OPEN

 

What does the word ‘open’ mean to you? Like language itself, it is like any word in which the meaning only comes from the context in which it is used. A word, any word, may also depend on who is using this word. Depending on the age of the child, there are some words he or she uses that only a mother can understand. Open could be an adjective, a verb, an imperative, or a predicate. The word open, has at least 12 different meanings, some of which I will point out, most I will not, and one that I will focus on because it is prophetically important for where we are at as a church in this crucial time.

 

WHAT OPEN MEANT IN 1968 TO ROD LAVER

It wasn’t that long ago when all major sporting events were closed to professionals. This applied to the Olympics, and to tennis – which for a long time were both reserved for amateurs. In 1962, Rod Laver was the world’s best amateur tennis player. In that year he did what very few tennis players have ever done – he won the Grand Slam. This meant that he won the French Championship, the Wimbledon Championship, The U.S. Championship, and the Australian Championship – all in the same calendar year. But despite his number one world ranking and the glory of what hardly anyone else had ever done, he had basically earned no prize money for all his hard work. At the end of 1962, Rod Laver decided to turn professional, and join with the other world’s top tennis players on the emerging professional tennis tour. Laver was a bit stunned though when he joined this professional tour and was unable to win a match! But over the next five years on the professional tour, Laver began to dominate his opponents. Then something spectacular happened in 1968.

Rod Laver holding the 1968 Wimbledon Men’s Singles Champion trophy. He would go on to win each of the other three Grand Slam Tournament in that year,

In 1968 open meant that Rod Laver was again able to play in each of the Grand Slam tournaments when each tournament changed their player admission to be open to professionals. But perhaps to Rod Laver in 1968 open meant that he could do what no other man in the history had been able to do – win the Grand Slam for the second time! ‘Open’ in 1968 for Rod Laver meant that was open to make history.

 

WHAT OPEN MEANS TO A DENTIST

When a dentist says “Open” he or she is issuing a professional instruction to their patient. 

 

WHAT OPEN MEANS TO A LOCKSMITH

Open to a locksmith is a professional goal when they are called in to deal with a faulty lock. 

 

WHAT OPEN MEANS TO A SHOPKEEPER

To a shopkeeper open means the opportunity to pay their utility bills, their insurances, their staff wages, their mortgage, their children’s school fees, and to cover the cost of replenishing their stock. 

 

WHAT OPEN MEANS TO A SAILOR

 It is one of the delights of a yachtsman to glide across the waters and to sail into open seas powered by nothing but the available breeze. For the early explorers, such as Columbus, Cook, and Cortez, who sailed across open seas in search of adventure and fame. Today, it is the day-in-day-out duties of every merchant sailor to freight their ship’s container-cargo across open seas to their international customers. 

 

WHAT OPEN MEANS TO THE OUTGOING PASTOR OF A TASMANIAN CHURCH

Be open is the appeal of the pastor-preacher to his hearers so that they might experience the power of the gospel, the infilling of the Spirit, and the presence of the Lord in their worship. Be open is the pastoral appeal for people to be inclined for what the Lord might do in them.

When I was a teenager I had a visiting evangelist lay his hands on me after I responded to his appeal to come forward for prayer “…if you want to baptised in the Holy Spirit.” “You may not understand all that the Scriptures says about it, but be open to what God by His Spirit might do in you!” And so I did. I went forward in the little Apostolic Church building in Coxes Road, Norlane (Geelong), one Wednesday night, and was prayed for. That night my world changed. I was open to something that I could see in Scripture, even though I didn’t quite understand it.

To the evangelist, open meant the possibility of a miracle happening. Sometimes this miracle happens when someone is open to the gospel and they are then converted to faith in Christ. Sometimes this miracle happens when a young teenager is open to coming forward in a small church which leads to the Holy Spirit baptising him in a Pentecostal experience.

Sometimes let’s be open is an appeal for someone to open to the new thing, season, mission, chapter, that God might be about to do. This is where we are now at as a church. Many of us are praying for God to call a new minister as our church’s new pastor and leader. This will be a new experience for many in our church. This new pastor will be different. Perhaps he will try new things. My appeal to you is to be open. Be open to who God will call. Be open to how he will go about his ministry and calling. Be open to how young or old he might be. And perhaps most of all, be open to what God is going to do in our church’s next and new chapter. 

Your Pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

What would you do if you found a newborn baby at your doorstep?

 

What would you do if you found a newborn baby that had been left at your doorstep? Hopefully your answer sounds similar to “I’d take care of him or her.” What if it wasn’t a baby? What if it was a helpless young child or a teenager, or an adult, who turned up at your doorstep requesting your assistance? I hope that each of us would also be prepared to help whoever it was. What if it was not an abandoned child, youth, or adult? And what if it was not your front door? Instead, how might we each respond if it was a spiritually abandoned and spiritually needy person who turned up at your church seeking the ultimate help: how to be saved? While you might feel a similar compassion as you might have felt for the abandoned child at your doorstep, you may not be as confident in how you would spiritually help this person seeking a connection with God through Jesus Christ. “Where would I begin?” “How could I be an effective discipler of a new believer?” you might ask. Well, I’m glad you have asked. For any Christian to effectively disciple a new believer it must involve an individual, a small group, and a congregation.

By this My Father is glorified,
that you bear much fruit and
so prove to be My disciples.
John 15:8

WAYS OF DISCIPLING A NEW BELIEVER

I. Discipling by an individual

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk,
that by it you may grow up into salvation—
First Peter 2:2

Every believer is called to disciple and is empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so. Our feelings of inadequacy are often the result of our underestimating just how much God has done in us and how much we have spiritually grown as a result. Compared with a newborn believer who desperately needs spiritual nourishment and care, who knows next to nothing about God and HIs Word, you are a veritable source of perpetual spiritual sustenance.

In fact, if you have already been associating with pre-Christians, you may have already been discipling unawares. This is because discipling a new believer often commences not when he or she gives his or her life to Christ but when you become his or her friend! In this way, a person can be discipled to Christ. This might involve a period of time when the pre-believer has watched how you handle life’s difficulties. It might also have included discussions you have had together about the bible or God. Your friend may have also had questions about why you think Jesus is the only way to God and the only way to be forgiven of our sins. Your friend may have accepted your invitation to attend your church, or a Christian meeting, and, despite outward appearances, left that meeting with ‘a spiritual stone in their shoe’. Then the day may have come when the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in their formally dead soul becomes obvious. It seems to be demonstrably true that by far most people who become Christians do so because of a personal invitation from a friend.

A trusted friend can lead a new believer to Christ and lay a foundation in their soul of understanding that salvation is by faith in Christ as an act of God’s grace (Eph. 2:8-9). This does not require a textbook or a special workbook or even formal bible study notes. Much of my discipling of spiritual newborns has taken place in a café and on the back of a paper napkin where I have doodled an explanation of the gospel. Meeting for a coffee or a light meal is where the newborn can be shown that salvation is not just a moment, a decision, or an event—salvation also brings a new identity, a new attitude, a new lifestyle. This new life comes with a new “life map” called the bible. By simply reading through one of the Gospel stories together each week and then asking two key questions after a minute or two, the newborn believer is being discipled. As they begin to understand their new life that can be shown that it is confirmed and represented by water baptism which pictures the believer’s old life being buried in the waters of baptism and their new life in Christ being represented by coming up and out of the waters (Rom. 6:1-4).

We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that,
just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:4

II. Discipling by a small group

Every disciple is called to be a part of Christ’s body of believers. When each of our children were born, Kim and I were both there to greet them. As our little family grew each of our subsequent children were soon introduced to their siblings, then their grandparents, then their aunts and uncles. So it is spiritually. The initial discipleship of a newborn believer is most naturally commenced one-on-one. But as soon as possible the new believer must become acquainted with their brothers and sisters in Christ in a regular small group meeting.

¶ For just as the body is one and has many members,
and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
¶ Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
First Corinthians 12:12, 27

It is within the regular small group meetings, the microcosm of the new believer’s larger church family, that they learn to participate by sharing and praying with others, being prayed for, observing how to study God’s Word, asking questions, being corrected, witnessing how to repent, and increasingly how to know God.

As a member of a small group, even if you are not the small group leader, you are still contributing to the discipleship journey of a new believer in how you model your walk with Christ and your brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

III. Discipling by a congregation

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly,
teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,
singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Colossians 3:16

Every member of a small group of disciples is called to be a part of Christ’s larger body of believers – the church congregation. Disciples of Christ must be tamed and taught to live within a community of believers. Sin separates people but Christ brings people together. Our carnal natures crave being the centre of attention placing ourselves in the middle of our little world. But our new nature longs to connect with brothers and sisters in Christ where we each together make Christ the centre of our now enormous world! We do this by: meeting together and giving heed to the preached Word of God; singing our worship of God together with “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”; offering up prayers of thankfulness to God;  and regularly celebrating the ordinances of Christ, especially the Lord’s Supper. As the church congregation assembles it also enters into a time of larger fellowship where teaching and admonishing take place – often in a very indirect way.

If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
First Timothy 3:15

It is in the larger congregational worship and teaching assembly that a new believer is indirectly discipled by the example of other believers. This is why when you gather (or do not gather) together with your church family on the Lord’s Day you are teaching a new believer a very profound lesson about the importance of obeying Christ’s command not to neglect to gather together (Heb. 10:25). New believers notice when and how you worship God, how you listen to the preached Word, and how you pray in public. In my early years as a Christian teen I noticed that before the service had started, an elderly gentleman in our church would always stop and bow his head in prayer whenever someone in the church building began to pray. He would then wait for them to finish praying before he would continue on his way. No one taught me to do this. But I was deeply impacted by this unspoken and indirect example of this mature disciple of Christ. It has remained my practice to this day.

 

CAN YOU HELP?

Over the past few weeks we have actually had spiritual newborn babies “dropped off at our church’s doorstep” so-to-speak. I need people who can be spiritual parents/brothers/sisters to these newborn believers. Ask any parent and they will tell you that being a carer takes time and patience. Newborns can be messy. Newborns can make mistakes. Newborns can seem to be slow to learn. But remember, you were a newborn once. Each of us can play a role in discipling a newborn believer. You already know more than enough to start. For some you, your newborn disciple will be your own children or grandchildren. For others it will be your friends or even your new friend. To disciple someone one-on-one all you need is time together and paper napkin (the café and coffee are just bonuses). To disciple someone in a small-group all you need to do is to invite them along and let them observe what intimate fellowship with other believers looks like. To disciple someone within a congregation all you need to do is: sincerely worship God; attentively heed the preaching of God’s Word; engage in fellowship after the service (hopefully by introducing your invited friend to others – or by introducing yourself to the invited friends of others); and, serve wherever and however you can.

As we approach the Tasmania Celebration with Will Graham weekend at the end of May we expect that we will have even more newborn believers to disciple. This is why we are going to have a church dinner on the Sunday after the Celebration (on June 5th) and then follow it up for the next three Sundays with Christianity Unpacked which will be a supper, a testimony, a brief presentation, and a time of discussion around tables. All this is designed to connect newborn believers with a one-on-one discipleship opportunity, an invitation to join a small group, and an introduction to the larger congregational meeting. This is how we will disciple a new believer and what we would do if the Lord left a newborn spiritual baby at our church’s doorstep. Will you join me?

Your pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

It Starts With A Zip-Cord

It Starts

Years ago, an older farmer made a rare trip into his closest town to update how he cut down the trees on his property for firewood. The sales assistant showed him the latest range of chainsaws and then asked the bushy-bearded farmer, “How many trees do you cut down now?”

“Ohhh, I usually cut down about eight trees a day with ‘ol Faithful” he said.

“Well Sir, with this chainsaw you’ll be able to cut down at least twice that number!”

The old farmer handed over his hand-written cheque to the clerk and took home his new-fangled chainsaw. But less than a week later he stormed back into the small-engine shop and angrily slammed the chainsaw down on the counter and declared to the stunned sales assistant – “You told this thang would cut me sixteen trees a days!”

“Yes,” said the clerk, “it should have done that easily.”

“Well, the best I could do was just ten a day! I want my money back!”

The sales assistant picked up the chainsaw from the counter and looking at it, muttered, “That’s odd.” Walking around from behind the counter with the chainsaw, he then pulled the zip-cord to start the chainsaw to see if he could hear what the problem was. As the chainsaw’s engine started, the startled farmer exclaimed, “What on earth is that noise?” It appears that even though the farmer owned a chainsaw, he had no idea of how to use it or what its potential actually was!   

I think there are many Christians whose Christianity is just like the farmer and his new chainsaw. Even though they now possess something with enormous potential, they actually don’t know how to utilise any of it. Not enough believers know about their spiritual zip-cord which can fire-up their walk with Christ and their effectiveness for Christ.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Galatians 2:20

The farmer who walked into the chainsaw shop had only ever used his old axe to make firewood. And just like many people who  have only taken the first step in following Christ and not learned to abandon their old way of living for the new life which Christ freely offers, the farmer actually possessed a new, far more effective and powerful tool which he neglected by using it just as he had with his old axe. Wielding a chainsaw like an axe might even lookeffective, but it is going to wear the wielder out in no time at all. It’s the same with trying to live the Christian life without the power of Christ. It can lookeffective, but after a while it wears the wielder out. This is why endurance is one of the hallmarks of a genuine believer.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28 (NET)

But let’s cut the old farmer some slack and give him some credit. After years of wielding an axe he was worn-out. In a similar way, all true believers should be thrilled when a weary pilgrim wanders into church on Sunday in search of the rumoured ‘life-power’ which they’ve heard God gives freely.  Their decision to go to church is a great first step in finding the peace, strength, and wisdom for living life. Many people are worn out simply trying to keep up with the pressures of life. We need to invite them, welcome them, receive them into our dining rooms, and show them what living with and for Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit really looks like.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Second Corinthians 5:17

 Yet, a person can arrive in church on a Sunday for the first time and see people extolling their spiritual ‘chainsaws’. They can hear the stories of just how difficult life was when all they had was an axe, and how wonderful life has become since they received the free gift of a spiritual ‘chainsaw’. These worn-out souls who hear such stories can leave church that day with a new hope – hope that there is a better way to do life. Yet, they themselves are yet to exchange their old blunt axe for a powerful eternally self-sharpening spiritual chainsaw. 

Sadly, some take the second step of inviting Christ to be their Saviour, Lord, Forgiver, and receive their spiritual chainsaw – yet are never shown how to use it. This is why Christian growth can never be measured in mere ‘years of service’, because there many many believers who still have not learned how to start their spiritual chainsaws. Perhaps they have never been shown. Perhaps they’ve brought their unhelpful and incompatible old ways and old thought-patterns into their walk with Christ. Either way, walking with Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit must be learned. 

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me — practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:9

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it

Second Timothy 3:14

Simply asking Christ to be your Saviour without learning how to live in the power of the Spirit maybe just like the farmer who updated his axe to chainsaw without ever learning how his new chainsaw worked! 

THE DECISION TO GET STARTED

Like all great adventures, the believer’s Spirit-empowered, Spirit-led, Spirit-filled journey with Christ begins with a decision – an act of the believer’s will. This decision is always informed by the Holy Spirit’s quickening of God’s Word. The believer reads Christ’s words in the Gospel of John and begins to hunger for the presence of the Promised Holy Spirit (“the Helper”) in their life.

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

John 14:26

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

John 16:7

 This hunger leads to prayer. Not tame prayers. Not shopping-list prayers. Not where did I leave my keys prayers. Heart-rending, soul-shaping, life-altering, prayers. These kinds of prayers begin to pull the spiritual zip-cord of the believer’s new life in the Spirit which leads to a new way of thinking, a new attitude, and a new set of relationships.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:2

The believer’s new spiritual life, like any quality chainsaw, requires the right kind of fuel and material. Chainsaws don’t like dirt. The Spirit-led life doesn’t like the ‘dirt’ of secret sin. Dirt blunts chainsaws and renders them near-useless. Secret-sin blunts the spiritual-life of the believer and renders their witness and effectiveness ‘near-useless’.    

 Decision > Desire > Prayer > 

 THE SPIRIT EMPOWERED LIFE

Reading through Christ’s words in John chapters 14 and 16, we see that the Spirit-empowered life looks like

+ deepening intimacy with God

+ spiritual revelations 

+ reminders of God’s Word

+ extraordinary spiritual gifts

+ courage to endure opposition

+ leadership effectiveness that results in people being protected and cared for

+ and a passionate, persistent prayer life.

If you have surrendered your guilt-stained and sin-battered life to the Saviour, you have exchanged your old life for a new one. You have available to you the power of the Holy Spirit, “the same power which raised Christ from the dead”, to now help you to life effectively and bear much fruit for Christ. If you are tired and worn out on trying to be ‘religious’ in your own strength, and you want to know Christ more intimately, then it’s time to make a decision to pull your spiritual zip-cord and live the Spirit-empowered life! It starts with a decision that does not bend to feelings or whims. It awakens a desire for more of God in our life.  It leads to prayer which brings us to the cleansing of repentance through the washing of the water of God’s Word. It plants us in the community of the local church where become a pillar to strengthen the faith of our fellow struggling brothers and sisters. It sends us into a hurting, needy, broken and damaged world full of worn-out people who are dead-tired of doing life with an axe.

Amen. 

NEW CHANGES. YES IT DOES!

New Changes

Pat Rafter was languishing in the world rankings well outside the top 50. Despite being an elite athlete who was well coached, hard working and motivated, he just couldn’t breakthrough into the world’s top 50 professional tennis players. Then someone suggested he change something. The suggested change seemed so unlikely to have any bearing on his game that it met with some initial skepticism and resistance. What he was being asked to consider was so different from what all the other elite tennis pros were doing. He made the change and even though he struggled at first it wasn’t long before he broke through well beyond his best expectations! New changes. Yes it does.

“Old” is not just relative to years of existence – and in some cases – is actually quite distinct from it. If “young” is the phase of adventure, discovery, risk-taking, trying new things for the first time, then it becomes obvious that too many of us have become old before our time! Premature ageing has less to do with the amount of smile-lines on a face and much more to do with how open a person is to change and all things new.

In 1997 it was suggested that Pat try a completely different racquet string from a small start-up Belgian manufacturer called Luxilon. These strings were not natural or synthetic gut which were up until Luxilon came along the only category choices for tennis players. These strings were polyester. Players soon discovered that these strings did exactly the opposite to gut strings (which “ping” the ball so that it feels crisp off a racquet – I used to love playing with a fresh natural gut restring). Rather, these strings made a “thuuud” when striking a ball. The difference is that the ball is gripped slightly longer by polyester strings than gut strings. While most players using gut were hitting a ball at 1,000rpm, polyester players were now hitting balls with 2,000rpm – and Pat Rafter joined them! (Rafa hits between 3,500 – 5,000rpm!) It meant that players could now hit the ball much much harder and add topspin to have them drop in. Pat began to beat players he was previously losing to. At the French Open in 1997 he stunned everyone by making the Semi Finals. He broke into the Top 50, then the Top 20. He then won the U.S. Open – which John McEnroe said was a “Fluke!” and that Pat was “a one Slam wonder!” So Pat came back the following year and won it again! He also went onto become a two-time runner-up at Wimbledon. He went on to become #1 in the world. And it was all made possible because he made a small, but initially uncomfortable change.

André Agassi was also reluctant to change and in his very early thirties when most of his fellow pros were retiring and he was languishing at #104 in the world, he made a series of painful changes. First his training régime, then his coach (an Australian), then in 2002 his strings. As a result he got a second-wind for his career and won the Italian Open and another Australian Open Slam. He wrote in his autobiography –

People talk about the game changing, about players growing more powerful, and rackets getting bigger, but the most dramatic change in recent years is the strings. The advent of a new elastic polyester string, which creates vicious topspin, has turned average players into greats, and greats into legends. [Coach Darren Cahill] puts the string on one of my rackets… In a practice session I don’t miss a ball for two hours. Then I don’t miss a ball for the rest of the tournament. I’ve never won the Italian Open before, but I win it now, because of Darren and his miracle string.

“Open”, André Agassi

Change is uncomfortable. It is often painful. It can be annoying, It slows us down. But nearly all of us who have been advised to change and have done so have got over the hill of difficulties and then enjoyed a previously unknown downhill stretch that has made us wonder why hadn’t done this sooner!

God will give ear and humble them,
He who is enthroned from of old, Selah
they do not change because they
do not fear God.

Psalm 55:19

Our Enemy does not want us to change – at least not the kind of change that is positive and therefore often slow, new, challenging, stretching, different, uncomfortable, awkward, embarrassing. But change is the door through which someone comes out of darkness and into light and change is the path that must be trod to remain in the light. To follow Christ is to change and be changed. It is to embrace newness.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Second Corinthians 5:17

When was the last time you did something for the first time? Old is not a matter of years!

When we share our faith in Christ with someone and hope that they too might turn away from bondage to salvation we are hoping that they will make the most dramatic change of their life! We are summoning them to a life-time of constant change!  Therefore don’t be surprised if people are a little reluctant to accept the Gospel upon first hearing it. Such mammoth change in the way they live, talk, think, feel, can be daunting for most.

I’m coming into a stage of life where I yearn for the easy and the comfortable and find change a little frustrating. I must overcome this. I may be getting old but I don’t want to get old before my time – and the way to ensure that doesn’t happen is to embrace change. Let’s be open to the new, the different, the strange and let’s understand that this is most often an uncomfortable zone. But as a church we need to change. Where we are now is not where we were 20 years ago, and where we’ll be in five years is not where we are now – if we make positive changes. This will include our facilities, our leaders, our music, and one day our pastor. When something isn’t working we want to try something new. Some of us met this week with the Youth and Young Adults leaders and outlined the changes we are introducing this year. These guys are all young so it was very pleasing to see the positive reception of these changes.

And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the skins burst and the wine is spilled out and the skins are destroyed. Instead they put new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved.”

Matthew 9:17

Change has a fragrance to it. When we spend time with Christ we smell of this fragrance. He causes us to have open hearts to new things generally but to His newness in our lives particularly. And as a church this fragrance comes not just from the new wine of His Spirit but the new wineskin for His Spirit as well. I dare say that if we will open our hearts to the new things God wants to do in us each and in us each together, Tasmania might yet see a demonstration of the kind of Church that Christ said He had come to build!

Ps. Andrew.