Bible Text:

One of the exciting parts of leading Christ Church for 24 years has been your sense of vision. This congregation loves a good vision. Scripture says, “Where there no vision the people perish.” The opposite is also true: “Where there is vision the people prosper.” Being visionary is a part of being God’s people. You do it very well here. 

I read about a Japanese toymaker who has invented a “dream machine.” It’s about 35 inches tall with a recorder, a place for a picture, music CD player, and the ability to produce sense and smells. Here’s how he described the machine. 

A few minutes before bed, you put a photo or image of your desired dream into the picture frame. Then you concentrate on the image, and make a voice recording of several key words that describe your dream. Next, you insert one of the dream machine scents into the fragrance dispenser and select an appropriate type of background music. Now you are ready to drift off to sleep, and the dream machine helps you to do this with soft lights and serenades.

I’m not sure if that thing works. But I am sure that God creates and plants dreams for the church. Think of some we’ve had here over the years. 

In 1986 we began the Saturday night service. That service has now been a mainstay in this congregation for 18 years. In 1993 we undertook the “Partners” campaign to build a Christian Life Center and a music wing and some other new classroom space. These are spaces we now take for granted. In 1993 it was a grand dream. 

In 1994 we adopted our vision statement. We are an open and hospitable community of believers who eagerly invite everyone to connect with God and follow Jesus. That dream still stands as a proper vision for this church. In 1996 we introduced the Sunday night contemporary service—trying to build a worship experience on each weekend that was seeker-friendly.  

In 1999 we celebrated the 50^th anniversary of this church by paying off all remaining capital debt. We didn’t know if we could do it, but we did. It was a worthy dream. In 2001 we created 2 new staff positions, both of which have proved invaluable to us. One was a parish nurse; the other was a director of young adult ministries. In 2003 we purchased a piece of property across Highland Road which we now call a “Lot of Faith.” 

Along the way you have seen other visions emerge. We now use lay pastors to augment congregational, trying to make sure that no member of this church is ever left behind when it comes to care. We have engaged spiritual gifts to empower this congregation to do ministry. It’s working beautifully. We have begun to appreciate the power of adult education beyond the Sunday morning hour in significant long term and short term groups. For most of the past few weeks we have had over 260 adults involved in some form of adult education in this church on a weekly basis. 

Vision has been our heritage from the Lord. It’s in our genes! Someone has written, “People with a vision don’t give up, burn out, or compromise.”[i] 

Now I’m looking ahead to 2005. I saw a banner at a United Methodist church in Manchester, New Hampshire that read, “It is good to be a church with a successful past, but it is far better to become a church with an unlimited future.” That’s where I think we are. The visions keep coming from all directions. 

My question this morning is this: will we have the resources in 2005 to undergird our visions? In 2004 we used a small surplus from the previous year plus the “We Think We Can” campaign to stay on track with our budget for this year. What will 2005 bring? Can we do this? Will we do this? 

There’s a strange paradox in our country right now. We live in an age of unparalleled abundance. We are the most prosperous people in the history of the world. However, we are also afflicted with a very real sense of scarcity. I am reminded of the story of a dorm answering machine from a college student named Dave. When you called his number, this is the message you got: “Hi, this is Dave. If it’s Mom or Dad, please send money. If it’s the student loan office, you didn’t loan me enough money. If it’s a friend, you still owe me money. If it’s a girl, leave your number and I’ll call you right back, and don’t worry, I have plenty of money.” 

We live in an age of unparalleled abundance, but we fear scarcity. It’s like the opening lines from the novel, A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” 

I thought of a parallel image to that this week. Prior to about 1990, all of the television channels had what they called a “weather center” which produced the forecast for the weather for that day and for the next 5 days. Sometime shortly after 1990 they all changed the title of their weather center to a “storm center” or a “severe weather center.” Why? Because crisis or bad news sells more news. On a beautiful day like today, you could tune into one of the network stations and learn the news from the severe weather center. 

We live in abundance. But we are afraid of scarcity. These are the best of times, but we think “scarcity.” 

Let me share with you a text this morning. It’s from Ephesians 3:20. “God is able to do through us far more abundantly than anything we can ask or imagine.” Let this text work with you for a while. I happen to have a passion for the possible. 

There is a story about a little girl who was watching her mother drink a glass of lemonade. She said to her mother, “Mommy, can I have a drink of your lemonade?” The mother said, “Sure.” The little girl paused for a moment and then she said to her mother, “Mommy, if I drink that lemonade, will I catch your dreams?” I want you to catch some of my dreams. Let me share with you a few dreams and visions for 2005. This is not exhaustive or complete. There are some pictures to go along with the dreams. I hope you catch some of these dreams. 

First of all, in the area of ministry.

·         We would offer a meaningful increase in compensation for a superb staff. I believe, without bias or prejudice, that we have the finest staff in all of Methodism. Bill Easum writes, “I hire for passion and character. It is impossible to teach passion and character; but it is possible to teach skills to people with passion and character.”[ii]

·         I want to make available adequate funds for a valuable summer staff retreat, something we did not do in 2004, to provide a kind of Sabbath for the staff at least once each year for 36-48 hours.

·         I want to fully fund our half-time Coordinator of Singles Ministry. Nearly 50% of the adult population in America today is single. We need to take this very seriously.

·         I want to expand our already exciting work with children and youth, including modest stipends for weekly recreational leaders, Sunday morning and Sunday evening “Kids Connect” leadership, and college or seminary interns.

·         I want to support our “home grown” music leadership in our Sunday Night worship team. This is a team that definitely has a passion for excellence. 

And then there’s the area of mission and outreach.

·         I want to be sure we complete 100% of our Mission Share to the Western Pennsylvania Conference in 2005. We’ve come close in the past two years, but we haven’t quite made it. Some real vision is emerging through this annual conference, and Christ Church needs to be a leader in “full share” giving.

·         I want to provide adequate funds for our “Beyond the Walls” ministry on cable television and the Internet. This means adequate funding for our media ministries and technical support—something that has grown and matured over the past five years.

·         I want to continue missionary support on several fronts, including a strong support for the Nyadire United Methodist Hospital in Zimbabwe. So much has happened because we planted a doctor in that place a year ago. I learned just this past week that the government of Zimbabwe possibly wants to partner with us to build a dormitory for nursing students to be on-site at the hospital for training. Dr. Rao is such an excellent teacher, they want to take advantage of his skill and his teaching ability.

·         I want to look again at satellite possibilities—worshiping communities outside the doors of this church for people who want to believe, but who have not yet found the courage or the way to step across the threshold of the door in a church building. 

And let’s talk a little bit about facilities.

·         I want to pay for the large area of flat roof repair over several years—repair that was authorized by the Trustees and completed just a few weeks ago. Plus I would like to have sufficient funds for some ongoing upgrades and improvements to our valuable facilities.

·         I want to maintain and continue to improve the 61 Highland Road property, which now has an outdoor chapel and worship area. 

Never underestimate the power behind clearly articulated dreams. Helen Keller was once asked, “Is there anything worse than being blind?”  

“Yes,” she said. “Having no vision.” 

Abraham Lincoln attended the Wednesday evening worship service at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. He was not a member of the church, and he didn’t want to sit in the congregation because it would cause too much of a stir. Instead he sat behind the door in the minister’s office, with the door slightly ajar, to listen to the sermon. 

One night he was walking home with an aide. The aide asked, “Mr. Lincoln, what did you think of the sermon tonight?” Lincoln replied, “I thought the message was well thought out, thorough, powerfully delivered, and very eloquent."” 

“So you thought it was a great sermon?” the aide queried. 

“No,” said Lincoln, “the sermon failed. It failed because the minister did not ask us to do something great.” 

Visions set a fire within us and send us into God’s future to do something great. 

I have always heard that it is time to retire or move on when you no longer have any dreams for the church. That happened to me in my first appointment. I was there for 7 years. They were good people. I loved them deeply. But there were no more visions emerging. It was time to move on. 

I want you to know that I still have some visions left in me for this church. Most of them come through you from God. 

I read somewhere that we need the sensitivity of a stethoscope, the stability of a gyroscope, and the vision of a telescope. I think that’s a good word to the church. 

If we dare to put together the combined resources of Christ Church, we can claim a bold and faithful vision for the coming year. A young man wanted to ask a girl’s hand in marriage. He went to her father to ask permission. The father said to him, “Son, you don’t know what you’re asking for. My daughter has very expensive tastes. She wants only the finest things in life. I make a very good living, and I sometimes have trouble keeping up with her wants and desires." 

The young man thought for a moment and then said, “Sir, I have an idea. I think we can make it work. Why don’t we pool our resources together?” 

We have exciting possibilities here. When we pool the human and financial resources of this congregation, God only knows what can happen for good. 

I don’t want to duplicate possibilities that are happening in other churches. I am not trying to model or match any other church. Some chickens wandered in a barnyard, when some kids playing football accidentally kicked the football over into the barnyard among the chickens. The rooster walked over to it, looked at it closely, then called all the chickens over and said, “I want you to see what some of the chickens in the other barnyards are doing.” 

I call you into partnership with God’s vision for Christ Church. I call you into a sense of enthusiasm for what can happen here. The word “enthusiasm” comes from root words meaning “in God.” It’s far deeper and more meaningful than the word “excitement.” 

There’s a story about a French monastery in the late 18^th century, where they were experimenting with electricity. The question emerged as to how fast electricity moves. The abbots of the monastery decided to try an experiment. They asked all 1000 monks to stand in a line and join hands. Then they applied an electrical shock to the first monk to see how long it would take to get to the last one. When they applied the electrical shock, all 1000 monks jumped into the air at the same time.  

Someone said there are three conclusions you can draw from this story. The first: electricity moves with astonishing speed. Second: abbots had tremendous authority over their monks in the 18^th century. 

But the third conclusion would be this: wouldn’t it be wonderful if 1000 people in this church could get excited enough to jump into the air at the same time. That’s what I ask of you for next year! 

God is able to do through us far more abundantly than all we ask or think. 

I want you to catch a few dreams this morning. I want you to catch a passion for the possible that is rooted in God. I want you to pray about that passion and what it means as you prepare for Consecration Weekend in 7 days. 

I want you to do it because, “God is able to do through you and me far more than we can ask or imagine.”