As we come together as a congregation on this first Sunday of 2008, I have a serious question to ask you. Does the Bible exhort the non Christian people of the world to come to a church building? I have not found such teaching in the Bible. However, our Bible clearly teaches that the people who are the Church of Jesus Christ must go out into the world with the Gospel. Along with that we certainly should be inviting others to come to worship with us.

When I entitle a message, challenging the fortress mentality, I want to get your atten­tion, and also assure you that I am NOT talk­ing about challenging God - the message of the Christian faith of which we have just sung. I suggest we challenge the fortress mentality of the church. What is this mentality of the fortress which predominates the vast majority of Christian churches in America today?

I. Mentality

This mentality and its crippling grip on the church have been a concern of mine for many years. Several years ago I met a pastor who spoke and wrote on this mentality. Listen to Pastor Tillapaugh's description.

In a few words, the fortress mentality says the church will minister to anyone who will come within the four walls of our church buildings and fit in with us. Sound a bit crude. Think about it for a moment.

A typical church in twentieth century America probably started out in a rather small facility. When it began to see some growth, members decided they needed a larger facility, so started a building program, while looking for property and drawing up plans for a new building.
Once into its new facility, Sunday School classes were set up, the choir grew into its new loft and maybe a men's and womens' ministry program was started. A sign was probably erected outside the front door listing the times for worship services, Sunday School and Bible study along with the pastor's name and a note at the bottom saying: Everyone welcome.

To it's parishioner, the call was to teach Sunday School, join the choir and fix meals for shut-ins and potlucks. Otherwise, just come and fit in. The overwhelming majority of churches today are fortress type churches.

Let me assure you that I believe it is fine to have a nice fortress where we gather to worship, for preaching, for teaching, for praying, to have a Sunday School, Bible Studies, Choirs, Praise Teams, Youth Programs, Women's Groups, and Men's Groups. Pastor Tillapaugh would agree. And what we do within the for­tress, we ought to do as well as we can.

However, I believe it is God's plan that the fortress be the home base of operations from which we launch out in the world with ministries for Jesus Christ. The fortress mentality which seems to be the prevailing attitude is that it is content to remain within the fortress, to devote our time to maintaining programs that only serve those within, rather than reaching outside the walls and people of the congregation to do ministry.

There is a safety, a security, in this mentality which is the norm in most churches in which the majority of programs and minis­tries are largely built around the middle class family. What about persons who do not fit into this scheme of things? Could it be that we are ignoring many persons for whom Christ died? What about singles, single parent families, unwed mothers, street people, down and outers, students, internationals, other ethnic groups? How well do encourage the typical middle class people to come?

During my college years I was actively involved in a campus group, IVCF, a ministry in which some of our college students have participated. I enjoyed getting together for prayer, Bible Study, and retreats. There was security in doing these worthwhile things, but also a danger of becoming too ingrown and self-serving so we had to be very intention­al about outreach, about ministry outside our group. We knew that IVCF was supposed to be involved in sharing the Gospel beyond our group. You see, the mentality of the fortress can paralyze and cripple individual Chris­tians, groups of Christians, and the Church itself.

While still maintaining our fortress, we must rid ourselves of the fortress mentality, and obey the biblical Mandate of our Lord.

II. Mandate

The Mandate is the GO of the Gospel - Go into the world with the message of Jesus Christ. Richard Halverson, former pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood and chaplain of the U. S. Senate wrote:

The work of the Church is outside the establishment, outside the church, in the world. And it takes every member to do it. Nowhere in the Bible is the world exhorted to come to church. But the church's mandate is clear: She must go to the world.

This is the mandate from Jesus in the Great Commission. It is the commission many Christians seem to apply only to those called as evangelists and missionaries. While this mandate clearly includes those so called, how about the rest of us? What about the opportu­nities that may be in our neighborhoods, our schools, perhaps people with whom we associ­ate, or maybe a specific target group. En­abled by the Holy Spirit we are all called to be Christ's witnesses.

Certainly some of us are indeed going the faithfully minister in traditional ministries within the walls of our local church. Dedi­cated SS teachers, youth workers, children's workers, music and worship leaders, trustees, etc. are extremely important. However, the mandate of Christ tells us that the ministry of the church MUST extend beyond the walls of our building. Many Christians come to activi­ties of their church, see traditional minis­tries being done, perhaps even without think­ing about what they ought to be doing. Oppor­tunities abound: to share Christ's love with children, intentionally seek to be a friend to new persons, etc. When we consider risking going beyond our walls sharing the forgiveness of Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit may lead us into a great variety of ministries meeting needs of people. Don't be deceived, just because good ministry is being accomplished in the name of Jesus Christ at our fortress, does not necessarily mean that you individually or we corporately are doing all God wants us to do.

Many of you know, Pastor Bob Culbertson who used to be the chaplain of the Door of Faith Mission. That ministry calls itself the arm of the local church and some of you have been involved in their ministry to the homeless. In addition, several of you have assisted with mission work in Mexico with Carl and others.

Youth for Christ is another wonderful para church organization to middle and high school students in our area. Earlier I men­tioned the para church ministry of IVCF.

A number of years ago Dawson Trotman had a burden to reach sailors with the gospel. Even back then, he knew the church's method would merely be to put up a sign on the church lawn, "Sailors Welcome." Since Dawson began the Navigators, many have come to know Christ and be discipled in the Christian faith by the young men and women of this fine para-church organization. With the training of the Navigators they realize that to have a ministry you must have a point of contact. Perhaps moving into an apartment complex or needy neighborhood and inviting people over for dinner. It may mean hanging around the basketball court and get­ting to know some of the people. Once he or she has earned a hearing there will be oppor­tuni­ties to communicate the gospel by daily life and verbally.

After John Wesley's heart was strangely warmed he proclaimed the gospel wherever he could. When denied the pulpit of the churches he went where people were, open fields, mines, factories. Like the "men of Issachar who understood the times and knew what Israel should do," Wesley learned to understand the times and bravely did what God called him to do. His impact was felt throughout the Brit­ish Isles and across the ocean to our land too, because he was willing to adapt methods to meet the needs of people.

As we break out of the mentality of the fortress and hear the mandate of Christ to go into the world, are we willing to take on our mission?

III. Mission

In a fascinating chapter of his book Unleashing the Church called "Are There Any Farmers in the City Church?" Tillapaugh men­tioned two denominations which were very small at the time of the American Revolution. But within 100 years the Methodists and the South­ern Baptists had grown to be the largest. Why? Listen.

Obviously there were many reason, but they can be summed up by saying that these denominations had an effective strategy for reaching the expanding frontier, while others did not. Methodists and Baptists were the modern men of Issachar "who understood the times and knew what Israel [or, in this case, the churches on the frontier] should do."

Only two denominations were able to keep up with the westward movement. Only two groups demonstrated the qualities of Issachar.

The Methodist circuit rider. Since the Methodists in America were almost nonexistent in America before the Revolution, they weren't tied to a period in the past. They weren't tied to formal educational institutions. Their leadership sprang up from within their "methodical" study groups, called societies. With this lay training, a burning commitment, and the call to preach, the Methodist circuit riders rapidly covered the western territories. They systematically divided up the new territory into circuits. Then they paid the price to carry out the Great Commission. Some of the most courageous and innovative pages of church history come out of this circuit riding era.

The Baptist farmer preacher. Baptists approached evangelization of the frontier differently, but also with much success. Preachers for the Baptist churches often emerged out of the community. They were usually uneducated farmers with a call to preach. Their zealous commitment to God communicated to frontiersmen better than the seminary training of the large denomination pastors. Since the Baptist churches in frontier communities produced their own preachers they did not have to wait for one to arrive from the East.

When the dust on the frontier began to settle, the largest protestant denominations were the Methodists and the Baptists. Their growth was a direct result of their evangelizing methods and of their ability to produce pastors from among the people. They adapted successfully to the frontier environment.

Of course, we no longer live in a fron­tier. The environment in which we minister has dramatically changed. Keeping the same message we must do mission work with new meth­ods -methods for missions that show we under­stand the times and serve God with an undivid­ed heart.

Conclusion.

Recently a student from Southwestern Theological Seminary spent several months traveling throughout the country visiting churches involved in ministries not usually found in the local church. When he returned to the seminary he published his findings in a small booklet for distribution to his class­mates. He found many churches talking about renewal, new ministries, and a ministering laity, but talking was not doing.

Are you wiling to break out of the

Men­tality of a fortress?

Hear and obey the

Mandate of Jesus Christ?

and Do the work of

Mission to which the Holy Spirit calls you?

At the end of World War II, Robert Woodruff, president of Coca Cola declared, "In my generation it is my desire that everyone in the world have a taste of Coca Cola." Today Coca Cola is sold from the deserts of Africa to the interior of China. Why? Because Woodruff motivated his colleagues to reach their generation around the world for Coke.

Any healthy organization reaches out. We must reach out too, as we share our savior with a lost world.

Return