Church! at Bethany

 

Happy New Year everyone!  My name is Matt Payne and I’m the Lead Pastor here at Church! at Bethany.  Today I am continuing the tradition of using the first Sunday of the year to give a State of the Church message.  If this is your first time with us I want to let you know up front that this is a different kind of message than normal.  The Bible refers to the church in many ways and one of the ways it describes it is as a Family.  And today we’re going to have a little family meeting.  

I want us to spend a little bit and look back on 2007 and I want to spend more time looking ahead to 2008.  I think it is healthy to look back and try to learn from our success as well as our mistakes.

 

Today is our 72nd Sunday as a church.  Last January we had just 17 Sunday’s under our belt.  A year ago we were still riding the high of our launch in October 2006.  The first quarter of 2007 was a great time.  We were meeting at PCC: Rock Creek.  Lots of new people were coming.  Our attendance was running around 145.  On Easter Sunday we had almost 300 people!

 

Easter was a high point of the year.  Over the next three months things began to change.  For 9 months when people asked me how it was going I said things like, “Great!  Amazing!”  While other church planters were down and sharing their struggles I said that we must be doing something wrong because things were going great.  I gave a message at the first of May talking about us in the Fall going to two services and launching a new campus.  It took me longer than most but by the first of June I realized that things felt different.  The one constant thing in a new church is change.  

 

During that time several core people from the church decided to leave.  Some going back to our Mom church.  Some left because they never got connected in a Community group.  Others—a group from Scappoose—decided to help start a new church there.  

In June I decided to get out my old basketball shoes and join guys from the church to play in the YMCA league but during the first game I broke both bones in my arm.  In July we lost our full-time Children’s Director.  Throughout the summer our attendance dropped—and our offerings dropped with it.  We also found out that PCC was not going to renew our lease and we had until September to find another place. By August many were looking around at empty seats at PCC seriously considering abandoning the ship.  It was a dark time for me—and I had nowhere to turn—except God.  

 

I have a prayer team of over 130 people that represents over 70 churches--some from around Portland—most from the Midwest.  Prayer emails were flying and I believe God did a miracle when Stoller agreed to a one year lease.

 

We decided to re-launch at the end of October—it would have been better to do it at the beginning of the month but because we didn’t know where we were going to meet we had to push it back.  During October and November we had a lot of new people coming to check us out.  Several of you started coming since we have moved to this location.  New people brought excitement and energy.  

Then I was in a car accident.  I have been going to the Chiropractor 3x a week and a medical massage therapist 2x.  I am doing better but still feel pretty sore at times. It consumes a lot of my time.  The Thanksgiving to New Year Holiday season found us dropping back down in attendance and offerings.

 

We use the 3Cs – Celebrate, Connect and Contribute to help us determine how we are doing as a church.  They are our dashboard.  Currently we have 128 people who are coming regularly to Celebrate—which is defined by at least once a month.  79 adults and 49 kids.  We have 46 adults currently Connected by going to a small group which is 58%.  In the Contribute category we have 32 adults serving in Kids City, or the Front Porch which is 40%.  We also have 20 family units who give regularly.  During the month of December the offerings were an average of $1200 per week while our budget is $2500 per week.  For the year we averaged a little under $1700.

 

The past couple weeks I was able to take some time off and I had a chance to refocus on God and His vision for Church! at Bethany.  Last year we did a message series entitled Expectations.  Our happiness is really based on our expectations.  When we see the Blockbuster movie preview we expect that its going to be awesome—but many times it disappoints!  Then we watch a movie that we went in with no expectations—and it blows us away.  

 

One of things God reminded me of was a study that came out last year on new churches that were

started between the year 2000 and 2005.  They studied almost 2,300 churches and found that the average new church plant had 41 people (adults and kids) after one year.  After four years the average church plant had 83 total people attending. The average size church in America is 75 and in one year we have surpassed that.  I don’t know what your expectations are but as a new church we are doing above average.

 

Portland author Don Miller tells the story of how he and some friends went to Peru to walk the Inca trail.   It’s a 26 mile trail through the Andes.  It climbs up over a pass at 14,000 ft.  There are 21,000 ft mountains all around.  He said you spend 4 days on the trail and you get up really early the last day so that you can arrive at the city of Machu Picchu to watch the sunrise.

At the beginning of the 4 day hike the guide told the group as they stood on a plateau that below them was a river that ran through the sacred valley and the sacred valley trail would get them to Machu Picchu in 6 hours.  It was just a few miles.  The other trail will get them there in 4 days—26 miles.  About 9 miles of it is steps—straight up. Don said he thought why don’t we take the short trip!

 

The guide said that in Incan times the short route was the commercial route.  If you were taking goods and services to Machu Picchu you would take the short route-6 hours.  But everyone else would have to take the 4 day journey.  They would have to take the 26 mile journey through the high mountain passes.  Here is why he said they did this:  they made them take the long route so that when they arrived in the city they would appreciate it.  If they took the easy route they wouldn’t appreciate it.  

 

I wonder if we are willing to accept the fact that the hard things in our life, the difficult nature of it is ok.  James 1 tells us why the hard road is ok, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

When times are difficult we tend to say:  I must be doing something wrong.  I must be a bad person.  And you may be.  Maybe it is the reason why you are in conflict in your life.  If so, you need to fix it.  But maybe the mission God has given you is just difficult. 

 

We are starting a message series today entitled Revolutionaries.  Being a Christ-follower is not a religion or a set of beliefs and values and behaviors.  We are called to be Revolutionaries who change the world.  God does not want us to be nice Christians who come to church and feel good about ourselves.  God wants us to change the world.  Over the next 4 weeks we are going to look at the life of David and three other people who were true Revolutionaries.  

 

In 1992 God called me to start a church.  In 1999 we knew that God wanted us to move to Portland to start a church.  In 2001 the church planting opportunity we thought we had was pulled out from under us at the last minute.    We waited patiently—most of the time.  We kept moving forward because we knew that God had called us.

 

Going into church planting they said that it is frontline spiritual warfare.  I never realized we would be attacked so much.  I want you to know that I am in this for the long haul—25 years—even if it is straight uphill.  I may break more bones in the future and have continued soreness, I may need to get a part-time job, I may cry when people give up on the dream—but I won’t give up—because God has called me.  And I believe that God has called you.  And for a while our journey is together.

 

God wants you to change the world.  He wants you to be a Revolutionary.  He has given you certain passions and gifts and experiences and He wants you to use them to change the world!

I want to tell you the story of John Deng James.  He was about to take a journey.  It was a journey he didn’t plan for, but it was a journey that would be a matter of life and death.  It was the sound of automatic weapon fire blasting through his small hut in the middle of the night that woke him.  Being just a boy – only five years old, he called for his uncle; but it was too late. Terrified and confused, he fled barefoot into the dark woods where it seemed that thousands of others were running; running in all directions. 

 

The year was 1984 and enemy troops blazed through southern Sudan — killing the adults and enslaving the girls — scattered groups of suddenly orphaned boys converged and headed toward Ethiopia, where they hoped to find peace and their families again. 

 

Part of a swarm of fleeing children, John Deng James only knew that he had to somehow escape

the horrifying scene that was taking place in his homeland, Sudan. He had no way of knowing that those first harried steps were the beginning of an epic and courageous journey. 

Although James and the other children eventually stopped running, they kept walking. They walked for days…then weeks…and months…and it was years before finally finding peace. 

 

John Deng James story is one of the most remarkable and courageous stories I have ever heard.  Maybe you have heard of the “Lost Boys of Sudan”.  James was among thousands of boy that traveled a 1,000 mile journey together.  This is an impossible feat for a 5-year-old boy.  Older boys — some just 9 or 10 — looked after the youngest ones and small cliques of boys formed their own family groups.  So when the pain in James' legs became too much to bear, one of the older boys would pick him up and carry him. 

 

The orphaned boys trekked almost endlessly through sub-Saharan heat and wilderness. Their only relief came when Red Cross helicopters dropped them food or water.  Many didn’t make it.  But James was among the thousands of Lost Boys who did make it and ultimately not only survived, but found peace.

 

In 2001, 17 years later John Deng James arrived in the states and enrolled in college. Today, James lives here in the U.S, and is a successful businessman who focuses his energy and efforts on helping people in his war-torn home, Sudan.  How did he survive?  He says, "Sure, we worried that that we might die. But, we knew that God was with us…we knew we had each other, we were family…and we just kept walking toward a brighter future" 

 

Today I want to take us, The Lost People of Church! at bethany on a journey.  It is a journey that not only of a lifetime, but one that will last literally forever.   Since we have plenty to eat and plenty to drink and we don’t hear the sounds of automatic weapons, it may not seem like there is an enemy.  But there is an enemy.  It may not seem like it is urgent, but it is urgent.  

 

God has brought you here for a reason.  All of our journeys have intersected—if but for a brief time.  God wants us to use our passions, and talents and resources to change the world.  In 2008 we are traveling the same road.  It is the road of a Revolutionary.

 

The apostle Paul talks about our journey together.  He says, “You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly.”  (Ephesians 4:4)  

 

Did you notice the 3Cs in this Scripture?  I want to point it out now but we will go into more depth over the next 4 weeks.

 

CELEBRATE:  ME & GOD  Look at the word, “called”.  We are a group of lost people who are being saved.  We are called to travel in this life with what the Bible calls “family of God”; His eternal community, the church.  And as a part of that family we gather together weekly to celebrate what God is doing through in us and through us.  You being here is not just for you, it is for God and for those around you.  And one of the disciplines that will define us is we are the family of God that gathers to celebrate every week!

 

CONNECT:  Refers ME & CHURCH  Next, look at the phrase, “so stay together”.  A church family is one that will do whatever is needed to for each other.  If I need to carry you for awhile, I will put you on my back and carry you.  If I need you to carry me – just to survive, I know you will do that for me.  

 

We know that we cannot get through this journey on our own, so we are each a part of a small group that does life together and gets each other to the end of this journey.

 

CONTRIBUTE: ME & WORLD  And lastly, this group of once lost people, we “..travel the same road and in the same direction”.  We all have the same mission, the mission of Jesus!  We are here to accomplish the Jesus mission and that means that everyone of us has to use all of time, talents and treasures to get it done. And all that energy must be moving in the same direction and traveling down the same road.  We will each contribute everything we have toward that mission.

 

God has called us to Revolutionaries who Celebrate, Connect and Contribute. 

 

A year ago there were four of us who met and planned for 2007.  Early in December a group of 11 met to pray and plan for 2008.  We looked at the past year and talked about where we felt God was calling us to go in 2008.   We identified some problems and then came up with five key initiatives for 2008. With each initiative we have identified a champion—who will be a leader/cheerleader throughout the year. I want to introduce each initiative today and then over the next 5 weeks I have asked the champion to share about their area.

 

INITIATIVE #1: PRAYER.  Satan is trying to stop us.  We need to pray.  I’ve talked a lot about how I’ve been attacked over the last 6 months.  What you may not know is that Steve has been attacked as well.  Starting with his arthritis in the summer it has continued.  We haven’t said much but he has had a lot of health problems.  We both need your prayers.  

2008 is the year of prayer for us.  If the enemy is successful we will get discouraged and give up.

 

 We will give up on our marriages.  We will give up on our kids. We will give up on loving our neighbor.  We will give up on reading and studying the Bible.  We will give up on Church! at Bethany.  The enemy won’t stop until we are defeated.  So we will pray!  Daily! 

Jane Bennett has agreed to be our champion.  She is planning several things for 2008 and is looking for people who sign up to help us be a church that prays!!  A couple weeks after agreeing to be the prayer champion Jane came down with pneumonia and has been in a lot of pain.  Pray for her.  The enemy is real.

 

INITIATIVE #2: P:BR.  I know that many of you have wondered why we are starting a 2nd campus after only 72 weeks.  You have wondered why we are starting a campus when we haven’t packed this place yet.  You’ve wondered why we are doing it when we’re struggling with finances.  The simple answer is:  God wants us to do this.  He didn’t speak to me in an audible voice but He has made it clear to me that 10 campus of 100 is just as good—if not better than one campus of 1000. 

When God made it clear to me that Bethany was the area that He wanted me to start the church I did a demographic study.  The two biggest employers in the area are Intel and Nike.  Intel employs a lot of tech people—engineers and business professionals.  Nike employs a lot of creative artistic people.  I felt that I could reach the Techie people and the business professionals.  I also felt like I would have a hard time reaching the creative, artistic people. 

 

I believe that God sent us Rob and Corrie Cunningham.  Later Rob is going to share a little of his vision for this new campus.  Rob can reach a whole different demographic of people than I can.  He has talked to hundreds of people so far—people who would probably not come to this campus.  While I have been spending time with the Beaverton Chamber and other places where Business Professionals are he has been spending time in art galleries and in places where creative people hang out.

 

God has already provided $50,000 in funding for this campus and we believe that another $50,000 will be raised over the next two years to help pay for Rob’s salary and the expenses of the campus.  This campus will have an operating budget of just $4000 per month—because we can share a lot of resources!  This is another benefit of having different campuses.

 

As a new church I want us to have the DNA of a reproducing church.  If we don’t take a risk and start this campus now then a whole group of people will be left untouched in our community.  If we don’t take a risk now when we are small I don’t think that we will do it when we are larger.  Most churches say I will start a new campus or church when we reach a certain size—and its always just a little bigger than they are now.

 

INITIATIVE #3: KIDS CITY  -- We have a lot of kids!  It is a great problem.  38% of our church is under 6th grade.  Our leadership group talked about some of the issues from 2007 the biggest of which was change. Changing leadership in Kids City, changing of curriculum, changing of location.

 

Changing of Sunday Morning Live! to Kids City Live and from weekly to monthly. 

Tammy Le Blanc has agreed to be our Champion for Kids City.  We have great kids and they need to be taught about Jesus.  We are looking at our curriculum because many of you have expressed some concern.  We are going to focus on recruiting and training more people. We have 22 adults on the schedule for the month of January and about 79 adults who attend at least monthly.  If we had 50 adults willing to work once  a month it would be a great help to both our children and those currently serving.

 

We tried to do Kids City Live but it didn’t work.  We are not planning on doing the family service at this time.  We don’t have enough actors and helpers to continue doing it.  It takes a ton of resources and we feel that it would be better to focus that energy on making our Sunday morning Kids City even better. 

 

If we don’t focus on Kids City in 2008 we will burn out our current workers.  If we don’t focus on Kids City our kids will not learn about Jesus in a fun and exciting way.  If we don’t focus on Kids City we will not retain new families. When families visit a church the number one thing that determines if they will come back is the Children’s environment.  

 

INITIATIVE #4: Small Groups – Our mission is to connect the unconnected.  For some people we have done a great job.  For many people we have not.  I realize that is a two-way street.  You have to want to be connected—you have to take some initiative in the process.  People need to be connected.  We live very isolated lives.

 

I made a bold statement last year—January 4th.  I said (and I quote), “the sad truth is (statistically) that if you only come to our Sunday morning service you will probably not be here next December.  Life will have happened.  Priorities will change.  And with no connection or a sense of belonging you will move on.”

 

For the most part that happened.  Of those who attended for a little while and then left very few were in a small group.  Many, many people had life happen to them—job layoffs, job promotions, marriage problems, children problems, financial problems—and they weren’t connected to anyone here.  So they left.  Many told me that when they fix their problems—they would come back.  It grieves me.  The solution is not to withdraw when you are in pain.  Society tells us that we need to hide our problems and work on them in isolation.  The Bible says to share the burden with those within your church and specifically those in your small group.

 

Others of you had life happen as well.  But you were connected in a group.  You had someone to share your struggles with.  You had others who held you up in prayer-others who gave you some money or who helped you find work.  You need to be in a group!

 

We currently have a community group that meets on Monday—two that meets on Tuesday—and one that meets on Thursday.  All these groups were using the same curriculum.  We will talk more about this in a couple weeks but many of you have said that you wanted more.  After getting connected in a group you wanted to go deeper.  

 

We recognize that people have different needs so we are going to have 4 different types of groups.  We won’t start them all at once—I hope that they happen organically.  We want to have a group that is all about fun.  Every Friday or Saturday the group goes to a movie or bowling or goes snowboarding.  We also want to continue having groups that meet together for a meal and then use the current curriculum.  It’s a group that focuses on connection but also discusses the Bible.  

We also want to have Bible studies.  The Tuesday night group that meets at the Somerset Church building is going to be going through the Life of Christ.  They won’t meet for a meal but will have a Bible study.  Don Clemson is a great teacher and he will lead that group.  Also I am doing a Mens Wednesday morning Bible study at 7:30 AM at Marie Callendars.

 

One other group that we don’t currently have but would like to see develop during 2008 is a service group.  The purpose of the group is to show God’s love by serving other people.  They will meet and do different service projects.

 

If we don’t focus in 2008 on our groups we will continue to have people attend for a little while and then leave.  We will continue to have people who withdraw from God and the church when life happens.  We will continue to have solo Christians who try to be superheroes and try to handle their problems on their own.

 

INITIATIVE #5: Self Supporting. I saved this one for last because it’s no fun.  But it is a reality.  New churches—like babies—can’t survive on its own.  2008 is the final year of our outside support.  We currently receive around $5000 a month from outside support.  

 

It is comprised of 3 different sources.  The NWCEA gives $2000 a month and our mom church—Our Place—gives a percentage of their offerings to us which will total $25,000 by August. I have raised about $60,000 over the last two years and hope to raise around $15,000 more this year.

The reality is starting a new church is a huge expense.  We pay around $2000 a month here. If we ever want to have our own space 24x7x365 the cost to lease a building in the area would be around $10,000  month.  If we want to buy land is $750,000 an acre.

 

Over the last year our offerings have averaged around $7000 per month.  As a comparison—Somerset Christian Church which has been around for 37 years is running almost the same in attendance as we do.  But their giving is about twice ours.  

 

Basically we need to greatly increase our offerings in the near future or be forced to make some significant cuts which will have to include staff. We need to grow the number of people giving from 20 to 40 and we need those giving to increase their amount.  If we don’t meet this challenge our future ministry and outreach will be limited.  Being a Revolutionary requires great sacrifice of time and resources.   

 

Jesus is the ultimate Revolutionary.   He left the comfort of heaven to come to this earth.  He came as child.  He spent time with children.  He constantly prayed to His Father.  He gathered a small group of disciples.  He himself had no money and had to rely on God to supply his needs through the people who traveled with Him.  He took the message first to the Jews—and then called Paul to take the message on to the Gentiles.  

 

Our initiatives are the things that Jesus did.  He wants us to take up the cause.  I believe that 2008 is going to be a great year.  It will be year of challenge and a year of growth.   God wants you to grow closer to Him over the next 12 months.  God wants to challenge you to expand your comfort zone.  He wants you to be a Revolutionary.

 

I want to be able to help you become a Revolutionary.  I would like to meet with everyone over the next 6 months and help you discover your God-given DESIGN. I want to help you discover your gifts and passions.  I want to help you put together a LIFEMap.  I think I can do a couple of families per week.  Let me know when we can meet and I will start scheduling them.

I believe that God wants us here.  I believe that God has a great plan for you this year.  It might not be an easy road—but as John Deng James said, “God is with us…we have each other, God’s family…so let’s keep walking toward a brighter future