The Table

We were going to talk about conflict in the church this week but circumstances have challenged me to change our topic. Instead of talking about conflict in the church we're going to talk together about the challenge that is facing our church this year.

So that means that conflict is simply forbidden until we can talk about it at another time!

Here's the thing about conflict, most conflict in the church grows out of unrealistic, and therefore unmet expectations.

The best thing we can do to deal with conflict is have a realistic understanding of the church and embrace a posture of love and grace.

We're going to be hurt, disappointed and frustrated just we are going to hurt, disappoint and frustrate others. The old maxim is true: "If you find a perfect church, don't go - cause you'll ruin it!"

¹² We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, ¹³ and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. ¹⁴ And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. ¹⁵ See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. ¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not despise prophecies, ²¹ but test everything; hold fast what is good. ²² Abstain from every form of evil. ²³ Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

1 Thessalonians 5:12-24 (ESV)

So what we're going to talk about really does tie in to avoiding conflict within The Table. I want for us to define reality a bit today so that we can have greater clarity and realistic expectations.

We've been talking for the last few weeks about the church. About what we'd like to see realized within our body for the next year. We've talked about the need for creativity and community within the church.

That God has created all of us with a divine design and a divine destiny.

We were created to be creative - to express and manifest the glory of God in unique and diverse ways - AND - we're called to do it together.

We can't be who God created us to be
and we can't do what God created us to do by ourselves.

Last week we talked about children in the church and we discovered that in reality we're all children in the church - children of our Heavenly Father. That means the goals that we have for our children in the church are no different than the goals that we have for ourselves.

If we're aiming our children at success, we're aiming far too low.

A person can be successful without coming close to greatness.

"True Greatness is a passionate love for God
that demonstrates itself in an unquenchable love and concern for others."

I think those truths are just as valid for a church as they are for children.

If we're aiming our CHURCH at success, we're aiming far too low.

A CHURCH can be successful without coming close to greatness.

"True Greatness for THE TABLE is a passionate love for God that demonstrates itself in an unquenchable love and concern for others."

I think we can all agree on that as a goal. We don't want to have simply a successful church according to the paradigm of culture. We want to be a great church according to the standards of the God whose image we bear.

We want to passionately love God. Not just some of the time but all of time. Not just in some areas of lives but in all areas - with everything we are - heart, soul, mind and strength we want to be madly, recklessly, relentlessly in love with God.

And we want that love for God to spill out of lives! We want to ooze the love of Jesus all over everyone we meet.

Assuming we all agree on this, the question before us becomes not; "Do we want to be a great church?" but, "How will we live this out?"

God has had us on quite a journey over that past four or five years.

From the very beginning, we've wanted to be driven by four values that flow from our understanding of the gospel.

Authentic Community : Worship & Beauty :
Truth & Meaning : Missional Journey

By doing and being driven by these things, we believe that God can, is, and will develop true greatness within our body. We will be and become men and women that are passionately in love with God who demonstrate this love in word and deed by loving our neighbor.

We've also had a pretty specific philosophy of ministry. From the very beginning we've wanted to be a reproducing church. We've wanted to be a a multi-site church: One Church - Many Locations. The Table is one church - with one leadership team, one vision, one philosophy, one budget, one value system - that exists in multiple locations.

We've not wanted to grow a large church in one location but be the church throughout the city. Why?

First, geography is important. While some people are willing to drive long distances to attend a worship service, in the long run this only increases the complexity and confusion in our already fragmented society.  We want members of The Table to be involved in their neighborhoods; able to invite their neighbors into the life of the church body in a local context.

Second, size matters. This model allows local campuses to function at their evangelistic peak. Statistics have revealed that churches in the 200-250 size range are the most effective evangelistically. We want to keep our campuses in this range allowing them to reach out to as many people as possible.

Third, it allows us to enjoy the benefits of a smaller church campus with the resources and influence of a larger church. Many people today long for the relational security of a smaller church but desire the increased services of a larger congregation. The multi-campus model allows you to have both.

Remember: Bigger isn't better.
Smaller isn't better.
Better is Better!

Campuses can remain smaller and geographically focused while being a part of a larger body. This allows us to streamline our staffing and be effective stewards of the resources that God has entrusted to us. 

When we started The Table, even before the core group began to meet in NW Portland on 18^th, before we launched in the Crystal, back when it was just a handful of us gathered to pray: these values and this philosophy was nothing more than a dream. Today, they are a reality.

What a journey it has been!

By God's grace we have three campuses in three very different locations that are trying to live out these values: and our fourth is on the way! We're pregnant yet again.

In the midst of this though, we're faced with a significant challenge.

Choice. Do we invest a significant amount of money into the North Campus building?

But it's not just a question about buildings and dollars. It's really a value question. The question before us this year as a church is: "How best do we live out our values and carry out our philosophy in light of the challenge God has put before us?" In other words, by putting a significant amount of dollars into this building, will be better able to live out our values and philosophy?

The thing about values is not that they are written on a piece of paper but that they are written on our lives. The challenge for us it to make this decision in such a way that we are sure that we don't compromise our values.

I was watching Jon Stewart on The Daily Show on Comedy Central this week - cause that's pretty much where I get the news now. He was doing a segment on the Inauguration Speech of President Obama. Like it or not, I think the most interesting thing about his speech is that it was a values speech.

One of the things he said was that "we don't have to compromise our values to protect ourselves." Stewart then showed a clip of Bill O'Reilly responding to the speech. In it, he criticized Obama saying: "Obama said we don't have to compromise our values to protect ourselves.  I think sometimes we do."

Stewart then said something incredibly profound for a comedian. He said: "If you don't stick to your values when they're being tested - they're not values. They're hobbies."

I think that he's right.

In order to face this challenge and make a decision, we need to remember one other bedrock of The Table. We've never wanted to come with our plan and ask God to bless it make us great. Rather, we've wanted to come to God and ask Him to bless us by giving us His plan. We get this from James 4:13-17 which says:

¹³ Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"- ¹⁴ yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

James 4:13-16 (ESV)

I think in order to be faithful to our values and philosophy, to be built up this year into the church that God wants us to be, we need to hear from Him. I'm reminded of another passage from the letter of James. In fact, it's the beginning of his letter to a group of people facing incredible challenges and choices. He begins his letter this way:

² Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. ⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ⁶ But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

James 1:2-8 (ESV)

That's where we are today as a church. We are faced with a significant challenge that requires us to make some hard choices. The elders believe that the only way we can do this is to hear from the Lord. We're calling on you, the body, to pray. To cry out to our Heavenly Father for His wisdom, His vision, His plan for us as a body.

As you hear from Him we want to hear from you. We need to make these decisions quickly. The elders will be meeting next Sunday morning. Between now and then, pray. Listen. Then call or email. Tell us what you're hearing.

Here's what I'm encouraged about in the midst of this. We're not choosing between a good choice and a bad choice. It's not even a moral decision between good and evil. We're choosing between one good way of living out our values and vision and another good way.

Before we get discouraged, let's remember Christ. Let's remember what an incredible privilege it is just be a part of His church and mission. Let's remember the sacrifice of Christ that made our participation in the gospel and kingdom a possibility and a reality.

Remember that :

¹ And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience- ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved- ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:1-10 (ESV)

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