Each January, in obedience to the Constitution, the President of the United States appears before Congress and gives a report on the State of the Union.  This is a very, very big deal.  I know that because I watch “West Wing.”  Weeks are spent preparing the speech.  Staff members and special interest groups fight over getting a mention – just even a line – promoting their pet program. 

       I don’t want that kind of pressure.  That is why I’m not President.  (I’m sure that’s the only reason.)  I don’t even do a State of the Union message or, in our case, a State of the Church message, every year.  In fact, I have not done one since 2002.  I also keep my plans to deliver such a message secret from all of the lobbyists and special interest groups in our church so I don’t have to follow their wishes.  I plan to keep to that until I am appropriately bribed. 

       This is not a “normal sermon.”  Those of you who are visitors today will hear about what you might consider to be “family business.”  But I strongly encourage you to listen anyway.  You might hear some things about who we are in the Lord, and what we are looking to do in the ministry of Jesus Christ, that will lead you to come back – and maybe even become part of the family. 

       A State of the Church message is appropriate at times of special and significant shifts in our ministry.  The purpose is to help you understand what is going on in the life of our church from my perspective as your pastor.  It is to help us look at what is ahead.  It is also to warn against any particular dangers. 

       This is obviously a time of great change for our church. 

       First, and soon to be most obvious, construction has begun on our church sanctuary.  I am so glad to be able to say that.  When we broke ground last January, it looked like things would get moving right away – which didn’t happen.  We experienced multiple delays – some of them from the City and some of them from our own need to adequately prepare for a project that is the largest we have ever done.  

       I am so grateful for the Building Committee, chaired by Roy Smith, for working all this through month after month in Monday night meetings.   Project manager Dan Varnum and architect Tom Flitsch have already put in countless hours and burned many creative brain cells.  Building projects don’t just happen.  I am grateful to everyone, including you in your strong financial support, for bringing us to this place.  

        This list of gratitude certainly includes our God.  I am amazed at the way the Lord met a need we didn’t even know that we were going to have.  If I ever wondered whether building the sanctuary was His will for us, the events of last summer removed those doubts.

       You will remember back in 2001 how we made a decision to buy 2.7 acres of vacant land between our church and Pinecrest School for $750,000.  That was a financial stretch but one we felt we had to make.  When we bought the land we had a number of possible uses in mind – the future sanctuary, a larger fellowship hall were a couple.  We knew we would need more parking.  We weren’t sure how we would make the land useful because of the difference in elevation.  Buying the old Angels Flight from Los Angeles was one option.  But we knew that buying the land was the right thing to do.  You agreed by your votes and your gifts.

       Then came last spring when we faced both a need and a realization.

       The need was the large gap between the financial resources we had and the projected cost of building what we need to build.  The gap was about a million dollars.  We couldn’t reduce the size of the project and have the facilities we need for our ministry in the community.  We seemed to be stuck.

       But we also faced the realization – the realization of what creative, I believe Holy Spirit inspired, architectural design can accomplish.  The redesign of the sanctuary and the addition of the huge walk-in basement had taken away much of the need for the upper property.  The reorientation of the project made room for the parking we need on this lower lot.  We realized that we don’t need the upper property to meet our facility needs. 

       A huge financial gap! Surplus land!  Hmm.  We knew that the land had increased in value.  We didn’t know how much.  Initial estimates were between 1.6 million (not nearly enough once we pay off the debt) and 2 million (almost enough).  Well as you know, we are now in escrow for 2.25 million.  This will give us enough to close the gap and move forward. 

       We didn’t do that.  God did it.  He met a huge 2005 need way back in 2001 when He nudged us to buy that land.  We didn’t know His purposes so we filled in with our best guesses.  But God knew the program and now He has revealed it to us.  So, at the terrible risk of sounding like a Baptist or something, “Do I hear an “Amen” to God?  Now let me hear a “Thank you Jesus.”  If we aren’t thankful, if we don’t sense God’s strong leading and blessing on our congregational life, then there is something way wrong with our thinking and our praise.   “This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

       God is doing something big across our community.  According to figures collected by my good friend Tony Amatangelo, pastor of Lifespring Community Church, eight years ago there were eight Protestant Churches in this community.   Now there are twenty.  The number of worshipers in Bible-teaching Protestant churches in this community has doubled in the last eight years.  This is a much faster rate of growth than the area.  Between the Protestant churches and the Catholic Church, about 6,000 people are in worship on an average weekend.  God is up to something in this area.  We are part of it.       

       But even with increase in the number of churches, the need for us to take a strong part is still there.  Many of the newer churches have no permanent facilities.  They are in school facilities as we were for the first six years of our church life. We need to pray that God will bless them even more than He has blessed us.   And we also see that there is a lot for us to do.  There are still about 28,000 to be reached just in Moorpark and we aren’t just a church for Moorpark.  The question isn’t “how large should our church get?”  We are large enough for all practical purposes already.  The question is “Who should be left out?”

       When we held the campaign to receive pledges for the construction of the sanctuary, the theme was “God Made Room for You. Will You Also Make Room for Others?”  By your pledges and giving, you’ve answered that is a big way.   

       The sanctuary that is now getting underway doesn’t look like much yet.  It’s just scratches in the dirt.  But just wait.  By late 2006 or early 2007, we will have a 550 seat sanctuary that will allow us to eventually grow into a congregation of over a thousand members with an average attendance of over 800.  With the completion of the basement we will have a facility suitable for our exploding ministry to youth – more than twice as large as the present youth rooms.  We have a great staff and program in place and a future to reach.

       Of course buildings are just buildings.  They aren’t ministry in themselves but are simply tools for ministry.  This year of building construction needs to be accompanied by two things that I want to focus on for the balance of this message.   One is a need and the other is a concern.

       The need is that we anticipate and prepare for the future.  This is certainly true organizationally.  A growing church requires constant changes in how we do things. 

       I read somewhere that a yacht that is headed in the right direction is still technically off course 98 percent of the time.  It is headed the right way but it always needs to adjust itself to the conditions – the winds and the currents – that surround it.  We can’t make hard long-range plans for an unpredictable future but we do need a long-range vision and enough organizational flexibility not to get in the way.

       Just the other day I was talking to a great young pastor who is starting a church in the area.   He was lamenting the presence on his church board of a group of older guys who, in his opinion, seem to be more concerned with things like organizational charts and staffing needs than they are with “spiritual things” like preaching and prayer.  They are all believers and love the Lord and his church.  But they focus their energy on what they bring to the table from their experience in business.

       With my deep sensitivity, I told him he needs to get down on his knees and thank God for those guys.  They will be the ones who will help this young church grow past the “you bring the guitar and I’ll get the pizza” planning stage and become a real force in the community.  I suggested that it is his job as pastor to help them keep the proper focus on why they are doing what they are doing.  This way administration doesn’t just become administrivia.  It becomes a vital tool for the health and growth of the Kingdom of God through His church.

       But there is a more important issue.  That is, how do we individually prepare our minds and hearts and wills to be even more of a part of what God’s plan to reach more of the surrounding community through this church? 

       Moses Pulei who is with us on our staff as an intern for the first time is a great guy and a good friend.  But that’s not the reason he is now on our staff.   He is here because he has the gifts to help us grow in our outreach.  He is here to help us become even more outward looking – because we need to be more concerned with ministry by the church than ministry in the church. 

       A newer church like ours with ongoing building programs has many internal needs.  With all of those it is possible to forget that we are called to be involved in mission beyond our own church in the community and the world. Our Mission Outreach Ministry Team has done a great job of helping us focus outward.  We have already made a strong financial response to Hurricane Katrina. I am looking forward to the Mission Fair on October 2.  But we need even more if we are to grow to maturity in this key area. 

       This is why this morning Moses begins an adult class on missions – what they are, what are the trends, how we do them.  There is an insert in this morning’s bulletin about this class.  I hope there is a fantastic turnout.  I would be delighted if it were so big that Janet’s class or my class got booted out of the Fellowship Hall or Fireside Room and into the Kitchen. 

       Then, next Winter and Spring, Moses and I will team teach a class on another important topic – personal outreach to friends and neighbors through what is called friendship evangelism.   The great majority of people who come to a church for the first time come because someone invites them.  The danger of these past few years of “not really enough room” is that we’ve forgotten how to effectively reach out and include in.  Once we complete the sanctuary, there will be plenty of room.  God is up to something exciting here and we need to share it.  Beginning in January we look at how we can do this with love, wisdom and power. 

       We don’t see ourselves as a low-commitment religious club for the benefit of the people who are already here. We are people with a God-given vision who are working and giving and praying to make it real.   It isn’t an institutional need.  We are well past the point where we need to bring in more people to build programs or 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 and a maturing, discipleship relationship with His church.  That’s the only reason we have to grow.  It’s the only valid, God-honored motive anyway.

      As we grow and reach out, we also have to be on our guard against disunity in our church family.  This is the concern.

       The Lord’s doing is marvelous in our eyes.  But it is hateful in the eyes of others who would seek to disrupt and, if possible, destroy, what God is doing here at Moorpark Presbyterian.  I’m not talking about normal friction between people that occurs in any organization made up of sinners – all of who need to be saved by grace and who need to learn what the Lord tells us about forgiveness and forbearance.  That is expected and normal.  I am talking about the   potential for significant conflict that is sown by the Lord’s enemy and ours. 

       As the chair of the Committee of Ministry for the Presbytery, I know that there are three churches that are the leaders in growth and outreach.  They are growing in numbers and in effectiveness.  Two of them are engaged in large building programs. 

       Two of these three churches have experienced major conflict in the past year.  It is not conflict over genuine issues but over personality and style.  Anonymous letters have been sent out in these congregations attacking the pastors and the elders.  People begin to suspect that their long-time friends may be the secret authors.  Lines are drawn.  The sniping, back biting and factionalism sucks energy right out of the pastors and staff and committed lay leadership.   The congregation’s ministry effectiveness is reduced. 

       Two of the three churches that are the leaders in growth and outreach have also experienced major conflict right in the midst of a time of vibrant growth.   I don’t believe that is a coincidence.  Satan doesn’t like healthy growing churches.  

      We are the third church in this group.  So you have to believe that we are on the hit list for conflict. That means we need to be especially on our guard and on our knees.

      We do this by staying in tune with Jesus Himself. 

      Put a hundred pianos in a hall and tune one of them to a tuning fork.  Then tune the next piano to the one you just tuned, and tune the third piano to the second and so on through a hundred pianos. 

       No matter how careful you are, by the time you reach the eighth piano, it will  obviously be out of tune with the first one.  By the time you get to fifty, the difference will be painful.  The only way to tune a hundred pianos so they can make music together is to tune each of them carefully and individually to the tuning fork.

       It’s the same with the church.  As long as we tune off each other – take our cues from each other about what behavior is proper in the church of Jesus Christ, we will have the potential for major discord.  The only cure is for each of us to individually tune ourselves to Jesus and His love.  That is the way we will be able to make spiritual music together.

       As Gerald Sitttser of Whitworth College writes in Loving Across Our Differences, “Diversity strengthens a church only if mutual love first unites it.  Without such love, diversity will divide and destroy the church every time conflict erupts.  Unity of love will protect us from becoming prisoners to ourselves – to our pet doctrines, rituals, causes, programs, movements or methods.  It will also keep us from using the faults, errors and excesses of other believers to excuse our own.”

       A growing, changing church makes more key decisions in a year than an average church makes in a decade.  More decisions are opportunities for more conflict.  I’m not saying we should always agree.   We won’t.  But let us disagree the right way – in tune with the Lord and His mandate for the peace and unity of His church. 

       Now I am a control freak.  I know that.  That’s why I preach “state of the Church” sermons every few years.

       But I am a recovering control freak.  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.   We plan to visit the sites of these seven churches on our Greece and Turkey trip next summer. 

       Now there is one characteristic of each of Jesus’ words to the church that is especially significant for us today.  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.  Bil could be the Youth Angel.  Christine could be the “Angel of Music.”   That would be cool.

        But I don’t believe the angel is 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.  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.

       Like the church of Philadelphia Jesus speaks to in Revelation 3, we have an open door before us that no one can shut.  So let us say to the Lord with the Psalmist, “Open to us the gate of righteousness and we will enter through it.”  For the Lord has done things in our midst that are marvelous in our eyes.