|
The new St. Andrew’s
Presbyterian Church in Beulah, Michigan is built on a site
of which dreams are made. It sits perched high on a ridge,
overlooking rolling hills and orchards and Platte Lake. You
can see Lake Michigan and the Empire Dunes in the distance.
On a clear day, you can see all the way to the Manitou
Islands. (And if you look closely, you can even see our
cottage on Platte Lake.) The new church has beautiful open
beams arching overhead, and on three sides it is solid
glass, floor to ceiling, so that no matter where you sit in
the sanctuary you can take in that incredible view. It’s
worth going to church, regardless of the quality of the
sermon.
Ned Edwards was the pastor when
the church was built. During the summer the church opened,
Ned said:
This summer I have
spent at least one or two hours every day guiding people
who stop to see this wonderful church building. One man
said to me, “With all this glass, the high ceiling and
beautiful view, is this the church you always dreamed
of?” I almost said “yes,” but I knew it wasn’t true.
I said, “This is the
church I dreamed of, but not because of the windows, the
view, or the architecture. It is the church of my dreams
because it is an amazing group of people who became
alive together in Christ, who found a spirit of joy in
the community of faith, and who have expressed it in a
building.”
(Rev. Ned Edwards, The Church of Your Dreams,
St. Andrew Presbyterian, Beulah, MI, Aug. 19, 2001)
He is right, of course. The
church of our dreams is not just about a renovated building,
bricks and mortar, organ and chancel, walking tracks and
artwork, pews and parlors. It’s about people becoming alive
together in Christ, finding a spirit of joy in the community
of faith, and expressing it in real, tangible, touchable
ways.
The book of Acts takes us back
to the beginning—back to the church in its early days, back
before buildings when all they had was each other—and
perhaps there we can catch a glimpse of God’s early dream to
inspire our dreams of what God would do through us.
1. THE CHURCH OF OUR
DREAMS IS A CHURCH WHICH LIVES BOLDLY.
If you read ahead in the book,
you find that after the day of Pentecost, Peter and John get
dragged into court for healing a lame man. Luke says: “When
they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they knew they had
been with Jesus.”
Something about their demeanor;
Something about their spirit and vitality;
Something about their boldness told the world they had been
with Jesus.
The church of our dreams is a
church where we dare to dream, to risk, to speak, to act, to
serve, to love....with boldness!
Lloyd Ogilvie, retired chaplain
of the U.S. Senate, was for many years pastor of Hollywood
Presbyterian Church, and is still one of the great preachers
of our day. In his book on the book of Acts, his chapter on
this passage is titled “From Boredom and Blandness to
Boldness.” (Lloyd Ogilvie, Drumbeat of Love, page 98)
And maybe that’s what is needed in the church at large
today; to move from boredom and blandness to boldness. In a
day of uncertainty and economic upheaval, it’s easy to
justify retrenching, hunkering down, holding back. And
clearly these are days which call for careful attention to
the changes going on around us. But it is also a day which
calls for the church to live in courage, as a sign of hope
in a world of fear and anxiety.
When John Wesley wanted to build
his first chapel in London, he petitioned the city for land
and was given a thirty-nine year lease on a property on City
Road. He went about the business of raising money, and in
May 1777, he placed a brass plaque on the cornerstone with
his name and date, and the rest of the foundation was built
over it. Of the plaque he said, “Probably this will be seen
no more by any human eye, but it will remain ‘till earth and
the works thereof are burned up!’”
All that…on a thirty-nine year
lease! Now that’s boldness! The great British preacher Colin
Morris comments:
In an act of cavalier disregard
for the local authorities, he claimed that his edifice would
remain until the end of the earth… Although the legality of
his action is dubious, the theology is sound.
The multi-million-dollar
decision of the recent past to build the CLC was a similar
act of boldness; the decision to renovate this space was an
act of boldness; and at the same time, the willingness to
increase our giving to the local ministry and global mission
was an act of living, daring, courageous faith.
And the prayer of the church
today? To live and act in the boldness of the faith, willing
to risk, to dream, to dare for the sake of Christ.
The
church of your dreams is a church which lives boldly.
2.
…AND IT’S A CHURCH WHERE WE GROW DEEPLY.
As Ned says, the church of our
dreams is a church where people “come alive together” in
faith and witness. When you read Peter’s sermon, the
inaugural sermon of the Christian era, you discover a
profound statement of the faith. No dumbing down of the
message, no soft-pedaling the witness of Jesus Christ. It is
a call to grow deeply in the faith. Luke says the disciples
committed themselves to the apostles’ teaching, breaking of
bread and prayer. And that is still the source of the
church’s strength today.
One of the great challenges of a
multi-cultural and multi-religious day is the ability to
proclaim our faith in clarity, yet with grace and openness
to others. This day calls for a deep understanding of the
faith we have to share with the world.
A study of mega-churches today
reports that in eighty-eight percent of the rapidly growing
mega-churches, Bible study, exploration of the faith, and
small groups are central to their life. You know what? They
are taking a page right out of the Wesleyan Methodist
playbook. Methodism grew up in England and on the American
frontier with the spread of class meetings and bands and
societies, small groups for growing together in the faith.
Here is a call to grow deeply in
our knowledge and understanding, to grow deeply in our
fellowship and prayer life, to grow deeply in the spirit of
Jesus Christ.
3. THE CHURCH OF OUR
DREAMS IS A CHURCH WHICH CARES PASSIONATELY.
Running through the life of the
church should be a stream of passionate love, energizing our
witness and empowering our ministry, moving us to action.
One of the things I am most
proud of in this church, which is lived out in so many ways,
is our compassion for the world.
-
tutors
in Pontiac and classrooms in Chile
-
feeding
the hungry at Cass and serving the needy in Prague
-
rummage
sales and Sunday School classes
-
choirs
and committees and congregational care and the CROP Walk
-
pennies
for Africa and parenting ministries
Through it
all, a passion for ministry.
Unfortunately, that is what’s
missing in much of church life today. There are too many
folks who are satisfied to come to church to be “fed,” and
if they don’t get “fed” they patter off to someplace else
where the feeding is better. But tame, tepid, lukewarm faith
simply will not do in this day. It calls for us to “grow
deeply.”
4.
THE CHURCH OF OUR DREAMS IS A CHURCH WHICH CAN ONLY BE
EXPLAINED BY THE POWER OF GOD AT WORK IN US.
I mean, how else can you explain
what happens in the book of Acts? It begins with a feeble
group of 120 gathered in an upper room with nothing but a
promise, and suddenly grows to three thousand with new
persons being added every day, ultimately turning the world
upside down. How else do you explain it…except by the power
of God?
A few years ago, Bruce
Wilkinson’s little book, The Prayer of Jabez, created
quite dramatic, if short-lived, fascination with an obscure
verse of scripture. In a chapter entitled “Living Beyond our
Limits,” he asks: “When was the last time God worked through
you in such a way that you knew beyond doubt that God had
done it?” (Bruce Wilkinson, The Prayer of Jabez, page
15)
What is happening in our life
together which cannot be explained by our own energy, our
own strength, our own intelligence, but can only be
explained by the power of God? What small act which you
offered to someone else, almost unconsciously, made all the
difference for the other person? Do we really believe God
can do more through us than we have yet imagined? In the
words of Jabez, do we believe God can expand our territory,
broaden our reach, enliven our ministry with a vision which
can only be fulfilled by God’s power at work in us?
O Lord, expand our territory,
enlarge our imagination, open our hearts with a dream of
what you would like to do through us for the sake of Jesus
Christ…then do it! Not by our strength, but by your power.
I think Ned Edwards was
right—not just about the Beulah Church, but any church, our
church. It is the church of our dreams, not because of high
ceilings or windows or the view. It is the church of our
dreams because of people who come alive together in Christ,
who find a joy in the community of faith, and who express it
in tangible ways. The church of our dreams is a church where
people live boldly, grow deeply and care passionately, a
church that can only be explained by the power of God at
work in us.
Well, the Holy Spirit came,
Peter preached, and three thousand persons were added to the
church that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles’
teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer, “and
awe came upon everyone because of the signs and wonders.”
It happened for the disciples.
May it happen for us, even today.
|
