Lost Things Matter to God: How Can We Become a “Seeking Church”?
By Pastor Ben Reichel, Youth & Young Adult Pastor at St. Mark Ministries
Throughout our Church World sermon series, we’ve been following the hypothetical story of a small church plant in Western Tennessee. Here’s the gist:
Your job moved you down to Tennessee, and over a few weeks, you found some like-minded Lutherans and decided to start your own church.
It started simply enough. A few people gathered in Jim’s living room with a Bible on the coffee table and some snacks. Laura and Abby were there that first night, and then a couple of weeks later, Mary Anne joined the group and wondered out loud why a Sunday worship gathering was such a big deal when this small group gathering felt so meaningful.
Then you had Ryker, the four-year-old with more energy than the entire house combined, who gave one of the most honest answers to that question: “Because we’re hungry!”
Everybody laughed at the time because you all thought he was talking about that gigantic bowl of mac and cheese that he was running away with to the other room so he could devour it while the adults had their Bible study.
But the more you thought about it, you realized just how theologically accurate that little answer was. You admitted, “Yes, we’re hungry. We’re hungry for God’s Word. We’re hungry for worship. We’re hungry for the grace that only Jesus can give.”
Then, over the weeks and months that followed, that little core group started to grow. It grew so much that you had to leave Jim’s living room and rent out the local high school auditorium and gym.
Folding chairs replaced the comfy couches. Extension cords were running all over the floor for microphones and guitars. The kids were still running all over the hallways, but this time, you had volunteers setting up coffee in the corner.
It wasn’t much. It wasn’t fancy, but it was church. Everybody had learned how to be a learning church, gathering around the apostles’ teaching and the Word of God. You had grown to be a worshiping church and rejoiced in the fact that you could praise God together. You had learned to be a loving church, caring for one another like family. Finally, you figured out how to be a real-life church, taking the faith you had nurtured and putting it into practice outside those four gym walls.
At that point, this little group, this little church, started to feel comfortable and familiar. Everybody knew each other. It felt like you belonged.
Then that small church took a big step forward. After a few months of preview services, you had your first official launch service with Pastor Schultz, a retired WELS pastor from the area, and 127 people showed up for that very first service.
Everybody was excited! But the core group members knew this wasn’t the end. This wasn’t the final step in the growth of this church plant. It was only the beginning.
They started to wonder how many would show up the next week and the week after. Sure, there were some familiar faces who continued to show up over the following weeks, but it became very clear that total attendance was starting to slowly decline. Fewer and fewer first-time guests were showing up, but the core group remained faithful and kept asking really good questions:
“How can we reach our community? What kind of church are we going to become?”
Then one Sunday, Kari walks in through the doors. Kari is one of those regular attenders at weekend services, but today she’s not alone. There’s a woman with her that nobody recognizes.
So Corrine leans over to Lauren: “Hey, do you know who that woman is?” Lauren shakes her head: “I have no idea.”
As Kari continues to walk through the doors, the woman stands by herself with that look on her face of someone who thinks they might have just made a big mistake. She’s got a leather jacket on, and you can see some visible tattoos on her arm and on her hands. She’s got heavy eyeliner and this nervous posture of somebody who’s not quite sure they should be here.
Kari turns around, notices, goes back, grabs her by the arm, brings her down the aisle to introduce her to the other ladies. She says, “Everyone, this is Rachel. We work together.” Rachel gives a small, polite smile and actually says something brutally honest.
She goes, “I haven’t stepped foot inside a church in probably 20 years. I figured I would show up and see if the roof caved in.”
A few people chuckled, but under the nervous laughter, there was a quiet tension. Nobody said it out loud, but a few of them were thinking: “What is she doing here?”
God Cares About Lost Things
Now the question “what is she doing here?” might seem harsh, but something very similar happened in Jesus’ ministry. Luke writes in chapter 15:1-2 (NIV), “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus,” and immediately, the religious leaders start whispering: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
In other words, what are they doing here? Tax collectors had a notorious reputation for their corruption and greed. “Sinners” was a broad category for anyone whose life didn’t meet the standards and expectations of religious society.
They weren’t “church people,” if you know what I mean. These were the kind of people that the religious folk kept their distance from.
Yet, these are the exact same people who are gathering around to hear Jesus. They’re not running away from him. They’re running toward him!
The religious leaders don’t like it. They start muttering. They start criticizing. They start questioning Jesus’s good judgment. So Jesus responds the way he normally does.
He tells three stories in Luke 15 (NIV): One about a shepherd who goes out to search for one lost sheep, a woman who sweeps her whole entire house just trying to find one lost coin, and a loving father who’s watching and waiting for his lost son to come home. All three of those stories answer the same question: “Why are these people here?”
Because lost things matter to God.
- If a shepherd has 100 sheep and one wanders off, he doesn’t just shrug his shoulders and say, “Well, at least I still got the 99.” No, he goes and searches for it. Luke 15:1-10 (NIV)
- If a woman loses a coin in her home, she doesn’t just ignore it. She lights a lamp. She sweeps her entire house and searches carefully until she finds it. Luke 15:8-10 (NIV)
What happens when the lost thing is found? There’s celebration, joy, and rejoicing! Jesus says there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10 (NIV)).
Suddenly, the answer to that question becomes very clear.
Why are the tax collectors and sinners gathering around to hear Jesus? Because Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.
He didn’t just seek the lost. He sought you. He sought me. Because each and every one of us at some point was lost. We had all wandered off. We all needed a Savior who would come after us to find us and save us.
Jesus didn’t just sit back and wait for us to get cleaned up on our own. He didn’t stand at a distance and demand perfection. No, he stepped into our world to seek us and to find us. He searched all the way to the cross where he bore our sin, our shame, and our brokenness. He did all of that so that you and I would be found.
Who is Jesus Looking For?
Which brings us back to that little church in the gym.
The service is over, and Rachel is standing back by the doors one more time. She’s not quite sure if she should stay or maybe Irish goodbye and just head on out. She’s afraid that people were judging her the entire service, looking over their shoulders and whispering. She was just waiting for somebody to come up to her and say, “You don’t really belong here, do you?”
But then Mary Anne walks up to her and says something very simple: “I’m really glad you came today.”
Suddenly, Rachel realizes something: “Maybe this place is different. Maybe this place is safe. Maybe this is where I need to be.”
Now, little Ryker was over at the cookie table, of course, watching these two ladies talk at the door. He’s trying to figure out what’s going on.
So he taps Jim on the leg: “Hey, who’s that lady?” Jim smiles and says, “That’s somebody Jesus has been looking for.”
Ryker’s wheels are starting to turn. He’s figuring it out with his four-year-old brain and goes, “So she was hungry too?” Jim nods: “Yeah, buddy. She was.”
Maybe that’s the best way to understand what a church really is.
A church is a group of people who gather around to hear Jesus because we’re hungry. We’re hungry for grace. We’re hungry for forgiveness. We’re hungry for hope. We’re hungry for the life that only Jesus can give.
The most beautiful part is that a church is not just filled with hungry people. It’s where hungry people find their way home again.
Just like Rachel did, just like Mary Anne did, just like every one of us did. After everybody else cleared out, Jim was standing by himself in that empty room, remembering that very first Bible study night: An open Bible on a coffee table, five people, and some snacks. That was it.
But over the last few months, hundreds of people had walked through those doors to worship God and hear His Word.
It wasn’t because this small group had built something so impressive. It was because Jesus is still doing what he has always done: Seeking people who are lost.
Just like he says in Luke 15 (NIV) – the shepherd chasing after one lost sheep, the woman searching carefully for one lost coin – a God who does not stop looking until every single lost person is found.
That’s when Jim realizes something: This little church plant was never their project. It was Jesus’s mission. This church plant has taken shape. We’ve seen it become a learning church. We’ve seen it rejoice in becoming a worshiping church. We’ve seen it care for and love God’s people. We’ve seen it dedicate itself to gathering together with other people to worship God.
And today we see ultimately what the church really is: A seeking church. A church that remembers why it exists in the first place. It’s not just for the people who are already in the room. It’s for the people who aren’t here yet because that’s the heart of Jesus.
He seeks the lost. He finds the wandering, and he welcomes the broken. Every time someone hears the Gospel and believes it, heaven celebrates!
So if you’re wondering what our church is supposed to be, what St. Mark is supposed to be, it’s not a building. It’s not a program. It’s not a performance. It’s a group of people who are gathered together who have been found by Jesus.
And now join him in finding others to bring them home, too. Because in the end, Ryker was right. The reason we gather here every week is the same simple reason: Because we’re hungry. And Jesus is the only one who can feed us.