Bright Wings

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with Ah! Bright Wings.

November 12, 2009

The Present Precipice

Here we are- poised to move into an incredible facility in the middle of a bustling and strategic neighborhood in NE Tallahassee. A new facility is a wonderful thing; a tremendous resource, and a great opportunity to grow and thrive as a church family. But we are also faced with very real spiritual dangers as we move into this facility. God’s Word is clear that faith filled believers are to be pilgrims in this present age and not settlers.

Hebrews 11: 9-10; 13-16, “By faith Abraham went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land…for he was looking forward to the city that has true foundations, whose designer and builder is God…all those in the wilderness who died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, having acknowledged they were strangers and exiles on the earth…such people are seeking a homeland…they are looking toward a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” 

We are not to settle here building nice facilities as if they are the goal and not the means to some greater purpose and mission.  We are not to walk in to that facility on January 10 and say, ‘Whew! We made it! Now I can rest! Now all I have to worry about is paying for my daughter’s wedding in this nice new sanctuary and setting aside some dollars for my inevitable funeral to be conducted here!” We are not to walk into the sanctuary and look toward what need it might meet for us- what special niche it serves to provide us. Pastor Doug Wilson puts it this way: “The planting and building of congregations [and church buildings] is not like building your own private nest egg. The point is not to gather enough to live on, and then retire comfortably.”  The Elders of the church have decided firmly that this move to the Four Oaks center will not be a move into our spiritual retirement. That facility is not a spiritual nest egg for you to enjoy. It is a stewardship that we are to continue to boldly invest in, maneuver, and leverage for the sake of future growth, gospel proclamation, true spiritual heritage, and eternal reward. There is a very strong desire to dig a big hole over on the corner of Kerry Forest and Shannon Lakes and dump our talents in it. Then we gather weekly and polish our hidden gold, or slowly parse it out to our kids, or those friends we deem worthy. That is the settler’s impulse. But we will not be settlers. We will continue to be pilgrims – aliens and strangers. That building is a tabernacle- not a temple- it has tent pegs and canvas walls; not marble columns and gold plated interiors. It is a temporary thing, a talent to be leveraged, invested, and stewarded toward an eternal city- a city with foundations whose builder and architect is God. Our goal in this age is not buildings- it is people, lost people, people who need spiritual family, people who are bound for hell- we want to gather as many of them, disciple as many of them, equip as many of them as God allows and provides- to give them a hope beyond this life and a relationship with the God who made them and the Savior who bought them- our buildings, our talents, our treasure, our gifts are for that purpose.

We live in a city with a population of 175,000 people. We live in a region with over 400,000 people: 270,000 in Leon County; 150,000 people in six neighboring counties. We live in a city with two major universities with student populations of over 50,000 (in the almost 10 years that I’ve been here well over 100,000 students have come to Tallahassee in the most crucial, tender, and pivotal years of the life and have left to go into all corners of the globe). We live in the Capital City of our State- a State that has been critical to the political life of the country and indeed the world. We have access to Representatives, Senators, Governors and countless political leaders and influencers.

It is the desire of the elders and pastors of this church to seize this opportunity- this present precipice- in the life of our church to push our family to grow in a way that honors God and magnifies Christ; to reach the city and put our imprint on this city for the glory of God; and to build this body of believers into mature, committed, connected, and radically Christ-centered disciples.

posted by Erik Braun