Vision Renewal: The Way Forward
Vision Renewal: The Way Forward by Rev. L. John Gable
May 28, 2023
As much as I have enjoyed revisiting and discussing our Vision Renewal statement with you the past couple of weeks, we turn our attention now to talking about the way forward.
Recall, the renewal statement we crafted in 2016 was in response to the question I was asked by one of our new members, “Do we still believe the report that was written in 1966, the one that influenced our decision to remain in place here at the corner of 34th and Central?” It is a good question, and one we took a full year to discuss and consider before answering.
You may recall my telling you that I keep a copy of the 1966 Metropolitan Community Program report with me all the time in my day planner. I find it both instructional and inspirational. Written over 40 years after our relocation to this neighborhood much had changed. I quote from that report, “During this time, the mode of conveyance has changed completely, the congregation has spread in to new suburbs, the average age of the congregation has increased, the membership, attendance and activity participation has declined from a peak level, the neighborhood has undergone a major change in which, at the very least, it has lost its preference rating, and at most, has experienced deterioration and threat from vandalism in some adjacent areas.” Recall this was written in 1965-66. In those same years, the neighborhood around us was rife with racial tensions in the midst of our nation’s struggles over integration and civil rights. People, businesses and churches had all pulled up stakes and moved north. And we were faced with a decision, move or stay?
After much careful, prayerful deliberation the committee made the following recommendation: “The Metropolitan Community Program Committee recommends that Tabernacle remain in location, both for now and the foreseeable future, and put all of its energies in to the development of a Protestant Church rendering significant service to the entire metropolitan area”. Staying was not the easy option to choose and that decision has shaped and influenced nearly every other decision we have made since.
One of the recommendations the committee made was that, and again I quote, that “Tabernacle can best serve Christ by developing mission from and around its present location, which mission contemplates a church with a true metropolitan scope, serving the needs of the community, both immediate and distant, and furnishing meaningful religious experience to a congregation spread throughout the city and employing the wealth of talents which thus will be available. This must be accomplished by the development of a true sense of mission and not by the emphasis on program devices.” This, I believe, was one of the great take-aways from that study. Not only that Tab would stay right here, in this location, but that our mission and ministry, our sense of purpose, would shape and influence our program; “what” we do would be driven by “why” we do it. As a church, we were being called to act out of our sense of God’s calling and purpose, not our own sense of comfort and security, and here we are still. It was that vision and commitment that has brought us to where we are today. So the question now posed to us is “What’s next? What is the way forward?”
I don’t know about you, but I find that I have more clarity about the past than I do the future, 20/20 hindsight, if you will; and I believe there is a lot of benefit to looking back to see where we’ve been and what we have done (good, bad and indifferent) to get us where we are, using the past as a template to guide us in to the future. In a couple of weeks we are going to look at the story of Moses at the end of their 40 year sojourn through the wilderness. There he gathered all the people and retold them their story of the past, reminding them of the ways God had delivered and provided, protected and guided them, as both an encouragement and a warning as they prepared to enter the Promised Land of Canaan. So today, appropriately on both this Memorial Day when we are reminded to look back and remember and this Day of Pentecost when we consider the new things God continues to do, we are being called to trust and follow Him as He leads us in to the future.
The commitments made in 1966 laid the foundation for the commitments we reaffirmed in 2016: Greater Faith, Deeper Relationships and A Stronger Community, and these, I believe, will pave the way for our future.
Greater Faith: we desire greater faith and confident trust, particularly in our times of change and uncertainty, that God is still with us to lead and to bless, and so we pray for an increasing willingness to listen to and follow His call.
Deeper relationships: knowing that God created us to be in right relationship with Him and with one another, within and beyond these walls, we pray that we will be a people and a place that will help to create, nurture and deepen our bonds of friendship and faith.
A Stronger Community: we believe God has called and kept us here, in place, for His Kingdom purposes, for the welfare and well-being of this community, and we believe He continues to call and keep us here still.
The three points of this vision are not simply a reviewing of the past or a restatement of what we are doing in the present, but are the paving stones on which we will continue to walk in to the future. I fully believe that just as the 1966 report guided us for 50 years, so will the 2016 report. Will there be changes and challenges? Of course there will be. The future may be markedly different than the way things are now, just as they are different now than the way things once were, but these principles will help us keep focused on the work at hand and the direction we are headed.
Nearing the end of the Vision Renewal statement we read, “Tab’s legacy of service to its community is strong and respected.” But we know legacies are good things to build on, but not to lean on. So, “This vision calls Tab not to bask in that legacy but, rather, to expand it, build on it and leverage it, so we can be a partner in efforts to develop ourselves, our neighbors and our community. “ At the time of our writing we included 12 possible areas of expansion for our mission and ministry: Children and Youth; Collaboration and partnership in our community; diversity in membership; facilities improvement; food insecurity; seeking God’s shalom; advocacy to address the macro problems which face our community; inviting neighbors to be members; greater engagement with our recreation ministry; the development of small groups; times for sharing meals; and combined, intergenerational services of worship. Each of these is worthy of continued exploration and commitment, but I appreciate that the team offered these to us as being “prescriptive rather than restrictive.” Some we have already been addressing; others are yet to be, and there are still others that need to be added to the list.
In my closing weeks I will share with you what I believe to be Tab’s uniqueness and strengths, our greatest assets and opportunities. I mentioned in my letter I postponed announcing my retirement by at least a year because I wanted to try to do my part in leading us beyond the pandemic. I recently read a quote by a professor from UC-Berkeley who quoted Tolkien in a creative way. “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I”, said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
In that vein and with that attitude as I look to Tab’s future I would emphasize:
First, our ever deepening commitment to Greater Faith: a continual reminder
to ourselves, and to those who are called to positions of leadership and to one another to trust in the gracious guidance and provision of God, of particular import in these times of change.
Second, regarding our vision for deeper relationships: I would emphasize both an internal commitment to deepening points of connection within the Tab family, with one another, and beyond the Tab family with our immediate neighbors. People may join organizations, including churches, because of their mission, their impact, the persona of their leadership, but they remain a part of those organizations, including churches, because of the meaningful relationships they make there. Those bonds of friendship need to be continually strengthened and expanded.
Finally, we need to continue to seek new ways to envision and develop a Stronger Community. Our commitment to this neighborhood is well established and well-practiced, but we are in a position now to expand our impact and influence through advocacy. We can name the needs of our neighbors and we are doing our part to address them: hunger, homelessness, unemployment, failing schools, a pervasive sense of hopelessness and the list goes on and on, but there is still more we can do to deal not just with the symptoms but the causes of these systemic, societal dis-eases. We are all familiar with the saying, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” But there is more we can do to support that man, woman, child to one day own the pond in which they fish, so that they no longer need to turn to us and others to feed them, house their families, educate or protect their children. I believe we are in a position to exercise our muscles of influence and advocacy on behalf of our neighbors.
These are not three separate visions, but expressions of one and the same, consistent with the Kingdom work we have been doing for generations and of the vision we have been given of God’s Kingdom, “on earth as it is in heaven”. As Elizabeth O’Connor writes, “Visions from God are integrally connected with justice for the poor, the sick and oppressed, the lonely and rejected. They are concerned with love and beauty and laughter. They move us out to do a unifying work.” It was Elizabeth O’Connor who also said, “On the ship called the Church there are no passengers; all are members of the crew.” This vision God has given us demands “all hands on deck.”
At the end of the report we read, “The Vision Renewal team hopes this document serves as a challenge to Tab and its people. A challenge to constantly grow; a challenge to constantly push to achieve more for the Kingdom of God; a challenge to reach beyond complacency and comfort; and to venture into new territories and new experiences in the pursuit of a new era of impact.” They write, “This could be messy. There will be risk. The call is to wade in to the mess, to faithfully take the risk, urged forward by the knowledge that doing so will allow us to partner with Christ for the redemption of the world.”
I’ll close with the vision theologian Hans Kung has for the Church of the future. In response to the question, “To what kind of church does the future belong?” he writes:
“Not to a church that is lazy, shallow, indifferent, timid and weak in its faith;
Not to a church that expects blind obedience and fanatical party loyalty;
Not to a church that is a slave to its own history, always putting on the brake, suspiciously defensive and yet, in the end, forced in to agreement;
Not to a church that is blind to problems, suspicious of empirical knowledge, yet claiming competent authority for everyone and everything;
Not to a church that is quarrelsome, impatient and unfair in dialogue;
Not to a church that is closed to the real world.
In short, the future does not belong to a church that is dishonest!
No, the future belongs:
To a church that knows what it does not know;
To a church that relies on God’s grace and wisdom and has in its weakness and ignorance a radical confidence in God;
To a church that is strong in faith, joyous and certain, yet self-critical;
To a church filled with intellectual desire, spontaneity, animation and fruitfulness;
To a church that has the courage of initiative, and the courage to take risks;
To a church that is altogether open to the world.
In short, the future belongs to a thoroughly truthful church.”
May we have the faith and courage to be that kind of Church, past, present and future, to the honor and glory of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN