How Did We Get Here? | Sunday, January 9, 2022
January 7, 2022 · Pastor Miles DeBenedictis
In this teaching
In this "state of the church" address, Pastor Miles reflects on how dramatically culture has changed and explains why, beginning in 2009, Cross Connection Church chose to simplify and focus—pruning programs to recover the essentials of the early church so it could effectively reach a transformed, increasingly post-Christian culture.
- The mission of the church never changes, but its methods must adapt as culture changes—just as a missionary learns a new language and culture.
- Western culture has changed radically through a chain of events (internet, 9/11, recessions, chaotic elections, COVID), producing a sharp rise in the religiously unaffiliated ("nones") and the trend of deconstruction/deconversion.
- Beginning in 2009, the church deliberately simplified and focused, pruning programs that produced "leaves" (busyness) but little fruit.
- Acts 2:42–47 describes a "simple church"—doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer, and organic outreach—which is the model Cross Connection has pursued.
- Many churches will not survive the recent cultural upheaval; changing methods now is essential to fulfilling Christ's commission.
- The church's simple mission is "life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus."
Readable is a lightly edited reading copy; Verbatim stays close to the spoken words. The audio and video are the record of what was said.
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. ()
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 . 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 :
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
The second is :
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 (, ), 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 , 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.
Welcome to Cross Connection Church online! We're so grateful that you're joining us today. Before we get started, we want to let you know that if you're interested in any information about Cross Connection Church, you can check out our website at lifeinconnection.com.
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Also, stick around to the very end of our broadcast this week to see some announcements and what's going on here at Cross Connection Church. If you're prepared to give, you can do so at give.lifeinconnection.com.
Days may be darkest, but your light is greater. You light our way, God. When evil is rising, you're rising higher with power to save. You keep hope alive from the beginning to the end. Your word is Jesus.
You keep hope alive. Good morning and happy New Year! Welcome to Cross Connection Church online here for 2022. Of course, this is the second Sunday in 2022, but it is my first time in 2022 with you. Now, I'm back in our main sanctuary to get into the Scriptures today.
Before we get started, I want to share a couple of things with you. One is related to something that happened in our community this last week, and the other pertains to the message I want to share today.
First, this last week on Tuesday, we lost a friend and a beloved local pastor to COVID. Pastor Ray Bentley at Maranatha Chapel passed on Tuesday due to complications from COVID. Just saying that, I am still pretty shocked and stunned by it. I have known Pastor Ray for nearly 20 years. Cross Connection Church is just about 15 to 20 minutes from Maranatha Chapel, and we have a common connection with Maranatha Chapel through the Calvary Chapel family of churches.
Pastor Ray was a good friend and one of the most gracious pastors I knew. He pastored here in this community for a very long time. By many metrics, he was very successful in pastoring. When I say that, it's not just that he pastored a large church, which he did, but he was very successful in pastoring people, loving people, and leading people to the Lord. He preached the gospel for many years from the time he was very young.
As I mentioned, he pastored a very large church here in North County. However, he wasn't just a large church guy; he was very down to earth. He loved to laugh and joke, and he was always easy to spend time with. He was one of the most gracious people I knew, always super kind to me and my family, and a blessing to myself and many people I know. Our hearts and our prayers go out to Pastor Ray's family, especially to his wife, Vicky.
To their daughter Annie, their son Daniel, their grandkids, the whole Bentley family, and the Maranatha Chapel family as well, whether you knew Pastor Ray or not, I would ask you to please keep the Bentley family and Maranatha Chapel in your prayers. This was pretty unexpected and just a devastating and difficult situation to walk through. It is a stunning reminder that we just don't know what tomorrow will bring.
So, that's kind of the first thing: if you'd please be praying for the Bentley family and for Maranatha Chapel. Before we go any further, I feel it's important to lift them up to the Lord right now. If you would, wherever you're at, please follow along in prayer.
Father, we come before You right now and we lift up Vicky into Your hands, along with Annie, Lord, Daniel, and the whole Maranatha Chapel staff, leadership, and family. Many people who are a part of our church here at Cross Connection Church have a connection to Maranatha Chapel. My kids went to the school at Maranatha Christian School. We lift them into Your hands at this time.
It's never easy to lose a family member, but there's something particularly difficult about it happening during the holiday season, right at the beginning of the year. With everything that's been going on with COVID over the last couple of years, the circumstances surrounding this loss are especially challenging. Lord, we lift Ray's family into Your hands. We pray that You would minister Your grace, mercy, and peace to them.
The Scriptures say that You are the God of all comforts and the Father of mercies, and that You comfort us. So, we pray, God, that You would be a comfort to the family. We also pray that You would comfort the church at Maranatha Chapel this weekend as they are gathering right now, at the same time that we are gathering to worship here. They are just down the road from us, worshiping together. We ask, God, that by Your Spirit, You would minister there in that place and bring Your grace, mercy, and peace to the body in this troubling time.
God, we thank You that 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 many times. He passionately loved You and looked forward to that moment.
You and He’s with you now. Lord, in Your presence is fullness of joy, and at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. We praise You for that reality that we have. We do not sorrow as those who have no hope; our ultimate hope is in You. Your Word says in First Thessalonians 4:5 that we are to comfort one another with these words. So, Lord, I pray that Your Word would be a comfort to us in that respect. We lift Vicki into Your hands, the Bentley family, and Maranatha Chapel, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, it's somewhat hard to pivot from that to the second thing that I want to share today. It seems out of place; it's hard to jump from what I just shared to this. However, I wanted to share that what I'm going to be talking about today needs something of a preface. This isn't like the typical message that I share. In fact, I don't have any points for you to fill in the blanks for this message, so you could literally say this is a pointless message. I also don't have a passage that I'm going to go through systematically like we normally do here at Cross Connection Church. We're committed to going through the Scriptures line upon line, precept upon precept, hear a little, there a little, just as we read in the Scriptures in the book of Isaiah.
We're not going to be doing that today, but I do think it is important from time to time to take a moment to refocus. What I'm going to be talking about today is kind of like a state of the church address as we move from one year into another. Sometimes it is important to get our bearings and to answer what I think is an important question: How did we get here? That’s kind of what I'm going to be doing with this message this week.
Now, don't worry; we will be returning to our systematic study of the Scriptures soon. Every year for more than a decade, I have begun the year by talking about who we are as a church, what we do as a church, and how we do it as a church. In other words, we have traditionally begun the year by discussing our mission, our vision, our values, and our strategy as a church. So, that's what we are going to be doing today and for the next few weeks.
This message is something of a setup for what I'm going to be talking about next week, the week after, and so forth. Again, it's to try to answer that question: how did we get here at this moment? We need to get our bearings as we're moving from 2021 into 2022.
I don't know about you, but for me, it is pretty hard to believe that it's already 2022. I'm sure that 2022 is going to go by as fast, or faster, than 2021. We live in busy times, and the busyness of everything makes it seem like things just go by quicker and quicker. In all the busyness, it is good to pause from time to time, to slow down for just a moment, and to reassess where we are at. What's going on? What is all this stuff happening around us?
Hopefully, over the last couple of weeks, through Christmas and New Year's, you had a moment to do that. Maybe it gave you at least a moment to stop and breathe. For about the last ten years, we have closed our office here at Cross Connection Church between Christmas and New Year, so I had a little bit of time to pause, think, and reflect. In doing so, I began to realize again—though it was not the first time—that everything that has happened over the last two years has changed us.
It's changed each of us individually, and I'm not sure that we realize the extent to which our world and our culture have changed. Each of us has been affected individually; we've all changed personally. Many of our tasks at work have changed, the rhythms with our families have changed, and life at the school you go to has changed. Our society has changed significantly.
The reality is that all of these things would have changed anyway. Time changes things; things change through time. However, COVID in the last couple of years has accelerated the change. I've talked a lot about this, especially early on in the pandemic, that COVID accelerated a lot of trends by at least ten years. So, COVID has accelerated the change, and since change in and of itself is difficult, we need to acknowledge its impact.
Accelerated change creates compounding challenges. It can be even more difficult now. Not all the changes that we've experienced are necessarily bad. Some of the ways that we and our society have changed might actually be good. If I'm being honest, I kind of like being able to buy things online and have them show up the next day. Just this last week, my wife bought something in the morning online, and it was delivered to our house that afternoon. That's mind-blowing to me. I'm old enough to remember buying something through a catalog and it taking four to six weeks to show up. Maybe you remember that from when you were a kid. Now, we just click the little "buy it now" button, and in all likelihood, you'll have what you ordered the next day. So, some of the things that have changed, we kind of like.
But be that as it may, rapid change is, in some respects, destabilizing and stressful. It brings challenges. As I was reflecting on this over the last couple of weeks, I was reminded that there's so much that has changed here at Cross Connection Church in the 14 years since I was called to be the pastor of this church. Some of those who call Cross Connection Church their home church were here before I became the pastor, and you have stuck through a lot of change. You've been here through a ton of change, and I can't even really express to you how grateful I am to those of you who have remained with us through the many changes that have taken place here at this church.
Going back to 14 years ago, just before I took over the church until now, your faithfulness and commitment to God and this church are a blessing and encouragement to me. My family began attending this church when I was about 11 years old, so I've been a part of this church for more than 30 years. A lot has changed in 30 years. For many of those years, this church was called Calvary Chapel of Escondido, but 10 years ago this year, back in 2012, we changed the name to Cross Connection Church. When I first started attending the church, Calvary Chapel met at what is now my kids' school. One of my daughter's classrooms is about three doors down from where I went to Sunday school.
I started attending this church as a fifth grader, and at that time, the pastor was Pat Kinney. Pastor Pat Kinney led this church for 27 years, faithfully teaching through the Scriptures, just as we continue to do today. He established a pattern for us that we still follow. He didn't invent that pattern; he received it from others, just as Paul talks about in Second Timothy, chapter two. Faithful men taught the Word and passed it on to faithful men who taught others to teach the Word. Pastor Pat was faithful in teaching through the Scriptures, and I was blessed by that, as was my family and many others over the years.
He established a pattern in my life that we continue to this day. The other leaders who led this church decades ago built a ministry that equipped the saints for the work of the ministry, which is the calling that God gave to me when I first started teaching through the Scriptures over 20 years ago. In , we are called to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. For many years, the leadership of this church was committed to equipping the saints and to discipling and raising up leaders from within the church. My life and my ministry are a byproduct of their commitment to discipleship.
It is very rare for someone to grow up within a church and then take over the leadership of that church as the pastor. I think it's a really good thing; it's a right model to follow, but it doesn't happen very often. However, that is what happened here at this church because the leadership, going back many decades, was committed to discipleship and equipping the saints for the work of the ministry.
As I reflect on the many things that have changed in this church over the more than three decades that I have been a part of it, I am blessed by the things that have not changed. Although the name of the church has changed and the leadership has changed, our commitment to the Scriptures and our commitment to discipleship continues. Our desire to please, honor, and worship God has not changed and will not change. Our commitment to lifting up the Word of God and making the Gospel of Christ known has not changed. We still see it as our responsibility to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, and we recognize that.
We have been called as the church as a whole, but specifically, the leadership of the church has been called and commissioned to go and proclaim the good news of the gospel, to make it known however and wherever we can. As we are at the beginning of another new year, I want to take a few weeks to return to some things that I'm hopeful you already know. If you have been connected to Cross Connection Church for any length of time, then you should already know some of the things that I want to share with you. However, it is important for us to be reminded about who we are and why we exist as a church: why we're here, what we do as a church, and how we do it.
The last two years have been, as everybody knows, a challenge. You don't need me to say it, but in spite of the challenges, God has a mission unto which He has called us. Even though our community and our culture have changed significantly, the mission that God has given to us as Christians and as a body of believers here in North County San Diego has not changed. I do believe that when the conditions of a community and a culture change, the church needs to adjust so that it can more effectively fulfill its mission.
Here is the interesting thing: Cross Connection Church began making changes more than a decade ago, before any of this COVID stuff happened. We started to make significant changes so that we could try to reach our community more effectively. I believe that this proactive approach has put us in a better position—maybe even in a better position than many other churches—to more effectively minister in a community and a culture that has drastically changed.
In 2009, as I began my first new year as the pastor of the church—I started pastoring this church in April of 2008—January of 2009 marked my first new year as the pastor. I shared with the body, right from this same platform behind me, that our mission or our vision in...
In 2009, our mission was to simplify and focus. It was such a significant initiative that I was trying to promote here at the church that, around the spring of 2009, in March or April, we got a huge 40-cubic-yard dumpster and placed it in the parking lot. This allowed people within the church to simplify their lives by throwing away a lot of stuff. We encouraged everyone to do some spring cleaning at their homes, clean out their closets, and clear out their garages. I think we filled that 40-cubic-yard dumpster about seven times.
All of this was to emphasize the mission I was trying to encourage our church to embrace: to simplify and focus. I didn’t realize at the time that this mission would take much longer than I expected. When I refer to the mission of cleaning out your closet or garage, I probably need to do that myself, and we all could, especially after Christmas. However, the mission to simplify and focus as a church took far longer than I ever anticipated.
This is one of the lessons I’ve had to learn as a pastor and leader, sometimes begrudgingly and not always with the best attitude. Most of the changes I want to see take much longer than I expect or want them to. Things always take longer than I anticipate. Simplifying and focusing as a church took years.
But the question is, why? Why was that even important? Why was that mission necessary? It really comes down to one word: clutter. When I became the pastor of Calvary Chapel of Escondido in April 2008, this church was a lot like many other churches in our culture. When I say "most other churches like ours," I’m referring to many of the non-denominational Bible churches, such as Calvary Chapels, Southern Baptist churches, and many of the Evangelical Free churches.
So many of the contemporary churches you would find in communities like ours had a lot going on, and Calvary Chapel of Escondido in 2008 looked very much like those churches.
At our Saturday night service, we had two Sunday morning services. We held discipleship classes on Monday nights and women's Bible studies on Tuesday mornings and Tuesday nights. Additionally, we had a midweek Bible study on Wednesday nights, along with youth meetings and children's ministry on those same nights. Men's Bible studies met in homes on Thursday nights.
In addition to all of that, which was going on here at the church, I was teaching a three-hour class every single week at Kevin Chapel Bible College. We were busy; there was something happening here at the church nearly every day of the week. We organized short-term mission trips, outreach trips, big outreach events, and numerous external ministries that were effectively running through the church. Each different ministry had its own leader, vision, and budget. Each ministry wanted time to share on Sunday mornings, announcements, a place in the bulletin, and rooms during the week. It was something happening all the time, constantly.
In many respects, a lot of that activity seemed really great. From the outside, or when looking at the list of ministries on the website, it appeared to be a very fruitful organization. However, if you remember back to the end of 2008 and early 2009, our nation—and really the world—was experiencing chaotic times. It’s hard for us to look back and remember the chaotic times that were happening over ten years ago, especially given the chaotic times we've been going through for the last two years.
If you rewind to 2008 and 2009, we were in the midst of pretty chaotic times. In fact, you may not remember it, but in January of 2009, we were at the beginning stages of a viral pandemic. It wasn't COVID; it was swine flu. Thankfully, swine flu didn't end up being as big, though it was pretty deadly and had some serious problems. I know some people who got sick with swine flu, and I know of a couple of people who died from it. So, in January of 2009, we were at the very beginning of a viral pandemic with swine flu, and we had just come through a challenging and chaotic presidential election season.
We were in the early days of a massive economic downturn, what is now called the Great Recession, not the Great Depression, but the Great Recession. In the midst of all of that, I found that every time I would talk with people here at the church or out in the community, I would give them the standard American greeting. What's the standard American greeting? We always ask people, "How are you?" The standard response, it seemed at that time and even today, is often "busy." Busy was the standard response. I was busy, the church was busy, everyone that was a part of the church was busy, and everybody outside of the church was busy. We were busy, busy, busy.
As 2008 came to a close, my wife and I had just bought our first house and had just brought home our first child, Ethan. I kept sensing that I, and we as a church, needed to simplify and focus. What I realized at the time was that we, as a church, didn't have a clear mission, vision, values, or strategy. I realized that we were too busy; our calendar was cluttered way too much for us to have a clear, focused vision. So, I felt that we needed to simplify and focus.
At that time, when I was thinking about these things, there were two passages of Scripture that kept coming to mind about focus. Coincidentally, those two passages were the ones I shared two weeks ago in my last message of 2021. It wasn't my plan to share on those passages, but they were on my mind as we were closing out 2021. Interestingly, I went back and looked at my notes from 2008 going into 2009, and the first message I gave in 2009 was titled "Simplify and Focus."
What were the two passages that I talked about? The first one was on focus, found in , where Jesus says, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." If you were here with us two weeks ago, you know that we spent a considerable amount of time talking about the word "seek" in that passage. We also looked at a passage in...
is how I started the year in 2009 as we were simplifying and focusing. Paul says in verse 1, "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 the things of the earth."
I didn't realize it two weeks ago when I gave that last message in 2021 and used those passages of Scripture. I talked about seeking and setting your mind on things above, putting off the old man, and putting on the new man. You can find that message online on our YouTube channel or on our website. I didn't realize at the time that it was the perfect setup for what we are discussing today.
To fulfill your purpose and the mission that God has for you, or for us, we need to have the right focus, the right aim, and the right mindset. To aim and focus, you need to simplify and put off some of the old things so that you can focus and put on the new things. That is exactly where we were in January of 2009. In part, that is where we are again at this moment.
I certainly didn't see it until just the other day when I was sitting at home in my office, thinking and meditating on these things. The chaotic elections, the economic crisis, the pandemic of 2008, and the swine flu pandemic of 2008 and 2009 were like a preview or a precursor to the utter chaos of 2020 and 2021.
What is amazing to me is that I sensed at the end of 2008 a desire to simplify and focus. This led to a multi-year simplification for myself and for our church, which was preparation for what was ultimately coming in 2020 and 2021. We could not have known back in 2009 when we put before the church the call to simplify and focus that in 2019, 2020, and 2021 we would be going through all the crazy things we are experiencing at this point in time. But God knew, and I believe He gave me, as the new leader of the church at that time, the foresight to see that we needed to move in a different direction and simplify and focus.
About seven years, from January of 2009 to probably about the middle or the end of 2016, we engaged here at the church in a total reset. I would call it the great reset of the church, but that totally freaks people out, so we'll just not say that.
In church planting circles, which I've taught for years at Calvary Chapel Bible College and at conferences when we were doing the Calvary Church Planting Network years ago, what we did here at the church when I became the pastor in 2008, and with the simplification and focus in 2009, would be called a church revitalization or even a church replant. Calvary Chapel of Escondido became Cross Connection Church, and that officially happened in the first part of 2012, ten years ago.
At that time, we not only changed the name from Calvary Chapel of Escondido to Cross Connection Church, but we cut back virtually everything that we did as a church. This was hard; this pruning was really difficult. We stopped the midweek services. It took us a while to get to that. I started this simplification focus in 2009, and I believe it was about 2011 when we stopped the midweek Bible study. We scaled back our events; we used to have all kinds of events on the calendar that we would do as a church, so we scaled those things back. We reduced our emphasis on the long list of ministries and outreaches that we were doing or were a part of. We pruned nearly every possible branch of the church.
During that time, and even now, some people would ask the question, "Why? Why would you do that?" There were times when I would even question, "Why are we doing this? This is hard; this is difficult and painful." But why do you prune the branch? Because just like the fig tree that Jesus cursed in the Gospels, you can find that story in the Gospels of and , many of the ministries that we see around us have a ton of leaves. They look super healthy. When I'm talking about leaves, I mean they have all kinds of systems, programs, processes, ministries, and budgets. They have all kinds of line items in their budget and all kinds of buckets in their budget. They have all these leaves, and all of that, from the outsider perspective, is looking at just the balance sheet, if you will, or looking at all the...
Things that the church or the organization does at the end of the year might seem impressive, leading one to think, "Man, that is a super healthy ministry or organization or church." However, many times, all of that fluff and those leaves distract from the fact that it is not producing a lot of fruit. That is a challenging reality.
Back in 2009, I was convinced that the culture was experiencing a significant change. The methodology for the church—not just our church, but all churches—needed to change as the culture evolved. Ministry, as we knew it in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, was becoming unsustainable in the new cultural climate we were entering around 2005 and beyond. I remember having that exact conversation with our church leadership about eight months before I became the pastor of this church. We had gathered together in the desert for a conference, and one night, we met with just our pastoral and leadership team back in September of 2007.
During that meeting, I shared my thoughts. I emphasized that throughout church history, the message of the church has not changed, but the methods for delivering that message to the masses and the culture had to continually adapt. If you were to move to another country right now as a missionary, you would begin by spending a considerable amount of time learning the language and the culture of that new community so that you could effectively reach that culture.
Like it or not, Western culture has changed dramatically in the last 25 years. The advent of the internet, which was just starting to emerge when I was in junior high and high school, was a major catalyst for change. Then came the dot-com bust of 2000; some of you might have lost money during that period, which was another igniter of change. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the wars that followed fueled change in a significant way. The housing bubble and the economic collapse of 2008 and 2009 served as another accelerant of change. All of these major events have triggered one transformation after another.
Now, we can also add the chaotic presidential elections in 2016 and 2020 to that list.
The COVID crisis that we've been going through over the last two years has dramatically changed our culture. As we look at all these changes, we must ask: what has been the result of this shift, particularly as it relates to the church in the West? It's quite interesting.
I remember very clearly back in 2009, my dad was always a subscriber to Newsweek magazine. I would go over to his house, and there would be the latest issue. I distinctly recall coming to his house in April of 2009 and taking his Newsweek magazine. I can't find it now, and I wish I had kept it, but somewhere along the line, it got lost. I snagged his Newsweek magazine from April 2009, which had a black cover with red words in the form of a cross. The cover read, "The Decline and Fall of Christian America." The cover story was written by a journalist named John Meacham, and it was a 4,000-word essay on the end of Christian America.
The essay caused quite a stir in conservative Christian circles. So much so that just a few days after the release of that cover story, Meacham wrote a follow-up on Newsweek's website titled "We Didn't Attack Christianity." In his essay, Meacham didn't really attack Christianity; rather, he examined the research coming from groups like Gallup Research and the Pew Forum. These organizations were observing a drop-off in religious identification and affiliation in the United States, alongside the rise of a group that has come to be known as the "nuns." This term does not refer to the nuns who wear habits, but rather to those who are not religiously affiliated or who might identify as spiritual but not religious. You probably know some of these people.
The article in 2009 was prompted by research conducted in 2008, which indicated a decline in Christian identification with churches, as people were leaving churches. Fast forward 10 or 12 years, and that group has grown significantly year over year. So much so that in March of 2021, Gallup released findings showing that church membership fell below the majority for the first time as of 2020. In 2020, the identification of people with churches in America dropped below half.
One of the newest major shifts in the last five to eight years is what has been called Christian deconstruction or deconversion. If you haven't heard of these terms, you will. If you are in your 50s, 60s, or older, you probably have kids or grandkids who are wrestling with the idea of deconstruction or deconversion. If you are in your 30s or 40s, like me, then you probably have friends who are wrestling with these concepts. If you are in your 20s, you might be wrestling with your own personal crisis of faith regarding Christianity, deconstruction, and deconversion.
Why am I bringing this up? I want to highlight that culture has changed dramatically and significantly. I want to show you how we got to where we are right now, and I want to point out that the changes we began making back in 2009 to simplify and focus were all ultimately with this in mind. I could tell at that point in time that things were changing. I could see that the church needed to adapt to the changing culture so that we could more effectively reach our community.
That is the whole purpose for which Christ sent His church out into the world: to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Christians have been doing that as missionaries in foreign cultures for a very long time.
What we need to recognize, and I was sharing this with the church all the way back in 2008 and 2009, is that our culture, even though you probably grew up here and were born and raised in this community as I was, is now a foreign culture to us. We need to adapt and change so that we can reach this culture. We don't change the message, but we might need to change our methods.
One of the method changes that we made was simplifying so that we could focus on helping people experience life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus, which is where we're going in the coming messages. If we were missionaries in another culture, we would learn the language and learn the culture so that we could try to introduce people to Jesus. That is what we need to do in this culture. We need to recognize that culture has changed drastically since the first AOL CDs started coming to you in the mail back in 1993 when you had a Windows 3.1 Packard Bell computer.
Only one who had that, but cultures changed significantly through all the different major events that have happened here in the United States and in the West. The fact is, we are to be missionaries in our culture, in a culture that is holy and completely new. People are deconverting from old forms of evangelical cultural Christianity, and they are deconstructing the Christianity that they grew up in.
I think that we were ahead of the curve as a church; we began making some of these changes a long time ago. I've listened to a lot of deconversion testimonies and deconstruction stories online, and most of them I hear are from people opting out of what they see as a consumeristic evangelical cultural Christianity. Unfortunately, many of those who are opting out of Christianity still say that they're spiritual but not religious, and they are no longer identifying with the church. Many of them are throwing away not only the consumeristic aspects that have been attached to American evangelicalism, but they are also throwing out the proverbial baby with the bathwater and opting out of Christianity altogether.
Obviously, I think that this is an extreme reaction and incredibly unwise because Christianity—well, Christ—is the only way to the Father. It is essential that we get that message out to people and find a way to reach the community that we live in. The culture that we are in has changed radically. We need to be able to recognize that the old methodologies may need to be set aside, but the message of the church doesn't need to be set aside; it needs to be emphasized even more.
This is the message that your neighbors, friends, family members, the people you go to school with, the people you work with, and the people you live next door to need to hear. Sadly, there are a fair amount of people who are opting out not just of the cultural forms of what has become evangelical Christianity in America and late 20th-century models of that, but they are also opting out of the gospel as well. They've walked away from those things because they think that those things are identical, and they are not.
What we've done here at Cross Connection Church over the last 14 years proves that those are separate things. Sadly, there are a fair amount of people opting out of both. They are the "nuns," the not.
In 2022, there was a notable increase in the number of people who identified as spiritually affiliated but not religious. Back in 2009, I shared that we, as a church, were going to work to simplify and focus our efforts. After sharing that, we underwent a process of deconstruction at Calvary Chapel of Escondido, which was painful. I have to admit that I naively thought at the time it would be easier than it turned out to be; that was the naivete of youth, if you will.
I have discovered that it is much easier, I think, to plant a whole new church than it is to replant an existing one. It is very challenging to go through all of that. Along the way, I have seen that this process was painful for everyone involved. Many people gave up on us as we made these changes, and I partly understand that because change is never easy. You and I have been kicking and screaming against the changes we've experienced over the last two years, especially with everything that has happened due to COVID-19. We would very much like for things to always stay the same.
However, while change is difficult, it is also inevitable. You cannot avoid change. If you were here when we began this journey nearly 14 years ago and you are still here, I can only guess that there was something in you that recognized that what we were doing was necessary and important. After the last two years, I can see even more now, in hindsight, how important making these changes was compared to the foresight I had 14 years ago.
But here's a sad truth: a lot of churches will not survive the cultural transformation that has occurred in the last 22 months. Many churches have already closed their doors permanently as a result of everything that has happened due to COVID-19. It's not just COVID; it's the cultural transformation that has resulted from it. A Christian research organization called Barna Group released findings two months ago that showed more than one-third of pastors have considered leaving the ministry due to the challenges they have faced over the last couple of years with COVID-19.
Early on in the pandemic, back in August of 2020, Barna found that 20% of churches—one in five—would likely close permanently due to everything that happened from COVID-19 within 18 months of when they published that article and conducted that research. Why is this happening? It is happening because when...
Cultural realities change. If you don't change your methods for reaching those in the culture, then you will not survive. Does that mean that the church will die? Absolutely not. The gates of hell will not prevail against God's church. However, it does mean that the church, as it used to be maybe 25 years ago, will not be the same. It will kind of experience a death. As the old saying goes, you have to change or die.
Back in 2009, we began a process of simplification so that we could focus on our primary mission as a church—the primary mission for which Christ sent His church out into the world. Events can be fun; all the big calendar events can be enjoyable and good, but the church doesn't exist to put on events. Bible studies are certainly important, and you could argue that they are essential from the Scriptures, but the primary mission of the church isn't just to have a Bible study every day of the week.
Lights, projectors, haze machines, and good production might be cool and nice to have, but they're not essential for the church. I don't necessarily have anything against events, Bible studies, or the long list of ministries and outreaches, but sometimes the church can become so cluttered that it loses its focus on the essentials. We certainly were cluttered when I became the pastor of this church, and that's no knock on the previous leadership; that's just the way that pretty much every church has been for the last 40 years. We had a lot of complexity, and we were incredibly busy.
Fourteen years ago, today we have a very simple focus: life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. This last week, I was thinking about the movie "Captain America," and I presume that you all know the story. If you don't, then spoiler alert: Steve Rogers, the main character, Captain America, in the Disney Marvel movie that came out back in 2011, is frozen in a plane crash in the Arctic. He is frozen in time and then found in the present day. When he is brought back, the war is over, and the world has changed; everything is radically different.
As I was thinking about that, imagine for a moment that the earliest Christians were frozen in time and then brought back.
After 2,000 years on ice, how much of what the church does or how much of what the church is like today would they be able to identify? Not a whole lot. What did the earliest church look like? What did the earliest church do?
The best pattern or description for what the early church did is given to us in , when the early church started. Beginning at verse 42, this might be a familiar passage for you. There we read, "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers." Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common. They sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
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 people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
That right there is what we would call a simple church doctrine. Teaching, fellowship, gathering together, caring for one another, sharing with one another, breaking bread—which is both communion and hospitality—and prayer. I would also add to that an organic outreach and evangelism, because the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
When you get right down to it, that's what we have been trying to do here for the last 14 years: connecting with God through the Scriptures, through the Word, through prayer, communion, baptism, worship, serving with one another, giving, and connecting with one another through fellowship, hospitality, connect groups, sharing, and caring for one another.
We also connect with the world through personal relationships, organic outreach, and evangelism. We don't have a lot of the normal things that you might find at another church in our area, but we hope that what we have is more like the essential things that the church devoted itself to at the very beginning.
Does that mean that we will never do outreach events? No, but it does mean that we are more selective about what we do. It is very easy to make things complex, and it is incredibly hard to keep things simple. That's our hope: to simply be those who are on mission, living life in connection with God, one another, and the world.
Jesus shared that with other people, living life together, loving God, and loving one another. We honor and glorify the Lord through very simple things, like gathering together for worship, song, service, and giving. We also come together as connect groups for fellowship and hospitality, and we go out in outreach.
All those different things can become incredibly complex, but it is very hard to keep things simple. That's what we're trying to do: focus on those simple things. Over the next few weeks, we will be talking about connecting with God, connecting with one another, and connecting with the world. We will explore how we do that as a church through Christ. I believe this is more important now than at any other time in the last 14 years because our world is in desperate need of the good news of Jesus.
Life through Jesus is a part of our mission statement: life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. Our culture needs that desperately, and the only way they will see that or come to know it is through you and through me, through this church, and hopefully through other churches as well. However, it is so easy to become distracted by all the clutter and to fail to fulfill the mission to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, bringing them the good news of Christ.
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 that You have sent us forth to do as Your people in this world. Help us to be a light in a dark place. God, pour out Your Spirit upon Your church once again, we pray.
We pray for our friends and family down at Maranatha Chapel. God, be with Vicki Bentley and her family. We pray for the Maranatha Chapel church. Lord, just be with them and pour out Your Spirit upon them, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
For tomorrow, there is hope in the morning. There is hope in the evening. There is hope because You are living in hope, because You are breathing in hope.
You keep hope alive from the beginning to end. Your world never fails. You keep hope alive because you are alive, Jesus. You are alive.
Thanks for joining us for our online service today. As we close, we would love to invite you to our on-campus service here at Cross Connection Church at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. every Sunday. If you'd like more information about Cross Connection Church, make sure you check out lifeinconnection.com.
Hey there, Cross Connection! We're starting a new series today called Life in Connection. One of the ways that you can get better connected to our church and the people in it is by joining a Connect Group. The easiest way to get more information on our Connect Groups is at connect.lifeinconnection.com. That's connect.lifeinconnection.com.
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