Ministry Musings: “Deep and Wide” (1)

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of co-preaching a revival at the First United Methodist Church in Lakeland, Florida.  Dr. Robert Tuttle was my partner in this venture.  The senior pastor is a long-time friend and his executive pastor is a former student at Asbury Seminary and good friend as well.  It was a week I was really looking forward to, and one I’ll report briefly about for the next three weeks.

The theme was “Deep and Wide,” indicating that the congregation (numbering 4,700) is at a time when they are seeking to move ahead in both dimensions of discipleship.  On the final Sunday, I preached on the theme, using the example of the church in Antioch (Acts 13:1-3) as an example of a church that was both deep and wide in relation to five stated areas.  We’ll look at them in the next few weeks.

First, the believers in Antioch had a communal identity. It was in Antioch that they were first called “Christians” (Acts 11:26).  At least in part this means that they drew a common identification from Christ himself.  They were “Christ ones.”  Today, when we use the same term to describe ourselves it means that we take our identity from Jesus and what the church teaches us about him.

It is the church who tells me who I am; I don’t tell the church what it is.  Churches get into trouble when individuals and groups try to “define” (which really means “control”) the church.  It’s the other way around.  The church “defines” me—at least if I choose to become part of it.  A church that’s deep and wide takes its identity from Christ and from the tradition that has served for centuries to interpret his life and ministry.

We’ll continue to look at the church at Antioch in the next two weekly postings—a church that was deep and wide.