Luke 8:4-15
“We Will Do, We Will Go: Dream”
Preached Sunday. February 4, 2024
Today we are starting our third and final week of our sermon series - “Trusting in God.” My hope for this sermon series is that it would help us process all that was, is, and could be in the life of our church so that we can move forward into the bright future together, trusting in God.
We started with talking about the things in the life of our church that we are mourning. In the midst of our country’s grief-adverse culture, it is important to acknowledge and process our grief so that we can capture the energy and ideas of the past for the present and future instead of desiring so strongly to go back to what was that it holds us back from what is and what could be.
The two biggest things we are mourning collectively as a congregation are people who are no longer with us in the pews due to death, relocation, or other factors and mourning the lack or loss of ministries we once had around children & young families.
“We Will Do, We Will Go: Dream”
Preached Sunday. February 4, 2024
Today we are starting our third and final week of our sermon series - “Trusting in God.” My hope for this sermon series is that it would help us process all that was, is, and could be in the life of our church so that we can move forward into the bright future together, trusting in God.
We started with talking about the things in the life of our church that we are mourning. In the midst of our country’s grief-adverse culture, it is important to acknowledge and process our grief so that we can capture the energy and ideas of the past for the present and future instead of desiring so strongly to go back to what was that it holds us back from what is and what could be.
The two biggest things we are mourning collectively as a congregation are people who are no longer with us in the pews due to death, relocation, or other factors and mourning the lack or loss of ministries we once had around children & young families.
You can see the congregational responses to what we are mourning on the yellow note cards in the narthex.
Then we transitioned to talking about what we are grateful for. We realized that gratitude isn’t just an emotion, it’s an ethic. And the more we practice gratitude and the more we give thanks to God, the more that gratitude shapes us into more caring, loving, and generous people - exactly the kind of disciples that God needs us to be to follow where God is calling us to go.
Reading your responses to what you’re thankful for in the life of the church was overwhelming in the best way. The biggest thing that we are thankful for in this congregation is for the community here, the way we are friends and family, siblings in Christ, to one another and the sense of belonging that many of you get when you’re here and surrounded by each other. What a great thing to give thanks for! There were so many wonderful thanksgivings that you all shared last week.
You can see the congregational responses to what we are giving thanks for on the purple notecards in the narthex.
Which brings us now to dreaming - what are our dreams, our hopes, our visions for the future of our congregation and of the Church as a whole? Where do we feel God is leading us? What plans do we feel that God has for us? What seeds are being sown or have already been sown, in the fertile soil of our congregation, that will produce fruit for the Gospel? Fruit that is more than our practical minds would dare to count on but that our dreams and imaginations - blessed by the Holy Spirit, could begin to hope and pray for.
And while it may seem antithetical, we are going to start our time talking about our dreams for the church…by talking about church decline. You’d think this would have belonged in the mourning sermon - and it belongs there too cause it’s all connected. So many people remember the heyday of the church but they haven’t mourned it so they can get stuck wanting to go back there so badly, that it actually keeps them from dreaming about the future. One of the unique perspectives that I bring as a millennial pastor is…I simply wasn’t alive during the time that many church goers in America want to go back to. Yes, the church of the present is different from even the church of my childhood and youth - but I can’t go back to a church I was never even a part of. In his book “On the Brink of Everything” - Parker Palmer, American Quaker theologian and writer, talks about the generations on their path of life like the surface of our planet - a globe. The younger generations which are at the top of the globe can see farther ahead and shout down to the older generations, painting them a picture of what is to come in the future. The older generations, further down the path, down the curve of the earth, and with more experience can shout up, sharing the wisdom they have learned along the journey. I have hope for the future of the church, guided by the wisdom and experiences of those who were here in the churches quote-on-quote “heyday” when the sanctuary was filled to the rafters.
Yes. The Church, big C Church as a whole, is declining. In an article published only last year by the Atlantic, they say that forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the last 25 years. According to a Gallup News Study, in 2021 for the first time in eight decades of tracking data, attendance at a church, mosque, or synagogue dropped below 50% of Americans. If you belong to or attend a religious institution - and you do because you’re here - you are in the minority of Americans. This decline is not just happening in Mainline denominations - like United Methodists - but across the board too. Studies show that church attendance is in decline in America at Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical congregations.
A recent training on church hospitality I went to framed it like this. The national average for decline in Average Weekly Attendance, in one year, is a decrease of 32%. 1% of that decline is due to death. 7% of that is those who leave through the back door, quietly or during times of transition. 9% of that decline is due to the transient nature of our lives - changing jobs, retiring, moving away. And 15% of that is just that people are attending less than they used to. Whereas to be considered a regular churchgoer, studies used to consider that as weekly or at least every other week, now regular church attendance is considered once a month.
So our average weekly attendance at Boardman United Methodist Church is 144, and that takes into consideration those who worship online with us and those who worship with us in the sanctuary. If we experienced zero growth - no new members, no guests, no baptisms, over the next several years - which, side note, statistically, only 15% of first time guests come back to worship with a church a second time - so hospitality and welcome and making connections with first time guests is so crucial - but, as I was saying, if we experienced zero growth, at a rate of of decline of 32% a year, it would only take 7 years until there were only 10 people in this sanctuary.
Hold up. Take a deep breath. Stay with me. You might be thinking - Pastor, isn’t this a sermon on our hopes and dreams for the future? Not our fears? Not the uphill climb of the harsh reality? Hear me as I say this: I have hope for the Church with a big C, the Church universal. And I have hope for this church, our specific congregation. Even in the face of the harsh reality of the world I do not think God is done with us. God is NOT done with us. God has plans for us. God has dreams for us. Even now, God is tending to seeds that have been planted in the soil, preparing us for the fruit to come.
I don’t think the Church of the future will look like the church of the 50s, 60s, 70s - or even the 80s, 90s, our aughts - And I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing either. I believe that God can and will do a new thing with us - if we are just faithful and move forward with trust and open hearts.
With all this in mind, let us turn to our Scripture lesson from Jeremiah this morning. “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope…”
This is many people’s favorite verse. I myself had it on a little notecard, taped on to my college freshman dorm room when I was going through a hard time...but I also think we like this Scripture because it seems to be comforting. Sometimes we use it as a security blanket when bad things are happening in our lives. But it’s important to note that in its original context, this was not necessarily what the original audience wanted to hear. To them, it was not so comforting.
God’s people were in Exile. What they wanted to hear from God was that they were being delivered. That their land would be restored. That they would be freed. That it would be puppy dogs and sunshine from here on out - but that is NOT what God says to them through the prophet Jeremiah.
In the verses before this, God says to them: “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”
Basically, settle down and build roots in Exile cause this is going to last a while. Not only that - but pray for the land where you are in Exile. This is not the news they wanted to hear! This is not what they were hoping for…
AND YET. In the midst of it all, God is saying, “But don’t you know that I have plans for you to flourish?”
This message is not said to any one individual but the whole community in Exile. That, yes, this is not what you wanted. This doesn’t look like what you thought it would look like. But I still have plans to use you. I am not done with you yet. I want you to flourish for God’s Kingdom.
Through all the years later, do we hear God’s voice saying this to us today?
What so many want to hear from God is - “I will take you back to the way things were!” But what God is actually saying to us is, “Settle in, get used to your new reality, the world in which I have put you - and - do not give up hope. Cause I can use you in any and all circumstances. I have plans for you that you can’t even begin to conceive of yet! Cause it’s a new thing that we will do - and let me tell you this, you will flourish.”
People of Boardman United Methodist Church, you will flourish.
And so, allow yourself to dream. Allow yourself to pray for the future of this congregation. Allow yourself to open up your heart and mind to the new thing that God will do within, through, and for us.
Every week of this sermon series I have talked a little bit about the history of the song we will sing after the sermon and how it relates to our theme. Today following the sermon we will sing Trust & Obey. The hymn was inspired when the composer, Daniel B. Towner, was performing and sharing music at a Dwight L. Moody revival service in 1886. In his own words: “Mr. Moody was conducting a series of meetings in Brockton, Massachusetts, and I had the pleasure of singing for him there. One night a young man rose in a testimony meeting and said, ‘I am not quite sure—but I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.’ I just jotted that sentence down, and sent it with a little story to the Rev. J. H. Sammis, a Presbyterian minister. He wrote the hymn, and the tune was born.”
How powerful of a statement is that - “I’m not quite sure - But I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.”
Can you imagine if every person in this church had that attitude toward what God will do with them and with this congregation. We don’t have to know exactly what the future will look like in order to trust God, obey God, and dream along with God. We simply have to be open, not give up hope, and keep on dreaming.
So today, during the Prayers of the People, I will give you time to write on the green note card in your bulletin. On that note card I’d like you to write a dream you have for the church - it can be as vague or as specific as your dreams are. Your dream can be as big or small or whatever size seems right to you. I only ask that you keep your cards anonymous - don’t write your name on it as I will display them in the narthex next week. More than that, I will share with you what your collective dreams are, share them with the leadership of this church, and I will read over and pray over each one of them.
Because I believe that God is not done with us and God has plans for us to flourish - in this may we trust and obey.
Then we transitioned to talking about what we are grateful for. We realized that gratitude isn’t just an emotion, it’s an ethic. And the more we practice gratitude and the more we give thanks to God, the more that gratitude shapes us into more caring, loving, and generous people - exactly the kind of disciples that God needs us to be to follow where God is calling us to go.
Reading your responses to what you’re thankful for in the life of the church was overwhelming in the best way. The biggest thing that we are thankful for in this congregation is for the community here, the way we are friends and family, siblings in Christ, to one another and the sense of belonging that many of you get when you’re here and surrounded by each other. What a great thing to give thanks for! There were so many wonderful thanksgivings that you all shared last week.
You can see the congregational responses to what we are giving thanks for on the purple notecards in the narthex.
Which brings us now to dreaming - what are our dreams, our hopes, our visions for the future of our congregation and of the Church as a whole? Where do we feel God is leading us? What plans do we feel that God has for us? What seeds are being sown or have already been sown, in the fertile soil of our congregation, that will produce fruit for the Gospel? Fruit that is more than our practical minds would dare to count on but that our dreams and imaginations - blessed by the Holy Spirit, could begin to hope and pray for.
And while it may seem antithetical, we are going to start our time talking about our dreams for the church…by talking about church decline. You’d think this would have belonged in the mourning sermon - and it belongs there too cause it’s all connected. So many people remember the heyday of the church but they haven’t mourned it so they can get stuck wanting to go back there so badly, that it actually keeps them from dreaming about the future. One of the unique perspectives that I bring as a millennial pastor is…I simply wasn’t alive during the time that many church goers in America want to go back to. Yes, the church of the present is different from even the church of my childhood and youth - but I can’t go back to a church I was never even a part of. In his book “On the Brink of Everything” - Parker Palmer, American Quaker theologian and writer, talks about the generations on their path of life like the surface of our planet - a globe. The younger generations which are at the top of the globe can see farther ahead and shout down to the older generations, painting them a picture of what is to come in the future. The older generations, further down the path, down the curve of the earth, and with more experience can shout up, sharing the wisdom they have learned along the journey. I have hope for the future of the church, guided by the wisdom and experiences of those who were here in the churches quote-on-quote “heyday” when the sanctuary was filled to the rafters.
Yes. The Church, big C Church as a whole, is declining. In an article published only last year by the Atlantic, they say that forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the last 25 years. According to a Gallup News Study, in 2021 for the first time in eight decades of tracking data, attendance at a church, mosque, or synagogue dropped below 50% of Americans. If you belong to or attend a religious institution - and you do because you’re here - you are in the minority of Americans. This decline is not just happening in Mainline denominations - like United Methodists - but across the board too. Studies show that church attendance is in decline in America at Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical congregations.
A recent training on church hospitality I went to framed it like this. The national average for decline in Average Weekly Attendance, in one year, is a decrease of 32%. 1% of that decline is due to death. 7% of that is those who leave through the back door, quietly or during times of transition. 9% of that decline is due to the transient nature of our lives - changing jobs, retiring, moving away. And 15% of that is just that people are attending less than they used to. Whereas to be considered a regular churchgoer, studies used to consider that as weekly or at least every other week, now regular church attendance is considered once a month.
So our average weekly attendance at Boardman United Methodist Church is 144, and that takes into consideration those who worship online with us and those who worship with us in the sanctuary. If we experienced zero growth - no new members, no guests, no baptisms, over the next several years - which, side note, statistically, only 15% of first time guests come back to worship with a church a second time - so hospitality and welcome and making connections with first time guests is so crucial - but, as I was saying, if we experienced zero growth, at a rate of of decline of 32% a year, it would only take 7 years until there were only 10 people in this sanctuary.
Hold up. Take a deep breath. Stay with me. You might be thinking - Pastor, isn’t this a sermon on our hopes and dreams for the future? Not our fears? Not the uphill climb of the harsh reality? Hear me as I say this: I have hope for the Church with a big C, the Church universal. And I have hope for this church, our specific congregation. Even in the face of the harsh reality of the world I do not think God is done with us. God is NOT done with us. God has plans for us. God has dreams for us. Even now, God is tending to seeds that have been planted in the soil, preparing us for the fruit to come.
I don’t think the Church of the future will look like the church of the 50s, 60s, 70s - or even the 80s, 90s, our aughts - And I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing either. I believe that God can and will do a new thing with us - if we are just faithful and move forward with trust and open hearts.
With all this in mind, let us turn to our Scripture lesson from Jeremiah this morning. “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope…”
This is many people’s favorite verse. I myself had it on a little notecard, taped on to my college freshman dorm room when I was going through a hard time...but I also think we like this Scripture because it seems to be comforting. Sometimes we use it as a security blanket when bad things are happening in our lives. But it’s important to note that in its original context, this was not necessarily what the original audience wanted to hear. To them, it was not so comforting.
God’s people were in Exile. What they wanted to hear from God was that they were being delivered. That their land would be restored. That they would be freed. That it would be puppy dogs and sunshine from here on out - but that is NOT what God says to them through the prophet Jeremiah.
In the verses before this, God says to them: “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”
Basically, settle down and build roots in Exile cause this is going to last a while. Not only that - but pray for the land where you are in Exile. This is not the news they wanted to hear! This is not what they were hoping for…
AND YET. In the midst of it all, God is saying, “But don’t you know that I have plans for you to flourish?”
This message is not said to any one individual but the whole community in Exile. That, yes, this is not what you wanted. This doesn’t look like what you thought it would look like. But I still have plans to use you. I am not done with you yet. I want you to flourish for God’s Kingdom.
Through all the years later, do we hear God’s voice saying this to us today?
What so many want to hear from God is - “I will take you back to the way things were!” But what God is actually saying to us is, “Settle in, get used to your new reality, the world in which I have put you - and - do not give up hope. Cause I can use you in any and all circumstances. I have plans for you that you can’t even begin to conceive of yet! Cause it’s a new thing that we will do - and let me tell you this, you will flourish.”
People of Boardman United Methodist Church, you will flourish.
And so, allow yourself to dream. Allow yourself to pray for the future of this congregation. Allow yourself to open up your heart and mind to the new thing that God will do within, through, and for us.
Every week of this sermon series I have talked a little bit about the history of the song we will sing after the sermon and how it relates to our theme. Today following the sermon we will sing Trust & Obey. The hymn was inspired when the composer, Daniel B. Towner, was performing and sharing music at a Dwight L. Moody revival service in 1886. In his own words: “Mr. Moody was conducting a series of meetings in Brockton, Massachusetts, and I had the pleasure of singing for him there. One night a young man rose in a testimony meeting and said, ‘I am not quite sure—but I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.’ I just jotted that sentence down, and sent it with a little story to the Rev. J. H. Sammis, a Presbyterian minister. He wrote the hymn, and the tune was born.”
How powerful of a statement is that - “I’m not quite sure - But I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.”
Can you imagine if every person in this church had that attitude toward what God will do with them and with this congregation. We don’t have to know exactly what the future will look like in order to trust God, obey God, and dream along with God. We simply have to be open, not give up hope, and keep on dreaming.
So today, during the Prayers of the People, I will give you time to write on the green note card in your bulletin. On that note card I’d like you to write a dream you have for the church - it can be as vague or as specific as your dreams are. Your dream can be as big or small or whatever size seems right to you. I only ask that you keep your cards anonymous - don’t write your name on it as I will display them in the narthex next week. More than that, I will share with you what your collective dreams are, share them with the leadership of this church, and I will read over and pray over each one of them.
Because I believe that God is not done with us and God has plans for us to flourish - in this may we trust and obey.
Amen.
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