What a Glorious Past!

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

June 27, 2010

What a Glorious Past!

Luke 9:51-62

The real estate agent stood looking at the brick walls that rose

from the foundations in the overgrown garden.

The building was so obviously solid and strong.

She knew the roof was in good shape;

the mechanicals and electric system were all up to date.

The building had, as they say, “good bones”.

A quick look showed many other pluses:

Lots of open space,

plenty of parking,

convenient location.

Still, she wondered: how should she market the property?

Who would be interested?

Could it be converted into office space?

Would it make a good medical practice?

What about an extension campus for the community college?

Or maybe she should try simply to sell the land,

and look at the building as something that

new owners would want to tear down

and replace with their own design.

She unlocked the door and walked the darkened halls

peering into one room after another.

Silence was her only companion,

silence and more than a few spiders who’d built webs

in almost every corner.

This was once a building that had buzzed with activity,

filled with noise from early morning until late at night,

joyful noise: children laughing, singing;

young people talking even as they texted;

older people sharing stories,

so many stories shared over so many meals!

Every room had a unique soundprint

now stamped forever in the walls, floors and ceilings.

As the agent walked the floors

she thought to herself that if ever a building could feel lonely,

this would be it.

She could barely bring herself to look at the space

at the end of the hall.

It was a large room built for one purpose –

bringing people together;

bringing together men and women, young and old,

from all backgrounds, neighborhoods

all gathered in one place

to sing, to listen, to learn.

It was a room where strangers were welcomed,

where the joyful celebrated,

and the grieving, lost, and lonely were comforted.

And now it was empty, so painfully empty.

The furniture all gone, every bit of it,

all sold at auction,

the chairs, the piano, the organ,

even the pulpit and the Table.

The story was too familiar:

a church with a glorious past,

a rich history steeped in tradition,

a church that had been woven into the fabric of the community;

Generation after generation born there,

married there,

buried there.

As one pastor put it so colorfully,

it was filled with countless stories of

“hatching, matching, and dispatching,”

The agent didn’t know all the details of

what had happened here,

but the pattern was always the same:

The first to drift away were the young families,

the children pleading with parents

to go to other places where friends from school went,

where there were more things to do,

more fun, more activities.

That started the decline

which then continued, slowly at first,

barely noticeable.

But before long the membership had shrunk to the point

where the congregation found itself struggling financially.

Debates raged within, some arguing for change,

while others were adamant that tradition must prevail.

Lots of talking,

but no one listening.

Eventually the remnant made the painful decision to close.

There was a last, sad service,

and then everyone scattered.

Some found their way to other churches,

but many were so bitter over the whole experience,

they turned away from church – any church.

The pastor and a few volunteers

oversaw the final shut-down:

removing the sign,

disconnecting the phone,

saying goodbye to the remaining staff

as they joined the ranks of the unemployed.

The real estate agent was baffled by the paradox:

churches closing even as other churches

were opening, often right in the same neighborhood.

Big new places with auditoriums designed to seat a thousand people,

room after room for all kinds of activities,

many of the buildings with gyms and basketball courts;

she heard that one of them even had

a small Starbucks in the lobby.

She walked out of the building

and locked the door behind her.

She knew what she needed to do:

she would market the building to a medical practice

she knew was looking for larger space.

With some renovations, it would be ideal for them.

In two years, no one would know

it had ever been a church.

This is not a story of any one church in particular.

It is rather a composite of what is happening all around us.

Churches closing,

even as other churches are opening.

There is an adage that ministers learn very early on in their careers:

every church is just one generation away from closing,

from shutting down,

from going out of business.

Now matter how glorious a church’s past,

no matter how extraordinary a church’s history,

it is the present,

and even moreso, the future,

that matters,

that should always be the focus

of clergy and congregation.

Our Session -- the 15 Elders and I --

have been spending more and more time

talking about the future of our church,

where we think God is calling us.

At one of our meetings a few months back

we broke into 3 groups,

and each group was sent off to a different room

to spend some time envisioning the future,

thinking about the future.

Each group was asked to paint in words a picture

of what they thought our church would look like

a year from now,

two years from now,

three years from now.

We talked about worship,

education,

our Early Learning Center,

staffing,

building needs.

It was an exciting exercise - to think about our future.

In the book of Proverbs there is a text

that we can read a number of different ways

depending on what meanings we give the ancient Hebrew words,

but the most common translation is

“where there is no vision, the people perish”

(Proverbs 29:18)

When the people of God are not looking forward,

embracing the vision,

the future that God is calling them to,

they will perish,

fade away into the pages of history.

I once had the pleasure of spending time with and learning from

a very wise, very smart man named Charles Handy,

a British management writer,

who frequently used the aphorism that we tend to go through life

like men and women rowing a boat:

we work hard pulling at the oars

to move our boat forward,

but our eyes, our focus,

are fixed firmly on what is past,

only occasionally do we look over our shoulders

to see what lies ahead.

Handy was always trying to encourage his corporate clients

to look forward, to embrace the future,

to adapt to changing conditions and circumstances.

He wanted his clients to understand the reality

that the future will be here in five minutes

whether we’re looking forward or not,

whether we’re ready for it, or not.

Organizations that have glorious pasts are often at the greatest risk

because they tend to focus too much on their history,

too much their past;

they are often fiercely protective of it.

People within happy to respond to the question

of why something is done in some particular way,

with the words,

“Because we’ve always done it that way.”

We have a rich history here at Manassas Presbyterian Church,

a glorious past that goes back 143 years.

But our history, our glorious past, is simply the foundation

on which God calls us to build our future.

And while life may often be filled unanswered questions

and uncertainty, as we’ve talked about the past two weeks,

one of the things we know for sure

is that God’s Holy Spirit is always calling us forward --

into the future.

Session’s decision to restore the office of Associate Pastor

is a bold and confident step into our future,

the future that God is calling us to.

It is a decision we should all be excited about;

we should all embrace.

I’m excited about it!

Not because having another pastor will ease my workload.

Not at all: we want to call an Associate Pastor

because we see many ministries in our church

that we are either not serving adequately,

or not serving at all.

The Associate Pastor will fill glaring holes in our ministry.

We anticipate that the Associate Pastor will spend

fully two-thirds of his or her time working with our young people:

our Middle Schoolers, High Schoolers, and

our growing group of young folks

who are between the ages of 18 and 30.

The adolescent years,

high school years,

and what I call the “starter” years

are such critical, transformative

and also stress-filled years.

Our young people need someone to walk with them,

to work with them,

yes, even to Facebook and Tweet with them.

A couple of recent studies have warned churches

of all denominations

that we are at risk of losing a generation of young people,

that they will just walk away from church entirely

and not return – not to any church of any denomination.

They find too many churches and denominations

too judgmental,

too political,

too close-minded,

as well as dull, boring, uninspiring.

Too filled with people like James and John from our lesson,

so quick to condemn and cut off the different.

(See: http://www.barna.org/teens-next-gen-articles/

see also “Unchristian”, by David Kinnaman)

Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Congregational;

Mainline, Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Pentecostal:

we all face the same problem:

we all risk turning young people away from faith,

away from thinking of themselves

as spiritual young men and women.

away from embracing their identity as children of God

and disciples of Christ.

One study showed that more than 60% of young men and women

in their twenties, who had been actively involved

in church life in their teens,

described themselves ten years later

as “spiritually disengaged”

turned off, not interested,

finding nothing to feed them, challenge them,

guide them in churches.

We cannot do this to our young people.

We must not do this to our young people.

Our responsibility is to kindle the faith of every young person

who comes through our doors.

We do this by loving them, embracing them,

welcoming them,

listening to them,

teaching them, guiding them,

and giving them resources they need to help them grow,

to help them navigate life’s challenges;

the same resources most of us had

as we were growing up.

We can find lots of reasons to say

we’d love to, but we can’t,

now isn’t a good time,

perhaps in another year or two.

But the second part of our lesson

reminds us that Jesus doesn’t call us to a life

that accommodates our schedule, our wants,

our comfort level.

And he isn’t the least bit interested in hearing excuses

or rationales:

Jesus says so simply,
“Follow me……

Now!

We have work to do,  NOW!

Follow me, through the present

and into the future.”

Jesus is calling us to a new chapter in our history,

an incredibly exciting chapter.

Jesus is calling us to build on our glorious past

by embracing God’s vision of our future.

Jesus is calling us to look forward boldly

and follow him into the future,

because the last thing Jesus wants for any of our young people
is for them to drive by this place twenty years from now

and say, “I remember when that used to be a church”.

AMEN