"WHAT ARE WE TO DO?" Luke 14:27-35
June 29, 2008, Karen Sutton
This past week I spent hours on a huge project in my kitchen. We replaced all the cabinet doors and the drawer fronts with real wood, new hardware, and knobs. It looks beautiful. But what a project! I have come to realize that I don't really like projects all that much. Or to be more accurate, I don't like multi-step projects. If there is one word I absolutely HATE, it is the word prime. As in prime the surface before painting. That just puts me a step behind in getting to where I want to go. And if you think I hate the word prime, you should see my face when I hear the word sand. As in sand the surface before you prime and paint. They are just so many obstacles before I get to my favorite word of all - finished. I get so impatient to see the finished product that all those pesky steps, familiarly called prep work on all those home improvement shows that make it look so easy, feel like roadblocks. I want a finished product and I want it quick and I want it easy and I want it now. I wondered why I was like this.
Then one time I went to a workshop on working with gifted children. One of the nuggets I took away from that session was that gifted children don't like to return to projects. What they can't finish in one session they often lose interest in. You can't imagine the comfort I took in this knowledge. That was it! I was gifted! Naturally I wanted to do things in one session because otherwise, why I'd just be bored!
Of course that tendency meant that Levi and Wayne had to chip through layers of paint to loosen the screws and remove the old doors that I had simply painted while they remained hanging. Doing it that way was certainly easier for me, but it didn't give the beautiful results that following all the steps did. And it wasn't long before the paint was chipping and needed to be touched up again and again. I wasn't thinking long range. I was thinking NOW.
This time I decided to take a big girl pill, to quote my daughter Maggie, and do things in the proper way, in the proper order, and to be patient. I did my homework. First I went to a local paint store and got advice. I learned what kind of paint to use, what rollers had the right nap, how long to let things cure and so on. I didn't like what I was hearing. It wasn't going to be easy. But I did it. I sanded the wood with an electric sander. I used wood putty to fill in any knot holes or splinters. I sanded the putty. I primed, let the doors dry, painted one side, let that dry, painted the other side, checked for any areas that needed touch ups. I washed my brushes and rollers carefully, I taped areas I didn't want paint on, I laid down drop cloths. I sanded the cabinets themselves before priming and repainting. I emptied the cabinets, got rid of things I didn't use, and cleaned. It took days! I was exhausted. But in the end, I got what I'd always wanted. Cabinets that look nice and are really functional. I realized that the only way to get the results I wanted was to do the background work first. I realized that there was no easy way. If I wanted it to be right, I had to work hard and do it right. I've heard rumors that there are people who take pleasure in doing all those steps, but I think that as a general rule, more humans are like me and want an easy end to a problem or a project.
I found myself thinking a lot as I sanded and primed and painted. I thought about how much this project was like building ministries, personal ministries and congregational ministries. We so often would like a quick and easy way to grow a mission or a project or a church, but the fact is that these things too take planning, doing all the steps, working hard, and having patience.
Impatience is part of the human condition. We want what we want quickly and easily. We don't want to do the steps. We don't want to wait for results. We don't want to do our homework. We want what we want and now.
The thing is that as Christians what we want is usually pretty good stuff. We want to serve God. We want to help people. We want to grow our church. We want to make a difference. But the first thing we all have to do is to determine both as individuals and as a church what our calling is. We have to do the background work. What work does God want us to do? We know that we all have work to do because Eph. 4:11-13 says:
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
But what specifically should we be doing and how? I think in some ways it can be easier for individuals to determine their specific calling. We look at talents. What are we good at? How can we use that gift to serve God? We look at our passions. Luke 12:34 says For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. What we treasure and feel passionate about will often lead us to ministry.
But it can be more difficult for a church to determine what we should be about. There are so many good things to do and so little time. In Matt 9:37 Jesus says to his disciples "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few."
There's more than enough for us to do, so how do we know how to focus our involvement? And what can we do when we are so small? I think that this is one of the things that we at Miami First have thought a lot about: growing our church. Reaching out to others and bringing them into our fellowship. Growing into a larger church so that we can do more for God. Let's face it, that's one of the things that this church has struggled with for years; the issue of size. We have always been a fairly small church. We have had periods with more or fewer members but we've never been what anyone would call a big church. Now there is no doubt, because the scripture makes it clear, that all churches have an obligation to reach out to the unchurched and the unsaved, but whether or not being faithful to that calling means we'll end up with a large congregation is another matter altogether. I have shared with many of you a conversation I once had with my brother Rick. I was talking, probably for the thousandth time, about what we were doing to help make our church grow. And finally Rick said to me, maybe instead of worrying about becoming a big church, you guys should just be the best little church you can be. I have never forgotten that statement. At the time, I thought it was a dangerous statement because I felt it could give us permission to stop reaching out, to become comfortable with those we already knew and loved and to keep the circle close and closed. But as the years have gone by, I have begun to wonder if maybe Rick understood something that I didn't yet see. Perhaps he realized that even if we do grow, that won't necessarily mean large numbers of people in our building on Sunday morning. The fact is that Miami First has had a great amount of growth. It was this group that started Miami Haitian. We reached out to the community, called a pastor, met with them, taught them, helped to grow them. It was deacons from this church that helped Miami Haitian prepare its first love feast. Members of this church held workshops on everything from Brethren history and polity to nutrition for new mothers and babies. Miami Haitian is a large congregation and that is a part of this congregation's growth. And please don't misread me. I'm not saying that we can sit back now because of something we did in the past. What I'm saying is that perhaps there is more than one way to be faithful to the calling of evangelism and growth. Right now Pastor Ray chairs the New Church Development Council and Jessica and Karen are on that committee as well. Wayne also served passionately for years on CDC for quite a while. The planting of new churches in Florida and the Caribbean has been a passion of this church. Brother Ilexene is moderator for a new group that hopes to join the Church of the Brethren, started by one of our members, Brother Isaac. Kayla and Ilexene are working on a project in Haiti. Cadette has had a ministry in Haiti for years. Even though the people they lead to Christ may never step foot through our doors, are they not part of our growth? You don't know what a radical change this way of thinking is for me. I am the woman who used to spend the ride home from church every week counting up in my mind how many people were present that day, whether our group was smaller or larger than usual. And if I knew guests were coming, it worried me to death if I thought attendance would be low. What would they think about our church? Would they wonder why we were so small? But I have thought a lot of late that maybe we need to rethink our assumptions about what it means to grow and really pray for direction,
Brother Merle Crouse has referred to Miami First as an incubator church. He realized that Miami First has been instrumental in starting new ministries or in equipping leaders to go off and serve in other locations. We have sent people off to seminary. We have had people move and become active leaders in new churches. Kayla is transforming our camp program in Florida right now. That's why she and a number of our members aren't here today, because they are ministering to young people at Camp Ithiel. We are small in numbers this morning, but does that mean that God isn't being worshipped and served? We all know that it doesn't mean that at all. Valerie is in Africa and I know that she sees herself as serving as a part of this church because she's told me so. We have so many workers reaching out to grow God's church. Now, this doesn't mean that I still wouldn't love a full church every Sunday morning. I would, if that's in God's plan for us. I just wonder: Should we rethink what it means to be a growing church?
What does God want for Miami First Church of the Brethren to do? How does He want us to grow? Does he want us to have a large group meeting together here or in another building? Or does he want us to plant other churches and groups? I don't know the answer. But I am suggesting that we need to ask the question, we need to pray about this, we need to seek God's will. We need to prime our surface, so to speak, so that our work comes out right.
When I was in college, I took a class called Medieval Cultures. I know, I know, what would make me do such a thing? Well, it was available at a time I needed a class. I will admit, having always focused on 19th century British lit, that I didn't retain a lot from that class. But one thing the professor (a former Catholic priest) said has stayed with me - that whenever the church had a big decision to make, it called a council. The early church believed and that belief has continued through the years, that truth was best found in community. That's what our AC is all about. Together, talking honestly, seeking together in study and prayer, we can find God's will for us. We need to stop relying on assumptions or outmoded ideas about what it means to be church. Who knows? Maybe God is calling Miami First to something new and exciting.
These are interesting times in the life of the church in America, because there are two concurrent movements going on right now. There is the megachurch movement, those new and extremely large churches that have huge congregations, huge buildings, huge budgets, and lots of activities and ministries. Within those megachurches are usually small groups to keep people from becoming isolated and to avoid the drive-in method of church: drop in, sit anonymously in the midst of the crowd, take your spiritual pill, and escape unnoticed. Some people really find these large churches exciting and full of opportunities for ministry.
On the other hand, there is an active small church movement. This movement includes home churches. This is what the House Church Central website has to say in its introductory comments.:
Why the House Church?
"The house church is the biblical church. All of the churches in the New Testament era were small assemblies that met in homes. The most explosive growth of Christianity in our own time has taken place in the likes of the People's Republic of China where its only expression has been the illegal, underground house church. Historian Del Birkey's studies have led him to conclude that the house church is our best hope for the renewal in our times."
Our culture desperately wants to change our doctrines so that it might make over Christianity to conform to its notion of "civil religion" and "political correctness." The house church has always been counter-culture for this reason, just as Jesus said that his disciples should be in the Sermon on the Mount. That sermon outlines how the powerless disciple can be salt and light in a dark world (Mt. 5:13-14), It speaks of a praying community. There are several mission opportunities in our communities that are especially suited for the house church. An invitation offered to a work-place acquaintance to a home is much less threatening than one to a church, just as one example. Another is the unique value of the house church as a ministry to "the damaged" and the possibility of learning the joy of giving by elevating that practice to a personal level.
Look, I'm not advocating this house church approach anymore than I am suggesting we ought to become a megachurch. My point is that today different people are looking for different things from a church. There is no such thing as a one size fits all model. It would be so much easier if there were. But the fact is that discerning how we should grow (because there's no question that we must be growing) is something we must take seriously. We must pray and ask God where our mission field is to be found.
In our eagerness to reach people for Christ, what work should we be doing? One way, I believe, is to pay attention to the opportunities to serve that God has put in our path, to be out in our community and having conversations with those around us about what is needed that we can do right now. But another very important way is to listen to the callings of members within our church.
I have been struck lately by the fact that there seem to be a few recurring themes or issues that keep coming up in this congregation. One is cancer. We have all been touched by those who are struggling with this disease. Week after week we raise up people who we work with or are friends or family with who are suffering from cancer. Some of us have had people in our workplaces ask us to pray. And we have seen miracles come out of that prayer. Might we have a ministry there? It could be as simple as starting a website to offer prayer and a support group or the more complicated undertaking of visiting cancer wards. I don't know. I'm just asking the question.
Another passion seems to be Haiti. Food for Haiti. Training up leaders in Haiti. Opening churches. Members of this church serve on committees to work with Haitian leaders, they run schools, they have started or been involved with or are working on starting ministries to Haitians here and in Haiti. It is clear that we have a ministry to Haitians. I mentioned earlier that Ilexene and Kayla want to start a work in Haiti. Is this something the whole congregation could or should be involved with? I know that when we decided to have a garage sale to raise money for hunger in Haiti, we had excellent and enthusiastic involvement. Is there more we ought to be doing? Are there offshoot ministries we might be called to?
Are there other passions we have? Are there other abilities that we as a church have and could use to serve God today? We want to do more than just react to situations that arise; we want to be ready to do the unique ministry that God is calling Miami First to do.
And just as we must seek God's will about what we should do, we must seek his will about place. We need to be seeking God's will about where He would have us meet and minister.
The first thing we need to do is acknowledge how well God has provided for us to date. We ought to be appreciative to God for what he's provided for us now. We need to give thanks with grateful hearts for having been given a place with a rent so low that we can send kids to camp, send delegates to conference, support our district and our denominational programs, give scholarships to our graduates, and of course, have a pastor. This place, warts and all, has allowed this congregation to do things that many churches, choking on their buildings, can only dream of doing. Our moderator, Emily Mumma said something to that effect when she was here for our council meeting. She was amazed at the outreach money allotted in our budget and pointed out that we are able to do these things, because unlike some other churches in our district, we are not paralyzed by the demands of a building. A few of us remember those days when our treasurer, Gladys, would stand up in church, tears in her eyes, and tell us that there wasn�t enough money to pay the mortgage, the utilities and the pastor. Pastor Bill would say, "Then don't pay me." Those were painful times. And when we finally paid off the mortgage, the roof went. A building is a huge undertaking that can drain a church's resources.
I know the flaws of having a site only once a week. And as someone who carries much of the church around in my car's trunk, believe me when I say that my life would be made easier by a permanent building. And it may be that the next stage of our ministry as a church will require a new place to meet and work. But I do think we may have gotten the cart before the horse just a bit. I believe we need to figure out what our calling, our ministry is first, because that will determine what kind of facility we need and where it ought to be located. One thing we need to avoid is having the mentality that when we get a building, then we'll be able to do ministry. We must not see a building as either an obstacle or a prerequisite to ministry. I think that way of thinking is backwards. I believe that when we get a ministry that needs a building, God will provide it. And if God provides it as a place for His work, it won�t be a burden, it will be a blessing.
Certainly there are challenges with meeting in a rental facility. There is no big Miami First sign out front for one. But you know what? We had that once, and we were still small. I think many people in the American church have fallen for the "Field of Dreams" line: you know, if you build it, they will come. But there's a reason that that film was in the American Film Institute's top 10 list of fantasy films. Cause that idea is just fantasy. It just doesn't work that way in today's world. There are half empty church buildings all over this country. Research shows again and again that people are most likely to visit a church when they have been invited by someone they know. And if you think about it, that's how most of our growth has come as well. Let me be clear. I'm not saying we shouldn't get a different building. Again, I'm just saying we should ask the question. Where should we meet, God? What kind of building will enable us to do what you call us to? How can we best use the resources you've given us to further your kingdom? Let's not assume that God is calling Miami First to be a typical church. Because look around you, folks, it's too late for that!
In Luke 14:27-35 Jesus puts it like this:
"Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?
For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Clearly, Jesus is calling us to be fully committed, thoughtful in our work, to count the cost of discipleship, to consider giving ourselves over to Him and to His way. God wants our service.
Heb. 6: 10 says God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
Miami First is a wonderful community. I am always amazed and blessed by the reactions I get from members of other churches who visit us. They love our church. They see our vitality, our diversity, our uniqueness, our excitement. We have done well, church. God has given Miami First great work in the past, we are doing great work now, and I know that there is so much more for us to do in the future. What does the Lord require of us? He will show us. Together, we can make a difference. Together, we can discern God's will. And together, we will grow Miami First into the church God would have us to be. And when we do that, the finished product will indeed be beautiful. God bless you, my beloved family.