"People of Integrity" by Justin Wadel | CGS 2024

Lesson Transcript

I'm going to be talking about integrity. And my focus probably is a little bit more on church growth than it is on church planting. Although they work hand in hand. And for sure, if you're going to be planting churches, you need to be thinking about church growth. And I think this seminar is just as much geared toward growth as it is toward planting churches. There's a lot of excitement out there about planting churches. And I'm on board with that. I love to see the enthusiasm that people have to go plant churches.

But I'm very passionate about growing churches. Growing congregations. What it takes to do that. The graph that Brother Melvin put up with the circles showing all the denominations... I'm really... That little dot. That little Anabaptist dot. That really bothers me. And I think we need to get that bigger. We need to work at that. We have our work cut out for us. And I think it's going to take a lot more than just organic growth for that to happen.

We're going to have to be bringing people in from the outside into the Anabaptist world for that to happen. Somewhere, I feel like we've slipped up on that. All right. People of integrity. Developing ourselves to match who we claim to be. This is a big topic. And I'm just going to be really touching on just a little bit of it. And a lot of this is going to be very practical. Like I said, lots of questions to think about. To stir up your own mind. And just some very practical examples. Do we know who we are?

It's very important that we know who we are. We need to know where we came from and where we're going. Does who we think we are really match who we claim to be? Think about that. When new converts or seekers show up and join our church and our community and they find out who we really are, will they be... Sorry. Delighted? All right. Give me one second to get onto this thing. Will they be delighted or disillusioned? And that's a question that I have really thought about over the last five years or so.

Something that I've wrestled with and just tried to come to grips with why it is that so many seekers find us. They find the Anabaptist world. They come into our circles. And within a couple of years, they're gone. Why is that? Does who we are match what we teach? Okay. And here's just an experience that I have... that we have in our congregation pretty often. So... we have people show up and visit. Maybe on a Sunday morning. Maybe they come for a weekend to get to know us.

And you walk up to this person to meet them. And it's someone that you have no idea who it is. You don't know their name. You don't know where they're from. And you go up to meet them. And before you can even shake their hand, they're like, "Oh, Justin. Yeah. Nice to finally meet you. And yeah. I know Brother Kevin. And I know Brother Jason. And I know Brother Daniel." And... and... and it kind of takes you back. And you're like, "Well... all right.

How do you know who I am?" And then you realize it's because they've been watching our sermons online. They've been watching our YouTube channel. And that... every time that happens to me, it makes me stop and think, "All right. What's the expectation here?" Like... they've seen my face. They've heard me speak. They've seen most of our brothers' faces and heard us speak. What are they expecting? What are they expecting now to experience and see by actually coming in person? And that's usually why they come.

They actually want to come and see actually who we are. How we think. How we act. How we interact with one another. Does what... does who we are match what we teach? All right. What is integrity? And I'm curious what comes to your mind when you think of this word. When you think of integrity, what comes to your mind? Maybe you don't think about that word very often. I don't know if I did a whole lot until I was asked to share this. Like specifically, what is integrity? Let's look at some definitions.

Number one, the quality of being honest and showing a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values. Incorruptibility. I think this is probably what most people think of when they think of integrity. Probably this is the definition that comes to our minds first. We think about honesty. And we think about being truthful. We think of moral integrity. We think of principles and ethics and values. And that's very good. It defines it very well.

This definition is a very good definition. We have some excellent biblical examples of this. Like Daniel and his three friends. Or Joseph who found themselves in circumstances where it would have been extremely easy to compromise or give in to the pressure around them. But who, even at the risk of losing their lives, refused to compromise and let go of their firm belief that even though they were alone, nobody was watching. Nobody would know. Right?

The point was to please and honor God because they served Him and not themselves. And they saw a much bigger picture than their immediate surroundings. These guys had a vision. They weren't just in it for the immediate what was going on right around them. Whether it was suffering. Whether it was temptation. They were able to work through that and see through that because of what they saw ahead. Very important quality that we all need to develop. That we don't compromise. We have principles. We have values. And...

they become a part of us. And it doesn't matter where we're at or who we're with. What kind of circumstances we're in. That's who we are. And that's who we will be. Another definition. The quality or state of being complete or undivided. Completeness. Wholeness. Oneness. And this could be referring to our personal character. I think it is very much. Or to an organization. Like a church. Jesus talked about this in His Sermon on the Mount. "No one can serve two masters.

For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." In the context of wealth or money. But the principle is so, so important that we can't serve two masters. We can't go... we can't be loyal to one kingdom while at the same time being loyal to another kingdom. We can't do that. We're only loyal to one. We are called to be complete. As individuals, to have an undivided heart and loyalties.

And as a congregation, to be united in our vision and practice. That's integrity. Probably one of the top five reasons... and Melvin probably did the research. I didn't. Like I said, he's a better teacher than I am. But one of the top... I'm going to say from experience. Top five reasons why a seeker would get disillusioned with our church is because of an inability to be united and complete in our vision of who we are and where we're going. Which leads to disagreements. It leads to friction. And mistrust.

And church splits. And all that bad stuff. That's a tragedy. That's a tragedy that people come in. They hear truth. They find us. They come in. And that's the experience. It's a tragedy. I like this word "integral." And... it's a word I hear a lot because of my work. I work with trailer parts in a company that obviously is a trailer dealership. So I work in the parts. And with some of the old styles... and I'm sorry if this goes over your head. But with some of the old styles of trailer disc brakes. All right.

These are just a... it's a kind of brakes on a trailer. But some of the old styles of those disc brakes had a rotor that slid onto the hub. All right. There's a hub on a wheel. And the rotor would slide on. So you had two pieces. And it's called a two-piece hub and rotor. Simple math. Right? But what some companies have started to do, and they've changed this recently, is they take the hub and the rotor and they've made them into one piece. And now we call this an integral hub and rotor. It's one piece.

It's kind of two pieces. But it's one piece. You still have two parts with two different functions. But they form a single piece as a complete unit. And they're more expensive. Melvin just got done talking a bit about this. So this is just a repeat. But each of us has different parts formed together as a single unit. We're all different in our unique abilities and gifts and personalities. But... but we mesh together and we form together into a single unit. Maybe you never thought of integrity that way.

But next time you think about integrity, think about integral. Two pieces becoming one. And that can be a reality in our churches. That can be and should be a reality. That we, as individual pieces, become one. And work together as one. All right. Paul here in 2 Corinthians 13:11. "Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort. Be of one mind. Live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you." There it is. It's all neatly packed in. Paul just gives a simple little farewell address.

And he packs it all right in there. Become complete. Become integral. Become one. Be of one mind. Vision. Live in peace. Unity. Don't let anyone tell you this isn't possible. This is the call of Jesus in the whole New Testament. You can't go through the New Testament and not see this. But we tend to look at this and we're like, "Man. I hope in the future this happens someday." No. It has to be a living reality right now. A community of individuals working together as one. Preferring one another. Loving one another.

Quickly forgiving. Not arguing. Shouldn't allow arguing. Submitting to one another because you want to. Not because you have to. Or because someone told you, "You better." Submission should be just something I want to do. Because these are my brothers. This is my church family. This is my community. I want to submit to this group. Encouraging each other and building each other up. That's integrity. You find a church that operates like that. That church has integrity. You become a community like this.

And you'll attract so many people you won't know what to do with them all. It's a great mission. Great mission program. Great way to evangelize. Have a church that loves one another. Have a church that works together. That's powerful. Man. It's a light that shines out. And somehow people show up out of nowhere. You don't even have to go find them. All right. Number three. Definition. Integrity is an unimpaired condition. Or soundness. This is probably one of my favorite definitions of integrity.

But it's also the hardest to communicate. Anyway, this definition encapsulates the other two definitions. Kind of brings them all together. Because this has in it the idea of uncompromising and being complete or undivided. But it's taken it all to a deeper level. A much deeper level. Down to the foundation. Down to the core of who we are and what we believe. Because at the end of the day, the direction we go and what we teach and how we behave. How we treat one another.

How we do evangelism is based on our foundation. Because that is the starting point. And we build from there. What is our foundation? Do we know what our foundation is? Like, are we able to even think that deep to what our foundation is? What are we building on? Is it sound? What is the condition of our foundation? What kind of foundation are we building on? In Titus 2, Paul starts off saying in verse 1... I didn't put these verses up here. I think we all know these very well.

"But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine." Okay. So... what are you speaking? Is it sound? Is it... is it at the foundation? Is it accurate? And then in verse 70, he goes on, "In all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works and doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility." So there's the word integrity. And incorruptibility. We had mentioned that. All right. What's he saying? It starts with good doctrine. Proper theology leads to proper behavior. Okay.

That's simple. Or ideas have consequences, as Dean Taylor likes to say. And is a... something that I think about a lot. This here is the only place in the New Testament where we have the word integrity, believe it or not. I think there's one or two places in the Old Testament. And it means soundness. And again, conveys these other ideas of wholeness. Without fault. Accurate. Reliable. Is our foundation accurate? Is it reliable? This is important.

If we're going to be out planting churches, and if we're trying to grow our congregations, and something's off with our foundation, that's a problem. Is our foundation sound? I'm sure there's more than one construction expert here. I'm sure of that. And you know how to look at a building or any kind of structure and determine the soundness of that structure. Like, you have eyes for it. You can look at it. And you look at the angles. And you go down underneath. And you dig down. And you know what to look for.

To see if that structure is sound or not. I imagine that sometimes it's obvious. And sometimes it's not. But you can have this beautiful finish. A nice roof. And beautiful siding. And really nice windows. And a beautiful front door. All kinds of, you know, fancy decorations on the outside. But if the foundation is cracked or weak or compromised in any way, eventually the building will collapse. Or at least need serious repairs done.

Are we building our congregations and our ministries, our church plants, on structurally sound foundations that will stand the test of time? Like, we need to be asking that question. What is our foundation? What are we teaching? This is so crucial to the integrity of a church community. Our teaching. The teaching I grew up with, in many ways, as Brother Melvin said, defines who I am. And what I believe. Our teaching will define who we are and what we believe. And ultimately how we behave or what we practice.

It just... it works out that way. It's our narrative. "We are to be contending earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. And that begins with our teaching and is followed by our practice. Be very suspicious of anything that is added to or taken away from the faith that was handed down to us from Christ and his apostles." Do we even know that? Check your sources. Where do you go to for answers? Who do you go to? Who's teaching you? As we teach others.

Are we guarding against false teaching? Plenty of that out there. How is the integrity of our teaching? Very important that we're teaching truth from the original sources. All right. So what's integrity? Number one, honesty and a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values. Incorruptible. Number two, the quality or state of being complete or undivided. Oneness. An unimpaired condition. Soundness. So incorruptible. Oneness. Soundness. Three very good definitions.

We need them all. We need all these definitions. We need them in our leadership. We need them in our ministries. We need them in our teaching. We need them in our families. We need integrity at every level and in every part that makes up our churches and our communities. How do we get there? How do we become a thriving church community that looks like this? A good, stable, healthy environment for seekers to come into and flourish. A place where we are all becoming equipped to advance the kingdom of God.

How do we become that? Are there any key ingredients? I'd love to hear what you guys are all doing to achieve this. And we can talk about that later. I'm going to share one aspect that has become important to our congregation. And although there's plenty of other ingredients, like I said, I'm just touching... I'm just touching this subject very lightly. But this is something that over the last seven or eight years has played a big role in our development as a congregation and as people. As disciples.

And the more I think about it, the more I feel like it's a very much needed ingredient in all of our communities. In all of our churches. Self-evaluation and the ability to change. That might look scary to you. I'll try to explain what I'm thinking. So... I'm a lot younger than Melvin. I'm only 43. And although that feels old to me, the one thing I have learned as I get older is that it is hard to change. It is hard to change. It's hard to change habits. It's hard to change mindsets.

It's hard to change my reactions. Okay. We talked about that. Our responses. Our reactions. What are we reacting to? Very hard. Very hard to change. And the older I get, the more I admire older people who are able to evaluate themselves properly and make changes in their life. You know, whether it's health-related changes or spiritual changes or lifestyle changes. Or maybe it's just giving up some kind of luxury, you know, or activity that they enjoy in order to be more available for the kingdom. I've seen that.

I've seen older people do that. And I admire that. When somebody older... 'Cause I know how hard it is for me. And when I see an older person make an incredible change in their life for the good. And especially for the kingdom. That... that is something I very much admire. Self-evaluation and the ability to change. The ability to properly discern ourselves on a personal level and on a corporate level is a much needed quality in our churches today. And I don't know what you guys do to incorporate that.

If we want to be people of integrity, and if we want church growth, and we want to make converts, and plant churches, and bring in the on-churched and the seekers, and build healthy communities, we first of all need to learn how to discern ourselves. How to discern our own actions. And our direction. And what it is we need to change. And how to appropriate change in a healthy way. How are we going to change the world if we're not able to change ourselves?

I'm not talking about becoming like the world in order to change the world. Or to convert them. Or accepting change just because it's popular in Christianity. Christianity's changing. It's been changing for years. All kinds of changes in Christianity that are bad. That are not healthy. That are moving away from the foundation. That are moving away from the faith once delivered. Okay. That's... we all know that. There's a lot of bad change out there. But what if our foundation is cracked?

And we've accepted a gospel that's corrupted or incomplete? What if we've lost oneness and unity, and we find ourselves taking these sides against one another. The friction. And arguing. And criticizing one another. What if our evangelism methods are ineffective? How do we evaluate these things? How do we get... dig down into the foundation, into the core of who we are, and say, "There's a problem here. How do we fix this?" Who are we examining? We have become experts at examining everyone else. Right?

We all know what's wrong with every other church out there except our own. And we're all guilty of this. There's no doubt in my mind we have all found ourselves in this place where we're criticizing someone, or picking apart another congregation because of the way they do things that's different than the way we do things. We're all guilty of that. And I'm sure we all know how it feels to be criticized by others. So maybe we should just stop doing that. Look at Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 13.

As we think about who are we examining? "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified." Okay. He could be speaking to us personally. He could be speaking to us as a congregation. But the point is, he's telling us to look this way. He's telling us to look at ourselves. He's telling us to look at our own actions. Whether I'm in the faith. Do I know myself? Am I becoming disqualified?

Because I really don't. I think I'm doing okay. But I'm kind of comparing myself with everyone else and feeling like, "Well, I'm doing pretty good because, you know, these guys over here are doing that. Or these guys are a lot more liberal. These are a lot more conservative. I'm somewhere here in the middle. So I'm okay." What if I'm becoming disqualified? It's pretty clear who we are supposed to be shining the spotlight on. Okay. Another couple of verses in Galatians 6.

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself." This is the guy that doesn't know how to self-discern. He doesn't know himself. He thinks he's something. He thinks he's really doing good. Compared to everyone else around him, he's doing great. But he's deceiving himself. "But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another.

For each one shall bear his own load." Kind of confusing here because we go from "we bear one another's burdens" to "bearing our own load." But what are we supposed to be doing for one another? Well, here it is. We're supposed to be bearing each other's burdens. Being a blessing. Helping one another. Encouraging one another. We're supposed to be examining our own work and actions and taking responsibility for ourselves.

And in our congregation, we've been working really hard at incorporating these values on a personal level. In our leadership. And on a congregational level. And it's... it is hard for me to describe how exciting and beautiful it is to be a part of a congregation where we are actively doing this. And I've been going through... Personally, I've been going through a really tough time in my own life for the last little while. Some... just some... hard things.

And to have a congregation beside you that supports, and they encourage, and they bless, and they don't criticize, and they don't put you down because you're going through this, or something's... whatever seems to be wrong somewhere... I can't even describe to you guys how amazing that is. But I'm experiencing it. And it is because that we have intentionally incorporated these values into our congregation. The person to examine is right here. The person to evaluate is right here.

There is a time, obviously, for that... for us to do that as a congregation. And we do that as a congregation. But when it comes to... And Melvin talked about it. When it comes to the... the speck and the beam... And I think we forget that so often. Like, we're going after our brother because of the speck and never even see the beam in our own eyes. If you think yourself to be something, don't deceive yourself. Examine yourself. Here's some very practical examples. Discipleship development.

We call it our DD program that we've had for a good number of years now in our church. And this... we have the men do it and the women do it. But I'll explain more the men's side. But what we do is we... every Saturday morning, we come together at one place. At a certain time as men. We break up into small groups. And in those groups, we all answer questions. I don't know. 10, 12 questions that we go down through. Sometimes they change a little bit. Things like, you know... you know, practical things.

You know, have you been spending time with your earthly family? How's your devotional life been? What... what... what have you been doing on your phone? All kinds of good questions that we ask ourselves. And we learn to evaluate ourselves. As we go around that circle, and it's our turn, we evaluate ourselves on all these questions. I don't look at the question and go, "Well..." You know, Jason, I saw that you've been on your phone a lot last week. And man, you know, it doesn't seem like you've been around...

You missed church Sunday. Like, what was going on? Why weren't you there? You know? No, we... the questions are for me. I answer them. And in the process, as we're listening to one another, we learn how to help one another. We learn what each other's needs are. And we learn what each other's weaknesses are. And how to pray for one another. And how to work with one another. It's voluntary. Completely voluntary. No one's forced to come. But... we come from the young to the old. Younger in with the old.

We all get to watch each other grow. You might be in a group with a 16-year-old, and there might be a 55-year-old in the same group. We share our struggles and our faults. It's confidential. What is said in the group stays in the group. This builds trust. Very healthy. The level of trust is incredible. It's a very effective and healthy way to learn how to properly evaluate myself. To learn that from early on. And then how to change. Because we make goals. And we discuss habits that we want to break.

And we set goals weekly, monthly, a year, long-term, short-term goals. How are we going to achieve that? What are we going to do? What am I doing? How did I do last week? Did I... did I make any progress on my goal or not? I evaluate that. No one else. And even with that, it's hard. It's still hard to change. But it does work. See, it's very effective. It's very healthy. And been just like a life changer for us. Leadership and brotherhood and teamwork. I can't even begin to communicate the value of this.

Working as a team. We have a leadership team that consists of three elders. We also have a team of deacons. We also have a brotherhood, which includes everyone. And with all these different teams, and within the whole... and the whole group, there's this daily communication. I'm going to say it's daily. Almost daily. With all these groups, and between the elders, and the deacons, and between the various teams that exist. Lots of communication. Lots of discerning. Lots of evaluating. We have elders' meetings.

We have deacons' meetings. We have elders and deacons' meetings. And we have a monthly brothers' meeting for all the brothers. And the purpose of all this is to evaluate and discern needs and concerns and ideas. And to learn who we are. What we're doing. What's our vision? Are we losing our vision? Are we still... are we still on track with our vision? We're all a team, and we work as a team. Teamwork. Teamwork goes beyond going out and playing a game of baseball or volleyball or in the workplace.

We've got to have teamwork in our churches. If you want integrity, you've got to have teamwork. We work as a team. We recognize leadership and positions and gifts and the value they bring. And we recognize the voice of the brotherhood. And we see no reason why there needs to be friction or tension between all that. There should be no friction and tension between the leadership and between the rest of the brotherhood. There should be no friction or tension within the leadership. That shouldn't even exist.

We're one team. One unit. We're integral. We work together. Alright. One more. Weekly communion. It may seem strange to you for me to include this, but I have a reason for it. At a foundational level, I would say that celebrating weekly communion has... I'm going to go back to this mystery. It has a transforming power. And in a mysterious way, it has a uniting power. At least we've experienced that in our church. I can't even describe that to you.

What that is, or why that is, or what it is about coming around the Lord's table and celebrating and that time together. And it's so... it's so precious. And it's... it never gets old. And we all look forward to it. But there's something mysterious about that that unites us. It makes us strong. It makes us whole. So that in itself... just in itself would be reason enough to say that it builds integrity. What better place than to start? What better place to start than by partaking of Christ Himself?

But I'm bringing this in for another reason. And that is what we are supposed to do before communion. In 1 Corinthians 11:28. "But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup." Now we practice close communion. Alright. And I'm not going to say any more than that. And so it's not like, you know, everybody and his brother's coming in. And we're just fine. If you... as long as you think you're okay, you can partake. That's... that's not where I'm going. But here is this.

What Paul is saying. That... that at the... at before... or at communion, we're supposed to examine ourselves. What does that do? So sometime before we get to communion, or at least while we're there sitting in the circle getting ready to partake, we are to take the time to examine our hearts and our lives and make sure that we are living in a way that is worthy to be partaking of the body and blood of Christ. Okay? It's not a time to be wondering if my brother's okay. Or if my sister over there's okay.

Or if that person over there should be taking communion or not. We're supposed to be examining ourselves. Our own selves. Our own hearts. And we remind ourselves of this fairly occasionally. We don't look around the room and try to decide if our brother or sister is worthy. We examine ourselves. And more than once, I have seen someone refrain from partaking. And it tells me that they are being honest with themselves and their self-examination. That's healthy. That's very healthy.

Nobody told them that they shouldn't take communion. Anyway, I could go on about that. But... any... any time we have something established in our congregation that encourages self-examination, encourages self-evaluation, that's good. That's healthy. And I'm encouraging that. What are you doing in your congregation to encourage self-examination? What are you doing to encourage self-evaluation? What are you doing to encourage integrity? Integrity is a product. It's a product of right thinking and right living.

Of our ability to discern and rightly divide and know our own hearts and examine ourselves on a regular basis. It's found in humble, submissive hearts and godly character. And a willingness to learn and grow and change. Let's dig deep and work hard at becoming this kind of people. And the more we do, the more we'll change the world. God bless you all.