Photo Credit: Judy L. Crook
Neighbor, O Neighbor
I’m tired of fixing bricks
So now I’m gonna follow Jesus
And God’s gonna fix my life.
Two weeks ago (I know, it’s kind of a long time to remember), I mentioned that there is another church nearby that is spending a lot of money on advertising, trying to turn around the declining situation common to downtown churches. I asked, they have signs and slogans, but what do they stand for? I mentioned that there is another church in the area that has started worship services on Saturday nights to appeal to the Sunday morning sports crowd, but I asked, what do they stand for?
But what I asked of those other churches, to be fair, they could also ask of us. What does First Baptist stand for? We have a big brick building downtown, and a sanctuary with beautiful windows, and there are people here, some of whom have known each other for many years. But what do we stand for?
For a long time churches, including First Baptist, have operated on the model where we figure out what people, what families want. We figure out what we think they think they want and we design a program that provides those things, and when people come, we sneak in the gospel. You know it’s true! For years we have done this, and for a long time it used to work.
For example, youth programs. Powel South and Bo Bolster can tell you how they used to take kids on trips up to the lake, up to the St. Lawrence river, lots of places. They used to take kids on those trips. And lots of kids went on those trips, and while they were there, Powel and Bo and others would in the course of their being at the lake or wherever, try to teach them something about Jesus. It worked. They had lots of kids go on those trips.
A generation later, Dave Fisher and Tony Askew and others can tell you about the times when what kids wanted was dance parties, and so the churches downtown put together these great dance parties, had bands, the whole works. And kids came. It wasn’t Christian rock. But when the kids got here, there was some kind of “lesson” on the side. For a long time it used to work. Some of you can remember Boy Scout Troop number 1. It used to work.
But then it stopped working. Life just started going too fast for us to figure out what kids think they want. Or more likely, in an online world, the programs have gone places the church has feared to tread. Either way, it’s not for lack of teenagers that the youth group doesn’t bring in lots of kids. We still have lots of kids in Glens Falls, South Glens Falls and Queensbury high schools.
And, let’s make this clear, its not because Bev Whiting isn’t doing a spectacular job with the kids we do have. She loves them as much as Powel and Bo ever did. She’s dedicated, faithful and creative. It’s not her fault. This is not about blame.
There are other areas of church life, too, not just youth, where the old model isn’t working any more. Remember family nights? Remember the “Meeting and Eating Club?” Remember men’s breakfasts? Remember church suppers? For a long time they worked, but they don’t work now. Even the Women’s dinner — it’s a wonderful gathering for those who have been here a while and who have a wonderful time and learn a lot together each month. But it’s not drawing anybody new. It’s not the fault of the ladies who are there. It’s not that they are less sociable than they used to be or that the food isn’t great. They are, and it is!
The problem is not the people. It’s the model, the way we and other “old first” downtown churches have done things for a long time doesn’t work like it used to, and we’re having trouble figuring out what to do instead.
Here’s what I mean. Take for example again the church with the advertising. One of the banners out front of that church says they have a coffeehouse, hiking club child care and contemporary worship. Let’s start with the coffeehouse. Let’s say you’re in the mood for a cup of coffee on a Wednesday evening. (Right there might be the problem, but let’s just for the sake of argument say you really do want a great cup of coffee before bed.) Let’s also say that you’re not very good at making coffee at home and you want to go out for a cup of coffee. Where’s the first place you think of to go? Duncan Donuts, maybe? Starbucks, maybe? How many of you thought right off the bat, “I want a cup of coffee, I’m going to try the church”?
The sign also says you can join their hiking club. How many of you, when you think, “I want to go hiking, and I’m looking for some hikers who know some trails around Glens Falls, so I’m going to call the church.” They may have nice banners, but until they have a boldface entry in the yellow pages under “Hiking” and unless they come up in the first three spots when I google “Glens Falls hiking,” people are much more likely to end up at the Adirondack Hiking Club, Lake George, 668-4447.
If I want to go out to eat for chicken, people my age and younger are going to Applebee’s, not church. If I want childcare, most people my age and younger are going to go to Little Rascals daycare. If I want Rock and Roll worship I’ll go to Northway Fellowship in a mall in Clifton Park, where they have contemporary music and sneak Jesus in on the side.
We can’t beat the contemporary mall churches at their game. Not in this old house. And the old model of doing activities and inviting Jesus to come too just doesn’t work. Sometimes when things aren’t working, people start to argue, too.
A while back, Donald Trump used to host a TV show called the Apprentice. People would sign up to be a part of this game show, where each week the Donald would give people tasks. Sell this product. Design this ad. And just about every season, Donald Trump would have the occasion to observe that when things were going well for one of the teams everyone got along great. But when the team was losing, they all started fighting and throwing each other under the bus, pointing fingers and laying blame. “So and so wasn’t doing their share; it was somebody else’s bad idea; somebody else failed to communicate; so-and-so isn’t a team player.” The list went on and on in those TV boardroom meetings.
So I was reading Isaiah this week. (You were wondering when I was going to get to this.) I was reading in Isaiah 58. Now you’ve got to know that in Isaiah 58, we’re talking about a group of people who have signed up to win a big prize. This group of people that we’re talking about in Isaiah 58 were the Israelites, the people of God who for years had been held in exile. Their home was Israel, but they had been forced to live in Babylon for years. Some of them had never actually been to Israel, others who were now very old could only remember it from when they were toddlers. They finally got their big break, these exiles, and they had the chance to go home. It was like getting to be on the Apprentice. “Take this great trip, work hard and you win — the chance to stay there and work hard.
But at least it was home. And they went, and they were happy. Things were great, until they got back, and the team started having some setbacks. As it turns out, at the time in Israel, there were Palestinians who were already living there — this was 500 years before Jesus — there were already Palestinians there, back then they were called Samaritans, who kind of resented that these newcomers all of a sudden showed up and said, this is our land, and started bulldozing and building new houses. They had a few setbacks at that point, you see. The work was harder than they had expected when they signed up. There was not the quick and easy life of ease they had enjoyed in exile back in Babylon here. They had been assigned to rebuild the temple, but the weekly offering was not what it needed to be to sustain that kind of building.
And people started pointing fingers at each other, laying blame, saying bad things about each other and speaking evil about one another. People treated other people like work animals instead of people, with yokes held tight by withholding wages and not providing health insurance, like the Law of Moses said they were commanded to. In their rush to make a profit in this new market, to rebuild their empire, to get ahead — in their attachment to the old ways of doing things in Babylon, they forgot that the whole “return to Israel” project was not about them but about God. In the running of all their programs, the people of God in that day, back in Isaiah 58’s day, had forgotten that what made them the people of God was God. In a nation defined by its primary covenant of faithfulness to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they had forgotten what the temple stood for.
In a church that is defined primarily by a commitment to follow Jesus, maybe the reason our model for doing church isn’t working is that we’ve replaced following Jesus with programs. Maybe Isaiah 58 is as right about us as it is about them. Maybe we need to hear “Thus saith the Lord:
Stop pointing fingers at each other; stop blaming and bad-mouthing one another; stop trying to figure out how to do programs people think they want only with a twist of Jesus, a little Jesus flavor in the chicken, and start putting the gospel first.
Maybe what would make First Baptist stand out is if we stand up and said, If you want to go hiking call a hiking club, if you want to make coffee go to a coffee shop, if you want to eat dinner go to a restaurant, if you want to see a show go to the theater. But if you want to follow Jesus, then come on and follow Jesus at church.
But if you want to follow Jesus, then you’ve got to know that Jesus is going to lead us to give our food to the hungry, so the suppers are going to have to be for the people who can’t pay for dinner at the Peppermill or Applebees.
If you’re going to follow Jesus you’ve got to know that Jesus is going to lead us to clothe the naked, so the boutique is going to have to be for the people who can’t pay for the latest designs at the Bon Ton.
If you’re going to follow Jesus you’ve got to know that he’s going to lead you to loose the bonds of injustice, and sometime you may have to stand with Jesus holding a placard of protest in front of the chamber of commerce or at city hall.
If you’re going to follow Jesus you’re going to have to do something about affordable housing and rent control in Glens Falls, because Jesus is out there on the street at night with the homeless.
The old model of church isn’t working, and hans’t been working for a while. We need a new model, an Isaiah 58 model for doing church that puts the gospel first, instead of programs.
When somebody asks me what First Baptist stands for, I want to say, and I want you to say: First Baptist stands for being committed to following Jesus. Period.
Let’s make it so that membership at First Baptist needs only one requirement: a commitment to follow Jesus. Period.
- Not a commitment to a building.
- Not a commitment to 176 years of history.
- Not a commitment to any particular style of music or tradition, or even someone else’s orthodox theology.
Just your commitment to following Jesus. Period.
Then when we follow Jesus to the places where Jesus leads, to the poor, to the hungry, to the naked, the homeless, the afflicted, the enslaved, the outcast, the oppressed — when Jesus leads us, then we will also have the Isaiah 58 promises.
Then we will rise from darkness.
Then the gloom, despair and depression will lift.
Then, when we are following Jesus, God will provide what is needed for the journey and the strength to keep going in the face of trouble and setbacks.
Then we will be both beautiful and fruitful — like Isaiah’s watered garden.
Then we will be fixing more than bricks: we will be building up ancient ruins, building a foundation for future generations, repairing breaches throughout the community, and we will become again a house for people who need a place to live out their lives in faith.
Brothers and sisters, lets start fixing more than bricks. Let’s build up the ruins of people’s lives. Let’s build a foundation for today’s children and tomorrow’s. Let’s repair not just walls but relationships. Let’s share our food and free the oppressed, and take hold of the promise of abundant life. Let’s stop running programs and pointing fingers.
Let’s follow Jesus. Period.
