How Did We Get Here? | Sunday, January 9, 2022

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers... Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common... So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42–47)

Why a decade ago this church chose to simplify and focus—and why that decision matters more than ever now.

Remembering Pastor Ray Bentley

Before we begin, I want to share two things. This past week, on Tuesday, we lost a friend and beloved local pastor to COVID—Pastor Ray Bentley of Maranatha Chapel. I'm still pretty shocked and stunned by it. I've known Pastor Ray for nearly 20 years; Cross Connection is just 15–20 minutes from Maranatha Chapel, and we share a common connection through the Calvary Chapel family of churches.

By a lot of metrics he was very successful in pastoring—not just because he led a large church, which he did, but because he was so successful in loving people and leading them to the Lord. Though he pastored a large church, he wasn't a "large church guy." He was down to earth, loved to laugh and joke, and was always easy to spend time with. He was one of the most gracious people I knew, and always kind to me and my family. Our hearts and prayers go out to his wife Vicky, their children Annie and Daniel, the grandkids, and the whole Maranatha Chapel family.

This was unexpected and devastating—and a stunning reminder that we don't know what tomorrow will bring. Whether you knew Pastor Ray or not, please keep the Bentley family and Maranatha Chapel in your prayers. Let me lift them up to the Lord now.

Father, we lift up Vicky into Your hands, and Annie and Daniel, and the whole Maranatha staff, leadership, and family. Many of us here have some connection to their church—my kids went to Maranatha Christian School. It's never easy to lose a family member, but there's something about it happening during the holiday season, at the start of the year, amid everything with COVID. You are the God of all comfort and the Father of mercies. We pray You would minister Your grace, mercy, and peace to the family and to the church as they gather this weekend just down the road from us. Our ultimate hope is that we will be with You, as Ray is right now. He preached about Your coming and seeing You face to face so passionately; he's with You now, and in Your presence is fullness of joy. We do not sorrow as those who have no hope. Comfort us with these words. In Jesus' name, amen.

A "State of the Church" Address

It's hard to pivot from that, but the second thing I want to share needs a preface. This isn't my typical message—there are no points to fill in the blanks, so you could literally call this a "pointless" message. I won't be going systematically through a passage as we normally do. We're committed to teaching through the Scriptures line upon line, precept upon precept, and we'll be returning to that soon. But from time to time it's important to refocus.

So today is something of a "state of the church" address as we move from one year into another. I want to answer an important question: How did we get here? Every year for more than a decade, I've begun the year by talking about who we are as a church, what we do, and how we do it—our mission, vision, values, and strategy. That's what we'll be doing today and over the next few weeks, and this message is the setup for what's coming.

It's hard to believe it's already 2022, and I'm sure it will go by as fast or faster than 2021. In all the busyness, it's good to pause, slow down, and get your bearings. For about the last 10 years we've closed our office between Christmas and New Year's, so I had time to reflect, and in doing so I realized again that everything that's happened over the last two years has changed us—individually, in our families, at our schools, and across our society.

Accelerated Change

These things would have changed anyway—time changes things—but COVID accelerated the change. I've said this since early in the pandemic: COVID accelerated a lot of trends by at least 10 years. Since change is itself difficult, accelerated change creates compounding challenges. Not all of it is bad; some changes might actually be good. I like buying something online and having it show up the next day—I'm old enough to remember catalog orders that took four to six weeks. But rapid change is destabilizing and stressful.

As I reflected, I was reminded how much has changed here at Cross Connection in the 14 years since I was called to pastor this church. Some of you were here before I became the pastor and have stuck through enormous change. I can't express how grateful I am for your faithfulness and commitment to God and this church.

My family began attending when I was about 11 years old, so I've been part of this church for more than 30 years. For many years it was called Calvary Chapel of Escondido; ten years ago, in 2012, we changed the name to Cross Connection Church. Thirty-plus years ago it met at what is now my kids' school—one of my daughter's classrooms is a few doors from where I went to Sunday school as a fifth grader. The pastor then was Pat Kinney, who faithfully taught through the Scriptures for 27 years and established a pattern we continue today.

A Heritage of Discipleship

He didn't invent that pattern—he received it from others, just as Paul describes in 2 Timothy 2: faithful men taught the Word to faithful men who taught others. Pastor Pat and the leaders of this church built a ministry that equipped the saints for the work of the ministry, exactly the calling God gave me from Ephesians 4. They were committed to discipling and raising up leaders from within. My life and ministry are a byproduct of that commitment. It's very rare for someone to grow up within a church and then become its pastor—but it's a right model, and it happened here because the leadership for decades was committed to discipleship.

As I reflected on all that has changed, I was blessed by what has not changed. The name and the leadership have changed, but our commitment to the Scriptures and to discipleship continues. Our desire to please, honor, and worship God; our commitment to lifting up the Word and making the gospel known; our calling to equip the saints—none of that has changed or will change. As we enter a new year, I want to remind us of who we are, why we exist, what we do, and how we do it.

Why We Began to Change

The last two years have been a challenge, but God's mission has not changed. When the conditions of a community and culture change, however, the church needs to adjust to fulfill its mission more effectively. Here's the interesting thing: we began making changes more than a decade ago, before any of this COVID stuff happened. I believe that put us in a better position than many churches to minister in a culture that has now drastically changed.

In January 2009—my first new year as pastor, having started in April 2008—I shared from this same platform that our vision was to simplify and focus. It was such a big emphasis that in the spring of 2009 we got a 40-cubic-yard dumpster in the parking lot so people could do some spring cleaning, clean out closets and garages, and throw stuff away. I think we filled that dumpster about seven times.

I didn't know it then, but that mission would take far longer than I expected. That's one of the things I've had to learn as a leader, sometimes begrudgingly: most things I want to see transformed take far longer than I want them to. Simplifying and focusing took years. But why was it even necessary? It comes down to one word: clutter.

A Cluttered Church in Chaotic Times

When I became pastor in April 2008, this church looked a lot like most non-denominational Bible churches in our culture—Calvary Chapels, Southern Baptist, EV Free, and the like. We had a Saturday night service, two Sunday services, discipleship classes Monday night, women's studies Tuesday morning and night, a midweek study and youth and children's ministries Wednesday night, men's studies in homes Thursday night—plus I was teaching a three-hour class each week at the Bible college. There was something happening nearly every day. We had short-term mission trips, big outreach events, and tons of ministries, each with its own leader, vision, budget, bulletin space, and calendar requests.

From the outside it looked like a fruitful organization. But remember the end of 2008 and early 2009: it's hard to recall now because of the last two years, but we were in chaotic times. We were at the beginning stages of a viral pandemic—not COVID, but swine flu. We had just come through a contentious presidential election and were in the early days of the Great Recession.

In the midst of all that, every time I gave the standard American greeting—"How are you?"—the standard response was: busy. I was busy, the church was busy, everyone was busy. As 2008 came to a close, my wife and I had just bought our first house and brought home our first child, Ethan, and I kept sensing that we as a church needed to simplify and focus. We didn't have a clear mission, vision, values, or strategy. Our calendar was too cluttered to have a clear focus.

Two Passages on Focus

Two passages kept coming to mind about focus—and, coincidentally, they were the same two I shared two weeks ago in my last message of 2021. The first is Matthew 6:33:

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

The second is Colossians 3:1–2:

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

I didn't realize two weeks ago that that message—about seeking, setting your mind on things above, putting off the old man and putting on the new—was the perfect setup for today. To fulfill the mission God has for you, you need the right focus, aim, and mindset. You need to simplify, to put off some old things, so you can focus and put on the new. That's exactly where we were in January 2009—and in part where we are again now.

A Multi-Year Reset

I didn't see it until the other day, but the chaotic elections, economic crisis, and swine flu pandemic of 2008–2009 were like a preview of the utter chaos of 2020 and 2021. What's amazing is that the desire to simplify and focus led to a multi-year simplification that became preparation for what was coming. We couldn't have known that in 2009—but God knew, and I believe He gave me, as the new leader, foresight to move in a different direction.

So from January 2009 to about mid-2016, we engaged in a total reset. In church-planting circles—and I've taught church planting for years—what we did would be called a church revitalization or replant. In 2012 we not only changed the name from Calvary Chapel of Escondido to Cross Connection Church, but we cut back virtually everything we did. This pruning was difficult. We stopped the midweek services around 2011, scaled back our events, and reduced our emphasis on the long list of ministries and outreaches. We pruned nearly every possible branch.

People asked why, and at times I asked myself why—it was hard and painful. But you prune because, just like the fig tree Jesus cursed (Matthew 21, Mark 11), many ministries have a ton of leaves and look super healthy—all kinds of systems, programs, budgets, line items—yet all that fluff distracts from the fact that it isn't producing much fruit.

The Message Stays, the Methods Change

I was also convinced the culture was undergoing significant change, and that the methodology for the church—not just ours, but all churches—needed to change. Ministry as we knew it in the 1980s, '90s, and early 2000s was no longer sustainable in the new cultural climate. About eight months before I became pastor, in September 2007, I shared with our leadership team out at a desert conference that throughout church history the message never changes, but the methods for getting that message to the masses must continually change.

If you moved to another country as a missionary, you'd spend considerable time learning the language and culture to reach that community. Western culture has changed dramatically in the last 25 years. The advent of the internet, the dot-com bust of 2000, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the wars that followed, the housing bubble and economic collapse of 2008–2009—each was a trigger of change. Add the chaotic elections of 2016 and 2020 and the COVID crisis, and culture has changed dramatically.

The Decline of Christian America

What has been the result for the church in the West? In April 2009 I grabbed a Newsweek magazine from my dad—black cover, red letters in the form of a cross, reading "The Decline and Fall of Christian America." The 4,000-word cover essay by journalist John Meacham caused a stir in conservative Christian circles, so much that days later he wrote a follow-up titled "We Didn't Attack Christianity." Meacham wasn't attacking Christianity; he was reporting on research from groups like Gallup and the Pew Forum showing a drop-off in religious identification and the rise of a group now called the "nones"—N-O-N-E-S—those not religiously affiliated, or spiritual but not religious.

That article came out in 2009 because of research in 2008 showing the beginning of a drop-off in church identification. Fast forward 10 or 12 years, and that group has grown significantly year over year—so much so that in March 2021, Gallup reported that church membership fell below the majority for the first time, as of 2020. One of the newest major shifts in the last five to eight years is what's called Christian deconstruction or deconversion. If you're in your 50s or 60s, you probably have kids or grandkids wrestling with it. If you're in your 30s or 40s like me, you probably have friends wrestling with it. If you're in your 20s, you might be wrestling with your own crisis of faith.

Missionaries in Our Own Culture

I bring this up to highlight how dramatically culture has changed, to show how we got here, and to point out that the changes we began in 2009 were ultimately made with this in mind. I could see the church needed to adapt to reach a changing culture—because that's the very purpose for which Christ sent His church into the world: to go into all the world and preach the gospel, to make disciples of all nations.

We need to recognize that our culture—even though most of us were born and raised here—is now a foreign culture to us. We don't change the message, but we may need to change our methods. One of those changes was simplifying so we could focus on helping people experience life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. We must be missionaries in a wholly new culture, where people are deconverting from what they see as a consumeristic evangelical cultural Christianity.

Most of the deconversion testimonies I've listened to online are people opting out of that consumeristic evangelical culture. Unfortunately, many throw out the baby with the bathwater and opt out of Christianity altogether. That's an extreme and unwise reaction, because Christ is the only way to the Father. So it's essential to get the message out and to reach our radically changed community. The old methodologies may need to be set aside, but the message must be emphasized even more—because that's the message your neighbors, friends, family, classmates, and coworkers need to hear. What we've done here over the last 14 years proves that the cultural forms and the gospel are separate things, even though many sadly opt out of both.

Change or Die

Back in 2009 I shared that we'd work to simplify and focus, and then we did something of a deconstruction of Calvary Chapel of Escondido. It was painful. I naively thought it would be easier than it was—the naivete of youth. I've discovered it's much easier to plant a new church than to replant an existing one. The process was painful for everyone involved, and a lot of people gave up on us along the way. I partly understand that, because change is never easy—we've all been kicking and screaming against the change of the last two years, wishing things would stay the same. But while change is difficult, it's also inevitable. You cannot not change. If you began this journey with us 14 years ago and you're still here, something in you recognized that what we were doing was necessary—and in hindsight I can see even more clearly how important those changes were.

Here's a sad truth: a lot of churches will not survive the cultural transformation of the last 22 months. Many have already closed permanently. Barna Group reported two months ago that more than one-third of pastors have considered leaving the ministry. Back in August 2020 they found that one in five churches would likely close permanently within 18 months. Why? Because when cultural realities change and you don't change your methods for reaching people, you won't survive. Does that mean the church will die? Absolutely not—the gates of hell will not prevail against God's church. But the church as it was 25 years ago will not be the same. As the old saying goes, you have to change or die.

What the Early Church Looked Like

We began simplifying in 2009 so we could focus on our primary mission. Events can be fun and good, but the church doesn't exist to put on events. Bible studies are essentially important, but the church's primary mission isn't to have a Bible study every day of the week. Lights, projectors, haze machines, good production—those might be nice, but they're not essential. I have nothing against events, studies, or outreaches, but a church can become so cluttered that it loses focus on the essentials. We certainly were cluttered—no knock on the previous leadership; that's how nearly every church has been for the last 40 years. Today we have a very simple focus: life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus.

I was thinking about Captain America—spoiler alert. Steve Rogers is frozen in a plane crash and brought back in the present, when the war is over and everything is radically different. Imagine the earliest Christians frozen in time and brought back after 2,000 years on ice. How much of what the church does today would they recognize? Not a whole lot. The best description of what the early church did is in Acts 2, beginning at verse 42:

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers... Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common... continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house... praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

That is a simple church: doctrine and teaching; fellowship—gathering, caring, and sharing; breaking of bread—both communion and hospitality; prayer; and organic outreach and evangelism, because the Lord added to the church daily.

Keeping It Simple

That's what we've been trying to do for the last 14 years—connecting with God through the Word, prayer, communion, baptism, worship, serving, and giving; connecting with one another through fellowship, hospitality, and connect groups, sharing and caring; and connecting with the world through personal relationships and organic outreach. We don't have many of the normal things you might find at another church in our area, but we hope what we have is more like the essential things the church devoted itself to at the very beginning.

Does that mean we'll never do outreach events? No. But it means we're more selective, because it is very easy to make things complex and incredibly hard to keep them simple. Our hope is simply to be people on mission—living life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus, loving God and loving one another, and honoring the Lord through simple things like gathering for worship and service, meeting in connect groups for fellowship, and going out together in outreach.

Over the next few weeks we'll talk about connecting with God, connecting with one another, and connecting with the world, and how we do that as a church through Christ. I think this matters more now than at any time in the last 14 years, because our world desperately needs the good news of life through Jesus. The only way they'll come to know it is through you, through me, through this church, and hopefully through other churches. But it's so easy to become distracted by clutter and fail to fulfill the mission to go into all the world and make disciples.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray that You would help us as we step into 2022 to become more effective in being simple and holding on to the essential things You have sent us forth to do as Your people in this world. Help us to be a light in a dark place. Pour out Your Spirit upon Your church once again, we pray. Be with our friends and family at Maranatha Chapel; be with Vicky Bentley and her family, and the whole Maranatha Chapel church. Be with them and pour out Your Spirit upon them. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.