Can You See It?

      On the wall of my office I have this picture of the Golden Gate Bridge when it was still under construction in 1936.   The two towers are in place and the roadbed is arching toward completion high above the waves.

       I like this picture because it reminds me that everything, no matter how permanent it looks or how famous it is, starts as an idea. Somebody looks at a barrier and says, "We could throw a bridge across that."

       It all starts as a vision.  But vision without execution is really only hallucination.  Even the best idea is pointless until it is accompanied by risk, team work, expense, expertise and hard work.

       Moorpark Presbyterian started as an idea about twenty five years ago.  Now the dream is a beautiful, functional reality – just like the bridge. In some circles this would be time for us to congratulate ourselves on a job well done and enjoy the easy life. But that doesn’t do it for the church because the church isn’t a building.  The church is a family.  But we are not just a family.  We are also a family with a mission.  That mission has been given us by our Lord.  The question is, “Can you see it?”

       How we start is important.  When NASA launches a rocket the most important issue besides not blowing up is the angle of launch.  The very first Mercury mission in 1961 was launched at a slightly wrong angle.  As a result, the Mercury capsule splashed down with its occupant, a monkey named Ham, 132 miles away from the intended target.  It wasn’t much of a wrong angle but that’s all it took.

       Twenty three years ago when Moorpark Presbyterian was launched, we tried to do it right.  By and large I think we did.  We do some things very well. There are certainly some things we can do better. But we have a great foundation to improve on.  And unlike the monkey in the Mercury capsule we have control over the ship.  We have the opportunity to do mid course corrections while heading where God calls us to go.

        This is why we have just completed a four month process of exploring and refining our vision.  I appreciate the leadership of Linda Dahl and Joan Johnson and the strong participation of about fifty people from the congregation, elders, staff and members of the Worship, Mission Outreach, Integration & Discipleship, Evangelism and Christian Ed Ministry Teams.  

       Everyone’s worked hard.  It’s been an exciting process.  I personally agree with and support every last thing the team developed. 

       As a side note let me say 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 be part of the family too.

       Where are we and where is the Lord calling us to go next?  That was the question that faced the Visioning Team. 

       We started at the very beginning with our Mission Statement as a congregation. 

       Like the great UCLA basketball coach John Wooden we started with the fundamentals.  You’ve probably heard how Wooden started out.  The first time he met with all of the high powered players who flocked to UCLA after dazzling high school careers he would say, “Gentlemen, this is a basketball!”  Then he would spend two days teaching them how to put on their socks.  Wooden knows that sound fundamentals are the key to everything else. 

       The fundamental for us, besides the word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit, is our Mission.

       You’ve probably seen our Mission statement.  It’s printed in the newsletter, the web site and in every Sunday’s order of service.  Here is our mission:  “The purpose of Moorpark Presbyterian Church is to glorify God and to help people become fully committed, joyful disciples of Jesus Christ.” 

       I like the emphasis there on the word “disciple.”  Jesus never told us to make church attenders.  He told us to make disciples.  But what does it mean to be a fully committed disciple of Jesus Christ? 

       We know that God calls us to three great commitments as individuals and as a church.  I want you to think about each of these and take your own temperature on each of these.  All three are essential.  They must come in this order.  You can’t skip any of them.  They are on the screen.

         First, God calls each of us to a commitment to Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior.  Most of us are there.  If you aren’t there, if you have questions about what that means, if your children have come home from VBS or TNT singing songs you don’t really understand or relate to, please talk to me.

       Second, God calls each of us to a commitment to the church as the body of Christ.  This shows up in mutual care, financial support, being regular in worship and in the use of the spiritual gifts God has given us.    

       Third, God calls each of us to a commitment to the work of Christ in the world.  There are many needs out there.  Not every need is a call for us to get personally involved.  But we each need to get involved somewhere. 

       Three commitments -- to Jesus Christ, to the people of Christ and to the work of Christ.  That’s the road to maturity.  Growing in those commitments is also the road to the joy that we want to be the hallmark of this congregation.  “The purpose of Moorpark Presbyterian Church is to glorify God and to help people become fully committed, joyful disciples of Jesus Christ.”

       Can you see it?

       Once we know who we are, the next step is to decide what we won’t ever change. What are the hills we will die on? What won’t we change even if holding to them causes the decline or even death of this congregation?

       Here are the ‘non-negotiables’ of Moorpark Presbyterian Church.   These are the things we have no intention of ever changing even if everything else changes. They are up on the screen screen.

      First, Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and we worship Him in spirit and truth. 

      Second, the Bible is the true Word of God.

      Third, prayer is an essential part of our lives.

      Fourth, all are welcome.

      Fifth, we love one another, providing compassion and support for our church family and beyond.

       Sixth, we love and minister to our youth, involving them in the life of the church.

       Seventh, all are encouraged to discover and use their spiritual gifts to the glory of God

       Eighth, we are disciples of God and are called to make disciples of others.

       Ninth, we are called to share our faith with all people.

       Tenth, we minister to the spiritual and physical needs of humankind in our local community and throughout the world.

       Okay.  Those are our basics – our mission statement and our core values that drive what we do and are. 

        Can you see it?

        But what we need for our mid-course correction is also a Vision Statement that looks ahead and gives us a vivid picture of where we believe God is calling us to go at this point in our life together.  Unlike our God-given mission and our core values, this vision is something that can and will change.  The Vision Statement adopted by your team is seen as good for the next three years. 

      We aren’t talking about more work. But we are talking about focused work. We are talking about things that require us to stretch and require real faith – not just our good technique. 

       So here is the statement from our team:  “Empowered by the Holy Spirit, Moorpark Presbyterian Church is a joyful light, beckoning and integrating people into the fellowship of believers.”

       You will note right away that this is an outward vision.  That’s very appropriate at this point in the life of our congregation.  For many years our vision has been somewhat inner focused – not completely but at least somewhat.  This is a natural result of growing our programs, our staff and three large-scale building projects.  It’s also natural as a church grows older for the focus to become more internal – our comfort zone, our friends.  

       But 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.

       Last September we had people ask questions that we are going to address in our Lenten sermon and small group series before Easter.  Let me share four questions with you today.  “How do we share our faith with non believers?”  “How can I help this church grow?  How can I show an unbeliever God’s grace?” “How can MPC insure we are fulfilling our opportunity to support global missions?”  I’m not going to try to answer those questions in one sermon next Lent. They are much too big.  I believe that those are the very questions God is calling us to answer with our lives over the next three years.

       We are well past the point where we need to bring in more people to build programs 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.  

       Can you see it? 

       That’s the only reason we have to grow. But it’s the only valid, God-honored motive anyway.  

       “Empowered by the Holy Spirit, Moorpark Presbyterian Church is a joyful light, beckoning and integrating people into the fellowship of believers.” What we are saying is that we want to make an increasing difference in our community – both in sharing the good news and meeting human needs in a hands-on way.

       But if we do this, we can expect resistance.  You can bank on it.  The Devil won’t fight anything as hard a church trying to reach out with the good news.  If we do what we say we want to do we are going to invade his turf.   So expect a fight.  Put on the armor of God Paul describes in Ephesians 6 – there’s a reason it was read. Go back and check it out.

        The team then developed Strategic Priorities that look at the Vision Statement and answer the question ‘How are we going to get there?’  These Strategic Priorities are the things that will guide our planning, including budgeting.

        The first Strategic Priority is to establish a stronger emphasis on evangelism.  This might include identifying people with the spiritual gift of evangelism and freeing them up from roles in the internal life of the church to become missionaries in the community.  You might find that your primary area of ministry is on the soccer fields on Saturday morning.

       It means training, equipping and mobilizing church members in personal evangelism.  It might involve establishing a presence at local colleges or developing a center for outreach and conversation. It might be something physical like better directional signs on the property or a cross on the outside of the sanctuary. 

       Another strategic priority in to “cultivate a worship environment where people are drawn closer to God.”  

       Now I’ll be honest.  I was a little put off by that one at first – because that’s exactly what we’ve been seeking to do for the last twenty three years. 

       I was reminded of a friend who was having a planning meeting for youth ministry some years ago. One of the newest people on the team said, “I have an idea.  Let’s plan programs that the kids enjoy!”  All of the people who had been working hard in the program for years felt like saying, “Things the kids enjoy!  What a novel idea!  We never thought of that.”  Because obviously they had thought of nothing else for years.

       I think that’s also true of our worship team.  But the truth is we can always do it better.  We can do it differently. 

       We can’t perfectly meet each person’s ideal definition of worship because one person’s idea of worship heaven is another person’s idea of worship heck.  But there are ways to do it better and with greater flexibility.  The priority has some specific bullet points that are well worth considering.

       A third Strategic Priority is to increase our involvement in hands-on local mission in the communities where we live.  This might include after school tutoring, helping clean up the arroyo, or opening a community counseling center with lay counselors under the direction of a professional. We also want to increase our involvement on hands-on foreign mission.  Hand-son is the operative word here. 

       A fourth priority is to identify, encourage, value and honor the use of individual spiritual gifts.  Now 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. But we can always do it better and we need to.  God has given each of us spiritual gifts and God expects that we use them for the good of His people.  We need to help that happen.

       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.   One great way to get involved right now is to join a Ministry Team if you aren’t already part of one.  That’s where the action is going to be in the next few months.

       It doesn’t matter what I see or what the Visioning Team sees.  What matters is what you see.  So I ask again, “Can you see it?”

       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.

       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."   To the angel of the church of Philadelphia write….“See I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.”   I talked about this back in 2005,

       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 cool. I’d like to be known as "Angel Dave."

       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 -- 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.

        Like the church of Philadelphia God has set an open door before us. 

        Can you see it?

        The question for us is, “If we see the door will we walk through it.”

       So let me ask you about where you are?  Do you have a commitment to Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?  Do you have a commitment to the church as the body of Christ?    Do you have a commitment to the work of Christ in the world? 

       How does that show up?

        Are you inner focused as a believer or are you outer focused?  Are you willing to stretch?  Are you willing to give?  Are you willing to serve?  Are you willing to come get your hands dirty? 

          Do you see it?