Letter to the Church in York
Dear friends, this letter was shared with our people during our worship services on both campuses on September 24, 2023.
To all in York, “who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom 1:7)
This is Joshua Adam Kleinfeld, son of Rolf and Debbie, husband to Aubrey and father of Cadence, Eden and Jayne, pastor to Stillmeadow, but before all of those, a child of God and “servant of Christ Jesus and set apart for the good news of God” (Rom 1:1). I write this letter as the conclusion to our series in the letter that the apostle Paul wrote to the early church in Rome.
Paul hadn’t been to the house church in Rome, but longed to be with them so that he could “impart to [them] some spiritual gift to make [them] strong” (1:11). But the letter that he sent was a spiritual gift that not only made them strong, but has strengthened the church through the ages. That is my hope for this letter. That God would use it to strengthen your faith and our church for His glory and the good of our world.
“I thank my God through Jesus Christ for each one of you.” (Rom 1:8) While the early church in Rome was made up of Gentiles and Jews, the church of York is young and old, wealthy and not-so-wealthy, urban and suburban and rural, American and immigrant, those born in York and others moved to York. And what I love is that the good news of Jesus is for every single one of you. I can’t get over (and I don’t want to) the good news. The good news is strong, simple and inclusive. It “is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes!” (1:16) All we have to do is put our faith in Jesus. Anybody can believe! “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!” (Rom 10:13)
But, it breaks my heart that there are people outside the church who do not know the good news of Jesus Christ and that there are people inside the church who are living like they do not know the good news either! Look around York and even inside our own church community and homes and you can see the sad effects of sin.
There are the obvious sins like: murder, theft, abuse of family members or coworkers or classmates, cheating on spouses, racism, abandonment, sexual immorality, bullying, lying to cover things up, cheating on tests, violence, slavery. Some of these are socially acceptable, but all of them weaken our relationships, thus weakening our community. And there are less obvious sins like: gossip, lack of hospitality, complaining, complacency, worry, gambling, laziness, compassion-less living, keeping your gifts to yourself, ignoring of the younger and older generations, judgmentalism (i.e. looking down on people of other cultures or from different parts of the city or county), hoarding, gluttony. Many of these are socially acceptable, but all of them weaken our character and erode the foundation of our community. And then there are the religious sins like: claiming to be a Christian but not acting like Jesus, saying you believe in Jesus but not obeying His commands, or getting busy working for God but missing out on working with God, or worse, treating non-believers or other believers who have different opinions with contempt instead of compassion. All of these are the result of trying to live without God or trying to be God, valuing your own ideas and your own desires above God’s ideas and desires.
This, my brothers and sisters, is sin. Sin promises strength, but brings weakness. Sin promises relief, but brings restriction. Sin promises freedom, but brings slavery. Sin promises life, but brings death. “The wages of sin is death” (5:23)
I will paraphrase Paul in Romans 7: “Who will rescue us from this world that is subject to death?”
We cannot rescue ourselves. So, who will rescue us? Will it be the local or national government? No!
Who will rescue us? Will it be the money in our bank account? No!
Who will rescue us? Will it be our popularity or performance? No!
Who will rescue us? Will it be our good deeds? No!
Who will rescue us? Will it be our drug of choice (whether it’s marijuana, pornography, cigarettes, alcohol or food)? No!
Paul answered his own question for us: It is “God, who delivers us through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (7:25)
Despite our sin, despite our rejection of Him, despite our ruining of His good world, despite the harm we have done to ourselves and to others, God offers deliverance to every single person through Jesus Christ. How? Paul says it this way: “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood.” (3:25) In today’s society, we no longer have the Jewish sacrificial system of worship. But when you read the Old Testament you’ll see that the sacrifice of atonement was a big deal to God and the Jewish people. Originally it was an animal that was offered as a symbolic sacrifice for the people of God to receive forgiveness from God for their sins and as a way to renew their relationship with God. But Paul and the New Testament writers realized that what happened through Jesus’ death on the cross was a new sacrifice of atonement. Paul says, “[Jesus] was delivered over to death for our sins” (4:25).
This still blows my mind. Why did Jesus die? “For our sins?” Yes. Remember, “The wages of sin is death”? The price for sin is death. And Jesus paid that price for us. Jesus took the wages that we earned.
But why would he pay the price for us? Because God loves us. He loves us so much. Not because we earned his love or had proven our own worth. No, check this out. Put these verses in your heart: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (5:6-8)
So why did Jesus die? Because God loves us and because he wanted to deliver us from the wages of sin. And if you’ve paid attention to the story of Jesus, you know Jesus did not stay dead. He rose from the grave. Our gospel is the gospel of the cross and the empty tomb. “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.” (6:9-10)
What does this tell us about God and sin and death? God takes sin and death so seriously that he dealt a deathblow to them.
“Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” Sin and death want to ruin us, but God wants to rebuild us. That’s what justification is: it is a restoring of relationship with Him and a making right of our hearts and our wants and our everything. Jesus was raised from the dead so that we could be restored and live with resurrection power every single day.
But, get this: Jesus died for us before we could ask for it, but he does not deliver us without us asking for it. He does not force his rescue on anyone. He has broken the power of sin and death, but he respects human dignity to give us the option to choose. We can live under His power. Or we can live under the power of sin and death.
I must admit, sometimes I am overwhelmed when I think about those living under the power of sin and death. My heart aches for people dying of overdose, families divided by divorce, children abandoned because of addiction, entire communities and countries disrupted because of corrupt governments, parents who were abused as kids who then abuse their own kids, people being seduced into slavery, babies being discarded before being born, people with less cognitive or emotional abilities being mistreated or cast off, children running away, school shootings, murder-suicides, food shortages around the globe.
These things sometimes make me wonder about the goodness of God. But then I think about this: Jesus’ suffering on the cross means that God understands our suffering. He gets us. God does not love from a distance, but up close and personal.
Our world needs to know that rescue and peace are available in Jesus Christ. That’s why our mission statement is “Jesus to All Generations.” Every person, of every age, in every race, needs to know the freedom and mercy available in Jesus Christ!
So our first practice is “Proclaim Jesus.” Paul quotes the Old Testament when he says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news.” He himself experienced the beautiful feet of Stephen who died sharing the story of Jesus. He himself experienced the beautiful feet of Ananias who prayed over him when he was blind. We want to be like Stephen and Ananias, sharing the good news of Jesus with our words and actions even if it costs us our reputation or life.
Our second practice is “Pray Relentlessly.” It’s been blowing my mind to think that Jesus is praying for us right now. Jesus is talking to His Father on our behalf. So when we pray, we’re joining Jesus in His prayers. Even our private prayers are “prayer meetings” because the Holy Spirit within us is interceding for us! Let’s be the kind of church who joins Jesus in His prayers and who join in each other’s struggles by praying for each other.
Our third practice is “Cultivate Growth.” When we put our faith in Jesus Christ we begin a journey of obedience. The Christian is never done “growing up” in Christ. But growth doesn’t happen on accident. It must be an intentional, daily decision. Romans 12:2 illustrates perfectly this process: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Our fourth practice is “Embrace Unity.” In a world that struggles with division and loneliness, we have been given a Christian family that crosses age and ethnic boundaries. Jesus did not start a group just for Jews, or just for Gentiles, or just for the young or just for the old. He started a multi-cultural, multi-generational, multi-lingual movement. Let’s be the kind of church who does the hard work necessary to “live in harmony with one another” (Rom 12:16).
Our fifth practice is “Equip Servants.” We believe that all of us are called to proclaim Jesus, pray relentlessly, cultivate growth and embrace unity. Each one of us is a servant of the gospel, serving each other and serving the world. And what’s really cool is that “we have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us” (Rom 12:6). So, you will proclaim Jesus and embrace unity differently than I will, but all of us have been gifted to do it! So, let’s be the kind of church family that spurs each other on to play our part.
Finally, our sixth practice is “Love Sacrificially.” We do not come together to be entertained or to provide entertainment for others. We come together to receive God’s love and extend God’s love. As God demonstrated his love for us, we want to demonstrate His love to the world. As God gave what was most precious to Him, let us be the kind of people who hold nothing back in our service to each other and the world.
Truth be told, our mission and our core practices are all about love. Loving God and loving others. When we encourage you to use the Personal Growth Plan, it is nothing more and nothing less than an invitation to be intentional about growing in love. And Paul puts it plainly when he says in Romans 13:8, “Let no debt remain, except the debt to love one another.”
When you spend time daily with God in reading the Bible and in prayer, it not only develops your relationship with God, but God also uses that time to transform you into the kind of person who shares His love with others. Paul says that the words of the Old Testament were written to teach us endurance and to encourage us. And when we spend time with God in the word, He uses it to strengthen our souls and renew our minds so that we slowly but surely become the kind of people who live out His word wherever we go.
And when you worship God with us on Sunday mornings, or commit to being in a small group, or serve with us in a ministry, or give your tithes and offerings…each one of those steps is a step towards Christ-likeness and an opportunity to express His love.
Family, I’m praying for an awakening in our church. I’m praying for each one of you to experience the fire of God within you. I’m praying that each one of you experience intimacy with Jesus. I’m praying that each of you are filled with passion for His word and His work.
In our next series, which we’re calling, “How Not To Be The Church” we are going to highlight 5 habits or attitudes that must die within us in order for an awakening to occur. We do not know when Jesus is coming back. But we do know that “each one of us will have to give an account of ourselves before God” (Rom 14:12) and we want to be ready for that. And one way to be ready for that is to ask God to help us uproot the attitudes and habits that are contrary to His way. As we do, I believe we make room for an awakening. Here are the five attitudes and habits that we’ll be focusing on: Unrepentant, Fruitlessness, Inattentiveness, Hypocrisy and Unlove.
Will you pray with me for this? Will you join me in my struggle? I desire that we be a church that is strong in faith, quick to obey, ready to share at all times. But I know that we have some growing to do. This means that we must humbly hear what God has to say to us. We must be ready to receive His correction and His direction. Many people start fast in the faith and fall off, but faith is a long-distance run, not a sprint. If we’re going to be a community that lives “Jesus to All Generations” it will take all of us, and it will take time.
I thank God for each of you. But there are some among you that I’d like to personally and publicly thank. Would you join me in thanking them? Next time you see them, give them a holy high five. Paul said to greet each other with a holy kiss, but we’ll leave that for the early church.
Greet Pastor Jade and Chastity and Pastor Isabell and Casey for their incredible work with the York City Campus.
Greet Pastor Kent and our incredible facilities team.
Thank Pastor Tabitha and Wayne and the Nazarene Discipleship International leaders and the NOMA and Small Group Leaders.
Thank Jessica and our childcare center crew.
Thank Erma and Suzette and Sue and Brad and Nancy and Emily and Lindsay and Jenn who lead various ministries to serve our community and the world.
Greet Roxanne and the Celebrate Recovery crew.
And how about JoAnn and Randy and Herb and Lonna and all those serving in our East Jamaica partnership?
And Pastor Kathy and Mark and Pastor Ronnie and the women and men who help with visitation and with our funerals.
And how about Pastor Rachel and Pastor Chris and Trudy and Patsy and Natalie and all the family ministries crew from children’s workers to youth workers?
And Scott and the board. Thanks!
And Pastor John and Seth and the worship and tech team. Thanks!
And Kimber and Lisa and Raymond and Brad for your leadership of the cafe, usher and greeter crew!
And Pat Eyler and the ladies who make prayer shawls. And the groundskeepers (Greg and Dave) and chairstackers.
And the office ladies, Karon, Patsy and Esther…you make it happen! And to all who have served in some way. Each one of you is evidence of the good news.
Greet each other with a holy high five and a hug and a thank you!
Now, I conclude with Paul’s final blessing in Romans 16.
25 Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from[f] faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.