My Best Church Life - Week 1 - St. Peter - Pastor Tim Glende
My Best Church Life
Week 1 - St Peter
Pastor Tim Glende
Once again, welcome to our worship service today, to week number one of our 2023 mission and vision series entitled "My Best Church Life". As we talk about the roots, we're gonna look at them through a different lens because we want you to experience that God wants you to have that. As a part of his church, in a relationship with him and we as your pastors and a staff want you to have that, as a part of 922 Ministries, Saint Peter and The CORE.
Over the course of my 25 years of ministry. I've served two churches. And they could have been any more different.
Like the first Sunday I showed up at my church in Champaign-Urbana which then moved to Savoy, a suburb of that area. There were 12 people in worship. And six of them were my family.
Like the weekend before Labor Day here at 922, across, our two campuses in person in our seven services, they were 1498 only 1486 more.
Like, I can't get much more different than that.
Or how about confirmation? Like, every pastor teaches confirmation class. Well, every congregation teaches confirmation class during my eight years in Savoy, I confirm like four or five eighth graders, This last year alone, Pastor Bill's confirmation class here at 922 Ministries was 39.
One year here at 922. I had 20 different weddings in a year. Like I married five couples in eight years there.
Like I could go on and on about the list of things about those two churches that were different which it only reinforced to you that my experience at both places was extreme on one side of the other.
And you never tell you that there were things about both places that I loved about the experience.
Like, I would tell you that you can have Your best church life in a small church. And you can have your best church life in a big church. But you are not going to get the same thing at those churches.
Like, we want you to have your best church life, but as we're going to see in the course of this series, To really have that and appreciate that. And find that here at 922 is going to be important for you, to understand how your roots are so vital to it. What that looks like. And that it may be different than what you've experienced in the past or prefer in the present.
Because there's a whole lot of things about big churches that I love in this experience.
And there are things that I miss about exteriors.
I got to love that. There are three thousand plus people who are part of my church family here at 922.
But I don't know all my church family here at 922 by name like you can fire me if you want for that. But I'm just not able to have a clue.
But there in Illinois, I could. It was like cheers.
Like I know what the experience is. When you walk into a place and everybody knows your name, it's kind of good.
And, It's kind of bad.
Like in that small church, everybody knows everybody and is in everybody's business. Like family, some of you're still sitting next to each other in your family, that's good. Sometimes, there's tension in that and here, like, I don't know, most of what goes on in your life and the messy and the ugly and the things that frustrate, and that's okay.
But, It's not, okay. When you're life is messy and ugly and you want access to your pastors.
Anything might not be able to find anything. In the time that you prefer it.
I'm not saying we won't be there. I'm not saying that we can't but If you do the math with 3,000 members and five pastors, each of us are serving about 600 of you.
Like,
It's hard. To have a one-on-one intimate relationship with your members. When one of us would have to have 600 of those relationships, just to cover it.
And someone you think of today as we talk about your best church, life experience and we talk about the differences, the things you may have missed because your experience is probably similar to mine. You might have grown up in a small church and you miss some of those things because you're part of a big church, you might have grown up in this church. This group of people here doesn't usually the lifers of Saint Peter, but in my early service today, there are people literally sitting in the pews who are in their mid 70s to late 80s, who've never seen another church or experienced a different church life. But you know what? They've experienced small, medium or large in their life and they're probably things they miss.
About what it was like back then and love about what it is like right now. Maybe you came from a mega church, a church of over a thousand and you came here and it's different like the truth is we've all had different experiences there. The truth is, there are things we love about our church and this Experience and miss maybe from other experiences. And if I ask you which one you would prefer, you probably would struggle because you know what most people would prefer They would say their best life church experience comes from an ala carte menu.
Like, I'd like to order up the intimacy and the closeness, the access to the pastors and the staff. But, I love the big church facilities that are new and shiny. And the amazing talent and musicians that we have access to, at our two campuses. Like, trust me I know. Like I've prayed on a daily basis for God to send me one person who can play the piano at my small church.
And we got amazing, amazing talented people who get to be, get to be blessed by every week.
And so I want you to see this as we get into our series to understand a truth.
And it's gonna play throughout the entire series reading of the best church life experience, you have to have this truth in mind:
church size matters.
Church size matters when it comes to your best church life.
It's not that bigger is better.
Or smaller is better.
Neither is better and neither is better. They just are, they're different. What can be offered as different? I got a medium church, you get a little bit of both, but you can't do one thing maybe as well as you want. And a big church, you get amazing facilities because you have financial resources with a whole lot of staff, but you don't get a whole lot of closeness in worship.
I got a small church. You'll know everybody by name, but worship might not quite be the same from a dynamic perspective.
And then those are better and none of those are better. They just, they're different. And they matter, and here's why. Like if you're taking notes, right size church, expectations.
Our goal within this series is to help you have right-sized church expectations of your church. And right-sized church expectations will lead and allow you to have your best church life, your best church experience.
Here, being a big church, it doesn't make it better or better. But for your experience to be blessed for it to be best, you need to right-size your expectations of what you're going to get, what you're going to experience of the good that comes from it. The challenges that are a part of it, the things that you'll miss as a result of it.
And maybe, just maybe to help you understand that related to life, like having the right expectations and the phase, that season of life that you're in helps you have the best relational experience.
Helps you to have the best life. Like, there's nothing better or better about being single or married or married with kids dating. Like whatever season that you're in, neither is better or better. They all come with things that are good and things that you might appreciate and things that you might miss. So are the challenges. Like, there's a whole lot of good about being single. It's been a long time since I've been single, honey, just take this to heart. This is not a comment on you, she's not here today, but she might be watching. Like being single comes with its advantages, you set the schedule. You do what you want, when you want, with whom you want. And I can tell you, you can't. But guys, if you want to leave the toilet it up, when you're single, you can.
And unless you're dating, you don't even have to clean it as often as you might. Sorry, does that sound bad?
And, it's challenging because you're alone.
I can cut into designers to do life that way. Because good, and challenges and you get the right expectations when you're in that season. Or you won't have the best experience.
Take the opposite when you get married. Like there's amazing blessings to marriage. There's companionship and you get to do life with someone and spend time with someone. But you know what that means? You don't get to spend time with all the others, someone in your life, or do all the other things you like to do. Just gonna tell you dudes, if you like hunting and your whole life, when you were single, you hunted every day and every weekend through every season. Once you get married, you probably don't get to unless your wife likes to hunt. And even then, you probably won't. But if that's your expectation, your relationship is not going to be the best experience. Other guys are going, amen, Pastor ahead of really hard.
Like, if you're a feared dad. And God's blessed you with kids or your mom and God's blessed you with kids, but you want to live like a single dude. Like it's not going to go well.
Like you have responsibility, but it can be good. But it means you'll have less time for you.
Like, when we think about the church and our best church life through the lens of life, maybe you start to understand the tension that is real. It's not easy, it's not hard, but understanding the season that you're in the place that you're at, will help you have the right expectations and the best experience, and we want that for you. And we're doing this series right now at this time because we feel the rubber band is stretching. Like we are and have been for some time in a season of growth. But right now with our two campuses at both places like our church is growing at a very rapid, rapid pace. And there's a whole lot of things that about that are amazing. Like I love seeing people saved and they are saved regularly at 922. Like I love seeing a whole lot of people coming to contact with Jesus through our ministry, but every plus one is not just an extra rear end in a seat on Sunday, making it harder for you to find one. It's a tick up on the system and it's a challenge.
And we know this and we want you to know this and if we still want that for you, the best experience, and we believe the way to get that is to have the right expectations in light of the roots. So that's our compelling case for you today. And you might say, but Pastor Tim, is this really biblical? Well yeah, it's Biblical. Look at throughout the Old Testament and New Testament. You see times when God's church was challenged with growth and they had to deal with it and address it and understand it. And not one way or one size is better or better, but it's reality the early Christian church and Acts chapter 6 is only a few chapters maybe weeks or months after Pentecost. But if you don't happen from Acts chapter 1 to Acts chapter 6, actually. 1 tells us the Christian church, 12, disciples, a hundred people that was the church. Could you imagine that amazing ratio 10 members for every pastor? Like they knew them by name, Peter knew everybody who gathered on Sunday. John knew everybody when he would go and visit them. Like, they all knew everybody. It was small. It was tiny. They were close. They, they love each other, but in Acts chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, the church exploded 3,000 people came to faith. Like, whoa, can you imagine that Peter left, that day going. Praise the Lord for 3,000 baptisms. Many probably went home again. Oh my goodness. What am I gonna do with 3,000 people? How do I serve them?
Next chapter 4 tells us the church grew into over 5,000 plus men not counting women and children. Acts chapter 5 says more and more are added every day. The system keeps changing And then next chapter 6 tells us, here's what happens in the midst of of growth, which can be messy. Its such a blessing in those days when the number of disciples were increasing the hellenistic Jews complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
The expectation had not changed.
But they're experience was definitely not so good.
My favorite is expecting service for a hundred by the same people. The same time in the same way, but the rest of the chapter goes on and tells it was impossible for the apostles to continue to do all that, like the 12 apostles were the ones going to all these people all the time.
The system had to change where the people's experience was, not going to be blessed.
And if you read through the rest of Acts chapter 6, they addressed it, they put a system in place. They put other people under them to help serve other people. Like when Jesus’ church began to change things had to change.
And I know that's hard. And that's why this whole series is so important because we don't want you to get bitter. We don't want to leave you complaining.
Because the experience maybe has changed, or isn't what you're familiar with. Which is why we we want you to see and understand, you know, church size matters. There's a whole lot of good and amazing about the size of church that we are a whole lot. We're gonna celebrate that. We're gonna talk about that and there's a whole lot that you'll miss from the other sizes.
And so you can either write expectations and understand our goal is to help you have the best church life possible by having strong Jesus roots. I believe you will experience the best church life you can here at 922. Like, we are a sinful group of people, we as pastors will make mistakes, but sometimes forget to follow up when we should.
Let us know, forgive us when we do. Reach out to us. If we've hurt, we'll try and figure out a solution. Because here's the truth that is underlying your best church life experience. We want you to have the right expectations and have the best experience church size matters. But hear this loud and clear: in order to get that and have that, in order for us to best, be able to serve you, in doing that understand and know that your roots matter.
Like at the end of the day to have your best church life, your roots matter. We want you to have the right expectations within all the roots. We want to understand the reasons for all the roots. We want you to plant deeper roots because we know that through them, you look, experienced the spirits fruits that you will experience. What it's like to be a part of the church of God and all the amazing blessings that come along with it as you leave this place. Your roots matter, in order for you to experience your best church life.
So with all those things in the background of the series, the tension that's a part of it. But start with the top root, the first root, the root that we talked about from the words of Hebrews and be reminded of why it matters.
Because God says, it does.
But God says, “Gather”. Remember the Sabbath day in Old Testament commandment, New Testament words to the Christians, that the writer of the Hebrews says, do not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. Like worship is an amazing biblical church that God calls us people to, Because he knows the blessing that comes from it. Like, if you have no other room but you have a regular Gather root on a weekly basis, you'll experience joy and hope and peace found in the message that central to everything that takes place right here in our church, that you have a Savior who lived for you, and loved you, and walked through life perfectly.
Like none of us are perfect.
And it's so easy to be overwhelmed with guilt when we don't hit the target. It's so easy to be consumed with doubt when we wonder about God and life. It's so easy to feel shame for our shortcomings and forget about our identity. But here, when you gather, why do your roots matter? Your best church life experience begins with gathering because it's here.
Where 200 proof grace and truth is proclaimed. It's here where you celebrate the sacrament. Like if today you came here and this last week was not your best. Today, you're going to have the chance after having confessed those sins to come before God and he'll give you his best, His very body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. Like gathering, it's such an amazing thing. If you want your best church life experience, I need you to to understand it because that root matters and is key to everything else.
But you heard the words before, from Hebrews chapter 10, can I encourage you again? Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Like I get to do life with 80 of my best church, friends, Monday through Thursday and on Sunday, when I'm in the office like my world revolves around them, we intersect all the time, I see them at one campus or the other because I I go to both places regularly on a weekly basis. We get to encourage one another in our meetings, spur one another on. But most of you don't.
But here, when we gather, we get to agree with one another to stop and pause and encourage one another. We'll get to pray for members of our church who are hurting that we can carry home. Like we can praise together and sing together and spur one another on to our love and good deeds to share the amazing love of God, like gathering allows us the opportunity to do something together and learn about him together.
And sadly in this sinful world. Our best church life is an experience most often because we don't.
Like it takes a lot from me to lock those doors and close them down for a Sunday or a midweek service, even during winter.
Like, for the most part, these doors are open and that online service will happen. But I can't make you come or turn it on.
So maybe can I just encourage you to today, as we reflect you want your best church life, how is your church life, your gather life, if your gather root been over the last summer.
How's it been in 2023?
Like, be honest.
And hear this, it's okay.
But Jesus loves you, you are forgiven. I am so glad you're here.
And maybe, just maybe this is a new start as we look for our best church life to gather a little bit more. So we can hear the amazing love of Jesus who came to our earth so that we could gather with him for eternity.
And we are a church family. You want to be able to encourage all of you and gathering.
Like I said before, I knew the face of every person in my small little church, when they walked through the door, like after church was over, I could go to the computer and check the boxes for them that they gathered, I knew who had it and who I wanted to encourage and reach out to and spur on because gathering is so important to the Christian life. The Christian faith to grow in peace and joy and hope like I didn't need these.
Like literally. I would just rip them up and never put them in front of you. Sorry about that.
But here we have two campuses, you cross over a whole lot, you worship online at times, our pastors don't know every face who is in the place on a regular basis. It's why we ask you to fill out the card, not to check up on you in a bad way. But to encourage you in a good one, like a big church size matters. We need to system different than the pastor knowing every face and calling every person. And so we were ask you to help us know that your gathering. So we can encourage everybody to gather and when they're not, reach out to them in a way that is manageable and doable. Some of you may have gotten emails from Pastor Jim and the One team. And some of them might have been a mistake because you don't believe in that card. Like I get it. Back in the day, the pastor knew your name.
Okay, I asked you to consider it if you don't. Check in when you do.
If I left anybody out, if you missed, we want to encourage you. If your root, isn't quite as strong, because we know how important it is for you and Jesus to have that church, life relationship with him. In place.
Like your roots matter, the gather root matters. It's in God's house where we hear of hope and peace and love enjoying Jesus.
Here's what I want you to know. Like no matter what size church you attend?
I pray that you get that. I believe in our circle, you'll get that. But there are blessings that come from being a part of a big church and gathering like the gather it is in vital and important for you, but I want you to see what the blessings are and the challenges of gathering in a big church, three things that I want you to take away today, three things that I pray you would go home to God thanking him for and seeing in your church and celebrating and also the challenges to watch out for.
The first one, is this three gathered blessings. The first one is this: it gives us a glimpse of heaven. Like in heaven when you get there when we join all the believers who are there, it'll be like the experience for John and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count. Like the ushers had to walk around today in a service like this. They can't see the little kids heads. I think I'm gonna add 20 to the count because they're so little. Just kidding.
And having you will not be able to count the number of heads. Like a blessing of being a part of a big church. And we are a big church like within our own circles of a Synod are two church campuses alone on a regular basis worship in the top five of a thousand plus churches alone. Together. It's the largest and I'm not saying at the brand, I'm saying that to understand the reality. What you get to experience. When you gather one of our two church campuses, especially when you gather here at nine, downtown at 10:30 and maybe even 8:30 right now. Like, you get a little glimpse of heaven, on a weekly basis, and then in the holidays, when these places are packed, at extra season, they put up like it is a beautiful thing. I closed my ears and listened today. When you guys were singing that last song and It's awesome in a large gathering when God's people are joining together. It's a glimpse of heaven. Like praise God for the glimpse of heaven, you get on a regular basis. Did you know, the average, the median church in America that worships on a Sunday averages total, 65. 65. We do not have a service of the seven across our service schedule in person. Thursday night is close. That is under the median or average, all of them are bigger, which has this benefit and blessing.
You get a little glimpse of having. People of every age of different races, male and female, young and old. Like all the above.
He is an amazing blessing. And the challenge with that in a big church that has big resources, that has amazing facilities and talented people. And does things a little bit differently. Sometimes a challenge in that is that we forget about the glimpse of heaven. And we get consumed with making sure you see what we do. It's a show. That's a danger. It's a challenge. And we need to be aware of it. Because we make it about us, we forget it's about that. So pray for us in that as leaders in as a church. But celebrate that you get a glimpse of heaven on a weekly basis, being a part of a big gathering number two, it is a great place for guests.
I know you guys over here. Greeted today. Did you know everyone who came in here if they were a member of 922 or not? No, you know, some, not all. So you, I hope you got from the people who are greeting on your way in was the same. Whether you are 922 member or not, Like a guest can come in here and not be afraid even though it's scary because they know they're not going to be pounced on. Trust me. I know what that's like. I had a small church and when we saw a guest it was like,”What's your name? Where do you live? Why did you come here? How many kids do you have? What do you do for a living? Do you do anything in church? I'd love to meet. You can't come over to your house. I'll call you.”
That was a little showy, sorry, but if you are a guest and I did that to you, you would never come back. Some of you are here today are guests, we're glad you're here. We're not going to ask anything of you. We'd love for you to come back but I won't know. And my guests, I'd love to meet you, but that's a great place for guests for us to practice hospitality to strangers. And it's also an easy place to fall through the cracks.
Like there are some of you who are members of our church who like to slink in and slink out and not get connected to anybody and you can.
And a big church can have a whole lot of blessings to guests, but sometimes when you go beyond, you can just show up and you can leave. And no one knows. Don't do that.
It's not good for you to do that. It's not your best church life experience to do that.
That's why the gather route is so important that for us to encourage one another. As we see one another, as we do it on a regular basis but it makes a great place for guests when we can offer what we do and treat them just like everybody else.
Number three, last one. It blesses many lives with 200 proof grace and truth. The angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents. It doesn't matter if your big or small, God is so pleased as people reach out as they exercise, their go root and as they gather together. But can I just convince you and encourage you to say a blessing of being in a big place as you get to see thousands of lives on a weekly basis blessed?
375 kids walk through the doors Monday through Friday and their Jesus roots are blessed. They are told about their savior and the love of God, on a regular basis. 375 people. Go home, telling mom, and dad about the joy that they found in their story. Like lives are changed each and every day in those classrooms 375 of them. 1500 people gather on a weekly basis right now, at 922, I hear stories from both campuses. The people who leave this place and say, I need this and together weekly because it blesses me in my life in the week ahead, the truth that I hear the grace that I get helps me in the world, in which I live. Like lives are changed over the last year. 79 adults were confirmed or baptized, 79. Kids were baptized, do I need to give you anything else other than for you to say an Amen? Like this is an amazing place for thousands of lives on a weekly basis are blessed with 200 proof grace, the love of God, the forgiveness that is there's and truth about their sin and about their savior. And that is an amazing thing.
That is a praise God thing.
Is what the disciples did in the early Christian church and the Lord continued to add to their number. Like, we are in a season of growth right here. I don't know how long it will go on and how long we’ll be a big church. I don't know what God has in store for 922, but this is who we are. And this is one of the most amazing blessings of it.
So many lives are impacted that God is hard at work through you and me and your church to God be the glory, to God get the credit. Jesus be praised and you know what the the challenge of that is the downfall that is?
Nothing. Nothing. Only blessing. Which is why I love this church.
Like we offer a variety, we begin glimpses of that glory in our big gatherings. We get to meet guests, where they're at.
Which is why I was so proud when I heard about her.
About two months ago, I got an email from a lady saying that a friend of yours told me about your church. Can you give me a little insight? Before I c ome,like what should I expect? I'm like, oh boy. They're crazy people that don't just get it. Like 7:30 and Thursday, we have traditional, 9 and 10:30, we have a band. Downtown campus is an amazing place. Like we have a sermon series, we offer a whole bunch of things to come as you are. People dress up, people don't dress up. They wear their Packer gear during packer season. Can I get an Amen? All right.
And I said, we welcome you. She did come. And I didn't know what she looked like. I didn't have her name and she came, she slinked in. She sat in the back. She didn't introduce herself before church. I didn't know it was her. I didn't think of her as a guest or not because it could have been one of you that I haven't met yet. But after church, she introduced herself and said, thank you so much. For I love being here. And I'm like, that's great to hear. She says, I was welcomed on the way in, and I'll be back.
And I got her card that she filled out. And she checks the boxes: serve, membership, talk to the pastor, I'm like, when I talked to her, she literally said, “The message was what I needed. I haven't set foot in church for three years. The person I work with told me to check out his church because it's a great place with great people and you’ll be blessed with what you hear.” And she said, “I'm all in.”
See? Your roots matter what you do here, when you gather matters, what God is doing right now, here, as we gather, matters. Over the course of the series we're going to see that the church size matters, but we want your best church life experience. And today it begins with what you're doing right now. Whether here in person or online, do not give up getting together as summer and how to do it. But gather, and as you do, you will experience your best church life and relationship with God.
