One of the questions we wrestled with was, “What kind of a world are we entering?” The church in Canada faces massive challenges in the days ahead. How do we articulate the gospel to a world that is disoriented and disintegrating at every level? These are relevant questions that are put another way by the writer of Psalm 11. In verse 3 he asks, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” We didn’t come away from our gathering with any specific strategies, sermons or specifics. What we did come away with was a renewed commitment to what really matters. It might sound somewhat familiar, but the main things are still the main things.
1. Prayer Matters
Prayer moves the hand and heart of God. As one pastor stated from Matthew 7, “Jesus said, ‘Keep asking, keep seeking, and keep knocking.’” At CrossRoads, we used to pray urgently and intently for our community, our neighbours, and our friends, and God answered our prayers. Our church grew numerically and spiritually as a direct result of our prayers. Many times we were up against it financially, we prayed, and God provided. There are so many more examples of answered prayer here at CrossRoads.
Let’s do everything we can to rekindle that flame of prayer in our personal and in our church life. I wonder what difference it would make in our lives, families, and community if we began praying the Lord’s Prayer from our hearts every day.
2. Surrender Matters
It is the beginning of everything good. Just check out 2 Chronicles 7:14. The forgiveness of sins and healing of the land begins with surrender (humble yourself). A wise person once said, “He who is on the floor cannot fall.” Good point! A fresh surrender to the Lordship of Jesus in our lives is what I believe the Holy Spirit is calling us to.
3. Caring for our Marriage and Family Matters
Relationships always come first in the Kingdom of God. Recently I read and was impacted by Nehemiah 4:14. It is worth looking up!
Someone I know from Vancouver recently said, “Right now one of the most counter-cultural things you can do in Vancouver is marry someone of the opposite sex and stay married.”
I don’t think you can do anything better for your children and grandchildren than to love your spouse and stay together for life. Covenant. Security. Place of Refuge. Beautiful.
Of all the challenges facing the church in Canada today is the potential loss of a whole generation to the kingdom of God.
Marriage and Family matter!
4. God’s Word Matters
In a world swarming with lies, we need to be immersed more than ever in the Word of God. If we don’t know it, believe it, and live it, we will quickly and easily cave into the lies of the culture.
Sundays will always be a day where the Word of God takes center stage and is read, preached and applied.
One of my greatest joys over the last year is listening to Julie, Denise and Jordan C. as they brought us the Word of God with excellence, passion and relevance. As we move forward, we will increasingly be using a ‘teaching team’ model that will allow us to develop other solid young communicators of God’s Word.
5. Unity Matters
COVID wreaked havoc in the body of Christ. We must never forget that unity was what Jesus prayed for among His people just before He went to the cross. Let’s be diligent in forgiving, welcoming back and praying for unity.
6. Vision Matters
God gave us a wonderful vision at CrossRoads Church. You know it, I hope… Is it still valid? Absolutely!! We need to reignite that vision in our hearts and church. As Ron Pearce said recently when he spoke here, COVID was a wonderful opportunity for the gospel - except in Canada and the USA. Instead of focusing on our neighbours, we lashed out at each other, our government and leadership in general at every level of our society. Time to remember and refocus that lost people still matter to God, and they must matter to us.
As elders, we still believe God is going to pour out His Spirit. That is why we want to be ready. It is why we still want to pray for our neighbours and friends. It’s why we want to have strong leadership at Celebrate Recovery, Alpha, Foundations and our Children and Youth Ministries. It is why we still plan on expanding our facility.
Remember:
• Our Vision is Biblical - Matthew 28:18
• God has affirmed it and confirmed it to us many times
• It keeps us focused on a lost world
• It involves all of our friends, family, co-workers, fellow students, and all the people most precious to us.
• To be part of CrossRoads is to live with this vision. It is so important to us we have embedded it into the DNA of our church. Future leadership will take us further than we have ever gone before with this vision, but they will not take us off course.
Well, much more could be said about what matters, but I am convinced that to embrace and give ourselves to these “six matters” would be to be confident and unashamed before Him at His coming.
After 26 years as Senior Pastor at CrossRoads Church, I want to say thank you for the support, kindness and encouragement you have shown to Ginny and me. We are humbled and grateful to have served the Lord here with you all these years.
