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NRSNumbers
13:26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the
Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to
them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27
And they told him, "We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows
with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 Yet the people who
live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large; and
besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites
live in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites
live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea, and along the
Jordan." 30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and
said, "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to
overcome it." 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said,
"We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than
we." 32 So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report
of the land that they had spied out, saying, "The land that we have gone
through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people
that we saw in it are of great size. 33 There we saw the Nephilim
(the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers,
and so we seemed to them."
This week I
have spent time with the Bishop and his steering committee talking about the
future of the Virginia Annual Conference. In those discussions I heard a lot
about spiritual formation, was quizzed on how Discipleship Circles, a method
for working toward answers to growth, church vitality and issues that challenge
us that puts spirituality first before human responses to the questions. I
heard the Bishop talk about what legacy he wishes to leave behind when he
leaves the conference next September and the work that needs to be done between
now and then. Then I spent Saturday working with a team of our leaders focusing
on Reaching New People. How do we reach a culture that quite frankly does not
know what we do or the message we have to offer? How do reach out to people who
know church as that place that seems always to be in the news in a bad light or
filled with strange people with strange ideas? After coming home last night I
thought about what I had heard and what the future direction of the church,
specifically Grace United Methodist Church, is going to be.
In our
scripture God has told Moses to send spies into the land and report back. These
spies have seen the Promised Land that God has told them about for the past
forty years. But they have also seen giants, strong fortified cities and the
offspring of Angels. So they come back with a report that scares most of the
people. The same people who have seen God overcome every obstacle that has been
placed in their way. So they begin to do what we human beings do and that is
whine when we see things in our way that we cannot figure out how to overcome.
Now the spies did not intend to upset the plans that God has for them. But
well, they are human and we humans often cannot see the way because we are too
often focused on our own abilities and lack the ability to trust God.
Six months
ago Don Foster and I shared with you the idea that we can grow a church through
relationship. In fact, what we shared with you was that we are not the church
of our parents or grandparents who lived in a time when we opened the doors and
people came. We live in a world that has become very “me” centered and our
response must be to work within the culture of the world to bring a message
that transcends all cultures and understandings. As I sat and listened to the
Bishop I heard the same kind of message that I heard from the consultant who
shared with us the future of the church on Saturday. We cannot be the church we
have been and still expect to survive. Let me set it in another way. Companies
don’t survive by doing things the same way for generations. My dad spent his
life in the steel industry and I am glad that he was able to retire from that
occupation. But truth is he went from upper middle class to lower middle class
over a few years because the people who ran those companies believed that they
did not have to change the way they did things or the technology that they used
to do them. Interesting side note, Dad wanted me to follow him in that line of
work so many years ago, so much so he had gotten me a job without asking me
what I wanted to do and sprung it on me the day of my graduation from High
School. Needless to say one of the biggest arguments between him and me
resulted in one of the many estrangements of our lives. That is what is meant
by bullies by the way, well intentioned desires by someone we know and often
love, who sabotage or circumvent the dreams that God has given us.
So here we
are today, six months later, relatively nowhere better for the efforts of our
training and presentation. Why? Maybe because we thought foolishly that if we
made the presentation you would see the beauty of it and jump on board. But
that is not how we work is it? Many of you want to understand more or see
successes before you are going to commit to being a part of the world that
someone else’s envisions. To sit here this morning and say that I believe that
God has given me a vision for the future of the church doesn’t mean that you
are going to buy even a single piece of that stock. So what will help you to
buy in to a future vision of this church?
So let me
offer you some data:
•
19 % of
the population attend Sunday mornings
•
33 %
under age 30 have no religious background
•
125,000
churches closed last year
•
80/90 %
are declining
Now here is
some data worth paying attention to:
•
There
are 16, 594 people within 10 miles of the Grace UMC
•
Statistics
tell us 13,192 do not attend church
•
1 % of
that total is 132
•
Of the
13,192, 8,575 have never been invited to church, especially our church
•
Data
suggests that 6,260 would come if invited
•
1 % of
that number is 63
•
Based on
that data our average worship attendance which is 116 should be between 179 and
248
So why can’t
we achieve those numbers?
Maybe because
we have forgotten two important points about our lives as Christian people. The
first and most important is that God alone gives vision about the future
direction of the church. Just as God told the Israelites that God was going to
bring them into the land of milk and honey, God is telling us that we can
increase our actively attending worshiping folks who show up on Sunday morning
or Sunday night. But like the spies sent out into the land, our own concerns
keep us from realizing that reality. So the first point is that we need to
trust God with all that we are.
The second
point is that we must learn new skills. A great deal of the work that has been
going on has been done to prepare us for a new reality with a new future.
Fixing up the house of God was only a small part of the overall plan that needs
to be followed to see the land of milk and honey realized. So what are these
new skills?
First we need
to rededicate our Discipleship and trust in God. We do this through intentional
work at building our relationship with God. Reading the Bible daily, praying
constantly, spending time with our Christian sisters and brothers and finally believing
that God can and will make a difference in our lives. Instead of waiting for
God begin to believe that God can and live into that reality. There is a story
of a missionary who was sailing to China. A ship’s captain was upset because his ship was floundering
because the wind that moves him had stopped. Nothing is more serious to a
sailor in the seventeen or eighteen hundreds than the loss of wind. Without it
we cannot move, we are caught in a place of inaction and despair can set in
because we have no control over the moment. Knowing that a man of God was below
deck, the captain went down and talked with him. He asked the preacher to pray
for wind. Sometime later the preacher came up on deck and was surprised. He
sought out the captain and told him, you ask for God’s help and yet the sails
are not unfurled, open to the wind that will come. You pray and yet you don’t believe
that God can provide defeating the very power you seek. We are a church with
the sails that are not yet unfurled open to the wind that will come. Let us
unfurl our sails and trust God to guide us believing that God has already set
the plan into motion.
Second we
have to trust that God will teach us how to build new relationships with people
through our witness. Let me explain how all that works. Each of us has hobbies
and/ or things that we do. Like going to the beach or the Barrier Islands,
going bowling or golfing or sewing and the list goes on. God has given you
special talents and gifts that make you who you are. Use them! If you truly
want to grow this church it is as simple as doing what you are already doing,
except, you invite folks to do it with you. Friends who you know through church
and then folks you know who don’t go to church anywhere. Plan a picnic on the
beach and invite some of your friends from the church and have each of them
invite some of their friends from work or school or your neighborhood. Then do
it again. While you are there on the beach do what you normally would do.
Nothing less, nothing more! Allow them to get to know you better and in the
meantime they will also get to know your church friends. After friendships have
developed or been strengthened, then invite them a church supper or a church
activity. Talk to them about how God has changed your life and how God is
working within your life. Believe it or not, 80 % of them will come to church
with you if you develop those relationships.
Finally,
develop relationships with people you don’t know. Suppose you are sitting in
Club Car and see someone who you do not know. During your time there take the
time to go over and introduce yourself. Not as Joe or Suzy Church person, but
as simply you. Get to know something about them and then write it down later.
That way when you see them again you can start at a different place. Let say
you are in line and a new person is behind you, you could say, hi, I am Don.
Are you new to the area? The person might say, no, I have lived here all my
life in which case you could say, oh, well, I haven’t been here for a long time
but I have not seen you before. Do you live around here? Why yes, I live here
in Parksley. So what do you do? I am a teacher over at the High School. What do
you teach? I teach history and coach the golf team. Well, take care. Then jot
it down and the next time you see them you might ask, so how is the golf team
doing and you are off to a deeper conversation.
If we want to
make a difference in the lives of those around us, we must learn to trust God
and to share the message of love with the world, one person at a time.
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