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The meeting began on a blustery cold night, you know, one in which you can almost feel the cold air chilling your lungs.

"Six Choices for Renewal: Choose Frontier over Fortress"                    Jack Keating

Cicero United Methodist Church          February 3, 2008               Matthew 28: 16 - 20

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         The meeting began on a blustery cold night, you know, one in which you can almost feel the cold air chilling your lungs. We had been invited, my pastor friends and I, to hear about and talk about the problems facing our United Methodist Church here in Upstate, New York. The numbers of churches in decline, of Sunday Schools closed up, of congregations on life support had all accompanied the invitation I'd received. Discussion about the "graying" clergy, lack of pastoral leadership, and outdated mission attempts were on the agenda. Now let me be clear here, I didn't originally want to go to this meeting. It was called at the invitation of four of my clergy brothers, I had lots of other things I could have been doing, and I wasn't sure I wanted to be a part of this group anyway! But for some reason (you'll probably figure it out later) I confirmed my attendance and made my way to Syracuse that night. To some of you I recall saying that I felt drawn to the meeting just like some folks are compelled to slow down and check out the person getting the speeding ticket from the State Trooper on the Thruway! But none the less, I went ... only to listen ... not to participate. I'd just sit quietly and observe and maintain a safe distance ... from the comfort zone in which I had been existing.

         I was sitting quite comfortably in that sanctuary waiting for the discussion to start (and perhaps the accompanying fireworks!), when who should come up the center aisle and sit next to me but our own Bishop Fisher! Now, I thought, not only was I going to have a chance to see the fireworks, I'd have the best seat in the house from which to watch them! Someone was going to take our churches to task and I had a front row seat right next to the Bishop to watch it happen. Although I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be a fun sight to behold, I was at least curious as I wanted to be sure to catch the exact moment this train de-railed from the track!

         Imagine then my surprise when the conversation not only had a civil and cordial tone, but actually had the endorsement of the Bishop as it began. We talked about lots of things that evening and there was even agreement among us clergy that we needed to change, as well as change the institution to which we have dedicated our lives. And all that talk started me thinking about this institution called the CHURCH. And I started thinking about exactly what it is that makes the church different from other social institutions.

         I've come to the realization that the foremost difference it is that the church explains the meaning of life to people in it's ultimate terms. And only churches can meet the desire we each have to relate to our Creator personally. In plainer language let me try it for you this way .... Only churches are places where people can be saved. No other social institution can match that claim.

         For us as United Methodists, as those who follow the teachings of not only Jesus Christ but also John Wesley, we know the church represents the last and best hope to fulfill the command of Christ to "Go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." And if the current trends in the life of the church are to be re-directed, we will need to return again to an institution that chooses frontiers over fortresses. We will need to move past the tendency to sit here in our beautiful, comfortable sanctuaries and get back about the business of taking the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world around us. And I think to do that we will need to get back to the three priorities that made our movement, for a time, the fastest growing church the world has ever seen.

            The First Priority, to which we need to return, is a commitment to Christ.

            Earlier in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus instructs his followers to: "Seek first (God's) kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Relating to God and to God's son, Jesus Christ as Lord, is the first step in living a Christian life. It is also, not coincidentally however, the first step in choosing the frontier life style. Wesley knew and wrote often about the need for Christians to live our lives from the center out, with the center of our lives being a living relationship with Jesus Christ.

         In the days gone past, when our church grew by over 900 percent in 40 years, and outgrew the U.S. population growth three times over, people lived their lives with their relationship with God being located at the center of their pinwheel. Communities made decisions based on prayer, towns were founded because God prodded and God's people listened, and maintaining a living relationship with Jesus Christ was each person's highest calling. Oh, for the day when we re-orient our lives back to those earlier times!

            The Second Priority is a commitment to the Body of Christ.

            When we are committed to each other in Christ, we are called the Body of Christ.

We are therefore connected and dependant on each other in His body. And that is shown by how we love and care for each other, my friends.

         We've all known those who have declared that their church exists "somewhere out there, beside the babbling brook or on the hillside in springtime." And while that paints a nice picture for a Kincaid calendar, it's pure baloney! Church is the regular gathering of the Body of Christ. Just as no person could ever live happily on some deserted island, no Christian can ever live happily without the fellowship of the rest of the Body of Christ. Truly Christian people must come together and model, love, concern, generosity, and sacrifice among themselves or we will never be prepared to deal with those who do not yet know Christ. God's word reminds us that as we have the opportunity to do good among all people, but Galatians 6: 10 instructs us that this is especially true "to those who are of the household of faith." And, further, Jesus reminds is in John 13:35, that "By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Loving one another, starting with those to whom we are most closely related and spreading out to all the people of God is priority number 2.

            Finally, our Third Priority is a commitment to the work of Christ in the world. Our scriptures instruct us on how we should relate to one another and also give us commands about how we should relate to those who are not yet Christians.  And this instruction involves both evangelism and social involvement.

         Evangelism is key because while we are committed to the work of Christ, we most importantly want the world to know the Savior who died for all. We need to let the world outside our doors know, once again, that "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." (John 3:16) That's the Gospel! And that's the story that we need to recommit ourselves to telling here in the frontier of our lives.

         And our social commitment comes into play because Jesus gave us such a fine example here. He healed the sick, he cleansed lepers, he ate with sinners, he fed the hungry, he cast out demons. And like Jesus, my friends, we need to DO something.

            Do you think Jesus was "success orientated"? After all, he did die on a cross.

And his friends had either abandoned him, or were watching from far off that day.

            But that cross was never an end in itself. It was a means toward another end.

Jesus died to take away the sins of the world and, by that standard, he was the ultimate success! As an evangelist he was an outstanding success. As a missionary he reached out to the un-churched with amazing success. Why just think of how the early church, the church of the frontier grew....

Jesus makes 12 disciples

12 disciples make 120 followers (1 Corinthians 15:6)

 120 followers become 3000 (Acts 2:41)

300 followers become ?? (Acts 2: 47 added to daily ... )

         Well folks, Pentecost was no flash in the pan. The Jerusalem church did not make the mistake of saying, "We've finished our evangelism for a while. Now let's enter a time of consolidation!" No one ever uttered the words, "We don't need to add more people ... until we can adequately take care of the ones we have." The early church, with it's frontier mindset understood that their mission was to change the world. And, as a result, Acts 6:7 reminds us that "the word of God spread, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem."

         From Jesus Christ, the Christian movement has spread worldwide so that today every nation in the world has a community of those who claim Jesus Christ as their Savior. It's been estimated that every day 75,000 people choose to become followers of Jesus Christ (Christians) and every week 600 new Christian churches are planted worldwide!

            The harvest is out there, in quantities far too great for the available reapers.

Here in the United States it's estimated that at least 100 million people have yet to commit their lives to Jesus as Lord. Not all of them will be receptive but, if only 10'10 were, then there are 10 million people waiting to hear about Christ from you.

         Chances are very good that within a short drive of this sanctuary this morning, there are thousands and thousands of people who would become faithful disciples if they heard the gospel in terms they could understand and relate to.

         Many millions of people will not become Christians unless and until our church and hundreds of churches like ours take seriously the command of Christ to make disciples of all nations. Our church can participate in the harvest and win people for Christ, if we are willing to choose frontiers over fortresses. If we are will to move beyond the walls of our sanctuary and bring the news of God's Amazing Grace to the world.

         Cases of easy, spontaneous evangelism can be found, but the world will not be won by Christians enjoying each other and waiting for it to happen. Discipleship is costly. Renewal is costly. Effective evangelism is costly. Part of being renewed, you see, is contributing to helping others being renewed as well.

         God's work in the world today will not be accomplished by timid, pessimistic people who rationalize away defeat. It will only be done by those who choose to live with a frontier mentality and who are sold out for God!

            Friends, God wants you and the Christians around you to be turned on for Him. One of the things God wants most to use you for, is to reach out in love to unbelievers in our community and bring them to Jesus. God wants you to be filled with the Spirit. God wants others to know and love Him because of you. God wants to add daily to the church as many as can be saved.

         But this type of addition will never occur if we churches continue to sit here, with our fortress mentality, and wait for it to happen. It will only occur, and we will only be renewed, when we choose to live again on the great frontier ... instead of in our own fort.

         So I pray for the same "strange warming" of your heart this morning that John Wesley experienced so many years ago. And then, watch out, because the entire world will be our mission field ... here in this new frontier.            AMEN.