Our Scripture comes from the book of Joshua this morning. We are going to read Joshua 6, starting in verse 12.
12 Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. 13 The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord passed on, blowing the trumpets continually. The armed men went before them, and the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets blew continually. 14 On the second day they marched around the city once and then returned to the camp. They did this for six days.
15 On the seventh day they rose early, at dawn, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. 16 And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.”
God’s word for us this morning.
Let’s pray.
Lord thank you for your word. Thank you for the way it does not return void. Thank you for the way it changes us. And Lord we ask that you would speak to us and speak through me, a sinful man who is in need of your grace. Thank you Lord. We ask it in your name. Amen.
Well in 1994 Jim Collins wrote a book, a book that has become required reading for many business students as well as many professionals in the field. It was a book called “Built to Last.” I am sure many of you have heard of that. In it he focuses on what to call ambitious long-term goals for companies that want to be focused on success. In the book they settle on this acronym called BHAG—Big Hairy Audacious Goal. That is a really crazy word, if you can even call it a word in itself; but that word, BHAG, took the world by storm and it has become a standard lexicon for many in business circles.
The power of a BHAG is that it gets us out of our thinking small and it creates a sense of urgency as we look towards the long term. As one who has worked in the business world for many years, as well as now who obviously works in a church environment, I understand the church’s desire to try to figure out how to maximize its effectiveness from the business community. But I also realize that the longer I walk with Christ the more I begin to realize that the thing called the church needs not be run like you would run a Fortune 500 company, or even like a small privately owned business; because I think this thing called the church is a spiritual organism. It is an organism that Christ directs through the Holy Spirit as it is worked out in the people of that church. So many times simply applying business principles to the ministry of the church, I think actually becomes counter-productive and ineffectual towards the expanding the kingdom of God.
Now, having said that, I also think that having some Big Hairy Audacious Goals has some merit for us here at Faith Church, particularly as we find ourselves at the beginning of 2016. We are about to launch into a new denomination. Yes, we as a church find ourselves at a crossroads in many respects. And as we find ourselves at this crossroads, I don’t mean just leaving one denomination and becoming part of ECO, a Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians. That is part of it but that is not what I am really focused on. I think we are also at a crossroads which I think in many ways is more critical for us. More critical because it is about the future of who and what Faith is going to become.
Let me put this in perspective for you. O.K. Just for example in the last two months we have had over ten people that are members here die. I mean no disrespect to the families of the loved ones who have died, because I know they are grieving right now and I grieve with them, as well. I grieve with them because I know the pain that even though they may have been ready and it is better for them, it doesn’t lessen our pain of not having them here. So I grieve with them too. And I know the stress they are under because the death of a loved one is one of the three major stressors that we have in our lives beyond moving and losing a job.
But I say that because the death of our members I think is symptomatic of what is going on here. It is symptomatic of the state in which Faith finds itself right now. So I think we need to be assertive in our plans for the future of Faith if we are going to exist into the next decade. That is how critical I think it is. And that is why I think we need some Big Hairy Audacious Goals for Faith’s future.
Now let me tell you a story. It is a story about a man traveling down a road and he saw this elderly man planting some carob trees. Now what you need to know about carob trees is they need about seventy years of growth before they start producing these carob pods from which they make chocolate. So this man as he was traveling down this road knew that, he asked this elderly gentleman “Why are you planting trees that you are never going to see the fruit from?”
This wise elderly man says “I am planting these trees for my kids and for my grandkids. I am simply doing what my father and my grandfather did for me. They planted carob trees for me that I now enjoy right now. So I am planting trees that my children and my grandchildren are going to enjoy later.”
That is the kind of wisdom that I think we need to begin to tap into right now, for us as a church we need to be in the business of planting trees right now for future generations. Because if we as a community of Faith are going to seriously consider taking on some Big Hairy Audacious Goals, then I think what we need to do is not turn to the business world for inspiration; but rather what we need to do is we need to begin to seek the kingdom of God rather than the kingdom of profit if we are going to bring some Big Hairy Audacious Goals to fruition.
That is one of the reasons why I picked our Scripture today. Think about people walking around the city of Jericho, the land they were going to take that God had given them, and they were to walk around and they were to take this city with massive fortified walls by simply walking around it once a day for seven days. Then on the seventh day, they walked around it seven times. And then God simply said “Shout! And the city will be yours.”
I think that is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, if you ask me. Now when you look at that passage, I think most of us would go “Well that is a passage about obedience. It is a passage about faith.” And it is all that. But I want to look at it as it speaks to the nature of prayer. Because I have to believe that the people of Israel were doing some praying as they were walking around that wall. As they walked around in silence with just the horns blowing, I have to believe they were praying. Because you see, I think people who do big things for God don’t just pray a little. They pray a lot. They pray big prayers and dare I say Big Hairy Audacious prayers.
Mark Batterson wrote a book a few years ago called “The Circle Maker,” and he talks about praying circles around your biggest fears as well as your biggest needs. In his book he states that God honors bold prayers and bold prayers honor God. So for some Big Hairy Audacious Goals to come to fruition here in our midst here at Faith, I think that is what we need to be about. I think we need to begin praying circles around those goals.
So what I want to do is I want to give you kind of the four major points that come out of Batterson’s book. I recommend that to you…we may circle back to that again later. But as I cover these four points, what I want you to do is as I am talking about them, I want you to put them in the context of some Big Hairy Audacious Goals for Faith—what they mean and what that looks like.
So the first thing that Batterson talks about in his book is that we have to dream big. We have to dream big. He says that our prayers and our imagination are directly proportional. The more you pray the bigger your dreams get because he says in the process of praying, the Holy Spirit increases our dreams of what can happen. So as we devote ourselves to prayer, God is going to enlarge our thoughts of what can be. Because all too often I think our prayers are too small. Our prayers are too small, too limited, because, one, we think we have to do the work of our prayers, or two, we don’t believe that God is big enough to do what we are asking.
Yet, that falls very much in line with an old book by a guy by the name of J. B. Phillips that says Your God Is too Small. Because folks we have a big God. We have a big God who is not only a big God but he is a big God who is for you and for us. We have a big God who wants to do big things here in our midst.
So we need to have prayers that reflect that, that reflect our faith in his bigness and his power to do what is beyond us. Because nothing honors God more than a big dream, a big dream that is beyond our ability to accomplish it. Do you know why? Because with big dreams there is no way that we can take credit for what happens. There was no way that the Israelites could take credit for the wall falling down. Big dreams keep us on our knees. They keep us on our knees dependent upon God.
So what kind of big dreams do God-sized prayers need to cover? What are those Big Hairy Audacious prayers and dreams that God would have for us here? Well if you have been around at all since the fall you know that my heart is about building a sustainable community for the next generation, the kind of community that will inherit what we have faithfully tended here during our lifetime. So my prayer circle is that God would build a new intergenerational community right here at Faith. What kind of God-sized dreams do you see here at Faith? It is an encouragement for us to dream big, to pray big.
The second thing that we are to do is we are to pray hard, pray hard. Batterson says that praying hard is about praying persistently, praying like it depends only on God and working like it only depends on us. It is about doing whatever it takes to show God, you know what God? I am serious about these prayers that I am praying. I am praying with an intensity in my heart around the needs that are in my life, for the needs that are around this church. What does that mean for us here at Faith? What does it mean to pray persistently?
I told our Sunday school class that here in my notes I had a couple of things that I put unsure?? But one of the things that is happening is that God is refining that right now, even in our midst right now. I think there is some possibilities for us to gather as a group, maybe it is a more regular gathering for us as a community to pray hard and pray consistently and pray long. Maybe it is something that we do individually that we are all doing at the same time. I am praying circles around that right now, as well. I think we need to pray hard.
Next thing Batterson says is we need to pray long. We need to pray long. Praying long is about praying for the long term. It is understanding that our prayers are not going to be answered overnight. One of the things that he says is that whenever we pray a prayer, do you know what happens? It goes into God’s presence and it stays there. It doesn’t kind of vanish into smoke and it isn’t forgotten by God; but it continues to stay in God’s presence. So know the things that you have prayed for over your life are still before the throne of God right now.
Praying long also means the understanding that our prayers not only change external circumstances but they also change internal reality, as well. As we begin to pray circles around Big Hairy Audacious Goals in our lives, they change us. They begin to give us spiritual eyes that allow us to see beyond the current circumstances and allow us to see more as God sees his creation. So praying long for Faith, I think it is about each of us praying that God would open our spiritual eyes, open our spiritual eyes to see what is his good, his perfect and his pleasing will and then praying to that end. We need to pray long.
Finally Batterson says we need to keep praying. We need to keep praying and it is about taking one step at a time. It is about praying for God’s favor as we bring our prayers before God. What that means is his divine favor, we ask for his divine favor, what happens is he defines and refines our prayers to reflect his good, perfect and pleasing will. So I am saying how do we pray as a group? How do we pray hard? This is where God is refining that in me and hopefully in you.
That is all to say that this is an encouragement to keep praying. Keep praying. Keep, as the old song says, “knocking on heaven’s door.” …Just as the widow did with the king in scripture.
So right now, what is your biggest need or your biggest fear in your life right now? Is it that you are facing a cancer diagnosis? Is it the uncertainty of finding a job? Maybe it is restoring a relationship that is important to you. Whatever it is that is the Jericho walls in your life, begin to circle them in prayer and be dogged enough in your determination to not let go of those prayers until God answers them.
That is my word for each one of us in the place where we find ourselves. For us here at Faith, as I said, we are at a crossroads. We are at the point of needing to dream big, to bring some goals that can only be accomplished with divine intervention by God. We said it was about building a community for the next generation that will be built upon what has been built here for one hundred and thirty years and then take it into the next generation. What does that mean? What does that look like? That is where we need the prayers circling around that.
I have lots of things bouncing in my head of what that could be. Maybe it is about having a location or a place that is off-site of Faith. A place where community can begin to kind of take seed and take root but could be built there and then come into the church. Because if we are dealing with folks who don’t want to come into the building in the church, then let’s go to them. Maybe that is a home that we could start a community around. Maybe it is something where we start something like at a coffee shop. I don’t know. But what I do know is that that is a big goal, that is beyond our thinking right now, that is beyond our ability to pull off. But it is not beyond God’s. That is an option; that is a possibility.
Maybe another one is another worship service that will serve to connect people from the upcoming generation. There are lots of folks that when they come in and they see our worship, they see the spirit of our worship and that is what is drawn for them and that is what holds them. But they have a different style. They want something different and maybe that is something that we need to offer them so they will come back when they visit. We have had a lot of visitors come through in the last six months to eight, none months. Maybe that is an opportunity for them. Maybe that is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal for them. Maybe it is building that base of service to our community that we have already begun to stick our toe in a little bit already with Pizza in the Park and the Drive-in Theater. It is beginning to be a place where the community begins to look to us as a resource, as a connection point in Minnetonka and Hopkins. Maybe it is a name change.
Maybe it is a name change. When you look at the history of Faith, every time there has been a big significant change at Faith, there has been a name change that has gone along with it. The most recent for us is when Glen Lake Church joined John Hus and we became Faith Church. Maybe that is something we need to look at. Maybe there is more, but whatever it is I want you to begin to pray, pray hard, pray long, pray big that we might have some clarity around some Big Hairy Audacious Goals for us here at Faith. That as we look to the future, let us be bold. Let us be bold and think outside the box, and then trust God with the results. Because I believe that God is going to do some amazing things here at Faith as we move forward. I believe that with all my heart. Join me in praying for that end, will you?
