Gotta or Get to?

I had to get up this morning to come into Danville to work on this newsletter, among many other things! I knew there were lots of things that I had to do today. For instance:

• I gotta make a few phone calls
• I gotta work on Sunday’s sermons (both of them)
• I gotta finish up my Sunday School lesson
• I gotta post the bulletin and announcements online
• I still gotta post last week’s sermons online
• I gotta work on this news letter

The GOTTA’s are piling up!
Gotta! Gotta! Gotta! Or is it “Get to”? Quite honestly, I consider my role at South Side a “Get to” position. It is not that I “gotta” do these things, it is that I get to! You could change all those “gotta’s” to “get to” above! After Wednesday evening Bible Study, I told Paula that I love teaching. Teaching is something that I am very passionate about. I “get to” teach—every Wednesday and Sunday and any time someone will let me!
Now that is my attitude about my role as the evangelist at South Side. What is your attitude about your role at South Side? Maybe you did not want to go there! But here we go anyway!

• Do you Gotta teach Bible School?
• Do you Gotta lead the singing?
• Do you Gotta work in the nursery?
• Do you Gotta serve in Junior Church?
• Do you Gotta help serve at the table?
• Do you Gotta set up for a fellowship meal?
• Do you Gotta prepare communion?
• Do you Gotta run the sound board?
• Do you Gotta greet people at the door?
• Do you Gotta . . . Ok, that is enough to make the point, I hope!

No, you do not “Gotta”! You “get to”! It is a privilege to serve our Lord and God in whatever capacity we are able to serve Him! God wants us to serve because we want to, not because we have to! He wants us to minister to others because we love him, no because we feel forced!
I personally would much rather have a Bible School teacher who feels they “get to” teach, than one who feels they “gotta”! I have always tried to look at Christian service is as a “get to” ministry.
Anything we do, no matter how small or how big the job, it all is important and is part of the work of the church.
Paul writes in Ephesians 4:15-16—"we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”
The whole body (the church) is held together by what every joint supplies. Paul has just told them about four gifts which Christ gave the church. Then the Apostle says how they each have to work together for the growth of the body.
In order for these gifts to work together though, we must have the “get to” attitude about whatever we do within the assembly!
My prayer is that the morning sermon series will help to adjust any attitudes of “gotta” and help you realize that it is a privilege to serve our Lord. We “get to” serve our God and that is a HUGE privilege!
I am honored that I “get to” be your evangelist and serve our Savior with you here at South Side. Hopefully you have the same “get to” attitude!

Kevin

To view the Power Points for the sermons or to listen to the audio, click here.

South Side is Unique!

I recently taught a Sunday School class on the topic of what makes the church of Christ unique. I decided to use my newsletter space to share the outline so others, who were not able to be in the class, could have the outline. I am glad to be in the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I am honored and glad to be simply a Christian, with no other labels. I hope this outline will help you share with your friends and acquaintances what makes the church of Christ unique.

South Side is a church following Biblical principles.
* Where the Scriptures speak, we speak. Where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent.
* Do Bible things in Bible ways and call Bible things by Bible names.
* Book, chapter and verse for everything we believe and practice.
South Side is a church that rejects human creeds.
* No creed but Christ; No Book but the Bible; No home but heaven.
* If creeds say less than the Bible, it doesn’t say enough; if more than the Bible, it says too much; and if it says just what the Bible says, it is unnecessary.
* Creeds do not unite; they divide.
* As far as I find it consistent with the Word of God.
South Side is a church with no denominational affiliation.
* The church practices local autonomy. This means that each local church is independent of other churches.
* There is no denominational hierarchy.
* Divisions caused by denominationalism are wrong. I Corinthians 1:10-13
* Church members prefer to be called simply “Christians” and reject any man-made label.
* The Bible only makes “Christians” only.
* Each local assembly has Christ as the Head of the church.
* Each local assembly selects its own plurality of elders (pastors) and evangelists to assist in evangelizing and equipping the local assembly. – Ephesians 4:11
* Deacons are also selected by the local assembly to serve the church in many different ministries.
South Side is a church which believes that Jesus is the ONLY way.
* Jesus said this in John 14:6.
* Peter said this in Acts 4:12.
* The Bible only presents one way to heaven and that is through Jesus and on His terms.
* The Biblical plan to salvation is plain and very simple.
* This Biblical plan can be easily summarized:
* Hear God's Word - Matthew 7:24; I Corinthians 15:1-4
* Believe God's Word (have faith in it) - Romans 10:17; Hebrews 11:1
* Repent (turning away from sin unto God) - Luke 13:3; Acts 17:30
* Confess Jesus Christ as the Christ, the Son of the living God - Matthew 10:32, 16:16; Romans 10:8-13
* Be immersed into Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit - Acts 2:38, 22:16; Romans 6:3-6; Galatians 3:27; I Peter 3:21
* Live the Christian life showing love and gratitude to God for His salvation, looking forward to His Son's return - James 1:22-24, 2:20
South Side is a church that is devoted to the Apostles’ doctrine.
* They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:42
* This includes weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper as a remembrance of the death of Jesus – Acts 20:7.
* This includes the preaching and teaching of the Bible.
* This includes opportunities for Christian fellowship for growth and edification.
South Side is a church that believes in unity, but only based in the truth.
* There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6
* In matters of faith, unity; in opinions, liberty; and in all things, love.

I am glad to be unique! Aren’t you?

Kevin

I am "One of Them"

Have you ever been accused of “being one of them”? Years ago, at a Church of Christ/Christian Church preachers’ meeting, I was sitting across the table from a preacher when he asked me where I was the “pastor” at. I responded, “I am the evangelist at . . . “ In a sarcastic tone of voice he responded, “Oh, you are one of them”. I guess that I am “one of them”! And quite frankly, I am proud to be “one of them”!
One of the things that has frustrated me the most in ministry is when other evangelists cannot get the terminology right. I heard once about a “pastors and elders” conference being held at one of our Bible colleges. As I reflected in my mind about the Scriptural teaching on eldership, I thought it was redundant to say “pastors and elders” seeing that the words are talking about the same thing! Words convey thoughts and ideas and are a great way to teach.
Being practical with teaching and preaching is an important part of ministry. As I have shared many of those great Restoration principles with the congregation, some have inquired how to put those principles to work in daily life. How can we share those principles with the people we come in contact with?
I keep coming back to the fact that it starts with the words we use. Words are a simple way to teach people outside of the church basic biblical truths. One of the slogans that came out of the early days of the American Restoration Movement was, “Do Bible things in Bible ways and call Bible things by Bible names”. This is a simple principle that can help us teach others about what New Testament Christianity is all about.
Here is a simple illustration of how this works from the church office: A salesman called the office one morning and asked to talk with the “pastor”. Pat, our secretary, politely told him that none of the pastors are available because the word pastor in the bible is referring to the elders of the church and none of them are in the building. She did not go back to the Greek language and explain how the word “poimen” is used in the New Testament for elders. She didn’t have to! Pat went on to inform the gentleman on the line the “evangelist” was in, if he wanted to talk to him. What a great opportunity to teach that basic restoration principle for calling “Bible things by Bible names”. Of course the salesman was confused as he talked with me. Towards the end of the call, he called me “pastor”. Then he tried to correct himself when he said, “I mean elder”.
Words are so important and a great way to teach. A person does not need to know the Greek and the Hebrew to do it. Neither does a person need a Bible college education to teach using words. In fact, I believe that some Bible college educations have created some of the mess we are in with bad terminology!
Here is another illustration to make the point:
Several years ago a young man, who knew that I was a preacher, came up to me and asked me where was “my church”. I looked surprised at him and responded, “I didn’t know that I had a church”. I kind of caught him by surprise because he begin to wonder if I was still preaching. I told him that I did still preach—but I preach at Christ’s church and not mine. As the elders at Bolivar, PA, would continually remind the congregation that it wasn’t their church! Jesus died for the church! The elders did not die for the church! Simple words that taught a great lesson!
Someone once got confused with a visiting song evangelist. This confused member of the congregation told one of the children to stop “running in the church”. The song evangelist, teaching using words, simply said that it was impossible to “run in the church”. He went on to explain that the church is the people and you cannot run in the people (church). Simple words teaching a simple Biblical truth.
Scott Sheridan, a preacher friend of mine in Seattle, once wrote an article titled: Sloppy Terminology means Sloppy Theology. How true that is! Scott writes:
The Church has become extremely tolerant of sloppy terminology and sloppy theology. I hear it almost everywhere I go, everything I read, people I speak with, etc. I am not talking about major issues, necessarily. Although you can hear some out-and-out heresy in some of our pulpits, that is not what I am talking about. This article deals with some sloppy terminology that good-hearted people use from time to time. Nevertheless, just because we may not be discussing major heresies does not mean that it is not an important matter.
Scott hit the nail on the head! Unfortunately, the worse our terminology gets, the worse our theology can get. We start to actually believe the things we are saying. Or we say that they are not that important anymore. Or we say that they are just words. I have been hearing this about hymns during my entire eighteen years of ministry. I can point out how unbiblical the words to a hymn are, and the response is: “it is just a song”. Sloppy terminology means sloppy theology. It definitely can eventually lead to sloppy theology! Be careful of the words you use! If you use the wrong ones, you may convey a thought that is not Biblical.
Just “one of them” with you too, I hope!

Kevin