When I was a first year tertiary student I had a crazy experience at a train station where I caught a terminating train! This experience has reminded me many times that if I want to go somewhere I need to know how to get there and the same principle applies to our spiritual growth.
In the sermon attached to this blurb you will find my funny train story along with the essential ingredients for spiritual growth and the amazing reason I have given my life to helping people grow. I hope you’re blessed!
Sue Redman – February 7, 2009
The day before my parents moved me to Avondale College to start my Theology degree, we caught a train from Wyong to St Leonards so I could see a medical specialist. I’m guessing we made the appointment for that time because it made sense. My family were living in Narrabri at the time, which is 500 kilometres north-west of Sydney or about six hours drive, so mum and dad would have been making the most of the trip; killing two birds with the one stone.
Having grown up on rural properties in South-East Queensland and North-West New South Wales, I have to admit that my familiarity with public transport had been pretty much limited to the school bus until that time. Train rides were usually reserved for cotton and wheat that far west, 
so it was rather novel to board the train at Wyong, swap to the North Shore Line at Hornsby, then arrive at St Leonards.
With all that done and my appointment over, it quickly came time for our return trip which went just as smoothly until we got back to Hornsby. When we got back to Hornsby it was peak hour and the platform was packed. Trains were pulling in and out and all over the place, and it was all so confusing. Finally our train pulled in and breathing a sigh of relief, I waited patiently at a carriage door with my mum and dad, while most every passenger, it seemed, got off. In fact, what we discovered as we entered the train was that we were the only ones travelling back to Wyong that afternoon.
As embarrassing as it is to admit this, we seriously thought, “Wow, a carriage to ourselves. Nice.” Then we noticed another lady get on. She sat not from us for a few moments but seemed concerned about something. Finally she said wasn’t sure she was on the right train and she got off. As we watched her leave the train and walk along the platform we noticed that lots of people on the platform were watching us. “Mm, do all city people stare like that?” I wondered.
As we pulled out of the station my parents and I started to make ourselves comfortable. Hornsby to Wyong; we had time to relax. We were only about 500 metres down the track however, when the train stopped again. I looked around to see what station we were at but I couldn’t see one. In fact I couldn’t see much at all. Just rows and rows of train tracks. I immediately wondered why we had stopped and then my mind started to race. Maybe there had been a hold-up in the control room. I had heard things like that happened in the city. Maybe I would be a witness. Maybe I would die.
Well, we waited. And we waited. There were no announcements. No attendants to tell us what to do. Finally mum and I decided that dad should go and find out what was happening, and that was when he concluded we’d done the obvious, caught a terminating train. What to do next wasn’t so obvious however. We thought we would just get off the train and walk back to the station but it wasn’t that easy. The doors were locked and the windows were too small to jump out and there were no mobile phones back then. After much pushing and pulling however, dad finally managed to prise one of the doors open and jumping down onto the tracks, he helped mum and I do the same.
As my feet touched the railway tracks that day, I remember glancing up at the platform where the multitudes were still gathered, and wondering how I was ever going to maintain my dignity. Thinking I had no option but to fake it, I stepped very deliberately/confidently across each track, one after the other, and continued to walk with utmost poise and precision until we reached the platform again and I could lose myself in the crowd . . .
As we stand on the brink of a new church year at Chatswood Church, my simple message this morning is if we want to get to where God wants us to be, we will have to know what we are doing. If we want to pursue God’s vision for our church, His mission, we will need to be intentional. If we want God to accomplish His purposes in and through us, we will need to commit. There is no new vision for Chatswood Church this year. No new revelation or word from God. Just an opportunity for each of us to recommit to what we already know God has called us to, and to rethink what it might take for us to get there.
What it might take for us to get there. Before anyone can determine what it make take to get somewhere, they first need to know where they are, and that is my first question this morning: where are we? Where are we, Chatswood Seventh-day Adventist Church, up to as at February 2009? How are we different from where we were in February 2008? 7? 6? 5? 4? Are we any different? Are we where we hoped we would be? My guess is that there will be as many different answers to these questions as there are Chatswood Church members in this room, and to illustrate, let me share three different perspectives about where Chatswood Church is up to, as shared by three different people I’ve had encounters with in recent weeks.
There is someone who belongs to Chatswood Seventh-day Adventist Church who cannot speak more highly of our church. This person tells me over and over and over again that I cannot possibly know how much our church means to them. What it has done for them. How it is helping them grow in Jesus and beside others. This person generously buys me gifts to express their gratitude, and they long to become a more active participant in our exciting and innovative ministries.
Someone else who belongs to our church thinks that we are stuck. That attempts to become all that God wants us to be have not proven very effective and they are frustrated; I would suggest discouraged. This person is wrestling with lost momentum in their spiritual growth and their enthusiasm and commitment, both to their personal walk with God and church ministries, are waning.
Yet another person who belongs to Chatswood Church is also frustrated with our church, but not because they are not growing spiritually. This person has grown so significantly that they now want to be involved in service: in serving those in need, in evangelism, and they are frustrated because they want our church to be providing more opportunities . . . Are you hearing complex?! Seemingly opposing feedback all about the one church?!
The good news for me is that all this complexity actually came together this week when I was doing some research about discipleship for my other part-time role. I was reading about the survey Willow Creek Community Church recently did with over 80,000 Christians and 200 churches, and it was when I read that one of the most important things Christians want from their churches is for their churches to challenge them to grow and take the next step in their spiritual life, that it started to make sense. If Christians expect their churches to help them grow spiritually, it is easy to see why individuals evaluate their church based on where they’re at, on whether or not they are growing. Which means the more helpful question for me to start with this morning may not be “Where are we?” but “Where are you?” “Where am I?”
One of the most fascinating things I learnt from Willow Creek’s study is that there are certain points in a Christian’s spiritual growth when churches actually become limited in their ability to help. From all the data Willow collected, they have been able to identify four broad stages of spiritual growth, along with specific catalysts that help Christians move from one stage to another, and the long and the short of it is that there comes a point in time when Christians will simply not grow any further unless they engage in personal spiritual practices like Bible study and prayer. There comes a point in time when Christians will simply not grow any further unless they become actively involved in serving others and evangelism.
I have to say reading this was a watershed moment for me. Not only did it help me understand the changing role and significance of the church across a person’s spiritual continuum, it also helped me make sense of observations I had already made – like how our Worship Services, while no less satisfying, become lesser important catalysts for spiritual growth as people grow in Jesus. How the role of our Home Groups shifts as people move across the spectrum. How people’s perception of prayer changes from a place where we talk to God, to a place where we talk and listen to God, and why people therefore grow to need help in learning how to hear God’s voice.
As people grow in Jesus, the church’s role and significance has to change, but rest assured that this is no out for Chatswood Church. I believe the commission Jesus gave His disciples, as recorded in Matthew 28:19-20, is very clear. Disciples of Jesus/church leaders intentionally make other disciples of Jesus until those disciples of Jesus are mature enough to make more disciples of Jesus, are you with me? Church leaders are to preach the good news. To baptise. To teach. Like Jesus they are to create places of belonging and facilitate spiritual friendships, and as people grow with the help of all these ministries, leaders then start to walk beside them instead of parenting them. They inspire and encourage them to commit to personal spiritual practices. They facilitate serving opportunities both in the church and community. They engage those who have matured as partners in reaching the lost, and when the lost are found they start the process all over again.
As I said there is no new vision for Chatswood Church in 2009. Our mission is the same as it was 2,000 years ago. We are still called to become “the church you belong to” – the church you and I, our friends, our workmates, our neighbours, the kids in our community, their parents, the hungry, the poor, the homeless, the afflicted, the church all these people belong to. This mission has never changed and it never will change. But what has to change is our understanding of the church’s role in fulfilling this mission; our understanding of our role in fulfilling this mission. What we need in 2009 is not another master plan for how God might accomplish His purposes in and through Chatswood Church. We need ninety individual plans for intentional spiritual growth; plans that will naturally result in the accomplishment of Chatswood Church’s mission. Here’s where the church can help.
Do you know I couldn’t believe it when I read in Willow’s REVEAL study that adult education classes on spiritual topics are one of the primary catalysts for spiritual growth. I also couldn’t believe it when I read about the importance of personal assessments and creating personal plans for spiritual growth. Somehow, short of doing a survey with 80,000 people and 200 churches, praise God, Chatswood Church decided at the end of last year that we needed to compliment our Sabbath morning Bible Studies and Home Groups with Sabbath afternoon programs and activities – opportunities for people to engage in spiritual topics integral to their personal growth, and I would like to invite Alex, our new Discipleship Director, to come and share about this new ministry with us . . .
The second new ministry we would like to introduce this morning is our community Kids’ Club and Parents’ Morning Tea, and I want to invite Ben and Bec, our leaders, to tell us about this new opportunity to serve . . .
It probably shouldn’t come as any surprise that Willow Creek’s study revealed that serving is the most catalytic experience offered by the church when it comes to spiritual growth. It’s even more catalytic than organised small groups, and serving those in need, when compared with serving in the church, tops the list for two of the four stages of spiritual growth. Serving produces spiritual growth and spiritual growth produces serving . . . Let me read you a story. It’s from The Desire of Ages and entitled, “At Jacob’s Well.”
On the way to Galilee Jesus passed through Samaria. It was noon when He reached the beautiful Vale of Shechem. At the opening of this valley was Jacob’s well. Wearied with His journey, He sat down to rest while His disciples went to buy food . . .
As Jesus sat by the well side, He was faint from hunger and thirst. The journey since morning had been long, and now the sun of noontide beat upon Him. His thirst was increased by the thought of the cool, refreshing water so near, yet inaccessible to Him; for He had no rope nor water jar, and the well was deep. The lot of humanity was His and He waited for someone to come to draw.
A woman of Samaria approached, and seeming unconscious of His presence, filled her pitcher with water. As she turned to go away, Jesus asked her for a drink. Such a favour no Oriental would withhold. In the East, water was called “the gift of God.” To offer a drink to the thirsty traveller was held to be a duty so sacred that the Arabs of the desert would go out of their way in order to perform it. The hatred between Jews and Samaritans prevented the woman from offering a kindness to Jesus; but the Saviour was seeking to find the key to this heart, and with the tact born of divine love, He asked, not offered, a favour. The offer of a kindness might have been rejected; but trust awakens trust. The King of heaven came to this outcast soul, asking a service at her hands. He who made the ocean, who controls the waters of the great deep, who opened the springs and channels of the earth, rested from His weariness at Jacob’s well, and was dependent upon a stranger’s kindness for even the gift of a drink of water.
The woman saw that Jesus was a Jew. In her surprise she forgot to grant His request, but tried to learn the reason for it. “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”
Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” You wonder that I should ask of you so small a favour as a draught of water from the well at our feet. Had you asked of Me, I would have given you to drink of the water of everlasting life . . . (Ellen G White, The Desire of Ages, pp 183-184).
. . . the Saviour was seeking to find the key to this heart . . . with the tact born of divine love, He asked, not offered, a favour. The offer of a kindness might have been rejected; but trust awakens trust. The King of heaven came to this outcast soul, asking a service at her hands . . .
If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.
Is not this the wonder of our God? A God who asks us to give Him a drink, so He can quench our thirst. A God who invites us to talk to Him, so He can talk to us. A God who calls us to share the good news of His love with others, so we can experience this love. That’s what all this talk about spiritual growth is about. It’s about encounters between humanity and divinity. Opportunities for the Holy Spirit to refresh our hearts and souls and minds. Opportunities for the Holy Spirit to reenergise us with the power and love of Jesus Christ. This is why I long for each of us to become intentional about our spiritual growth in 2009. This is why I want Chatswood Church to become known as the “the church where we grow” to those of us who already belong.
