Serving as Christ Serves

Let me continue on with this reporting as to what God has done, and hope that our emphasis can always be that what God has done and is doing through any of us at any point in our service to the church. But we had a theme this year for the general conference of elders meeting, serving as Christ serves. If you pick up one of the little notepads, you'll see that printed on there, serving as Christ serves. And this is more than a model, this is more than just a one-year slogan.

It's really a way of life. I kind of hope we come back to it next year and the year after and there's no need to try to reinvent the wheel or move on to some catchy slogan on some other topic. If we could ever get that down, then we'll have a lifetime work right there to be able to serve as Christ serves. But we've turned a new chapter in the story of the United Church of God. We are a church with Christ as the head, and we do pay more than lip service to this reality. It is more than just a scripture we turn to.

It's more than just a thought. From now forward, we will acknowledge Christ as the living head of His church, and we will conduct ourselves accordingly. We will strive to be spiritually centered, spiritually focused, and spiritually minded. And I can say that the ministry is rededicated to serving as Christ serves. If one thing happened through our meetings this year, unspoken as it was, I think the ministry rededicated itself to serving as Christ serves.

And that is our intent before God, to dedicate ourselves to the ministry of service to Him and to His people in every way we possibly can. We have moved beyond the time when we gather in these meetings and we talk about retirement costs and our legacy costs of a retiring, aging ministry. Some ministers that have gone into retirement have come out of retirement this year to fill posts vacated by those that left.

Those that perhaps were contemplating retirement recognize that they are going to have to continue on as they have the health to do so. If, but because of health, someone legitimately cannot. Certainly we will care for them and they will not be just thrown under the bus. But we've moved beyond at this point as we are reorganizing a time when we are talking about that and worried about that and retirement is in that sense.

We, several months ago I told you that we had passed a, we rescinded a resolution within the Council where estate money that had been donated by the estates of deceased members was designated for retirement. And we have approximately 900 to a million, 900,000 to a million dollars that had accumulated in that account.

We rescinded the decision on that and we'll use those monies and any other monies that come in from estate funds to go into the general funds to operating the church for service to the membership and to preaching the gospel and doing the work of the church. We're not going to squirrel those away for a retirement for the ministry. So if that's burning our ships on the beach or whatever, that's what we've done.

And so I, that's just to illustrate, we've moved beyond that. We, we're not even in this year, next year's budget matching our retirement 403 accounts. We're not even providing any matching church funds. Any funds that we put into it will just be our own from our salaries.

The church, for the time being, because of the financial drop, we're not going to be able to match those. If things change, then we'll reconsider that, but we pull that out. So when I say that we have rededicated ourselves to our service, we're not only doing that more than just words, we're also recognizing that that has to be backed up with some concrete deeds and matters, and we are doing that. So we've rededicated ourselves. We had several key, we had a couple of keynote messages during the Sunday meetings, the business meetings of the church. Mario Seglie, one of our council members, gave a keynote address on service.

His main point was that the greatest among us would be humble servants. And he gave examples of seven kinds of servants and words that describe various aspects of service throughout the New Testament and the language of the New Testament. Matthew 20, a key chapter that talks about service and the attitude of a servant, Matthew 20, verse 25, Jesus called them to Himself, Matthew 20, verse 25, called His disciples to Himself, and He said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant, and whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. Bad leaders lord it over others while good leaders serve. That's about as simple as you can put it and express it. Bad leaders exercise authority and lord it over others. Good leaders focus on service and serving. And as I said, the New Testament holds many words for the concept of a servant. One of those words is the Greek word, doulos, and the word doulos, when used as a servant, as at times in the gospel accounts, is speaking of the lowliest of house servants, the one who in the ancient world were the foot washers.

Those who had the duty, as they did in those days, of washing the feet of visitors into a household because the streets weren't too clean. Dusty roads. Doulos, a servant who does some of the lowliest so-called aspects of work of service. But every year when we do the Passover service, we're kind of going through the work of a servant who's a doulos, a house servant, as we wash each other's feet in the Passover service. There's another word that is translated servant or service. It's the word diaconos. This is the word that is used especially in Acts 6 where they chose out deacons, the first six deacons or seven deacons within the church. And that word diaconos refers to one who waits on tables. He may not be the foot washer in the house, but he is the one who sets the service, serves the food, and does that work. And that is the word that is used of those who were, in a sense, deacons within the church there during, in that language. Oh, waiter of tables. And that's another kind of service, another aspect of service. In Acts 26, there is another word.

I'm not going through all the ones that Mario encountered himself, but just a few to show you the variety of this and, again, what we were focusing on. In Acts 26, verse 16, as Paul is recounting his conversion on the road to Damascus here, as he appeared before Agrippa, in verse 16, as he says what Christ, as he recounts what Christ himself said to him on that experience, he said, Christ said to Paul, Rise and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness, both of the things which you've seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. A minister. That word is another word that talks about, it's a word called dioconies. Dioconies. And that's a Greek word. And it's also, speaking of a minister in this sense, but it's a minister in a sense who brings light, which Paul himself did. But the root word also was used to mean and applied to an individual in the large galley ships of the ancient world, where those large ships, if you have seen all the movies, involved banks of rowers on both sides of the ship, galley rowers. It's tough, hard work. Those people were called diaconos. They worked down in the bowels of the ship, rowing, as they did, to move these large ships from the ship battleships usually in the ancient world. And that is the word that is translated here as a minister, but it comes from that particular word that was also applied to the under rowers, those who had the tough, hard work to do. Looking at Paul's life that he was called to, as Christ here says, that he said, I'm going to make you a minister and a witness of the things which you've seen. Sometimes there's a level of service that requires some very tough, hard work, emotionally, spiritually, at that level. It can be tough work waiting on tables, as we all know, whether it's for a potluck or if any of you have ever held a job busing or waiting on tables in a restaurant. It's tough work. It can be. When a group of 15 comes in or large groups. But there's also a difficult level of work that comes to those in this position, especially in the ministry, or a level of executive responsibility in a business that requires some tough, hard duty and work that has to be done. That's what this word is referring to. Mario brought out the fact that no matter how the concept of servant comes out in the various uses throughout Scripture, it always means one who is under authority and works to advance the kingdom of God. An example in labor, in word and in deed. Someone who is under authority, not exercising authority. That's not the case.

That's the key. If you go back to Matthew 20, what Christ said, that those who will be great will be your servants. A servant, however it is used throughout the Bible, speaks to one who is under authority. Not worried about his authority, not worried about exercising authority, not even giving sermons on authority. A few years ago I heard a sermon at a feast of tabernacles that emphasized authority of the government of God in the kingdom to come. I remember thinking, how about the love of God? How about the love of God being emphasized?

But it just focused on government and authority being wielded. In our lifetime, for all of us, it's far, we're going to be far better edified if we focus on being under authority.

No matter whatever level of authority we exercise as we work within the church or in life.

Not worry about our authority or who has the authority or anything like that. The example here in Acts 20-26 is referring to a duty that Paul had to take on. And that duty, a servant and Christ himself submitted to a lifetime of service and duty. Melvin Rhodes gave a talk as the chairman of the church in the early days of the church. He said, through a lifetime of service and duty. Melvin Rhodes gave a talk as the chairman in the keynote and he spoke about duty. And he referenced the fact that politicians, in our world today and governmental systems, politicians come and go. They're elected, they're unelected. They serve out at their term, someone else comes in. But kings rule for their whole life Now, we live in America and we don't have a king. We got away from that in 1776. And so we don't have a monarchy. There are still kings throughout the world, the king of Thailand, the king of Sweden, the king of belt. There's still a king in Belgium. And certainly the most famous monarch in the world is the queen, Queen Elizabeth, in Great Britain. And, I mean, anyone who knows anything about Queen Elizabeth knows that at least her and her person and her calling and her approach to her job, it is a sense of duty. When she became queen upon her father's death back in 1951 or 1952, the exact date, I don't have exactly right there, but it was that period, she pledged herself to serve, to serve, give her life in service to her people. And she has lived that way. With all the ups and downs of her family, and one can make a case that the personal life of the royal family, the Windsor family in Great Britain, is not a model family, and that's true. We just got caught up here a few weeks ago in the marriage of her grandson. And we certainly, one certainly wishes them well in a happy marriage, because there have been very few happy marriages in the royal family of Great Britain. But if you look at her life, at least the way she has lived and approached herself to her job, she has lived a life of duty. And she's 85, and still in good health. There's no reason to expect she's going to step down until she is either incapacitated or she dies. So Prince Charles has died a little bit, a few years to wait before he would ever take it on. But she, to do her job, takes a great deal of work.

She's one of the wealthiest women in the world, not the wealthiest, but she's got money, she's got servants, she lives in palaces. But to do her job, it is a grinding, grueling job that would, quite frankly, cause most men or women, 30, 40 years, or junior, to wilt. I don't know that I could keep up with it. It would be a grind to attempt to do so, but she still works long hours every day attending to the matters of her role in the head of state. A few years ago we were watching one of these documentaries that come out on the Queen, and at that time, as it was being filmed, she probably, maybe 79 or 80, was still quite aged, but it was showing her at a reception that she holds hosts annually on the back lawn at Buckingham Palace, where they bring in several hundred people from throughout England who have distinguished themselves in volunteer service throughout their communities. And these people are brought in for a few hours of an afternoon tea with the Queen on the back. You know, tremendous opportunity to be at the palace and be at the palace and to mingle with the Queen. Well, this is usually during the summertime, hot outdoors, little reception, tea and cakes. And about a hundred of those people are selected to have a minute with the Queen. They stand up and they, not all of them, but about a hundred, and they will be introduced to the Queen. That's a hundred people out of several hundred who are there. Imagine if she gives them each a minute, which she probably, you know, on average, that's over an hour and a half of time standing on your feet in the sun, making small talk with someone you do not know, a total stranger. And they are presented to the Queen. This is Mrs. So-and-so from York, and she serves meals to the elderly, carries meals to the elderly, and has been doing this for 30 years, and she's introduced to the Queen. The Queen will acknowledge her, make a little small talk, talk about what she does, and then, you know, after about a minute, the next person, on and on and on like that. I remember they had the camera on this for a period of time, and they had one couple came up, and the lady was the one being honored, but she brought her husband with her. And they introduced, the lady was introduced to the Queen, and the lady then said, and this is my husband, Ronald. And the Queen acknowledged him, or nodded her head, and then started for about 30, 40 seconds to talk to the lady about her work and what she did. And then she turned back to the husband, and she says, and Ronald, what do you do? And I thought, she actually remembered his name. She remembered his name. I wouldn't have. And I thought, man, that's mental clarity and sharpness, and it's duty. She knows that's her job. And she, this is the one second, one minute in this couple's life that they will be actually that close to the Queen and have their time with the Queen, and she remembered their name. And you and I can't remember the names of somebody we've met, and maybe it stood and talked to for 30 minutes, and it becomes a challenge for us. I'm first in line on that.

So, that's duty. That's service. That is what endears her. And to be honest, I saw an article a few weeks ago before the wedding of William and Kate, and they were talking about the ups and downs and how people look at the royal family over there in England, and there are some that want to throw them out, and they don't think that they're pulling their weight and whatever. But the Queen and herself has an 80 percent approval rating among people in Great Britain. Prince Charles doesn't have that high, but the Queen does. And so she is immensely popular still after all these years, and most people recognize the value of the monarchy to England anyway. It may have cost $40 million to Mary, William, and Kate, but the economy gained a whole lot more by tourism then and going forward than was shelled out. So it was a sound investment. But those are things that we should understand in terms of duty, service, that we don't always learn from our politicians, especially.

It's been a bad week for American politicians. Bad week. And we'll go into all of that. Let's not get into depressing news. But sometimes you just shake your head at the people that get elected, whether they're the governor of a state or those that are trying to run for president and just the utter foolishness that they create in their own personal lives and in public. It's a shame. Anyway, bad week.

President Dennis Luecker talked about the present harmony of our relationships. And as I said earlier, between the Council and the administration, there is a high level of trust and cooperation at this time within the Home Office. There is a very capable and competent working relationship among all the various employees.

It is good to go into the Home Office and to see so many of our young people occupying roles there. Mitch Moss is ensconced there as our managing editor for the United News and work with other publications. And it's just a joy to see so many of our young people stepping into those roles. And we thank God for them and for the peace that is there. But understand the role, the job that we all have to work toward that.

In 1 Peter 3, the scripture that was used that I want to turn to that we normally refer to in our husband-wife relationships, but it applies to our working relationships among each other in the Church as well. 1 Peter 3, verse 7, speaks of the role of the relations between husbands and wives. Verse 7, it says, husbands likewise dwell with them, meaning your wives, with understanding. Giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel, as being heirs together the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

Husbands likewise, husbands dwell with them with understanding. That takes work for a husband to understand his wife, for a husband, a man to understand women. That takes a long time, doesn't it, please? I see some of you already smiling. None of you men are getting the jab in the side along with that. It does. It takes a lot of time and effort, men, for us to understand women, especially to understand our wives, and to remember those matters.

Some men choose not to, and some of you know that. But the instruction is not to, but it is to understand women. The instruction here is dwell with them with understanding, so that we understand one another. When it comes to our relationships within the Church, we recognize that we must continue to work on those, to understand one another. Differences of opinion will arise in the best of relationships. It takes work to understand a different point of view and to come to understanding.

We call it consensus, understanding, agreement, cooperation. It takes work to get to that. It takes the ability to listen. One of the things we discussed in our Council of Retreat this week was just matters of courtesy. As 12 men are sitting around a table discussing an issue, wait until the other man is done before you jump in. It's easy for us men, among ourselves, on the Council at times, to get into intense discussion. We can't wait until the other guy gets done. We'll even wait. We'll just jump in. Or we'll not wait to be recognized by whoever is chairing the meeting at that moment.

There are certain parliamentary procedures that a meeting like that should be conducted by. If you are not hearing each other out or being even polite with one another, tensions and friction can arise and build up. It takes work to dwell with understanding with each other in a marriage and in church relations. We understand that. Reading it again doesn't make it happen. God's Spirit, prayer, submission, yieldedness to one another does. Help us move closer to it.

Our financial report this year was shorter and quite different. Aaron Dean is our treasurer, and we have lost approximately a third of our income. We've adjusted our budget accordingly. One of the things that he made the point is that we are not going to be a worrying work.

We will be a work of faith. We'll be a work of faith. And in that area, we will be responsible stewards of what we have. We're not going to be dumb, but we're not going to worry. We're going to continue to step out in faith, not irresponsible faith, but trusting God to supply the needs that we have for the church. I'm not going to say any more about that, but I think that characterizes our approach.

We are a people of God, under God's name, doing a work of faith. And we recognize that people need to come to the United Church of God because they feel that we offer the greatest chance to be nurtured toward the Kingdom of God. We will work to produce the unity, and we will pray toward that end. We understand that we are a church operating as a church. We must operate according to certain business principles to comply with regulations and laws and entities, and certainly for business to be decently and properly done. But first and foremost, we are a church.

We are a people under God, under His name, doing a work of faith. In 1 Corinthians 12, we have a church that is a church that is a church that is a church in the name of God. In verse 12, Paul writes to the work of unity. 1 Corinthians 12, in verse 12, For as the body is one, and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all Babylon baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact, the body is not one member, but many.

People of the same Spirit will find a way to work together. It just will happen. If there is a different Spirit, there will be division. The people who are of the same Spirit, yielded to the Spirit of God, will find a way to work together and to govern themselves by the Spirit of God. No matter what that system of governance might be—12 men, one man, no man—whatever it might be that one chooses, we will govern ourselves best if we are governed by the Spirit of God. Any system of governance we choose must be not only based on godly principles, but have people who are willing to work with each other based on those principles.

God has a perfect government, but only those who are living by its principles will be a part of the perfect system. And it comes down to how we govern ourselves internally, inside ourselves, how we yield ourselves to God as to how we will then function and accomplish this very unity of the body of Christ.

Many sermons can be given on that subject, but to the degree we yield ourselves in prayer to God, that will be accomplished. You know, I started here by referring to the report that the Apostle Paul gave to the church in Antioch. In the last sermon I was here to give to you, we spent some time going through the scriptural understanding of that church, what we know from about them, and the principles that we can see from the church in Antioch. I do feel that that is a model for us to look at and to strive to emulate as a congregation of God. One of those principles that we see is back in Acts 13.

Where they were shown to be a church that was a praying church. When they came to the task of selecting some men from among their leading men, all prophets and teachers, to be sent out to carry the gospel and to advance the work, we're told in verse 2 that they ministered to the Lord and fasted, and the Holy Spirit told them, said to separate Barnabas and Saul for the work. And having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away. They were a praying church. If they were to be sent out to the church, they would be a praying church. If we're going to achieve the unity that we want and maintain it, if we're going to be a work of faith, if we're going to be a church that does hold together and move together, we must be a praying church. And that comes through more and more as an important aspect of our life. And that moves even beyond our formal prayers, even sometimes we spend time in prayer, we spend time in heartfelt prayer. Sometimes you may pray fervently, sometimes you may pray less than fervently, sometimes you may give an instant prayer, sometimes you may be in a prayerful thought or frame of mind at various times, and that has an application as well. But as we pray, we should develop a mindset toward God that sees ourselves as part of the work of God and a life that is related to God.

Prayer should move us into a state of mind where we understand that we do have a relationship with God that is extremely connected to everyday aspects of life. These people here were making a major decision, but they committed it to God. We're learning that the decisions of the church at every level need to be committed to God and consider ourselves as we interact with each other and with other people prayerfully being used by God. One of our council members sent a note this morning, and I'm going to read it to you here in conclusion. I mentioned Rock Corbett, who is an elder out in Salt Lake City in Grand Junction, Colorado, who is our six-week wonder on the Council of Elders.

He has a six-week term to fill out, and he willingly wanted to do it just to be exposed to the work of the council. And Rock is a person I've known ever since we graduated together from Ambassador College, and he's been on the payroll of the church.

He's been self-employed as an artist for a number of years. He left the hotel yesterday to go to the airport and fly back to Salt Lake City, and he had a very interesting experience. He related it to us, and I'm going to read it to you. He said, after lunch—we broke at lunch yesterday—he said, after lunch with several friends, it was dropped off at the hotel where our retreat meetings had been held. There were still several hours until I needed to leave for the airport, so I sat in the restaurant and wrote this week's letter to our congregations in Salt Lake City and Grand Junction.

I enjoyed a great conversation by phone with a good friend in Montana, worked on a few email tasks, and still had time before my scheduled shuttle to the airport. Feeling like getting to the airport early and having time to browse a shop or two, I inquired if I might be able to catch an earlier hotel shuttle.

The driver on duty, however, was not around and could not take me any earlier, so I picked up a paper, sat in the lobby catching up on some news. In a few minutes, the night driver arrived early and offered to take me to the airport. Neither of us could have known what would happen between the hotel and the airport. I asked if I might set up front in the van rather than in the back, since it was just the two of us. A friendly conversation between strangers ensued, and it was very comfortable and personable as we began to speak.

Ignatius, the driver, told me this was his night job. I inquired what his day job was. He's a schoolmaster for kindergarten through the eighth grade and works from 4 p.m. to midnight as a shuttle driver for the hotel guests. I mentioned that I felt like a student having just spent 11 days in meetings lasting 6 to 8 hours a day. He said, whatever business brought you here, I hope it went well. I told him that it had and that I had been attending meetings for our church.

Ignatius then had mentioned his church experience. He had come to his faith in the late 1970s, and over time began to serve in the ministry. Ultimately, he became the only black pastor for a large Baptist denomination. As he continued his story, he said, I'll be transparent. Our church split. Those above me couldn't get along. With that, I mentioned that we had just gone through a similar trial. Ignatius and I began to connect, sharing our experiences. I asked him how he worships now, not being part of the church that he once attended.

He mentioned that he and his wife and a few others meet together to worship on Saturday. I looked at him and told him that we worship on Saturday and that we hold to the seventh day Sabbath. Ignatius began to cry as he drove the van. He told me that he and those with him have come to this understanding within the last year or so through their intensive study.

He knew about the first century example of Christ and the apostles, about the Council of Nicaea three centuries later. He said, it's been so lonely out here. I then told Ignatius that we also observed the biblical holy days instead of the holidays of this world. Tears rolled down his cheeks and he said, the spirit of him wants to weep, but the flesh is driving the van.

I mentioned that we have congregations in the area. We pray together in the van, thanking God for bringing two strangers together in this miraculous way. As we neared the airport terminal, I asked if I might contact him again. We exchanged email addresses and phone numbers. We hugged as brothers with the expectation of seeing each other again sometime and of knowing each other for a long, long time to come.

I entered the airport wondering what was the most miraculous thing that had happened to me during these last 11 days in the area of the home office. I have no doubt it was meeting this new friend, this new brother, Ignatius. It was like riding in his chariot, almost like Philip did long ago when he met the Ethiopian eunuch. If Ignatius comes to the point of baptism, I pray I may be there to share that day with him.

We serve an amazing God, your brother in Christ, Rock Corbett. Interesting. You never know what kind of a conversation will be generated between strangers. That's an example, I think, of living out who we are and living out even our prayers in a way of life as we interact with people that is natural, unaffected, without show, but lives up to the name and the calling that we have as the Church of God. That's what all of us need to pray about, commit ourselves to, and rededicate ourselves to. We had a very, very good period of time together as ministers over the last several days, those of us on the Council privileged to even have a little bit longer time.

Through it all, we recognize God's mercy and give thanks to Him for what He has delivered us to and pray that we will continue to be allowed to be servants and instruments in His hand in advancing His work. So that's a report. That's what God hopefully is doing through us all. And I hope that it encourages you that the current state of affairs in the United Church of God and that you will join us all in continuing to pray for God's blessing upon His work.