UNLEASHING THE POWER OF CONNECTION

“Who Knows Your Name?”

Pastor Tayo Adeyemi

Senior Pastor of New Wine Church

                                                                Sunday 24 October 2010

Foundation Scriptures: Psalm 68:6 & Psalm 92:13

New Wine Church received another part of Pastor Tayo Adeyemi’s enlightening series, Unleashing the Power of Connection today in which he continued to challenge us to maximise our experience of Church life by developing enriching and satisfying relationships with other members of the Body of Christ.

We were reminded of the key points of the previous week’s message, in particular that life is a journey of journeys, in which of utmost importance is the issue of who accompanies us. We were reminded of the truth that we need relationships and that as God never intended for anyone to succeed in isolation, we must never attempt to do the journey alone as connection is necessary for continuity. Pastor Tayo recalled the analogy that he had drawn with the human body in which there are 206 bones interconnected by 360 joints and that in the sam0e way that the human body is able to function properly because every joint supplies something, the body of Christ similarly relies on the joints that connect each of us together.

The Power of Connection

Drawing our attention to John 10:1-5, Pastor Tayo announced that it was his intention to examine connection power from another angle: He posed the question as to how many of us were seated next to someone that we knew or with whom we had come to church. On the back of these questions, he suggested that most people would have had an experience of attending a large-scale event such as a concert, football match or crusade and would have encountered a thrilling and invigorating atmosphere that are a feature of such environments. In such environments, he observe d, it would be very unlikely that anyone would feel isolated or lonely, rather they would jump right in and become part of the event. The reason, he observed, that we can feel so much a part of an experience with tens of thousands of people that we do not know is that more often than not, we attend such events with family or friends or people with whom we already have a connection and that those attending such events alone would be the exception rather than the rule. The big question, he posed was why it was that we could feel comfortable amongst tens of thousands of strangers but could then come to a church with a few thousand and feel lonely or isolated? The answer, he suggested, was that people who go to these large events have mastered a secret that we in the church are yet to fully understand: The power of connection. 

Continuing, Pastor Tayo made clear that tapping into the power of connecting at small group level was the key to drawing maximum benefit from coming to New Wine, an example of which would be the Cell Groups.  Whilst it was true that great things happen when we meet in large gatherings, a sense of being part of something bigger than ourselves, the synergy of our energies creating an atmosphere for God to do awesome things, without the depth and connectedness of our small groups, our large gatherings quickly lose their meaning and can become empty festivals.

Do You Have a Shepherd?

Pastor Tayo noted that 70% of people in New Wine were not a part of a Cell Group. This posed a problem in that it compromised longevity and staying power and left us vulnerable to discouragement and being overwhelmed by our problems. Drawing our attention to Jesus’ description of the multitudes as being “weary and scattered” in Matthew 9:35-36, a vivid picture of those with no pastoral oversight in their lives, he explained that apart from fellowship, the other very important benefit offered at Cell Group is pastoral care; someone looking out for us and looking over our souls.

We were invited to consider the human body, one of the scriptural analogies for the church used in the bible and to observe that God had designed the body in such a way that no part is without covering and protection. Likewise, Pastor Tayo noted, the church is designed in such a way to ensure that no-one is without a shepherd. “God has designed His church so that everyone can be looked after but we must co-operate with God’s design” he stressed. He observed that many references were made to shepherds in scripture e.g Psalm 23, Luke 15 and John 10 and in the light of this he posed the question “Do you have a Shepherd?” He made clear that it was not enough to point to the Lord as our shepherd, or indeed himself as Senior Pastor (in that it would be humanly impossible for one person to effectively shepherd a flock of this size) and encouraged not to overlook the fact that God has appointed “under-shepherds” at various levels to look out for us.

Who Knows Your Name?

Drawing from Psalm 23, Luke 15 and John 10: 1-5, all of which make reference to shepherds, Pastor Tayo shared five truths about shepherds as follows:

1.       A Shepherd is someone who knows your name  (John 10:3) Jesus wants to call every sheep by name and commits that responsibility to His under-shepherds, the cell group leaders assigned and charged with the responsibility of knowing us individually, noticing if we’re not in church, speaking up for us and looking out for us. However, we were reminded, it was our responsibility to go and make ourselves known.

2.       A Shepherd is someone whose voice you know (John 10:4-5) Our voices, we were reminded, are unique to us and recent technology has been developed to make it possible for us to identify a person by their voice almost as accurately as by their fingerprints. The power of cell group, we were shown, is that someone knows our voice, able to discern celebration or sorrow and can respond appropriately. We were reminded that God has positioned people in our lives whose voice we should know and who should know our voices and to those who were not yet connected to a cell group, he issued the challenge to go and find our assigned shepherds.

3.       A Shepherd is someone who values you as a person God has put people in our lives who value us because we are precious in His sight rather than because of what we can do for them or what we can give to them. We were shown from Jesus’ parables relating to lost things in Luke 15 that the lost son was one of two (50%), the lost coin was one of ten (10%)and the lost sheep was one of a hundred (1%), the significance of which being that regardless of the percentage of the group that we represented, we were important to Him.

Pastor Tayo made clear that whilst it was not the case that coming to Christ meant that we would never have to go through difficulties or valleys again, it was God’s intention that we need never go through such valleys alone. However, we needed to be part of a cell group in order to experience this and to ensure that we receive the support that we need. God has assigned someone to look for us if we become lost but they can only look for us if we first make ourselves known to them.

4.       A Shepherd is someone who reaches out to you in your time of need (Psalm 23:4) Drawing on Psalm 23:4, Pastor Tayo explained that there were many, many valley experiences being encountered by members of the body of Christ including bereavement, marital crises, health problems, financial difficulties, miscarriages and infertility in which members were able to receive the comfort and love of Jesus through the support of their cell groups. Valley experiences were a certainty, we were reminded, and it was important to have people in our lives who would go through the valleys of life with us.

5.       A Shepherd is someone who strengthens you in your walk with God (Psalm 23:1-3) Pastor Tayo commented that the Christian life was difficult, almost impossible at times with pitfalls and traps in which we can very easily stumble and fall and many places in which we can become lost. God, he explained, has appointed people who can lead us in the paths of righteousness; not drive or force, but lead and emphasised the importance of having people in our lives who can strengthen us when we are spiritually weak.  

Concluding this inspiring and powerful message, Pastor Tayo noted that God’s first negative statement centred around connection in that He said in Genesis 2:18 “It is not good for man to be alone” and observed that there were many casualties in the church today as too many people are fighting life’s battles alone. In emphasising the truth that we’re stronger together, Pastor Tayo took the opportunity to salute and celebrate the Cell Group Leaders and hosts who stand as shepherds in the lives of members and declared the forthcoming Cell Group Wednesday 27 October 2010 to be Cell Group Leaders Appreciation Day!

He concluded by reciting a poem titled The Race by D H Groberg in which we were inspired to “Get up and Win the Race” and challenged us to do just that....together!