Malvern@6 18.6.06 The Family Room.
I want to talk with you over the next 5 weeks about our core values. What I mean by that is what we do naturally, without thinking about it. These are the things that are at the heart of who we are.
Personally all of us have core values that govern our life. That make us react, that make us feel, that provoke you to do things. Most of us value our own lives; we value honesty, truth, hard work, justice, Port Power… those sorts of things.
Then every organisation has values that govern behaviour. More often than not they are hidden and you only discover them when you break the code. So you go to a new work place and you park in the boss’s car park, you use the wrong stationary in the printer or you buy the wrong milk for the staff fridge and you soon find out what the values of the workers are. In the same way there are things that govern corporate actions. James Hardy for instance, in the last couple of years has shown us that one of their core values is to make money and not to relinquish it. So they have refused to pay any compensation to victims of asbestos poisoning. Johnstone and Johnstone on the other hand had such an embedded core value of commitment to the health of their buyers that when they had a problem with one of their products they issued an immediate recall. Even though it was to cost them millions and millions.
Now the reason that I am talking about these values is that we need to start naming who we are, and what makes us tick. We need to think why we do or don’t do certain things. As hard as it might be. And let me tell you this is a hard task.
As you can appreciate core values go very deep. And they have the potential to dictate behaviour in the strongest way. A couple of weeks ago I outlined a vision of what I thought we were about and just who were becoming. If you missed that its on the blogspot. Malvernat6.blogspot.com. but you see the thing is its no good just for me to talk about the new us without all of us, together, dealing with the things that form our behaviour. Or the things that make us react in the same old patterns.
So, starting with tonight I want to give you five weeks worth of things that provoke you into thinking about who we are. In the hope that we might start to translate that thinking into doing. We cannot be Christians that just think and not do. Just as much as we cannot be Christians that do and not think! I am determined to aggravate us into doing things that bring honour to the name of Jesus. So, tomorrow, what I have said here tonight – well most of it – will appear on the blogspot for you to post a comment on if you feel so inclined.
Now there is one thing that I need to make clear and that is, is that we don’t have to have all these core values all sorted out. But we have to be striving towards them. They are like the place where we are going. And so there is this incredible paradox. While these are values that define us and shape us they are ideals that we are only on the way to realising.
But in all this we must never forget that we are the Church. This is something that I am going to keep on hammering. Together we make up the living breathing, moving agent of God. We make up the picture for our generation to see. We are not a fraternity, not a society, not a union, not a school, not a crowd. But the church. Something very unique.
So to help us get a handle on what sets us apart from a club or a society. Tonight I want to begin to paint an image in our minds. Its an image of a house that’s made up of five rooms. The house is Gods house and the rooms are where we live and were we call our home. It’s the place where we belong. This is who we are meant to be. And when I talk about the rooms these are the things that set us apart from a club or a social gathering. Living in these rooms is what defines just who we are and what we are about.
The family room
So the first room in the house where we live is the family room. This is the place were we relate to one another.
There is something about a family that is quite unlike anything else on the face of the earth. Now I have got to acknowledge that my experience of family has been very good and I know that not everyone has had such an experience. But lets just think about family in the best possible light that we can. Even if your picture has to come from an American soap that’s ok for today! Although probably the big brother family room image is not really helpful!!
When I was a kid we had a family room. A place where everybody would hang out and just sort of vege. On Friday nights after the obligatory trip to the library we would watch a bit of tv and more often than not make toast with butter on it – that was about the extent of the budget
But I remember the main thing about it – it was a place where you could just be you, secure in your relationships. This is very important.
The family room is a place where we value 2 particular relationships. 2 core values that I need to quickly unpack for you tonight.
1. We value a relationship with God through Jesus in the Power of the Holy Spirit.
A bit of a mouthful but this is a pretty straightforward core value. You would expect something like this in a church environment. But I want to put this out there first because it underlines a key theme; that our total allegiance is to God and to building a relationship with Him. Our whole community is built around God being in the middle of everything that we do and us being relaxed in Gods presence. We are Gods people; the Bible actually calls us the children of God. Let me again quote my favourite verse from 1 John 3:1 “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!” (NIV) And if that does not cause a stirring in your soul then maybe you should check your pulse. You see we have this unique relationship with the ultimate power behind the ultimate power. There are no words to describe just how awesome God is (and I mean that in the purest sense of the word). The Only God of the universe is our father. He calls you son, he calls you daughter.
And the reason this is so important to us, the reason its one of our core values is that is important to God. God made us for the single purpose to be in relationship with Him. Every single day of your life God is actively looking to connect with you. It has to be important to us because its important to him.
And there is another reason that this is our core value;
The alpha Church of England joke “we will miss God but we think we can get on fine without him”
This is the thing that we can get so self reliant, so resourceful, so full of self importance that we think we can do without God. But I never want to let us go there.
So our core value is to have a relationship with God. To seek a vital growing connection. One that never rests on its past success but is constantly determined to be closer and more humble and listening better to the Spirit of God. And so what this means is that we cut away anything that gets in the way of our relationship with God. This is what we seek to develop, to work on, to think about, every time we meet. This is why we come to worship. To life group. This si why we promote personal bible reading and prayer. These things are important. These are the moments when we can drag ourselves away from all that goes on around us and reengage with God.
So our first core value in the family room is that we value a relationship with God.
So, the second of our core values in the family room relates to us;
We value honest, caring relationships with one another.
If a relationship with God is one of a parent and child, then to each other we must be brothers and sisters. I wonder if that’s how you think about one and another?
In the Bible its fairly obvious that there is a special way we are meant to treat each other. And lately people have been writing about what they call “biblical community”. That is caring for each other in a way that reflects how the early church lived.
Now the reason I am putting this forward as a core value is not just because its found in the bible, its not just because this was the way God has actually made us. Its because when it all boils down to it we are family.
Of course there are clubs and social gatherings that do care for each other. But the real difference for us is that we have a common connection. Each one of us have been bought with a price. Each one of us is the recipients of Gods grace and Jesus died for all of us. That’s why it breaks my heart when people are standing alone after the service or some are ignored. What does this say about being family - That’s not who we are. So I bring before you tonight a core value of honestly valuing a relationship with one another. Of seeking ways to relate on a deeper level with one another. I don’t know exactly how to do this – but I do know it when I see it. I bet you do to.
The thing is this is not just for us as an in-house experience. The church always exists for those who do not belong. Our valuing honest and caring relationships has no boundaries of who it applies to.
Sue Gorman friday - bored with the church as a girl and left, but came back because it was a relational connection with some other young Christians. She found something there with them that was different than anything else she had ever experienced before. She became a Christian, her sister and her brother also. All three of them are Christians (one I worked with in India!) and now ministers. And the one who was speaking to us ministers yesterday is the moderator of the synod of Victoria and Tasmania. That’s the sort of influence we are about!
I wonder how we start this process of really caring for one another? I wonder how we make it happen? Of fostering real community among each other. Maybe tonight I can make one suggestion; once per week we contact someone associated with this congregation, we ask them how their week has been and then right there and then we pray for them asking God to care for them and help them this week. And if praying out loud freaks you out, to tell them that we will pray for them during the week. If we were to do something as simple as that we would thirty times our care and concern for each other.
My friends if we are not about relationships then what are we about? If we are not caring for each other as a family in the best sense of the word what are we doing here? And if we don’t embrace those who walk in these doors or we come into contact with then what are we saying?
And its not just that we have to care for each other but we have a responsibility to hold one another accountable for the way we live. To keep each other honest before the Lord. This life is a shared life, the road we walk was not meant to be done alone. But with all of us, together.
There is so much more I can say about this. However I will stop here with these last words.
God has made us to be in relationship with him and with each other on a different level than any other society. Two of our core values are found in the family room, where we truly become Gods family.
I look forward to next week were we discover more of who we are as the household of God.
Personally all of us have core values that govern our life. That make us react, that make us feel, that provoke you to do things. Most of us value our own lives; we value honesty, truth, hard work, justice, Port Power… those sorts of things.
Then every organisation has values that govern behaviour. More often than not they are hidden and you only discover them when you break the code. So you go to a new work place and you park in the boss’s car park, you use the wrong stationary in the printer or you buy the wrong milk for the staff fridge and you soon find out what the values of the workers are. In the same way there are things that govern corporate actions. James Hardy for instance, in the last couple of years has shown us that one of their core values is to make money and not to relinquish it. So they have refused to pay any compensation to victims of asbestos poisoning. Johnstone and Johnstone on the other hand had such an embedded core value of commitment to the health of their buyers that when they had a problem with one of their products they issued an immediate recall. Even though it was to cost them millions and millions.
Now the reason that I am talking about these values is that we need to start naming who we are, and what makes us tick. We need to think why we do or don’t do certain things. As hard as it might be. And let me tell you this is a hard task.
As you can appreciate core values go very deep. And they have the potential to dictate behaviour in the strongest way. A couple of weeks ago I outlined a vision of what I thought we were about and just who were becoming. If you missed that its on the blogspot. Malvernat6.blogspot.com. but you see the thing is its no good just for me to talk about the new us without all of us, together, dealing with the things that form our behaviour. Or the things that make us react in the same old patterns.
So, starting with tonight I want to give you five weeks worth of things that provoke you into thinking about who we are. In the hope that we might start to translate that thinking into doing. We cannot be Christians that just think and not do. Just as much as we cannot be Christians that do and not think! I am determined to aggravate us into doing things that bring honour to the name of Jesus. So, tomorrow, what I have said here tonight – well most of it – will appear on the blogspot for you to post a comment on if you feel so inclined.
Now there is one thing that I need to make clear and that is, is that we don’t have to have all these core values all sorted out. But we have to be striving towards them. They are like the place where we are going. And so there is this incredible paradox. While these are values that define us and shape us they are ideals that we are only on the way to realising.
But in all this we must never forget that we are the Church. This is something that I am going to keep on hammering. Together we make up the living breathing, moving agent of God. We make up the picture for our generation to see. We are not a fraternity, not a society, not a union, not a school, not a crowd. But the church. Something very unique.
So to help us get a handle on what sets us apart from a club or a society. Tonight I want to begin to paint an image in our minds. Its an image of a house that’s made up of five rooms. The house is Gods house and the rooms are where we live and were we call our home. It’s the place where we belong. This is who we are meant to be. And when I talk about the rooms these are the things that set us apart from a club or a social gathering. Living in these rooms is what defines just who we are and what we are about.
The family room
So the first room in the house where we live is the family room. This is the place were we relate to one another.
There is something about a family that is quite unlike anything else on the face of the earth. Now I have got to acknowledge that my experience of family has been very good and I know that not everyone has had such an experience. But lets just think about family in the best possible light that we can. Even if your picture has to come from an American soap that’s ok for today! Although probably the big brother family room image is not really helpful!!
When I was a kid we had a family room. A place where everybody would hang out and just sort of vege. On Friday nights after the obligatory trip to the library we would watch a bit of tv and more often than not make toast with butter on it – that was about the extent of the budget
But I remember the main thing about it – it was a place where you could just be you, secure in your relationships. This is very important.
The family room is a place where we value 2 particular relationships. 2 core values that I need to quickly unpack for you tonight.
1. We value a relationship with God through Jesus in the Power of the Holy Spirit.
A bit of a mouthful but this is a pretty straightforward core value. You would expect something like this in a church environment. But I want to put this out there first because it underlines a key theme; that our total allegiance is to God and to building a relationship with Him. Our whole community is built around God being in the middle of everything that we do and us being relaxed in Gods presence. We are Gods people; the Bible actually calls us the children of God. Let me again quote my favourite verse from 1 John 3:1 “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!” (NIV) And if that does not cause a stirring in your soul then maybe you should check your pulse. You see we have this unique relationship with the ultimate power behind the ultimate power. There are no words to describe just how awesome God is (and I mean that in the purest sense of the word). The Only God of the universe is our father. He calls you son, he calls you daughter.
And the reason this is so important to us, the reason its one of our core values is that is important to God. God made us for the single purpose to be in relationship with Him. Every single day of your life God is actively looking to connect with you. It has to be important to us because its important to him.
And there is another reason that this is our core value;
The alpha Church of England joke “we will miss God but we think we can get on fine without him”
This is the thing that we can get so self reliant, so resourceful, so full of self importance that we think we can do without God. But I never want to let us go there.
So our core value is to have a relationship with God. To seek a vital growing connection. One that never rests on its past success but is constantly determined to be closer and more humble and listening better to the Spirit of God. And so what this means is that we cut away anything that gets in the way of our relationship with God. This is what we seek to develop, to work on, to think about, every time we meet. This is why we come to worship. To life group. This si why we promote personal bible reading and prayer. These things are important. These are the moments when we can drag ourselves away from all that goes on around us and reengage with God.
So our first core value in the family room is that we value a relationship with God.
So, the second of our core values in the family room relates to us;
We value honest, caring relationships with one another.
If a relationship with God is one of a parent and child, then to each other we must be brothers and sisters. I wonder if that’s how you think about one and another?
In the Bible its fairly obvious that there is a special way we are meant to treat each other. And lately people have been writing about what they call “biblical community”. That is caring for each other in a way that reflects how the early church lived.
Now the reason I am putting this forward as a core value is not just because its found in the bible, its not just because this was the way God has actually made us. Its because when it all boils down to it we are family.
Of course there are clubs and social gatherings that do care for each other. But the real difference for us is that we have a common connection. Each one of us have been bought with a price. Each one of us is the recipients of Gods grace and Jesus died for all of us. That’s why it breaks my heart when people are standing alone after the service or some are ignored. What does this say about being family - That’s not who we are. So I bring before you tonight a core value of honestly valuing a relationship with one another. Of seeking ways to relate on a deeper level with one another. I don’t know exactly how to do this – but I do know it when I see it. I bet you do to.
The thing is this is not just for us as an in-house experience. The church always exists for those who do not belong. Our valuing honest and caring relationships has no boundaries of who it applies to.
Sue Gorman friday - bored with the church as a girl and left, but came back because it was a relational connection with some other young Christians. She found something there with them that was different than anything else she had ever experienced before. She became a Christian, her sister and her brother also. All three of them are Christians (one I worked with in India!) and now ministers. And the one who was speaking to us ministers yesterday is the moderator of the synod of Victoria and Tasmania. That’s the sort of influence we are about!
I wonder how we start this process of really caring for one another? I wonder how we make it happen? Of fostering real community among each other. Maybe tonight I can make one suggestion; once per week we contact someone associated with this congregation, we ask them how their week has been and then right there and then we pray for them asking God to care for them and help them this week. And if praying out loud freaks you out, to tell them that we will pray for them during the week. If we were to do something as simple as that we would thirty times our care and concern for each other.
My friends if we are not about relationships then what are we about? If we are not caring for each other as a family in the best sense of the word what are we doing here? And if we don’t embrace those who walk in these doors or we come into contact with then what are we saying?
And its not just that we have to care for each other but we have a responsibility to hold one another accountable for the way we live. To keep each other honest before the Lord. This life is a shared life, the road we walk was not meant to be done alone. But with all of us, together.
There is so much more I can say about this. However I will stop here with these last words.
God has made us to be in relationship with him and with each other on a different level than any other society. Two of our core values are found in the family room, where we truly become Gods family.
I look forward to next week were we discover more of who we are as the household of God.
posted by Jonathan at 10:05 AM
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