September 10, 2024
• Rev. Rob Fuquay
St. Luke’s UMC
September 8, 2024
Capital Campaign
Making Room
“A Caring Place”
Luke 5:17-26
Today we launch a three-week capital campaign called Making Room. Going back nearly twelve years ago we developed a long range building plan that solved immediate needs at the time and addressed future hopes. The time was not right, then, to take on a major campaign, but over the years we were able to take on pieces of that plan through individual gifts and quiet fundraising and this has added up. Just consider what this has included:
--Upgrades to the parking lot with improved lighting
--Improved West Passage
--Renovated Great Hall including a new commercial grade kitchen
--Created a Children’s Auditorium Room
--Upfitted Robertson Chapel to better serve the contemporary service
--improved technology throughout the building
--new lighting in the sanctuary
--renovated the parlor into the Community Room and the old Spiritual Life Center into the…
--Reconstructed our office area.
--And of course the renovations of the old Broad Ripple UMC to St. Luke’s Midtwown.
Thes cost of these projects has probably been well over $10 million, not including the volunteer labor on a number of these. That’s pretty incredible considering we never did a large campaign during this entire time.
But in our most recent long range planning two years ago, we identified the need to address parts of our building plan that involves more significant construction that will make our building safer and offer new space. Take a look at this video that has been put together sharing more about the reason for this campaign and offering an idea of what the changes will look like (video)…
Last Sunday a gentleman came out of church and told me it was his first Sunday here. He was hesitant to come to a large church. He had been visiting other congregations but found grew frustrated by the fact that these churches said they welcomed new people but didn’t change anything to make new people feel welcome. And hence many of these congregations were in decline without much sign of turning around.
That conversation got me to thinking about similar things I hear from fellow pastors. It recognizes an interesting relationship between physical space and spiritual space. Many churches that have the most room available aren’t always that good at making spiritual room available for others. And its kind of pointless to ever talk about creating physical room for people if we aren’t first creating room in our hearts for others.
Today’s Gospel story tells about the first construction project in the Gospels in which room was needed to be made for someone to get close to Jesus. It happened in a village in Galilee. The Spirit of God was with Jesus to heal. He was in a home and a crowd of people had packed the house. Several folks brought a friend who was paralyzed on a stretcher. They believed Jesus could heal him, but when they arrived there was no room. They couldn’t near Jesus.
But these friends are the kind you want when you’re in trouble because they were not easily deterred. They didn’t give up and waste a lot of time contemplating what to do. They climbed on the roof, hoisted their friend, and made a hole in it big enough to lower their friend on the stretcher right in front of Jesus.
Now the first thing you take away from this story is that these friends really care. They care enough about their friend to go to a lot of trouble to get him to someone they believed could help their friend, and then when met with an obstacle, did what it took to make room for him. This story is told in three of the four Gospels which tells me it was an important story in the early church, one they felt was a reminder for how the church is called to live out its mission. The church should be a place that doesn’t let its building determine the limits on who gets close to Jesus, but rather does what it takes to the building to make room for all.
I was proud of our Trustees two years ago when they recognized that St. Luke’s is reaching people who don’t identify as male or female and found that our restrooms can be a limiting obstacle, so we invested a lot of money to create
gender neutral restrooms near our busiest entrance to the building.
At the time, some people thought we were being influenced by liberal politics and being woke, but the truth is we simply listened to people coming in our doors wanting to be close to Jesus. We realized that our buildings send a message about our openness. And I am so proud of our church that says it is worth the expense to let everyone know You Belong Here.
At Midtown they have an elevator that can take people to the lower level where most of their fellowship offerings take place. But when you get off the elevator there are several more steps you have to go down to be with everyone. Pastor Mindie said she and other leaders talked about this for a while, that they need to build a ramp or something that could allow people who can’t walk the steps to still be able to be a part of the community. They talked and kind of fretted over just what to do.
Then one of the girls in Midtown broke her leg at school. She came to church on Sunday but couldn’t maneuver the stairs for one of her favorite times at church, being with friends and eating a doughnut. Now, all of a sudden, the fretting ended. Within a short a ramp was built!
When you see the need as someone you care about, you don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it, you jump to action. What if we saw everyone as someone we care about? Someone needing love, support, with gifts to share and offer? You do what it takes to include them.
The persons who brought their friend to Jesus didn’t seem to spend much time debating. They leapt to action. They tore a hole in the roof. Now, their action would require repair. There would be expense involved, but there usually is when we make room for others. You do what it takes.
Some churches spend a lot of energy preserving their facilities. They put signs up that say thing like, “No drinks allowed.” They don’t let the children’s ministry use certain rooms because they might spill things on the carpet or get the walls dirty.
Then there are other churches that just budget every few years for replacing the carpet and painting the walls, because they say buildings are temporary. It’s souls that last. When they invest in carpet and paint, they recognize they are investing in souls. That’s why we make room.
In Webster’s Dictionary the word hospitable comes between the words hospice which means shelter and hospital which is a place of healing. Hospitality is essentially helping people find healing and hope.
So you get the idea that this is not just about physical space. Making room physically begins here (pointing to the heart). We begin making room for others in our hearts. John Ortberg said in a sermon one time, “You can only be loved to the extent that you are known.” That is when the church is at its best, when we make room to know each other and be known by each other.
Think about this for a moment. When Jesus left this earth and returned to heaven, he didn’t leave a strategic plan to carry on his work. He didn’t leave financial resources to carry it out. He didn’t leave a plan detailing the infrastructure or organization his followers would need. All he left was a little community. A community of care and compassion. This was his grand plan to change the world.
So in this month of September we are talking about raising money for building needs, yes. But I see this as an opportunity for something even deeper and bigger, to make room spiritually and emotionally. Today I am introducing The Yellow Bench Challenge. You will see a few benches like this one in the fellowship all, and outside the sanctuary and Robertson Chapel. The point is to make room for conversations and getting to know each other. We have a couple folks who are going to display how the Yellow Bench works…James Hume and Gustana…
SO during this month, starting after worship today, if you sit on the yellow bench that means you are open to having a conversation with someone and getting to know them. And if you see someone sitting on the bench that is an invitation for you to go sit down and introduce yourself and get to know that person.
If we aren’t making room here, we will never need to make room there.
Consider one last observation from the story of this first construction project in the Gospels was at a little home in Galilee. It was packed to the gills because people were finding hope through Jesus. And yet, with nowhere to stand, they made room for one more because a group of friends cared enough to do so. And when Jesus heals their friend and he gets up and walks home, look at the response of everyone there, “They were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” (Mark 2:12) Everyone was blessed. Not just the paralytic. Not just the friends who carried him. All the people received a blessing because room was made for someone who couldn’t get close to Jesus.
Don’t you wish you could have interviewed the owner of that house at the end of the day. Everyone goes home, he still has a hole in his roof. If you asked him, “Are you a little perturbed by what happened today?” What do you think he would say? I believe he would say something like, “Perturbed? Are you kidding? I’m thinking about leaving that hole! I don’t want to forget what happened here today. This was amazing. I can’t believe I got to experience this!”
When we make room for others, the blessing comes back to us.
I completed my sabbatical by going to Dallas, Texas to see my friend Stand Copeland, senior pastor of Lover’s Lane UMC. Just that week before a fire destroyed the sanctuary of First Baptist Church, Dallas, an old historic building and congregation. That Sunday their church had to worship at the convention center.
So Stan told a story in his sermon that day about the late Dr. WA Criswell, the famous pastor who served First Baptist for many years. At one point in his ministry a young many endeared himself to Dr. Criswell. His name was Tony and he was mentally and physically challenged. He said Tony would come into his study and help do things like take off the pastor’s coat and hang it up. Any time Dr. Criswell would walk through a door, Tony would go in front of him to open it for him. He said Tony was always there kind of flanking him, ready to move so he could do something for Dr. Criswell.
Well, some of the members took notice of this and it kind of annoyed them. They said, “Tony, you don’t need to be hanging around Dr. Criswell like that. He doesn’t need you to open the doors for him.” So Tony decided to go ask Dr. Criswell what he wanted and basically asked if he was being a nuisance. Dr. Criswell gently said to him, “No Tony you're not. You don't bother me at all, and I appreciate what you do for me”.
So, when the church built a new activity center, the pastor's office was in the new activity center. And so, Tony asked Dr. Criswell if he'd mind if he walked him across the street. And so, he did, and Dr. Criswell said, “he went ahead of me, he opened the door when I went to my study he went ahead of me, he opened the door again and he was doing the same thing he'd always done”.
And he said a couple of weeks after that move in, Tony died suddenly, unexpectedly. At his funeral Dr. Criswell said, “you know I have this wild idea that when it's our time to die and go to heaven that Tony's going to be standing there at the gate opening the door for us.”
When we are a church that cares for all people and we make room for them, we will find that we are the ones who get blessed and discover the room that gets made for us.