As we navigate the mission of the church and its embrace of inclusivity, we confront the dangers of complacency and the transformative power of forgiveness and spiritual freedom. The conversation turns to the church's role in welcoming each unique journey with open arms, casting aside stagnant waters for the flowing streams of life that lead us to Jesus. The church isn't just a place of sitting; it's one of sending, and we dissect the imperatives of spreading our message far and wide, inspiring others to join us on this fulfilling pursuit.
Looking ahead, we explore how to usher in Generation Z with open doors, adapting our approach to technology and community spaces to meet them where they are. Let's gather, grow, and guide each other home—this is what Fierce Church is all about.
As we navigate the mission of the church and its embrace of inclusivity, we confront the dangers of complacency and the transformative power of forgiveness and spiritual freedom. The conversation turns to the church's role in welcoming each unique journey with open arms, casting aside stagnant waters for the flowing streams of life that lead us to Jesus. The church isn't just a place of sitting; it's one of sending, and we dissect the imperatives of spreading our message far and wide, inspiring others to join us on this fulfilling pursuit.
Looking ahead, we explore how to usher in Generation Z with open doors, adapting our approach to technology and community spaces to meet them where they are. Let's gather, grow, and guide each other home—this is what Fierce Church is all about.
Hey, what up? It's Mark Carter. I'm the pastor of Fierce Church. Welcome to our podcast. I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today. I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you. Enjoy the message. Welcome back to the Connect Class series. My name is Pastor Mark. If you're new with us, you picked a great series to join us.
Speaker 1:Things are a little bit different in here, in the physical experience right now, instead of rows, people are in circles around tables, because in the Connect class series we're revisioning what is the church supposed to be being and doing and we're trying to get to know one another better, so it feels more like family. Now this is week three of five, so there's only two more weeks after this where we're going to be set up like this. But remember what we learned the first week. We learned that the church should be a place where people experience Jesus' kindness, people should experience his voice and presence and everybody should experience the preeminent message. There's a lot of good things to say and the preeminent message is the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the message that Jesus wants a personal relationship with all of us and he wants to forgive our sins in order for that to be a close relationship. Now, one of the things we've been talking about is the fierce code. That's kind of the value set. It's things that guide us as a church, and one of the things we said in the first week was no one gets healthier on cake, and that's a little bit of a strange thing to say, but what we're doing is we're riffing a little bit on a biblical metaphor of milk and meat. Milk is really teaching and messages. That is a little bit challenging, but it's made for folks that they're not necessarily acclimated to the Jesus and Christian things yet, and that moves on to meat, which is a little bit more of a challenge. It's a little bit more hearty and it challenges us to keep taking steps. A little bit more of a challenge. It's a little bit more hearty and it challenges us to keep taking steps a little bit more. What we're saying as a church is we need to give everybody milk and then move people up to meat, and that requires taking spiritual growth steps.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm a guy. I like to be encouraged. You probably like to be encouraged. I like to come to church and get encouraged and there's sometimes I'm so down and low. I need just to hear a straight message of like you can do it and don't give up and God's on your side and everything's going to go great. That is an awesome message that we always need. But we always get that message. That's a little bit like always eating cake it's good to have cake. It's not good to have cake always. So we need milk and meat so we can keep on taking our spiritual growth steps.
Speaker 1:Okay now in week two, we said the church is a people, not a place, and the people are together. In other words, jesus wants me to follow Jesus with other people who are following Jesus. Another fierce code that we said was the best you is in community. And we said God, things take time. That means we can't roll in and just have instant besties and lifelong friends. No, it takes some time getting to know people and putting ourselves in places where we're going to get to know more and more people so we can walk with them as we walk with Jesus. Now one more review idea before we break up for the first time and then come back with some live teaching from me.
Speaker 1:One of the most important ideas of this series is that we need to keep taking spiritual growth steps. Stagnation is our enemy. This is why sometimes I know this has happened to me, it might have happened to you you can go into a church and you just sit there for months, six months a year, and it's deceptive a little bit because it feels like, well, I'm here, I'm probably growing, you're probably being encouraged and there might be some good truth that you're hearing. But that's different than growing and taking steps. There are very specific steps the Bible gives us to keep taking so that we keep growing closer and closer to Jesus Christ. We have all always got steps to take. There are things God is. As I go. He's going to give me impulses and leadings to begin to obey him in some area or another. It will be the same way for you, and one of the things that holds us back sometimes is really just fear. There's something out behind that door like I think that might even be good, but I get afraid. You know, maybe it was even just coming. Here would be the next step for you. Like, well done, you did your next step For some of you sitting at that table, even though you're an introvert and you don't really want to talk to anybody.
Speaker 1:Nevertheless, staying put is actually a next step. Whatever it is, can I just encourage you? Don't be afraid, and sometimes it's just good for us to ask ourselves when was the last time that I did something for the first time for Jesus Christ? If it's been a long time, it's probably time for me to take a step. Okay, now we're going to go into our groups and your first breakout question, the kind of softball one. If you just want to do something pretty simple, lots of tables do that is. What do you like about that? Like everything we just shared I know it was review for some. What do you like about that? Here's a level two question. If you want to go a little bit deeper, share a time when fear was actually holding you back from doing something, but when you did it, it had a very life-giving effect on your life. All right, guys, now it's time to do your breakouts. If you're here in the auditorium, go ahead and, you know, answer those questions. If you're watching online, feel free just to engage with the host or other people online.
Speaker 1:So today we're talking about are we going to sit or are we going to know that we're sent Right before he ascends back into heaven? Jesus says something very important to his disciples he's coaching them and you know, as a coach, you want to make sure your team knows what they're supposed to do. I mean, let's come back to the fundamentals. What is supposed to be going on here? Here's what he says. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you, and surely I'm with you always, to the very end of the age. What Jesus knows, and these guys don't necessarily know, is there's going to be difficult times up ahead for the disciples as they go forth in Jesus' name and try to do this thing of making other disciples. They're going to face challenges and what Jesus wants them to understand is just what he wants us to understand, and that's number one.
Speaker 1:When tempted to step back, the church steps up. When tempted to step back, the church steps up. When tempted to step back, the church steps up. So, jesus talking to his guys, giving them the vision he wants all of them to know, what all of us to know, really all churches to know. You've been given a charge. You've been sent into the world with a very specific and special message, and the message is this you're invited to get to know Jesus personally and relationally, to become part of his family, for him to forgive all of your sin and to make you something that you could never be on your own.
Speaker 1:We are sent. Now here's the thing for us here at Fierce If we don't know that we're sent, it won't be long before we just sit. If we don't know that we're sent, it won't be long before we just said you've seen this before. You've seen all kinds of organizations. Really, all you really do is you come in and you say probably some of you have meetings that you're in at work and you're like I don't really. I go there and sit, they don't have me do anything.
Speaker 1:And that is sometimes what church can be like. And Jesus wants us, his disciples and us, to know. That's not what my church is supposed to know that you were sent. He invites us to believe and to belong, and often to belong even before we believe. He wants everyone to feel like they can come to the table, wherever they've been, whatever they've been doing, and he says baptizing them in the name of the Father, son and the Holy Spirit. This baptism idea Father, son and Holy Spirit, when someone is baptized we're gonna see some baptisms later today they're displaying outwardly something that's already happening on the inside. And what is happening is they're saying I'm walking in this reality that Jesus has made me part of his family. He has forgiven my sin. I know it, I love it, I love feeling not guilty. He is the one who is starting to make me more into his image. I'm bearing more and more family resemblance. When you get a new member of your family, probably they look a lot like you. There's a family resemblance and the more and the longer that we walk with Jesus Christ, that family resemblance keeps coming out more and more and more. He's transforming us. Now I'm going to be a little bit figurative here for a second.
Speaker 1:We talk a lot about the Bible and different ways the Bible talks, but one of the ways we could talk about it is the worldview of the Bible is that everybody, everybody, everybody is a captive. They're a captive to their own sin. They're a captive to kind of like the world system. They're captive to the opinions of other people. And Jesus comes and he says I want to break you out, but really not everyone is looking to be.
Speaker 1:There are some, we could call them the seekers of the water of life. See, they're not satisfied with the world. They're like man I've tried this and I've tried that and I'm a little like you, really think it's Jesus. It is Jesus is the real thing that you're looking for. And so, these seekers of the water of life, they go and they find him and, oh my gosh, it's just so good because they begin to, for the first time, spiritually. They realize I was spiritually blind before on some levels, maybe not on every level, but on some levels and they come spiritually blind, they come wounded. But the more they begin to drink the water of life, the more they're like, oh my gosh, I start to see, oh my gosh, some of my wounds, they're getting healed. And the more and more they do it, the better and better it gets. And so what do we do? More and more they do it, the more the better and better it gets.
Speaker 1:I said what do we do? Well, he said teaching them to obey everything. I commanded you, my friends, what the church does, everyone who can drink the water of life. What that means is just to clarify means. You're walking hand in hand, relationally, with Jesus Christ. You're reading his word, you're feeling the good things of his spirit, you're learning to know him more and more and more, just like when you start dating somebody. You start dating somebody and you start. You don't know them that great, but you keep. You keep hanging out, baby, and you're going to get to know them more and more and more. You keep hanging out with Jesus and you're going to get to know him more and more.
Speaker 1:Now, to help other people drink the water of life, here's what we got to do. We got to drink the water of life. See, the blind I mean this in a figured way. The blind will follow anyone who can see. If they sense that you can see, they're like this person. They get it. Man, they're connected with something that I don't have and so I want to get whatever it is they've got. So we teach folks how to walk with Jesus by walking with him ourselves. That's the deal, that's what we're supposed, that's what we're sent to do, and we best not back up If we don't know that we're sent. It won't be too long before we sit. Okay, let's go back into our groups. We're going to break out.
Speaker 1:Here's your questions. You can always ask the level one question what do you like about that? Or you can ask what are some examples of things that might go wrong? When a church forgets that they are sent and just begin to sit. What happens when they forget that they're sent and all they do is just sit around? Okay, so here's number two. The church is always making room for one more. The church is always, always, always. Jesus said go make disciples of all nations. The church is always making room for one more.
Speaker 1:My wife and I have five kids and so when they were all little, we go to the mall somewhere and we would be really delighted if we got all five home. But if we only got four home, we weren't like, hey, man, still got these great four. No, our minds were on the one. They didn't really get lost, but our minds would be on the one that wasn't with us. Our heavenly father is the same way. He celebrates everyone who's already come to the table, everyone who's interacting, everyone's part of the family, but he's also always thinking about the ones that are not there. With everybody at the family. It's on his heart. So we always make room for one more.
Speaker 1:In Luke, chapter five, there's a group of friends. They've got a buddy who's paralyzed and Jesus is nearby. They go to the house where Jesus is, but the place is packed man, they can't get in there. And so they're looking in through the windows and they see, ah, there's one spot right in front of Jesus, but there's no way to get there. I'll tell you what we could do. Let's break through the roof and lower the guy down right there in front of Jesus, because there's not much room, but there's room for one more. They work hard to do it. It takes a minute. It's probably takes some work. You can imagine busting open a roof. I mean, that's not easy, man, but that's what they do because there's room for one more.
Speaker 1:It brings up what is maybe one of the most important of the fierce code. That's our cultural way, that's how we roll here. It says we will severely inconvenience ourselves to help people find their way back to God. Just like those friends, we will severely inconvenience ourselves to help people find their way back to God. That's one of the reasons we do what we call big days. Okay, sometimes it's just a bigger deal day when we do Christmas. That's worship experiences. It's a big deal day because we want people to come to church, maybe for the very first time, connect with us, because they're familiar with Christmas stuff. So come to the church at Christmas. When we do Easter egg hunts and stuff like that, that's a big day. When we do boobash, that's a big day.
Speaker 1:Now some would say, well, carter, that's not really boobash, ain't about Jesus. Why would you do that? That's a great question. We would do that because one of the things we know is we've got to work hard to help people understand that Jesus already likes them. What did Jesus do?
Speaker 1:Jesus came as a human. He could have come in his like revelation form and be like I'm God. Everybody shut up, but he didn't do that. He came as a man. He wanted everyone to understand. He said I'm going to explain God in a way that you can understand God. And so that's how he showed up.
Speaker 1:Paul said it this way. I love the way the apostle said it. Now, the apostle Paul, he wrote a, the New Testament. I just think he's right about stuff. Okay, he's right.
Speaker 1:And what he says is this to those outside the law, I become as one outside the law. Now what he means is to those who aren't familiar with God's ways, I embrace some of the ways that they're familiar with in order to bring them closer to God, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ. I mean, Jesus' law was even as I have loved you, so you must love one another. He said I'm still doing all that that I might win those outside the law to the week. I become weak, that I might become. That I might win the week and I become all things to all people that I might save some. That's why we do big days. That's why sometimes we're like, hey, this doesn't feel particularly religious, but we saw our minds are on the people that aren't at the table yet, so we got to do stuff to help them find their way back to the table. That's what it's about. Here's another fierce code Acceptance is where the conversation begins. You've heard this before Acceptance is where the conversation begins.
Speaker 1:Now I've been in church a long time man over a quarter of a century and I've noticed that everybody wants a diverse church. Everybody does. I've never talked to anybody like I don't want a diverse church. No, everyone has said so. I'm sure there's somewhere, but everyone has told me they want a diverse church. Now here's my question Do you want it bad enough Because most people want it bad enough to sit in rows and just kind of like mind their own business?
Speaker 1:Do you want diversity in the church bad enough that, even when you're an introvert, that you'll sit around tables with people you don't necessarily know yet, that look maybe a little bit different. They're a lot like you, but they're a little bit different than you. Do you want it that bad? Do you want it bad enough to be a little bit vulnerable, to spend a little bit of time learning about somebody else and really how lovely they are and how lovable they are, how much you would like them if you just knew them? If you like them, if you want to do it that bad, then you've got to understand that acceptance is where the conversation begins. It means I don't have to know everything about you, but I already trust you, I already like you. Hey, let's just sit down and we'll talk about whatever silly questions they give us at the Connect Class series, because we're trying to connect with one another.
Speaker 1:That means from time to time, if you're around a while, you'll see us do this. We'll give people the opportunity to come to know Christ. They around a while. You'll see us do this. We'll give people the opportunity to come to know Christ, they say. I've been hanging out around the table but now I want to make. I know that Jesus is the Lord. I want to make him my Lord. I know that he is the savior, I want to make him my savior. And so for some time, often during the end of a message, I'll be like hey, everyone who wants to give their life to Christ walk through, said when tempted to step back, the church steps up. The church is always making room for one more and the church is always preparing for those to come. The church is always preparing for those to come. What that means is the generation. We are always has to be thinking about the generation that is next. We need to make sense to them. A few years ago, we did a capital campaign a few years before COVID to them. A few years ago, we did a capital campaign a few years before COVID and it was really sovereignly timed that we did it then, because we did a lot of updating in the building for those to come. But even when we got to COVID, we actually just were ready to upgrade our tech. That wasn't even really part of the plan, but we upgraded our tech because we needed it to be able to stream into people's homes. We had not caught up, and then we did, because our people, the culture you're already here with they were concerned about who comes next, and we all need to be concerned about that. That means, from time to time, we need to update environments. That means that we're going to follow another one of the fierce code, and it is this current solutions for current problems. Current solutions for current problems.
Speaker 1:I'm going to tell you a dirty little secret about church people. They get really addicted to the things that they like, whatever they saw and often is very meaningful. They saw God use that particular room, they saw God use that particular piano and they just love that piano, and if you move that piano, all hell is going to break loose. They get addicted to that kind of thing, and so I just want to give us this gentle, friendly warning Remember that we need to not confuse what's meaningful to you with what the church is called to do. Don't confuse what's meaningful to you with what the church is called to do. There's a lot, man, you probably you went through and you went through that Bible class and it was that carpet and it was just so. You fell on your face and you were praying and so your tears are in that carpet. Man, You're like I love this carpet. The problem is people come in and they're like that's nasty carpet, man, and you're making it spiritual. If we get rid of it, it ain't spiritual, it needs to go, because we kill sacred cows here. Even if you're a vegetarian, we kill sacred cows. You just got to know that's how we roll.
Speaker 1:When we were first married, my wife and I I came with her to a supper club, okay, and she'd been bragging about it for a while. She's like I mean, you're going to love this place. It's so good, it's in the, you know, uh, north woods, wisconsin, and so we roll up there. And I remember she's grown up here, she's been with her grandparents, with her parents, she's had so many great times as she's grown at this supper club. And I walk into this place, man, I'm like, oh, it's kind of gross in here and the food isn't even good. What was happening? She was bringing all her memories to that moment. She was experiencing that, with all the stuff that had come before, but I wasn't experiencing that. I was just experiencing it, how it is, and, my friends, people are going to come to church and they weren't at the thing and they don't know about the thing you had with God over there in that corner, and so what we got to do is say that's meaningful to you, but it's not what we're called to do. What we're called to do is help people to the table, and we need to make sense to them.
Speaker 1:Think about it this way you might go to a little coffee shop that's really quaint and there's a lot of charm to it. It's kind of old, there's some old-timey stuff, and you might even think that's a really good place. But nine times out of 10. When you're in another town, you're not looking for a place like that, you're looking for a Starbucks. Because why? Because you're familiar with Starbucks, you know what to expect For those who like coffee. Like that's just where you're going to go. You're not going to waste time trying to find one of these other little places. Why? Because people, normal people they just like what's new and what's now and what's clean, like. They just like that. And so that's why, my friends, you just got to know there might come a time we get rid of this carpet, we get rid of these chairs, we redo everything in here, and that's because we're focused on what God has called us to do, not what is meaningful necessarily to me or you. So one of the questions you can ask is with anything, would this be attractively familiar to my friend who is far from Jesus? If they came in here for the first time? It's meaningful to me, but if they came here, would they be like what is this dude? Yeah, if they would, that means it might be a sacred cow we need to kill.
Speaker 1:Okay, some of you know that recently I completed a doctoral degree and my final study, my big project, was about Generation Z. Okay, these are Zoomers, sometimes called. These are people between the ages of 13 and 27. It's a very special generation because they're different than everybody that came before them. One way they're different. They're more open to Jesus than anybody before them. Going back to the boomers, they're way open to Jesus. Another thing really important to note they're not coming to church For the most part. I'm not saying there's not Zoomers in here, but for the most part, when you when the entire population of Zoomers, they're not coming to church because they don't value it and they don't think the answer is here. They think this place is one of those supper clubs. They're like I don't ain't nothing there, but something else you should know about them. They're way open to Jesus and they're online all the time. They are what we could call digital natives. They're not like the rest of us. They are so comfortable with online that it's their native tongue. That means they're on YouTube every day. 77% of US teens are on YouTube every day.
Speaker 1:Did you know that three-fourths of Gen Z listens to podcasts seven hours a week? Seven hours a week. I can't get them to come here one hour, but they'll listen for seven hours online and they're not closed to Jesus. What does that mean? It means bro, peeps, fam. We can totally disciple them as long as we don't need them to come here first. They're super open. They're super available. All we need to do is get in there. They're listening anyway and they're open. That means, my friends, over the next few years, we're going to invest time and money and energy. We're going to keep this all as awesome and keep getting it more and more awesome as we can, but we're also going to go more and more and more and more online because we need to care about those to come. We need to be about our father's business and be investing in them, because they're who's coming after.
Speaker 1:How can you help? Well, you can pray for it. If you've got, like, video editing skills and you're mad with that kind of stuff, yeah, we need you now. If that's not your bag yet, that's okay. Probably in a few years we'll figure out other small ways that you can help with that. But honestly, unless you're really good at this, there's not a ton for you to do right now with the system we've got so far. But you can pray for it and you can share all the stuff that we're making.
Speaker 1:So let's go to online. I want to show you your best friend. This is the new app. It's the online app. It's the digital hub. Let's go fiercechurch. You on your phone right now fiercechurch slash hub. Look at those fine young ladies right there. See all those little red boxes down there. That's your shortcut to everything that we do.
Speaker 1:So instead of even going to the website, you can just go straight here and you'll probably find whatever you're looking for. But if you scroll down, you're going to see a bunch of our social media things to share, and what you're going to see is you're going to see our YouTube page Remember, 77% are on YouTube every day. You're going to see TikTok. You're going to see Instagram. You're going to see a place to leave a Google review and all that helps us. You know, the way that people get to us most of the time is that they searched online. So if you leave a positive review and you just talk about man, that preacher that shakes his head, I don't know. It's just something else. It's next level, the way they do it over there. If you just do anything like that, if you talk about the people, you talk about the way you felt encouraged, that helps people access the table so they can fulfill God's will for their life.
Speaker 1:My friends, if we don't know, as a church, that we are sent, it won't be long before we find ourselves just sitting. Let's go into our break time. Now we're gonna do one more. Here's your question In addition to what do you like about that, what was the most challenging or cool idea that you heard today? What was the most challenging idea for you today? Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1:If you don't have a home church and you're looking for a Bible preaching community that has its heart set on passionately knowing Jesus and being his witness in our generation. Check out Fierce Church. We'd love for you to join us, either digitally or in person. Also, if you're looking for leadership development related content, don't forget to check out the Fierce Leadership Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts from. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry. It's because of you that this is possible. You can click on the link in the description to give now or visit fiercechurch for more information. If you enjoyed this podcast, why not subscribe? Share it with your friends, click on the share button, take a screenshot and share it on social media or wherever you would share such things. Whatever challenges you're facing, I know you can make it. Don't give up. Hang on to Jesus. He won't let go of you. Jesus loves you so much and we love you. I hope someday we get to meet in person. Thanks again for listening.