Who's There To Help You Up?

“Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.”
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

The above verse is one of the many reasons that our church is built on this principle: Small groups lead to life change (circles are better than rows). As you look back on your life or look at your current circumstances you’ll see stumbling blocks along the way (ideas, people, wealth, hard times)? Stumbling blocks are those things that cause us to stumble away from God. It’s during those times that community or lack of community with others will determine how far we stumble or how hard we fall.

Still, creating authentic community takes time, trust, and commitment. It takes a sacrifice of your time to make a small group a priority because it always seems like there is something more important. The urgent (the soccer game, paying bills, the project, Tivo) usually wins out over the long term. We always have the idea we are going to make time later.

What I know about you is that your greatest regret or pain could have been avoided or less traumatic because of caring, authentic relationships around you.  Think back on how your childhood would have been different if your parents had been in a small group with other believers on a consistent basis. How could your child’s experience be different because of the choices you make today?

Autonomy is part of the American dream but it’s not a Biblical principle. Growth, accountability, belonging, and care happen in Community Groups (Small groups) . . . in circles, not rows. It's easy to stumble away from faith when you are a nameless person sitting in a row on Sunday morning. But it's almost impossible to stumble away, or to stay away, when you're in community, doing life with a group of people. (1)

Don’t let the urgent win out over the necessary. The outcomes could make all the difference in your life and the life of those around you.

Bryant

 

(1) Stumbling Along from @northpointministries

Why is tonight's ministry orientation important?

One of my pet peeves is that churches use the term “full-time ministry” to refer to a select group of individuals. Biblically, every Believer is in “full-time ministry”. Every one of us has been called by God to minister in the market place, in our families, in our schools, and in the local church as part of the Body of Christ.

If you serve in an environment at Centerpoint Church, you have to know that you are more than a volunteer. You are a minster of the Gospel and a conduit for the power of God to change lives.

Every week first time guests show up at Centerpoint Church and many trust Christ as their personal Savior like this past Sunday. People often think that the music or the message is what  the Holy Spirit uses to lead people to Jesus. But before the band every played or before I ever preached a message, someone nervously stepped out of their comfort zone to invite a guest to Centerpoint.

When guests arrived on our campus Sunday morning, a CCer was there directing cars in 95 degrees and providing a warm welcome, quite literally. Host Team members personally greeted guests with smiles, proving Jesus is about people, not pasts. Earlier that morning, individuals were setting up signs and cones, making coffee, and getting environments ready. Earlier that week, people prepared curriculum and cleaned rooms, organized supplies and planned meticulously,  and spent hours putting together videos and songs, all so children could hear the life changing message of Jesus. Hours have been spent preparing bulletins, organizing events, shooting videos, prepping songs, and performing sound checks so that by the time guests walk into the Worship Center to take their seats, they are ready to hear from God. During the service, babies are cared for and not “babysat,” because volunteers realize they are a conduit for God’s power. Children are taught and led in small groups by volunteers who understand they are not just watching kids but laying a anchor in the heart of children that could dramatically change their lives. By the time I open my mouth to start the message, Christ has already been preached by countless volunteers who realize they are a minister of the Gospel. Guests may say it was the message that changed their lives, but the real miracle happened well before they heard a message. All because ordinary people realized they were the church and gave what they had, so God could take their ordinary and do something extraordinary in someone else’s life.

Tomorrow night is our Fall Ministry Orientation. We will provide a dinner at 7 PM. The orientation will finish no later than 8:30 PM. The ministry environments addressed will be our Host Team, Kid Zone (nursery), Promiseland Kids, Parking Team, and Ushers. The ministry orientation is for all current and brand new volunteers to Centerpoint Church.

Our commitment is to equip volunteers for the ministry God has called them to for the sake of those they serve. If you are a current volunteer and are unable to attend for some reason, please let your ministry Team Leader know. If you are considering volunteering, you are welcome to attend. If you haven’t yet, please let us know the number attending by emailing info@centerpontfl.org.

Thank you and see you tonight!

Bryant

Take 60 seconds and read about this weekend!

CC’ers,

What do you think of when you hear the word church? Your answer probably has a lot to do with your background. You might picture pews, choirs, a band, liturgy, a building or maybe you just see an obligation. The truth is, the early church really had little to do with any of the things we traditionally think about when it comes to church. Instead, it was an unstoppable movement centered on a simple message and an extraordinary event. Sunday, I will begin a new series called Unstoppable, discussing how the early, New Testament church launched on opening day and its relevance to us today.

Throughout the Unstoppable series, we will see through baptisms and personal testimonies that what Christ prophesied and promised to do through the church, He is doing in our church presently. It’s the reason we are growing numerically, lives are being changed on a weekly basis, and people are having their ideas about the local church and consequently, Jesus, changed forever. This past Sunday, I spoke with a gentleman that attempted suicide in his darkest moments almost one year ago to the day. At the time he was under the weight of addiction with the feeling he had no one to turn to and no one who loved him. He went on to describe that the people of Centerpoint changed what he thought about nobody loving or caring. They represented to him the love and grace of Jesus…they were the church. Now, he his completely free from addiction and growing in a relationship with Jesus.

I say this a lot, but a new series is the ideal time to invite a friend or a coworker. This is especially true of Unstoppable. Sunday is the unofficial launch to the fall season, since school is about to start up. New families to the community are looking for a church home, individuals are coming back to church after the summer months, and many people are open to “trying out the church thing” again. Take the time to send an e-invite at www.centerpointfl.org/invite.php or hand out an invite card. I also want to encourage you to join us this Saturday for Serve Our City. From 11 am to 2 pm, we are going to hand out water bottles with invite cards attached in front of Centerpoint Church. We want to tangibly serve our community and prove that we are more than a building with attendees; we are a movement with a message.

Thank you for being the church and not just going to church.

See you Sunday at Centerpoint as we celebrate baptisms, continue our Grace series in Promiseland Kids, and launch the Unstoppable series!

Bryant 

Is Church Partnership (Membership) Biblical?

When we started Centerpoint Church, we set out to be an alternative to church as usual. “Church as usual” is acting more like a social club for insiders rather than helping believers grow in a relationship with Jesus and reaching out to the modern day “sinners and tax collectors”. The usual is often times inauthentic gatherings where a high priority is placed on looking the part and affirming moralism at the expense of a genuine relationship with Christ. The usual all too often equals ridiculous squabbles among “church people” about music and programs with no real love for one other. Centerpoint is an imperfect church full of sinful people, like any other church. However, we realized that now a whole new generation of people exists who no longer want to be catered to but want real answers to their spiritual questions. They have grown disillusioned to the concept of the church, which many times not only failed to answer questions, but seemed more preoccupied with religious people than with those who were legitimately searching. In frequent conversations, I hear things like, “The church is about empire building”; “It’s about money and a pastor’s ego”; or “I love Jesus, it’s the church I don’t like.”  And yet another: “The church should just be a group of believers with no leadership or formal organization”. I have to admit that some of these comments resonated with me and were the motivation behind my passion for starting a church like Centerpoint. Since its inception, Centerpoint has grown rapidly, specifically in recent days. A lot of people with those same push backs now attend CC week after week. We have seen so many who have never attended a church, at least not for years, connect with Centerpoint. Additionally, we have seen many long-time Christians come to CC to minster, to grow and to reach others for Jesus Christ. Our goal has always been to preach the message of Jesus aggressively and to eliminate all of the un-needed distractions that keep people from hearing this message. Though many people have found a “home” at Centerpoint, the same questions and hesitancy remain about the church, especially when it comes to the topic of church membership or as we call it, Church Partnership. So what is the biblical precedent for being a “member” or “Partner” of a local, organized church?

 

With all the confusion associated with church membership, why not just table the whole Partnership thing? Let me share with you an excerpt from a recent article by Matt Chandler, Pastor of The Village Church in Texas, which may help answer those questions.

 

TWO QUESTIONS FROM HEBREWS 13:17 (1)

 

I was preparing at the time to preach through the book of Hebrews and “happened” to be in chapter 13 when verse 17 leapt off the page: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

 

Two questions occurred to me. First, if there is no biblical requirement to belong a local church, then which leaders should an individual Christian obey and submit to? Second, and more personally, who will I as a pastor give an account for?

 

These two questions started my search for a biblical understanding of the local church, and they began around the ideas of authority and submission.

 

Regarding the first question, the Scriptures clearly command Christians to submit to and honor an elder body (Heb. 13:17, 1 Tim. 5:17). If there is no understanding of local church membership, then who are we to submit to and obey? Is it anyone with the title “elder” from any church? Should you as a Christian obey and submit to those loons at Westboro Baptist? In order to obey Scripture, must you picket soldiers’ funerals, as the pastor of Westboro seems to imply?

 

Regarding the second question, the Scriptures clearly command an elder body to care for specific people (1 Pet. 5:1-5; also, Acts 20:29-30). Will I as a pastor be held accountable for all the Christians in the Dallas Metroplex? There are many churches in Dallas that I have strong theological and philosophical differences with. Will I give account for what they teach in their small group, how they spend their money, and what they do concerning international missions?

 

WHAT ABOUT CHURCH DISCIPLINE?

 

After considering questions of authority and submission, the second issue that came up in my study of the local church was the biblical teaching on church discipline.

 

You see it in several places, but none so clearly as 1 Corinthians 5:1-12. In this text Paul confronts the church in Corinth for approving of a man walking in blatant, unrepentant sexual immorality. The Corinthians are celebrating this as God’s grace, but Paul warns them that this type of wickedness shouldn’t make them boast, but rather mourn. He calls them arrogant and tells them to remove this man for the destruction of his flesh and the hopeful salvation of his soul. In verses 11-12, he pulls no punches: “But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?” (To be clear this is not talking about unbelievers who we should love and be-friend regardless of their behavior. This is talking about believers in Christ who are choosing to live in habitual unrepentant sin).

 

It has been my sad experience that very few churches still practice church discipline, but that’s another article for another day. My question out of this text is simple: How can you kick someone “out” if there isn’t an “in”? (To clarify, as stated above church discipline is only in regards to believers and is practiced ultimately in love to lead them back to Christ.) If there is no local commitment to a covenant community of faith, then how do you remove someone from that community of faith? Church discipline won’t work if local church membership doesn’t exist.

 

LOTS OF OTHER EVIDENCE FOR MEMBERSHIP

 

There are other evidences to support local church membership in Scripture.

 

We see in Acts 2:37-47 that there is a numerical record of those who have professed Christ and been filled with the Holy Spirit (v. 41) and an acknowledgement that the church was tracking the growth (v. 47).

 

In Acts 6:1-6, we see elections take place in order to address a specific problem and accusation.

 

In Romans 16:1-16, we see what appears to be an awareness of who is a church member.

 

In 1 Timothy 5:3-16, we see a clear teaching on how to handle widows in the church and in verses 9-13 we read this:

 

Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.

In this text we see criteria for who would or would not qualify for Ephesus’s widow care program. The local church in Ephesus is organized, and they are working out a plan.

 

We could go on and on here, asking questions about how we could be obedient to the commands of God in 1 Corinthians 12 or Romans 12 if we aren’t connected to a local covenant community of faith. But to unpack all the possible texts would require longer than I have for this article.

 

GOD’S PLAN IS THAT WE WOULD BELONG TO LOCAL CHURCHES

 

When you begin to look at these texts, it becomes clear that God’s plan for his church is that we would belong to a local covenant community of faith. This is for our own protection and maturation, and for the good of others.

 

If you view church as some sort of ecclesiological buffet, then you severely limit the likelihood of your growing into maturity. Growth into godliness can hurt. For instance, as I interact with others in my own local body, my own slothfulness in zeal is exposed, as is my lack of patience, my prayerlessness, and my hesitancy to associate with the lowly (Rom. 12:11-16). Yet this interaction also gives me the opportunity to be lovingly confronted by brothers and sisters who are in the trenches with me, as well as a safe place to confess and repent.  But when church is just a place you attend without ever joining, like an ecclesiological buffet, you just might consider whether you’re always leaving whenever your heart begins to be exposed by the Spirit, and the real work is beginning to happen.

 

What’s the bottom line? Local church membership is a question of biblical obedience, not personal preference.

 

(1) Matt Chandler is the lead pastor of the Village Church in the Dallas, Texas area.

 

Our passion is to be a Biblical New Testament Church. We believe that consists of having a multi-generational, multi-cultural group of people. We don’t want to be a social club but a group of followers who love Jesus and aggressively pursue others with that same love. We pray that our Sunday gatherings continue to consist of un-churched, unbelievers, those previously turned off to church, those investigating faith, and those who have been followers of Christ most of their lives. But we also pray for a group of people who join with us in partnership to live in biblical accountability and be “all in” to advance the message of Jesus through Centerpoint in our community.

 

See below for a summary of some of the other practical reasons for church partnership:

 

Why is partnership important?

• Partnership helps the staff identify the people we can trust to lead and care for others.
• Partnership signifies that a person has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and that he/she is willing to go public with that faith through baptism.
• Partnership signifies one's willingness to support this ministry with his or her time, talents, and treasure, and to be held accountable to the values of CC. With the added requirement of participation on a strategic service team and/or a small group, it also signifies that the person will partner with us in our mission and strategy.

Why is it important to be a partner in order to be in a leadership role?

• Because of what partnership represents, partners are the most qualified people to be in a leadership position.
• Often, if people are not willing to be held accountable, to go public with their faith through baptism, or to commit to leading people into a relationship with Jesus Christ, it can be an indication that they are not ready to lead others within the church environments.

What does partnership indicate?

• Partnering with the church helps lead people into a relationship with Jesus Christ to grow through serving, connecting and reaching. Partners can draw great satisfaction from knowing that they are instrumental in leading others into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
• Those people who want to partners with the church seem to understand the paradigm shift of "What do I get?" to "What can I give?"

If you are ready to take the next step into Partnership or would like to find out more information, you can sign up here: http://www.centerpointfl.org/viewpage.php?id=24

 

Bryant Golden

 

Lead Pastor                                                                                               
Centerpoint Church

Let's call it what it is...religious idolatry

Last week I tweeted the following: “Check your hysteria over the fact that you haven't committed your self-imposed "big sins" (sexual sin, divorce, drinking beer, rated R movies not called the Passion of Christ, etc...) which cause you to look down on others. Prov. 8:13, "I hate pride and arrogance"...oh dang, that's YOU!”

This tweet generated some feedback, honestly, not to my surprise.

First let me clarify: The "self-imposed" is referring to “self-imposed big sins”, meaning we try to independently categorize degrees of sin. The point isn’t that those things listed in the parenthetical statement aren’t sin or couldn’t result in sin. I was not questioning “What is sin?” or “What isn’t sin?”. Sin is sin. Sin differs in severity but not in degree.

From Adam we all inherited a sinful nature and are in desperate need of the grace of Christ. If we have embraced the Gospel, then the wrath we deserved was exchanged for the righteousness of Christ, which becomes the basis for our standing before Him. When we create lists of “big sins” and “sins Jesus is somewhat cool with” and then judge others as a result, we are in opposition to the Gospel. The creation of the above “lists” distorts the reality of sin and the universal need for a Savior, and that distortion is what we are to judge. Instead, we run to our man-made “big sins list” to discuss its dangers, argue its validity, and defend its purpose. All the while further misrepresenting the Gospel.

This scenario is depicted in Luke 18 when the Pharisee stood up in the temple to pray, thanking God he wasn’t like all of the other sinners who [insert big sin list]. Jesus opposed this arrogance vehemently throughout the New Testament because it’s an enemy of the Gospel and is nothing less than religious idolatry.

Religious idolatry reveals itself in a couple ways:

1) We think we are okay before God because of the rightness of our beliefs rather than the sufficiency of Christ, as expressed in the Gospel. We become doctrinal Pharisees. We must have correct doctrine, but doctrine in and of itself is not the source of our rightness before God.

2) We become moralists, which is what the tweet was referring to. We think we have a right standing before God because we “do” these things and “don’t do” those things. This always leads to arrogance and self-deception about our own need for Jesus. It’s why so many Christians flame out the moment they don’t measure up to their “lists” because their standing before God was never based on the sufficiency of Christ but rather the rightness of their behavior. Rather than failure pushing them toward the Gospel, it moves them in the opposite direction.

As a pastor, I believe we have been called to expose and aggressively confront religious idolatry – Jesus did. Otherwise, people will not understand the Gospel. Rather, safety will replace the dangerous grace of Christ, control will replace real, transformed hearts, and external morality will replace the un-manipulated outflow of understanding Christ’s love.

Quick thoughts on Easter at CC

A couple quick thoughts about an incredible Easter weekend at Centerpoint:

Actually, it started on Palm Sunday when dozens of adults responded to embrace the reality of the cross rather than the shadow of ritualistic religion. That morning in Promiseland, nine children accepted Christ as their Savior, along with several students from our ReGeneration student ministry that night. I talked and prayed with one father after the service who had been burdened to pray for his child until 2 a.m. that morning only to find out when he was leaving the service, his child had accepted Christ!

We opened Easter weekend with a Good Friday service where we worshiped together and reflected on Christ’s brutal sacrifice in the short film, Who Killed Jesus?. Then, we remembered the cross and what it means for us through communion. It was powerful to hear how God moved in hearts through this time of reflection.

On Easter Sunday we celebrated an event that happened in history – the resurrection. It was the largest attendance we have ever had at Centerpoint because YOU invested & invited. We had to add chairs to the worship center two separate times and each of those chairs represented people who were impacted and radically changed by the Gospel. Many adults accepted Christ, a father and his two daughters recommitted their lives to Christ, and the Holy Spirit clearly moved in the hearts of many others.

If someone were to ask me what we did that was “special” this year for Easter, I really wouldn’t know what to say. No special lights added. No special set. No special giveaways. We just prayed, invested & invited, removed as many of the unnecessary barriers to Jesus as we could, and proclaimed the Gospel clearly. God did His thing.

We pretty much do that every week. God pretty much did what He’s been doing every week - changing lives!

Now it’s your turn. If you had a friend visit with you this week, then use this as an opportunity to ask them what they experienced. It may open up a conversation about Jesus. A new series starts Sunday called Storytellers which is another great time to invite someone.

Lastly, thank you to those who served this past weekend. You didn’t park cars, greet guests, serve in the café, play music, do A/V, hold babies, take care of children, lead small groups…instead, you became a bridge to the power of Jesus Christ changing people’s lives!

The best is yet to come…

Bryant Golden

Just Being Good Sends People to Hell...

We recently completed a series called, “Come Home” about the life of Jonah. It may seem odd to reference Jonah on Good Friday, but Jonah’s story pictures the depth of God’s plan for the world. "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). Jonah’s story was a picture of the coming Messiah and His message of grace to an undeserving world.

But Jonah’s story is also the story of many of us as Christians. Jonah was a good guy. He was committed to the moral guidelines God had established but he wasn’t fully surrendered to God’s purposes in the world.

Jonah reveals in chapter three that he is consumed with the fact that he’s uncomfortable, depressed, and bitter about God’s grace to the “undeserving” and ready to go home to the safe and prosperous confines of the familiar. God calls him out for being obsessed with the wrong things and shockingly unaware of his own desperate need for God’s grace. To paraphrase His words, “Jonah, I am concerned about this generation of people (120,000 Ninevites), what are you concerned about?”

As many of us approach Easter weekend, we are in many ways surrendered to living morally. We are “good Christians” but are we concerned about the right things? For instance, are we concerned about this generation of people who are dying and going to Hell? Jonah foreshadowed the death, burial and resurrection of Christ that would cancel the debt of sin and release us from the power of sin. Do we forget already how shockingly undeserving we are? Are we aware of the desperate need of those around us or are we going to just purchase some new clothes and work in a church service this weekend?

Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face—whose mercy you have professed to obey—and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world. (William Booth)

This Easter it’s more than responding to the Gospel by obeying the laws of God to make yourself feel better; it’s about surrendering to his concerns for the world. Take advantage of this Easter weekend and invite a friend to hear the message of Jesus. Be bold to start a conversation that may open a door.