Introduction
I hope you have been enjoying this little series of talks on why we do what we do; why we invest so much into youth ministry, why we place such a high value on work among children and families and why we care about retired people.
All Saints’ is a missional church. We know that the church worldwide is potentially only a few decades away from extinction.
If this generation of believers doesn’t tell this generation of unbelievers what we were told about Jesus there will be no church after we’ve gone.
Why should we tell other people? The first reason is because Jesus commanded us to go and to tell. The word “go” appears in the Bible 1514 times. It appears 233 times in the New Testament and 54 times in Matthew’s Gospel alone. Jesus said “Go to the lost sheep.” “Go and invite those you meet.” “Go and make disciples.”
The second reason is because of the needs of other people. The singer Sinead O’Connor said this, “As a race we feel empty because our spirituality has been wiped out, and we don’t know how to express ourselves. And as a result we’re encouraged to fill that gap with alcohol, drugs, sex, or money. People out there” she adds, “are screaming for the truth.”
So far this year, we have been focusing on our priorities for mission in our own community here. I hope you have a much better feel for what goes on here all through the week in this place. But as we draw towards the close of this series, I want to share a little about why we see ourselves as a resource - for other churches and communities as well.
All Saints’ is like a storehouse. If we try and keep it to ourselves it will just go mouldy. It’s no use having a storehouse full of grain when there are people outside dying for a loaf of bread. God is pouring out abundant blessings here and we want to give it away.
Let me give you three examples of how this works.
1. Resourcing Saint Mary’s
First of all, we are committed to our association with Saint Mary’s. We’ve been working with Saint Mary’s for about 15 years now. When All Saints’ began that partnership, Saint Mary’s did not look like a very promising mission field.
It was a church with a demoralised congregation of about 8 rattling about in a building with hard pews and no heating. It was excessively traditional. There was limited contact between the church and the school in the village.
Frankly, it was a prime candidate for closure. It was not a viable church.
But the Scriptures say that “God gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.” (Romans 4.17).
We were inspired by the vision and dynamism of the early church.
In our reading from Acts 11 this morning you see a compelling picture of what the church should be like. It was a mobile movement with travelling leaders, imparting different gifts and graces.
In just 11 verses, six different places are named; Phoenicia, Cyprus, Antioch, Cyrene, Jerusalem and Tarsus as well as reference to the entire Roman world. So it wasn’t “you in your small corner and I in mine.”
Five distinct and different ministries are mentioned; evangelists, teachers, encouragers and prophets as well as sharing financial resources so the poorest are helped to flourish.
Four different named individuals (Stephen, Saul, Barnabas and Agabus) are mentioned as well as a reference to unnamed groups of itinerant believers. All that in just 11 verses.
We believe in this model. We don’t say “All is going well at All Saints’ – too bad for everyone else.”
And the Bible says that God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3.20) doesn’t it?
So this is what happened at Saint Mary’s:
We planted out some of our people there. We prayed around the village and prophesied over it. There was a bit of spiritual warfare to do; binding and loosing. Work got started on the building.
By the grace of God, we put some sound foundations back in there. For example, Saint Mary’s started giving away the first 10% of its income to mission outside the church. We went into the school with assemblies and worship and started a fresh expression service called Godzone. As the church grew, we trained some of their people in leadership – and that led to further growth and health.
Now, 15 years on or so, the building has been reordered with toilets (alleluia!) and a kitchen area. The seating is no longer like a medieval instrument of torture!
There is a friendly feel to it and the preaching there, led by a very capable team of lay people, is sound, Bible based and relevant to people’s lives.
Sunday attendance now regularly reaches around 50-60. In the short time I’ve been here in the North East the numbers of people coming on Sunday at Saint Mary’s have increased by 80% - something I take little credit for as I’m only there one Sunday a month (though obviously in midweek as well). There's a great team of lay leaders there really doing a brilliant job.
Giving has gone up from £3,000 a year to £17,000 a year in the last 12 years there.
There’s an explosion of spiritual life in the school now.
None of that would have happened, in my view, without the giving heart and missionary spirit at All Saints’. And yet, all the glory to God. As the Bible says, "one planted, another watered but God gave the growth." (1 Corinthians 3.6).
We’re doing an Alpha course at Saint Mary’s after Easter. Over half the speakers will be from All Saints’ so we’re still investing ministry there and giving away some of the blessing God has poured into us here.
The more we give away, ministry wise, the more the kingdom grows, and the more the kingdom grows, the more grace returns to us.
Jesus made this very clear when he talked about giving out in Luke 6.32 (and this isn’t just about money, it’s about our whole approach to life): “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.”
In other words, as we give out, freely and not counting, the Lord pours back in – and more abundantly still.
No one can ever say to God “you owe me one.” He always supplies abundantly over and above all we dare to expend.
2. The Church Tithe
Secondly, for years now, All Saints’ has given away the first £1 for every £10 we receive. We give it away to support mission and works of mercy, both locally and internationally. Why do we do that?
Frankly, it was a prime candidate for closure. It was not a viable church.
But the Scriptures say that “God gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.” (Romans 4.17).
We were inspired by the vision and dynamism of the early church.
In our reading from Acts 11 this morning you see a compelling picture of what the church should be like. It was a mobile movement with travelling leaders, imparting different gifts and graces.
In just 11 verses, six different places are named; Phoenicia, Cyprus, Antioch, Cyrene, Jerusalem and Tarsus as well as reference to the entire Roman world. So it wasn’t “you in your small corner and I in mine.”
Five distinct and different ministries are mentioned; evangelists, teachers, encouragers and prophets as well as sharing financial resources so the poorest are helped to flourish.
Four different named individuals (Stephen, Saul, Barnabas and Agabus) are mentioned as well as a reference to unnamed groups of itinerant believers. All that in just 11 verses.
We believe in this model. We don’t say “All is going well at All Saints’ – too bad for everyone else.”
And the Bible says that God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3.20) doesn’t it?
So this is what happened at Saint Mary’s:
We planted out some of our people there. We prayed around the village and prophesied over it. There was a bit of spiritual warfare to do; binding and loosing. Work got started on the building.
By the grace of God, we put some sound foundations back in there. For example, Saint Mary’s started giving away the first 10% of its income to mission outside the church. We went into the school with assemblies and worship and started a fresh expression service called Godzone. As the church grew, we trained some of their people in leadership – and that led to further growth and health.
Now, 15 years on or so, the building has been reordered with toilets (alleluia!) and a kitchen area. The seating is no longer like a medieval instrument of torture!
There is a friendly feel to it and the preaching there, led by a very capable team of lay people, is sound, Bible based and relevant to people’s lives.
Sunday attendance now regularly reaches around 50-60. In the short time I’ve been here in the North East the numbers of people coming on Sunday at Saint Mary’s have increased by 80% - something I take little credit for as I’m only there one Sunday a month (though obviously in midweek as well). There's a great team of lay leaders there really doing a brilliant job.
Giving has gone up from £3,000 a year to £17,000 a year in the last 12 years there.
There’s an explosion of spiritual life in the school now.
None of that would have happened, in my view, without the giving heart and missionary spirit at All Saints’. And yet, all the glory to God. As the Bible says, "one planted, another watered but God gave the growth." (1 Corinthians 3.6).
We’re doing an Alpha course at Saint Mary’s after Easter. Over half the speakers will be from All Saints’ so we’re still investing ministry there and giving away some of the blessing God has poured into us here.
The more we give away, ministry wise, the more the kingdom grows, and the more the kingdom grows, the more grace returns to us.
Jesus made this very clear when he talked about giving out in Luke 6.32 (and this isn’t just about money, it’s about our whole approach to life): “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.”
In other words, as we give out, freely and not counting, the Lord pours back in – and more abundantly still.
No one can ever say to God “you owe me one.” He always supplies abundantly over and above all we dare to expend.
2. The Church Tithe
Secondly, for years now, All Saints’ has given away the first £1 for every £10 we receive. We give it away to support mission and works of mercy, both locally and internationally. Why do we do that?
Because we want to feed the hungry and clothe the naked as the Lord has commanded. As we do that to them, he says we’re doing it to him.
And because we want to minister healing and wholeness to the sick and broken as Jesus has commissioned us to do.
And because we want to see churches planted all over the earth, especially where Jesus is not known, in obedience to his great commission.
“Go and make disciples” he said, “of all nations, baptising them and teaching them to obey everything have commanded you – and surely I am with you ‘till the end of the age.” (Matthew 28.19-20).
By the way, if you’re not really feeling the Lord’s presence at the moment, go and make a disciple. That is the context of Jesus’ promise to be with you. Go and tell someone about the Lord or share something that you have learned about Jesus with a younger Christian.
We want to have an impact way beyond Eaglescliffe.
William Wilberforce, as a Christian believer, worked to abolish the slave trade. Martin Luther King, as a Christian leader, campaigned against racism. 60% of AIDS help programmes in Africa are run by churches. Christians get involved in acts of kindness, most of which never get noticed or make the headlines. Our tithe contributes to that work of global mission.
Last year, thank God, we were able to give away about £18,000 (one tenth of our total income) because of our principle that, whatever our needs here, however pressing they are, the first tenth is the Lord’s.
If every Christian and every church on Earth gave away their first tenth, trusting God to look after them with the 90% left over, the resources would be in place for the entire world to be evangelised within two generations.
Where did we get this figure of 10% from? We got it from Malachi 3.10 which says,
“’Bring the whole tithe [meaning 10%] into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.’”
And we testify today that God has abundantly blessed us – but take in the truth of God’s word this morning; God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.
3. Parish Share
The third way that we act as a store house church, giving away blessing to others, is through what we call Parish Share. This year, 2013, we are committing £83,000 (that’s huge, that’s about 46% of our income) to this – so it’s the biggest single budget item we have.
The pie chart you see projected represents how All Saints’ will spend its money this year. The orange area is the tithe I just talked about. The green area on the left is our own ministry costs; staff salaries, outreach and so on. The white area is everything else; insurance, admin, maintenance etc. And the blue area is Parish Share.
What does that blue chunk of pie go on and why is it such a massive slice? Why are spending so much on that?
Well, firstly Parish Share pays for clergy training, salaries, pensions and housing. Part of Parish Share isn’t really giving out to others at all because it includes the cost of providing ordained leadership here.
But most of our Parish Share goes on supporting mission and ministry elsewhere. Some people think that the Church of England is publicly funded in some way; it isn’t. All its income comes from its giving members.
If you’re not from an Anglican background, this is perhaps hard to get your head round. But the thinking goes like this: the Church of England is the only church in this country that is absolutely committed to ensuring that there is a Christian witness and community in every corner of the nation.
And that means that the more prosperous parishes voluntarily support mission and ministry in poorer areas. It’s not a tax we have to pay. It’s a share we choose to commit to out of principle.
We don’t want the Church of England to only be for the rich and privileged. So Parish Share is a love offering.
It’s a bit like what we read in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 this morning where Paul writes to the prosperous Corinthian church about the church in Jerusalem suffering from the famine that was prophesied in the Acts reading.
He says: “Your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality… And [God] will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 8.14 and 9.10).
We’re seeing a harvest. 'M' and 'S', with us this morning, are living testimony to that. They have converted to Christ and in one year have led 34 of their fellow countrymen and women to Jesus. That ministry is supported indirectly by you at All Saints'.
Stockton Parish Church was on the verge of closure five years ago. Like Saint Mary’s, it was just not viable. Any businessman would have shut it down. But nothing is impossible with God.
Thank God that he called Alan Farish, my predecessor here, to pioneer new ministry there. God has answered our prayers and blessed that work.
But here’s the thing; humanly speaking they would never have been able to do it without the support of Parish Share. But our sharing in their need has enabled the church to be built up under God.
Remember what Jesus said: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (Matthew 13.31).
Parish Share supports hundreds of similar situations elsewhere. To all of you who are givers – thank you for your partnership in the gospel. Be blessed today. Your generosity is empowering the church in our region and changing the face of our communities.
It’s ironic that this is the first Sunday at All Saints’ since Janet’s death. She was a passionate supporter of parish share on PCC and she was always exhorting us to give away more by faith, trusting that the Lord would pour back to us exceedingly abundantly more grace. I know she would have been nodding enthusiastically all through this sermon were she with us this morning.
Ending
We know All Saints’ is all about reaching out to this immediate parish. That’s our mission field. But let’s own our vision for the wider church.
Having an exceptionally generous heart for mission and ministry further afield is the difference between a good church and a great church.
Let’s be a great church, a storehouse church, living by faith in our great God.
Shall we stand…
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 3rd February 2013
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