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Hillsdale First Presbyterian Church

January 12th, 2020

Pastor Scott Cress

Our Missional Identity

Today marks the beginning of a new sermon series in which we will examine the biblical foundations of our church mission statement. You know what I'm talking about. Those words that are on the front of our bulletins almost every Sunday morning. These are powerful words, by the way, and both interesting and profound. The problem is that we do not do anything with them on a regular basis. We crafted them, published them, thought about them for a time, and then let them become one more piece of information buzzing along in the background of our activity. This is no condemnation. The pressure to create mission statements is pretty intense as it comes from the organizational leadership folks. And congregations all across our country were counseled to get with the bandwagon and develop a statement. I generally agree with the practice. The problem is that many of us weren't given the tools to use our mission statements. I believe that this church has a great mission statement, and my intention is to demonstrate the biblical and Reformed roots of this statement that we might actually use this statement effectively in our ministry for 2020 and beyond. In that spirit, let us read together the statement as it is printed on our bulletins.

Called by God into the joy of new life in Christ, First Presbyterian Church of Hillsdale seeks to live together faithfully, committing ourselves to a life of worship, mutual encouragement to growth in faith and knowledge, and to the proclamation of the Gospel.

In the life of any organization, there are two questions that we always need to be asking. The first is “Who are we?” The second is “What should we do?” And we always have to ask both questions. The first question teaches us about our DNA – culture, values, attributes. The second question gives us direction and purpose, if indeed the actions which we take flow out of our identity with integrity. If we only ever ask the first question, we are frozen in a state of navel-gazing. If we only ever ask the second question, we end up in a pattern of purposeless and frenetic activity. In light of these two questions, I would suggest to you that our church mission statement is properly speaking a statement of missional identity. It reminds us of who we are and points us towards concrete action in the world.

For the next several weeks, we will look for the biblical foundations of the various parts of the statement. But in order to do so, I need to offer you a few more bits of information to help us analyze our missional identity. As I read this statement, I understand it to be speaking of four fundamental pieces of our life together. At the root lies our Reformed understanding of the faith, and then flowing out of that Reformed understanding of the faith, we have three commitments which involve how we actually exist in the world. Here are the four parts as I understand them. Because I like alliteration, each phrase begins with an “R”.

Reformed theology. This encompasses the most foundational piece of our statement, and it has two parts. First, we have been called into the joy of new life in Christ. In response to this call, we now seek to live together faithfully. Here is a simple statement of our covenant theology. God has made us his people, and we seek to live faithfully with him and with one another. This topic will occupy weeks two and three of our series.

Reverent worship. The first way we express this faithful life is through a life of worship. Now obviously that includes our beautiful and reverent worship as it is conducted on Sunday morning. But it also means that we bring this reverent worship out into every area of our lives and live for God's glory. This will be week four of the series.

Relational focus. The next way that we express our faithful life is through mutual encouragement to growth in faith and knowledge. Now the growth is fundamental. We must be growing in both the knowledge of the faith and the fruit of the Spirit. But in our congregation, this growth happens through a relational and even familial process. We are a fellowship-oriented church. And our primary growth happens through our relationships with each other. This will be week five of the series.

Redemptive mission. Lastly , our covenant life is expressed through the proclamation of the Gospel. And we must remember that it is always the Gospel of Jesus crucified and risen which we proclaim. Sometimes our outward work focuses on meeting needs and sometimes it focuses on sharing about Jesus verbally. But Jesus and his redemptive work is at the heart of it all. This will be week six of the series.

It remains to be said at this point that no mission statement is to be written or used that is out of step with the basic picture of faith and life which comes from Scripture. If we are to have this statement of missional identity and if we are to live by it, then first we must test that it is in fact a biblical statement of mission – by which I mean that it fits with the kind of teaching found in Holy Scripture. If it does not, then it is worth less than the paper on which it is printed. Can we check the biblical fit of our missional identity this morning? I believe that we can.

The first and second lesson texts this morning are Deuteronomy 26:1-11 and 1 Peter 2:4-10. Both texts are united in saying fundamental things about the identity of God's people, and both texts give us insight into the basic patterns of the Christian life. There are, of course, lots of ways to summarize the key ideas of the Christian life. But let me suggest to you one more way of summarizing things that emerges from both of these texts.

We have been rescued by God, given an inheritance in the saints, and called to faithfulness.

Deut. 26:1-11. According to Moses, when the Israelites entered the land of Canaan and took agricultural control and produced a harvest, they were to take some of the firstfruits of the harvest and bring them to the priest of the tabernacle and offer them as an offering to the Lord. And when they made this offering to the Lord, they were to recite a short creed – not unlike our Apostles' Creed – that went like this:

A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our afflictions, our toil, and our oppression. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with greet deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O LORD, have given me.

And the point is that these Israelites were to remember that God had rescued them, that God had given them the land as an inheritance, and that they were to now acknowledge God's lordship by offering him the firstfruits of the land. The act of offering was an act of faithful living which was made in response to God's saving work on their behalf. God rescued and gave an inheritance. They responded in faith.

1 Peter 2:4-10. Turning to our New Testament text, we should recognize the familiar pattern. Peter calls Jesus the “living stone” and God's people are through Jesus, Peter writes, “living stones...being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (vv. 4-5). We have been saved and given an inheritance. Again hear Peter's words, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you of of darkness into his marvelous light” (v. 9). Because Jesus died and rose again for his people, we have been called out of darkness and into light – we have an inheritance – and now we have a mission. Here the mission is described as both offering spiritual sacrifices (that's worship) and proclaiming God's excellencies. And we are also called a people for God's possession. Here is the relational focus. We don't exist as a bunch of saved individuals; instead we exist together as a people.

And having looked at these passages – and many others could have been chosen – I think that we can conclude that our missional identity statement is a biblical statement. For the pattern is carried over intact. We have been called by God into the joy of a new life – rescue and inheritance – and now we will respond by living together faithfully. We will worship. We will encourage. And we will proclaim.

Healthy churches read Scripture and study theology and pray for God's insight so that they will know both who they are and what they should do. This year, I hope that we are able to set some practical goals together as we live into this missional identity, but don't miss the reality that the big picture is abundantly clear. We know what we are and what we should be doing. May God give us the strength to take our identity seriously as we seek to serve Jesus here in Hillsdale.

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