The State of the Church

by Dave Wilkinson

Ephesians 2:19-22

April 14, 2002

I made a wrong turn and discovered Moorpark. Then I lost it again for almost fourteen years.

It was 1972 and my first year as a student at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena. I had a friend from my church in Northern California who was a student at Cal Lutheran. We got togther to visit a few times.

Usually I took the 134 to the 101 and then north to the campus. But I got tired of the 101. So one time I got one time I got creative. I looked at a map and drove through the Santa Susanna hills.

I had never seen the terrain there but it was immediately familiar. For it was the setting of most every movie and televisions series I’d seen as a kid. Here I was actually driving down the road where Roy Rogers was wounded and left for dead in an ambush. I was actually, I now know, within a mile of the entrance to the Lone Ranger’s secret silver mine — the source of his silver bullets.

Just when I thought I’d reached the end of the world, I twisted my way past some small, run down houses and arrived on High Street in Moorpark. I remember my reaction. "Who would ever want to live in a place like this?"

Well, Moorpark has changed dramatically since then and so have I. It’s no longer a wrong turn when I drive down High Street. It’s home and I’m glad to be here. I’m also glad to be doing what I’m doing.

In just nine days, Carol and I will leave for a four month sabbatical in Britain. It’s been almost two years since we first started exploring this with the Session. It’s been sixteen months since we heard that we had been given a Clergy Renewal Grant by the Lilly Endowment to make it possible. It’s been a long time coming. But now it’s almost here. I’ll share some more about this next Sunday.

But this morning I don’t want to talk about the "us" of me and Carol but the "us" of Moorpark Presbyterian Church. I wanted to take the opportunity, as I have two or three other times over the past fifteen years, to give a "state of the church" message.

Now this is a personal statement. It’s my reading of where we are at. So unlike a normal sermon, this message is subjective. You will hear the personal pronoun "I" from me more often this morning than you normally hear in four months worth of sermon. But then I’m going to be away for four months so it evens out.

I also want to be very transparent in my sharing. I want to tell you the truth about where we are and what lies ahead of us as a church and what I see as my role in this.

I have been your pastor now for over fifteen years. That carries it’s own dangers. I sometimes hear it said of pastors that he or she "stayed about two years longer than they should have." That’s especially hard when the person has only been somewhere for a year. But I am sensitive to the issue. I have asked your Session and the Personnel Committee to let me know when those two years begin. All they have said to this point is "not yet." If you have a different answer, please feel free to talk to Steve Rankin or Chris Adams who are the active elders on the personnel committee. For the request is real. I never want to be an impediment to the health or growth of this congregation. I know that the church isn’t here to serve me and my needs. I am here to serve the church.

You may not realize it but 15 years is a long time for a person to serve as a pastor of a congregation. It’s not usual. I suppose part of this is restlessness. Part of it is growing boredom when both pastor and the congregation know exactly what is going to happen and who is going to say and do what in each and every situation.

Now for my part, I’m not bored. Not at all. Maybe this is because I haven’t served one congregation in fifteen years but about five. Each stage of growth has brought unique rewards and challenges.

But the main reason I am here is that I really like this church. In fact, if I were not a pastor and moved to this area, I would go church shopping, as some of you have done, and I would join this church. Not every pastor can say that about the place they serve. I can and I’m glad.

If you are a visitor here this morning, you can easily recognize that I am talking today to the family. But listen in. You may like what you hear and decide that you want to part of the family too.

Now this just wouldn’t be a State of the Church message without a few numbers. Numbers aren’t the story about what is happening here. However, they are helpful for grasping the bigger picture -- just as temperature, pulse rate and blood pressure give a window on what is happening in our bodies.

I think some of the numbers may surprise you. They certainly surprised me. They made me realize that we aren’t as small as we sometimes think we are. They made me realize that we have more potential and resources than most and therefore more responsibility before God.

Moorpark Presbyterian has experienced fifteen years of steady growth. We have grown from six people to over four hundred adult members and involved non-members. Our average worship attendance is a very high 88% of our membership.

One writer named Lyle Schaller has called a church of our size "as close to heaven as a church gets." He means that we are large enough to enjoy a wide range of effective programs but not so large as to be unwieldy or impersonal. We do some things very well. There are certainly some things we can do better. But we have the foundation to improve on.

Did you know that at our present size, we are already larger than 97% of the churches in this country. Out of about 11,000 Presbyterian churches in this country, we are in the top seven percent as far as worship attendance.

These numbers may surprise you. We all know of churches that are much larger than we are. Some of these mega-churches are right in this area and they tend to be quite obvious. But nation wide, they are rare. We are in the top ten percent.

But it’s not just size or worship attendance. It’s involvement. We aren’t one of those churches where 20% of the people do 80% of the work. At our church about 60% of the people do 80% of the work. That’s not perfect but it’s way better than the norm. If you start feeling that you’re the only one doing anything around here, it’s because you have no idea how many things are being done and who is doing what. Not all the tasks are up-front or glamorous.

For example, did you know that the people who make and clean up the coffee for you on Sunday are a most capable, highly educated and brilliant group? These are people who probably are used to having other people make the coffee for them. But here they are, Sunday after Sunday, performing an essential service. It’s called servanthood. It’s not, "I have people who do these things for me" but "I’ll do it."

We are also strong in leadership. Next week we have a congregational meeting where we will vote on the recommendations of the Nominating Committee for elders and deacons in the church. Every year the Nominating Committee faces a hard problem. It’s not the one many churches face which is "how do we get some warm bodies to fill these slots?" Our problem is "how can we choose whom to nominate with so many gifted, growing, involved people around here?"

We are also strong in relationships. People care about each other. Yes, there are issues between people. The only way to avoid those is to have no people. But relationships tend to be up-front and honest.

I believe that this is strengthened by the way we don’t reward gossip or party spirit in our church. It is confirmed by the way we don’t give power to people to direct the course of our church except those people who have been chosen by the congregation for this role. In other words, our power structure on paper and our power structure in reality is the same thing. We don’t have hidden string-pullers and "powers behind the throne."

It is also very healthy that power is both widely shared by the Session through the Ministry Teams and easy to participate in for a relative newcomer. We aren’t one of those churches where you have to be in the church thirty years and have at least three generations buried in the graveyard outside before you can have a voice. We are open. We are open to newer people who have the gifts and the maturity that leadership requires.

Another area where I believe we are on the right track is in our shared vision. We have a vision to reach more of the surrounding area for Jesus Christ and we are taking concrete steps such as purchasing three more acres of land last May to make that happen. We don’t see ourselves as a closed club for the benefit of the people who are already here -- as wonderful and deserving as we all are. We see ourselves as actively involved in reaching out and including in.

We are well past the point where we need to bring in more people to build program and pay bills. We don’t have any sociological reasons to grow. The only reason we have to grow is that there are thousands of men, women, youth and children around here who need a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. That’s the only reason we have to grow. But it’s the only valid, God-honored motive anyway.

Some years ago before we launched a building program the Session asked me how long I planned to serve as pastor here. The answer to that is still the same and it’s still simple.

I plan to serve as pastor as long as you want me, as long as God allows me to be physically able, and as long as I feel I am being effective. I told the Session that because outreach is a core value with me, that I would take it as a sign to move on if the congregation or Session ever took a deliberate step to close the gate to new people — to say "this is as large as we want to be and no larger." Churches do make those kinds of decisions. But I’m not into maintenance ministry. That’s not how God made me.

My model for ministry is race driver Mario Andretti who once observed that "if you are in a race and feel that you have your car perfectly under control, you’re going to lose. You should always feel that you’re right on the edge." That describes the situation here pretty well.

But because we are always close to the edge, it is also important for you to know that my upcoming sabbatical is in no way the first step in disengaging from the ministry here. The purpose of a sabbatical is not to step away but to come back personally and spiritually re-energized for the next season in the life of Moorpark Presbyterian.

However, having said that, let me also observe that these four months will also be a great opportunity for us to learn something important about what we have built here togther. What we will learn is if we can truly function as we are called to function as the body of Christ — or if Moorpark Presbyterian is too dependant on one person. We will discern that by seeing if the church moves forward or falls back in things such as worship attendance and giving over the next four months.

I read about a pastor who went to serve a church in the Midwest. He was effective and well-liked. But he had one mysterious behavior. Each afternoon at 2:03 he left his office and walked to the train station to see the express train roar through. Then he walked back to his office. When the church board asked him about this aspect of his schedule he replied: "Just once a day I need to see something happen around here that I don’t have to push."

That’s not me. There’s a lot happening here that I don’t have to push. There is a lot that goes on that I only know about in a very superficial way. My ego doesn’t require that I feel indispensable. My good sense and my theology of the church tell me that if I am indispensable. the sooner I become dispensed with, the better. There is only one key person in the life of this church and that One is Jesus Christ. He is the foundation. He is the Head.

Since this is a state of the church message, let me identify two areas that cause me some concern.

One of these is the level of participation in our Ministry Teams. While our church has consistently grown over the past six years, the level of participation in the Ministry Teams has stayed pretty flat. That is too bad because through the Ministry Teams, the congregation as a whole has the opportunity to have a powerful, ongoing role in shaping the direction of this ministry.

I don’t believe that it’s a lack of support or involvement in the whole ministry of the church because participation in most every other area is strong. I think it may be that people are by-and-large pleased with the direction we are headed and see no need to get involved in this particular area.

This reminds me of a little boy who was slow starting to speak. His worried parents took him to specialist after specialist but nothing worked. The boy’s hearing was fine as was the shape of his mouth. He just remained silent until the one day when he sat down at the breakfast table, tasted his food, and announced, "These waffles are soggy." His startled mother and father grabbed each other and then their son with joy. Then they asked, "Why haven’t you spoken all these years." He replied, "Up ‘til now, everything was okay."

Well don’t wait until everything becomes less than okay to lend your voice. You have insights and ideas to contribute now. I encourage you to talk to one of the elders listed in today’s bulletin about the Ministry Team that interests you and come to their meeting this Tuesday.

The second area that concerns me for our church is finances -- even though giving is very strong at this point in the year. As was shared last fall, our giving is well-below the giving of comparable churches in our Presbytery. We do more with less than any church I know of. I don’t want to belabor this except to say that I appreciate the strength in this area year to date and that the next four months are crucial.

Now I am a control freak — but a recovering one. I have come to realize that I cannot guarantee the future of Moorpark Presbyterian Church. Only you can under the guidance of God. This is your church. This is not a small or weak church unless you make it that way. You have the power and the resources to accomplish whatever you choose to accomplish. What you decide is up to you.

The opening chapters of the Book of Revelation is a very powerful section where Christ speaks words of comfort, guidance and commendation to seven local congregations in the Roman province of Asia -- the west coast of modern-day Turkey.

This spring and summer, when Janet preaches, she will address the words of the Risen Christ to each of these seven churches. It promises to be a very powerful series.

There is one characteristic of each of Jesus’ words to the church that is intriguing. Jesus doesn’t speak to the church as a whole but to the "angel of the church" — "to the angel of such and such a church write."

There is a lot of discussion about what this angel of the church is. Some people think it’s a title for the pastor which, I think, sounds pretty good. I’d like to be known as "Angel Dave." Janet could be the Associate Angel.

That would be cool. But I don’t believe the angel is not the pastor. I believe that the "angel" is the essential, characteristic spirit of a congregation as a part of the body of Christ. And this suggests that we, collectively, have an identity that is greater than just the sum of all of us here added together -- synergy. We are not just a church made up of individuals who happen to be together. We have a collective identity before God for which we are individually responsible. And we have been handed a stewardship for the people who will be a part of this church long after we are all gone.

In June, 2003, we will celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of our chartering as a congregation. That seems like a long time. But Moorpark Presbyterian may last for hundreds of more years. Churches do that, you know. We are in the early days. We may be in the first five percent of the life of a church body that will be a blessing to people and a lighthouse for the gospel for years to come.

That’s an exciting idea. But it also gives us a specific responsibility. Just as the initial angle of a rocket determines the success of the flight, what we do now has the greatest potential for good for the future ministry of this church. Yes, the people who come after us will be able to do mid-course corrections as we have done, but the basic direction is determined at launch. We have the greatest impact.

Was it a wrong turn for us to be in Moorpark? Not at all. Is it a wrong turn for us to be in ministry here together? No. It’s a strong, creative, exciting, church. And it’s a joy for me to share it with you.