Sermons

“Why Does the Church Matter?”

Annual State of the Church Address: A Tale of Two Churches

A Disciples Affirmation; 2 Corinthians 9:1-15 – Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn

Vista La Mesa Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), La Mesa, California – June 10, 2018

“Faith Matters” Sermon Series #4

Holy God, bless the speaking and the hearing of these words that our hearts might be filled with courage and love that Christ’s church might stand faithful. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

I’m not sure I’ve ever given a sermon with three titles before. We are now in the fourth week of our “Faith Matters” sermon series. We have covered why the Holy Spirit matters, why God matters, and why Jesus matters. Our goal is to remind ourselves of the fundamentals of our faith, so that we have a clearer sense of what we believe and why we give our time and resources to this community called Vista La Mesa Christian Church.

But today, the sermon series bumps up against another occasion. Every year, on the second Sunday of June, we convene our annual congregational meeting. There is business we must attend to, as the whole body of this church. And when we do this, I like to set the scene by giving a sermon that is also a “state of the church” address. Perhaps this address will answer the question “Why does the church matter?” What we don’t cover this week, we will get to next Sunday. But whether we’re asking why the church matters, or what the state of the church is, it’s the final title printed in your bulletin that really gets at the answer. Because to respond to either of these question is to tell a tale of two churches.

What I mean to say is: there’s good news and there’s bad news. And neither side fully tells the story on its own. Once we’ve fully understood both aspects of the situation, our task will be to partner with God in turning the bad news into good news. So let’s start with the bad news, because, quite frankly, there’s a lot less of it to cover and it’s a lot less interesting. It’s pretty typical, honestly, and a little boring. Attendance in Sunday worship has been lower in the last year or so than it was previously. And giving isn’t keeping up with our expenses. You will hear more details about this later during the meeting when we share the current financial situation report. It’s not pretty.

We are very grateful to have regular, intentional donors in this congregation, who give generously. Around 40 households qualify as regular givers, which is kind of amazing, given our numbers. But it’s not enough to get us where we need to be. It rarely has been. This church has passed deficit budgets for years, sometimes without even realizing it, I’m guessing. We have also known for some time now that an out-sized proportion of our income comes from our older members, which means we are vulnerable to sudden, major losses as those folks pass on or move away. We have been growing in our understanding of stewardship as a spiritual discipline over the last seven years, but nobody can give what they don’t have. Meanwhile, we have committed to being a church with a wide spectrum of economic means, which means we must rely on those who do have plentiful financial resources for more support than they might be giving in a church full of people just like them. This is a faithful way to live out the gospel, but it’s harder than the way congregations often set themselves up. The bottom line is that our giving and our membership participation aren’t living up to our hopes and dreams for the ministry God is doing here at VLM. And if we want to sustain that ministry into the future, we’re going to have to do something about that.

On the other hand, our congregation has a spiritual and ministry balance sheet that shows incredible growth! In the last few years, participation in study and fellowship groups has grown by leaps and bounds. Michael’s Sunday Bible study, the Senior Men’s Coffee, the Women’s Study group, and our Praying & Coloring have taken off and become essential parts of the spiritual journeys of many of our members. Some of our members have even begun taking part in the activities that the Franciscan Peace Center offers in our Library. Meanwhile, a church that used to have just a few youth and a bunch of little kids suddenly has a youth group that can’t fit in one car! Our Partnership Youth Group model is just one aspect of the benefits of our deepening connections with District 8, the other Disciples churches in San Diego County.

We can’t talk about the good news that’s blossoming at Vista La Mesa without talking about Welcome Saturday. This monthly Saturday homeless outreach model is one that the La Mesa Methodist church started back in 2015. And they kept encouraging other congregations at the Interfaith Council to get on board. And for a while, I kept thinking, “That would be nice, but I just don’t think we’re there yet.” And then one July, as the Board was meeting, it became clear that our moment had arrived! And within a few months, we had borrowed their model and launched our own monthly Saturday outreach, dubbed “Welcome Saturday.” Going on two years later, we’ve made it our own and found it to be an incredible blessing. Even the County of San Diego has noticed. You should check out the commendation we received this week for our participation in the county’s hepatitis A outbreak response. (It’s on the bulletin board and our Facebook page.)

We’re at a point now where we’re beginning to seek out new ways to sustain and organize this ministry so it can continue and grow. If you haven’t stopped by to visit a Welcome Saturday yet, I encourage you to do so, because the spirit in the room is amazing. The love and care and thanksgiving and mutual generosity is almost overwhelming. This ministry is one of the ways that VLMCC is discerning who we are by acting out the gospel together and reflecting on our shared experience. That is to say, it’s showing us who God is calling us to be.

This last year has been exciting in a number of other ways as well. We hosted two interns – one international and one a seminarian preparing for ministry. The things we learned from Rachel and RJ will be with us for a long time. The gifts we discovered we had to offer them are also a revelation. And the mural RJ helped us create is a visible testimony to our growing sense of celebration of our Disciples identity as a church of radical hospitality and service. For a church our size, these experiments were risks, but we took them, and God blessed us for doing so!

There are other signs of life that are more subtle and need interpretation. Last August we held a major capital campaign so that we could replace the sanctuary roof and doors and carpet. These are the kinds of investments that a congregation that cares about its future makes. In our heart of hearts, we know God needs this church to carry on into the future, so we’re doing what needs to be done to ensure it will. A year ago, we finally finished a major bylaws revision project, and we created new structures for doing some of the church’s required tasks that spread leadership around more broadly. As we live into these new ways of doing church, we’ve become better at incorporating new members into the active portions of our ministry. VLM is a church for people who like to get involved! That is something to celebrate!

Finally of course, I can’t talk about this past year without talking about my sabbatical. On the one hand, it fits into the pattern of this church being willing to take risks like hiring interns. It is not an easy thing to let the pastor go away for three months. Things could always go wrong. But we stepped out in trust and did it anyway, and once again, it was a blessing. On the other hand, the sabbatical was also kind of like the new roof. A congregation that is willing to make the kind of investment in their pastor that a sabbatical requires is a congregation that is serious about being in ministry for the long haul. In recognizing the need for renewal, you have made it possible for me to serve as your leader longer and more effectively.

There is good news all over the place! Yet there is still this gap between all of the amazing ministry that is happening and our currently insufficient rate of underwriting it. As our Board has been discussing for the past month in preparation for today’s meeting, we are blessed with multiple investment funds that ensure that this moment of urgency need not become a crisis. Though we cannot and are not currently covering our expenses, we do not need to panic. We need to pay attention, and make careful plans, and follow through on them, but we do not need to panic.

When we say we need everyone to be “All In”, it’s a serious call. But we’re not just in a new season of revitalization because we need to be, to avoid a slow dwindling down. We can launch this new season because we’re ready. We’ve been learning more and more how to seek God with all our hearts, as our anthem said. We’ve been experiencing in more and more compelling ways why it is we come here in the first place. It is time to focus on growth in ministry and members. A couple of weeks ago, I suggested we need a goal of welcoming in 8-12 new families or members or households or whatever over the next 3 years. And I noted that that’s a goal that sounds impossible for us to do on our own, and that’s exactly the point. This thing we’ve got going here only works because we’re partnering with God. That’s what church is, followers of Christ partnering with God to bring healing and wholeness to a broken, fragmented world.

The Disciples Affirmation that Cheryl read earlier begins with our confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. It then moves directly to our commitment to accept the mission of Christ as our own. And that’s the perennial question for churches. That’s what Paul was asking in chapter 9 of Second Corinthians. You’ve got a lot of zeal, Corinthians. I’ve been telling these Macedonians how amazing you are. They’re pretty inspired. But now it’s time to back that up. Are you up for that? Paul knows what is possible when we do step up in faith and partner with God. “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work,” he writes. That’s what we’re being invited into. That’s what’s happening here at Vista La Mesa Christian Church. But the brothers are coming to Achaia, or in this case, East County, and we need to figure out if we’re ready. I’m praying that we are, so we can join Paul in shouting, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” Alleluia and Amen!