Good morning! My name is Insoo Kim and I am the assistant pastor here at the Hyde Park Vineyard Church which is a role that I have served in for the past 2.5 years. And starting this week, I have the great honor and privilege to be serving as your interim senior pastor for three months, during Rand’s sabbatical and study leave. So, with Rand’s sabbatical, I am reminded of a familiar saying, which I think goes something like this: “While the Cat is away, the Mouse will take over the church and do some crazy things!” Or something like that. I have to confess that I do feel a little overwhelmed at being the lead pastor for these three months, but I know that this church does not belong to Rand or me. This church belongs to God. And so I rest in the knowledge that He is in control. And I will do my best to not to mess up our church, well, at least not too badly. I do believe that this will be a very significant season in the life of our church. I will not be shy about asking you for your prayers for me and Angela during this time. I want to especially ask prayer for wisdom, courage, and protection. Also, please join me in fervently praying for our church. And before we continue why don’t we pray. Let’s invite God to come and have his way with us tonight. And I will also pray for our offering this morning.

This morning we are embarking on a grand and noble journey to become the church that works. The Church that Works is a simple idea, and if we can all grasp this vision, I believe that we can truly transform Hyde Park, the neighborhood, the University, even all of Chicago. For the next five weeks, Jonathan Purifoy and I will be putting out a challenge for each and every one of us to become the church that works. And the simple idea of the Church that works is this: We are the church! You and I here this morning, we are the church!

Some of you have been coming to this church for a very long time while for some of you, this may be your first time here. We are the church. Some of you have bought into the idea that Jesus is the Son of God and that it is by that name and no other through which we are saved. And some of you are just beginning to explore this notion. We are the church. If there were just believers in this room this morning, we would not be the church. Did you get that? If everyone in this room was a Christian, we would not be the church. The church is not some closed-door click or the moral police. If the church is truly a church that is living out its mission, there should always be people in our midst who are asking questions about what it means to be a Christian. There should always be non-believers in our midst challenging our faith, asking the tough questions, making us revisit again and again what it is that we believe and why.

All of us here together, no matter where we are from or where we are in our spiritual journey, we are the church. It is a radical force. It is powerful. And it is absolutely unstoppable. But so many churches are dead, because it has become nothing more than a social gathering of lukewarm believers, cocooned with religiosity and judgment. The church is intended to be more. So much more. If we can really grasp this, if we would could really believe this stuff, if we would only live this thing out. Oh, can you imagine what changes we would see in Hyde Park? Can you imagine what changes we would see in the University? Can you imagine what we would see happen in Chicago?

Rand, Tiffany and I, along with our spouses and babies, just returned from a week-long Vineyard National Conference in California. It was a wonderful time of worship, teaching, and just meeting other people who are serving in Vineyard churches all over the United States. And we also got to eat some amazing In-N-Out burgers. This conference also marked the 25 year anniversary of the Vineyard movement. What started out as a small gathering in the living room of John Wimber has grown into a movement of over 1100 churches world-wide. I want to say a special thank you to all of you for your prayers and financial support that made it possible for us to attend the conference. So, thank you, thank you, thank you!

And being at this conference, being in the auditorium of the Anaheim Vineyard with hundreds of pastors and church leaders from all over the country, I was just caught up for a minute imagining all the stories of everyone that was in that room. I was imagining what their churches were like. I was imagining how they got started. I was trying to imagine why these people would give their lives to lead and serve at these churches. And then I began to think about our story, the story of the Hyde Park Vineyard Church. For those of you who don’t know, the Hyde Park Vineyard Church began with just a handful of college students from the University of Chicago. Few of us were meeting as a house group, like many of you are doing today. We gathered weekly to worship, pray, and study the Word of God and just do life together. We came from many different backgrounds. None of us were particularly talented. Nor were we ever an organized group. But one thing we knew was that we loved Jesus and we wanted others to know this Jesus. So, this small group grew and grew and grew and eventually became the Hyde Park Vineyard Church. That was almost 10 years ago. And here we are today.

Turn with me to the book of Acts, chapter 2. I want us to look at another church that was starting up. Actually, the very first church. If you don’t have a Bible there are some in the back table or maybe you can share one with someone around you. Let’s read

Acts 2:42-47
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

The Church that Works is a church where everyone risks regularly to introduce people to Jesus!

I remember as a young Christian in high school, having experienced the love and power of God, how on fire I was to introduce people to Jesus. I was never really good at it back then, well, not that I am really good at it now. I had no idea what I was doing, but I did it with passion. Can anybody relate to an experience like that? The passionately ignorant?

But something happened as I grew up, as I became more educated, as I became more proper, as I became more theologically sound, as I became an adult. I found it harder and harder to take risks to introduce people to Jesus. Well, I found it harder and harder simply just to take risks.

The world seems so different somehow. People seem so different. Everything just seems different. I can’t really express it, but I can feel it. You know what I mean? Even my Christian life seemed very proper, but there wasn’t any kind of passion and excitement in it.

So for a while now, I have been really praying and seeking God about this and here is what I feel like God has been saying to me: If you want to really see what the Christian life is all about, live it out in the streets, in the midst of those who do not know Jesus. God has been challenging me to regularly take risks to introduce people to Jesus.

If you look at the book of Acts again, what made all the difference in this story was that this whole thing was happening in the midst of this crowd of non-believers. It didn’t matter that they were being ridiculed, being called drunkards, and weirdos. Peter, the same fearful Peter who couldn’t even acknowledge that he was with Jesus when he was arrested, gets up in the middle of this crowd and begins to explain what was happening in words that they could understand. And with his risk of faith, about 3,000 people were added to their numbers that day!

If you want to really see what the Christian life is all about, live it out in the streets, in the midst of those who do not know Jesus. The Church that Works is a church where every member risks regularly to introduce people to Jesus.

And for some of us, do you know where it starts. We need to make non-Christian friends. I don’t know why, but it seems like after a new believer becomes a Christian, in a matter of two to three years, they lose all of their non-Christian friends. So, for some of us, we need to start there. Make friends. Make lots and lots of non-Christian friends. Here is one thing that I am doing to help in this arena.

Where is God calling you to take risks? What can you do intentionally and consistently to take risks to introduce people to Jesus?

May we be a Church that works!
May we be a people who regularly takes risks to introduce people to Jesus!
May we live our faith in the middle of the crowd, so that people will see and glorify Jesus!