Leadership and Mission (Part 1)

Can i just comment on a paragraph you mentioned..

'This is not necessarily good news for the church. Christians used to be criticised for being too spiritual. Now they are criticised for not being spiritual enough. In many people's minds, church is linked more with what they see as religion (boring, legalistic and hypocritical) than spirituality (renewing, open, and authentic).'

Christians are critisized for being too spiritual still. But i kow close christian friends who say they are christians but they dont show it. They are not spiritual enough. I can see this new pattern emerging amoungst Christians, especialy some of the younger ones, teens etc, that they are being easily led away from the truth, and think they are living the truth but in fact they are not.

It just breaks my heart. We take the things we want to hear from the bible, and only apply them and ignore the things we dont want to hear. We arent taking Gods word serious enough, and the world is falling to pieces. Us Christians were given a responsibility to reach out into the world and bring many to Christ...and i believe we as churches arent trying hard enough. (sure alot of churches have awesome ministries and are reaching out to people which is excellent, but there are still many that arent trying hard enough)...sorry it was just on my chest..

"When people come to church (through invitation) they immediately sense the reality and intimacy of God in the worship."

Really? How do you know that they do? Or is it simply the intention of the church that they feel this way and as such you are assuming they do?

I'd really like to flesh out this idea as it seems really key. Once you get people to church, what about the experience is it that will bring them back?

What is so different about this church that causes people to "immediately sense the reality and intimacy of God"?

Good question Andrew. I'm not saying that Beachside has it all together. I'm sure, like any church, they have their detractors, but here are a couple of observations.
Many visitors do sense the reality of God in the worship because they both say so and have given their lives to Jesus through the service.
The presence of God can be seen in different ways in different church worship services. In some churches it's the deep respect people have for God. In other churches it's the love people have for each other. At Beachside I think (as an outsider) that it's the passion people have for God that shows in the way they worship. They give it all they've got. They're very serious about loving, enjoying and honouring God.
It's not so much the style of worship, but the sense that God really is the most important person in their lives. They worship with passion.

Hey bloggers. Wes Jessop from Beachside here. Thought I'd throw in my 2 cents worth since the comment is about our church. To confirm and clarify for Andrew - it is our intention for people to expereince God's presence in worship but we are not making any assumptions. To be truthful I'm I little suprised, or should I say ecstatic when it actually happens. I shouldn't be, I know, because God in the Scriptures consistently shows up when his people pray and worship, in New Testament and Old, (I want 2 Chron 5:2-14 & Acts 4:29-31 for our church) but its great when it happens for you and me!! My only evidence that this happens is that unsaved people who just encountered God come and tell me they did. A couple of months ago we had a muslim fellow come to church for the first time who broke down in the first bracket of worship and told me later the songs were speaking to him. Then he said God spoke to him and told him he was 'a stupid man'. I said, completely missing the point, 'are you sure that was God, you are not stupid'. He replied 'he said I'm stupid because you need to accept this like a little child and stop constantly questioning'. We prayed together for him to hand his life over to God at this point. Happily this seems to happen a bit.

Here's a thought to ponder. I've been teaching an apologetics course for the wider church on the Gold Coast. It fascinated me to see how closely the conservative (or non-charismatic whatever you want to call them) believers have tied their faith and evangelistic style to scientific method. They often seem determined to see Christianity as rational only and only attempt evangelistic breakthrough on this level. They love the McDowell stuff of the 60s and 70s and it is great (the resurection is still the bedrock for apologetics) but it focused its aim at modernity. Postmoderns arn't testing truth in the first instance by rationality. They obviously still need to be processed to this because their are rational propositions that need to be accepted in order to convert. However I think we've tied our faith too closely to science. Even the greatest intellect of the NT, the double Ph D equivalent apostle Paul, only stopped to consider propositonal truth after what??? ...... an encounter with Jesus on the Damscus road. The faith of the early Christians is nothing like the 'science -ized' approach in much of the church that is afraid of encounter and emotion. I think we got to this place through trying to make Christianity intellectually unembarrassing. In the process we've forgotten some of the aces available to us through the work of the Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 14:24-25
But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.

Philippians 1:27-28
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.

It seems to me that the Scriptures are clear about the concept of people feeling the weight of conviction in the church service, or when they are among Christians in general. If your church service is orderly and saturated with the gospel (sung, spoken, preached, lived, loved) then we should expect that someone's heart be laid bare and sense that they need Christ for salvation. It is not that our service is awesome or "spiritual" so much it is more that the gospel works in any and every context.

People need to sense that the church is different from them... they come in with their guilt from sin up to their ears and see people living in the joy of their salvation, praising God and loving one another, then it stands to reason they will feel a little bit different, if not (as Philippians 1:28 puts it) condemned. This is the Holy Spirit convicting them of sin righteousness and judgment and it would be a poor church that would deny the Spirit's work and not preach the gospel to show the person the only way to salvation from the condemnation they feel.

Knowing Wes, that the gospel saturates his preaching (and life), it does not surprise me that people are saved at a Beachside service. It is churches that either remove the gospel (because they think it to be a scary and offensive message) or churches that hide it (behind religiosity) that will struggle to see conversions in their services.

It is not rocket science... if the gospel is central to the order of a service, and central to the lives of the people worshiping in that service, then the gospel will save people!

However, if what people see when they come to church is just a fluffy experience or happy people, then people might be won to your church or community, but they will not be won to the gospel. The unbeliever or outsider who comes into our services needs to experience the gospel of Jesus Christ alone and if people are genuinely living out the reality of what the gospel has done in their lives then expect to see the unbeliever challenged and convicted!

After all the gospel is the sword of the Spirit!