Note: Connie Jones offered these words as a devotional to begin our church council meeting on April 27, and members of the council recommended that her words be shared with the full congregation.
Now the Lord said to Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” Genesis 12:1 Thus begins one of the oldest stories in the Bible. The call for Abraham and Sarah to leave was very clear. While the ‘where are we going’ part was far from clear. And yet they went.
Churches are always changing and evolving over time. Over the last 10-15 years our church has made a series of critical decisions that reflect, I believe who we are becoming:
1. We disaffiliated from the SBC and formed a partnership with CBF;
2. We are facing and acknowledging our history as a church founded by slave-holders.
3. We voted as a congregation to become a welcoming and affirming church; a
4. We have called our first female senior pastor, Julie Long.
Think about it. That’s a pretty remarkable period of transition. And over the 30+ years I’ve been here, I don’t think I’ve been as proud to be a member of this church as I am today. Yes, we’re a smaller congregation in attendance and giving, but, as Chuck Poole has said, our circle is growing wider.
Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde offered the sermon at the Washington National Cathedral on Inauguration Day in January, and she has become one of my personal heroes. She also wrote a book titled How We Learn to be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith. The table of contents outlines the deep dive she makes into the important moments of living. She talks about,
1. Deciding to Go
2. Deciding to Stay
3. Deciding to Start
4. Accepting What You Did Not Choose
5. Stepping Up to the Plate
6. The Inevitable Letdown
7. The Hidden Virtue of Perseverance
One of the “decisive moments” for our church happened back in the 1980s when we committed ourselves to remaining a downtown church, and we proudly claim that identity. Today, nearly 50 years later, smaller congregation that we are, we have realized that we no longer need or can adequately maintain all of the buildings that make up our campus. And it’s one of the consequences of our “deciding to stay” that I dare say may not have crossed anyone’s mind 50 years ago. How could they have known? But here we are. Budde maintains that
1. The decision to stay can be as brave and consequential as deciding to go;
2. Because in deciding to stay we choose to go deeper into the life we already have;
3. And depth is essential for a mature life (I would add for a mature congregation); depth is also necessary for our capacity to make a lasting difference in the lives of others.
The Master Plan Committee was formed in 2022 and charged with developing a plan for the use of some of our space by a community partner whose work would be compatible with the mission and ministry of our church. At the time, the need and the call seemed very clear, while the path forward seemed anything but. And yet when, as a committee, we have considered where we were starting out on this journey and where we are now, it’s clear that we have been making headway, just one step at a time. Budde references the novelist E. L. Doctorow who said this: “Some journeys are more like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. In either case, whatever lies beyond the horizon can only be realized by moving toward it.”
We know something about perseverance in this congregation, dating back to the burning of this very building in 1885 just as it was being completed. And what did the membership say? They said, “Proceed at once… to rebuild the church and raise the funds necessary to do so”. And they did. It took them 2 years to rebuild, but we’ve been here ever since, thanks to their perseverance.
I believe that God still calls people and congregations toward a future that we can’t always see clearly, be it Abraham and Sarah so long ago, or the First Baptist Church of Christ today. And we are experiencing, much like they must have, the uncertainty of where we’re headed.
I know that God is working in our midst, and I couldn’t be prouder to be one of you as we continue this journey together.
Amen.