Identifying Church Culture

People are meaning-making, story-telling, culture-builders. We can identify cultural artifacts from surface observations and interactions like: does the congregation dress formally or casually? Do services begin on time, or is time more of a suggestion? Is the congregation warm and inviting, or quiet and stoic? But to truly understand the culture of our churches, we must be in relationship with the people of our church. Because it is people who make the culture.

In relationship we begin to understand and identify the values as well as the idols of the culture. These are things spoken and unspoken. The often hide just below the surface. These values and idols are exposed in our conversations, our thought process, and the way we spend our time and money. We see our culture exposed in what we fight to defend, in what we ignore, and what we cling to for life, value, significance, worth and identity. We study culture not to pander to peoples idols, but to show people how they have sought to find life outside of relationship with Christ.

Every country has a unique culture. Within a country each state and city have a unique culture. Within a city or state every community and church have a unique culture. Observe over time. Ask questions. Build relationships. Study the history and story of a community. These are the thing that will help us point our churches to a better, truer Kingdom.

September 19: Liturgy + Set List

• REVIVE US AGAIN

Call to worship:

To all who are weary and need rest

To all who mourn and long for comfort

To all who feel worthless and wonder if God cares

To all who fail and desire strength

To all who sin and need a Savior

This church opens wide her doors with a welcome from Jesus Christ, the Ally of

His enemies, the Defender of the guilty, the Justifier of the inexcusable, the

Friend of sinners, welcome.

• GREAT ARE YOU LORD

• PRAISE TO THE LORD, THE ALMIGHTY-GOOD GOOD FATHER

Sermon: Ephesians 2:18-22

There is a passage in Isaiah, where God, speaking of His people, Israel says, ‘This people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.’ I am struck every time I read that passage, every time I think of that passage how easy it is to do the right things, to think the right things, to say the right things, to behave in the right way, all the while having a heart that is far from God. Having a heart that is hardened and calloused toward God. If you and I are to display the invisible power of the Gospel to a watching world, that will never occur when we simply do or say or act the right way. We must be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit to look more like Christ, the One who has welcomed us to God the Father. We’re going to sing a song now that is a reminder of the new identity that we have in and through Christ. And what I hope this does for you, and for me is fuel in us a desire to walk in a manner worthy of the call of God. Walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel.

• Who You Say I Am

If you are here this morning as a follower of Jesus, every word that we just sung is true of You. Not because you have earned it, deserved it, or accomplished anything, but simply because God is kind, gracious and merciful to give you a new identity in and through Christ. We’re going to read responsively a passage of Scripture that we have referenced throughout our morning, a passage that reminds us who we were, who we are, and Who God has always been.

Responsive Reading:

LEADER:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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—

ALL:

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. But

God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with

which he loved us, even when we were dead in our

trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—

LEADER:

by grace you have been saved—

ALL:

and raised us up with him and seated us with Him in the

heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages

he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace

in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

LEADER:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this

is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of

works, so that no one may boast.

ALL:

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)

• Raise Up The Crown (All Hail The Power)

August 3: Tuesday Refocus

‘If you know you are Beloved of God, you can live with an enormous amount of success and an enormous amount of failure without losing your identity, because your identity is that you are the Beloved.’ - Henri Nouwen

What is true for every follower of Christ, regardless of how visible or overlooked, how successful or forgotten:

You were dead, Christ has made you alive (Eph 2:5)

You are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17)

God has canceled the record of debt standing against us (Col 2:14).

You have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His marvelous light (Col 1:13).

God is for you (Rom 8:31).

You have peace with God (Rom 5:1).

You are sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13).

Christ has taken the punishment and death we rightfully deserve (Rom 6:23).

You have been set free, for freedom (Gal 5:1).

You are a child of God (1 Jn 3:1).

God has not left you as an orphan, He has come to you (Jn 14:18).

You are adopted into the family of God (Eph 1:5)

God is your father and Christ is your brother (1 Cor 8:6).

You are a coheir with Christ (Rom 8:17).

Nothing can separate you from the love of God (Rom 8:31).

Nothing can snatch you from His hand (Jn 10:28).

You are forgiven (Ex 34:6-7).

You are justified (Rom 5:1).

Christ has made you His own (Phil 3:12).

God has prepared good works for you to walk in (Eph 2:10).

God has never forsaken you (Heb 13:5).

You have been bought by a price (1 Cor 6:20).

Your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life (Rev 21:27).

All this and more.  In and through and because of Christ.  Hallelujah.

Lord, let me live like it is true, amen and amen.

Amen,

AB

3 OCTOBER: Tuesday Refocus

‘When the Word becomes flesh in me, my flesh becomes Word.’ – E. Stanley Jones

‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come [2 Cor 5:17].’  Before Christ we were not merely bad people, who were cleaned up and made a little better through Christ – we were dead people made alive in Him [Col 2:13].  In fact, our old nature was ‘…crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me [Gal 2:20].’   This is the Word becoming flesh in us. 

And as we learn to continually walk and live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us, the more clearly do we display the life of Christ in us – the hope of glory [Gal 2:20, Col 1:27].  This is my flesh becoming Word.

Brothers and sisters, live from your true identity this week – as those who have been made alive in Christ.  And serve as Christ has served you – by becoming Word among us. 

AB