Attributes of A New Church: 3 Vision-ary

As I look around, it seems to me that we so desperately need a loud, effective, articulate voice for a world where all share in living life to the fullest.

You and I have an important part to play in this idea of keeping Jesus’ vision alive.

A faithful Christian church is uniquely situated to bring a vision of a different way of seeing and doing to the world around us.


Attributes of A New Church:
    #1.  Christ-ian
    #2.  Faith-full
    #3.  Visionary   


Last week we celebrated 85 years of ministry in Christ’s name here in Drexel Hill. 

When I look at the history of this church I am taken back by the witness of tremendous faith by so many over the years.

And, over the church’s history it’s mission and it’s congregation changed several times.
And, through the years, often when things began to look the bleakest – 
for the world around them, as well as for their church – 
the believers here re-thought what their church should be and do, 
and rededicated themselves to bring the new reality into being.

At this point in our church history we have an opportunity to look ahead and come up with a redesign – a new plan – as to what our church might be and do in the years ahead,

So, for the first few weeks of this new year, I have putting together some thoughts on just what the  “attributes” of a new church might be.

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke about the first and foremost attribute that should be considered – that a church should be Christian.
(Not as obvious as it may sound since there are actually not many churches around that exhibit the qualities and ministry of the Christ that is given to us in our Holy Writings.)

[By the way, if you missed that first week’s sermon, or if you miss any in this series, you can access it from our website on the internet!]

So, the first attribute of a new church, I believe is that it should be Christ-ian.
And the second attribute should be that it be Faith-full.

I say that a primary church attribute is that it should be faithful, because all around us we see huge signs – billboard signs – that indicate that our culture is experiencing a crisis in faith –
that indicators are that we live in what could be called a faith-less society.

Since we (and all churches, really) are in the faith business, I think we need to address the issue of faith-lessness head on.

It seems to me that in a faith-less world, there is a need, more than ever, for a Faith-full church.
That is a church of faith-full people,
doing faith-full things.

So, it seems to me that a church in today’s world  should be both Christian and Faith-full –
and . . . . Visionary.

A faithful Christian church is uniquely situated to bring a vision of a different way of seeing and doing to the world around us.

Let me ask you, who would you identify as true “visionaries” in today’s culture?
Who would you say has had great influence on our lives –
     on the way we do things –
     on the way we see things –
     on the what we value –
     and don’t.

I think that most of us would be hard-pressed to come up the names of many people we would call truly visionary.

When Steve Jobs died many people (including me) called him a true visionary – a person who affected  the way most people in today’s world interact –
with I-phones, and I-pods, and I-pads, and I-books, I-whatevers.

I think the story of Bill Gates is the story another real visionary – one who saw an opportunity and came up with a way to make the new emerging field of personal computing accessible to every man, woman and child in this country and the world over.

Of course, within certain aspects of our society, there are certain people who have had a vision of what could be done and went on to develop the means to accomplish the task at hand.

But were are the visionaries from our faith?
Time was there are many people of vision who strove to make the world a better place –
we remember some of them:
the Presbyterian layman, John Wanamaker – who saw the need to bring faith stories to Philadelphia street urchins in the mid-19th century – starting a whole string of “Sunday schools” throughout West Philadelphia –
(As well as a unique market for merchandise - the first department store.)

There were the folks who envisioned a string of railroads crossing the country connecting centers of commerce to move goods and people efficiently and safely.
There were the folks who envisioned ways to communicate with newspapers, radio, television, and satellite services.

And before that there were the visionaries that provided the framework and design of our very country itself:
Benjamin Franklin
John Witherspoon
Thomas Jefferson
John Adams
And, even before that, people like William Penn and his vision of a peaceable kingdom –
a place where people of many races and religions could live together – 
all making a contribution to the common welfare of all.

But, were are the visionaries today?

Of course, I think the number one visionary of all time is the one we call Jesus of Nazareth.

Of course there were many visionaries in the faith prior to Jesus:
     there were the stories of Moses,
     and David,
     and Jeremiah,
     and Isaiah,
     and Ezekiel,
     and so many others.

Jesus acknowledged the vision of all of these people who had gone before.
In fact, the Gospel of Luke relates that at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry he placed himself squarely in the tradition of the visionaries of the faith, by reading from the Isaiah scroll in the synagogue of Nazareth:

(18)  "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free the oppressed
(19)  and announce that the time has come when the Lord will save his people."
And, then, the account is given that
Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and said to them, "This passage of scripture has come true today, as you heard it being read."

Jesus spent three years spreading throughout the land a vision of a different way of life,
     a different way of seeing things,
     a different way of valuing what is important and what is not:
     where neighbors are treated as family,
     where the last will be first,
     where the down-trodden get a break,
     where the poor have enough,
     where the sufferers will find consolation,
     where compassion is the basis for human interaction,
     where a person’s welfare takes precedent over laws and regulations and rules.

And, of course, the vision Jesus promulgated struck a chord and spread throughout the known world in pretty short order.
People in all cultures,
in all sorts of circumstances,
resonated with Jesus’ vision of what life could be.

Jesus’ vision inspired believers throughout the years to work for  – and establish –
a better, fuller, life and way of living.

All over our country – and all over the world – believers established centers of learning,
hospitals,
benevolent communities, 
governments, 
and work-places.

Today, were is the vision of a better way to live coming from?

Sadly, I don’t see it coming from the church in any meaningful way.

We followers of Jesus,
we progeny of Jesus,
we decedents of Jesus,
are doing a pretty poor job of articulating
and promulgating
and demonstrating,
and enacting a vision of a different world in which the least are valued more than the haves,
where peace is valued more than war,
where neighbor is valued more than self.

We are an era now where it has been fashionable for our politicians to talk about their faith.
But, alas, to a person, whatever vision they see from their faith is one from the past –
not a vision of the future:
how things might be
rather than how things used to be.

I remember listening the radio as a child.
The stories of the Lone Ranger always began with the words:
“Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear . . .”
And, that’s I hear today from the politicians who talk about faith.
“Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear . . .”

Where is the person of vision who proclaims “move ahead with us now, to even more thrilling times to come?”

I have come to conclusion that Jesus really wouldn’t recognize much about the church as it is today,  as it has come to be.

The vision of the world promulgated by most Christians today,
and most churches,
has little to do with the vision of Jesus,
     where neighbors are treated as family,
     where the last will be first,
     where the down-trodden get a break,
     where the poor have enough,
     where the sufferers will find consolation,
     where compassion is the basis for human interaction,
     where a person’s welfare takes precedent over laws and regulations and rules.

And, as I look around, it seems to me that we so desperately need a loud, effective, articulate voice for a world where all share in living life to the fullest.

You and I have an important part to play in this idea of keeping Jesus’ vision alive.
You and can keep telling the stories of our faith to all who will listen.
You and I can keep treating other people we meet with the same respect we would expect –
and offer the same kind of help we would hope to receive from another when we are in need.
You and I can pray for a way that the church we know and love can put flesh on some of these notions of what a church could and should be in today’s world.
You and I can think of ways of designing and supporting the implementation and promulgation of Jesus vision – here and now.

Because we are here,  you and I are visionary people.
You and I strive to be faith-full people.
You and I are Christian people.

The world around us so desperately needs people like us,
the world around us so desperately needs a church like this,
I sincerely hope that we can figure out a way of effectively keeping the vision alive.

Amen.

The congregation of Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA, experienced this sermon during a worship service February 19, 2012.

Attribute for A New Church: Faith-full

 I say that a primary church attribute is that it should be faithful, because all around us we see huge signs – billboard signs – that indicate that our culture is experiencing a crisis in faith –
that indicators are that we live in what could be called a faith-less society.

I would think that a church striving to be faith-full and Christian would be on the road to uniqueness in the world in which we live.
And, just perhaps, have impact among the folks around us.

Isaiah 44:21-26
2 Timothy 3:10-11a,14-15,4:7-8


So, I am convinced that every once in a while it does us good to go through an exercise of dreaming – in this case, dreaming about what it may look like if we could have an ideal church.
Over the past two or three years I have done of thinking and researching and, yes, dreaming of what our congregation might [could] look like in a few years if we were to embark on a plan to bring something new into being.

So, I thought it apropos to share some of these thoughts with you during these first weeks of the new year.
I am dwelling on what I think should be “attributes” of a new church.

Last week I spoke about the first and foremost attribute that should be considered – that a church should be Christian
(Not as obvious as it may sound since there are actually not many churches around that exhibit the qualities and ministry of the Christ that is given to us in our Holy Writings.)

[By the way, if you missed last week’s sermon, or if you miss any in this series, you can access it from our website on the internet!]

So, the first attribute of a new church, I believe is that it should be Christ-ian.
And the second attribute should be that it be Faith-full.

I say that a primary church attribute is that it should be faithful, because all around us we see huge signs – billboard signs – that indicate that our culture is experiencing a crisis in faith –
that indicators are that we live in what could be called a faith-less society.

It seems that everywhere we look we hear of folks who have lost faith in what I would call the organized church:

●    Just this weekend about 2000 Presbyterian ministers and laypeople from about 500 churches all over the country, met in Florida to hear a proposal to start a new Presbyterian denomination – separate and apart from the Presbyterian Church, USA – the church that we are a part of.
    There are a lot of people these days who have lost faith in the Presbyterian Church and think things would be better for them if they just started another Presbyterian Church.
   
●    Just this week we read that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia report that it in the last ten year period, they have experienced a loss of 33% in their school enrolment. 
    Church attendance is a fraction of what it was just ten years ago.
    There are fewer and fewer priests to serve the existing churches. 
    (St. Charles Seminary at City Line and Lancaster Avenues was built to house and train over 1,000 students to be priests.  And there are fewer than 70 there right now.)
    Clearer the catholic church is experiencing a crisis of faith. 
    More and more people have lost faith in their church.

●    It seems that somebody is publishing results of new studies almost every week that research the question “Why aren’t there more young adults in church?”
    This is a universal question that almost every denomination is experiencing these days. 
    There is a whole generation of 20 an 30-year olds who find the church irrelevant to their lives and they have nothing do to with church.  They have lost faith in the organized church.

A crisis of faith seems to be a universal experience in the culture around us.

Now, since we (and all churches, really) are in the faith business, I think we need to address the issue of faith-lessness head on.)

Long, long ago, The Kingston Trio sang a song called “Desert Pete”. 
It was a ballad that told the story of a traveler going through a desert when the sun became unbearable for him.
So he stopped to rest.
When he stopped, he noticed an old water-pump sticking up out of the desolate ground.

They sang:
I took it to be a mirage at first.
It'll fool a thirsty man.
Then I saw a note stuck in a bakin' powder can.
"This pump is old," the note began, "but she works. So give 'er a try.
I put a new sucker washer in 'er.
You may find the leather dry.

Chorus:
You've got to prime the pump.
You must have faith and believe.
You've got to give of yourself 'fore you're worthy to receive.
Drink all the water you can hold.
Wash your face, cool your feet.
But leave the bottle full for others.
Thank you kindly, Desert Pete.

Yeah, you'll have to prime the pump,
work that handle like there's a fire.
Under that rock you'll find some water I left in a bitters jar.
Now there's just enough to prime it with, so don't you go drinkin' first.
You just pour it in and pump like mad,
buddy, you'll quench your thirst.

Chorus

Well, I found that jar, and I tell you, nothin' was ever prettier to my eye
and I was tempted strong to drink it 'cause that pump looked mighty dry,
but the note went on,
"Have faith, my friend, there's water down below.
You've got to give until you get.
I'm the one who ought to know.

So I poured in the jar and started pumpin' 

and I heard a beautiful sound of water bubblin' 'n' splashin' up out of that hole in the ground.
I took off my shoes and I drunk my fill of that cool refreshin' treat.
I thanked the Lord,
and I thanked the pump,
and I thanked old Desert Pete.

The song was widely popular in the 60's and was understood by all to be a call to faith in an increasingly faith-less world.

Some twenty years ago, I heard a church referred to as “A Center of Faith.”
That description struck a chord in me, and for some 20 years now, I have referred to this church as “A Center of Faith in Drexel Hill.”

I am really not thinking of our church as a center of activities of faithful people – as it once was. 
I rather doubt that we will ever see the day when the local church functions as the center of a family’s life as it once did.

No, I think of A Center of Faith – as a place where folks can go to experience things of faith.
For me, to think of our church as A Center of Faith is to think of it as
    a place to talk about things of faith,
    a place to question one’s understanding of faith,
    a place to plan how one’s faith affects one’s actions,
    a place to act on one’s faith,
    a place to exercise faith,
    a place to hear the stories of our faith,
    and a place to be educated about faith and how it can impact our life.

A primary purpose of a church is that it is the keeper of stories of faith,
and a teller of stories of faith,
an encourager of personal stories of faith,
an, obviously, as an advocate of faith –
    an advocate for the underdog,
    an advocate for the underprivileged,
    an advocate for those without power or voice,
    an advocate for the hurting.

I have this cartoon that I have put on my facebook page.
It is a picture of little Calvin and his stuffed tiger friend, Hobbes, standing in a field.
And it’s a wide picture so we can see the horizon and they are standing there looking up at a dark blue sky emblazened with millions of stars.
It is clearly a moment of awe.
And there is a quote:
“I may not have ended up where I intended to go,
but I am sure I am where I am supposed to be.”

Now, for me, that is a statement of faith.
It shows a faith that everything is alright now.
Where I am now may not have been what I expected, but this is where I need to be.

It seems to me that in a faith-less world, there is a need, more than ever, for a Faith-full church.
That is a church of faith-full people,
doing faith-full things.

Seeing our church as A Center of Faith,
perhaps we begin to see different ways we can develop faith-full people.

And we become a faith-full church of faith-full people. 

I see a faith-full church telling the stories of our faith.
I see a faith-full church helping folks through difficult life-decisions.
I see a faith-full church focusing on needs of others.
I see a faith-full church giving visible forceful witness to justice and peace and caring issues as they occur in the world around us.
I see a faith-full church unafraid of what the future might bring – sure that it is doing what it needs to do.

I see people attending a faith-full church to meet with other faithful people,
to gain insight and strength and courage to be more faith-full.

Thinking about being a faith-full church in a faith-less culture can only be a healthy thing, it seems to me.
After all, isn’t that what Jesus called for. 
Didn’t Jesus encourage people to become for faith-full?
Isn’t that really what the parable about the mustard seed is about?
Isn’t that really what the story about moving mountains is really about?

The stories Jesus told seemed to resonate with the people he met.
The stories we have in the Bible seemed to have resonated with countless numbers of people through the ages.

But, if we seek to be a faith-full church of faith-full people, just maybe we need to come up with some new stores to resonate with the folks we meet.

Just maybe a church seeking to be known as a faith-full church of faith-full people would invite people to come up with new stories that would speak to the situation and needs of our culture.

You and I have internalized certain stories of faith that have spoken to us in the past,
and perhaps help us get through the difficulties we face,
and inform how we act with people around us.
Our faith is an important part of our lives.

What we have known,
what we do here,
is just too important to let go of.

Paul could write to his good friend Timothy:
continue in the truths that you were taught and firmly believe.
You know who your teachers were,
and you remember that ever since you were a child,
you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to a fuller life – fuller than you ever thought possible – a fuller life through the faith you profess.

A faith-full life.
A faith-full church.
A mission to develop faith-full people.
A witness to a faith-less culture.

So, perhaps we could be known as the place a person could go when they have questions about their faith,
when they have faith issues,
when they question the meaning of it all.

We all know someone who is known for their enthusiasm, don’t we?
While we tend to use the word to describe a person a little over the top, enthusiasm is a very good thing.
The literal meaning of enthusiasm is “God filled”.
An enthusiastic person exhibits the presence of God.

By extension, I suppose it could be said that
an enthusiastic person is a faith-full person.

Perhaps each of us could strive to be more faith-full
and work out just how we can exhibit more faith-full behavior.

That could only be a good thing right?

I would think that a church striving to be faith-full and Christian would be on the road to uniqueness in the world in which we live.
And, just perhaps, have impact among the folks around us.

Amen.

The congregation of Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA, experienced this sermon during a worship service, January 29, 2012.
  

 

Vision 2012: Underpinnings of A New Vision for Being Church

One of the major underpinnings of emerging church visions should be, it seems to me, is to be Christian.
That is to say, to see others as Jesus saw them,
and to do what Jesus did.


It seems to be an almost universal descriptor of the time to come just before things get better:
a time when the old folks will dream dreams, and the young folks will see visions.

In 1926 there were a lot of folks dreaming dreams and envisioning a new church here in Drexel Hill –
there were the men in the Presbytery who envisioned and built this very building in which we gather today – at a time when Drexel Hill was largely vacant lots and unpaved roads;
and there was the minister who was charged with gathering a congregation to worship here;
and there were the forward-thinking people who wanted to be a part of this new way being church in a suburban neighborhood.
They all were driven by their dreams and energized by their vision of what this church could and should be.

Of course even before that there was the vision of the early settlers who came to these parts from Scotland and Ireland in the 1700's.
As they established new lives for themselves and their families here they felt a need for churches – churches like they had back home,
churches that had educated ministers that could help them find aspects of the faith that would help them cope with the new realities of their new lives in the new world.

And there was the vision of the ministers who came here from Scotland – being sent as “missionaries” charged with the purpose of starting churches among the folks that were here.
The reality they found upon their arrival here was so different from their experience back home, that they were driven by dreams and vision of what could and should be.

And, I spoke of the changing reality this church had to deal with throughout the 84 years of its ministry here:
a changing reality some of you may be able to actually speak to, but all of you would be able to relate to.

The excitement and energy that enveloped the folks here during the first few years of ministry could only be described as enthusiastic – enthusiastic: a word that literally means God-filled.

Things were going great.
The new homes were being built.
People were moving in.
The church was growing.
The church provided ministries to the community that were needed and wanted.

And then, within three years, everything changed.
The bottom fell out of the economy.
No one was unaffected.
No community was unaffected.
No church was unaffected.
Construction of the new homes stopped.
People were out of work.
Lives were interrupted.
And the people of the church here were forced to revision its hopes and dreams,
to reinvent itself to a new reality.

And then, by 1940, as construction started picking up again, people started working again, things were beginning to look much differently for the folks in Drexel Hill.

This room could no longer hold all the people that were wanting to be a part of this church.
All kinds of creative ways were designed to utilize the space for the maximum benefit for the most people.
And plans were made to construct a new building with a sanctuary large enough to hold several hundred people at one time.
A campaign was undertaken to raise the funds to construct such a building,
and by 1941 construction had started and hopes and dreams abounded as the whole community watched the holes dug, the foundation laid, and the walls started.

And then the war broke out.

Reality changed again.

It was a time for new dreams and new visions of what this church was to be and to do during these new times of war.

Construction stopped.

New ministries were started.
The church saw itself in a new way during those years.

And it didn’t take long for new vision to arise of the need to finish the construction of the building because the soldiers and their families would be needing what this church could offer when the war was over.

A similar revisioning and repurposing happened in the early 1950's as the folks here wanted to better serve all of the children and families that were in need of what the church could offer to them.
And a new building was funded and built.

It seems that revisioning and repurposing was an ongoing part of the ministry of the folks at this church.
Conversations were held with every Presbyterian congregation within two or three miles of here to encourage thoughts of new ways of doing ministry with possibilities of combining efforts and begin to dream dreams of new ways of being church.

A crisis occurred in 1989 that precipitated another revisioning of how ministry could be done here.

I vividly remember being interviewed at that time and listening to representatives from the congregation and the Presbytery telling me that there were funds available for six months of ministry before the church would have to close its doors,
would I consider serving here for those six months.
It was a six-month contract.
Well, in January, I began by 22nd year here.

Clearly God was not through with His church at any of these past points in this church’s history.

What has been called for again and again,
and what the people here have able to do over and over again,
is a rethinking,
a revisioning,
a reworking,
a redesign,
of what this church could do and be.
Theologically, we would say “being open to hearing to what God was telling us to do – and then doing it.”

All of this is as background for what the Session and the Congregation here has done to this point.
The successful sale of the building here was a result of a lot of prayerful listening, and thinking, and dreaming, and visioning of other possibilities for doing ministry as a church in the days and years ahead.

An immediate result of the culmination of the sale of the building here is that all of the stress of worrying about how to pay the bills is gone.
We now have the ability that few churches have – we have been given time to rethink what we could be – and might be – in the days ahead.

The Session has agreed with my assessment that this gives us unique opportunity to spend some time listening – for God’s will,
contemplating the dreams that will occur,
fleshing out the visions that will come,
to develop and design for what this church might look like if it responded as God leads.
(I’m calling this emphases VISION2012)

In the past few years and months I have been doing a lot of reading and studying about new possibilities of being church that are emerging to better be engaged with world we are living in.

I don’t know about you, but I get more and more annoyed when folks representing my faith misappropriate it for some misguided cause or another.

I often feel certain parts of what I know as Christian faith are being hi-jacked – and being used for purposes at odds with what Jesus taught.

As I engage in this revisioning process myself, I look to what are the underpinnings of whatever forms a new way of being church might take – what are the basics that ought to be there in order to be recognized as a community of faith.

One of the books I have been spending time with was published last year.
The title itself intrigued me from the start:
If the Church Were Christian: Rediscovering the Values of Jesus

It seems to me that many churches today have gotten way off track as to purpose and practice.
You know Jesus never went to church.
There were no churches in Jesus’ day.
There is no record of Jesus ever even using the word church in any of the teachings or sayings attributed to him.

There is a persistent unspoken thought that if Jesus were to come back today, he would not recognize anything that goes on in Christian churches.

Anyway, the author of this book, Phillip Gulley, speaks to me – and to the concerns of many people I know – in the way he organizes the chapters in his book.

Chapter 1 begins: If the Church were Christian . . .
Jesus would be a model for living – rather than an object of worship

This is something that has bothered me for a long time.
It seems that churches are much more interested in promoting right thinking (orthodoxy according to code) rather than doing what is right.
Instead of setting up barriers to keep the wrong kind of people out of our churches, we should be paying attention to the teachings of Jesus – as James reminds us faith without actions is dead.

The author writes: if we in the church were serious about honoring Jesus, conducting ourselves as he did would be our chief concern.

Other chapters in this book are:
If the church were Christian . . .
Affirming our potential would be more important than condemning our brokenness.

If the church were Christian . . .
Reconciliation would be valued over judgment

If the church were Christian . . .
Gracious behavior would be more important than right belief

If the church were Christian . . .
Inviting questions would be valued more than supplying answers

If the church were Christian . . .
Encouraging personal exploration would be more important than communal uniformity

If the church were Christian . . .
Meeting needs would be more important than maintaining institutions

If the church were Christian . . .
Peace would be more important than power

If the church were Christian . . .
It would care more about love and less about sex

If the church were Christian . . .
This life would be more important that the afterlife

Well, these are Phillip Gulley’s ideas, but I find them intriguing –
even maybe helpful as we start thinking about what church should be,
what it might look like,
and what it might do.
What if the church were Christian?

And so, one of the major underpinnings of emerging church visions should be, it seems to me, is to be Christian.
That is to say, to see others as Jesus saw them,
and to do what Jesus did.

Through my encounter with another popular thinker and writer, I would say also that another underpinning of a new church would be compassion.

That is to say that compassion would be one driving element that informs whatever we would do and become as a church in the days ahead.

But enough about me and my thoughts.
What about you?
What are your dreams and visions for being church?
For new or different ways of doing church?
As you spend time listening for God’s lead,
what is coming to you as basics – underpinnings – essentials of what we should call church?

Basic to my understanding is what I talked about last week.
It’s what Peter picked up on and started promulgating.
Our faith, our church, is not built of brick and mortar, but our church is built out of living stones.
You and I are living stones –
living building blocks that when connected to one another become strong with abilities to withstand onslaughts of outside forces.

I would hope that in whatever form it may take, our church would be known as place of a forgiveness and compassion;
just as I would hope you and I would be known as people of forgiveness and compassion.

This week please pray for your church.
Pray for a vision.
Pray for wisdom of discernment.
Pray for courage to pursue whatever comes as God’s will for us.
Amen.

- a sermon the congregation at Christ Presbyterian Church heard on February 20, 2011.