Church of the Nazarene East Rock
Your Un-Churched Neighbor Part 1: Understanding
You can’t reach someone with whom you don’t empathize, and you won’t empathize until you understand. As we came through our services last week having to make a few adjustments to our normal routine, it was a reminder of just how many things are different today, than they were 2 years ago. Some of these differences are not so bad, but there are more than a few changes that remind us, it is a different world out there. The world health organization estimates that depression and anxiety have increased 25% globally since the onset of the pandemic. The fragility of our lives has been brought to the forefront of our thinking through many ways. I think many of us have some memory of toilet paper being more valuable than gold. A conflict a world away right now is affecting our supply chains, energy costs, and so many more things. When we say it’s a different world, we are not just saying it for effect. It’s not just establishing a reason for our new teaching series. It’s really a different world. And where is the church in all of this? One look at recent surveys or polls may surprise you. Here are just a few that caught my attention: Half of non-Christian Americans don’t trust local pastors
The percentage of people who attend church 1 or two times per month decreased from 34% in 2019 to 28% in 2022
In the same time frame, the percentage of people that never or seldom attend church grew from 50% to 57% Only 21% of non-Christian people have a positive perception of the local church yet 80% of Christians have a positive view. (This represents a huge gap in our understanding of the people around us.)As a church that is committed to the mission of Christ, committed to seeing people find relationship and restoration in Christ, this should alert us! If we are committed to being Transformed by God to bring hope to others through Christ, we must also be committed to making changes in ourselves and in our approach to our mission as the church to reach our new and different world. Yes, the message is always the same. But the world is different. The people all around us are different. Today we are beginning a new teaching series called “Your un-churched Neighbor” Through this series we want to be more informed, better equipped, and yes, even challenged to reach the lost and seeking hearts all around us .We begin our series today by unpacking the need for understanding. You can’t reach someone with whom you don’t empathize, and you won’t empathize until you understand. As we begin will see that until we are able, or willing, to work to understand others – especially those who are different from us– we can’t begin to know them or empathize with them. And if we can’t do that, we can’t reach them.John 4:1-30Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him. Did you catch that? She didn’t say “The Messiah chose me!” or “I am the first!” She said: “Come see a man who told me everything I have ever done!” Of all the amazing things about the encounter at the well, THAT is what stood out to her. Maybe, for that woman, it was the first time in her life she was understood. Really understood. Not judged, not condemned, not abandoned. Understood. The message she carried back to town was that she had met someone who KNEW her. The power of understanding is news worth sharing…Of course, we don’t have the understanding of Jesus, nor will we ever. But we have opportunities every day to understand those around us, to learn, to discover, to hear their stories. To WANT to listen To NEED to understand. The question today is will we do the hard work of understanding others so that we can love them better for Jesus’ sake? Will we put others first? As we continue in our series over the coming weeks, we will unpack other areas of focus for bridging the gap or being effective in sharing Jesus in our ever-changing world. We will see that no matter how much our world has changed, evangelism, or reaching the lost, is a supernatural pursuit that must begin in prayer. We will see that perhaps one of the greatest ways we can show people the love of Christ, is to serve them. We will be reminded that evangelism takes real work. And finally, we will understand that the ultimate expression of love is sharing the honest and compelling truth of the Cross of Christ When we think of all that we have said this morning…from this new normal we’re living in to the way the church is perceived, from how Jesus approached the Samaritan woman to the ways we have sometimes approached those He has put around us…Here’s the point: Before someone needs my judgment, they need my compassion Before they need my opinion, they need my understanding.