Living In Awe, Frist Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 5/15/2011

Living In Awe!
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 5/15/2011
Based on Acts 2:42-47

Have you ever listened to someone talk about what they have been doing since the last time that you had spoken with them and found yourself thinking, “Gee I wish I had their life?” Not too many years ago you could watch shows like, “The Rich and Famous”, where we were given insight into the world that only those with excess money could live. One of the news items this week was about Prince William and Kate’s Million Dollar Honeymoon. It is easy for us to be in “Awe” of how some people live what a capitalistic society would define as a successful and fulfilling lifestyle. Back in the 1960’s, the term “Jet-setter” was coined, to define people who had large amounts of discretionary funds in which to lavish themselves with the finest material things life has to offer.
One day, a number of years ago while talking to my mother on the phone; I wasn’t hearing much about what was happening in her life. When I asked her why she wasn’t telling me what was going on, she replied with, “Steven, your life sounds so much more exciting, I don’t feel like I’ve been doing anything.” The lesson that I learned that day with my mother’s comment was, even though the activities that I was involved in, which to me were rather ordinary, run of the mill type of things (the things that I did on a regular basis), were to her, “Awe” inspiring. They were things that she saw as living a lifestyle of the “rich and famous”, thus making her life seem less fulfilling than what it was. You see, the things that we do normally, which may seem mundane to us, might very well be seen as exciting, breathtaking expressions of living the “good life” to someone else.
As members of any faith body, we can look at what other churches are doing and start to feel just like my mother was feeling, “Gee, they are doing exciting things in their churches and we are not doing anything out of the ordinary in ours.” Image how the traditional Jewish practitioners must have been thinking, when they were looking at what was going on within this new sect called “The Way.? Verse 43 states, “Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.”
I found myself feeling a little envious the other day while chatting with Martha Atchins, pastor of the Mt of Olives church, as we were discussing the growth that I have seen in her congregation. Martha started serving that congregation a little over three years ago. In the past year, she has experienced almost 50% growth. This is great! We too have had a substantial increase in attendance this past year as well. Last year it was an overall increase of 10% (this might not sound like much, but many congregations would kill for that type of growth.) Out of Curiosity, I ran the numbers for the past eighteen weeks and discovered that we are at a 1% increase in attendance over the same period last year. I was deflated a bit to say the very least, because it feels like we have had a stronger increase than what the numbers say.
Now I have to keep things in perspective. Over the last twenty months, we have experienced a huge increase in attendance and more exciting is that there are many new faces prior to my coming to serve you! The attitude within this family of believers is 180* from where you were when I first arrived. We now have this anticipation that there is a future through this ministry. We are doing well, but is there room for “more?” Yes, I think so. This then leads into the question as to how can we continue to move in the direction like the church we read in this morning’s scripture of Acts?
Starting this last Fall, there has been a group studying the lessons learned through the research of Diane Butler Bass, as to what growing main-line denominational churches have in common, as reported in the book, From Nomads to Pilgrims. One of the questions asked of me early on was, “Pastor, what can we do to help our church grow?” I hope that through this study, we have learned that there are no set programs that work in “growing” a church, but rather there are some common characteristics of growing churches.
We find in Acts, chapter 2 some of the very basic characteristics of a growing church. They are as follows: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. How would we restate them in today’s understanding: being intentional about reading and studying scripture and listening to one another’s understanding of what they are studying; of coming together, such as in Worship, to gather with one another outside of the church setting, like in our homes for fellowship. This could be like going camping together, or bowling or playing sports in what we call church leagues, or going out to lunch together or the movies, as examples. Then we break bread together, which is what we call communion or more importantly remembering Christ as we come together in community. The fourth is to devote time to prayer. This is both in private times as well as corporate times. There is such power as we open ourselves up to one another and to God with what is on our hearts as concerns and joys, as well as praying for the welfare of those beyond our immediate concerns.
These are what I would call, the four basics for any person in their faith development. Depending on how much time and effort you put into all four of these areas will determine not only how much you grow, but how the larger faith family grows. It is so very simple. We read in Acts 2, that as these people invested themselves into these four activities that they grew not only in numbers, but more importantly they were living in awe at what they were seeing happening around them. Are we “living in awe” within this congregation? Or, do we feel that if devoting ourselves to these four basic activities is placing more “burden” upon our lives and creating more stress?
The Jesuit paleontologist, Teilhard de Chardin, states: we are primarily spiritual beings having a human experience, not human beings having a spiritual experience. If this is true, then tending to our spiritual health is of primary importance.
Church growth is of primary concern for all churches. Many church profiles, speak to looking for pastors who will “save” them, by growing their churches. They tend to think in terms of numerical growth and not about spiritual growth. I address this situation within my profile with these words: … many churches are looking at their ‘ministries” through the eyes of survivalism. It is my opinion that one should look to church growth not in terms of “How do we grow” but rather looking to answer in earnest “How can I deepen my relationship with God.” In other words, not how can we grow our church but rather, ‘how can I grow myself?’ It is with the personal growth in our spiritual lives that is the basis for any significant growth of a congregation and thus deepening of the congregation’s ministry.
Are you like millions of Americans who sit back and watch in “awe” programs that show others achieving more within their lives than you? Are you like my mother, who feels that she has nothing going on in her life after listening to what other people do in their normal daily activities? Are you living your life in the style of the Christians we read in Acts, chapter 2 or do you view your life as receiving less than they, spiritually?
The secret is to commit yourself to be actively working the basic program that is set before us by the early church. In AA, it is called “walking the talk”. If you really want to be “Living in Awe”, then you have to work at nurturing your spiritual life. If you want to have this church “living in awe” then it is up to you, as an individual to commit yourself to constant study of the scriptures, fellowship frequently, break bread with one another and pray constantly. If you don’t believe me, I challenge you to commit to doing all these things for just two months in order to test what I am telling you, I can guarantee you that will be finding “many wonders and signs” in your daily life that you have been previously been missing, and you will be living in awe, daily! I would be so bold to say, if just one third of this congregation did this on an individual basis, in less than a year, we wouldn’t be able to fit into this space for worship at one time. Are you willing to take this challenge of “living in awe”? Amen