Noah's Kids But God's Children

The following witness is given for the Glory of God, not for any individual or group of people, but to God alone, soli Deo gloria!  In the summer of 2011, I was appointed to a church that many people in town, including the congregation itself, had been written off as soon to have its doors closed.  The Church had not paid its apportionments in two years, attendance had fallen off fifty percent, members had left in anger out of differing opinions, and the aging congregation had lost many members to death.  I found the leadership of the People called Methodist at Wesley UMC discouraged and depressed. They were mourning the inevitable (or, so they thought)...the closing of their Church.  When I first met with them, having come off of a particularly difficult appointment prior to coming to Wesley, I announced that "I wasn't there to change anything or make you do anything different. To tell you the truth, I'm exhausted from my last appointment and I am perfectly content to just preach on Sunday, teach bible study and visit you in the hospital."  It sounded harsh but I was being honest as I had heard that the folks of Wesley refused to change. "I'm not here to change anything," I repeated, "but If you want to do something to try and keep your doors open, then you let me know and I will jump in with both feet and work to do that.  I'll support whatever you want to do.  If you want to remain the same, then I'm okay with that, too."   My pronouncement was received with amazement and tears. An elderly man spoke up through his tears that "nobody's ever asked us what we want to do before. But, we don't want our doors closed."  I responded, "then what would you like to do to turn it around?"  Another elderly lady (they were all over the age of 70, in fact) spoke up and said, "we don't know what to do."  I then said, "okay, then, let's ask God what we should do. Let's ask God to give this church a vision."  And then we prayed.  Over the next few weeks with various leaders, I walked around the grounds of the church inside and out praying over the church, expecting a vision from God.  And, God was faithful in His promises of deliverance.  We identified our mission field, in particularly the elementary school that was located directly across the street from the Church.  Wesley was an aging congregation and needed new life in the church...new Christians, younger Christians.  Since Wesley did not have space for children or youth, we looked for a way that we could create a space for the young.  We decided to use the half acre lot on the north side of the church as the site of an after school program called "Noah's Kids".  We wanted to build a Noah's Ark playscape complete with monkey bars, slide, etc. We found a Lutheran church on the internet that had such a playscape that looked like Noah's Ark and so we solicited the plans for this vision.  We also decided that the after school program would be a green project that focused on "Caring for God's Good Creation," i.e. caring for the earth, the air, the water, God's creatures including loving our neighbor.  The lab for this project would be the playground that would also be filled with above ground youth gardens.  The children who participated would sow their own plot, care for the garden, and harvest the food to take home to their family for consumption.  They would be organic gardens so children with special needs, i.e. cancer, allergies, etc. could also participate and because it was healthier for the children overall. I would write a curriculum based on a biblical teaching that correlated with caring for God's creation.  It would start out with 1-2 days a week and by the 3rd year, we would charge a small fee for seeds, equipment, etc.  We'd collect rain water, make our own mulch, and practice green living within the church as well as outside.  We submitted a 3 year proposal to the Cabinet in order to use funds that we had from the sale of a parsonage, but we would also seek out funds from grants as there are lots of green grants out there for nonprofits.  We plan to eventually overhaul the entire Church with the intention of making it green and more sustainable, lowering electric, gas and water bills, but in God's time.  Before beginning the build or the project, we first needed to overhaul our own hearts which had become fallow.  We needed to "break up the fallow ground" as Charles Finney would put it.  We wanted a revival to take place in our hearts and we wanted resurrection to take place in our Church.  So, we began studying the Book of Nehemiah.  WIth only a remnant of believers, Nehemiah rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem with, what seemed at the time, impossible odds stacked against them.  If Nehemiah could do that with God's help, we at Wesley came to believe that we, too, could rebuild the wall around our Church. The wall, of course, represented for us not a structure for keeping folk out, but instead the strengthening of our faith because it was the faith of Nehemiah and his remnant that was responsible for the success of rebuilding the wall. It was their faith in God that brought about revival, a pentecost long before the Upper Room.  To make room for our faith to grow we first had to confess the sins that had led to the decline of the congregation, just as it had been true of the remnant of believers who rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem.  Much had happened in the life of Wesley Corsicana that had contributed to its decline, but the one thing we knew for sure, and that was it was not God's fault the Church was in declining.  It was our fault and the fallow ground that needed to be broken up.  And, so like Nehemiah, we began confessing the sins of the individuals in the church, the sins of the collective body, the sins of the previous pastors, including my own, the sins of the District Superintendent, the sins of the Cabinet, the sins of the Bishop, the sins of the Conference, the sins of the United Methodist Church, and the sins of all Christianity that have contributed to decline in the Body of Christ.  After that, we began looking around like Nehemiah did at what could be reused, what ministries that had once worked, what resources we have available to us, what our mission field was specific to each member of the Church, etc.  And, we began calling back those who had fallen away from the Church.  All of this is what Nehemiah had done.  And, always, we gave glory to God, soli Deo gloria!  This summer, on year after we began this renewal, we began the physical rebuilding of the church and of Noah's Kids...a fence went around a half of acre of land, he Ark has been started, and we kicked off the after-school program with VBS that we called "Green Church."  Next month, the above ground gardens will be constructed.  Children in the area are very curious about what is happening at Wesley now. The sign that we erected a year earlier naming the site as "Noah's Kids, an after-school program caring for God's good creation," fulfilled its purpose in raising curiosity.  People are beginning to chatter about what is going to take place there.  Children are checking it out on their bicycles while adults drive by slowly to look at the Ark that is being constructed.  Methodists from other churches in town have offered to help.  The Corsicana Sun Newspaper has requested to do a story about the project to appear in their monthly magazine.  Building an Ark in the middle of a drought apparently is also being seen as a sign of hope!  We hope to have a special class for deaf children, a class for special needs children, AND for special need adults.  Over the past year, God has sent a number of special need adults to our congregation who have turned out to be the sweetest blessing.  We have a new ministry that God put in place here that we had nothing to do with dreaming up on our own.  It started with a married couple who were special need who began inviting their friends.  Before we knew it, we had enough for another small group.  A leader has also been given to us, and we are currently looking for grants to assist this ministry.  Within 7 months of turning things over to God, apportionments were paid out in full for the first time in three years, and it was done without large fundraisers.  It was done the biblical way, through tithes and offerings!  God is good and God is always faithful if we do our part, and if we do that part according to what Scripture teaches us to do then God will show up and do the rest!  To God be the glory, great things He hath done!!!