Welcome to ‘DWELL’

DWELL is a new opportunity to engage with God’s word and with each other, in a different timeslot in a different way.

This is our new night service, and it’s going to be happening on the last Sunday of the month at 5.30pm.

This is a space to dwell in the word together, dwell in God’s house, and hear about Jesus > who himself dwells in our hearts.

It’s a space to hang out, chat, pray, and there’ll be music in a relaxed, informal environment where – as always – everyone’s welcome.

>> DWELL continues June 29 > come along and be part of it, we’d love to see you!

>> 17/5 Church Rd, Bethania QLD

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DWELL Launch, May 25

‘What IS church?’

Might sound like a simple, easy question, but this is the question we’re looking at tonight!

So what do you think church is?

What do we all think, what’s (literally) written on the wall, top-of-your-head stuff…

Discussion questions: what is church to you, & how would you explain it to someone who’ve never been…

Tonight we’re going to pick out some foundational stuff on what church is, looking at some of the founding documents of our Lutheran tradition, what our church says about itself today, and of course what JESUS has to say about it! And we’re also going to consider not only what church is, but what could it be?

So to start with here are some aspects of what our foundational documents have to say about church:

• Church is the ‘congregation of saints, where the Gospel (good news of Jesus) is taught & sacraments (Baptism & Holy Communion) are rightly administered’ (Augsburg Confession, Article VII). These things = where the church gets it’s unity.
• It’s NOT necessary that every church has to do things exactly the same way, ie ‘human traditions’ will be different from place to place, and that’s ok!
• Word & Sacrament are only ‘effectual’ by the ‘institution & command of Christ’ ie they only matter because Jesus makes them matter. Not about how nice the building is, how good a speaker the pastor is, how good the music is > what makes it church is Jesus and what he has to give us. Good news there, it DOESN’T depend on us!
• What the church is can be understood by a ‘7-year-old child,’ it’s where ‘holy believers and lambs hear the voice of their shepherd’ (Smalcald Articles XII). Beautiful image there, this one grounds us back to earth!
• And ‘holiness does not consist in [human traditions] beyond holy scripture, but in the word of God and true faith.’ Word and faith as most important.

Some interesting notes there, not a full picture of the whole history of our tradition of course, but a snapshot of what has been said about church. Some things we might expect, and some we might be a bit surprised by. We can see here church is not meant to be complex, difficult to understand and uniform in practice across the board, but most importantly about the simple truth of the presence of Jesus with his people.

This next quote is from the Lutheran Church of Australia website, talking about what worship is:

• ‘Lutherans believe that worship is not so much about what we do, but about what God does for us. We simply respond in prayer and praise to the God who comes down to our level.
• Worship is at the heart of the Lutheran life. Whether individually or together, we respond to the God who made us through worship and prayer. 
• Something particularly special occurs when two of more Christians gather together in Jesus’ name. The resurrected Jesus promised to be present with his people in a unique way when this happens. In this public gathering of God’s people as a remembrance of the first Easter morning (what a lovely image!), we meet Christ and receive his gifts of forgiveness, hope and life. We meet with others who need God’s gracious help. That is why worship is central to living as a Christian.
• Without God’s grace and constant presence, Christians cannot even begin to love one another and serve the world in need. As we respond to the Third Commandment, ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy’, we honour and love God by gladly hearing his word of life in this unique gathering in Jesus’ very presence.’

I love that beautiful Easter morning image, where Mary sees Jesus in the garden by the tomb but she doesn’t recognise him, until he does something: he calls her BY NAME. Jesus knows your name, he is talking to you, he is with you, he has done this for you, and that’s what we’re on about at church.

And this one is from one of our church’s leaders today:

“It is important for us, as we ponder our evolving role within society, that we recall our first and foremost reason for being as Church: To be engaged in Christ’s mission to the world. Our purpose is not simply to survive, but to serve the world in the name of Christ. Christ invites us to be instruments of God’s mission, called to participate in God’s work of redemption and transformation in the world.”

Important to remember the outward-facing part of our purse as church > this is not just for us, just a space to make exactly how we would like it. We are called into God’s work in the world, which goes beyond what we like or don’t like, into the church and also out into the world around us.

So I wonder how you take some of this stuff, maybe you know it well, have never heard any of it, maybe you even question or disagree with some of these statements! Plenty of good thoughts to think there, good conversations we might be able to have too!

Now we can check out some words of Jesus himself > of course he has a few important things to say about what it means to be church, these are some words he has for us in the gospel of Matthew:

Matthew 6:33 > ‘But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.’

• Here we’ve got a God-first approach, remembering in the busy-ness of life our faith in the God who made us, we do life with God and we see how he works through all the good things he gives us.
• The ‘kingdom of God’ is most simply where God is, where God’s people are – it’s really important to recognise, acknowledge God’s presence with us > hard to have an active, meaningful faith-life going on without that. And of course it goes beyond this life, the ‘saints of all time’ are part of this kingdom.
• And what happens when we seek God, when we encounter him, when he encounters us? Everything else comes out of that! Think of the gifts we get to receive in life > loved ones, good experiences, another layer is the challenges and learnings we go through and build character out of, the more you think about these things the more you notice! Jesus says this right after he tells his disciples how to pray, and he addresses the worries we all have about what to wear, eat, drink etc.
• Just be with me, I’m with you he says, so simple but so important.

18:20 > ‘For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.’

• It doesn’t matter how many of us there are, it’s as small or as big as it is > yes that may matter in the organisation and proper functioning side of things, but in terms of Jesus being there? Again it’s not about us but about him.
• What a GIFT that is > we don’t have to be amazing, we don’t have achieve the perfect version of church, we don’t have to be perfect or wonderful ourselves for Jesus to show up > as we know he reveals his STRENGTH in our WEAKNESS > he comes to us where we are, and he calls us to be with him.

28:18-20 > ‘And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”’

• And this is where our ‘mission to the world’ comes in > we know the line ‘come as you are, but God won’t leave you there’ > he has a mission for you to be part of, to be a contributor in, to share in together in the context of local community > talking about community there, it’s not just the people within the four walls here, it’s the people we all come across in our day to day lives! How far God’s word reaches is not limited to what we can see or what we can do; he calls us into dependance and reliance on him, not to force other people to hear the good news but to be faithful witnesses as followers of Jesus, as members of God’s family, as ambassadors, representatives of Jesus to others. As people who have heard the call, who have been loved by Jesus and called to share that love with others.

And the last thing to think about tonight: what is church & also what could it be…

Have you ever thought about your ideal version of church? What would it look like, what would be happening? It’s a thought-provoking question to help us consider what we could be doing, what we maybe don’t need to do so much of, what we could really do together as a church community in this place…Of course it’s not about OUR ideals > God’s already set the agenda there, it’s taken care of, he has more for us across our lifetimes and beyond than we could ever fully imagine or comprehend – HIS ideal is us living in his love, pretty good ideal there.

But he does call us to use what we’ve been given, to seek out and care for people in need. To follow Jesus. To be ‘open-hearted’ in how we do life as church together. And we’ve got many examples to follow in the incredible, faithful people around us and who’ve gone before us.

NOT closed off, NOT exclusive, NOT a special members-only club > if that’s what you’re after you’re in the wrong place! It is simply not about that, if we’re truly hearing what Jesus says.

So there are a few thoughts for us, a few challenges for us maybe as we consider who we are, how God’s working among us and who he’s calling us to be. This is an open-ended, exciting, inspiring journey to go on, a chance to explore and discover together what it means to be church today, informed by the rich history we have, with a keen eye on seeking God’s kingdom into the future. 

Lord we come before you, knowing we don’t have it all figured out, we don’t know all the answers and we are not perfect or right in all we do. But we know you are perfect, and you meet us where we are out of your amazing grace and love for us. Help us to be your church, dependant on you and called to live in and share the good news of Jesus. Amen.