pew" which has never been asked would be the following: "Pastor, what is the biggest mistake you almost made during your time here?" Well, there are a lot of answers that present themselves, but the one that stands out in my mind has to do with a proposal for church growth I explored in great detail.

Because for the first decade of my service here new members were pretty much a given, meaning that if you began the orientation process you would pretty much end up with 15 new members or so every time (sometimes a bit more or less), I figured that the only thing limiting us was restricted space. That could mean restricted parking space, restricted classroom space, restricted sanctuary space, or some other constriction in the pipeline. My solution was to increase them all in one fell swoop.

I figured if we bought out the neighbor’s property, tore down the youth annex, paved the new space with parking (except for the space where we would build a new Fellowship Hall), moved the back of the choir loft to where the windows are now in the Fellowship Hall and moved the choir room to where the stage is now, and stretched out the side chapels accordingly and retuned the pipe organ for a space 30% larger—we would easily grow into that expanded facility. And I had an renowned architect look over the proposal and declare that it could be done. Believe me; I have an ego that can think really big sometimes.

That plan was ruminating in my head about 6 or 7 years ago. I figure by the time we would have hammered out the details and got the vote and received one of those easy mortgages the banks were so thrilled about writing and tore down the old and put up the new, the whole process would have been completed somewhere between when church attendance began falling off everywhere and when the "Great Recession" began. That is what you call a "perfect storm" and what I suspect might be the biggest mistake I didn’t make.

The Bible speaks about church growth, but not always in terms of bigger numbers. Bigger is not always better. Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. The title of our message today is "Church Growth," and it is the final message in a series of 4 from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Having welcomed Gentiles (or non-Jews) into the Chosen People of God, and smoothed over some hard feelings among the Jewish Christians who had not been so keen on sharing that distinction, Paul is now moving beyond church growth as numerical growth and addressing the more foundational issue of spiritual growth and maturity.

He encourages all believers: Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Verses 3-6). Because there is one God and Father of all, we are all his children and brothers and sisters to one another. Therefore, let us do everything we can to keep unity in the community of faith.

But, Paul continues, to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it (Verse 7). Grace means gift. We have all been spiritually graced or gifted as Christ apportioned it. Translation: we have all been given spiritual gifts (no exceptions), but we have been gifted differently according to the wisdom of the Master designer. We have already seen what happens when we confront differences in one another such as Jewish Christians versus Gentile Christians, circumcised versus not circumcised—we have potential for conflict as groups square off against each other because of superficial differences.

Maybe God should have made us all male or all female; all white or all black or all some other color; all the same build; all the same academically and athletically and artistically; all with the same opinions, perspectives and politics. Maybe he should have made us nomads so that we would all live in the north for a season and then move to the south, and then to the east and then to the west so that we would all share the same diets and language and experiences. There wouldn’t be Mexican cooking or Chinese cooking or Italian cooking—there would just be cooking.

That would be a pretty bland world would it not? It would be bland at best because it would be a world that would not work. If everyone was uniquely suited to be a businessperson, who would serve as educators? If everyone was an educator, who would serve in the health professions? Who would fix the plumbing or grow the food? God, in his wisdom, has created a rich tapestry of human colors and talents and experiences which enables us to have so much more than we could have if we were all the same.

The price is the potential for conflict over our differences—yes, even our gifts for ministry--which is why Paul is addressing it in our text with an illustration from his own experience, i.e., how he functions with his colleagues in ministry. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up… (Verses 11-12).

The bottom line is building up the body of Christ, which is the Church. The Church is the Risen Christ’s continuing physical presence on earth where it continues his ministry. My job, as a pastor, is to prepare God’s people for works of service. A year or so ago while ruminating on the idea of community outreach, I came up with the idea of an eldercare program to support those struggling to care for elderly loved ones by offering a one-stop-shop of all the resources available to them. I am caring for an elderly mother and so I have some personal experience with that need.

So I organized a program, arranged for funding and navigated the proposal through the church decision-making structure. But the best thing I did was to cultivate a newer member at the time named Dorothy Bell. Dorothy also had experience with caring for an elderly loved one, and a great heart and vision for an eldercare program. But she was new to this church and so gradually became involved. Well that changed pretty quickly and now she is the prime mover behind our second event, while I am relegated to a support role at best—which is just the way I like it because my job is to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.

Hopefully I will go on to be a catalyst for other community outreach efforts that will cultivate still more gifted leaders. Will that lead to growth in numbers for our congregation? Possibly, but more important than that it will lead to growth in Christian maturity for our congregation, and that is the kind of growth Paul has in mind in our text. We do this, he says, until we become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Verse 13)—until the church fully becomes the body of Christ on earth.

Then, he continues, we will no longer be infants (Verse 14). Instead… we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work (Verses 15-16). We do not want to remain baby Christians our whole lives, or juvenile Christians, we want to grow up. That means two things: 1) each part of the body of Christ doing its work—doing the work each is uniquely gifted by God to do and, 2) supporting the work of others who have also been uniquely gifted by God to do other needful things required to build up the body of Christ.

What is your part in the body of Christ? How has God gifted you for works of service? What opportunities is God giving you to build up the body of Christ? How is God calling you to grow and mature as a Christian? Those are self-examinations questions—which is what the Bible says we should do before coming to this table. St. Paul has written: A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself (I Corinthians 11:28).

Do we recognize the body of the Lord in the fellow church member whose gifts for ministry and whose opinions and perspectives may be different from our own? Do we impede that person’s ministry with our judgments or do we mutually encourage one another for works of service that build up the body of Christ. Do we, as many and varied parts of one body whose head is Christ, evidence Christian maturity by our commitment to Christian unity? Let us examine ourselves with these kinds of church growth questions as we come to this table.