Scott Beach gave the Laity Sunday message. 

     Scott spoke on the future of the church and what the church might look like in future decades. 

     Scott is a teacher at Kenmore Middle School in Arlington.  Scott, his wife, Cyndi and Scott's mother, Mariam, are relatively new to Arlington Forest but are making their mark in  service to their church.

 

 

A Vision for God’s Church

 

When Caroline Upperco asked me to speak at today’s Laity Sunday, I ,of course, said "yes." My wife, Cyndi, says that’s the "pleaser" part of my personality.  Of course, after saying yes I had absolutely no idea what I was going to talk to you about.  Oh, well, I thought, I’ve got four weeks to come up with something.

 

Well, three weeks and four days later, I still didn’t have a clue.  Unfortunately, nothing was running through my brain except a picture of me standing in front of you with nothing to say.  Oh, wow, seeing that mental picture really put a stop to my procrastinating ways.

 

  Usually, reading something gets my thinking juices flowing, so I picked a church book that had been gathering dust on my bookshelf for a while.  It was titled "I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church" by Paul Nixon.  According to the book jacket, Mr. Nixon is a United Methodist minister who has lead church growth revivals in Methodist churches in the Alabama-West Florida conference.  Well, that sounded interesting. Thinking I would ease into this by reading the introduction, I was hit by a broadside on Page 1.  He said, and I quote:

 

Most mainline pastors are leading churches that will not exist by the year 2100; many of these churches will be gone long before that.  More than half of the congregations that call themselves United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Disciples of Christ, American Baptist, and United Church of Christ will likely disappear sometime in the next half-century.

 

Whoa! This guy really knows how to get my attention!  He followed up with some startling statistics:

 

The Disciples of Christ lost 70 percent of their market share, United Church of Christ 60 percent and the United Methodist Church 50 percent within the last 40 years. 

 

 I was not quite sure what he meant by market share, but the last statistic sent chills down dues-paying United Methodist spine.  The UMC lost 150,000 people in worship attendance in the last THREE years!  Oh, boy, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that something’s got to change if this denomination is not going to become of the “Titanic” of worshiping groups. 

 

I still didn’t have a clue about my topic, but I decided when searching it's best not to do it on an empty stomach. So I ordered a large pepperoni and sausage pizza from Jerry’s Subs.  You know, thinking takes a lot of energy.  Well, I ate that monster with no help from Cyndi; she’s trying to be health-conscious. And then, of course, instead of working on my talk, the carbs hit in, and I went to sleep.

 

 And that’s when I had a most interesting thing happen to me.  I had a VISION!  Yes, that’s right: a vision!  Some of you may say indigestion, but I say a vision!  And I’d like to share my vision with you.

 

In my vision I saw, heard, felt and read the following things:

 

1.      I saw pews filled to capacity in the sanctuary where the number one topic of conservation was: “We got to get to church earlier if we want to find a parking space.”

 

            2.      I heard the laughter of children as they ran down the hallway to get a coloring book or stuffed animal to hold during the service.

 

            3.      I saw a young man standing up and allowing an elderly lady into a pew that had one space left.

 

            4.      I felt my hand and shoulder being touched as I said “hi” and received greetings from people all around me.

 

            5.      I said good morning to a little lady who I had not seen in church before.  She smiled and said, “Buenos Dias” to me.

 

            6.      I saw an older gentleman. His shoes and trousers looked a little worn, and he had not shaved in several days, but he was smiling and seemed to be drinking in the fellowship of the congregation. 

 

           7.      I heard the words “Peace of Christ be with you” echo throughout the sanctuary.

 

            8.      I tasted some delicious cherry pie  -- my favorite -- that was being served as part of the regular church social.

 

           9.      I felt a splinter go into my finger as I worked on sanding the sanctuary doors alongside fifty other men, women and children who were working to spruce up the church.

 

          10.  I heard some of the most inspiring church hymns including, “The Old Rugged Cross” and “Eye of the Sparrow,” being sung by  a church choir with faces of yellow, gold, black and white.

 

          11.  I felt myself being pulled into a Sunday school class where little ones were being taught about what it means to be a child of the Lord.

 

          12.  I heard a sermon that made it hard for me to sit in my pew because I was so moved to go out and do something for God’s church.  It was funny: In my vision, nobody ever said "my church" or "our church"; it was always "God’s church."

 

         13.  I head the “squish,” “squish,” “bump,” “bump” as sweaty people practiced their tae kwon do moves against a punching bag.  I saw one of them pick up a piece of literature about the church and overheard him say, “Maybe we should try this church out sometime.”

 

         14.  I read the trustees' report and listened to the discussions from concerned members about how are we going to house all the new members and support the programs without expanding the church building? 

 

        15.  I heard the heavy backbeat and sounds of guitars and a drum playing a song I had never heard, as a man with long hair lead the assembled group of 20-somethings in a devotion during the contemporary worship service.

 

         16.  I saw an older woman. I think she is in her living room at Culpeper Gardens receiving the comforting touch of someone from the church who had stopped by  say “hi” and see how she was doing.

 

 

I woke up with a start!  Man, that pizza must have really been working on me.  I looked, and it was 5:00 a.m.: too late to go back to sleep and too early to get to work, so I decided to jot down some ideas from my vision.  I don’t really know where these ideas came from, but here they are:

 

 

Connection:  God connects to churches that connect with others.  It’s biblical, and it’s spiritual.  The theological term  is being an apostle, and it literally means to “Spread the good news.” Church congregations cannot spread the good news if they do not connect with others.

 

           Community:  Choose community over isolation.  Churches that operate like a form of social club, where you have to dress, look and give the “secret handshake” in a certain way have chosen isolation over community.  The “us” vs. “them” mentality makes them incapable of being apostles.

 

            Risk-Taking:  It takes guts for individuals and churches to reach out to people who are different from them.  Risky or not, it's God’s intent that his people reach out to all who need to hear the Word.

           

            Gifts:  God has given each of us a special gift.  Churches that prosper have members who spend time discerning how their gifts may help others and spread the good news.  Maybe it’s helping to repair a car for a single mother who cannot afford it; or taking meals to a shut-in; or writing letters to a serviceman or servicewoman in Iraq; or helping an immigrant to learn to read English; or leading a Sunday school class; or serving on a worship or finance committee; or putting out the sacraments for Communion Sunday.  While the needs are many, so are the gifts.

 

I looked down at my legal pad and didn’t have any idea about how and where these words came from.  It was now almost 6 a.m. Some people may say inspiration, but I say perspiration, because I was really sweating as I lay down my pen.  Looking at the words, I’m still not sure what the topic of my talk is.  I did notice that I had written at the top of the paper “A Vision for God’s Church.”

 

As I close, I have no sage words of advice for you.  I am no theologian; I am definitely not a model Christian.  I am just a guy who was trying to come up with an idea for the Laity Sunday talk. 

 

All I know is that I want this church to be God’s church -- not because we are United Methodists and better than other congregations, but if it’s God’s church, it will be spreading the goods news of our Lord and Savior and ministering to the needs of His flock.  Thank you for your time. And, by the way, I am swearing off pepperoni  and sausage pizzas for a while.  This vision stuff is too intense for me.