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This sermon is part of a series on Westminster's new mission statement.  This is week two.  Stay tuned for more on what God is doing at WPC...

“Been there, Done That, Got the T-Shirt!”

Acts 2:43-47

The Reverend Chris Adams

January 17, 2010

So last week, we talked a little bit about mission statements in general and how our group calling themselves the Dream Team understands a mission statement.  I told the story of our group trying to listen to what we heard God is doing at Westminster Presbyterian Church.  I claimed that perhaps that ought to be our mission statement as church.  For us to partner with God is really what we are all about.

I even mentioned one of the members of our group who has this thing about t-shirts.  If a mission statement is really what you are all about, and partnering with God, then it ought to say so on your t-shirt.

Right there in big bold letters, it should communicate the mission.  I promised I would talk a lot more about t-shirts this week.  So here we are...

You know I have told you before that one of my favorite stories from scripture is the story of the early church in the Book of Acts.  It is so interesting to me to hear the story of how the church first got things started.  It’s inspiring actually, to know how it all started and maybe even that things didn’t always go so smoothly.

There are lots of issues that arise in the Book of Acts.  There are arguments, and challenges to authority.  People often misunderstand what the church leaders are trying to do, and then get very upset.  As things begin to change, there’s that word again, for those that tried following Jesus Christ it got very messy.

But, before all that, when the church was in its infancy, then the early disciples get focused.  First, they replace Judas the betrayer as one of the original twelve.  Then the Holy Spirit comes upon them all at Pentecost and all of a sudden these men, who when Jesus was with them seemed never to be able to understand anything He taught them, become these great preachers and leaders.  It’s amazing!

Peter for example, the one with one foot always in his mouth, preaches to a crowd and thousands are converted right there on the spot.  The church is born with great energy and the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Then we get to, at least for church people, what should be some of the most important verses in all of scripture.  We read the end of Acts, Chapter 2 and we get a picture of what the church was meant to be.  If you want to know what the Holy Spirit had in mind for the church and how it was to be organized and what it was to be doing, then I would suggest listening to these verses from Acts.  Let me read it to you once again, in the New International Version the image of the perfect church:

Acts 2: 42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Wow!  That’s an amazing image.  That’s church, at least as it was in the beginning.  Most of us can still see many, many things we still do today as church.  Our mission as those following Jesus is still informed by the early mission of those following Jesus.  We still do the things they did, don’t we?

Let’s take a little closer look this morning at what the first church was doing.  What were the first parts of the mission of the church, and then let’s compare some of that to what we are doing today.

To do that, I have a few t-shirt designs I want to unveil here this morning.  Remember, if what you are about in partnership with God is your mission, then it ought to say so on your t-shirt.  Isn’t that what we said?

So I need a volunteer to be my model this morning.  As I am unveiling the “Chris Adams Church Collection for 2010,” I am going to need a little assistance.  You should be prepared to literally put on the t-shirt this morning.

The first in my collection is something that we see very clearly in our scripture.  It says in verse 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer, and when we hear all of that together we recognize WORSHIP.  Don’t we?

So if you were to have a t-shirt with a mission of the early church on it, it would be WORSHIP, just like this one...

Now, as a Dream Team, the group who considered and recommended our mission statement, we too came to this conclusion that WORSHIP is something we are certainly about today.  Look around after all.  But then we noticed a couple other things too, about WORSHIP.

WORSHIP is something that almost everybody in the church does.  More than anything else perhaps, even if you don’t do anything else at WPC, chances are you participate in WORSHIP.  

So on the t-shirt, you see this big red circle?  That represents all the people that participate in worship at Westminster Presbyterian Church.  It’s the largest circle of all.  It’s the mission that the most people do, and everybody would get this t-shirt.

But, you see there was more to the early church in Acts, and there is more to our church too.  So, you might have to add another t-shirt to your collection if you truly wanted to partner with God through the Holy Spirit, to do everything the early church was doing. 

So I need another t-shirt.  Let’s look again at the scripture.  It says, all the believers were together and had everything in common, and every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, and when we read that we think of FELLOWSHIP.  We still break bread, especially us Presbyterians.  We still enjoy one another’s company and meet together in the “temple courts,” don’t we?

So our next t-shirt is FELLOWSHIP.  Now you will notice the circle for this one is just a little smaller.  That’s because a slightly smaller number of people participate in fellowship.  Not everybody likes everybody else.  That’s a joke, but still it’s true that not everybody that comes to worship participates in FELLOWSHIP.  That’s just the way it is.

Now I would contend we still do not have all the pieces of the early church mission, and certainly not all the pieces of what we are doing, so let’s go back to the scripture again.  We have sort of skipped over this one a little too quickly in verse 42, so let’s go back.

The verse reminds us that the early church heard the apostles teaching.  They were being taught about Jesus, and what God was doing in Jesus Christ.  The early church did not assume that people knew the stories of Jesus, and His teachings, so they devoted themselves to learning the teachings.

Friends, this is DISCIPLESHIP, or what we might consider Christian Education.  Except for a lot of us, we think of Christian Education as something just the children do.  So I would suggest that perhaps a better word to use, would be DISCIPLESHIP.  That’s the third t-shirt in the church mission collection, DISCIPLESHIP.

Again, I invite you to notice the size of the circle.  We, the Dream Team and the Session noticed that this circle is even a little smaller than the previous two.  Less people still in comparison to FELLOWSHIP, and certainly in comparison to WORSHIP, participate so the circle is smaller still.

Finally, I would suggest there is one more thing we read in Acts chapter 2, that the early church was doing, that we ought to pay attention to.  It says, everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles and selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.  Now I know everybody knows this one, it’s MISSION.

Thus, our last t-shirt in the collection is MISSION.  My model is going to put this final t-shirt, as we all notice that again the circle has gotten smaller.  Less people than were involved in DISCIPLESHIP are involved in MISSION, and so on and so on.

Now here’s the thing.  If what we are about in partnering with God is what is represented by these t-shirts, then would it not be true, that a person would have to be wearing all these shirts all at the same time to truly communicate the mission?  Truly, in order to say that we understand who we are in relationship to God’s mission in the world, it’s necessary to do WORSHIP, and FELLOWSHIP, and DISCIPLESHIP, and MISSION.

Not only is that true for the early church, but is it not also true for our church today?  Don’t we do all these things?  Aren’t these the basic and fundamental purposes of Westminster Presbyterian Church?

So our task is to figure out a way to get all these t-shirts in the collection together as one.  Because wearing any one of them without the others, would be to miss something critical in who we are and what we are about as a church.

Well we thought, maybe you could just put all four on the front of the t-shirt.  That would make it possible for everybody to get all four things at once.  But then we noticed something that maybe you noticed too.

Each purpose or mission of the church seems to be informed and reflected behind the one before.  When you put on the FELLOWSHIP t-shirt, you can still see the red circle behind for WORSHIP bleeding through.  Then FELLOWSHIP is behind the DISCIPLESHIP, and so on...

There is almost a progression, one thing leading to another.  It’s like you have to be in WORSHIP first, and then once you are comfortable there for a little while, then you can put on the FELLOWSHIP t-shirt, and so on...  isn’t that how it really works in reality?

Most of us when we came to Westminster Presbyterian Church came to worship first, and then somebody invited us to coffee after church, and then maybe to Sunday school, and finally maybe we even got invited to participate in some mission project or cause.  It doesn’t always happen like that, and yet it happens like that often enough in my mind to become sort of something worth noticing.

Next week, we are going to talk about this progression a little more and how each of us can put on these t-shirts for ourselves in the order that accomplishes what God would accomplish in us and through us.  And what is that you ask?

Well, again look at the end of Acts 2.  We read that the church was praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. 

My friends, these t-shirts are not just made up by me or by you.  The Dream Team didn’t create them just with magic marker.  Instead, WORSHIP, FELLOWSHIP, DISCIPLESHIP, and MISSION are a gift of God to the church.  The Holy Spirit has given these to us so that we might know what we are doing, and how we are doing it.

When we do the things given us by the Spirit, all of a sudden like those early apostles great things are done in our midst.  People are attracted to us, and we enjoy the favor of God’s people, and I believe in the end, God does in fact add to our number those that are being saved.

Thanks be to God for WORSHIP, FELLOWSHIP, DISCIPLESHIP, and MISSION; thanks be to God for the church.

Amen.