Easter 4: John 6:32-35, 51; 12:32; Matthew 21:22; 1 John 3:2                     April 25, 2010

    "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever."(Jn 6)

    "To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God."(Jn 1)

    Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures: "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes'? (Mt 21)

    "Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is." (1 Jn 3)

    "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." (Jn 12)

    These scriptures show that being a disciple is more than just saying we believe in Jesus. A disciple is someone who feeds on Christ in their heart so that they become more like him in their lives.

    This is why the church exists. We are called to feed the world with the bread of Jesus Christ so that the life that was in him may live in others. And when we take the life that was in Jesus out into the world around us there is a ripple effect that begins to spread. The Christ like character we learn here becomes who we are in our homes and family, in the work place, in school. It leavens the life of our community, our politics, our values, and our goals for life. It makes us better nation. Through it's ministry of teaching and building on Christ the church is helping to save and fulfill the life of the whole world.

    I am not talking about us going out and trying to convert others to a religion. What I mean is taking the character of Christ into the world so that others see the same characteristics in us which others saw in Jesus long ago. I'm talking about the Christ who said: "turn the other cheek; go the extra mile; love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." I'm talking about taking the Christ to the world who said feed the hungry, heal the sick, comfort the grieving, and lift up the poor with good news. The Christ who said: "forgive one another as God has forgiven you."

    This is the Christ who saves, not a religious icon or doctrine, but the living Christ, the loving Christ who "came that we might have life and have it abundantly." The church is like a factory then, only it doesn't build things. It builds people. It builds character and Jesus is the cornerstone. The church also is a repair factory. Sometimes bad things happen in life. People get hurt. They get lost. And so a vital church reaches out and invites everyone to come in for repair, for healing and mercy, to be restored and filled with God's love so they can live again.

    Imagine if there were no churches. Where Christ is not present, people turn to various addictions, to materialism and to personality worship as their character and repair factories. They become more self-centered, hateful, and indifferent. A world without Christ also has a ripple effect. There is more fear, more animosity, and more distrust.

    Now I mention these things this morning in order to set the context for the Church Conference this afternoon. The Conference will consider a proposal to establish a building committee to obtain preliminary drawings and cost estimates for a building plan starting with a new sanctuary.

We will be talking about bricks and mortar, but only as the means to enhance the mission of this congregation and church as a people factory for Jesus Christ. In the mission of the church God uses buildings of stone in order to feed people the bread of life.

    The proposal to be considered comes out of the Long Range Planning Report recently completed. This report looked at many areas of the church and community to make its recommendations, but I want to focus on some key areas in particular that are critical for understanding the dynamics between available space and worship attendance.

    Church consultants use what is called the 80% rule to define when a worship service is full. A service can be considered full when attendance reaches 75- 80% of a sanctuary's seating capacity. Studies show that worship attendance will not grow beyond 80% of capacity except for brief periods.

    Consultants normally use 22 inches as the average comfortable seat width. (Airlines commonly have 18" seats in economy class and 22-24" for first class). Some use 25 inches however. Multiply the length of the pews by the number of pews and then divide by 22" this tells us that total seating capacity of this sanctuary is 150 seats. Multiply this by 80% and this tells us that full attendance in this sanctuary would be 120 people. Average attendance for one service in this space will not increase appreciably beyond 120 except for brief periods. The 8:15 service has averaged around 120 for several years which tells us that it is full.

    Now to understand why this is a problem we need to set aside for a moment the perspective of being a regular attendee and imagine what it is like for a new family or person who comes to worship here for the first time. If you are a first time attendee and the only seats available are the pews here in front or you have to climb over others to find seating in the middle of a pew, these are not appealing options. If long time attendees are not comfortable sitting right in front of the pulpit, then chances are first time visitors will be even more uncomfortable.

    Some first time visitors may not come back again. And regular attendees, if they are running late on a Sunday morning may opt not to attend that day because they know their seat may be taken.

    We do have another option and that is a second service at 10:45. This does absorb some of the spillover if the first service is too full. But a second service will not absorb all of the spillover. I've wondered then if there is an 80% rule for one service, is there a rule for 2 services. And it turns out there is. It's the 70% rule. For churches with two services, the optimum full attendance combined will be roughly 70% of the total seating capacity multiplied by two. Multiply 150 by 2 and then again by 70% the result is around 210 people as the optimum combined attendance for a church with 2 services.

    This is what the experts say a church with 2 services should expect. What's interesting is that our actual combined worship attendance for 2 services here has peaked at just over 200 twice within the last 10 years and then declined.

     What this suggests is that our combined worship attendance has an level of around 200 as this church building is presently configured and would not likely keep increasing in average unless something is done to increase seating capacity. In addition to this any plan for future growth should also consider other factors that are needed to support and sustain growth over the long term.

    Increasing numbers have a spillover effect. We connect to God in worship. But what really makes us feel at home in a church is when we bond with other people. And we bond with one another in small groups. As attendance increases therefore, more small groups are needed along with the space to meet. As more young families attend, there needs to be a larger nursery. There needs to be more bathrooms. And, of course, more parking.

    These are not all the dynamics of church growth, but they are principal areas that form the background for the Church Conference this afternoon. We will not be deciding today to break ground on something new. We are not ready for that. The decision will be to set up a building committee. One of the first orders of business will be to choose an architect with whom to work. With the architect's help the building committee will separate all the building needs of the church (identified in the Long Range report) into phases with a new sanctuary as the first phase. In this process they will obtain preliminary architectural drawings and cost estimates with the major focus on a new worship center. The decision today will be in essence whether to start down this path of building for the future and planning the steps that will be needed to make it happen.

    In order to develop a picture of what would be feasible for our situation we will need to spend some dollars. Based on information supplied from the two architects with whom the Long Range Team has worked the cost for preliminary drawings and cost estimates will range from less than $10,000 on the low end to no more than $30,000 on the high end.

    All the church growth experts I have studied agree that adding more "bricks and mortar" or more stones will not guarantee a church will keep growing. "Build it and they will come," may work in baseball, but it is not necessarily true for churches. But what is true is that an inadequate facility will guarantee a church cannot grow.

    This building has helped SUMC to grow in the past. This was the result of the faithfulness and dedication of those before us, who had vision of feeding the community of Sherman the bread of life in Jesus Christ. We owe a great debt of gratitude for what they did so we could sit here today. But now we have reached a point where if we do not make some changes, this facility might be hindering our growth for the future.

    I think we would all be in agreement that this building of stone exists in order to feed the community of Sherman with the bread of life in Jesus Christ. That we have a passion to save and care for human souls. That we want others to have the "abundant life" and "eternal life" as Jesus promises. And to grow in numbers as well as in faith and service.

    The church is a people factory, building character and repairing souls for eternal life in the name of Christ. What is God calling us to do today in order to be faithful and obedient to the One who said: 'And I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to myself.' (Jn 12)

    Let us pray.