Why Tab? Deep Keel
Why Tab? Deep Keel by Rev. L. John Gable
July 16, 2023
Periodically I am asked where I come up with the illustrations I use in my sermons. Most of them come from the files I have kept for the past forty years, but every so often one just kind of lands in my lap. Like this one. About a month ago a friend gave me a book titled Endeavour: the ship that changed the world. It recounts the story of the ship that Captain Cook used to sail around the southern hemisphere in the middle 18th century in search of an as of yet undiscovered continent. I will confess I learned more about ship building than I ever thought I might need, but I was impressed by the various structures used in the ships that go out to sea. In short, they require a deep keel.
That then reminded me of one of the ways Jay Steger, the chair of the nominating committee that called me, described Tab at the time (recall this was in 2007).
Tab is an old sailing ship.
She’s been out at sea for over a century and a half.
She has seen many bright shining days,
Lovely breezes.
She has navigated gale force winds and swelling seas.
Her rudder still runs true, but no one is at the tiller.
Her ballast weighs on her as she makes way.
She has lost much of her young crew, but the oldsters stand firm on their callings.
They know every inch of the ship, every creek, every chaffing
Her sail reefed, she comes into safe harbor.
Her riggings belayed but worn.
Her lines of flax now long-jawed.
Her sails billow, but tattered.
She must refit or retire.
Jay was describing Tab as an old sailing ship in need of repair if it was going to continue to be of service, well described perhaps, but what attracted me was that Tab had a deep keel. It is this that I want to talk with you about this morning as we consider the question I had to answer for myself, as do each of you, “Why Tab?”
A speed boat or a little sail boat is just fine and a lot of fun if you want to go for a summer spin on Lake Monroe, but any ship that intends to go out in to the deep waters needs a deep keel. Sail boats are great for zipping in and out on calm waters, but a sailing ship is needed when the storms hit and the waves roll. Tab is a sailing ship, not easily maneuvered, but when put in good shape able to sustain and endure, and a safe place to be when the storm clouds gather because it has a deep keel, that largely unseen portion of the ship that sits below the waves, that gives strength and balance and stability.
I mentioned last week the email I got from Aaron Renn, the local writer, who gave me such profound insights about Tab before their recent move. Listen to the way he describes Tab’s “deep keel”.
“I appreciate Tab’s incredible legacy as a 170 year old congregation. Until a church has gone through multiple generations, and navigated through challenging periods, we don’t really know how great a church it is. Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian is less than 35 years old, will it even exist to reach age 100? Will it still be a faithful congregation if it does? It is not guaranteed…Tab has thus far stood the test of time. It’s been through multiple periods of challenge and come through them. That’s no guarantee for the future, but it does show there is something special about this place. It’s very easy to start something new and create a style that works in the now. But as a church ages and preferences change, can it be sustained? Can you make the changes you need to make when you have a congregation of long time members who like things the way they’ve always been? It’s not easy. Reinvention is hard. And you never get to stop doing it, but Tab has done it multiple times. Again, Tab’s legacy is a precious inheritance.”
Knowing and honoring that, every day when I came in to the office, for about the first 18 months, I told myself “course correction”. I knew that changes had to be made, but I also knew they had to be done in a considered manner otherwise we’d throw people over the deck or the big old ship would simply fall apart if we moved too fast. But I was confident that the “course corrections” could be made because Tab has a “deep keel”. Let me give you several examples.
Tab has the deep keel of our LOCATION. Standing on this corner for 100 years Tab is known, respected and appreciated, even by those who have never set foot in this building. In the midst of the myriad of changes that have impacted this city and neighborhood over the past century, Tab has been a symbol of stability. Last Sunday evening I walked around Tab Park during TabJams and visited with our neighbor guests. I cannot tell you how many just wanted to thank Tab for being Tab, for being here, for staying here. Everywhere I go in this city, once I am identified as being from Tab, I hear Tab stories. Everyone seems to have a Tab story, some way that Tab has been a help, a support, an influence, and some of the stories go back decades, even generations, and I am inspired by that. As the Psalmist writes, “One generation shall laud Your works to another”.
A second “deep keel” is the INTER-GENERATIONAL character of our church family. Together we enjoy the wisdom of the elders and the energy of the youth. We recognize and appreciate that we are on a journey together, a journey of faith, a journey of life, and we need one another and we care for one another. We are part of “a great cloud of witnesses”, those who have gone before us, those around us still and those yet to come. Together we form links in a great chain of faith: past, present and future.
Social scientists tell us that values are best shared in three generation systems: parents and children and grandparents. In this transient society, where many do not live near their extended families, we have the unique privilege and opportunity to become family to one another as we live in to the baptismal promises we make to young families, saying that we promise to help raise their children in the nurture and instruction of the Lord. Are you aware that this old sailing ship has four nurseries? We are readying ourselves for the future.
Several months ago I met up with a woman who was raised at Tab. She told me her story, and gave me permission to share it. She was raised in a broken home and dysfunctional family in this neighborhood. Her parents brought her to Tab’s youth group one evening and she was invited to go on an up-coming retreat with them. She agreed, just happy to get out of the house for a while. That weekend one of the adult leaders, not the pastor, told her that God loves her. She told me, “No one had ever told me that I was loved before”, but she believed God did, and that was life-changing for her. Not long after a Tab family took her in and we became her inter-generational family who loved and cared for her. She went on to become a Presbyterian pastor, now recently retired.
Yet another “deep keel” is Tab’s GENEROSITY. You have heard me say before that stewardship is a part of Christian discipleship. We give because we have first been given to, the greatest gift of God’s love and salvation through Jesus Christ. As an expression of our faith, we support what we believe in and we believe in the kinds of ministries Tab is doing with our time, our talents and our treasures. Tab is a tremendously generous congregation and as a result we are able to “live larger than we are”, to carry on ministries which churches two or three times our size could not manage. I don’t say that boastfully but honestly. I know we get used to doing what we do and wonder at times why we don’t do more, but people are amazed when see all that we do do and then hear how we do it.
Using the sailing ship analogy again, when we arrived this old ship was in deep need of repair – as Jay put it, “refit or retire”, and we made the commitment to refit. This was and is a sign of the depth of our commitment to this mission and ministry, past, present and future. In the past several years, since the building of the new stadium, we have committed over $7 million to the repair and renovation of this beautiful facility, and there is more still to do, all this without having a capital campaign or reducing our mission giving. Why would we invest in this old ship if we didn’t believe it still had good usefulness for God’s Kingdom work in the future? We are readying her to go back out to sea for the next 100 years…and I would be negligent if I didn’t say, each of us has a part to play in supporting that adventure in the giving of our time and talent and treasure. As Elizabeth O’Connor so beautifully put it, “On the ship called the church there are no passengers, all are members of the crew.”
Our long-term, well-established PROGRAMS are another of our deep keels: missions which have been supported and sustained for decades; our media ministry which was started back in the 70’s with Good News From Tab and continues still broadcasting our worship services every Sunday morning on WIBC. Tab media is one of the things which I believe has kept Tab from simply being forgotten as just another church on some corner in the city. I still find it humorous, but I can’t tell you the number of times someone has said to me, “Hey, you’re the guy on the radio!” Our music ministry which is one of the finest in the city, perhaps the region, and our willingness to pivot and change to offer new worship styles without devolving into worship wars. And of course Tab Rec which will turn 100 in 2024. Tab Rec is the model for any church in the country that is using sports and recreation as a part of their ministry and not just an add-on to it. While that program has changed significantly through the years, offering different sports as interests change, we are currently serving approximately 1500 kids every year in our various sports programs. Add to these the new ministries we have added: Open Door Café, Tab Tutoring, Fresh Stop, TabJams, the Tab Community Care program, social and support groups, not to mention all of the programs and ministries we have supported and founded in the city through the years. We will talk more about those next week, but Tab has our fingerprints everywhere in this city. And we should, sailing ships are meant to go out to sea, not just stay safe in the harbor.
A final deep keel is our TRADITION. Number 15 in my “40 Gleanings from 40 Years in Ministry” is: Tradition is Momentum. As John Leith put it, there is a difference between tradition and traditionalism. “Tradition is the living faith of dead people. Traditionalism is the dead faith of living people. For this reason tradition is the source of vitality for the church, and traditionalism is the occasion of its death.” Tradition, not the immovable traditionalism which says “We’ve always done it this way or we’ve never done it this way” is one of the “deep keels” which keeps Tab moving in the right direction of doing God’s work in this community and around the world. Who knows, some of new things we begin today may become part of Tab’s legacy in the future. As it is said, “When it the best time to plant an oak tree? 75 years ago. When is the second best time? Today.” We continue to plant saplings today which may grow into being one of our great traditions one day.
We are all aware that changes are coming, your new pastor will not do
things or say things the way I have done and said things; those changes are inevitable. Some may be difficult, others welcomed, but we should not be surprised by them, they are all part of the journey of life and faith we are on together. And I have every confidence that not only will we survive those changes but that we will flourish in them as long as we all stay on board and do our part, “without growing weary or losing heart, as we look to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith”.
The second church I served in Waterloo, Iowa, was in many ways very similar to Tab in mission and ministry and location, albeit smaller, and interestingly enough, it was founded about the same time as Tab in the 1850’s. During their centennial celebration in 1954 this charge was offered by the pastor who was serving then which I have always found inspiring, for them and for us here today.
“Faith is contagious. A strong faith inevitably spreads. If we want spiritual strength, we must maintain contact with those who have it and with those who had it before. Let us be thankful for this church… remembering those who founded it and those who, during the succeeding decades, maintained it, enlarged it, beautified it and enriched it with their Christian love and labor. Let us dedicate ourselves to follow in this great tradition.”
To that end, let us so dedicate and commit ourselves to the “deep keel” of Tab’s great traditions. To the honor and glory of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN