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Simplicity
Simplicity is our 'Direction' this Season
The photos and key word in the header of our site give us a "big picture." This big picture lets us see the direction for the next six months.
Quotes on Simplicity
From Paul's Vision-Casting Sermon
A part of our new day is what I would call simplification.
Simplification is a big word that only means we will shy away from trying to do too much or believing that one more program will do the trick.
- Limited resources and the loss of focus make simplification truly necessary as we face the new day.
- Simplification will be a deliberate strategy to align our resources with our vision so as to best accomplish what God is leading us towards.
- As we adjust toward simplification, we will learn the value of pruning, and of how “less” can actually be “more.” If we value quality (especially above quantity) we will conclude that we can’t do everything and still maintain quality. The pruning of course will never include the ministering of the Word and the biblical shepherding of the flock, but it may reduce some expectations of the church being all things for all people.
This simplification will enable us to truly focus on our already stated core values and five-year vision “Embrace Tomorrow.” May we readily understand and appreciate our values of worship, community, and mission. And may this understanding take on an even clearer and simpler plan for living them out. As the Chapel family, may we appreciate this simple three-fold strategy of Christian “discipleship.”
Full Text
Vision-Casting Sermon—May 24, 2009
As we turn the page to this “fourth chapter” of The Chapel, we eagerly anticipate the leadership of our fourth senior pastor. On Sunday, May 24, Pastor Paul Sartarelli presented his vision with great enthusiasm and energy. Read the manuscript:
On January 15, 1934, a new day dawned in Akron Ohio. The morning sun witnessed the birth of a new church. Many people, led by their 24-year-old pastor and his young bride, worked hard and prayed diligently for this great day. God’s faithfulness and power launched a church with great hopes and a wonderful uniqueness. And so our church, The Chapel was born.
Now it’s 75 years later…A new day and people are still working and praying hard and God is as faithful and powerful as ever! The light of day is still here, as bright as the noontime sun.
Here we go! Facing the new day.
Let me say what a great and humbling privilege it is to be your pastor; to be following the likes of Carl Burnham and David Burnham, and Knute Larson. Three men who in different ways but similar means exalted Christ, shepherded with love, dreamed big dreams and made the Scriptures come alive, thus allowing Christ to build a very special church here at The Chapel.
Here we go! Believing in the new day.
I think of Jesus’ words, “Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against her.” Oh, may we continue to be the kind of church that storms the gates of hell, concerned not for own safety, for we are secure. But rather concerned with bringing light to a dark world; with restoring dignity to a fallen creation and offering hope to the downtrodden, as we seek to reconcile everyone we meet to the Lord who loves them. Jesus the Christ of course, is the restorer, his cross the instrument of reconciliation, his heart the lover of our souls.
Here we go! Embracing the new day.
Proclaiming Christ as we have for 75 years. He is our hope for eternity and our wisdom for living in the here and now. Our emphasis will continue to be for the whole person and the whole world.
Christ’s wisdom and grace will be our tone. Never has mere external religious conformity been The Chapel’s tradition. An authentic spirituality that flows from deep within, driven by biblical wisdom and spiritual insight, this is our DNA.
With lives informed by the words of Scripture and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we will continue to seek to be the people of Christ well into the 21st century (collectively and individually). And as the people of Christ we declare spiritual all of life, our homes, our vocations, our finances, our neighbors, our world, they are all in the scope of what it means to be Christ followers in our day.
As we embrace the future, as we face the new day before us we will stand firm on the biblical foundation and Chapel heritage of yesterday while also looking forward to the new opportunities and adjustments that the new day will call for.
The primacy of the Scriptures and our thorough teaching of the Bible in every nook and cranny of the church will continue to be our high priority. Our firm belief in the divine inspiration of the Old and New Testaments and their inherent benefit to our lives and to our world will not change.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17).
Our instructions for living and for being the church come directly from this Book. Our marching orders are derived not from the latest fad or pop seminars or even other churches, though we learn pertinent things from many avenues. Ultimately the principles for life and ministry will continue to come from the truths and wisdom of the Scriptures.
So it goes without saying, that expositional preaching will remain the Chapel pulpit’s trademark, as it was yesterday so it will be today and tomorrow. Together with our campus preaching pastors Jon Platek and Mike Castelli, I will lead the shepherding of this flock with a healthy and steady diet directly from the Word of God.
Another timeless ray of light from our heritage is our firm belief in the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. The world’s ultimate hope lies in the salvation procured by his cross. This is not yesterday’s news, but today’s hope. And our ultimate distinction bears the signature not of some particular theological system or ministry model but in the person of Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord.
Also, our love for and call into all the world will remain a significant part of Chapel DNA. We will continue to seek tangible ways to show the love of Christ to our neighbors, our cities and our world. To proclaim and live out a Christian worldview in this global village of many voices and ideologies will forever be our distinct challenge and privilege.
You know, a lasting part of what has made us The Chapel has been our keen appreciation for the world in which we live. We have always sought to contextualize our ways and ministries for the day and culture in which we found ourselves. So also today, with all of its challenges, our economic travails and our increasingly post-Christian culture, we will continue to serve Christ in ways that communicate to the day in which we live.
So what will the tomorrows look like? Will there be some changes in the days ahead? Fresh light from the new morning? Well, of course there will.
As we talk about making adjustments to fit the day, it reminds me of what Pastor Burnham used to teach when I was a college student; the importance of knowing the difference between principles and particulars. We must always seek to maintain and live out the time-tested, biblical principles for life and ministry. Yet we shall always be discovering and even creating the necessary and timely particulars for effective living and ministry in our day.
I am not talking of about-face changes, but rather continued adjustments and alignments that as a staff we have been discussing and even implementing in our ministries during these days.
A part of our new day is what I would call simplification. Simplification is a big word that only means we will shy away from trying to do too much or believing that one more program will do the trick. Regarding the singularity of his Christ-proclaiming focus the Apostle Paul stated, “this ONE thing I do…” I am afraid that too often the American
Evangelical Church’s M.O has been, “these 84 things we dabble in.” Many of which, I might add, without excellence or focus.
Limited resources and the loss of focus make simplification truly necessary as we face the new day. Simplification will be a deliberate strategy to align our resources with our vision so as to best accomplish what God is leading us towards.
As we adjust toward simplification, we will learn the value of pruning, and of how “less” can actually be “more.” If we value quality (especially above quantity) we will conclude that we can’t do everything and still maintain quality. The pruning of course will never include the ministering of the Word and the biblical shepherding of the flock, but it may reduce some expectations of the church being all things for all people.
This simplification will enable us to truly focus on our already stated core values and five-year vision “Embrace Tomorrow.” May we readily understand and appreciate our values of worship, community, and mission. And may this understanding take on an even clearer and simpler plan for living them out. As the Chapel family, may we appreciate this simple three-fold strategy of Christian “discipleship.”
Collectively we exalt Christ through the receiving of his Word and ordinances while worshipping him in a manner both divinely acceptable and appropriate for our historical moment. We will see to it that our worship gatherings reflect this simpler, uncluttered mandate. And we’ll make sure that the path from large family worship to the smaller caring communities be simply and clearly marked. And we’ll be sure that our mission to the world be as clear as ever.
I recently read that by the year 2050 only about 11% of Americans will regularly attend church. For many reasons, both spiritual and cultural, Christ and his church are becoming less and less of an option in our day.
So let’s call another challenge for tomorrow exploration, as we explore new ways of effectiveness for outreach and ministry in our day.
Within the parameters of worship, community, and mission, we will be about the exploration of biblical and timely ways to continually develop these core values in ways that glorify Christ and connect with our world and culture.
I must say that when I look at our world today and the general outreach ineffectiveness of Christian ministries, my thoughts of exploration go immediately to our mission. The screaming need of our day is to explore and model ways to be missionally relevant in the 21st century. This is true on a personal level and church-wide.
We must understand and appreciate today’s world and leave plenty of room in our lives for those who are not Christ followers. We must also think clearly how to authentically live out the hope of Christ in word and deed for our day.
With the world getting "smaller" and other voices getting louder, the Christian voice must get clearer. Enough of squabbling over personal tastes and theological hair-splitting, there are bigger fish to fry. Our message should be clear, not in an obnoxious way but in a thoughtful and productive way. We don’t live in Kansas anymore. We must explore new ways of speaking and living out the truth in our post-Christian world.
In these days of community interest and neighborhood involvement we must rethink our expectation of new people always coming to us; of always driving to our regional campuses in Akron and Green. Many will, of course and we want that. But some would be very attracted to Christ and his church if it were offered right in their own neighborhood.
We know that new churches are key in reaching unchurched people for Christ. And yet we also know that roughly 80% of all church plants fail within the first five years of birth.
So we will want to explore ways of developing new church “sites” in Northeast Ohio whereby people can experience the love of Christ and his Body with the distinctive features of The Chapel right in their own neighborhood. The freshness and outreach of a new church plant without its inherent failure rate will be the strategy. Determining how to best provide live worship and preaching in effective and affordable ways will be vital.
More broadly, we will need to explore ways to best do global missions well into the 21st century. Church-planting among the unreached and ongoing world evangelism is still our calling. This will make us look for new ways and strategies to identify and prepare those called to go. We must also explore ways of getting even more generous in our financial commitments to fund our global endeavors.
I believe our Fresh Passion initiative has not only provided great opportunities to meet huge needs in Mozambique and India, it has also become a paradigm for creating and implementing new global projects that can energize and mobilize our entire church.
In the days ahead, we will certainly be looking for new opportunities in the world to reproduce our “Fresh Passion” paradigm to lead the way in providing Christ-centered holistic ministry to the needy through our own people and our own resources.
Exploration will also include always looking for new and effective ways to provide meaningful community within our big church. We strongly believe in community. We believe people need to be in community as an integral part of their Chapel experience, of their human experience.
I ran across a funny book called The All-Better Book. It consists of tough questions posed to kids who come up with their own answers. Here’s one of the questions: With billions of people in the world, somebody should be able to figure out a system where no one is lonely. What do you suggest?
People should find lonely people and ask their name and address. Then ask people who aren’t lonely their name and address. When you have an even amount of each, assign lonely and not lonely people together in the newspaper. Kalani – Age 8
Make food that talks to you when you eat. For instance it could say, “How you doing?” or “What happened to you?” That’s from 9-year-old Max.
We could get people a pet or a husband or a wife, and take them places. Matt – Age 8
Or how about 8-year-old Brian’s idea? Sing a song. Stomp your feet. Read a book. Sometimes I think no one loves me, so I do one of these.
With billions of people in the world, someone should be able to figure out a system where no one is lonely. Somebody has. That someone is God, and that system is called Community.
That community is a vital part of the church—that’s us. That’s God’s design—for no one to be left out. Being in community, in meaningful relationships, is huge! And we will explore ways to get more and more of us (adults, youth and children) involved in community.
Our ABFs have been great that way. As we expand our Home Bible Fellowships, we are seeing a healthy mix of generations. That will only grow. To see God use his Word with men and women sharing their stories and lives, community will happen like never before.
For our teens, the core value of community means so many things related to pertinent life issues and the context to live and learn honestly and biblically. Our staff and leaders there are forever exploring ways to provide this kind of safe and relevant community.
And right now we are launching a new day for our children’s ministry. A ministry that will combine the timeless need for nurture and biblical instruction with the contemporary flair that includes parents and makes children excited and proud and want to come again and again.
And then of course, the mandate to praise God in all his splendor and mystery through the preaching of his Word and congregational singing will continue to be our signature and “front door.” A huge part of our heritage that is obviously here to stay!
And we also will continue to explore the possibilities of creating new worship venues for we believe that worship has its greatest impact when expressed in culturally specific ways. Always with the same proclamation: Jesus is Lord!
Certainly, our various differences must always bow to our unity in Christ and the health of the Body. Our ultimate identity is found not in our cultural differences but in Christ! Our cultures, styles of worship, and even generational nuances can be used as vehicles through which Christ is proclaimed, and yet our consistent message remains the gospel of Christ. Our desire is not to elevate cultures or tastes but rather to understand and make use of them to promote Christ and explore effective ways to reach new people and grow them up in Christ in the days ahead.
I recently read an article about the church in Holland. Now you know that part of northern Europe has been rather waning spiritually for generations. Well, it seems that the Holy Spirit is up to something.
An article by a columnist in Holland’s largest newspaper had this as its primary thesis: The Dutch are turning back to God. Church attendance, for the first time in many, many decades, is starting to go up and not just for the population in general. It’s going up for people in their teens and twenties.
There’s a movement in Holland called “Youth Churches.” That movement began when a group of Christian leaders got together and basically said: Let’s put away our dated cultural traditions and truly reach people for Christ. Let’s reach the younger generation that everybody else has written off.
One of them said: “If Christianity is to have a future in Holland, it has to develop a new way of doing things. Young people are genuinely interested in Christ. They’re just not into dreary music, drafty old buildings and two-hour sermons.”
Listen to one of the leaders of this movement—who said: “While the message stays the same, the methods change to suit the times. If that’s what it takes, we will have flags, loud music, even hip-hop. But, Jesus remains the same as He was two thousand years ago. That never changes.”
That is a good grasp of the distinction between principle and practice. Of course wisdom and an understanding of one’s present culture is also called for. And yet that is the spirit of exploration that must define us in the coming days. That is where we must be going in the future.
Here we go!
Believing in tomorrow
Embracing tomorrow
Glorifying Christ—always!
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