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Just a couple of months after we were married, Judy and I walked down the aisle at Indian Hills United Methodist Church in North Little Rock and joined the church, taking our membership vows for the first time. Joining that church was not a requirement—they had already hired me to work part-time as their youth director. Newly married, Judy and I didn’t want to spend a minute apart from each other, so we’d both leave Conway on Sunday morning and make the short drive to JFK Boulevard and stay all day, visiting in youth members’ homes and getting ready for UMYF that evening.
Pastor Wayne Clark preached a rousing sermon that day that I perceived to be something about the “welcome work of the Holy Spirit in the Church,” and Judy and I looked at each other in agreement and took each others’ hands and walked up the aisle when the pastor offered the invitation. That was 1975, and we’ve never regretted doing it.
After we both graduated from college, we were looking for full-time work so we could pay our college loans and build our future together. That brief stint as a part-time youth director helped prepare me for what would be a full-time job at the First United Methodist Church of Harrison, Arkansas. So, we loaded up a borrowed Ford Ranger pickup truck with all our worldly possessions and moved about 150 miles north to Harrison. There we had some of the best times of our lives. It was also there that I met a woman who told me she had joined the Methodist Church after reading the entire Book of Discipline! I looked at her, then I looked at the Discipline and I wondered if I had made a rash decision myself barely a year earlier. I remembered taking Judy’s hand and spontaneously walking up the aisle at Indian Hills, but the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind to check out everything (and I do mean everything) the church was about first before I joined it!
Four individuals from this congregation (Bev Darwin, Judy Mattox, Mary Jane Cole, and I) had the privilege of hearing Debi Nixon a couple of weeks ago. She’s bears the title of “Managing Director” at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection near Kansas City. She told the amazing story of that church’s infant beginnings in a borrowed funeral chapel with fewer than a dozen members twenty years ago to the enormous size it is today, making it the largest UMC congregation in America. Knowing Senior Pastor Adam Hamilton as well as she does (she’s been there since the very beginning and was one of those first dozen or so members) she disclosed that Adam Hamilton, like my acquaintance back in Harrison, Arkansas left the Pentecostal and Roman Catholic influence he grew up with and joined the United Methodist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma after reading the entire Book of Discipline! Clearly, maybe there’s something in here we’re missing! (Hold up a copy of the Discipline.)
I’d be quite happy if we’d endeavor to keep just the two promises we make when we do join the church. That entire notion of “joining a church” is fast-becoming an antiquated practice. Amongst youngpeople in their 20’s and 30’s, especially, joining a church is seen as scarcely necessary. A well-read magazine, The Christian Century, devoted an entire cover story on the phenomena just this past summer, and there’s lots of insight into why that happens that I should devote time to later. But suffice it to say, if two promises were kept today, it would make a world of difference.
There on page 38 in your UMHymnal, you’ll find these two questions. They are asked banking on the faith-building foundation work described last Sunday in my sermon on promises made at our baptism. And, they are quite simple and straightforward:
- Will you be loyal to the United Methodist Church, and do all in your power to strengthen its ministries?
- Will you faithfully participate in its ministries by your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness?
Each person, no matter who it is, is asked the very same questions. The one who is very rich and the one who is very poor is asked the same questions. It makes no difference what color you are or what political parties you belong to-you’re asked the same questions. When President George W. Bush and Hillary Rodham Clinton, both United Methodist Christians were in Washington and worshipped together at Foundry United Methodist Church, perhaps they reflected from time to time on when they individually answered those questions in a local church somewhere in Illinois or Texas. Those are basically the very same questions Judy and I were asked when we “joined” the church in 1975. They were the same questions the voracious reader in Harrison answered when she joined the church. They were the same questions Adam Hamilton answered when he joined the church as well.
When we stand before a pastor and a congregation, intending to be received into membership and join a body of believers who are not perfect (by any means) and not yet complete by any stretch of the imagination, we are asked about our loyalty to that very imperfect and incomplete body. Here especially, is where joining the church seems strikingly similar to getting married! (I sometimes wear a ring on my right hand that was given to me when I earned my doctorate at SMU by a dear friend who happens to be on the staff Church of the Resurrection. Wearing it reminds me that I do indeed sometimes feel like I have two wives-the church & Judy!) But what the question asks about is loyalty. Will you be loyal? And in expressing that loyalty, will you do all in your power to strengthen its ministries? That question too, reminds me of marriage.
It’s quite easy to express loyalty when all is well and things are going great. It’s hardly an effort at all to remain loyal when all our perceived “needs” are being met on a daily basis. But, to be asked to “do all in your power to strengthen its ministries” as a tangible form of expressing loyalty is quite another thing! Doing all in our power requires effort, sometimes a great deal of effort!
Ms. Nixon told the humorous story of how COR grew by turning itself outward, not inward and striving to reach non religious or nominally religious people. Reaching them sometimes meant, literally, “going the extra mile.” Pastor Hamilton vividly illustrated what it took to do that by refusing to accept the parking space right next to the church that the Trustees lovingly bestowed on him. Instead, he chose a spot as far away from the door across a parking lot with hundreds or thousands of parking spaces. And those closer parking spots? They should be reserved for the folks who were visiting! Let me tell you, First Church, I’ll park in the fenced-in church van lot and YOU can take that space out front on Center Street if that’s what it takes.
I’m grateful to be a part of a church that makes things plain and simple. I can’t think of anything simpler and plainer than this, our five-pronged way of actually living into our membership vow. Just like the five fingers on your had, United Methodism asks each and every one of us five ways of showing our faithful willingness to be a part of a church and help share the love of Jesus, glorifying God in our daily witness.
Prayers
Presence
Gifts
Service
Witness
Because “witness” was just added at the last General Conference in 2008, I’ll start with that part of the 5-pronged vow. I believe Jesus wants you to be the very best witness you can be. But you can’t do that if you’re laboring under the notion that you are to be the same kind of witness somebody else is. It you keep thinking to yourself, “Why can’t I be the kind of witness Mabel Harris Webb is?” you’ll continue to let yourself, the Lord, and Mabel down! Your witness is to be that which is authentically you, speaking from your heart with genuineness and conviction. When Co-Lay Leader Laine Harber was elected by you, the Board of Stewards, to serve in that profoundly responsible role (along with Joy Rockenbach three years ago, no one said anything to Laine about making sure his witness sounded like Mabel’s! Need I go further? I’m sure you get the point-be yourself and speak to the love of God in Jesus Christ that you believe and see and you will be effective in your witness.
When Jesus found Philip in the Galilee region and invited him to follow him, it wasn’t long until Philip found Nathanael, someone very much unlike Philip, but, eventually, he too became a devout follower of Jesus. Though their individual witness was quite different, they both were tremendously effective. Wouldn’t Jesus expect the very same of you and me today? Be a witness!
Presence-will you faithfully participate by your presence. You’ve heard it said, “Showing up is 90% of the job!” and in fulfilling this promise that’s very much the case. Not every service will knock your socks off. Not every sermon will bring you to your knees. Not every anthem will ring true to your experience. Not every Sunday will the organ be loud enough or the church be warm enough… but your gift of simply showing up will make a big difference in helping you keep your promises of loyalty intact. I can’t force you to attend regularly; in fact, there are fewer “requirements” of attendance for church than there are for Rotary! Neither Hope Coulter, as Chair of the Board of Stewards nor I, as Senior Pastor can remove you from membership because you’ve been absent in church. Aren’t you glad it’s that way?
Gifts-will you faithfully participate by your gifts? At this point, would you like for me to just skip this part… because (uh hum…) it’s about money? OK.
No, I cannot-because you know that each person has a God-given way of living into their full participation of promise-keeping faith by their giving. But there too-this part of the vow is very similar to the part about witness. Your giving may not be the same as someone else’s. Remember when John Woodruff was battling a raging battle in his life with cancer, yet he kept running marathons? Remember when he considered the amazing outreach ministry of this very church and stood to tell us to dig deeper and remember the “Ones for the Many?” A play on words, yes, but effective in helping all of us know that funding outreach ministry and any other ministry for that matter, is the responsibility of each and every one of us!
We are further along this year already in our financial pledging and giving, ahead of where we’ve been in years. But we still have a ways to go, and with God’s grace and your keeping your vow of promise to support the church with your giving, we will finish the race. So, if you’ve not tended to this part of your church membership, expect to hear from your leaders. To ignore it because it’s “uncomfortable” would be a shirking of responsibility.
Service-will you faithfully participate in the church ministries with your service?
Stay around here long enough, and you’ll see First Church is not just the Church on Sundays. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday too, the Church is called to be the Church in effective ministry in our community and throughout the world. That’s one reason we print the calendar in the Sunday Bulletin-not so you’ll see just how busy this devoted staff is but see the tremendous opportunities we all have to live out a life of service! Driving LIFT on Mondays, serving food to the homeless on Tuesdays and Sundays at Stewpot and Community Breakfast, nurturing and befriending youth in basketball games and at Wednesday SWAG, instilling a love of music and the arts in children on Tuesdays and Thursdays, opening this magnificent building that stands like a cathedral of beauty in the heart of Arkansas’ Capital City and testifying to the grace of God that prevails even in the midst of destruction is a privilege each and every weekend guests come our way at the newly opened Museum downstairs or at a wedding or funeral. The opportunities for service seem endless!
Prayer-will you faithfully participate in a ministry of prayer? When you joined First Church-whether that was 70 years ago or 7 days ago, you said you’d pray for the church. Prayer is an amazing thing, isn’t it? Though we may think it is at first, prayer isn’t telling God what we want God to do and then keep reminding God of what we said, in case there’s a bad “connection.” God, make my church more forgiving. God, make my church more Christ-like. God, make my preacher preach shorter sermons! Prayer is listening, seeking, being still in the presence of an awesome Silence where God really does speak. Maybe not in the way young Samuel heard God speaking there in Eli’s temple but speaking, just the same. Prayer always leads to action. It certainly did for Samuel, and it will for us as well.
There are so many different ways to pray and methods to employ in praying. You’ll notice this year a little icon on your church bulletin and newsletter about the Upper Room—ways to use it as a tool for prayer. Use it. Find a place there in your home. Arrive early and sit in silence before worship begins. Steel away to the 3rd floor Upper Room and kneel at an altar that Rev. James Webb or Rev. Ed Harris used to kneel at and look out on the skyscraper of this beloved city and pray for it. Pray for yourself!
Well, there you have it-the promises you made to the church-revisited briefly in just this one sermon. You’ll notice these promises aren’t a multiple choice exam. We don’t have the “option” of looking at all five; prayer, presence, gifts, service, & witness and saying to ourselves or the pastor, “OK, I’ll take one of them.” All five are needed. And when all five are evident in the life of the believer here at First Church, we have the strongest witness and loyalty we’d ever dream of having and our future is bright.
This is not the time to look back and get angry about the hundreds or dozens of others who fell away and did not keep their promises. This is not the time to grow inward-it’s the time to be bold and courageous. It’s promise-keeping time! Amen.