{"id":2280,"date":"2014-07-01T09:22:54","date_gmt":"2014-07-01T13:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=2280"},"modified":"2015-08-08T14:06:47","modified_gmt":"2015-08-08T18:06:47","slug":"climates-for-spiritual-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=2280","title":{"rendered":"Climates for Spiritual Growth (6\/29\/14)"},"content":{"rendered":"
The sermon on June 29 was given by Larry Bakely, our church’s lay leader.\u00a0 The message was entitled, “Climates for Spiritual Growth,” and the scripture was the entire first chapter of the book of 1 Samuel.<\/span><\/address>\n
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Click Here<\/span><\/a><\/span> to read the story of Samuel’s birth, as told in 1 Samuel 1…<\/span><\/address>\n
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The Challange…<\/span><\/h3>\n

In the April edition of the conference newspaper (“The Methodist Relay”) Bishop John Schol wrote an article on Church Vitality.\u00a0 In his article<\/span><\/span>, the bishop related the truth that many of us have seen first hand.\u00a0 In the 20th century, people just came to church.\u00a0 It was expected.\u00a0 Stores were closed.\u00a0 There were\u00a0 no sports or other activities scheduled.\u00a0 People worshiped God on Sunday mornings.\u00a0 It wasn’t a question of “do you go to church?”, but rather “which church do you go to?”<\/p>\n

And so we kind of gave up on the idea of reaching out to the community to encourage people to come to church and to join with us in “attending to the public worship of God.”\u00a0 As a result, people are now “worshiping” on soccer fields, in gyms, in malls or in restaurants.\u00a0 God has to compete for attention on Sundays with a lot of other activities.<\/p>\n

Building on our Purpose Statement…<\/span><\/h3>\n

Our church’s purpose statement is printed in our bulletin.\u00a0 And, there’s even a sign in our narthex to remind everyone of why we’re here.\u00a0 Here’s our church’s purpose statement…<\/p>\n

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That every person know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. <\/span><\/p>\n

That we create a climate where spiritual growth occurs, <\/span><\/p>\n

So that God\u2019s will to save the lost is accomplished. <\/span><\/p>\n

Glory To God!<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

Other than “Glory to God” which is the bottom-line key phrase in the statement, the central line of our purpose is, “That we create a climate where spiritual growth occurs.”\u00a0 Could it be that for too long we have associated that “climate” solely with the activities that happen within our own walls?\u00a0 What about the people who remain “outside of our walls?”\u00a0 We need to go outside of our church and build\u00a0 “ClimateS” where the people are.\u00a0 So what is a “Climate where spiritual growth occurs”?\u00a0 What’s it look like?<\/p>\n

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Ingredients for a Climate where Spiritual Growth Occurs…<\/span><\/h3>\n

The message used the example of 1 Samuel 1 to identify five elements of a climate for spiritual growth…<\/p>\n

1:\u00a0 Intertwined with the Word of God<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Click here to learn more<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t

Check out the context of our passage (all quotes are from the NIV version of the Bible<\/em><\/span>)…<\/p>\n