An hour long sermon

Yesterday, I gave an hour long sermon. Three times I did it, in all three gatherings. An hour is not the longest I have ever preached - my record is one hour and nine minutes. But interestingly, when I gave the hour and nine minute sermon it was on the same topic as the one yesterday - on evangelism and the mission of the church. I've been thinking why when I talk on mission, do I end up talking 20 minutes longer than I normally do. I guess it is because of the urgency I feel about everyone understanding the importance of the mission. I feel bad I talked so long, but then I don't feel bad - if at all it motivates people to think about people who don't know Jesus yet more.                                           We started with a video clip (above) from the movie "Saved". It is Mandy Moore trying to "win" someone to Jesus as she throws a Bible at her and yells out as she does that "I am full of Christ's love!". I know that is a over the top stereotype of certain types of Christians and evangelism, but there is truth in it that many Christians come across and have evangelized in ways that really do more harm than good. So we started with that clip in showing the uncaring ways we can approach and think of people. I then opened it up and asked in each gathering to share who it was who were the influential people whom God used in them learning about who Jesus is and their putting faith in Jesus and the gospel. People shared quick stories from parents, to Sunday school teachers, to college roommates which were the ones God used. There was one "altar call" story, but the rest in all three gatherings were primarily normal average people whom God used in a relational context to share the gospel with them.

I then walked through the creation story, the Garden and the Fall, the entrance of sin into the world and how since then there was one promised who would "crush the head of the serpent' (Genesis 3:15)  and how there is redeeming of what went wrong in the Garden through Jesus. I tried to thread how the Missio Dei runs throughout the entire Bible and how we in the church are worshipers on a mission - but it is followers of Jesus remaining in the world (John 17:15 ) not creating a Christian bubble and living in it where we focus our time pointing out the wrongs in culture and people - but instead being involved in the lives of those outside the church. As we are involved in lives outside of the church, and build trust - we can share the gospel, invite them to a gathering etc.

I then brought up 23 year old Orion. He told the story of how he was raised entirely outside of the church and had stereotypes of Christianity which was primarily very negative. He also was a history major in college and heard all the bad things about Christians and the crusades etc. But when he moved to Santa Cruz, he moved in with a Christian - another young guy in our church who did not post an ad for a "Christian roommate" but instead ended up having Orion become his roommate. Orion shared if the ad said "Christian roommate", of course he never would have been interested. But through this roommate, and as trust was built - he eventually invited Orion to an actual church gathering on a Sunday and ended up putting faith in Jesus. My hope in this example, was to show how it took the Christian roommate to not be in a "bubble" but befriending and building trust with Orion. Orion has taken our "Intro to Christianity" class and is in process but excited about his new faith in Jesus.

I got into my usual "who are you friends with that is not a Christian?" and could you be in the "bubble" talk - and asked the question about prayer. Prayer shows our heart, so I asked the test of who are the names of those who do not know Jesus that you are regularly praying for? If we aren't regular praying for specific people - bluntly, it probably means we don't care about them and their salvation or we would at least take some time to pray. Or we may not take time in our lives to build friendships with people. I shared that I believe in heaven (yes, the Kingdom of heaven in this life and after this life) and I also said that I believe in a hell. Which means people will be spending eternity with God or without Him. We are going to be giving a sermon on hell in about a month. But I know I cannot sometimes sleep at night, thinking about people I care about and ponder their eternity. When we don't have relationships with people outside the church - real relationships - it is easy to sleep at night and get caught in our Christian bubble and not pray for them or take time with them. I fully know it is the Spirit who draws people to a conviction of sin and repentance, and I am not talking about having a Messiah complex. I am just talking about caring for people and praying for them.

We ended with people coming forward and posting names (or I encouraged fake names for people if they didn't want to write out the actual name) - of people they will commit to pray for who don't know Jesus. We provided a prayer card also for them to write names and take home as reminders to pray for them.

Perhaps I am simply an old-school fundamentalist in this regard, and there are those who don't agree with me - but I sometimes worry about the lack of evangelism and salvation and to use the word in a healthy way "conversions" in much of the emerging church discussion.

But it was encouraging Sunday - seeing all the names people wrote out, and hearing from Orion and his story as a 23 year old. I still feel bad that people sat through an hour sermon - but God knows my heart and I pray that as a result as a church we will not forget this part of the mission we are on.