We Are at Our Best When the People of SACC are Involved

The character of the ministry of SACC
Presented by Elder Jim Glass
at the installation service of Pastor Carl Crouse
October 2009

When all of you walked through the doors on the way in tonight, did you notice the mural on the wall in front of you?  What three statements are written above the mural?  Rooted in the word - Focused on the cross - Missioned to our world.  Where did this come from? In late 2004, after a series of short term pastors and other problems, the church was struggling with questions like, what are we here for, what's our purpose, where do we go from here?  In January 2005, Lowell Bakke came as an interim pastor.  As a church, we were so focused on internal conflicts and a "woe is me" mentality that we had lost our focus on God's Mission.  Could Lowell help us?

One Sunday morning when we walked into church there was a big banner: "When we were at our best." The A.I., or Appreciative Inquiry, process had begun.  Through the Sunday morning sermons, Lowell began to direct our thinking away from past problems and toward thinking about when we were at our best.  The theme was from First Thessalonians chapter one:  "We always thank God for you in our prayers.  We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ."

The next step was to have a church summit meeting.  After a potluck dinner, we were given instructions and divided into pairs and given questions to ask each other.  We recalled times when we felt most alive in service to God, when we were serving in the church, and people who had taught, inspired, and discipled us in the past. We heard about conversions and baptisms, special sermons, events, teachers who had shaped our lives long ago, and much, much more.  It was a wonderful day.

Next, we had a special all day meeting on a Saturday where church leaders and other members got together to dream about the church's preferred future.  the theme was from Isaiah 65:17-25 from The Message:Pay close attention now:  I'm creating new heavens and a new earth.  All the earlier troubles, chaos and pain are things of the past, to be forgotten.  Look ahead with joy.  Anticipate what I'm creating: I'll create Jerusalem as sheer joy; create my people as pure delight.  I'll take joy in Jerusalem, take delight in my people; no more sounds of weeping in the City, no cries of anguish; no more babies dying in the cradle, or old people who do not enjoy a full life time; one hundredth birthdays will be considered normal - anything less will seem like a cheat.  They'll build houses and move in.  They'll plant fields and eat what they grow.  No more building houses that some outsider takes over.  No more planting fields that some enemy confiscates.  For my people will be as long lived as trees, my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.  They won't work and have nothing come of it, they won't have children snatched out from under them.  For they themselves are plantings blessed by God, with their children and grandchildren likewise God blessed.  Before they call out, I'll answer.  Before they've finished speaking, I'll have heard.  Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow, lion and ox eat straw from the same trough, but snakes - they'll get a diet of dirt.  Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill anywhere on my Holy Mountain, says God.

We were asked these questions.

1. What is God calling our church to be and do? 
2. What are the most enlivening and exciting possibilities for our church's future? 
3. What is the positive inspiration from our past DNA that both supported our past and is pulling us into the future?

After considering these questions, we came up with a list of "Life-giving core values" of the Sumas A.C. Church when we were at our best.  Some of them were:

• Unconditional love, acceptance and forgiveness
• Solid Biblical teaching
• A commitment to the priesthood of all believers allowing everyone to serve
• A family approach to ministry - multigenerational
• A passion for sharing the good news here and abroad
•  An unquestioned commitment to Sumas

Some of the wishes and themes for our future that came out of that meeting were:

• to be a loving, caring church
• to have a church with young families
• to be a church committed to our community
• to be a church that encourages ministry
• involvement in and out of church
• to have an active and effective youth ministry
• to be a discipling church

After more discussion, a final list of life-giving core values was finished.  They were:

• Solid Biblical teaching that focuses on the Savior and His kingdom.
• Living out Christ's love, acceptance, and forgiveness to all people.
• Sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in word and deed both to our community and to our world.
• Empowering all believers for the ministry of their calling.

This brings us back to the mural on the entryway wall. It's a wonderful visual expression of what came out of the whole Appreciative Inquiry process.  The written shared image of our future that goes along with that picture is:

Our church is like a tree, with roots deep in the word of God; centered on the work of Christ on the cross and the kingdom He establishes, which motivates us to send out empowered people and ministries to live out Christ's message of love, acceptance, forgiveness, peace, and soon return, in their families, neighborhoods, businesses, governments, schools, and cultures of our communities.

Or to put it in a few words - Rooted in the word - Focused on the Cross - Missioned to the world.

So, how has all this changed the Sumas Advent Christian Church in the past four years?  The biggest change was attitude.  People were enthused to serve.  They were permitted to serve.  The church constitution was completely rewritten to reflect the new way we look at church structure and business.  Outside of the clerk and treasurer, everything else is run by commissions, where people serve as they feel God is calling them.

We have the Elders Commission, the Worship Commission, Christian Education - Congregational Care, Youth Ministry, Management, which cares for the physical property, and Community Outreach Commission.  Again, as stated in our life-giving core values:  Empowering all believers for the ministry of their calling.  No one in this church is asked to serve anywhere or any way that they do not feel God is calling them.  If no one feels led to serve on a certain commission, that commission will cease to function until someone is called to revive it.  How freeing is that?

What else has happened in the last four years?  Ministry big and small is happening.  Jack and Kizzy were called here to serve the youth of our church and community.  And, as a result of that, Jack is now going to college full time with a call and desire to become a full time pastor.

People not just in the church, but also in the whole community are being visited and cared for by the Care Commission.  Remodeling and a lot of maintenance projects have been completed by the Management Commission.

And probably the most amazing ministry of all is the Sumas Community Clothesline.  More people in this community have been served and are touched for Jesus through the Clothesline than almost any other.  When people are serving Jesus as he calls them without being pressured, what a joy he gives to us all.

And where has Carl fit in through this whole process?  He's been here from beginning to the end, supporting all phases of the process, filling in as speaker when needed, serving as an elder, and just supporting everyone in any way possible.  We all hope and pray that he will continue to not just lead us as pastor, but as one called to serve him here in Sumas and the Nooksack Valley for many years to come.

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