Where I grew up there were train tracks behind my house. We had a very small backyard with a fence, and on the other side of the fence were the tracks. You knew when there was a train on the tracks. There was a low rumble, and then the house shook. The commuter Amtraks to Boston whizzed by like clockwork and the freight trains lumbered along. On the other side of the train tracks was a ball field with a playground, and it was where the neighborhood kids got together to play. Today every kid has a basketball hoop in their driveway, back then we all had to share a hoop, and it was at the park—across the tracks. I could simply cut through the fence in my backyard, cross the tracks, and then climb through the gap in the fence at the park, or I could walk a quarter mile, on the street, walk over the bridge, and then walk the length of the park.
This may shock you- but, even though my mother warned me, and I saw all the gruesome films in school, I crossed the train tracks anyways. I always looked both ways, and I did my best to not get my feet stuck under the rails. You could see a train was coming. Off in the distance, a hazy light in the horizon. You knew it was coming—you didn’t know how far away it was, and you didn’t know how long it would take for that train to get there. It was obviously coming—it wasn’t going to change direction or its course.
I was in a meeting a few years back and a question was asked of the pastors who had gathered—How long do we give our churches? How long will our churches continue to keep their doors open and minister to the community? I was shocked by the answers my esteemed clergy colleagues gave. 15 years! 10 years!
We have seen the hazy light in the horizon for some time. We won’t know how far away the train is—the train is getting closer. It’s on the tracks, but it’s not too late to change the course. So that’s the bad news—what’s the Good News?
The Good News is—we still have time, a little money in the bank, everything we need to make it through a faith recession. Our congregation is incredibly blessed with hundreds of talented ministers. We have God: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We have a God to create, redeem and sustain us.
Jesus also talked about the foolish man who didn’t plan ahead. He didn’t calculate how much it would cost or how much he needed for materials and the king/general who didn’t battle plan well, and went into a war woefully overmatched.
My friend tells me of her son’s football coach who during a game called for a run play—it didn’t work. He came back and called the same play—with the same result—it didn’t work. They ran the play the third time—it still didn’t work! That’s just poor coaching! Coaches need to make adjustments. We need to make half-time adjustments—because the game isn’t the same anymore. We can’t keep running the same play over and over again and expect the results to be different.
The first step to growing into our vision and mission is to recognize the game is changing. The second step is to take an insightful look into who we are. Let’s decide who we are—who we are not- who we are meant to be—and then let’s be it—and let’s be it great at it!
We may decide to be a mission oriented church, or that our church has a heart for social justice. Maybe we will become the church known for music. There may be a strong calling to be a Greener church. Maybe it’s Christian education—and we need a church-wide ramp up in faith formation. We may decide that we just want to be a social club. Perhaps we realize a dream of outreach to the community. We may become a discipleship church, where we try to evangelize everyone in the greater Lebanon area.
In order to be all things to all people—we would need to be a Mega-church. I don’t think we want to be a Mega-church. Some churches are content to be small and keep doing the same things, keeping everyone happy until the money runs out. I don’t think that sounds like us either. I think we should plan, act, hold each other accountable, move forward—but I need your help to say what our church should look like.
This is our time—and what we do today and tomorrow will determine how long we can keep that train in the distance. How much does the church mean to you? How important is this church to you? We want to see it standing proud overlooking Route 207 and the Green well into future generations. We need to act. We need to be like the wise builder, who thinks, and plans, and when appropriate—acts appropriately.
