Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry
for the saints, 2 for I know your readiness, of which I boast about
you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready
since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them. 3 But I
am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not
prove vain in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you
would be. 4 Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find
that you are not ready, we would be humiliated- to say nothing of
you- for being so confident. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge
the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the
gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift,
not as an exaction. 6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly
will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also
reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has made up his mind,
not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful
giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that
having all contentment in all things at all times, you may abound
in every good work. 9 As it is written, "He has distributed freely,
he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." 10 He
who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and
multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your
righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way for all your
generosity, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. 12
For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of
the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.
13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because
of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of
Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for
all others, 14 while they long for you and pray for you, because of
the surpassing grace of God upon you. 15 Thanks be to God for his
inexpressible gift!

Treasuring Christ Together (TCT) is a vision for church planting
and campus multiplication as a means of spreadinga
passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all
peoples through Jesus Christ. The vision was born out of
growth that needs to be cared for and dreams that
ought to be pursued. In other words, the vision is driven both by
the God-given pressure of the present and the God-given
possibilities of the future. Our aim is not to focus on coping with
crowds (which is hard to avoid) but on increasing the number of
those who worship Jesus—that is, we are focused on spreading
a passion for the supremacy of God in Jesus Christ.

Last week we saw the amazing Macedonians—actually we saw
the amazing grace of God at work in the Macedonians. 2 Corinthians
8:1-5 describe a people who experienced the grace of God so
powerfully that in severe affliction and extreme poverty they were
filled with joy and overflowed in liberality for the relief of the
saints beyond their ability, giving themselves first to God and
then to the people of God. It was a beautiful work of God, and a
beautiful community. My prayer last week was that we, as a church,
would become more and more like these Macedonians.

Now today I want to focus on one phrase in 2 Corinthians 9:8 as
I try to bring further clarity to the vision of Treasuring Christ
Together. In doing this I will try to address some of the ideas
that were raised last Wednesday at the all-church discussion, and
set us up, I hope for more discussion Sunday night at 6:00.

Every Good Work?

The verse says, “God is able to make all grace abound to
you, so that having all contentment in all things at all times, you
may abound in every good work.” Do you see them?
All, all, all, all, every. That is a staggering promise
for you as a believer, and for your family, and for us as a
church—simply staggering. It’s like the promise of
Jesus in Matthew 6:33: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things will be added to
you.” It’s like the promise in Philippians 4:19,
“My God will supply every need of yours according to
his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Or Psalm 23:1,
“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want [that is,
I shall not lack anything].” Or Psalm 84:11, “No
good thing does he withhold from those who walk
uprightly.”

Back to 2 Corinthians 9:8, “God is able to make all grace
abound to you.” This, you recall, is what he did in Macedonia
(2 Corinthians 8:1): “We want you to know, brothers,about
the grace of God that has been given among the churches of
Macedonia.” Remember, this grace brought affliction and did
not remove poverty. So when Paul says that this grace will meet
every need (Philippians 4:19), or (as here in verse 8) that it will
enable us to “abound in very good work,” it
doesn’t mean that all our desires or felt needs will be
supplied. And it doesn’t mean that every conceivable
“good work” will be funded.

So the phrase I want us to focus on is the phrase “every
good work.” What does it mean? This is the promise:
“God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that . . .
you may abound in every good work.” Almighty,
sovereign grace is available for “every good work.”
Which good works does “every good work” refer to?

Just to help you feel the force of the question, ask yourself:
Have I done “every good work”? Have we, as a church,
done “every good work”? When we hear this question our
minds cry out: What do you mean, Paul, by “every”?
Every conceivable good work? No. There are thousands of
conceivable good works we don’t do and can’t do. So
what does “every” refer to? Particularly for us, Does
it refer to the next step of Treasuring Christ
Together—purchasing a North Campus?

Every God-Ordained Good Work

I am going to suggest an answer from Ephesians 2:10. It says,
“We [Christians] are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk
in them.” Here we have a defining phrase for the “good
works” we are to do: the good works “which God prepared
beforehand, that we should walk in them.” I take this to mean
that God will give us grace to for “every good work”
that he has prepared beforehand for us to do. Not every possible
good work. But every God-ordained good work.

One of the great challenges of the Christian life—and each
local Christian church—is proving what is the will of God,
what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2). What are the
good works that you should be doing? What are the good works that
Bethlehem should be doing? Or to be very specific: Is the Next Step
of Treasuring Christ Together in purchasing the North Campus one of
the “every good works” that God promises he will give
us grace to fulfill? How do we corporately find the will of God for
the good works God has ordained for Bethlehem?

I will suggest an answer to that question at the end but, since
part of the answer is understanding the vision, I want to give more
glimpses into what it is. I take my clue for how to do this from
Erik
Hyatt’s ringing words Wednesday night when we said,
“It’s both-and, not either-or.” That sounded to
me like a prophetic word from the Lord that would pull us all
together. So let me mention four both-ands, because if we can agree
that this is a both-and vision, then we only be left arguing about
the proportions, and not about the substance. And some of you have
some very good ideas about that which began to come out Wednesday
evening.

1. Treasuring Christ Together is both
the management of growth and the
pursuit of dreams.

The essence of the dreams is simply the Great Commission: Go
make disciples. Go spread a passion for the supremacy of God. When
God has mercy on us and fulfills those dreams, more people gather
for worship and ministry. When more people gather for worship and
ministry, meeting rooms have to be enlarged, services have to be
multiplied in our place or several places, or churches need to be
planted. Or a combination.

After years of wrestling with alternatives—like dividing
into house churches, moving to a cell-church model, telling people
that they can only come three out of four Sundays, creating five or
six services on one site downtown, building a 3,000-person
sanctuary downtown, and others—after years of wrestling with
options, the elders are proposing the vision called Treasuring
Christ Together. Both to manage growth that exists, and to obey the
command of Jesus to keep making disciples. It’s a sobering
discovery that spreading a passion for the supremacy of God leads
to the necessity of managing
(or praying for) space for the
blessing of God. Just like a family that grows has to provide
bedrooms and living space for the children. So TCT is both the
pursuit of dreams—spreading a passion for God—and the
management of growth. Both-and.

2. Treasuring Christ Together is both
incarnated in western culture, and
aiming to inspire and equip and send people to incarnate
the gospel in non-western culture.

Saying this is an attempt to honest and radical. Honest, because
there is no hiding that virtually every thing we do in worship and
education and life is shaped by western culture: our language, our
clothes, our transportation, our church buildings (whether
storefront or cathedral), our homes, our food, our church music,
all our instruments, our way of thinking about time, punctuality,
service length, leadership styles, child care, marriage
expectation, and on and on. We are thoroughly western. The gospel
has become incarnate in western culture. Compared to the third
world it is a very expensive—a very wealthy—culture. No
matter how simple we build western buildings (the homes and
apartments we live in, and the church buildings we worship in) are
wildly expensive compared to the two-thirds world. We are part of
that. What we long to happen in all the cultures of the
world—the incarnation of the gospel as an indigenous
movement—has happened in our culture. And we should praise
God for it.

But that’s not the whole story. We see the dangers in
that, not only for our own souls, but also in making us unfit to
prepare missionaries to serve in the non-western world. And so the
other side of the coin in this both-and church is a relentless call
to a wartime mindset and a wartime life-style. When American went
on a wartime footing during the first and second world war, all
lifestyles changed to maximize resources for the war effort. That
is what we want for the sake of the gospel. But America was still
the richest nation in the world, even during the austerity of
wartime, and still be very western.

And besides calling for a wartime mindset and lifestyle in our
western culture, we call for a rigorous effort—a radical
intentionality—about being aware of what is cultural here and
what is not, so that we are not enslaved to non-essentials but can
leave them in order to incarnate the gospel in another culture. We
aim to breed a kind of person who is aware of what is skin and what
is wine. TCT is both at home in western culture and free from
western culture—for the sake of the nations.

3. Treasuring Christ Together is both the multiplication of
campuses and the planting of churches.

The difference between the two is that campus multiplication
keeps the people of the campuses under the leadership of the same
elders and the same unified budget and the same preaching pastor.
All the campuses are legally and organizationally one church. A
church plant from Bethlehem shares the same mission and

Elder Affirmation of Faith, but has its own council of elders
and its own budget and its own preaching pastor or pastors.

The church budgeted $100,000 in this year’s budget for
church planting. Kenny Stokes is
working presently with about 10 possible church plants near and
far. We are praying and planning for a major push this fall to
mobilize people from both sites for a Twin Cities church plant. The
elders will have a more definite word about that in a few days.

Why church planting in addition to campus multiplication?
Here’s the way Tim Keller puts it. He’s the preaching
pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian
Church in New York City.

The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the
single most crucial strategy for 1) the overall growth for the Body
of Christ in a city, and for 2) the renewal of the existing
churches in the city, and for 3) the spread of God’s shalom,
especially in under-resourced neighborhoods of the city. Nothing
else—not crusades, evangelistic programs, social programs,
government policies, church renewal programs—nothing else
will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church
planting. (Quoted from a handout, “ "http://www.redeemer2.com/themovement/issues/2003/oct/timkeller-whyplant.html">
Why Plant New Churches?”

• New churches tend to have more of an outward focus than older
  churches.
• New churches tend to pursue unbelievers more than older
  churches.
• New churches demand and grow more new lay leaders than older
  churches.
• New churches tend to be more flexible than older churches.
• New churches tend to stir up life and vision in the older
  mother churches.

This is the judgment of hundreds of leaders involved in church
planting movements around the country and around the world. (See
some resources "http://www.mislinks.org/church/chplant.htm">here.) The New
Testament does not merely say go make disciples; it says baptize
them. Don’t leave them dangling alone, gather new believers
into churches.

TCT aims to have the mindset of Charles Spurgeon when he sent
250 of his people away in to a new church start, and was described
by one his people: “The Pastor was always pleased when such a
battalion left the main army to carry on operations
elsewhere.” (Dallimore, Spurgeon: A New Biography
[Chicago: Moody Press, 1984], p. 172). TCT is both campus
multiplication and church planting.

4. Finally one last both-and. Treasuring Christ Together
is a call both for up-front gifts between
now and the closing date for the North Campus on May 15
and on-going gifts to the new stream of
income called Treasuring Christ Together.

It is becoming clearer to us in these days that Treasuring
Christ Together is not a temporary fund drive to buy one building.
It is a vision of spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in
all things by multiplying campuses and planting churches as long as
God gives the blessing. In other words, very practically, this
means that Treasuring Christ Together becomes a line on our giving
envelopes to create a stream of income that lasts as long as God
continues to give us the united vision and the blessing of making
disciples who treasure Christ above all.

So we are asking, that if the church approves the vision this
Wednesday, you would both give an upfront gift by May 15 and a
stream of regular gifts after that to the vision of TCT. Filling
out the cards and turning them in the next two weeks would help us
know how God is moving among us.

Is TCT One of Those “Good Works”?

Finally, is this vision one of the good works that Paul refers
to in 2 Corinthians 9:8? Remember this staggering promise:
“God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having
all contentment in all things at all times, you may abound in
every good work”? My answer is that the Lord has put
in place a process by which a body of his people discern his will.
There are five components:

1. We as a church attempt to be saturated by the word of God so
   that our minds are transformed.
2. We called for extraordinary prayer in recent months and
   hundreds of us are on our faces about this continually.
3. You have affirmed elders over the church who have studied,
   wrestled, prayed, and this Tuesday will craft a final
   recommendation for this Wednesday.
4. We all submit to the providence of God, which means that the
   Mounds View City Council this Monday night is in God’s hands
   as they make their final vote.
5. You will discuss Sunday night at 6:00 and then vote on
   Wednesday concerning this vision.

At any of these points the vision could be stopped, or by the
coming together of them all we will see if this vision is a
“good work” for which God promises to meet every
need.