February 18, 2007 ~ 165th Anniversary Sermon
Scriptural Montage: Deuteronomy 28, Psalm 46, Matthew 5, & Revelation 21

“What Good Is A Big, Old, Inner-City Church Anyway?”


“What Good Is A Big, Old, Inner-City Church Anyway?”

*Big
This church is so big, there are rooms in this place in which most of us have never been (except, probably, Claude Pitman!). Just last week I was shown a storage area above the kitchen I’d never known existed! Isn’t all that wasted space just that… wasted?

It takes a good ten minutes to walk around the facilities and most, if not all, of our homes could easily fit in the sanctuary, probably with room for most of the lawn! There are developers chomping at the bit to get a prime piece of real estate like ours to do something far more worthwhile with it, like provide housing or an expansion of the hospital, right? Wouldn’t selling the building be the most prudent thing to do?

And that isn’t even going to the cost of running such a large facility. Knowing the monthly utility cost, especially during a frigid winter like the one we’ve been having, would curl the hair on your heads! Sometimes it is more than $2,000, just to pay the gas bill. Couldn’t that money better be used for persons in need or a community program?

“What Good Is A Big, Old, Inner-City Church Anyway?”

*Old
Just some facts to help us really understand exactly how OLD this church is:
In 1842 John Tyler was president, only the tenth president of the United States. In that year Joseph Dart built the first grain elevator, but anesthesia had not been used for tooth extractions nor had the safety pin been invented!

In 1883, when this sanctuary was completed, Chester A. Arthur was president, the twenty-fourth president. Three years prior toilet paper on a roll was invented and one year later so was the first practical fountain pen!

The “new building” was completed in 1916, when Woodrow Wilson was in office, the 28th President. It would be another year before Gideon Sundback would receive a patent for the “separable fastener,” the first modern zipper and another three years before the pop-up toaster would make its debut.

How can any organization, especially a church, whose heyday was clearly long before most of us where ever born, ever hope to make an impact on present day people, not to mention future generations?

“What Good Is A Big, Old, Inner-City Church Anyway?”

*Inner-City

Isn’t the cutting edge of American culture beyond the old, deteriorating, downtowns of its industrialized cities of the North? And aren’t all indicators showing that Cleveland is a city bottoming out?

While this neighborhood was a place of wealth and power in the 1800’s, in the 20th century it was an early forerunner of the decline of the inner city. We are just down the street from one of the first public housing projects in the country, Lakeview Terrace (opened 1937). (1)

The city's population reached its peak of 914,808 just after World War II, and in 1949 Cleveland was named an All-America City for the first time. By the 1960s, however, heavy industries began to slump and residents sought new housing in the suburbs, reflecting the national trends of white flight and urban sprawl. Like other major U.S. cities, Cleveland also began witnessing racial unrest, culminating in the Hough Riots on July 18–July 23, 1966 and the Glenville Shootout on July 23–July 25, 1968. The city's worst moment is often considered to be its default on its loans on December 15, 1978, when under Mayor Dennis Kucinich it became the first major American city to enter default since the Great Depression. National media began referring to Cleveland as "the mistake by the lake" around this time in reference to the city's financial difficulties, a notorious 1969 fire on the Cuyahoga River (where industrial waste on the river's surface caught on fire) and its struggling professional sports teams. (2)

In 2004 and then again in 2006 the U.S. Census Bureau rated Cleveland the nation’s poorest city, with nearly a third of the city’s residents – 32.4% -- living below the federal poverty level and half of the children of our city living in poverty. No other big city in America had a lower median household income.

Why would anyone want to invest their time, energy, money, and passion into the Inner City?

“What Good Is A Big, Old, Inner-City Church Anyway?”

*Church
Franklin Circle Christian Church is part of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), one of the classic “mainline Protestant denominations” that have been losing members, clout, and some say vision, for decades.

The decline of the mainline church, since it’s boom in the 1940’s and 1950’s, is legendary. And more recently it was reported that total membership in the seven largest mainline Protestant denominations — United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian Church (USA), Disciples of Christ, United Church of Christ and American Baptist Churches — fell a total of 7.4% just from 1995 to 2004, based on tallies reported to the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. (3)

Canadian pastor Freda Moosehunter vividly cynically expressed the sentiments of many outside the church as they view those who sit in the pew and on the governing board in such mainline churches:

“I would like to buy three dollars' worth of God, please. Not enough to explore my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough God to make me love an Indian or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy three dollars' worth of God please.” (4)
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“What Good Is A Big, Old, Inner-City Church Anyway?”
Well, let me tell you… I believe there might be a reason or two to not give up on churches like ours quite yet, and it’s not simply that I get my paycheck to be here!

*Big
As Anne Schilling mentioned last night at our dinner, church steeples act as “billboards,” even in modern cities with so many taller buildings looming around them. I would bet that many of us, as we drive through a town or city, still look for the steeple or the sacred tower to give us a sense of what kind of city it is. We use the prominence and condition of the churches and other religious institutions we see from the highways and byways to judge the moral condition and values of a city. Big churches proclaim a message of justice, grace, compassion, and forgiveness that radiate audaciously, even amidst the towering glass and steel structures of commerce, civil service, medicine, and law.

Since World War II this congregation, through the work of the Ideals Class, makes it a priority to ensure the continued lighting of the memorial cross in memory of those who served and died in the war. This past fall, through the “Steeple Lighting Program” with the Cleveland Restoration Society, our congregation is being considered for major grants to improve and modernize the lighting steeple and our tower. They, too, see value and urgency in lighting big churches!(5)

Big churches also stand as a contrast to the monuments to capitalism and wealth, and (all too often) individual ego. In New York City one might reference the Trump Tower for a perfect example.
Now it is true, some pastors likewise get identified with the churches they serve. You’ve heard someone say, “Oh, that’s Rev. Such-N-Such’s Church” haven’t you? There are several pastors whose names are synonymous with Franklin Circle Christian Church: John Henry, James Garfield, F.H. Groom, Neil Dupree, Allen… ahhhh… But even pastors leave and die… the church that is big enough and stable enough to stick around is always bigger than any one pastor, and this is a very good thing.
So big churches remind us that life isn’t about any one person, and it isn’t about getting everything you can for yourself. Big churches stand boldly on public squares and inner city circles to remind us that there is always One who is greater than any one of us.

But don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about just keeping around cavernous old buildings just to make a statement. Big is beautiful, but only if it isn’t also empty!

Big churches have a responsibility to those who came before and put their time, money, energy, and heartfelt love into building the church, as well as to the community at large, to be used for more than just the people sitting in the pews on Sunday morning.

I believe every inner city church ought to have as a subtitle to its official name “AND COMMUNITY CENTER.” The churches in our neighborhood already do a stunning job of this very thing: St. Malachi Catholic Church AND COMMUNITY CENTER, St. Paul’s Community United Church of Christ AND COMMUNITY CENTER, Franklin Circle Christian Church AND COMMUNITY CENTER!

Our church building, as do many inner city church facilities, has provided and still provides space for small and simple community programs and ministries, including…

Historically we offered or hosted: Chinese Sunday School, Head Start Pre-School, Montessori Pre-School, West Side Community House Senior Meals, Boy Scouts, The Covenant (Adolescent Chemical Dependency Treatment and Prevention Center), and the North American Indian Cultural Center.

Our programs presently available are: Young Adult and Adult Sunday School, Children and Youth Sunday School, JAMmers Youth Group, Mid-Week Evening Bible Study, Christian Women's Fellowship, Weekly Community Meal, Elementary After School Program, Vacation Bible School, Outdoor Worship Services, and the Widening The Circle Forums.

But we currently host other programs as well – Women’s Outreach Center, - InterAct Cleveland, - Cleveland Gay, Lesbian and Allies Concert and Marching Band, -OCNW Historic Heritage House programs…

And the loss of one program, such as our Thursday Meal Program, only invites us to creatively envision a new and better way to serve our community!

“What Good Is A Big, Old, Inner-City Church Anyway?” Well, let me tell you…

*Old
While it isn’t automatically true that “older” can mean “wiser,” it can – but only if we are willing to learn from our past. Many church consultants are using the language of a church’s DNA to describe this wisdom, this passion that runs through the history of a church. What is in the “genetic code” of the congregation that not only defined what it was then, but who it can be in the future?

Certainly, this congregation’s DNA, at least since the early 1900’s, has been about providing a safe and hospitable place for people from all walks of life to come and grow – in skills, in faith, in community, in service, in stature… We can learn from the saints of this congregation, lay people and pastor’s alike, to help us have the tools we need for the future. This is why we stand behind our motto, “Widening The Circle For All God’s Children.” It’s what we’ve learned from our parents.

George Santayana, philosopher & poet is perhaps best known for the oft-quoted but nonetheless astute remark, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," (from Reason in Common Sense). This is as true for a church as it is for any individual or nation.

Old can be a reminder that life is more than the sum of any one of our years. There is the beautiful story from the author Robert Fulghum: [pastor’s note: this is not the story I preached, but is, in fact, the story I meant to preach. I correct it now. AVH]

Once there was a traveler from Italy who came to the French town of Chartes to see the great church that was being built there. Arriving at the end of the day, he went to the site just as the workmen were leaving for home. He asked one man, covered with dust; what he did there. The man replied that he was a stonemason. He spent his days carving rocks. Another man, when asked, said he was a glass blower who spent his days making slabs of colored glass. Still another workman replied that he was a blacksmith, who pounded iron for a living.

Wandering into the deepening gloom of the unfinished edifice, the traveler came upon an older women, armed with a broom, sweeping up the stone chips and the wood shavings and the glass shards from the day’s work. “What are you doing?” he asked.

The woman paused, leaned on the broom, and looked towards the high arches, and replied, “Me? I’m building a cathedral to the glory of Almighty God.” (6)

Those of us who choose our lot to be with these big old churches should see what we do in the same terms as the cleaning woman did. We might say, “While I did not participate in building this grand and glorious structure, I have spent my life serving and worshipping and fellowshipping in it. I do so gladly, willingly, even though I did not see its beginnings and will not live to see its culmination. I do so because this cathedral allows me to participate in something larger than myself. Most likely I will never live in a mansion, never have my name in the newspaper or history books, never drastically improve a social condition, but I will be able to go to my grave knowing that I was a part of something that brought faith to many who were lost, beauty to an all-too-dreary world, and hope for the future. My small acts therefore become a part of history.”

“What Good Is A Big, Old, Inner-City Church Anyway?” Let me tell you…

*Inner-City
Contrary to popular opinions, God has not given up on the city! In the words of Mark Twain, reports of the city’s death have been greatly exaggerated! Thanks be that God does not listen to the news reports about the condition of our major cities, nor does the Divine pay attention to economic indicators nor even police blotters. God is active and present in the deepest parts of the inner city just as much as in the untouched wilderness. The scriptural montage I put together shows just a little of the positive place the city can have in the city.

While I trust that God is present and at work in the countryside and suburbs as well as in the city, I passionately maintain that God holds the city especially close to God’s heart. This is in large part because of the possibilities the city holds for calling us to a deeper faith and a fuller understanding of community. The message is in the mix; God speaks to us most clearly in the chaos, turmoil, and diversity of life, and that mix is found no place better than the inner city, the urban environment, the ‘hood.

As has been preached in this sanctuary time and time again, uniformity and homogeny tend to breed complacency, and complacency is deadly to a vibrant faith. From the moment we took that first bite of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, God has been teaching us through comparison and contrast what leads to faith and life and what leads to apathy and death. It is no accident that our Scriptures are filled with God working in multifaceted and diverse ways, through vastly different characters and situations. It is no accident that there are four gospels and not just one. It is no accident that the day of Pentecost happened in the city. Peter’s dream where God told him to eat of all the various kinds of animals was not coincidental. God intends diversity SO THAT WE MIGHT BETTER UNDERSTAND GOD!

“What Good Is A Big, Old, Inner-City Church Anyway?” Well, let me tell you…

*Church
The Church is the consciousness of the nation. Oftentimes the church and other institutions of faith are the only prophetic voice of conscience in a worldview too often defined solely by the marketplace or violence or the bottom line. The church and other institutions of faith are essentially countercultural, calling us out of complacency, in order to listen to and live out values that are larger than our own lives, our own histories, our own personalities, our own pet peeves, our own cultures.

It is certainly true, the church as we have known it will most likely cease to exist, perhaps within some of our lifetimes. The so-called “mainline” church has been sidelined for decades, but that doesn’t mean a new reformation isn’t happening. The church will survive, regardless of what we human beings do, because ultimately it is God’s church and not ours.

I believe reformation is happening within those congregations willing to live intentionally at the margins and live purposefully with and for the marginalized. John Cobb, a giant of a theologian and church analyst, believes a vital church in the coming age will be one directly engaged with society’s problems, crises, trends, and sufferings. Such a vital church will have to confront head-on how the larger society views faith – even if that means confronting other religious perspectives which attempt to over-simplify and cheapen faith. He insists that in order to do this we must encourage and demand good theological thinking on the part of all the faithful, not just the clergy, a communal theological integrity which I would say has been tragically lacking in the last 50 years. (7)

Finally, the value of the Church is that it remains one of the few places in our world which offers, in its best moments, true equality and shared power. Where else can a formerly homeless woman and an Engineer of a Fortune 500 Company both sit on the Board of Trustees? Where else can we gather and believe that whatever language in which one prays, God hears them all? Where else can we trust that every single one of us is a beloved child of the Creator of the Universe?

“What Good Is A Big, Old, Inner-City Church Anyway?”
It is a good question. I don’t know, what do you think? I’m thinking that through God’s grace and with God’s help, this big, old, inner-city church is doing a whole lotta good! Amen!

Rev. Allen V. Harris

(1) http://www.cmha.net/cmha_information/lakeview_terrace.asp
(2) http://www.answers.com/topic/cleveland-ohio
(3) http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-10-31-protestant-cover_x.htm
(4) http://www.eco-justice.org/E-020906.asp 
(5) http://www.clevelandrestoration.org/SacredLandmarks/steeplelighting.htm
(6) a friend e-mailed me this story, but I invite you to go to Robert Fulgum’s webstie: http://www.robertfulghum.com/ 
(7) Reclaiming the Church: Where the Mainline Church Went Wrong and What to Do About It. - book review, Christian Century, August 27, 1997 by Edward Farley




Rev. Allen V. Harris
Franklin Circle Christian Church
www.FranklinCircleChurch.org


 

Copyright 2007 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris

Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096