Today we celebrated our Centennial at Cliff Temple.  Robert Sloan [President of Baylor University] was our guest in the pulpit.  However, this was my "Pastor's Challenge" to the congregation.

When I first stood in this pulpit I told you of the experience of two people in East Texas who, about fifty years ago, found themselves trapped in their house by a fast-approaching tornado.  The storm came so close that they actually felt their house being lifted into the air and they survived only because the tornado turned away at the last minute.  However, they were terrified when they went outside only to discover that her mother's home, on a nearby hill, had been blown away.  Or, so it seemed.  It wasn't until they looked back at their house that they discovered they had been looking in the wrong direction because the tornado had actually turned their house around.  They couldn't see the mother's house because what had been the back door of their house, the one they exited, had been turned around in the storm to become the front door.

My point in telling that story was to reflect on how, sometimes, God providentially intervenes in a moment we experience as an exit from one way of life and turns it into an opportunity we would never have had otherwise.  The Bible is full of stories and our own lives give evidence of the fact that we occasionally experience the grace of God like that.  Moments when God lovingly takes what would have otherwise been nothing more than an exit from all we had ever dreamed of or hoped for and transforms it into an entrance to another kind of joy and hope we could have never imagined.  In God's kingdom, back doors are constantly being made into front doors though we rarely know it except in retrospect.

I pray that, in retrospect someday, we will all know that we were living in one of those moments today as we celebrate our Centennial.  However, it may be that, while God sometimes miraculously transforms exits into entrances, He also calls us to be responsible for acting in ways that remodel exits into entrances.  This is a moment of celebration of what has been.  It is now ours to remodel this exit from the past into an entrance into entrance to whatever future God chooses to give us in this place.

One of our underlying themes this past year has been that great promise recorded in Philippians 1:6, "I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ."  God is faithful to us.  God is committed to the church for whom Christ died.  There is no hope apart from being firmly rooted and grounded in the commitment and faithfulness of God to His children.   We must now turn our attention to addressing the ways in which we will be faithful to His call on our lives.

Our hallways are today lined with the faces of those who have built a great heritage for us in this place.  The fruit of their diligent faith still marks the character of this church.  But, the history they have written for us is no guarantee of our future.   While we honor their memories we must now turn our prayers and energies to the story of this church yet written.  The one whose chapters we will pen by how we choose to walk through the back door of one hundred years of ministry that today becomes the front door of our future.  And, walking through that door demands of us a willingness to discard some preconceived notions that our greatest days are in the past.

We are God's church in this place.  Who we are has been settled by the redeeming blood of Christ on the cross.  We are His people in this place.  God's church and His people are always a work in progress.  We will be the people of God gathered for worship and ministry and service this place.  We were commissioned two millenniums ago with these words from Jesus, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.  And, remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."  (Matthew 28:18-20)  With a new voice and a renewed commitment let us say "Yes, Lord," and trust Him to help us answer the sometimes complex questions of strategy as we take whatever steps of obedience He has made plain.

Next Sunday afternoon I have the privilege of flying to San Francisco to preach for a friend of mine who is being installed as a Presbyterian minister that evening.  I've never been to San Francisco and I've never preached at a Presbyterian installation before.   I'm not sure which will be the greater adventure.  I was also telling some of our men recently that the church there purchased a first class ticket for me and I have never flown first class before.  But, as I thought about it, I realized I was wrong.   I've been flying first class since the day I first set foot on this platform.  No pastor could ask for a greater opportunity than Cliff Temple has given me.  But, I have also learned that there is no such thing as autopilot in this work.  What we are called to do will require skill and commitment to a singular course and the willingness to make the tough choices that keep us moving forward when, not if, but when we face adverse winds and then trust God for the ultimate results of our commitment to be obedient to His commission.

My commitment as your pastor is to embrace this moment of exit from the past as a front door opportunity filled with hope.  By the grace of God, please join me in continuing to put to rest all thought of what we cannot be in this place in terms measurable only to the human eye.  What we can be in this place is faithful.  As we are faithful and as we are obedient, we will grow and continue to be the church and people of God.   And, we will be amazed at the story yet written.  Our only call is to be obedient to Christ as Lord.  Our peace will come as we trust Him to write the next chapter of this church's history as He makes of that obedience whatever He sees fit.