Acts 2:1-21

We began this service by sharing from Isaiah 43: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up, do you not perceive it?”

God has always been about “doing a new thing.”  From the first page of the Bible, God, out of a mirky void, speaks and creates something new.  When Jesus talked with a seeking Pharisee named Nicodemus, he told him that what he needed was “to be born again,” for him to allow God to do a new thing in him.  And in the book of Revelation, God says from the throne, “Behold, I make all things new.”   From cover to cover, God is always making things new, making people new, and doing “a new thing.”  Our scripture lesson tells of another new thing.  The Holy Spirit, God’s unlimited presence in human beings, fell on 120 scared to death disciples, and they boldly shared the power of God.  That new thing that was born that day was “the church,” a people in whom God would always be doing a new thing.  Peter preaches from the book of Joel saying,   

“I will pour out my Spirit on all people,
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
Your young men will see visions,
Your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit…”

From its beginning the church was a movement of visionaries and dreamers and it still is.  What is vision?  It gets defined in many ways, but today I would like us to think of it in terms of Isaiah 43.

For 3 ½ years we have been healing up and warming up.  Having to heal up is often viewed negatively, but painful experiences often happen when we try things we’ve never done before.  Churches that don’t innovate never have to heal up…they just dry up.  We are successfully doing a second campus, partly because of what we learned from “The Porch.”  We’ve had our time in rehab.  We’ve been warming up with some trial runs in “beyond the Walls” efforts and strengthening the administrative and missional parts of the church.  Now it’s now time to “get back in the game.”  For me, getting back in the game means doing the spirit-led daring things that enable new people to come to faith in Jesus Christ and, at the same, enable people who have followed Christ for years to find fresh fire.  I regret to say that the great majority of churches are not “in the game.”  They are on the sidelines talking about what it used to be like to be in the game.  I don’t want to be part of that kind of church and neither do you.

Let me begin with worship, our most high-profile arena and one in which we are extraordinarily gifted.  We warmed up by using more people in leading worship as congregational members have read scripture, led offertory prayers, and did the majority of the children’s sermons.  Our ushers have been recruiting new folks.  I have thrilled to hear and watch people share their faith and gifts.  We are a richer congregation because of it.  Add that to the many ways people share through music, teaching, and serving, it is obvious that we are becoming more and more involved as a body together in worship.  Now let’s set our sights on what we could become by 2010.  By the power of the Spirit, I see us doubling our present three worship services to six.  The 8:30 service will look much like it does now, a spirited traditional service with a comfortable feel: singing the hymns we have cherished, wearing the robes, using the creeds regularly, etc.  We have enjoyed the more regular participation of the Celebration Gospel Quartet and expect to have other soloists and ensembles join them and our Sonrise Singers. In fact, that service may even go more traditional as time goes by.  By 2010, there will also be an 8:30 at the southwest.  It is likely to be the most high church of all our services, with a weekly celebration of communion.  We dream of a 9:30 or 10:00 at the Memphis that is decidedly contemporary and cross-cultural in style.  The area inside the loop is now 50% Hispanic.  We will begin cross-cultural small groups in the spring of 2007 and hope to start worship in 2008.  The 10:00 Service in the Southwest will be much like it is now, in primarily a “Praise and Worship” format.  We project that in the spring of 2007, another worship service will open in the Southwest at 11:30.  We will be surveying the southwest part of Lubbock to find what kind of worship service would be needed.  We expect it will have to have a little more “edge” to it.  Which brings us to the 10:50 service.  Over time this service has been evolving, attempting to address the many varied interests of those who attend that service.  The challenge is that the service has difficulty keeping a sense of flow and unity, and can become more a variety show than a worship service.  How can we bring this variety of interests and tastes together and still reach a new generation of people, for 11:00 is still the main entry point for people into worship?  I am calling together a group of eight people during the summer months who will acts as a creative worship team to answer that question.  One of the exciting developments that is happening throughout the worldwide Church is what people are calling “The Emerging Church.”   This is church that is both strongly rooted in the past and aggressively pursuing the future at the same time.  In any given service, anything can happen.   Just as we have an ushers team and a greeters team, expect there to be develop a Media Team, a Drama Team, and a permanent Creative Worship Team that will meet about every six weeks to plan the services so that there is a greater unity, flow and sense of spiritual vitality in what we do.  By September, we will be launching some of those initiatives.  St. Luke’s, of what do you dream?  Here is my dream by 2010 with projected attendance:

Memphis :
8:30 AM  Early Traditional Worship  (225-275)
9:30  AM Contemporary Worship (75-125)
11:00AM  Late Blended Worship (375-450)
Total Memphis :  (675-850)
Present: (515)                          

Southwest:
8:30 AM  Early High Church (75-100)
10:00 AM Praise & Worship (200-250)
11:30 AM “Edge” Worship (75-125)
Total Southwest: (350-475)
Present: (90)

GRAND TOTAL:  (1,025-1,325)
Present Total:  (605)

You may be saying, “How can you even say this on a summer day in June?  Besides, we have never done this before!”   But hear again from God’s Word, “Behold, I am doing a new thing.  Now it springs up.  Do you not perceive it?”

There are some huge assumptions behind those numbers.   I have more to project with you, but let’s test some of those assumptions.  This vision assumes that the people of St. Luke’s are willing to do whatever it takes to reach people for Jesus Christ and that is a higher value than maintaining what we have always known.  It assumes that we believe that what we have to offer in Christ is desperately needed in Lubbock and the surrounding area and that we will turn ourselves inside out to reach people and allow them to reach us.  It assumes that we are serving a God who is abundantly able to do more than we ask or think and that we are opening ourselves wide to the greatness of God.

Now let’s talk Christian education.  St. Luke’s has an incredible gift to offer.  We have people who have a strong evangelical passion for Jesus Christ and yet are unafraid to think.  Expect to see that theme in a variety of ways in upcoming marketing efforts.  A theme you will find on our website is “St. Luke’s Lubbock : Sharing a Living Faith for Today’s World.”  We are committed to building a new generation for Christian leaders of all ages for the church and for the world.  The strength of Sunday School at St. Luke’s is testimony to the great people who have given leadership to it and the great classes who continue to offer care and learning in an outstanding way.  As we reach out in greater ways to the Lubbock community, we will need to create new classes.  In the Southwest, we call these “classes” LifeGroups.  They can meet at the Southwest Campus, but they also can meet in homes or other places they choose.  The most exciting thing to me will be when we, at both our campuses, no longer see our Christian education as location bound.  What happens when study groups and care groups start appearing in coffee shops, restaurants, conference rooms, Laundromats, etc?  The gospel will be in the flow of people’s lives.  We are presently looking for a coffee shop in the northwest where we can bring in musicians, artists, and speakers.  They don’t have “to go to church” to get the Word, the Word has come to them, just like Jesus comes to them.  I don’t know exactly what that could look like but I am interested in gathering a team that will help discover what it could be.  With the expansion of our Sunday School classes, the multiplication of LifeGroups, and the creation of off-site places for learning and care, there is no reason why weekly attendance at those events could not be between 725-800 by 2010.

An exciting new development in Christian education is already under way.  We are opening two new part-time positions in Children’s ministry, one at each campus.  Beverly Rosenow will continue to serve as Christian education director with primary responsibilities in Adult education.  She will also mentor our two new children’s directors.  Beverly has asked for this kind of emphasis for many years.  This also was one of the recommendations of the Children’s Ministry summit held several months ago.  We ask for your prayers as we make this important step forward.  In Northwest Lubbock, 3500 homes have received notice about Bible School , the Summer Musical, and what our Pre-School, Kindergarten and Mother’s Day Out ministries have to offer.  That’s the first part of our Northwest initiative.  From the interest that starts to develop there through the mailings and the coffee shop, we hope to launch some small groups.  That area is equidistant from our campuses, and we believe visitors will be arriving at both places.

We see similar expansions in music and youth ministries as they develop fresh approaches and turn their ministries more outward.  Can you dream of our outstanding music ministries doubling from their present participation, both in our present groups and new groups that are yet to be developed?  It will mean moving beyond what one person can direct or what one person can play, to developing an expanded team of creative and daring people.  We have the talent to do that and when that talent is further developed it will draw people of that same interest.  Many of those people will find Christ in the process.  Can you dream of a youth ministry that doubles and triples as we create special events that draw new people and have a more accommodating facility in which to share?  Again, God says from Isaiah, “Behold I am doing a new thing.  Now it springs up, do you perceive it?”

Let’s talk about facilities.  Next month, a church conference will be held to which you will be invited to consider the master plan for facilities at the Southwest Campus.  You may remember that the Master Planning process was started because we were about to be taxed on our property due to inactivity.  They told us we needed to be under contract and then have a building on that property by 2009.  At the Church Conference, we will also elect two committees, a Building Committee (with representation from both campuses) and a Building Finance Committee (with representation from both campuses).  The Building Committee will be developing plans for the first phase of construction. The Building Finance Committee will be developing the fundraising plan for underwriting that first phase.  We expect the capital campaign to be held in early 2007.  People from both campuses have given strong support to the remodeling of the facilities here at the Memphis .  Now it’s time to offer our good faith and give our support to the construction of that first unit at 98^th and Frankford.  More than 150 people are now involved at the southwest campus.  As I look at what is happening in the lives of the people who are new at that campus, more than 80 of them, they remind me of what God has done in many of you.  We are indeed one work of God on two campuses.  We expect construction to begin in late 2007 and finish in mid- 2008.

My friends in Christ, we are entering into what will be some of the most exciting, daring and challenging times of our church.  They will rival the process of building this beautiful sanctuary and they will rival those early daring days we were celebrating at the end of last summer.  It takes that to be the church in the 21^st century.  I look at what LakeRidge is building to expand their Christian education and the people they are developing to lead it.  They are hearing the call of God and going for it.  I look at that unbelievable Outreach Center at First Church , knowing that they borrowed multiplied millions of dollars.  Don’t they know that downtown churches are dying by the droves?  Don’t they know their future is over?  No, they don’t.  Instead, they have chosen to believe God for a greater future than their present or their glorious past.  And I predict they will see it, for they are connecting with God’s new thing.  They are hearing the call of God and they are going for it.  Well, brothers and sisters in Christ, it’s our turn.  We have a choice to make.  We can just keep on keeping on and doing what we have done, giving thanks for all that people have done to get us here.  What a lousy tribute that would be to the Leo Gees, the Ed Robbs, the Bill Flemings, and the other pastors who have given their lives.  What a lousy tribute to the hundreds and thousands of lay people who went to the place of risk and innovation to create a congregation that has touched people around the world for Jesus Christ.  They dreamed together and they followed a holy vision together, and God was faithful.  The greatest tribute is for us to take up the mantle and once again go to the place of risk and innovation.  The vision to which I call us is not mine, nor the staff’s, nor yours alone.  It is God’s vision and the goal is for us to seek together and then become the most daring generation that St. Luke’s Lubbock has yet given birth.  And I pray that by our example, we will plant another generation of dreamers who will outdare us, outreach us and even outlove us.  “Behold, I am doing a new thing.  It is springing forth.  Can you not perceive it?”

One of my favorite musicals is a soul-version of the Wizard of Oz, called The Wiz. It was Oscar-nominated in 1978.  The movie version stars Diana Ross as Dorothy, a teen Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, the late Nipsey Russell as “The Tin Man,” and Lena Horne as the good witch.  The scene with the wicked witch takes place in a sweat shop with Evilene sings, “Don’t Give Me No Bad News.” Her slaves are forced to wear a headgear that hides their beauty and individuality.  The wicked witch is killed when Dorothy sets off the sprinkler system.  The people let out a shout and they begin singing a chorus of freedom entitled “Everybody Rejoice.”  The theme of it repeats, “Can’t you feel a brand new day?  Can’t you feel a brand new day?”  Then the music quiets down and one of the oppressed workers, unzips the headgear they were forced to wear.  Others begin to do the same and their radiant faces begin to shine and then they begin a jazz ballet that is stunning.  And behind their dance is that recurring theme, “Can’t you feel a brand new day?  Can’t you feel a brand new day?”  Isn’t it amazing how sometimes the power of God’s love is told best in places like movie theaters.  Yes, I am inviting you to feel a brand new day for St. Luke’s, but that’s not the most exciting thing.  It is all those people who are going to remove their headgear and discover new life in Jesus Christ.  Dream with me of people who share their gifts among us that never thought they would.  Dream with me of adult baptisms (some by sprinkling and some by immersion), testimonies of God’s new work of love in them.  Dream with me of young leaders who take on the world’s challenges and are unwilling to back off because they know the power of the Spirit and what it can do.  Dream with me of a church who will not be denied that kind of future because they are absolutely obsessed with God’s mission, and will settle for nothing less.

But you say, “Will, The Wiz (and that song) is just a fairy tale done to music.  It’s a fantasy.”  Really?  What if what we call reality is merely our way to control what could be?  What if what we are is really afraid of success, because then we will be unable to stay in the comfort of where we are?  What if we have put on our own limited headgear, because we find that it’s safer?  Why when I hear “can you feel a brand new day” do I also hear the echo of the words of a hymn?

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning,

Mine is the one light Eden saw play,

Praise with elation, praise every morning,

God’s recreation of the new day.

Yes!  “Behold, I am doing a new thing!  It is springing forth.  Can you perceive it?”  Brothers and sisters in Christ of St. Luke’s Lubbock , it’s a brand new day.  Let the dance begin. 

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