Sermons

“The State of the Church at Vista La Mesa”

Acts 1:1-21 – Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn

Vista La Mesa Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), La Mesa, California – June 9, 2019

 Holy God, bless the speaking and the hearing of these words that we might renew our commitment to being your church, here in this place, together.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

A year ago, we were in the middle of a sermon series about the fundamentals of our faith. We were examining the things that matter most in our faith, in an effort to clarify what we believe and who we are here at Vista La Mesa Christian Church.  This was all part of a bigger conversation, as we came together to answer God’s call to re-commit ourselves more fully to cultivating vitality and growth in ministry and membership.  Together, we decided to launch an effort that we named as lasting at least three years, while also recognizing that it was less likely to even have an end point, since it’s really more about shifting how we do church altogether.

We made these commitments for two reasons, one being pure necessity as clarified by the precarious and unsustainable financial situation we were in a year ago, and the second being that we were ready.  God had been preparing us for a new, deepened level of commitment and engagement as a faith community, and our finances were just the catalyst to help us realize that.  Whether we think of this as an actual three-year process, or whether we name it as a gradual process of growing into a new way of being and doing church, we’re one year in.  So where are we?  I don’t know how to describe but to say we’re in the thick of it and God is faithful.

Let me remind you of some of the ways we’ve experienced God’s faithfulness in the last year, and then we can look briefly at how best to keep going in the thick of it.  As I said to you a year ago, some of the goals we have set for ourselves seem “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.”  It’s amazing how God shows up once we admit we can’t do this on our own!

Let’s start with that financial situation that was causing so much heartburn.  A year ago, for the first time in a long time and possibly ever, we presented a proposed budget that included possible withdrawals from our investment funds to underwrite our operating costs.  The congregation voted to authorize the Board to review our income and expenses four times throughout the year and withdraw up to $10,000 – $2500 at a time – as needed to pay our bills.  I stand here before you today, with four Sundays left in our fiscal year, to tell you that we have not yet needed to pull any of that money.  (Can I get a Hallelujah?)

Now, to be clear, we are not expecting to end the year in the black, and the Board will be reviewing the numbers in the coming week to see if we do need to pull a little of that money.  But the fact that we haven’t so far is both a miracle and due to a couple things happening that will not likely happen again.  There are agents of God’s providence sitting among you who increased their regular gifts or newly started giving regularly, as part of their commitment to being “all in” for VLM.  In fact, that miracle is carrying over, and I want to tell you how, because it won’t be obvious when you look at the numbers.

The proposed budget for 2019-2020 has that same potential $10,000 draw from the Memorial Endowment Fund built into it.  As I mentioned, some of the reasons why we didn’t use it this year were things we cannot rightfully expect to have happen again. We want to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.  But what you won’t see in those numbers without a little context is this:  The projected income from offerings this year is the same as it was last year.  That might seem normal, if you didn’t think very hard about it.  But then you might remember that we lost George Bailey this year, someone we know as a generous and faithful supporter of this congregation. How can we project income that doesn’t reflect the loss of George’s gifts?  Here’s how:  many of you stepped in together to fill in the gap.  Because of the commitments you turned in on Estimate of Giving cards in April and the giving habits you’ve been practicing this year, we felt confident projecting an offerings number that neutralizes the loss of George’s generosity.  God is faithful, and you, the people of God, are reflecting that faithfulness so well!

Let me tell you just a little bit more about our finances, because it points us in another important direction.  Every year, in February or March, I have to sit down and do a lot of math.  The denomination wants to know how we’re doing, along with every other Disciples church, so they ask us to turn in a report for the “Yearbook and Directory.”  And of course, they do things by the calendar year, as opposed to the way we’ve got our ministry year and fiscal year set up.  So I make a lot of notes and categorize things and do math.  And what I can tell you, as a result of those calculations, is that in 2018, our total monetary receipts equaled $160,020.  And we spent $18,353 on mission.  That means that 11.5% of our total income went to outreach.  And that’s not even including the thousands of dollars in in-kind donations that we receive through your support of Welcome Saturday and Interfaith Shelter and our monthly Food Drive!  God is faithful, and when we are faithful to the gospel, we live within that faithfulness.

This measurable generosity points toward a larger value that we’ve agreed needs to shape our efforts toward growth:  We will grow best when we’re growing out, not in.  To flourish as a church of Jesus Christ, we don’t circle the wagons and make sure we’re taking care of all our needs.  Rather, we come together to serve as Christ for the world, our neighbors right here in East San Diego County, and our neighbors all around the world.  That is the call of Christ, to pour out our lives for the sake of the gospel.  The more we do it, the clearer it becomes that the people out there who might become part of this church family will do it not because we offer a slick, polished presentation of God Almighty, but because we let them know that God’s invitation into life-giving ministry to others that we’re trying to respond to here is something we’d love to have them join us in.  It’s astonishing, really, that God would entrust us with this; but that’s exactly what God has done!

Here’s another astonishing thing.  One of the goals we set out for ourselves, for the next three years or so, was to welcome 8-12 new households into our church. This was really the part that seemed impossible.  That’s a lot of new people!  Wherever were we going to find them?  But hear this:  In January, we celebrated four new members that joined in 2018.  And just a few months later, we added six more!  Ten new members in a little over a year!  It sounds like we’re almost to our goal.  Before we get too carried away, it’s important to recognize that those ten members represent something more like 5-6 new households.  But who thought that was going to happen in this first year?  To be honest, I don’t think I did.  I didn’t dare.  But have you heard?  God is faithful!

You will hear more about the wonderful ministries happening here at VLM in a little while during our Congregational Meeting. But there’s one more thing I want to lift up about our efforts during this past year.  Because I think this is central to how we’ve gotten to this point the way we have.  We’ve been praying in new ways.  I just confessed that I didn’t really expect to add very many members in this first year of focusing on growth.  But have you noticed I’ve been praying for it anyway?  Every Sunday in my pastoral prayer, I try to include a special prayer for the people God is preparing to join with us here at VLM, people we may not have even met yet, perhaps people we’ve known for years that it hasn’t occurred to us to invite yet.

And it’s not just that.  Our lay leaders, the Elders & Deacons, committed to a new shared prayer discipline last fall.  Every Wednesday, at 7 am or 7 pm, we pause and pray.  We pray for the members of our flocks and the whole church. We pray for all of us together as VLM, as we work to cultivate vitality and growth.  We pray for me, that I might lead with wisdom, grace and creativity. And we pray for the people God is preparing to join us here.

And again, because we know that growth does not happen when we’re focused inward, but when we’re looking outward, we’ve also been praying for the world in new ways.  Our daily prayer discipline during Lent invited us to pray with Jesus for “the sins of the world” represented by the difficult issues of migration, climate change, gun violence, military & veteran suicides, foster care, and homelessness.  We read and we prayed, and we meditated on the compassion of Christ as we discerned how to relate to these various causes of suffering.  Prayer changes us.  It changes us as individuals, and it changes us as a congregation.  It’s the primary way we keep this whole growth thing in the hands of God and stay in touch with God as we go about it.  As we move forward, prayer will continue to be our most important tool.

So let’s think briefly about how we move forward. As I said at the beginning, we’re one year in, in the thick of it.  We will be talking a lot more about what that will look like at our Leadership Retreat later this month, so I sincerely hope all of you in leadership positions will make your best effort to be present with us.  There are three things I think we will need to watch out for as we head into Year Two. First of all, there is a high likelihood that we could lose focus.  This was all a much bigger deal when it was new and a little panic-inducing.  We’ve kind of gotten used to the idea, though we haven’t yet fully integrated the new way of being into our faith lives yet. That means we’ll be tempted to fall back into old habits of complacency.  This is why I need you to pray for my creativity and to nurture your own.  We cannot afford apathy in the face of the call of the gospel. God’s world is hurting far too badly for that.

Secondly, though I hate to say it out loud almost as much as you hate hearing it, I fully expect this coming year to be more painful financially than the one we’re finishing up.  We probably will need to pull those investment funds.  And the temptation there is one of fear.  Drawing on our reserves makes us a little panicky, despite the fact that their existence is exactly why we don’t need to freak out. Again, prayer is our friend in this regard.  Prayer reminds us that this is God’s show, not ours, and God will provide.  Prayer even occasionally prods us to realize that God is trying to provide through us.  Perhaps this is the year we bring our stewardship practices and our prayer practices together, so we can rest more securely in that knowledge.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the further we get into this new way of being church, the more we start to see God’s answers to our prayers in the form of new people in our midst, the more we need to learn to embrace change.  There is no way around the fact that each new person who comes into this family of faith changes who we are.  If that didn’t occur to you a year ago, let me make it plain now.  Growth means change.  Change is never easy.  But here’s where we come back to the power of the story of Pentecost.  Like those people in the streets, hearing about God’s deeds of power in their various native languages, we may feel amazed and perplexed. But the gift of the Holy Spirit is exactly what will carry us through these tricky waters.  Living in the Spirit gives us abilities and flexibilities we never dreamed we could have.  Remembering that we’re not doing this under our own power, but through the Spirit of Christ working through us, and always bigger and more glorious than we can imagine, helps us open our little hearts to what God is doing in our midst.

I want to recall for us the words of the anthem we heard earlier: “Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove, with all your quickening powers. Kindle a flame of sacred love, in these cold hearts of ours.”  Here we are, in the thick of it, and we need our spirits re-kindled.  That’s why we keep showing up.  That’s why we keep praying.  That’s why we keep feeding each other and feeding others and listening for God’s voice drawing us forward.  The second chapter is rarely as exciting as the first, but you can’t get to the third chapter without it.  God is faithful!  Let us continue to be astonished!  Alleluia and Amen!