A House of Living Stones
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1 Peter 2:4-5; Ecclesiastes 3:1-5a
Coolwater Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Scottsdale, AZ
January 29, 2023
In honor of the members of Coolwater Christian Church past and present and in gratitude for the selfless ministry of my brother in Christ, Pastor Rick Gates.
The author of Ecclesiastes says, “For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven” including, he says, “a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 5a).
Twenty years ago was a time to gather stones together. On February 23, 2003, what was called the Launch Team had our first gathering on this property. While I met with fifteen adults in a circle of folding chairs, Jennie took the children and youth with her. Fourth graders Justin Tinault and Laura Shirey, eighth graders Betsy Shirey and Ashton Coleman, and preschooler Bobby Faulkner. High school junior Will Shirey was there, too. Together, the youth and children gathered stones from around the property that they piled at the base of the great saguaro. Then Jennie told them a story Pastor Rick alluded to last week about Joshua and the people of Israel crossing the Jordan and piling up stones as an altar of remembrance (Joshua 4:1-7). One day, she told them, there will be a church building on this property and whenever someone sees these stones and asks you, “What do these stones mean?” you can tell them the story of how God’s faithfulness and providence raised up a church out of desert dust and sagebrush.
Eight years later, it was again time to gather stones together. A construction company under the watchful eye of Ross Nierman completed the work of piling thousands of stones atop one another to form the walls of this building. And with Garrett Fonce in the lead bearing the cross that had been on the communion table of Desert Sun Elementary school for over eight years, we marched a mile down Dynamite, crossed the Jordan Wash just east of the parking lot and entered this building made of stones.
Twelve years after that, last Sunday, you made the decision to sell this building made of stones. It’s time. Having heard the back story from Pastor Rick and Regional Minister Jay Hartley, I want you to know that Jennie and I understand, we ache with you, and we support you with all our hearts. I shared this news with Will, Betsy, Laura and their families Friday evening by Zoom from Will’s house. They extend their love to you, Will in person, Betsy and Laura from afar. You have our family’s blessing. It is, after all, it’s a decision that had to be made. It’s time.
Let me tell you why. The reason is not economic; it’s spiritual. The stones piled high by our children and youth as an altar and this building made of stones piled high to the glory of God became heavy over time. Burdensome. Wearying. They became a source of crushing debt. In the Bible, being stoned to death was a terrible way to die. Likewise, living under the crushing burden of debt is a terrible thing.
But hear me when I remind you that God does not want his precious children to suffer in any way, shape, or form and that includes suffering under the crushing weight of debt. The story of the Exodus teaches us that God always seeks to liberate his people from bondage, whether that bondage is Hebrews to Egyptians, African slaves to white masters, or borrowers in bondage to intractable debt. It’s because God seeks to liberate people from bondage to debt that we have bankruptcy laws that release them. The source of those laws is the Bible’s provision for what is called the Jubilee Year in Leviticus 25:8-13. Because unremitting debt destroys lives, Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Bottom line: You were called by God to bear Christ, not to bear onerous debt. You’re to live in the shadow of the cross, not the shadow of yet another mortgage payment and another and another and another.
Having said that, I hasten to say this: the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ as proclaimed by Peter and by Pastor Rick last week: this building is not the church. You are the church. The stones piled high by Redden Construction’s stonemasons are not the church. Says Peter, you are the church, “living stones... built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). Paul echoes Peter’s imagery, writing to the Ephesians, “You are... built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20). The New Testament never mentions a building called ‘church.’ 21st century Christians have it all wrong. We think church and we think building. 1st century Christians knew nothing of church buildings. They understood themselves to be the church. You know the song:
I am the church! You are the church! We are the church together!
All who follow Jesus, all around the world! Yes, we're the church together!
The church is not a building; the church is not a steeple;
the church is not a resting place; the church is a people.
It’s no coincidence that when Peter makes his confession of faith (Matthew 16:13-20), Jesus changes his name, says, “You shall now be called Cephas which means Rock and on you I shall build my church. Rocks and stones do not a church make. People do. For 20+ years you have been a house of living stones, and a beautiful one at that!
Listen: I have one photo of this building on the wall of my study at home. But I have a multitude of pictures of you that are precious in my sight in my study, in our living room, our den, Jennie and I my bedroom, and in photograph albums well-worn from thumbing through. The walls of my mind are adorned with pictures of the Coolwater Christian Church that is you.
Our first baptism class including Karen Blue, Laura Shirey and a dozen or so others dripping wet, smiling, standing at the edge of the Fosters’ swimming pool.
Pictures of Sonya and Jennie doing their thing adorning the Lord’s Table.
A picture of me grinning from ear to ear, standing next to Mansoor and pointing to the front of a t-shirt he has on that features a big yellow triangle traffic sign that reads SLOW: 50-year-old at play.
A photo of Diane Foley, Desert Sun librarian, standing next to me dressed up as a turtle for some reading promotion.
Eph Calbert dressed up in an inflatable cartoon horse costume wearing an oversized ten-gallon hat. Giddy up cowboy!
Russ Garrett sitting on a hay bale after we’d set up for the very first Journey to Bethlehem.
I can see Dick and Pam Huggins in line to sign their names on Coolwater’s charter in 2006 and I can still hear Dick say, “David, I feel like all the heavy lifting has been done and I’m just Johnny-come-lately getting in line to sign my name.” Dick, Pam: You’ve done heavy lifting!
I have etched in my mind Jim and Judy Cox’s place where I would go for counsel, consolation, wisdom and encouragement seems like once a week for 10+ years.
Do you get the picture? I have one picture of this building, but hundreds of photos of you. You’re not selling the church. You are the church. There’s a time for everything. A time to gather stones, Yes. But now it’s time to sell a building that has become an insufferable burden of debt you no longer must labor under. No bank, no financial institution holds title to you. You belong to Christ. We belong to Christ and in him we are joined forever.
What’s next after selling the building? That’s for you to discern. Note that I used the word discern as opposed to decide. To decide is a human enterprise. You weigh pros and cons, create a decision tree, take a poll, ask, “What do you think?” “I don’t know, what do you think?” To decide is human, but to discern is divine. Discernment means taking it to the Lord in prayer and listening together for the Spirit’s leading.
Coolwater was founded by prayer. Its seeds were sown in prayer. Its founding vision was perceived in prayer. Its Launch Team, Charter members, and all who have joined over the past two decades have been prayed into the sacred circle that is Coolwater. Everything we tried and failed at and tried and succeeded at, our times of celebration as well as sadness, when flooded out or moving in, all of it was bathed in prayer. The countless ways we reached out beyond these walls to be Christ’s church in service to others in this county and country, south of the border and around the world, has all been motivated by prayer. And what’s next after you sell this building is for you, to discern by taking it to the Lord in prayer.
You may discern that freed from the burden of debt by the sale of this building, you want to find a new place to meet for worship and fellowship and discipleship growth and from which to serve. If you do, that would be the 7th place Coolwater has met in its history. (1) The Shirey’s living room. (2) The Desert Sun school cafeteria. (3) The Tinaults’ house after the flood where Jennie set her keyboard up next to the sink and James Calbert set up his drums next to the dishwasher and half of us sat in the living room and half in the family room and I stood halfway between and led worship like some oscillating fan until we moved to (4) Horseshoe Trails school then back to (5) Desert Sun and then (6) here.
Some churches have sold their beloved buildings, relocated, and experienced a resurrection. My friend and colleague Dawn Weaks wrote a book titled Breakthrough about how First Christian Church, Odessa, TX, did just that. After years of decline, the church called Dawn and her husband Joe as full-time co-pastors with the understanding they would sell their building and begin anew. They’re now experiencing a new season of vitality, financial health, membership growth and outreach. But it was difficult. As Dawn wrote of their rebirth: There is a requirement for resurrection. You have to die first. Die to a building. Die to old ways of being church. Die to patterns and practices that aren't bearing fruit anymore.
But you may discern you desire to do that-- relocate and draw up a three-year plan that leverages some of the proceeds from the sale of the property to create a salary package sufficient to call a full-time pastor with a demonstrated aptitude for revitalization. That’s the arrangement that was made for Jennie and me in planting this church. We were promised three years of support and by then Coolwater needed to be self-sufficient. And we were. But listen: that was with two full-time people each giving 50+ hours a week. Pastor Rick cannot do that. Don’t expect him to. His leadership in these past years on a part-time basis, I trust you know, has been sacrificial. Heroic. You and I owe him a debt of profound gratitude. Well done, good and faithful servant!
You may discern the next step is to vision a new plan in a new place with new full-time leadership or you may discern that “For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven,” and that it is time after twenty years of ministry and mission to formally conclude Coolwater’s active ministry. Dissolve into the Body of Christ. Join another church and leaven their ministry with your gifts and graces. Any congregation would be blessed by what you would bring to their table. If you do that, Jennie and I, Will, Betsy and Laura understand. You have our blessing.
And here’s why: the circle of life holds for churches as for human beings. Churches as well as people have life cycles. A beginning and an end. “A time to be born and a time to die;... a time to gather stones together and a time to cast them away. (Eccl. 3:1, 5a). None of the churches Paul founded still exist. Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. No more. None of the seven churches John wrote to in Revelation exist. Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. No buildings. Nobody. Neither the physical stones nor the living stones. The bricks and the people are all gone. Churches as well people have a life cycle.
But here is the good news: though a church’s active ministry may cease, the ministry of that congregation continues on through the lives of its people and the lives they touched. Think about it: though the New Testament churches have been gone for close to two thousand years, the stories of their faithfulness in striving to follow Jesus as recorded in the Bible are a source of blessing and inspiration still today. Likewise, Coolwater Christian Church will live on in your lives and in mine. What began here and was nurtured and magnified to the glory of God and the blessing of others here will continue as we live out our faith wherever we go.
You have my blessing whatever you do. You’ve always had my blessing and you always will because you’ve blessed my life and my family’s life in ways beyond measure.
In these days of discernment that are before you, I will say as your Founding Pastor that it is okay to grieve. Our grief is in proportion to our love. Having loved this season of our journey of faith so deeply, our grief is and will be deep. It’s okay to grieve. But it is not okay to point a finger of blame at anyone or anything or any circumstance. Harboring such resentments will only serve to stir a belly full of poisonous bile within you that will eat you up and leave you soul-shriveled and bitter. Neither is it okay to point a finger of blame at yourself. I wish I had... If I’d only... I should have... I shouldda, wouldda, couldda. Somebody told me once, “Don’t should on yourself.” It’s not okay to point the finger of blame or assign guilt to anyone or anything else, including yourself.
But it’s always okay to remember, give thanks and rejoice in the miracle of being part of Coolwater. Miracle is the word. From Jim Cox’s vision way back when of a church way up there on a dirt road called Dynamite to the arrival of five Shireys and their dog in July 2002. To my being told by my church-planting coach early on, “David, I’ll be frank with you. You have a 20% chance at best of making it.” Then being washed out of Desert Sun by what was called a 500-year flood. Then beginning our first capital campaign just as the great recession of 2008 was breaking. Fools! But succeeding! And succeeding in our next two campaigns as well. But more importantly, being a Great Commission congregation, making disciples, baptizing and teaching (Matthew 28:16-20) and being a Great Commandment congregation, loving God and loving others (Matthew 22:34-40). I can still hear a guy at Kiwanis introduce me by saying, “This man is part of a miracle.” You’re the miracle. All the lives we touched by all the ways we served and all the ways we loved one another as we worshipped the God we know and love in Jesus Christ is a miracle. It will always be okay to remember, give thanks and rejoice in the miracle of being part of Coolwater.
Well, by my count, I preached upwards of 600 sermons to you over my 12 years as your pastor. It’s time for me to close this one with words of the Apostle Paul to his favorite church, the church in Philippi:
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, thankful for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel thus about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace... God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:3-8).
Let all the people of Coolwater, a miracle of God, a church of living stones say, AMEN.
