Sermon preached by John A. Huffman, Jr.
December 31, 2006
Copyright © 2006, John A. Huffman, Jr.
All rights reserved.
Where there is no prophecy, the people cast off restraint, but
happy are those who keep the law.
(Proverbs 29:18)
It is New Year's Eve.
What better time is there to stop, reassess and move forward in "Mission 2007 & Beyond."
I did not come by this title lightly. It originally was "Mission 2007." Then our junior high minister, Ivan Klassen, suggested a much catchier title--one he said that could only be used once in the next thousand years, "Mission Possible 007." Initially, I was enthralled with that idea but then came to the conclusion that any positive or negative resemblance between me and James Bond would be entirely coincidental.
"Mission 2007 & Beyond" declares clearly that it is a time to stop, think and move forward as individuals and as a community of faith.
I.
"Mission 2007 & Beyond" means that: WE are meant to be sent in the service of Jesus Christ.
Our mission documents are clear in their call to holistic ministry.
Our first and most important mission document is The Bible.
The whole Bible, Genesis through Revelation, calls us to be engaged in God's enterprise, His mission, the work of His kingdom, both here and in heaven.
Today's text is Proverbs 29:18. In the King James Version, it reads, "Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." In the New Revised Standard, it is translated, "Where there is no prophecy, the people cast off restraint, but happy are those who keep the law."
Perhaps no verse of the Bible has been more misquoted by zealous pastors with dreams for their ministries. It's so easy for us to come with our own vision, browbeat a congregation with it, threatening them if they do not do what we want, they will perish. The more exact translation, using the word "prophecy" instead of the word "vision" brings a corrective that refuses to let this text be used by a human being to gain his or her own ends. This verse embodies the essence of being a missional people, a people meant to be sent, in that it declares that, where there is no clear word from the Lord obeyed by the people of God, we will end up doing our own thing, casting off His restraint and, in the process, lose our souls. We will literally perish.
A second mission document is our Presbyterian Book of Order.
The Book of Order: The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Part II, page 1, makes two very strong mission "Preliminary Principles." They read as follows:
1. The Head of the Church
a. All power in heaven and earth is given to Jesus Christ by Almighty God, who raised Christ from the dead and set him above all rule and authority, all power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. God has put all things under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and has made Christ Head of the Church, which is his body.
b. Christ calls the Church into being, giving it all that is necessary for its mission to the world, for its building up, and for its service to God. Christ is present with the church in both spirit and Word. It belongs to Christ alone to rule, to teach, to call, and to use the Church as he wills, exercising his authority by the ministry of women and men for the establishment and extension of his Kingdom.
c. Christ gives to his Church its faith and life, its unity and mission, its officers and ordinances. Insofar as Christ's will for the Church is set forth in Scripture, it is to be obeyed. In the worship and service of God and the government of the church, matters are to be ordered according to the Word by reason and sound judgment, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
d. In affirming with the earliest Christians that Jesus is Lord, the Church confesses that he is its hope and that the Church, as Christ's body, is bound to his authority and thus free to live in the lively, joyous reality of the grace of God.
2. The Great Ends of the Church
The great ends of the church are the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of the truth; the promotion of social righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.
Can you ask for anything more powerful than that statement that encapsules biblical teaching?
Our third mission document is our St. Andrew's Mission Statement.
You are quite familiar with our St. Andrew's Mission Statement. We declare it orally at each worship service, and it is printed each weekend on the front of the bulletin. It reads: "St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church is endeavoring to be the family of God together in joyful, Christ-centered worship and is committed to: leading men, women, and children to a personal saving faith in Jesus Christ; building ourselves in the faith; and serving others here and throughout the world."
And our fourth mission document is our St. Andrew's Vision Statement.
You are not as familiar with our Vision Statement, in which we expand, in a two-page statement, our prayer that God will lead us toward our vision to be "God's Uncommon Community." It reads as follows:
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church: God's Uncommon Community
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10
OUR MISSION
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church is endeavoring to be the family of God together in joyful, Christ-centered worship and is committed to: leading men, women and children to a personal saving faith in Jesus; building ourselves in the faith; and serving others here and throughout the world.
OUR VISION
As we seek God's vision for the future of St. Andrew's, we acknowledge that whatever we become depends a very great deal on who we are and where we have been. We begin, therefore, by thanking God for the blessings that have been showered upon this church, not the least of which is the faithful commitment of so many godly men and women who have given much in service to this church. As we seek to be faithful to God's ongoing vision for our church, we also seek to honor and build upon what God has done and is now doing through St. Andrew's for over 50 years.
Going forward, our dream is to shine the light of Jesus Christ across the Newport Harbor community and beyond, so as to see lives changed as the love of God is shared by the people of God. We believe God will lead us toward this vision as we focus on four specific areas:
1. As We Remain Committed To The Values That Built This Church
The Lordship of Christ. We confess the Lordship of Jesus Christ over our church and over our individual lives and we commit ourselves to growing in maturity as his disciples. As we give more of ourselves to Christ we pray that as a church we might increase our dependence on prayer, become more intentional about encouraging others in discipleship, exhibit more joy and become known for the ways in which we celebrate the Lord in praise and worship.
Biblical Preaching And Teaching. We boldly proclaim the authority of Scripture as described in the historic confessions of our faith and reiterate our commitment to biblical, Christ-centered preaching and teaching.
Excellence. Out of gratitude for what God has done for us, we strive to give our best to God and to pursue excellence in all that we do.
World Mission. We vow to maintain a global mission perspective and to continue deploying ourselves, and our finances in order to continue supporting the work of the church both locally and around the world.
2. As We Seek To Be More Relational
Family. We want to work together to better reflect the love of God as we intentionally seek to become the family of God. We are committed to being an intergenerational church that challenges each person to learn from others by spending time together. Though we remain committed to meeting the unique needs of each individual, we will also seek to encourage people of all ages and stages of life to worship together, learn together and serve together.
Teamwork. We desire to be more intentional about establishing a team-based approach to ministry. We are committed to encouraging the integration of all the ministries of St. Andrew's under a common purpose, a shared commitment to building stronger ministries and a deeper sense of being God's family.
Welcoming. We will strive to be more caring of visitors, to be present to all those on our campus and to be more intentional about inviting others to find their place in the St. Andrew's family and to feel free to share in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit wherever and whenever the family gathers.
3. As We Work To Be More Entrepreneurial
Every Member A Minister. It is our desire to help every person to discover their unique gifts and passion for ministry, to understand God's call to ministry, and to equip, empower and release them for ministry in the church and in the surrounding community.
Creativity & Innovation. We seek to celebrate the God-given creativity that exists within our church family and to encourage each other to seek innovative ways to meet the changing needs of our community.
4. As We Commit Ourselves To Serving Our Community
Outreach. We believe that we exist to proclaim the Gospel. Our dream is that all members of our church be personally committed to evangelism, be equipped to share the Gospel in a variety of situations, and be encouraged to allow their faith to make a difference in their lives and in the lives of others.
Servant Ministry. We believe the greatest way to witness to the love of Jesus is to demonstrate that love by serving the needs of our neighbors. We will challenge each other to find new ways to take the love of Jesus off of our campus and into the world around us. We pray that our church might become known in our community for our ongoing commitment to people over projects, by our love for each other, and by the joy with which we serve in the name of Christ.
These documents are a clear statement of the mission of St. Andrew's, individually and corporately, as we move into this new year of 2007 and beyond.
II.
"Mission 2007 & Beyond" means that: I am meant to be sent in the service of Jesus Christ.
Let me get very personal with you.
I am in my twenty-ninth year as your pastor. And I am in a three-year- five-month countdown in my remaining time as your leader.
In 1962, upon graduating from college, I sensed the Lord's direction to attend Princeton Theological Seminary with a joint program worked out with the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs of Princeton University. I was struggling to ascertain whether or not God was calling me to serve Him in the political arena or as an ordained minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the course of that year, the call to full-time Gospel ministry became very clear. And part of that call was a specific vision to be engaged in spiritual renewal within a mainline denomination.
With God's help, I have stayed on course these past forty-five years, working on the staffs of the Marble Collegiate Church, New York City; Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City; the First Presbyterian Church of Tulsa; and serving as pastor of the Key Biscayne Presbyterian Church, Florida; the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church here in Newport Beach; and I expect to serve in one more call beyond this. Hopefully, it will be in some capacity as a minister-at-large without the heavy administrative and pastoral responsibilities of a church this size.
At the start of this past year, your Session and staff prayed that 2006 would be the best year in the history of St. Andrew's. God has answered that prayer. We didn't fully understand all the implications of what that would mean. It has been the best year in our history, as we have endeavored to stay true to the mission which is ours, as stated in the Bible, the Book of Church Order and our own Mission and Vision Statements.
And in the midst of this year, there was a fascinating development. We came to a critical point in June, when it became apparent that Jim Birchfield was considering a potential call to become senior minister of another church. In the weeks leading up to that, I was approached by several other ministries that were offering me opportunities to serve calls in which each one of them was perceived as a ten-year ministry.
As your duly elected leadership became aware of these realities, they approached Jim and me with the conviction that our presence here in leadership was critical for the next four years. The abrupt departure of either or both of us would bring great confusion at a time when the church was dealing with such significant matters as: the pending building program; denominational controversy; frivolous lawsuits; and the desirability of an orderly succession plan. Their conviction was that the church could not, at this time, afford two and a half to three years of search for an adequate interim pastor and a complex mission study and national search for a new pastor. And they recognized the reality that many of you have made strong expressions that Jim Birchfield be considered as the new pastor in whatever national search would be carried out.
Well, needless to say, this expression of concern caused the Huffmans and the Birchfields to be in much prayer during June, July and August. Our understanding of the Book of Church Order was that no present member of the staff, under any circumstances, could be considered as a candidate to become the next pastor.
Then, at the end of the summer with my blessing, your Clerk of Session, John Lehman; your President of the Trustees, Jake Easton; and your Treasurer, Ken Williams, met with our Executive Presbyter, Steve Yamaguchi, and our Presbytery Stated Clerk, Keith Geckeler. For the better part of a day, the five of them wrestled with the St. Andrew's succession challenge, all of them determining to be faithful to the requirements of the Book of Church Order and cognizant of the realities present in one of our denomination's strongest churches. You know the rest of the story. The Los Ranchos Presbytery has been extremely helpful. In full compliance with the Book of Order, they came up with the concept of a "part-time interim co-pastor" position that would, at the end of three years, enable present staff to be considered in a national search. They asked Anne and me to promise that we will stay until my seventieth birthday, which is May 24, 2010. They asked Jim and Marta Birchfield to promise that they will consider no call elsewhere for the next three years and nine months on the basis that, after three years, Jim will be given strong consideration in a national search, that all parties contacted would be aware that there was a strong inside candidate.
And then, Dennis and Trevecca Okholm were approached to see if Dennis would be willing to add ten hours a week of service to St. Andrew's to his full-time load as a professor at Azusa Pacific University. All three couples agreed to do this, and the plan was taken to both the Session and to you, the congregation. On Sunday, October 8, you unanimously approved this plan, and the requisite confirming actions have been taken by the Los Ranchos Presbytery.
My focus now is several-fold.
One, it is my responsibility to help keep clear our mission focus for the next three years and five months.
Two, I must faithfully continue to fulfill my original position description, given to me twenty-nine years ago to: preach; administrate the Program Staff; oversee pastoral care; and provide community leadership on a local and national level.
Three, I will do my best to provide healthful leadership, as we move forward in this succession process. I have added the function of "executive pastor" to Jim Birchfield's position description. Instead of my having thirteen direct reports, as I've had now for many years, I am delegating nine of those to Jim, with my future direct reports being the Executive Pastor, the Minister of Administration and Stewardship, the Minister of Music and Worship, and the administrative Assistant to the Senior Minister. Jim will be the enabler, working on the congregational mission study. I have recused myself from that, so that this may be a forward-thinking group, not bound by the limiting thought patterns of a sixty-six-year-old pastor whose forty-five years in parish ministry do not provide the best starting place to engage creative thinking for the next couple of decades. We expect this mission study to take the better part of the next year. Significant changes perceived to be needed will not have to wait until a new pastor is installed. At the same time, you have the assurance that the baton will be passed on three years and five months from now to a capable, seasoned leader, who will have had a very brief official overlap with me as the duly installed, full-time co-pastor. If, in God's providence, that person is not Jim Birchfield, Jim will then be fully prepared, both in preaching and administrative experience, to pastor any one of the strongest churches in our denomination.
Four, it will be my responsibility to help finish off the Building the Future program. We have clearly heard God's will expressed through our neighbors and the city leadership that we will not be able to do the 36,000-square-foot expansion including a gym. But we will, within this next calendar year, hopefully the end of June, break ground to replace Dierenfield Hall with an underground level state-of-the-art youth ministry facility and a brand new family center above ground level, designed for optimum use as: a fellowship hall; a banquet room; a staged space for contemporary worship and dramatic productions; high quality dividers for enabling three separate educational rooms; and many other strategic uses for the St. Andrew's family. The last of the old educational buildings will come down and be replaced with one that will best fill the needs of our highly valued preschool, W.A.T.C.H. and children's ministry programs.
We will do all this within the present square footage and present conditional use permit from the city at considerably less cost than the plan toward which we once worked. The reality is that that plan had increased in cost by at least a third and had decreased in the size that the city would allow by two-thirds, while still maintaining neighborhood opposition and eighty-some usage requirements. Many of our neighbors have expressed appreciation at the modification of our plans. We are now on a fast track with the architects, contractors and the Newport Beach City officials to bring this long-stalled building program to fruition. Our dream would be to see it dedicated and in full use by the middle of 2008. At the present time, we are a debt-free church. My prayer would be that, when I do hand the baton on, we will at that time be a debt-free church; that the six million-plus dollars we have in a special dedicated building account plus outstanding pledges and additional gifts will complete this project; and the next generation will have a completely new campus from the one I inherited in 1978.
Five, it is my responsibility to provide denominational leadership during these controversial days in the PC(USA), as well as representing us in the larger global mission of Christ's kingdom, including my involvement in ministries such as Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, World Vision and the chairmanship of the Board of Christianity Today International.
These next three years and five months are in no way to be seen as a time of sideways movement for St. Andrew's and part-time leadership from me. I will provide as targeted, focused leadership as I did the day arrived here on September 16, 1978.
I, too, am meant to be sent.
III.
"Mission 2007 & Beyond" means that: YOU are meant to be sent in the service of Jesus Christ.
This community mandate involves you.
The Greek word for church is "ecclesia." This does not meaning building. This means "the gathered people." The Church of Jesus Christ is any community of men, women and children who have repented of sin and put their trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. It can meet in a gothic cathedral, a colonial sanctuary, a contemporary worship center, a converted warehouse, an intercity storefront building, or in a house. There is no one way to house the Church of Jesus Christ. There is no one way to staff the Church of Jesus Christ. Its programs will differ from one congregation to another and from one point in history to another.
That constant is the Church's mission. And that mission is nothing without your and my individual and community involvement.
Today, we have talked about how we are meant to be sent and how I am meant to be sent. Let me now, in conclusion, zero in and make this even more personal as to how YOU are meant to be sent. Let me challenge you to four New Year's resolutions that you will accept as a challenge from God as your mission for 2007 and beyond.
Mission Resolution #1: I resolve to be more faithful in WORSHIP.
This involves attendance when you're at home and when you travel.
But it's more than attendance. It means participation in worship. Do not see worship as a spectator affair. The reality is we are here together as a community of faith, made up of individuals who open our hearts to God. In terms of a stage, this is not made up of those of us on the platform who are here to entertain, inspire and encourage you. There may be some of that. But in the ultimate sense, true worship is for all of us gathered here to be those who are on the stage, with the observer being the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are the active participants directing our worship toward Him. God takes joy in what we do. He is the spectator observing us. God, the Father, who created us and sustains us, takes great joy as we acknowledge that He is the Creator, we are the creation. God, the Son, our Savior and Lord, takes great joy as we give thanks to Him for His forgiveness of sins, His unfailing love and His determination to stand by us no matter what. And God, the Holy Spirit, takes great joy as we open every area of our life to Him, allowing Him to indwell us in all of His fullness, to live one day at a time, forgiven, encouraged, empowered people, 24/7, 365 days a year.
Mission Resolution #2: I resolve to be more personally involved in EVANGELISM.
I know that word can scare you. Let me come up close and personal with it. No, you don't have to be Billy Graham. You're not called to be some holier-than-thou cleric running around the streets, bombarding people with Gospel bombs, intruding, raping them spiritually. No!
What you are called to be is what the missionary statesman D.T. Niles said was "one beggar telling another where he can get bread." If you have received Jesus Christ as your Savior and you are following Him as your Lord, you are the best qualified evangelist in the world. You can literally be better at it than those of us who wear clerical robes, have theological degrees and bear clergy titles. We scare people off. They change their behavior when we walk into the room. How many times, in a pick-up game of golf, members of my foursome, when they discover I am a pastor, have apologized to me for the theological language they've used in the non-theological setting of the golf course. It's as if they think I've never heard those words before. All that says is that, somehow, people are on guard when professional religious people come around.
My greatest times of individual faith sharing have come with people who know nothing about my background, except that they discover I'm a follower of Jesus Christ whose life has been transformed for this life and the life to come. They're interested in hearing my story. And my story is no more important than your story. If God has made a difference in your life, you are privileged to share that. You are privileged to tell them how God has changed your life, describing the difference from how life was when you were running your own life to now, when Jesus Christ is in charge. You are privileged to offer them a book like Billy Graham's Peace With God or Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.
You have the privilege of inviting them to come to church with you. Take them out for brunch afterwards. We dropped most of our ads in the newspapers. We know that the best introduction to the church is a personal invitation. Invite others to come with you to St. Andrew's. Few of you are here because you saw some advertisement or looked us up in the Yellow Pages. Most of you are part of this community because you heard about it from someone else. And you didn't even know that was evangelism, did you?
Mission Resolution #3: I resolve to activate myself to greater growth in CHRISTIAN NURTURE.
This means getting to some kind of adult education. It may be a Sunday morning elective class. It may mean attending Wednesday Night Together for the Bible teaching here in the sanctuary. It could be Bible Study Fellowship or some other teaching vehicle provided either by St. Andrew's or in some other venue.
It involves a point of fellowship, such as a covenant group. It's so important to meet with eight, ten, twelve other people on a regular basis; to open the Bible; to discuss a passage of Scripture; to share your life and pray together. We have scores of those here at St. Andrew's.
It's also a matter of personal devotional life. Going to a class is not enough. Being involved in a covenant group is not enough. You need also the balance of personal quiet time each day with God, in which the Bible is an open book. You have other spiritual resources, such as devotional literature, and you have a time of specific prayer for yourself and others.
Mission Resolution #4: I resolve to be more intentionally involved in SERVANT MINISTRY.
That may be teaching in the Sunday school. That may involve your being a sponsor in the youth ministry. It could be singing in the choir. It could be ushering. It could be one of the printed sermon stuffers. It could mean volunteering to work in one of our local mission outreach programs, such as THINK Together, Teen Challenge, daily vacation Bible school, and the list goes on of the many local outreach ministries we have. It could mean being involved in some kind of short-term mission project, going with one of our teams to Malawi, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, the Philippines. It could mean sponsoring a child or two with World Vision.
It does involve your stewardship of time, talent and money. Servant ministry has to do with how you live your life and how you use the resources God has given to you. Are you a tither? Ten percent before taxes is the starting point for your faithful service of Jesus Christ. How I thank God for His blessing on St. Andrew's, as so many of you have learned the privilege of tithing and, in some cases, even going beyond the ten percent in the service of God and others.
It involves how you use your sexuality. Do you rip off other people with it, or are you faithful to the vows you've taken to keep yourself pure before God and accountable to the family and friends He's given you.
How do you use your power? We all have power over someone. Do we exploit them with it, or do we see ourselves in servant ministry? You see, there are so many dimensions to all of this.
Let me conclude.
I pledge myself to this end, and I invite you to join me and the rest of your leadership in this Mission 2007 & Beyond! I know that God has great things in store for you and for me in these next three years and five months. And I know He has even greater things in store in the long haul beyond that somewhat arbitrary date of transition, when the baton is handed on officially to a new senior pastor and head of staff.
As important as all this stuff of succession, building programs, denominational concerns and all the rest we've talked about is, the more important is mission. You are meant to be sent, as one faithful in worship, evangelism, nurture and servant ministry!
Frankly, this is an unfinished sermon. I've taken it as far as I am entitled to go. It is your responsibility to write the rest of it with your life! Are you up to the challenge? I know and you know, with God's help, the answer is "YES!"