2012 Stewardship – Simple Gifts
©Thomas B. Cundiff
Joel 2: 28-32
Matthew 6: 21
Joel 2: 28 -32 [Also found in Acts 2: 14 -17]
God’s Spirit Poured Out
….. I will pour out my
spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female slaves,
in those days, I will pour out my spirit.
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female slaves,
in those days, I will pour out my spirit.
I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth,
blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun
shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and
terrible day of the Lord comes. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved; for in Mount
Zion Jerusalem
MATHEW 6: 21
“For where your treasure is, there
your heart will be also….”
I. I WONDER?
I have
been wondering……
In
thinking about stewardship of EVERYTHING God has entrusted our care, I
wonder…..
Are we not called to be stewards of our ideas, dreams and visions for
the future!
We already
talk a lot about stewardship of time and talents and money. Last week I shared a message on what it means
to be stewards of God’s creation—this beautiful earth. But what about those things that drive us
spiritually? In our thoughts? Are we not also called to be stewards of our
ideas, dreams and visions?
FAMILIES:
Within
the context of family, what do we hope and dream and envision for our children
and grandchildren?
I think about these things knowing that in just a
few months, in March, Nancy and I will become proud grandparents of a little
baby boy—named Kenneth Thomas. We saw some
more ultrasound pictures this week. The baby
is about the size of a pop can, 1lb 1oz.
We already have our hopes and dreams for his future…..the future of all
our babies – all our children! We dream
about HIS future! In what ways are we
responsible along with Ken and Emily as stewards of all God has given us in
life to help with his parents and their friends to build a solid FAITH
foundation for him…
Of course
we long and pray for happiness and stability with our families and
friends. We dream of safe neighborhoods,
good education, secure work and a comfortable home. We pray for health. Prayers emerge from our dreams of ‘peace on
earth and goodwill toward all people!’ This
idea I have been tossing around in thinking about today’s scripture: Young and old, in what ways are we called to
be stewards of our ideas and dreams and visions in building and sustaining
healthy families and communities for our babies—our children?
II. AND THE CHURCH?
As much
as would like to continue dreaming and visioning what I hope for the future for
my family and children, I now turn my attention to the ideas, dreams and
visions we have for the church and our babies—our children who are the future
of the church. Isn’t part of our
stewardship of all life a call from God to find ways to translate our ideas,
visions and dreams, into specific, tangible planning we do as Christ’s
church?
A serious
question we are all asking in this church:
As membership declines and resources dissipate in part through the care
of this large building: Are we going to
let ‘time run out’ for this church?
Hopes and
dreams and visions in hand, what can we be doing to create a framework of ideas
envisioning a future for this church and our babies and their children who need
the church in the future? Maybe not this
particular church – but the church we know is important in helping our children
grow believing in Jesus Christ?
Are you
with me? I wonder? I wonder what comes next for us as we work to
discern God’s will for us as the Warren Avenue Presbyterian Church? I wonder?
What’s the church going to be for our children and grandchildren?
II. FIRST POINT: TOGETHER THE BODY OF CHRIST
As stewards of our ideas, dreams and
visions: My first point is something we
always carry with us – TOGETHERNESS. I
pray that we will always work as stewards of all that God has given us to pass
on to our children and their children the importance of being a Christian
community—the “living Body of Christ”.
It’s like the ancient African proverb
that says “It Takes a Village to raise a
child”….. It takes just two or three gathered together in the name of Jesus
Christ our Lord – to be the church!
The children’s song says, “I AM THE CHURCH, YOU ARE THE CHURCH, WE ARE THE CHURCH TOGETHER!
ALL OF GOD’S CHILDREN ALL AROUND THE WORLD, YES, WE’RE THE CHURCH TOGETHER!”
Each of us as stewards of all that
God has entrusted our care, TOGETHER, need to prayerfully and proactively
consider what we are going to do with the ideas, dreams and visions we have
been entrusted to care for in the name of our generous and gracious God.
While it is difficult knowing where
God is going to take us in the next two or four or six or more years, we have certain
responsibilities RIGHT NOW in discerning what God wants us to do and become in the
future.
I wonder? Can we take more time in all of our meetings
to think “outside the box” about the future?
Together, what would God have us become in being creative, in using this
building; in nurturing more
collaborative relationships with others who share our values? If we don’t do this work, who will? It is our responsibility – all of us – to be
the stewards of this wonderful idea—being Christ’s Church!
My second point, we have an
established mission. Let’s study
it. Let’s follow it. Let’s use it in planning for the future. Let’s dream of ways we can do the things we
say we want and need to be doing
We have a mission statement that next
to scripture gives us some directions on where we need to go.
The first bullet-point in our mission
statement:
-- REACHING UP TO GOD IN REVERENCE
AND THANKSGIVING FOR THE MANY WAYS HAS BLESSED US -- As your pastor I hear from you loud and clear, worship is
the primary and most important thing we do TOGETHER in REACHING UP TO GOD IN
WORSHIP & PRAISE! In all of our
wonderment and dreaming and planning: we
are called to be stewards of worship that will continue to meet the spiritual
needs of our children and their children….well into the future.
The second bullet-point:
-- REACHING IN TO USE OUR
HUMAN AND PHYSICAL RESOURCES TO NURTURE – in a variety of ways, the use
of all the gifts and blessings God has entrusted our care—including this
building. In thinking about this I would
like to add to our mission Statement: “Using
our spiritual resources” as well in envisioning and planning our future.
The third bullet-point in our mission
statement:
n REACHING OUT TO SHARE THE LOVE OF GOD WITH OTHERS. We continue to be in this
location as a church because it is from this corner of Warren and Millard we
open our doors to the neighborhood. Is
this part of our collective identity and vision for the future? I wonder?
In what ways can we continue to open our doors to the community around
us?
Through the Women of Colors and health Delivery we will be
hosting in our building the “Parent Action for Healthy Kids” workshop down in
the Gym…..finding ways to bring parents of middle and high school age youth
into our building to learn and develop their parenting skills? This is important work we are already doing
in REACHING OUT TO OTHER WITH WHAT WE VALUE – THE LOVE OF GOD!
IV. THIRD POINT: MINISTRY
In addition to
the mission of the church, I envision something we will always want to dream
about for the future: Meaningful,
uplifting, enriching MINISTRY.
MINISTRY! Consider this
definition:
“Ministry
is our using all the gifts God has given us as the “body of Christ” to serve
our Lord in TOGETHER responding to the needs of each other and those in the
larger community around us.”
I wonder? I wonder if good solid caring and
compassionate ministry aren’t key component to becoming and sustaining the
church of the future? I truly believe
these ministries of care and compassion are part of our spiritual DNA we must pass on
to future generations of Christians.
To this day, with over 147 years of
dreaming and visioning behind us, it is our ministering to and with each other
in times of need that will sustain us and keep us moving forward as Christ’s
church…..in the end all that’s really important isn’t the structural church as
much as the spiritual church and what we do together in loving and caring for
each other!
VI. I WONDER….
We
had a meeting back on June 3rd.
Most of you were at this meeting. This was the gathering we had in the
Memorial Lounge to talk about our future.
This was a good time of conversation in sharing some of short-term
visions and dreams.
At
this meeting we put out some difficult facts….sobering details about where we
are as a church. Some of these
facts:
Fact One: We are a small
church. Back on June 3rd we
were a 90 member church. We are now an
87 member church. The fact remains, we are a ‘maturing’
congregation and “we cannot predict how quickly our membership may drop”[1] (A side note: About
half of this presbytery, 23 churches are our size or smaller—we are not
alone! There is still one church, Ithaca Lafayette
Fact Two: It is more and
more difficult to make up pledges we are losing through the decline of
membership—that’s why every pledge—every increased pledge that helps us make up
what we are losing—is vitally important….helping us take dependency off
investment funds…..investment funds that are fast being depleted if we keep on
doing what we have been doing!
The good news that came out of that
June 3rd meeting was the enthusiastic, passionate and positive
things you had to say about this church!
Simply, this was an important meeting
back on June 3rd because we are dreaming dreams and realistically
envisioning our future.
So
now I wonder…..what kind of church can we become with fewer members, a large
building, and a small budget? What kind
of new things can be developed in collaboration with others? Are there new ways for us to think about
fund-raising? What are others doing in
situations like ours? There are lots of
questions we need to be asking!
So now I ask myself the critical
question: What has this sermon been all
about? As I said at the beginning of
this message:
There are many things we need to
be doing as stewards of our ideas, dreams and visions—in using them to create a
path into the future….so we can do some serious planning for the future.
And this final point:
Absolutely critical
to our future!
We need to have fun in what we are
doing! We need to do things that bring
smiles to our faces. We need the
laughter. We need to be friends in doing
the important work we have been called to do.
I am still having fun doing what I am
doing. I enjoy being with you. I may not always like the work that needs to be
done. I never really enjoy hearing the
phone ring to share someone is hurting or ill….but I get a great deal of
satisfaction in knowing this is what I have been called, ordained and trained
to be doing as your pastor. I enjoy
being your pastor. .
I enjoy the fact that NOBODY HAS GIVEN UP ON THIS
CHURCH! We haven’t lost any
pledges. People aren’t leaving this
church because they don’t like what we are doing. I THANK GOD YOU’RE NOT WALKING OUT ON MY
SERMONS—AT LEAST NOT YET!
I hope and pray that with all our
dreaming and visioning—we make sure there is time to enjoy what God has given us
– that we have fun doing Christ’s work. That’s
why we are going to have a special Harvest dinner after worship next week…so we
can have some fun together!
So now my friends—it’s time for us to
put our faith next to our dreams and visions so that our sons and daughter can
continue to prophesy, our more mature members can dream dreams, and the young
adults in our midst see visions for the future – and TOGETHER WE HAVE FUN planning and serving
our lord and savior Jesus Christ.
I wonder? What comes next?
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