Annual meeting Sunday is an opportune time to be endorsing a vision for this church. It is a good Sunday to sum up our sermon series on who we are and where we are headed, to think about the state of Westminster, check vital signs, look at our role in the city.
What I want to raise for us today is the issue of leadership. A good friend and pastor of a large church in Pittsburgh periodically asks his congregation two questions: first, what kind of people are we trying to deploy into the world? And second, what kind of church does it take to shape those kind of people?
Judging from an Auburn Seminary study not enough pastors or Sessions have been asking those questions. The study, Missing Connections: public perceptions of religious leadership, not only rings true, it rings like the wake up call of an alarm clock.
The Auburn people offer some disturbing conclusions. Their observation is that religious leadership today is silent, invisible, and simply not at the table in most communities. Quite different from a generation ago when church folk were lobbying congress, registering voters and carrying pickets for a host of causes.
Today religious leaders are perceived as insular and self-serving. Not wanting to take on the kind of public role our parents did in the 50s and 60s. So withdrawn are the churches, say the folks at Auburn, that many towns and cities do not even regard them as community assets.
Yet, paradoxically, the vision for what churches can bring to communities often comes from outside the church. Business leaders, journalists, community organizers. I am not saying there is a ground swell of support from the secular world but among some the church is seen as having a natural bully pulpit for building stronger, healthier neighborhoods.
I told you, for example, a few weeks ago about the United Way executive in Pennsylvania who is as articulate as anyone I know about the potential role of the church in the Lehigh Valley.
One business leader from Atlanta told the Auburn people, "It will be the churches that save society because none of the other forces have any moral component."
Or a community organizer from Portland, Oregon who said, "churches should try to help with the development of the moral fiber of society. Religious leaders have to stand out as a moral guideposts."
One theologian, Barbara Wheeler, is calling the church back to its biblical roots.
"Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile," she quotes the prophet, "for in its welfare you will find your welfare."
In other words, the success of the church on the one hand and its presence as a force for change in the city are not separate matters. Let me be more blunt. Westminster’s moral destiny is intimately linked to the welfare of Buffalo.
What kind of people are we trying to deploy into the world and what kind of church does it take to shape those kind of people?
When God called Moses to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt, Moses was not on anyone’s short list for the position. Newly married, Moses was working in the family business, living off of the largesse of his father-in-law, herding the old man’s sheep.
When God and Moses talked at the burning bush, Moses offered every excuse he could think of to leading: young, inarticulate, inexperienced, scared. God would have none of it. "Go. I will give you what you need."
I don’t know about you, but I find that reassuring. Moses, one of the greatest leaders of all time, did not have any degrees from the Steven Covey Institute or Harvard Business School. He was a lump of clay God shaped into a great leader.
Nor did the process take forever. Moses learned on the job. Trial and error. Facing the most powerful nation on earth – Pharaoh and his army – had a way of inspiring Moses to learn his lessons well and quickly.
The good news of this story is not only did God see something in Moses he could work with, God saw something in the people, just as God sees something in each one of us to work with.
What kind of people are we deploying? Peter Drucker would like that story about Moses. Drucker says there may be such a thing as "born leaders’ but he has known precious few in his lifetime. Nor is there such a thing as a "leadership personality" or "leadership style," says Drucker.
"I have known great leaders of everything from multi-national corporations to small social service agencies who exhibit every kind of character trait," he says. "Extrovert/introvert, nice guy/stern disciplinarian, warm/aloof, flamboyant/ ascetic, vain/self-effacing. The one thing they did have in common was the one thing they did not have: ‘charisma’ and little use for what it signifies."
Rather, says Drucker, the leaders he has known and admired knew three simple things: produce results, set an example, accept responsibility.
What kind of people are we deploying? Frances Hesselbein, considered by many one of the great leaders of our time, former head of the Girl Scouts of America, says the major challenge today faced by non-profit organizations has little to do with monitoring tangible assets and everything to do with cultivating leadership.
We are talking this annual meeting Sunday about being a great church. We have a vision for our long-term and immediate future. We are enjoying a momentum of renewal in this congregation. Programs, ministry, outreach supported by faithful giving and strong prayers.
Everything is in place for us to take the next step toward excellence. Not perfection – because no one is perfect – but excellence. That step, the next step, in addition to those outlined in our vision statement, is for us to focus on what kind of people we want to deploy into the world – into our homes and workplaces and neighborhoods – and what kind of church it will take to produce those kind of people.
What kind of people are we deploying? If Westminster is to continue to lead in this community then the members of Westminster have to lead in their daily living. I am not talking about being leaders in the traditional sense of having some lofty title or privileged position of power. I am talking about servant-leadership, living Christ-like lives.
Servant leadership applies not just to the clergy, or only the program staff, or merely the elders and deacons but to each member of this congregation. When it comes to living like Christ each of us is called, as Drucker says, to produce results, be examples, accept responsibility.
That is the kind of person we want to deploy.
What kind of church deploys servant-leaders? A teacher was asked by a high school student, "every book we have read about WWI says it was a war of total military incompetence. Why?" The teacher shot back without hesitation, "because not enough generals were killed; they stayed behind the lines and let others do the fighting and dying." Being a great city church, managing a ministry that brings hope and justice and change to western New York and Buffalo might mean some of us will get killed.
Too many churches are staying behind the lines in the cities in which they are located. To the extent we have gone to the front lines here in Buffalo Westminster is to be commended. But if you use the prophet’s measuring stick – the moral destiny of the church is linked to the welfare of the city – it is clear there are more battle lines we need to get to.
You don’t have to look far or listen hard to sense the heat of battle. Buffalo Beat reported this past week the conversation being waged concerning downtown – issues like the convention center, the canal district, converting old buildings to residential living – are being hotly debated. Not to mention other front lines: east side/west side commercial development, the future of public education, the image of Buffalo.
What kind of church deploys servant-leaders? The bible begins in a garden but ends in a city. In Revelation, the city descending from heaven is the final sign of the completion of God’s created order. The bible says more about urban landscapes than green pastures and still waters. In the bible, it is in the city where God’s dream for humanity comes true.
Yet, since WWII, white Protestant churches have been fleeing the city, hard on- the-heels of suburban developers. Just as the population shifted from the farm to the city before the war, after the war the shift has been from the city to large metropolitan rings around the city.
Upper and middle-classes have been leaving. New congregations to serve those leaving have been constructed far from urban blight. Such congregations have become enclaves of class.
One city dweller says, "ask me to take you to a place where whites, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans live together in peace and harmony and I can take you to any number of places. Ask me to take you to a place where rich and poor people live together in peace and harmony, and I will answer there is no such place."
So friends, while we are one of a few region-wide congregations in western New York, even we do not enjoy diversity of class.
What kind of church deploys servant-leaders? The needs of poor people in the city
approach those of the Great Depression. There is a lack of jobs and work. City schools
and educational programs are trying to teach children whose next stop will be the county
or federal prison. High rates of AIDS and other illnesses go hand in hand with inadequate
or no health insurance. The need for basic assistance for women, children and youth is
staggering in poor neighborhoods.
One minister describes these as the "disposable" people – not welcome in middle and upper class churches. Drive down Jefferson Ave. or other arteries on the east side or west of Richmond Avenue on the west side – you see what I mean.
I agree with one preacher who says mere optimism about the future of humanity and economic and technological progress is not an adequate strategy for the city church. Our strength must come from a deeper source.
What kind of church deploys servant-leaders? At the end of his life, when Jesus holds a meeting in the city of Jerusalem with his disciples, he reveals to them a deeper source of strength to keep them going. What he said is painted on the ceiling of this chancel.
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower…. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine and you are the branches.
Those who abide in me and I in them will bear much fruit….As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love."
What kind of church produces servant-leaders? brings hope to the city, welcomes the stranger, is an earthly sign of the heavenly Jerusalem? The church abiding in God’s love!
I am amazed by a huge plant in my office that was given to me two years ago on my first day at Westminster. It loves the southwest corner in my library. Each day I look for new signs of growth. Four feet from the ceramic pot that holds its roots are tiny octets of leaves sprouting into the sunlight.
The only reason those tiny clusters of leaves grow is that they are connected to the branches that are connected to the stems that are connected to the roots where their nourishment comes from.
If the Auburn study is about missing connections, our vision statement and Westminster’s future is about making connections.
Each of us with one another, all of us with Christ, together with the poor and suffering. Linking this great church with this venerable city.
The two are intertwined like the branches of the vine on our ceiling.
The city we seek to create and the servant-leader church we seek to become are rooted together in God’s love. Love the same yesterday, today and tomorrow which birthed a vision for sustaining city churches 2,000 years ago as pristine and relevant now as then.
"I saw the Holy City beside the tideless sea. The light of God was on its streets; the gates were open wide; and all who would might enter and no one was denied.
No need of moon or stars by night, or sun to shine by day. It was the New Jerusalem that would not pass away. Amen.