How to Become Great

How many of you want to do something great with your life?  How many of you really think that you have or that realistically you are going to?  Jesus tells us that in order for us to become great, we must become servants.  In order to master the art of life, we must becomes slaves.  In order to be great, we must become the least.   So today I want to tell you how this church can help you become great.

One of the most interesting dinners I ever had was with a man who climbed Mt. Everest.  This man, a doctor, was the subject of a documentary I was editing.  What made his story so great was, not only was he an asthmatic, he had climbed the world’s highest mountain without using oxygen tanks (all thanks to a drug and a pharmaceutical company that paid for the documentary).  The night before I was to shoot an interview with him, we met in the hotel restaurant for dinner.  Never having met a mountain climber before, I was fascinated to learn about his adventure.  We reviewed pictures and videos of his climb, as well as the progression of how one makes it up such a daunting mountain.

If you have ever watched a show about Mt. Everest, you know that one cannot just drive up to the base of the mountain, park in the parking lot (Remember honey we parked in Yeti-3) get of the car and start climbing.   It is quite a feat just to make it to the foot of Everest.  In fact, one of this doctor’s friends who accompanied him had to spend months training to get in shape just to make the hike to base camp.  That is where he remained while the doctor’s expedition made the climb.  All climbs up Mt. Everest begin at the base camp, which is almost like a small village at the foot of the mountain.  From this base camp, people oversee those who make the climb with radios, medical services and other support.  Not only is getting to the base camp a feat in itself, setting up and maintaining the camp is a huge task.  Without the base camp, there can be no climbers.

We wrongly imagine mountain climbers as lone rangers, solo acts, who scale the slopes alone.  In reality, climbing a mountain requires teamwork, support and importantly, a base camp from which one sets out and returns. The great people in an expedition are not just those who reach the summit.  Those who serve at the base camp are also great.

The word “missional” is the hot phrase in Christianity today.  A few years ago it was “emergent” when that got played out we went to “missional”. Although entire seminars are held over its exact definition, most of us agree to be a missional church is outward focused.  A missional church is not as much about attracting people to church as it is about sending the church into the world to be the hands and feet of Jesus.   Missional churches are not about keeping their doors open and maintaining an institution, but about changing the world.  This philosophy is captured it in the oft-repeated phrase, “the church has left the building.”

 Vision is a missional church.  To be missional sounds exciting and appealing.  We want to go on mission trips to Africa, work in the inner cities and be out in our community.  Some of us have spent years trying to convince people to “get outside the walls of the church” and criticizing congregations for having an inward focused mindset.  All of this is great stuff and is sorely needed if we are to truly recover our identity as the church in the world today. 

Nevertheless, a solely outward focus can lead to some mistaken ideas.  All this missional talk can easily give us the wrong impression that we are each solo mountain climbers scaling the slopes of Everest independently, without a base camp.  The adventure of that missional climb can lead us to undervalue the work of base camp.  Consequently, serving within the walls of the church (or base camp) is often portrayed as not really doing God’s work.  In some circles, teaching kids about God or making coffee is considered not as spiritual as going on a mission trip, or serving in a soup kitchen.

In many churches that description may be accurate.  For inward focused congregations, made up of “church people”, serving in a church ministry often reverts to preaching to the choir.  When we only serve inside the church, we can become a country club.  We we only serve outside the church, we can become a civic organization.  But when we do both, we authentically become the church. 

  That is what we are doing here at Vision.  Serving within the walls of Vision is really serving in the world since, unlike many traditional churches, so much of the outside world has made its way inside our walls.  I share this with you, not to dissuade you from serving outside these walls on a mission trip, or Midnight Run or anywhere God leads you, but encourage you that you can serve both God and others right here, right now.

That may be welcome news to some of you.  When we hear Jesus’s teaching that for us to achieve true greatness we must become slaves, we don’t know where to begin.  I think most of us want to serve but have no idea how or where to start.  “Do I join the Peace Corps?  Do I start a homeless shelter?  I can’t possibly do something like that.”  Maybe you can.  Maybe you can’t.  But you can start right here.

Whenever someone visits Vision for the first time, if they fill out a Connection Card, they get an email from me within 24 hrs and a gift card in the mail the mail that week.  I also ask them to take an online survey about their experience and what they liked about Vision.  The feedback they give me is fairly unanimous. They don’t mention the videos or the music.  They all say what they liked best is that they were welcomed here and made to feel at home. 

We live in a world where few places welcome us unconditionally.  There are  countless persons in our community who are lonely, hurting or simply lost.  There are persons who do feel welcomed in any church, who fear they would be judged if they walked in the door or made to feel like they didn’t have their act together.    At Vision, we do everything we can to make these people feel welcome and we’re even willing to take the flack for doing it.

That does not happen by accident.  When Pam and I began Vision we intentionally set out to be that kind of place.  It requires the hard work and many servants to make that happen. Each week different people serve in hospitality, setting up coffee and picking up bagels so that when people come in they feel at home.   Each week, our greeting team has different people meet people at the door, give them a program and let them know we’re glad they’re here.  Think for a moment of when you first came to Vision and what those things meant to you.  Shouldn’t everyone have the great experience you had?

The hospitality and greeting teams are not simply making coffee and shaking hands.  They are not doing a fellowship hour after church for people who already belong.  They are not acting as the doorman for an institution; they are ushering people into the Kingdom of God.  They are making it easier for people who have given up on God a long time ago to come home again.  When someone walks through that door, we don’t know where they are in life.  They could be in the middle of a divorce, a struggle with addiction, wrestling with the death of a loved one or just rich and complacent.  Yet we do know that God will do great things and transform their life after they walk in.  Our job is to make it easier for them to do that.  Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?  By becoming a servant in hospitality and greeting, you are truly becoming great.

Next month, we will relaunch VisionKids during our worship celebrations.  This innovative children’s ministry needs servants.  Pam designed it such a way that workshop leaders only have to teach for a few weeks at a time and then they have a few months off.  Think about it.  What could be more meaningful to do with your life than to introduce kids to the sacred stories of the Bible? 

Here at Vision, we don’t tend to attract people who have their religion all figured out. Most of our families do not come from generations of Bible experts.  For many of our kids, this is the first time they are hearing about Jesus. This is not work maintaining an institution; it’s truly missional work. 

It isn’t just the workshop leaders who are serving.  Over the summer a whole team of servants has been renovating the building next door so that we can have a fun, functional and safe place to do serve these kids.  Beyond those who did the physical work of renovation, many of you gave and still give to the Vision Stimulus Plan that gave us the funds to create the space where a lot of young people are going to meet God.

It’s not just our littler ones who need our service.  We have a teen youth group that is always in need of adult chaperones.  You don’t have to be a parent of a teen to do that.  In fact, we prefer if you aren’t.  Also, our Confirmation Class begins this fall.  Each of our students will need an adult mentor to guide them through the year and to be a resource of Christian wisdom for them in the future.  Our mission is to form disciples of Jesus Christ and by serving here, you can be a part of that.  You can do something great.

Next week, you’ll be hearing more about Vision Groups.   Not only should you all sign up for one but we always need people to host a group at their home or lead a group.  Group leaders don’t have to be experts.   You just have to love God and love people.  Really all you are doing is facilitating a conversation.   In the process, your service will help form disciples of Jesus Christ.  Think about that.  Who knew you could do that?  You can do something great.

Besides hospitality, greeting, Visionkids and Vision Groups, you can serve on our A/V team, or participate in our worship celebrations through music or reading.  In doing so, you are not merely keeping the machine of the church running, you are forming followers of Jesus.  You are helping to form people who will change the world.

You can be great.  But Jesus said, the path to greatness lies not in power, lofty status, or ego.  The secret to greatness lies in humility, self-sacrifice and service.  If you have spent any time in a church, or grew up in one, you know that  you meet a lot of jerks.  For all the jerks you met there were those servants who changed your life a little.  These were great people. 

The church I grew up in had many great servants.  There was a man who served for years as the Sunday School Superintendent.  He knew the birthday of every kid in the church and always gave them a card.  There was another who each Sunday looked for new people and, in a church that wasn’t known for being the most gregarious, always made sure to say “Hello” and shake their hand.  There were others who when awoke in a hospital room after an emergency appendectomy, were seated around my bed praying, even though I hadn’t set foot in that church in years. 

These were great people because they were great servants. 

Service makes us great, not because it draws attention to us as great humanitarians, but because it makes us more like Christ – and that’s the name of the game.  I defy anyone to show me where in the Gospels Jesus declared, “I am the Son of God and the Second Person of the Trinity!  Bow down and worship me!”  He could have but he didn’t. Instead, he invited us to follow him and said he came not to be served, but to serve.

You want to do something great in your life?  Serve.  Right now.  Right here. 

 

 

Comments

[Phyllis Miller]

Thanks again for this website. Another great message. Put me where you want me to help and I will do my best.

[Don Heatley]

Great to have you in our base camp, Phyllis!
Peace,
Don