In order to tell you about this dream, I’ve got to take you back to last Wednesday afternoon about 3 o’clock.  I’d gone to Fellowship Hall to see how the After School Ministry was doing.  I was thrilled and surprised to walk into the room and to see Robbie Daniel leading the After School Ministry children in singing.  You see, kids who come across from the Salesmanship Club’s Jonsson’s School don’t have a music program there.  It’s not really in Robbie’s job assignment but she saw a need and decided to fill it by offering offer these children a choir program every Wednesday afternoon.  When I walked into the room there were some forty children, all in their little red shirt uniforms doing this “Glory to God” number.  It was simply the most thrilling to watch.  I couldn’t help but wonder if somewhere in that crowd of kids up on that platform was the “Burger King” boy.

You may not know the Burger King boy, but let me tell you just in case you haven’t heard.  When we started the After School Ministry several months ago, we only had a budget and a staff for only thirty children.  One day shortly after we started, Paige Connally, the principal of the Salesmanship Club’s Jonsson School, called and told Judy Lewis, our ASM Director, “There’s a little boy in our school whose parents asked, every day after school, we would just take their son across the street to the Burger King at 3:30 and leave him there until they could get off work and come pick him up at 6:30.”  Paige asked Judy, “Is there any way in the world you could possibly make room for this little boy?”  That’s why he has affectionately become known to us as the Burger King boy.  Judy told Paige, “Bring him over.”  Judy’s done that sixteen more times in addition to that.  We now have a program for thirty children, with forty-seven enrolled!

I also hope that choir includes the little boy who sat in Santa’s lap about four years ago.  Every year, on the Saturday just before Christmas, we have the Christ in Christmas party for community children in Fellowship Hall.  The parents go “shopping” for free toys that have been donated while we have a party for their children.  Hundreds of kids are all over the floor in there.  Santa came that day and let each one of those kids sit on his lap.  “What do you want for Christmas?” Santa asked this little four-year-old boy.  I lie not, this little boy said, “Love.”  Santa was taken aback.  A lump in his throat, he asked the little boy, “Who do you want love from?”  And the little boy said, “Anybody.” 

I hope he was up there on the platform the other day when Robbie was leading them in singing.  In fact, our After School Ministry has been so well received by the children that some of them now hide under the tables after the program is over every day because they don’t want to go home.  Did you know that?  That’s happening right down the hall in our church.

It wasn’t until about two or three weeks ago that I learned this startling fact.  When the state of Indiana is trying to decide how much square footage to build for future prisons, do you know what the number one determining factor is?  Prison planners use third grade reading scores!  The single most important factor in determining how many prisoners the state of Indiana will have to house in the future is how well kids are reading by the time they’re in third grade.  Kent Skipper, the Executive Director of the Salesmanship Club, said that now that we’ve started this after school program, the children who participate are actually coming to school every day with their homework done.  I’d like to think that we might have actually played a role in helping keep a kid out of prison.  But we’ve also taught him or her to sing, “Glory to God!”  You’ll see it here in just a moment.  You won’t believe it.  It’s incredible.

Since I came here six years ago, I joined you in asking the question that you were asking long before I got here:  “What are we going to do?”  In this process of declaring our mission statement and core values three years ago we turned a significant corner when we finally decided that, in answering that question, what we weren’t going to do was simply try to save ourselves.  That was a good decision.  Instead, what we are going to do is participate in what God is already doing here and many other places in building his kingdom.  Listen to these words of Jesus.  “‘If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it’” (Matthew 16:24-25, RSV).  “Whoever will save his church will lose it,” I hear Jesus saying.  “And, whoever would find the reason for its existence must let go of it for the sake of following me.”  That’s what I hear.  We’ve made a good start already in answering the question, “What are we going to do?”

Now, let’s just listen to what the little children are saying to us, when they’re hiding under the table because they don’t want to go home at night.  Most churches are worried about how to fill the pews.  Every afternoon at six o’clock, our biggest problem is how to get rid of the kids who came.  We ought to listen to what that’s telling us. 

That’s a very biblical way of looking at the kingdom of God.  Listen also to these words of Jesus.  “‘Preach as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.  You received without paying, give without pay.  Take no gold, nor silver, nor copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor a staff; for the laborer deserves his food.  And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it, and stay with him until you depart.  As you enter the house, salute it.  And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.  And if any one will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town.  Truly, I say to you, it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.  ‘Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves’” (Matthew 10:7-16, RSV).

If we’re going to be shrewd as snakes then, as Jesus instructed, we ought to pay attention to those who seem to be passionately hungry to receive whatever we have to give and not spend our lives, our energies, and our resources trying to convince those who are not interested in what we have to give that they ought to be interested.

Having heard the words of Jesus, I find myself asking, “What is the gift we have to give?”  And it occurred to me, we’re already giving it.  We’re already giving it!  There’s a cartoon in the October 25 New Yorker magazine.  A snake is standing before the judge in court.  In a cartoonish kind of way, the snake looks very sinister.  We don’t know exactly what’s happened.  I’m guessing that the judge is about to sentence the snake after he was tried and convicted for whatever evil he had inflicted upon someone with this really wicked fang hanging out of his mouth.  The judge must have just said, “Before I pass sentence, do you have anything you’d like to say?”  The snake looks like what he does, like he bites people.  So, as the judge has asked the snake, “Do you have any last words?” the snake says to the judge, “It’s what I do.”  He can’t help himself.  He slithers.  He has a fang.  He bites.

What is it we do, Cliff Temple, when we can’t help ourselves?  Watch this video.  (A video clip of various ministries at Cliff Temple is played at this point). 

What we ought to do is find out what we do best, and keep doing that.  We ought to find out where people are open and receptive to our gift, and keep giving it there.  This video is an example of something that’s happening every week in this church facility that God has blessed us with.

We ask ourselves, “What is God’s plan for Cliff Temple?”  And I have to be honest with you when I tell you that the word “plan” leaves me just a little cold.  When people say God has “a plan for your life,” I think I know what they mean by that.  But frankly, it sounds like a blueprint some suits put together in a board room somewhere and passed down as a memo.  I just don’t like the word “plan.”  I prefer the word “dream.”  You think there’s any possible way that God has a dream for us?  Listen to these words from the prophet Jeremiah.  Though he speaks of a plan, I think it is more about a dream than a blueprint.  And, though these words were spoken to the people of Israel in a specific context, they’ve been generally interpreted throughout the centuries to represent the spirit of God toward all of his people.  “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:11-12).  When what we want, more than anything else, is to find God and be a part of his kingdom work in this world, we will not have to worry any longer about what this church looks like.  God will take care of that.  I believe that to be the promise of his word. 

So, when I think of the word “dream,” I think of the words Robin sang just a while ago.  Do you think there’s any chance that God is standing there, waiting to see if we will love the dreams he has dreamed for us?  I think of God’s purpose for us as a work in progress.  Not something that’s already settled, but something that’s a work in progress and in which he gives us the possibility of participating.  Because when he had the sheep and the goats stand before him in the parable (see Matthew 25:31-46), he said to them, “You made choices.  I gave you the opportunities and presented them to you in the forms of people who were sick and naked and hungry and in prison.  They were all around you.  Some of you chose to care for them and others did not.”  More than we may know, God has given us the possibility of participating in what our future becomes.

If someone were to ask you to show them the face of God, where would you take them to do that?  I might take them to Colorado and show them the grandeur of the Rockies in the winter.  Or, I might take them Red River, New Mexico and show them the mountain sides splashed with gold when the aspens turn in late September.  I might take them to Alaska and show them a glacier or the spectacular vistas or even the dolphins flipping through the air as they dance in the ocean.  Where would you take them? 

It recently occurred to me that, as wonderful and magnificent as all those places are, I think that if I wanted to show people the face of God, I’d bring them to Fellowship Hall any afternoon at 3 o’clock and introduce them to Pedro, who let me read a book with him the other day.  Because Jesus said, “It is in the face of the naked, the poor, and the imprisoned and the sick that you will see the face of God.”  If I wanted to show people the face of God, I couldn’t think of a better place to bring them than the corner of 10^th and Zang any given day.  God has said that the opportunity to be a part of what he is up to in this world is right in front of our faces.  What will we do with it?

This past week I shared my dream with the deacons and the Finance, Personnel and Properties committees as well as the Leadership Team.  I reminded them again that, all of my life, the theology that was put before me had more to do with being certain that I got into heaven after I died than anything else.  Yet, when I listen to Jesus’ words, he doesn’t spend as much time talking about that as he spends talking to us about whether or not we’ve fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the imprisoned, healed the sick and so on.  What he was trying to tell us is that, if we have no interest in the kingdom of heaven that God is trying to bring on earth, then we have no future in heaven after we die.  A religion that is only interested in what happens after we die and has no compassion for the broken-hearted humanity right in front of our faces is a Christ-less religion. 

What would God have us do here?  I can’t think of a better answer than to keep giving the gift that we’ve already been given and that has proven itself to be well received over and over again by the poor, the naked, the hungry and the imprisoned in this community.  

In answering how we would actually go about do that, it became clear to all of us that what we need to do in this place is bigger than all of us.  We really have a dual task.  We have to nurture and care for this church that has been here for so long and that has decided to stay put in this place for all these years because of the mission we believe God has for us here.  We also have before us these enormous responsibilities and opportunities in the surrounding community.  This morning, I want to share with you a dream for how I believe we can accomplish that.  Whether or not Cliff Temple buys this dream and owns it is up to you.  All I’m doing this morning with you is sharing my dream with you.

That dream this morning, as you’re going to see on some of these slides, looks like this (PowerPoint presentation at this point demonstrates each of the items discussed below).  First of all, in the next step toward keeping our commitment to our mission of Sharing Christ Through Caring Relationships, I’m dreaming that Cliff Temple Baptist Church will implement a long-term commitment to building strategic partnerships that will further enable us to both strengthen the core church here before us and also reach the community around us with the gospel of Jesus Christ, thereby enabling and empowering people to become disciples of Christ and his eternal kingdom.  How are we doing to do that?

Have you ever been to the Alamo?  In the courtyard of the Alamo, there is an oak tree that is at least 150 years old.  The trunk of the tree is twelve feet in circumference.  The limbs have grown out so far over the years that they have now become heavier than the trunk’s ability to support them.  What they have done is tied steel cables to these limbs and pulled them in to the trunk, and in some cases, built supports underneath them, so that the trunk can continue to sustain these enormous limbs that have reached out.  When I think of that tree, I think of Cliff Temple.  This old church that has been here for 105 years now and sunk its roots deep into this community has also had these enormous opportunities for ministry branching out from it that have now become heavier than our capacity to carry.  We must develop some strategic partnerships that will help us to carry this

load in this place that both enable us to nurture this core community of faith and at the same time enable and empower us to reach out to the community around us.  There are some very simple but significant steps we can take to make this all happen.

First, we would strengthen the core community of faith by expanding our home team ministry.  This is nothing less than simply opening another door through which people can come into our church family and become disciples of Christ.      

Next, we can strengthen the core community of faith by implementing a stewardship development campaign.  Do you know what I want for some of you?  What I want for some of you is to discover the joy of giving your money to the kingdom of God.  If you never write a check, if what’s happening here doesn’t motivate you to ever so much as write one check, then you really don’t believe in what’s happening here.  What’s more, you’re not experiencing all the joy of what God’s up to in this world and this community.  I’d like for us to have a campaign that helps us discover that joy.

Next, we need to explore the possibility of creating alternative worship experiences.  I love what we do in here at 11 o’clock on Sunday morning.  But, as painful as it is to admit, I have to tell you that there are a lot of people who don’t respond to this rather traditional kind of worship.  There are many people in this community, not far from us, who I believe we could reach with the gospel of Christ if we had just a little different way of showing them what worship looks like.  I don’t know what that’s going to look like. 

My son plays the drums in a praise band at another church on Thursday nights.  I like to go watch him.  After the band, the youth speaker comes out wearing some pretty grubby clothing and throwing out bubble gum and candy before he ever starts, just creating some fun and excitement.  I have to be honest with you, what they do in that worship service doesn’t exactly scratch where I itch.  But, it does for some 500-600 middle school kids who show up every Thursday night to sing, dance and hear him the gospel.  I’m wondering if perhaps we might be willing to think about creating some alternative experience for worship, not the bubblegum variety, but something that helps us reach the next generation coming behind us that, by and large, we’re missing.

Next, starting in 2005, I would like for our church to send at least one team of people to another field of mission service.  Some of us were talking this past week with Ken Hall, President of Buckner Baptist Benevolences.  He was telling us about the needs around this world, especially in orphanages.  In Guatemala.  In Eastern Europe in particular, Russia, where the kingdom of God is beginning to explode, uncountable children languish in orphanages that are poorly funded, staffed and equipped.  We could do something about that.

Did you know that the fastest growing Christian community in the world is in North Africa?  They are now beginning to send missionaries out from Africa to other parts of the world.  Did you know that?  When I was growing up, we gave money to Lottie Moon to send missionaries to Nigeria.  Now, the Nigerians are saying to us, “Don’t send us anymore missionaries.  Help us send missionaries, too.”  The largest community of Nigerians outside of Nigeria is in London, England.  The Nigerians are begging for the resources to enable them to send missionaries out of Nigeria to other parts of the world.  We can be a part of that.  In our lifetime, we’re going to see African missionaries coming to America to tell us about Jesus. 

Ken Hall also asked if I would go with him and some other pastors next summer to Russia and Latvia, just to see the possibilities.  The following year, he would like a group of people from Cliff Temple to accompany Buckner to Eastern Europe where we can create and participate in all kinds of ministry possibilities.  I told Ken that, though I didn’t know how I’d raise the money, I’d go with him. 

Next, we need to put this beautiful room, this Temple as we call it, to work.  Did you know that the Dallas Symphony Orchestra once recorded here because the acoustics are so good?  Before they had the Meyerson, this is where the Dallas Symphony Orchestra recorded.  Sixteen hundred people, this place will sit.  What if we brought some events into this room that attracted people from this community, and even the greater Metroplex, that enabled us to share the gospel?  This room is one of the greatest resources we have.  There is nothing like this room anywhere in the southern sector of Dallas.  Why don’t we take this and use it to the glory of God?  Why don’t we do that?

Dream with me for a moment!  Do you know when this building was built?  The room we’re sitting in right now?  This room was built in 1938 for $250,000.  Dr. Wallace Bassett used to put washtubs at the front of the sanctuary and people brought $1 bills at a time until they built this sanctuary.  Do you know what 1938 was?  In 1938, the world was in the throes of the Great Depression, war was looming in Europe, and Dr. Bassett said, “Let’s build it, and let’s build it big.”  And what I want to say is, “Let’s do it again.”  Not a building, but a ministry that will reach out into this community and transform lives for the sake of the kingdom of God. 

We are not here just to feed hungry people, just to clothe naked people.  We are here to feed and to clothe in the name of Jesus.  And to tell them that why we are giving to them is because God has freely given to us.  Our only reason for existence as a church is for the purpose of making disciples for the kingdom of God, by becoming disciples ourselves and also reaching out to empower others to become disciples in the kingdom of God.

Next, and finally, I’m asking our church to create a strategic partnership with Buckner Baptist Benevolences that includes the employment of a person with a Master of Social Work.  This would be a person who would come onto our staff as a Minister of Social Ministries Development and will help us find a way to get hooked up with all of these possibilities for ministries and resources that are just begging for a chance to get started.

When we were visiting with Ken Hall this past week, he said, “I have the perfect person in mind for your church.  Her father is an Hispanic pastor.  She is graduating from UTA with her Master’s in Social Work.  She would be perfect for your church.”  And we said, “Who is she?”  And he wouldn’t tell us until we say that we’re committed.  But I’m telling you that if our church will commit to it, within sixty days, we could have that person on our staff, helping us implement this dream.  I asked the deacons last Tuesday night to endorse this dream and, unanimously and enthusiastically, they did so.  You’ll be given the chance to do the same on December 19.

What would this all look like?  When I shared this yesterday with a group of leadership people in our church, Greg Evetts went home and, last night at 10:30, emailed me this picture.  And I want to show you what this would look like on this screen right here.  It’s a picture of our church, networked with our Care Center, Mission: Oak Cliff and with The Well, the church that resides now in our facility and ministers to the mentally disabled and the Child Development Center that cares for community children and ASC3ND, our After School Ministry and so many other ministries as well.  There’s our church, right in the middle of all of that. 

Then, as the church reaches out and develops and builds strategic partnerships, we create avenues with Buckner Baptist Benevolences for resources that empower these ministries and even expand them further into our community.  On and on and on, this thing begins to unfold for ministries yet to be discovered.  All the while, there is our church right in the middle, like an oak tree with giant limbs, its roots sunk deeply into this community. 

Would you dream this with me?  Would you?  “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope,” says the Lord.  I don’t know what that looks like.  All I know is that this is what I want to be a part of.  And, all I’m saying is this.  This church has done it before.  Let’s, for the sake of Christ and the glory of God, let’s do it again.  And let’s do it now!