Madison Church
Madison Church
Surrendering to the Story God Wants to Tell
What does it mean to be faithful when your plans fall apart? Eleven years ago, Madison Church launched with meticulously researched strategies, countless prayers, and 200 empty chairs. Only 20 people showed up that first Sunday—half of them family members visiting from out of town. The humiliation was crushing, but looking back now reveals how God was writing a better story than anyone could have imagined.
This anniversary reflection draws powerful parallels to Paul's experience in Athens, where he confronted a city so filled with idols that historians noted it was "easier to find a god than a person." While we don't have marble statues to Zeus or Athena in Madison, our modern idols are perhaps more dangerous because they're less visible. We worship comfort through convenience, achievement through success, busyness through hustle culture, and find our identity in politics and consumerism.
The most concerning pattern emerges when we don't reject God for these idols but recruit God to serve them alongside us. We pray, but only so our lives become more comfortable. We worship, but only so God blesses our hustle. We've reduced the living God to a lowercase assistant for our agenda rather than the center of everything.
Through examining the idols of security, worth, and control, we discover how these false gods promise peace but deliver anxiety, promise love but produce exhaustion, and promise order but result in frustration. The invitation stands today as it did for the early Christians who were radically called to forsake all other gods: Will we turn from our idols to serve the living God?
The next chapter of Madison Church won't be built on comfort, busyness, politics, or spiritual highs, but on becoming a community where faith is not shallow but deeply rooted. What felt like failure then has become a testimony of God's faithfulness now—a story of changed lives, deep friendships, answered prayers, and hope rising in unexpected places. Join us as we surrender to the story God wants to tell.
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All right. Well, welcome to Madison Church Online. I'm Stephen Feath, lead pastor, and 11 years ago today, as I mentioned just a minute ago, 11 years ago today, we launched Madison Church and I had done my homework. I had done the research. I'd gone to all the trainings, the conferences. I was working on a master's degree in missional church movements from Wheaton College. I was doing everything possible to be prepared. Our team spread the word. We knew we needed to reach out to at least 6,000 different households before we opened, to get at least 200 people there. There was math and data and research for all of these things, and we did it. Every detail wasn't just planned over, though. It was also prayed for. So we were a team. We would go out and we would pray over the mailers or over the door hangers before we handed them out, and then afterwards we would pray that that message would sit with people. I mean, we thought for sure crowds of people would come out. This is Madison Church. This was the church for this city. We love it. We wanted to be here, but hardly anyone showed up.
Speaker 1:That first Sunday I was greeting. I kept checking the clock, wondering where everyone was. Were the directions not clear enough to where we would be. Nobody showed up, and nearly every one of the 200 chairs that we sat out were empty. There was, yeah, set up 200 chairs, and I think there was 20 of us in the room in the Radisson's really big conference center.
Speaker 1:It was embarrassing, it was absolutely embarrassing. The people who were there were probably feeling like that dreaded secondhand embarrassment you feel for other people, but they were feeling it for me. It was very awkward and it made me wonder God, where did I go wrong? I did everything you were supposed to do, like A to Z, checked the list twice, was faithful, obedient. I even prayed over this stuff. I mean, I knew church planters who did all the research and did all the stuff, but they weren't really praying for this stuff. They just knew that you just had to do X, y, z and this is what would happen. And I was like we even did it the spiritual way, and underneath my disappointment and humiliation was something deeper though, and 11 years later, as I reflect on every year that we've had, I wanted God. Yes, and that remains true. I wouldn't have come to Madison and done the things that we do, and have done it now for 11 years, if that weren't true, but I think I wanted the story to also go my way. There was a very specific narrative in my head as to what was going to happen when we moved to Madison and we started this church.
Speaker 1:Page one of chapter one was 200 people show up on the first Sunday and immediately we had to go back to editing because we had 20 people and half of them were my family visiting from out of town to see all the hard work I was doing in Madison. Well, it's been exactly 11 years since that day and we are going to have a celebration, we are going to have some cake, but it's also an opportunity for me, for you, for the leaders of our church, if you're members here and if you're asking questions about MC. This is a Sunday for us to reflect. What does it mean to be faithful, reflect what does it mean to be faithful and what does it mean to be the church God wants us to be, right here and right now, 2025, 2026, in Madison, wisconsin? What does it mean to live for God when life doesn't go as planned, when that first page, that first sentence of the first chapter has to get crossed off or edited?
Speaker 1:I've been rereading this biography that NT Wright wrote on Paul, andi was reminded of this story that Luke tells of Paul, recorded in Acts 17,. And it's the moment that Paul arrives in Athens and verse 16 tells us that Paul was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city. Now Paul Roman citizen, jewish background right, he's all of the things. So it's not like he hasn't seen these idols before, but now he has encountered Jesus. And it's not just that he's encountered Jesus. His life has been changed forever. And Paul has kind of gone away. He's done some studying, he's done some self-reflection, he's been working with the apostles, and now he's getting out there and he's starting to do the missionary things. And so now, upon his return to Athens, he looks around and he's disturbed by what he sees.
Speaker 1:The phrase full of idols isn't an exaggeration. Athens was famous for it. The phrase full of idols isn't an exaggeration. Athens was famous for it. As a matter of fact, a historian wrote that it was easier to find a god in Athens than a person. It was easier to find some sort of god than it was a person. Everywhere you turned, there was a shrine, there was a temple, there was a statue of this god of that god. Every family meal, every marketplace deal, every government meeting, all would tie back to honoring the gods, and there were quite a few of them. If you wanted comfort, you went to Dionysus, the god of wine and pleasure, and if you wanted victory and success, you sacrificed to Nike. If you wanted wealth, you prayed to Plutus. If you wanted political power, you turned to Zeus or Athena.
Speaker 1:And this is what grieves the now changed man named Paul. Because idolatry isn't just about what people do, it's about who we become. Okay, idolatry isn't about something that we do, it's about who we become. Nt Wright says when human beings give their heartfelt allegiance to and worship that which is not God, they progressively cease to reflect the image of God. You and I are all image bearers. We're created in the image of God. Every single one of us, no matter what's been said about you or what you've done in the past, you bear the image of God. And what NT Wright warns is when there's idols in our lives, every day, we increasingly become more like that which we worship than the God who created us. It's a hefty warning, and that is what Paul was seeing Not marble statues, but people being deformed, losing the image of God they were created to bear.
Speaker 1:And if we back up a little bit in Acts, paul was just in Thessalonica where he was reasoning with the Jews and the synagogue about the scriptures. And he was doing some of that. But at this point he's in Athens and we read in verse 18, he had a debate with some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. Paul is no longer in the synagogue engaging the Jewish community. He grew up in and around. He found himself in the Athenian marketplace arguing with philosophers. These are where the brightest minds of their day got together to talk about and explore new ideas.
Speaker 1:And Paul stands up and says men of Athens, I noticed that you were very religious in every way, for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines and one of your altars had this inscription on it to an unknown God. You got to have your basis covered right. Like when you have millions and millions of gods, you don't want to make one upset by accidentally leaving them out. So you just make a shrine and say and all the other ones right here, leaving them out. So you just make a shrine and say and all the other ones right here. And Paul says this God whom you worship without knowing is the one I am telling you about Says you have this shrine for the God that you do not know, and I am here to tell you about the God you do not know. Now we don't have shrines to Zeus in Madison. You're not going to bump into a temple for Athena on your way to work, but that doesn't mean we don't have gods, we don't have idols. It just so happens that our idols today are a lot less visible. Our idols today they're digital, they're cultural, they're internal.
Speaker 1:I mentioned all of those other gods you would go to 2,000 years ago in Athens to pray for comfort, but we still have the god of comfort today. We just call it convenience, doordash, amazon Prime, netflix. I'm not saying those things are evil, but there's a desire in our lives that our lives should always be easy and fast and frictionless. So we worship the God of comfort. There's the God of achievement. We call that success, gpas, resumes, linkedin titles, follower accounts. My worth is what I produce. I got to keep the God of achievement happy, the God of busyness, and we've even branded it like hashtag hustle and grind, and if I'm not grinding and multitasking and maximizing, I'm falling behind. The God of busyness, of hustle is relentless. There's the God of politics. We call it red or blue, left or right, republican or Democrat, and my hope rises and falls with the next election cycle, the next leader, the next headline.
Speaker 1:The god of consumerism. We call it more. I am what I buy, I am what I own, I am what I drive, I am the place I go home to at night. Now again, please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that comfort is bad. Comfort can be a very good thing. Success is awesome when we find it. Success is awesome when we find it. Politics absolutely matter. But when they become ultimate, when they define us, when they drive us and they demand our worship, they've turned into gods, they've turned into idols. Tim Keller says it so well idolatry is taking a good thing and making it an ultimate thing.
Speaker 1:The uncomfortable part in all of this. Sometimes we don't reject these gods. We recruit our God to serve them. We recruit our God to serve them with us. So I pray, but it's really so that my life gets more comfortable. God, help me, appease the God of comfort. I worship, but it's so that God blesses my hustle. God, partner with me.
Speaker 1:This God of busyness demands so much I just can't do it by myself. I believe in God, but only those verses that prop up my politics and the way that I lean left or right or maybe none. God help me. I read the scripture, but it's only so that I can feel more spiritual around those people all over the place. Here we're like ah, I know more Bible verses, I've read more, I've got more memorized. But do you see what happens? We take the living God and we turn him into a lowercase g God. He's not God anymore, he's like my associate, while I serve the real God of my life Comfort, success, busyness, politics, consumerism.
Speaker 1:Now, this isn't a Stephen problem alone. This isn't a you problem. It's not even a Madison Church problem. This is a human problem. You see, as people created in the image of God, I believe that we were created to worship. We will find something or someone to worship, every single one of us. It's not a question of if we worship, but who or what we worship.
Speaker 1:Some of us, we worship that idol of security. We want safety. We want your life to be predictable, stable, under control, and there's nothing wrong with that. But when it becomes our God, we end up being a disciple of it, and what that looks like is that you stay in a job that you hate because it feels safe. You avoid a risk God is calling you to because you don't want to lose control. You parent with fear instead of faith, bubble wrapping your kid instead of trusting God with their future. What does that God promise you? Well, that God promises you peace, but what many of you already know is that that God actually gives you anxiety. It whispers. You're safe. You're safe now, but deep down, you're always afraid of losing control. It never is enough. This God only takes more, and instead you're invited to trust the God that is with you. Even when life is uncertain, even when you don't know what tomorrow or next week will bring, god is with you. Even when life is uncertain, even when you don't know what tomorrow or next week will bring, god is with you. Real security doesn't come from control. It comes from God's presence.
Speaker 1:Some of us are worshiping worth. We want to matter, we want to be loved, to be seen and to feel valuable, and so that God demands that we overwork, because our resume or our Instagram bios aren't enough. Yet we scroll through social media and we fine-tune our posts so we get the most likes and the most comments. We say yes to everything because the minute I say no, maybe they won't ask me again and I won't be needed anymore. They will move on. I won't have any worth if I don't work.
Speaker 1:The idol, this God of worth, promises love. You'll be loved if you just do this. Instead, we're given exhaustion and burnout. That God says work harder, prove yourself and then, I promise, you will matter. But no matter how much we achieve, it is never enough. That idol will never fill us, it will only drain us. Remember this your value isn't earned, it's given. You are already loved and you are already seen, already delighted, as God's child. God doesn't need your performance, he wants your heart and some of us.
Speaker 1:We worship control. We want the world to bend to our vision of how things should be. We long for some really good things. We want there to be fairness in the world. We want there to be peace. We want there to be order, and that God says okay. For that to happen, all you got to do is micromanage your family. All you got to do is micromanage your coworkers. Do not trust them because they will screw it up. You got to fight every political battle on Facebook, like the kingdom of God depends on it. It's ridiculous to say, but how many of us do that in practice? We have to shut down emotionally and block other people out who love us. Because if I can't control it, I'd rather disassociate, I'd rather escape, I'd rather just disappear and go away.
Speaker 1:The idol of control promises, it, whispers, peace. All you have to do is this and you'll feel peace. You'll feel peace, you'll feel peace, but you know what you get is frustration, because you do these things and all you get is frustrated. This idol, this God, will say you're in charge. So why am I so angry all the time? Why do I always feel anxious? Why do I carry the weight of bitterness around about so many people? I'm so unhappy because nothing ever goes my way and you start to wake up.
Speaker 1:You said that this idol of control doesn't bring peace, it steals it. When we yield to God's kingdom, we receive true peace. We receive true justice, true freedom. These things don't come from control, but rather surrender to the one who is in control. And whether I named something that resonates with you a lot, or I didn't, I'm sure you can think of something that you're like man, this really.
Speaker 1:I'm worshiping that, I idolize that and there's a choice now that every single one of us gets to make, and CS Lewis says it like this. He says there are only two kinds of people in the end those who say to God, thy will be done, and those to whom God says in the end, thy will be done. That's it. It's control or it's surrender. Will I tell God your will be done or will God look at me and your will be done? So let's pause to ask ourselves today, on this anniversary Sunday, I mean really ask ourselves where am I? Where am I today? Am I chasing security? Am I chasing worth? Am I chasing control? Wherever you land, the invitation for all of us today watching, listening online, the invitation is the same To stop using God to serve our idols and forsake our idols to serve the one, true, living God. The living God is not a tool to be used. He's not an assistant to help our agenda. God is the center, the source and the goal I mentioned.
Speaker 1:Paul was coming from Thessalonica before he got to Athens, and one of the things he says to the Thessalonian people he says you turned to God from idols, or you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God. What he's saying is you didn't just pick up Jesus. You didn't just pick up Jesus, you let go of everything else. And I think that that's sometimes the frustration we have as followers of Jesus whether we're just getting started or maybe it's been down the road and we've been following Jesus for a long time that we kind of go into cruise control and at some point we realize I've got my arms full of idols and I'm like, oh yeah, and Jesus too. Got to get the church on Sunday right, got to make sure I pray, get in a small group. Now what Paul is saying is a radical thing, because at the time he's pointing to the living God and he's saying forsake everything else. And the reason this is radical is because you had lots of gods. I mean, why would you risk it? I mean, what if you were wrong about Zeus? Don't make him mad, we'll just kind of keep him over here.
Speaker 1:The early Christians were called atheists because they rejected all of the gods but one, and it was kind of a dirty term back then. It was like the atheists, they've rejected all of these gods. But it was this subversive belief that came. I mean, the subversive belief came with a cost greater than name calling. I mean, the subversive belief came with a cost greater than name-calling. To follow Jesus meant letting go of everything, every system they had always known. They had to let go of previous religious beliefs. They lost family traditions and relationships. They probably lost businesses and customers, because all of these things, remember, were tied to idols. Everything in Athens was tied to a God.
Speaker 1:Following Jesus wasn't just a private belief change. It was public, it was costly and total. It was a complete reorientation of their lives. And the call is the same for every generation and it's the one we face, not just today, but every day, and last Sunday, and next Sunday, and next year and the year prior. Will we turn from our idols? Because it's something we're going to have to regularly do, it's not just one and done. Will we turn from our idols and turn to the living God? Because this God is not an accessory to our lives. He's not one more app on our home screen. He's not here to bless our plans. God, here's what I want to have happen. Please bless this. He is the center, the source, the goal. So let's stop asking God to serve our idols and instead, today, in this moment, as we've gathered here, knowing that God is in us, around us, working through us, and to say I surrender everything to you.
Speaker 1:The next chapter of Madison Church won't be built on comfort Not that it ever has been but sneak preview of the future, not changing anything there. It will not be built on busyness We'll never celebrate how many activities we have going on during a week. It will not be built on politics or consumerism or chasing spiritual highs. The next chapter will be kind of like the previous chapter. We will be a community built on the living God. Scott McKnight puts it perfectly. He says the gospel is not an invitation to add Jesus to the rest of our lives. The gospel is a summons to reorder your entire life around Jesus. That's the vision of this community. That's the vision of Madison Church to become a community of depth, where faith is not shallow but faith is rooted, to become a community of impact, serving our city, partnering with other organizations, as I mentioned during the.
Speaker 1:Today we celebrate 11 years of God's faithfulness at Madison Church, and it's funny because if you were here on day one, you would not have ever bet we'd be here on year 11. Okay, I'm just telling you. I was there. I would have taken the odds the other direction.
Speaker 1:It felt like failure in the moment and long after if I'm being honest with you it didn't stop feeling like failure for a really long time. But what I can see today that I couldn't see back then was that God saw that first sentence, the first page of the first chapter, and he said that's not going to be a very good story. And I thought it was going to be a great one. Then said he erased it and he wrote a better story, not a story of big crowds or quick success, but a story of changed lives over 11 years, the story of deep friendships formed here, of prayers answered, of hope rising in unexpected places. What felt like failure then failure in my story has turned into something far greater than my imagination could have conjured up, because the God who is faithful in that empty room, almost empty room, 11 years ago, is the same God who is here today and he will be faithful for the next year and the next 11 years and as long as he calls us to keep gathering as a community.
