Grace for Española
 
I have to admit, I love gifts. I love giving them and receiving them. Gifts are a great way to express our affection for others. A gift tells someone, "You are important to me and I thought of you when I picked out this particular gift."

God has given us some gifts. In addition to life itself along with the blessings we experience, we have received the gift of forgiveness of sin and eternal life through Jesus. Not only that, God has given us spiritual gifts to use in our daily lives as members of the body of Christ to become giving people.

Spiritual gifts are god’s supernatural enablement to empower Christians for loving service. Spiritual gifts are just various ways we love and serve each other. We need not get confused or contentious about the topic of spiritual gifts. As we follow the flow of thought in Romans 12 we find ourselves responding to God’s mercies in the gospel by offering our bodies as living sacrifices (v. 1). Then as mercy-loving, mercy-dependent people, we are transformed by the renewal of our minds as we saturate our minds with God’s truth and grace and we experience God’s will for our lives (v. 2). As mercy-soaked, Christ-exalting renewed people, we humbly give ourselves to the ministry of the body as members of one another (vv. 3-5).

In verses 6-8 of Romans 12 we find a list of spiritual gifts that represent some of the ways God has uniquely endowed His people with grace gifts to be used in the building up of the body of Christ. What follows is a brief explanation and caution about each of these gifts.

Prophecy: The divine enablement to proclaim God’s truth with power and clarity in a timely and practical manner for correction, repentance, or edification. Danger: Tendency to be proud of their speaking ability or to rely on their ability rather than God. In their desire to make things right they may be insensitive to the feelings of other people.

Service: The divine enablement to attach spiritual value to the accomplishment of physical tasks with the body of Christ. Ability to demonstrate love by the meeting of practical needs. Danger: Can be bitter if their deeds are not recognized. Over emphasis on practical needs to the neglect of spiritual needs.

Teaching: The divine enablement to understand and give detailed explanation of biblical truth. Ability to search out and validate truth which has been presented. Danger: Focus on content at the expense of application.

Exhortation: The divine enablement to come alongside another in need of encouragement to reassure, strengthen, affirm, or challenge those who are discouraged or wavering in their faith. Ability to motivate others to trust and obey God. Danger: Spend too much time with people who are needy but not changing.

Giving: The divine enablement to earn money, manage it well, and wisely contribute to the work of the Lord with cheerfulness and liberality. Danger: Pride in their ability to make and invest money, seek a return on investment, desire recognition, desire to control what they’ve given to, or judge the way others handle their money.

Leadership: The divine enablement to see what needs to be done, set goals, and attract, lead, and motivate a group of people to accomplish the work of the ministry. Ability to coordinate the activity of others for the achievement of common goals. Danger: Use people to meet goals, pushy.

Mercy: The divine enablement to minister cheerfully and appropriately to people who are suffering or undeserving and to spare them the consequences of their choices. Ability to identify with and comfort those in distress. Danger: Hard to be firm, may enable others to live in sin by not allowing them to face the consequences of their choices, can be misunderstood by the opposite sex.

Do you know what your gifting is? Are you using your gifting to minister to God’s people? If not, why not? You the gifting God has given you are needed in the ministry. You also need the gifts of others to be exercised in your life. We have a mutually interdependent relationship to each other as Christians. Ask God to help you know His will and live in it as you dedicate your life to Him in response to all He is for you in Jesus. God delights to not only give spiritual gifts, but for us to unwrap them and use them for His glory and the good of His people.
 
 
I recently had a physical exam and am happy to report that I am in good health. It’s reassuring to know the condition of your physical body is good and there are no problems to worry about. The church of Jesus Christ is also likened to a body. What does a biblically healthy church look like? A biblically healthy church is one that accurately preaches the Word of God resulting in sound theology and an accurate understanding of the gospel. The gospel is then declared through proper methods of evangelism and evangelistic preaching resulting in biblical conversion. Converts are joined to the church with the expectation of being fully committed to the ministry of the church and the church grows through mutual edification by the power and gifting of the Holy Spirit into the image of Christ to the glory of God.

Once a believer is joined to the church, what is his or her responsibility as a church member? Do we get to pick and choose our responsibility as if we are consumers seeking personal fulfillment? Or, is there a pattern of responsibility that each member must accept as a servant of God? Clearly, the Bible teaches we are to be servants not consumers. Sadly, however, too many Christians today do not see themselves as servants of God but as consumers with a right to customer satisfaction and personal comfort.

It seems that one of the underlying reasons for a low view of church membership today is a fear of infringement upon one’s personal freedom. But does this sound like the mentality of a servant of Christ? Nope. Here’s what one author said about it: "…many Christians bounce from church to church, shopping for the fellowship which best suits their tastes. If the current congregation fails to satisfy, there’s always another one across town with open doors, eager to accommodate a new customer. Changing churches is not much different than changing brands of cereal. The freedom to choose products according to one’s tastes and preferences is healthy in a marketplace, but churches are not commodities in a marketplace. Congregation hopping militates against our Lord’s orderly design for His church."

I would like to use the remainder of this article to present what I believe God would have us do as our minimum responsibilities as a church member.

1. Members are expected to attend corporate worship each week. If we don’t attend, we are not built up in our faith and we remain unknown to the other members and leaders.

2. Members are expected to attend an open group Bible study. Bible studies are not only places to study the Bible, but also to ask questions, share insights, and be in fellowship with others.

3. Members are expected to be involved in at least one ministry or mission activity a year. We expect our members to look beyond themselves and serve others for the sake of Christ and the gospel.

4. Members are expected to give regularly. If we don’t give, we cannot have paid staff, support missions, or have a place to meet with lighting and climate control. How we use the money God allows us to manage on His behalf is a very good indicator of where our heart is.

5. Members are expected to pray and to read and study the Bible daily. Personal time with God cannot be substituted or side-stepped without harm to our spiritual life.

6. Members are expected to protect the unity of the church. Jesus said we will be known as His disciples by the love we have for one another. That means we will resolve not to say or do anything that undermines our unity. We will seek the good of the whole even if it means not getting our own way. We will support the direction and decisions of the leaders God has put in place in His church.

7. Members are expected to participate in business meetings. Occasionally the church meets to make decisions that affect the entire church family. Our participation is needed to ensure the unity and common direction of the church.

So how can we apply some of this? For the church member, may I ask you? What is your membership in this church communicating to God? To others? There is no point in meaningless membership. Does your membership in this church involve anything beyond your presence on Sunday morning? How are you contributing to God’s work through this church? Does anybody in the church really know you? Do you prefer to remain unknown? Do you have an interest in knowing and serving others? Do you financially support the ministry of the church in a way that goes beyond "tipping God"?

How about you non-member? What is your non-membership in the church you attend communicating to God? To others? If you are set on not committing to a local church, I have very real concerns about your spiritual condition. Have you truly died to self to be alive to God? Jesus is passionate about His church (Eph 5:25). Are you? I honestly cannot think of a better way to express your commitment to Jesus than by committing to a local church where you love and serve God’s people year after year faithfully. Jesus identified with you and your sin on the cross. Will you identify with Him and His body through His church?

Ultimately, God saved us and placed us in the body of Christ for His own glory and our everlasting joy. We are opposing God’s purpose and our own happiness when we foolishly live as if we know better than God and refuse to do His will. My prayer and hope for you, dear reader, is to lay aside your pride and self-reliant attitude and embrace your calling and role as a member of God’s church to the fullest. We are never more like Jesus than when we give of ourselves for the benefit of others. Let it begin in the house of God. Amen.

Your undershepherd for Jesus,

Pastor Massimo
 
 
The beginning of a new year is always a good time to take stock of where we’ve been and where we’re heading. As a church, we have much to celebrate and thank God for in the past year. One of the most significant events in the life of our fellowship was the calling and ordaining of a new pastor. There are always adjustments to be made as the church members and new pastor begin a new relationship. From my perspective, the transition has been very smooth and I can say as your new pastor I am very pleased with the spirit and harmony in the church. Perhaps the honeymoon is still in effect, but I sense a real comradeship in core values. There is a true hunger for the Word of God evident which is the most foundational and determinative core value a church can have. When a church allows the Word of God to direct its ministry, it places itself in the way of God’s blessing and fruitfulness in ministry. In other words, a God-honoring, God-blessed church will always ask itself, "Whose church is this?" To which the answer is "God’s." And also, "What does God, in His Word, say we should do?" This submissive attitude toward God as expressed in the attitude toward His Word will make all the difference in the life of our fellowship and will become more obvious as the months and years progress and we look back and see God’s hand of blessing.

FBC conducted numerous outreach events in 2009. Among them were the Easter Egg Hunt, VBS, Summer Mission Trip, Back to Church Sunday (newspaper ads, booklets), Harvest Festival, Desert Skies Concert, Angel Tree, and Children’s Christmas Program. In the Fall, we carried out a "You’ve Got the Time" campaign to get our entire church family listening through the audio New Testament. As part of that campaign, we were able to raise, with the help of an anonymous 3 to 1 matching donor, over $2,200 to fund the Lao language audio Bible. I was told by Hosanna, that our gift put that project’s financial need over the top!

We began a weekly radio program on KKIM that reaches from Socorro to Southern Colorado and around the world on the internet. The program director loves our program and gave us 285 free 30 second ads and has invited me to talk live on the air 3 times about our ministry. They’ve also repeated the program at 4pm on Sunday at no charge! This ministry is not funded by our regular budget so if you’d like to support it, mark your gifts (above regular tithes/offering) "radio ministry."

In 2009 we also were able to fund and offer biblical counseling booklets on a range of topics from depression to divorce. We have already had to restock the display completely. Please keep in mind that these booklets cost $3 each and this ministry is not funded in our regular budget. So if you’d like to contribute at any time toward the booklets, mark your special gift "counseling booklets."

For our children’s ministry, we were able to begin again our children’s church and we began offering our children a weekly Bible Bookmark to encourage daily Bible reading. We also launched a mid-weekly youth discipleship group that I lead each Wed. evening for teens who want to grow in their faith, maturity, and knowledge of God’s Word. Turn out has been meager so pray for our teens for a desire to take seriously their spiritual lives and come together each week to learn and be challenged.

We added four new members to the Ministry Team this Fall and we were able to complete a new Pictorial Directory that should be published and distributed by early February.

As we look toward 2010 there are several challenges we face as a church family. One of the most important I see is the need for our church to grow deeper in fellowship with one another. Life and ministry is about relationships and for our church to grow stronger and healthier in 2010 we must each make a commitment to get to know and love one another better this year. I’ve suggested from the pulpit for our members to share meals together as an easy beginning point. Later in the year I hope to see our church conduct a "dinner with six" initiative where people can sign-up to share a meal with a few others that they don’t know very well. I believe we will be pleasantly surprised by the joy and body life ministry that can result.

Another major concern is our current level of giving has not matched our approved budget expenditures. Our church has been in a spending freeze the last few months and we’ve sought to reduce spending where possible, but it’s not enough. In 2010, we will be offering a ministry effort to biblically instruct and assist our membership in personal financial planning. We don’t just want to plead for an increase in giving, but to help our people manage the resources God has entrusted in the best way possible that will bless them and God’s church as a result. You may recall my Christmas gift to those in attendance one Sunday morning was Randy Alcorn’s excellent little book The Treasure Principle as one small effort to this end (have you read it yet?). More information about this effort will be forthcoming shortly.

Please continue to lift up our fellowship before God in prayer. Look for ways to be a blessing to others and seek to make the most of your involvement each week. Remember that God loves you and I do too.

Yours for the Master,

—Pastor Massimo