Six Acres on a Hilltop

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

January 18, 2015

Six Acres on a Hilltop

1 Corinthians 12:4-11

“On an average day in the United States,

nine churches close their doors for good.”

                 

That was the opening sentence

in an article I read recently.     

The news was hardly new;

For years we’ve been reading and hearing about

the decline in attendance in churches:

young people turning away from religion;

churches shrinking and closing;

even the vaunted mega-churches

that once grew so rapidly

are finding themselves struggling.

What’s a pastor to do?

What are the leaders of a church to do?

What’s a congregation to do

in the face of such consistently dreary news?

Well, the first response should be obvious:

We should heed our Lord’s instructions

not to worry;

and instead trust in God,

have faith in God,

have hope in God.

And if we put our hope in God,

our trust in God,

our faith in God,

then our second response

should be equally obvious:

We should get on with the work

we are called to do

by our Lord Jesus Christ.

We should focus our time,

our talents,

and our treasure

on the ministries we are called to do:

the work of worshiping, praying,

praising, singing,

welcoming, nurturing,

learning, teaching,

healing, helping,

feeding, comforting,

serving, encouraging.

Thirty years from now,

it is possible that people could drive by this address

and say, “Do you remember that building

before they converted it into offices –

do you remember when it was a church?”

The future of our church depends on God;

but it also, of course, depends on us,

on you and me,

for as Paul reminds us,

we are the church;

the body of Christ.

The church is not a building;

it is the people inside the building:

we, the disciples of Christ

who are called by God’s Holy Spirit

to reflect Christ

as we serve in the name of Christ,

each of us using the skills and gifts

we’ve been given by God through the Holy Spirit,

just as Paul teaches us through today’s lesson.

Together we will either

make this church a joyful reflection

of God’s grace and love given us in Jesus Christ,

or we’ll see to it that our church becomes

another sad statistic.

We have a long and proud history:

we are beginning our 148^th year.

But that’s just the foundation on which

you and I are called to build.

Whether we build,

and what we build is up to us.

A few years ago at an officers’s retreat

we spent time talking about what kind of church

we wanted to be,

what kind of church

we as officers of the church,

as leaders of the church,

felt God was calling us to build.

Our retreat leader challenged us to build

what she called a “Sailboat Church.”

She explained that it was the “Rowboat Churches”

that were more likely to stagnate and die,

while Sailboat Churches caught the wind

of God’s Holy Spirit and pushed forward

into God’s future.

She elaborated that the Rowboat churches

tended to be budget driven,

resource driven,

program driven.

In Rowboat Churches she said,

there isn’t a lot of talk about

God’s Spirit, God’s will.

In the Sailboat church,

as our leader explained it to us,

church leaders begin with the conviction

that “God can do more than

we can ask or imagine.”

“Leaders of a Sailboat Church

begin their work with the question,

‘What is God leading us to be:

What is God leading us to do now?’

Leaders in a Sailboat Church

operate firm in their faith

that the God who calls

is also the God who provides.”

The leaders in a Sailboat Church see themselves

as part of a continuing adventure with God.

(all from Joan Gray, Spiritual Leadership)

I certainly doubt that

the men and women who gathered

to establish this church 148 years ago

said to one another,

“let’s make this a Sailboat church.”

But I also have no doubt

that it was that kind of thinking

that helped them build a church in 1867

that rose from the ashes of the Civil War.

I believe that it was that kind of thinking that

inspired and encouraged

members of this church 40 years ago

to say to one another,

“we’ve outgrown our building in Old Town.

Let’s go out,

out of town;

let’s go and look at 6 acres of farmland up on a hill,

where we can build a new church.

It will be expensive;

it will be a big project.

But that’s what God is calling us to do.”

It is always with great joy

that we ordain and install new officers each year,

men and women called by God to lead,

to be spiritual leaders of this congregation.

It is also with great hope

that we ordain and install them,

putting our trust and faith in them

that they will work faithfully and diligently

to discern God’s will for this Body of Christ,

and then call us all to work;

for just as on a sailboat,

we need all hands on deck

to move through the waters,

each of us offering and using

the gifts given us by the Spirit.

Every sailor knows that that there is

smooth water and sunny days,

and there is also rough water and dark days.

But if we put our trust in God to guide us,

to see us through on our journey;

we’ll never have anything to fear

or anything to worry about;

our sails will be filled with the breath of God,

we’ll know that our Lord is at the helm.

We see a world around us

filled with fear, with racism,

with intolerance, with violence,

with inequality, with injustice.

We see a world that needs us;

We see a world that needs

the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We see a world that needs churches like ours

where our goal, our mission,

is really quite simple:

it is to  “increase among men [and women]

the love of God and neighbor,”

(H. Richard Neibuhr)

as we live by the two great commandments

our Lord has given us.

So we sail into the new year,

confidently, hopefully, and joyfully.

The year ahead promises to be exciting.

We will, I hope, launch our Capital Campaign

to help strengthen us for the future;

to help assure that 30 years from now,

people will drive by 8201 Ashton Avenue

and still see a vibrant church,

a place of learning, growing,

welcoming, comforting.

Brian McLaren, the author of the book,

“We Make the Road By Walking”,

the book we’ve been using this year

in our Adult Education class,

writes, “Faithfulness means participating with God

in God’s unfolding story.”

That’s what we are all called to do,

all of us together,

as hands on this Sailboat Church:

participating with God

in God’s unfolding story,

using our gifts, offering our gifts,

trusting the Spirit to guide us,

trusting our Lord Jesus Christ to lead us.

As I shared with our new officers yesterday,

our Book of Order reminds us that,

“The Church is to be a community of hope,

rejoicing in the sure and certain knowledge that,

in Christ God is making a new creation.

This new creation is a new beginning

for human life and for all things.

The Church lives in the present

on the strength of that promised new creation.”

“The church is to be a community of love,

where sin is forgiven,

reconciliation is accomplished,

and the dividing walls of hostility are torn down.”

“The Church is to be a community of witness,

pointing beyond itself

through word and work

to the good news of God’s transforming grace

in Christ Jesus its Lord.”

(F-1.0301)

The Spirit calls men and women to lead us

as Elders and Deacons.

The Spirit fills us with gifts, each of us.

And now, the Spirit calls us to work.

The journey of our 148^th year has begun.

All hands on deck.

AMEN