Worship at EVBC
Tom Shrader introduces a new card describing East Valley Bible Church's three distinct Sunday worship services, drawing on James 2:1 to warn against treating any single worship style as superior. He reflects on the church's identity, highlighting its commitment to expository Bible teaching, the doctrines of grace, diversity, and God-centered worship. Shrader challenges the congregation to remain outward-focused and evangelistic as the church reaches its fifteenth year, calling members to celebrate what God is doing across every venue and generation.
“The key in this process is to make sure in the middle of worship you aren't thinking about you, you're thinking about Him.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: DNA of EVBC
Recorded: 2006 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 50 min
Themes: worship, unity, church identity, evangelism, favoritism, diversity, community, celebration, new to the church, longtime church member, parent, young adult, volunteer, seeker, church leader, feeling disconnected
Scripture: James 2:1, 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Timothy 4:1-5, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-3, 1 Corinthians 5:1, 2 Corinthians 8:1, Ephesians 2:1, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Theological Themes: ecclesiology, church structure, doctrines of grace, expository preaching, biblical authority, God-centered worship, partiality, congregational life
Full Transcript
Welcome and Announcements
There are two events to be aware of: the Extreme Blast, which is the children's event for the beginning of summer, and summer camp. Registrations for both are underway, beginning today. My sense is that Extreme Blast is going to fill up pretty quickly, so if you are thinking about that, you need to take advantage of it now.
As we head into Good Friday and Easter in another couple of weeks, I want to mention that special services and special times always produce special challenges for us in terms of staffing — children's ministry, parking lot, and welcoming on campus. We had a great opportunity this past week when we welcomed Alistair Begg on campus Thursday night. It was wonderful to see our people make this campus so friendly to absolute strangers, and you can be part of that. That is a really important ministry, and we need to staff those services as we approach Good Friday and Easter.
Introducing the Worship Card
I want to take our time today to talk about this card that was in the insert in the bulletin. You may immediately have a reaction to that. I talked to a couple of people this week who said, "Boy, I hate it when we don't study God's Word." So I have decided to go ahead and make this part of a lesson.
You can open your Bible to James chapter 2, right where we were, verse 1: *"Brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism."* That is what we are going to talk about today — there is the connection. Keep those Bibles out, but this will not be a typical time going chapter by chapter, verse by verse.
What Is on the Card
As you look at the card, it is a deceptively simple piece of literature. On one side is a picture — an actual church sign that said "Sunday Worship," to which we added the arrow and the styles at EVBC. On the other side you will see three logos and three headings: Sunday Live, Sunday Unplugged, and Sunday 6. You will see 186 words — 73 in the first paragraph, 65 in the second, and 43 in the third.
I want you to understand that I am intimately familiar with this piece of literature. This project, which does not look like much when you look at it, started at least in concept last summer and has been in earnest for eleven weeks. I learned a great deal about East Valley Bible Church as we worked on this card.
Why This Card Was Needed
One of the things I learned is that we do not communicate well about our different styles and what is going on on Sunday mornings. A couple of things happened in just the last three or four weeks that illustrated this. I was here for a Ralph Carmichael concert rehearsal a couple of Saturdays ago, and there were probably 350 to 400 people from various churches, including a number from our own. One of the ladies I met sings in our chorale, and as we were talking she said, "This is the first time I have met you — this is a thrill." I thanked her, and she said, "I love the church. There is only one thing I don't like." I asked what that was, and she said that at the 10:30 service it is so often so crowded that they cannot get in and have to go home.
I asked her why she would not at least attempt worshiping in the conference center. She is involved in the chorale, and she said, "Where is the conference center? What goes on in the conference center?" I told her there is a full worship team there, that we video in the service, and that we have almost 500 people in there every Sunday morning at 10:30. She said she had no idea it was there.
We had another situation where a man made arrangements to meet someone from work on campus for the 10:30 service and was really frustrated when he thought the other person had not shown up. The next day he asked the man why he had not appeared, and the man said, "I was there." One had been in the conference center; the other had been in the chapel.
From One Style to Three
What we set out to do, and what we ended up doing, became just a little bit more than we had originally envisioned. There is nothing on this card that is new in terms of real content — it may be new to you, but this is nothing more than our attempt to get on one page what goes on on Sunday morning.
For thirteen years I said to you that we would only have one worship style. Many of you have heard that, and I feel a little bit like "read my lips, no new taxes." About a year ago it became clear to me that we had changed — the church had changed, who we were had changed — and it was appropriate to honor different people with different styles of worship.
There is another pastor in town, and it is interesting: we had decided to go from one style to three styles at the same time he was going from three styles to one style. We were having lunch one day and I said, "Well, one of us is really messed up, and I think it is you, but I am not sure." We had lunch again last week or the week before, and he told me they are going back to three styles.
One of the things that really facilitated our change was what happened years ago when we moved student ministries. There is no group that has been moved or displaced more than student ministries — junior high and high school — as we moved them from morning to afternoon, to discipleship at noon.
Worship Styles at East Valley Bible Church
At one point we moved our discipleship services to Saturday night, and when we did, we had Tim and the band lead worship. That created a noticeably different worship expression than what we have on Sunday morning. When we eventually came back and began running multiple services, we found ourselves doing seven services and going back and forth, and we said we were killing ourselves.
We tried the video venue, and some of you will remember this. We actually videoed in the worship, and it just didn't work. We then put live worship leaders in there, but the music was still coming from here, and that didn't work either. So we said we had Matthew, we wanted to pour into his life, so we made him an intern and placed him over there. The minute we did that, we had two different worship styles — even if you're singing the same song, the style is different. Then we replaced Saturday night with Sunday night, and we ended up with three different styles.
Surprising Growth in the Conference Center
I want to share something with you that might amaze you — it surprised me. Last Sunday, 52% of the people who worshipped at East Valley Bible Church worshipped in the conference center, and 48% worshipped in this room. Six months ago it was 80% in here and 20% there. That is a remarkable turnaround.
I think that says, first, that what we are doing has a need. I think we are doing it better, and I think the newer you are to the church, it is probably a little easier to adjust to that environment.
Catering Versus Ministering
With that growth comes some level of tension, and the first tension is communication. You would hear the phone ring and someone would say we have services at 8:30, 10:30, and 6:00 — but that really doesn't tell you a great deal, because you have different expressions. The teaching is the same; it is the same person teaching in every venue, and I think that is really important. But the styles are different.
When we talk about style, that raises all sorts of questions. People ask, are you just catering to everybody? But let me frame it differently: do you want to cater to someone, or do you want to minister to them? Doesn't that change the whole question? Different styles exist because people seem to worship more effectively in different ways.
Getting Your Mind Off Yourself
Here is the key in this process: in the middle of worship, you should not be thinking about yourself — you should be thinking about Him. Sometimes in worship we can get a little off kilter, and I came across a video a couple of weeks ago that describes some of that. Take a look at this.
*[Video plays: "It's All About Me — Now the greatest collection of me worship ever assembled on one CD. Now I lift my name on high. All 20 songs, all about you. This amazing collection is great to share with friends, if you have any. Everyone can join in the worship with you, for you, and about you, because you are unique, and you love you. All this for only $19.95. Operators are standing by to serve you. If you order now, you'll also receive a second CD of Yuletide Favorites. Call 1-800-ME-ME-ME, or order online at memyselfandi.com. Call today, because no one can praise you like you."]*
I don't know if you caught the web address — www.memyselfandi.com. The whole point of worship is to get your mind off of yourself, and our job, as best we can, is to move as many distractions out of the way as we possibly can.
Identifying and Communicating Each Service
We said we did not want to create anything new — we just wanted to identify what is already here. That is what you see on the back of the card. Each of those paragraphs is meant to give you some sense of what each service is like. If you are already in a service and you are happy, there is obviously not a problem. But if you are meeting someone new and they ask where you go to church, or perhaps you did not even know — like the lady in the choir who had no idea the other venue existed — each paragraph will give you a sense of that.
I also understand the limits of a paragraph, so if you go to the website and visit the homepage, you will find a place to click where you can get a musical sense of what is going on and some video sense of what is happening. We also said that since people were talking about conference centers, worship centers, and chapels, why not put a logo with each one so that when you arrive at a service you immediately know which one you are in. If you are coming into the chapel from the south, you will see the banners out there. As you go into the conference center, you will see the banners that identify the service you are attending. When you come in, the center screen will display the logo attached to that service.
So here is what you can say simply to somebody: "Hey, I'll meet you at 10:30 at Sunday Live." You can add that it is in the chapel if you want, but even if someone is confused, they can walk around asking where Sunday Live is and find their way. Hopefully this will be a helpful tool for unpacking some of the confusion — or maybe not even confusion, just helping you understand that something different is available.
Guarding Against Worship Favoritism
This is really important. You can very easily fall into a mindset that says my worship style is the right worship style, my worship style is the correct worship style. A week ago Saturday evening, I was down at the Dodge Theater with many of you — Ralph Carmichael, a 397-person choir, and the Phoenix Symphony. It was a great time, and I know that many people were edified and encouraged by the evening.
Some of you are skeptical. I have a friend who goes to another church who said he'd see me Saturday night, and I told him that didn't sound like his kind of thing. He said he didn't like hymns, didn't like big bands, didn't like symphonies. I told him he could be in for a long night. When I saw him this week, he said it was wonderful.
Then there are people who come on Sunday night and say Sunday night doesn't work for them. Or they come on Sunday night and fall in love with it, and then they can't understand why somebody on Sunday morning doesn't appreciate Sunday night. That is what I mean by favoritism.
Let me get really direct here. I'm speaking now to the 10:30 group, both here in the chapel and over in the conference center. I don't care if you don't like Sunday night. I don't care if they don't like Sunday morning. What I do care about is if you say you don't like Sunday night and you fail to add, "But I love what God is doing on Sunday night." I do care if people on Sunday night sit around and say, "We have the whole thing figured out — we're more expressive, more responsive, we have true worship, and they're dead on Sunday morning."
You may not like Sunday morning if you attend Sunday night, but you had better love what God is doing there.
The Model Mike Nothom Sr. Set
The person who modeled this for me was Mike Nothom Sr. Mike Nothom Sr. did not like a lot of our music. He had one song in particular that he disliked — it was called "Let the Walls Fall Down." He always said it was an especially strange song to sing during a building campaign. That never made sense to him.
But here was the thing about Mike Sr.: he may not have liked the music, but he loved what God was doing. He would sit there and say, "That's not my deal, but I love what God is doing there." That is the response I am calling for.
Please do not get into a situation where you say, "This is our little thing and this is the true thing." Anything God is using — and certainly what we are doing here is God-centered, God-focused worship, whether it is at 8:30, 10:30, 4:00, or 6:00, whether it is in the chapel, the conference center, in the morning, or at night — deserves that kind of respect. This card is really an opportunity to make you aware of the expressions of worship here, and to say: here is how we worship Him at East Valley Bible Church.
Who We Are at East Valley Bible Church
I knew it would take about fifteen minutes to unpack that, and I decided I wanted to stay on this topic for a while. So I want to take the remainder of our time and talk to you about who we are — as a reminder, and perhaps a challenge, of who we want to be.
Will you open your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3? I was talking to a fellow last week who is part of a search team from another church looking for a new pastor. I asked him what they were looking for, and he said they want someone who will teach the Bible — about 85% of his time spent on that, and about 15% casting vision. Church is far more complicated than it used to be.
Remember last week when we were talking about the church and favoritism — how a church might fill only about half the space from here to the platform? We have seven services here with all sorts of different tastes, desires, and times, and casting a vision or getting everyone on the same page is a very difficult challenge.
Here is one of the things I know we do well. Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16:
> "All Scripture is inspired by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate and equipped for every good work."
Because that is true — because this Bible is God's Word — he says to Timothy, to us, to the body:
> "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead by His appearing in His kingdom: preach the Word. Be ready in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. For a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and will turn away their ears from truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."
Teaching the Word as a Core Identity
When I talk about who we are at East Valley Bible Church, what first comes to mind is that we really do teach the Word of God. In fact, some of you are frustrated right now that we are talking about this card and these other matters, because you would rather have a Bible lesson. I am giving you a Bible lesson.
He said he wants you to be doers of the Word, not merely hearers of the Word. I don't want you to show favoritism, and I am saying to you that we need to take a hard look at what Scripture says to us and begin to apply it to our specific situation here. There are 163 verses in Scripture that contain the word "remember."
Remembering Who We Are
Scripture is filled with reminders. Some books contain the word two, three, or four times, along with other forms — reminder, remembering, remembered. God is constantly doing that. We see it with the nation of Israel: wait a minute, stop, take an inventory, look where you've been, look at what happened, remember what your forefathers went through.
Even the Scripture we study is so often an author — many times Paul — writing to a specific church about a specific problem. First Corinthians chapter 5 verse 1: "I hear that you have immorality among you." Second Corinthians chapter 8 verse 1: he tells them what another church is doing so they can learn. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1: "you were formerly dead in your sins and trespasses." Sometimes it is not just to call them to order, but to commend them.
The very first Bible lesson I ever taught was in Les Taylor's Sunday school class at Grace Community Church, and the topic was First Thessalonians chapter 1. In that passage, Paul commends them: "we give thanks to our God always for you, making mention of you in our prayer, constantly bearing in mind your work of faith, your labor of love, your steadfastness of hope." That is exactly what we are doing here.
I would give you a little warning. If you are having that flinch right now — the one saying, "I wish we were doing a Bible lesson" — you may have a problem, my friend. I doubt right now you need any new information. Why not respond to what we heard last week and the week before?
It is really important for us to take these times where we stop, get together, go back, and repeat things that maybe we have said over and over again — things that need to be mentioned time and time again. I had people lined up after the first service saying, "You need to stay on that. I want to tell you my story." That tells me we are exactly on track. So if you are sitting there thinking this is a waste of time, check yourself — because it is not. It is so important for East Valley Bible Church and the people in it to be, as much as we can, of one mind, on the same page, and reminded of what we are all about.
The Scripture and the Doctrines of Grace
When we talk about who we are at East Valley Bible Church, I have to believe the Scriptures themselves come right to the top of the list. With that also comes the doctrines of grace. Every even-numbered year — so that would be this year — in the fall, September and October, I teach six or seven weeks on the doctrines of grace.
As you navigate your way around the valley, or even in other parts of the state or country, we are identified as a church that openly advocates and teaches the doctrines of grace. They tell me we are one of the largest churches west of the Mississippi that does that. We understand that God saves sinners, that He did it all — that He is the one who chose us before the foundations of the earth, that the Lord Jesus came and died to save His people from their sin, and that at the appropriate time the Holy Spirit applies that to our lives.
When you talk about who we are at East Valley Bible Church, you have to talk about the teaching of Scripture, and you have to put alongside that the doctrines of grace.
A Diverse Congregation
Here is the third thing I would put on that list: we are a diverse group. We did not used to say that, because we were not. For a long time, especially when we were over on Dobson, we were primarily married couples — biological parents with their biological children, two, three, or four kids, a pretty homogeneous group with not many singles and not many seniors. That is a fairly easy group to minister to because there is a commonality of life experience.
To give you a sense of how things have changed: when my kids were in student ministries, there were ten or fifteen kids in junior high and ten or fifteen in high school. This year we will take about 800 kids and staff to summer camp. We will have 1,000 kids from birth through sixth grade on campus today. And these kids are coming from very diverse backgrounds — some with two, three, or four moms and dads, some whose parents think church is pointless but the kids love it. In many cases, God began to work in their lives and so they are here.
We have a whole range of family situations. We have many who are married, but we have an ever-increasing percentage of our church population that is single. I believe the number is around 50% of adults — meaning 21 and older — in Maricopa County are single. That is a huge number, and it is reflected here. We also have a large and growing population of seniors, and part of that is simply a function of our existence. If you started with us fifteen years ago when you were 50, you are 65 now. If you were 65, you are 80. You can do the math from there.
We are also diverse economically. We have some very wealthy people who attend here and some who are poor, but most of us are doing far better than we ever thought we would — we just have not stopped to think about it yet. The majority of our congregation would be identified as white and middle class, with smaller but real populations of African-Americans, Asians, and Hispanics. Most have a college education, and some are blessed to have skipped that.
We are a very diverse group with very diverse tastes, and it is very hard to keep that together. But something does keep it together — and that is the fourth thing I think we are known for.
A God-Centered Church
We're God-centered. We're not man-centered. I have been reading the book *I Am Not, But I Know I Am*. Let me read you that title slowly, because a lot of people are trying to figure out what this book is. He is the I Am — I am not God. There you go. Now you've got it. Welcome to the story of God. The author is Louie Giglio.
I spoke to the ladies on Wednesday and read from this book. What's interesting is that same morning, I went into Priority Living because I couldn't teach that week and had Tim Maughan teaching, and he read exactly the same quote I had pulled out for the ladies. It's about God, and I think it's part of why this church is such a wonderful place — because we understand that God is constant.
God is doing well today, thank you. He has no dilemmas, no quandaries, no counselors, no shortages, no rivals, no fears, no cracks, no worries. He is self-existent, self-contained, self-perpetuated, self-powered, and self-aware. When I read that, I wrote underneath it — I'll say "we" rather than "I," because that's too much pressure — we are self-loving, self-promoting, self-exalting, self-protecting, self-centered, and self-motivated. He is self-existent, self-contained, self-perpetuated, self-powered, self-aware. In other words, He is God, and He knows it.
God does whatever He wants. His purposes are a sure thing. There's no stopping Him, no containing Him, no refuting Him, no cutting Him off at the pass, no short-circuiting His agenda. God is in control. God knows everything about everything and everyone. His eyes race back and forth across the cosmos faster than we can scan the words on this page. There's not a bird flying through the air or perched on a branch that escapes His field of vision.
He could start with Adam and name every man, woman, and child who ever lived, describing every detail about each one of them. Nothing is hidden from Him. He doesn't need to wait for a polygraph machine to decipher the truth. He sees clearly and comprehends all He sees. He has never known what it is to have a teacher, a role model, an advisor, a therapist, a loan officer, an adjuster, a doctor, or a mother.
God's rule and reign is unrivaled in history and eternity. He sits on an everlasting throne. His kingdom has no end. All gods abound, but He alone made the heavens and the earth. God has never feared a power struggle or a hostile takeover. He doesn't have to watch His back. He has no equal, no peer, no competition. It makes perfect sense that His name should be I Am, and even more sense that my name is I Am Not. Wonderful book — I believe we have it in the bookstore.
The Blessings of This Church
We're a God-centered church, not a man-centered church. We are a church that God has richly blessed. Many here are saved and know Him, and we've been blessed with physical health and a life that is, by and large, pretty easy. I look at my life and say I had a bad week, and then I start to describe what that means, and I laugh when I think about it — including red lights.
We're a church blessed with what somebody described as a deep bench. By that they mean preaching — when you're gone, there are a whole bunch of men who do what you do as well or better. We're blessed with hundreds of volunteers who serve selflessly in so many different areas, and we're blessed with so much diverse talent. For me to watch Gary go and do what he did with Ralph Carmichael and that group is an amazing thing, and yet I also love what happens on Sunday night as I see that worship.
I watched this week on this campus as we hosted Alistair Begg. It was amazing to watch our people reach out and work — not because they're being paid to do it, but because they love their Lord and they're serving Him through this church.
A Place of Integrity
We are a place of integrity. I'm almost afraid to even say this, but there has never even been a hint of a scandal in fourteen years here — not even anything close to it. I get a sense that at some point that becomes inevitable, just as you have people and life goes on. But as these things come together, we don't have any secrets. We're not perfect, for sure.
One night I was doing the getting-plugged-in class, and Haley came in. She was going to be there and was sitting over in the corner. We were going around the room to identify ourselves, and when it got to her, I had no intention of calling on her. She popped up and said, "My name is Haley. Tom's my dad. And I have a set of frequently asked questions that everybody wants to know about him, so why don't I go ahead and answer those for you?" I got the sense she had been through this drill a time or two.
The first thing she said was that everybody wants to know what he is really like at home. Her answer was: he's at home exactly like he is here on Sunday. It was one of the great moments of my life to hear my daughter say that, unsolicited. No hypocrisy there. He's the same man — dressed a little more casual at home, but other than that, the same. I think that's a key to who we are. It's not a puzzle you have to figure out or a code you have to crack. It's a place of really incredible integrity, and one of my frequent prayers is that it would stay that way.
Stability and Health
We are also a place that has long-term, godly leaders. There is a stability here, though that stability carries a danger with it — because stability can grow stale. So let me bring you to the bottom line of this. I think we're a really healthy church. We're a wonderful church. It's a great place to come and be part of, to serve, to worship, and to call home, and I think all of those things are terrific. I also know that we can lose that in an instant — that if all of
Being an Outward-Focused Church
If all of a sudden you say, "It ain't broke, so don't fix it" — I read a book not long ago that said, "If it ain't broke, break it." I'm not for that, but somewhere in between is where I want to hang. I look back and I realize we aren't the same church we used to be, and if we aren't sensitive to what God's doing in the world around us, the culture around us, and in our lives, we'll become very stale, very stagnant, and irrelevant very quickly. The natural thing is to sit and say, "This is great, don't change anything."
Here are a couple of things I think about what we want to be. We want to be an outward-focused church — it's so important. You saw that in the songs. We can fall into self-centeredness very quickly. I don't see any hint of that here, but I guarantee you it can happen like that if you're not outward-focused.
The minute you have problems in your life, the minute you have troubles in your life, here's the first thing I'm saying to you: who are you serving? Who are you reaching out to? Who are you mentoring? Because the minute I'm reaching out, I get my eyes off me and my situation, and all of a sudden I'm sensitive to those around me, and my problems get a little perspective around them. There used to be a sign hanging in the back here that said, "Considering I deserve hell, anything other than that is a pretty good day."
The Call to Evangelism
We need to be evangelistic. I think every church says this, but not many churches do it. That means we need to train toward that end. It means you need to be thinking that way, seeing the world and lost people, and seeing them as God sees them.
It means you're going to have to love lost people. It doesn't do them any good to sit down, fire Bible verses at them in a four spiritual laws presentation, and say, "Okay, I've been evangelistic." No — you've got to have a heart for these people. Lost people and dealing with them is messy.
Somebody came in during the first hour this morning and I said, "How was your week?" He said, "Not very good. I spent a bunch of time with a bunch of unbelieving people." Let me read to you what Paul writes to the church at Corinth. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9, he said:
> "Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminates, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, revilers, swindlers, drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God — and such were some of you."
That's who you were. Dealing with you when you were like that was not a very easy thing. It was messy, and it was sloppy.
Remembering Where We Came From
God has been very good to me in that He's blessed me with a very vivid memory of what my life was like when I wasn't a follower of Christ. I was not somebody that you'd want to be around or spend time with. I was self-absorbed. That whole world revolved around me. I was convinced that God had created all of this and then put me in the center of it — that I was the middle of the world, that everything was here to serve me and for my good pleasure, and that if people got hurt with me living that way, so be it.
Being around lost people is difficult. You have to love them, and you have to be with them. When Jerry Smith and Mike Posh came back from Uzbekistan — I think I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago — Jerry said something in the course of a conversation that just absolutely blew me away. He said that the Johnson family had decided not to live in the mission compound with the other mission families, but to live out in the community with the people.
I said, "Okay, I'm a little naive, I guess — all the missionaries go and live in the same house?" And he said yes. I said, "I don't get this. You're going from here to that culture. You have a huge problem in that you don't speak the language and you don't fit in to begin with, so you have to be assimilated into that culture — but then you retreat to your own little enclave at night? That doesn't seem right. How are you going to be salt and light if you don't have contact with the people around you? How are you going to proclaim the gospel if everybody around you is already a follower of Christ?"
I presume that you have a steady flow of pagans coming through your life. If not, then you better get a little more sensitive to it, because you run into them at the store, at the ballgame, when you're playing golf, when you shop, and probably at work. Our great privilege is to be called an ambassador for Jesus Christ — to proclaim the gospel to them. You're not a soul saver, you're not a soul winner. God does that. Your privilege is to proclaim the gospel.
Authenticity and Real Lives
This also needs to be a place that values authenticity and genuineness — real lives with real hurt and real pain. I made this comment during the first hour and somebody came up afterward and said, "I hear this all the time and it kills me." Let me tell you, it kills me too: people who are hurting, who come to this church, and feel that we are an arrogant, uncaring group. Someone may come racing up and say, "Oh, that wasn't my experience" — but let me tell you, it happens enough that it is what I hear when I go out.
going to put something on your tombstone. And that's it. That's your life. And basically what he said was, is that enough for you? Is that enough? And I found that really haunting because when you look at that, that's not enough. I want to stand before God and say I did something that mattered. I made a difference. And this place should help you do that.
Proclaming Truth While Showing Grace
Let me be clear about something. We started this series by talking about proclaiming the truth, and nothing has changed there. There is no threat that we are going to abandon that. But we also have to live this stuff out. And as you live, you are going to have hurt and you are going to have pain, and you are not always going to have a solid biblical response to that hurt and pain. Sometimes you are going to have a sinful response. Sometimes you are going to be so immersed in the hurt and pain that it gets awfully difficult, whatever it is. This should be a place where you can come and find relief, not condemnation.
I want to be honest with you. I do hear things from time to time. Someone will meet a person connected to our church, and within moments the conversation has turned into an argument over the doctrines of grace. And I think to myself: that is what you lead with? That is the thing you are talking about? I also hear descriptions of churches that have the doctrines of grace and election all figured out, and they are an arrogant group. Great places to be if you are a Christian and have your act together, but if you are hurting, it is a tough place to go because they tend to be judgmental. That does not sound like Christ's church to me.
When you hear words like that directed at your church, you had better take a hard look and examine your life. A church is not supposed to be a place where someone walks in hurting and immediately feels that no one cares. I understand all the tensions involved. We have to proclaim the truth — I get that completely. But we also have to be a place where the hurting find relief.
Celebrating What God Is Doing
This needs to be a place where you can celebrate. This needs to be a church where you rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep — celebrating what God is doing, even if it is not the way you would do it, even if God is doing things you would not expect Him to do. No one understands East Valley Bible Church better than I do. That is not arrogance; that is simply the truth. I am in front of all seven different services and I see all the different people, and I have a pretty clear sense of what is happening here.
Let me tell you something: God is working in every service and every venue. I hear stories of God saving people at the 8:30 service in the chapel, at 10:30 in the conference center, and at the 6:00 evening service. I hear it all the time. This needs to be a place that celebrates that — celebrates the diversity, celebrates what God is doing. Everything and everybody has a season, and if we do the same thing the same way to the same people, our season has passed.
The Crucial Fifteenth Year
There is something they say about businesses: one of the most crucial moments is the fifteenth year. By that point there is enough tradition that it begins to take over the cleverness, the creativity, and the new. Suddenly most of the conversations start with, "Here is how we have always done it." When you look at the front of that bulletin, you will notice: EVBC 15. We are at that crucial point right now.
When you apply that reality to churches, most experts — whatever that means — will tell you the fifteenth year is critical. Most churches that make it there and are fairly vibrant stall right at that mark. They begin a process of flattening out, atrophying, and generally shrinking until someone can come in and do everything that should have been done at year fifteen. We are not going to do that.
That is why, if you look at our core values, the last two we list are relevance and legacy. By relevance we mean: never, ever change the message, but always be willing to change the method if we need to, and always seek to understand the culture and the world we live in. By legacy we mean we have a passion and an influence that reaches beyond this campus and this generation. We have six or seven full-time men on staff in pastoral positions, and the oldest is twenty-nine. I love that. Whether those men ever end up serving God here for the rest of their lives — and I would guess most of them will not, maybe none of them will — they will serve God somewhere. We are about something beyond East Valley Bible Church. We are about a kingdom.
A Place Where You Get to Dream
God has done a unique work here with unique people, and I believe He will use that in a powerful way. And that brings me to my last point: this needs to be a place where you get to dream.
You are sitting here looking around, and what you see is the result of someone's dream. I talk to a lot of men about church planting, and I will ask them whether they have ever done it, and they hesitate. We started with nothing — no people, no money, no building — but a dream that God blessed and God honored, and He brought it all together. The dream is not done.
I love the subtitle of the book we have been referencing: *Welcome to God's Story*. God is working His way through history, and He is using you. He has put something on your heart. Maybe that dream gets fulfilled here on this campus. Maybe it does not. That does not matter, because we are about something bigger than East Valley Bible Church.
I was reading something recently — I meant to bring it in today and I will try to remember it tonight — in which a man was essentially describing a life. He said: here is your life. You are going to live. You are going to have a family. You are going to work. You are going to do a few things. You are going to die. They are going to put something on your tombstone. And that is it. And then he asked: is that enough for you?
I found that haunting. Because when you look at it plainly, that is not enough. I want to stand before God and say I did something that mattered, that I made a difference. This place should help you do exactly that.
Worship Without Favoritism
I want to be significant, and the only way to be significant is to be part of something significant. The most significant thing God has on this planet is His church. The most significant things God cares about are His Word, His people, and lost people.
You have heard me say this before, but it bears repeating: everything we do now, we will do better in heaven. Our worship will be more pure, our lives will be sin-free, our health will be perfect. Everything we do now, we will do better in heaven — except evangelism. We will not be doing any evangelism up there. So while I am here, that is the work He has given me.
There are not a lot of specifics in how that works out, but here is how you pursue it: you pray about it, you dream about it, you plan, you work your plan, and then you pray and readjust. That is all I am trying to convey — to get us back to the same baseline together.
What we are concerned about is God's teaching and God's Word. Worship styles are not meant to get in the way; they facilitate our ability to praise and worship our Lord. If different styles are a problem for you, then you have a problem. I do not care whether you like them all, but the question is: do you love what God is doing in all of them? That is what matters, and we are committed to that. It is not going to go away.
Guarding Against Worship Wars
When we talk about James chapter 2, verse 1 — favoritism and snobbery — do you not think that creeps into this whole worship debate? Someone sent me an email about worship wars. Wars over worship? Not here. That is not who we are. We are a place where the Word will never be compromised, and yet we understand that God continues to work in different ways and in different generations. It is our privilege to be part of it.
This has been a helpful, hopefully, mid-course adjustment — a reminder of who we are. We will be getting back into James shortly, though not next week.
Looking Ahead: Easter and Beyond
Next week is Palm Sunday and the Seder dinner, followed by Easter. I presume that for months you have been praying for people. I want you to know that we will have many people on campus on Easter who are not believers. With that in mind, I am going to take the four weeks after Easter and really target the questions: What does it mean to know Christ? What is wrong with us? What about the church?
Then, on May 21st — two days after the release of *The Da Vinci Code* on the 19th — I am going to have Chris Mueller teach that Sunday, addressing the film directly. That will be a bring-your-neighbor Sunday. I believe this will be an even bigger opportunity than *The Passion of the Christ*. With *The Passion*, we had many opportunities to talk with one another about how gruesome the crucifixion was. I think *The Da Vinci Code* is going to give you an opportunity to talk with unbelievers about the infallibility of Scripture, where we find truth, and who Jesus really is. It is going to be a great time.
That is where we are headed over the next seven weeks as you begin to plan your study. When we are done with that, we will return to our study in the book of James.
Closing Prayer
Father, help us see this truth. Do not let us become part of a posture that says it is all about me — a church built for me and my preferences. God, we want to come together. Whenever You put two people together, whether at work, at the club, or in a family, it can become complex. We praise You and thank You for what You have done. This is a wonderful reminder today of what a healthy place this is, and to Your glory and honor we thank You.
But we do not take that for granted. We know that past performance does not necessarily indicate future results. So God, we pray that we would be a church that continues to celebrate what You are doing, that would share this truth, and that You would continue to bless us as we obey You. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.