Preached by Rev. Wesley King on June 8, 2025
Well, good morning, church.
Would you please bow in prayer with me, beginning with a few moments of holy silence?
Holy God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart and all of the hearts that are gathered here this morning be acceptable in your sight. Amen.
Okay.
A drive-in on the beach, a dive bar using karaoke tracks, and a group of former inmates discovering a new life on the outside. What do these three things have in common?
They are—or were—an iteration of church within our denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
Daytona Beach Drive-In Church was established as an outdoor ministry by First Christian Church of Daytona Beach with a vision to provide a less formal service to its vacationers and, of course, its snowbirds. After establishing a relationship with Neptune Drive-In back in 1953, First Christian Church of Daytona Beach began leading Sunday worship there in addition to its other services at its own location. At Neptune Drive-In, it used the projection platform for the sermons, and the concession stand was used for the choir. I'm sure they enjoyed that.
Four years after its first service, Drive-In Christian Church was chartered, which means it became a full church within our denomination as a separate congregation. And when the movie theater closed in 1961, the faith community bought that property.
Next, Gilead Church was a new church plant in Chicago that began meeting in a dive bar, and they used karaoke tracks to sing thematically appropriate songs for worship—albeit they were mostly pop songs. They were a storytelling church, and they utilized the stories of God that we find in Scripture, but also the stories of God that we find among us and within us. They did not follow the lectionary. Instead, they chose themes based on whatever spoke to the neighborhood and the folks who came.
Their congregants were largely folks who did not grow up in church and had been disillusioned by religion. And some of them were a little rough around the edges, we’ll say. For example, their board had to have a conversation like, “How many four-letter words is too much for a worship service?”
Lastly, Church of Another Chance was a body of believers who were seeking new life on the outside. These formerly incarcerated folks—mostly men, I believe—sought to rebuild their lives after serving their time. And this church was right here in Nashville. And I know many Disciples in this area, perhaps some of you, even volunteered and helped serve this community.
These communities look vastly different from us. They worship vastly different from us. They obviously use a little more colorful language than we might. But they were—and they are—church.
For the past four years, I’ve had the honor of serving our denomination as the Associate Executive Minister for New Church Ministry. This is the entity that Reverend Margie talked about earlier, and this is the group within our tradition that starts new churches or helps resource those who are starting new churches.
We were tasked back in 2001—I wasn’t there—with starting a thousand new congregations a thousand different ways before the year 2020. They accomplished that goal, and some of those churches are actually still open today. Though, as you can imagine, with the pandemic, some have closed as well.
Today, I have the honor of serving the current 230 churches in formation across the United States and Canada—one of which meets right over here in our chapel: that is Novellalon’s Christian Church. And one of the things that I get to love the most about this position is that I get to see the many and mighty ways that God is working in our denomination. I see, often, the creative and innovative and new and fresh ways that God shows up in our world—ways that most consider, “That doesn’t even look like church.”
Later in the service, when we take up the offering, these specific funds will go to the Pentecost Offering, as Reverend Margie already mentioned, and half will go to Tennessee and half will go to the national church. So I hope that you’ll pray and give generously when that time comes.
Now, let’s get back to the text.
This scene from Acts 2 is a really wild scene. Imagine this rushing wind sound coming from the heavens—but also somehow there’s flames and fire there as well. And then imagine all of this diverse group of people speaking in different languages, but also somehow they understand each other at the same time. It’s this really dramatized story, and I often contemplate how this could literally happen, and maybe you’re the same way.
In fact, I often wonder if most of us are actually maybe a little uncomfortable with the mystery found in these stories and find ourselves trying to explain away the parts of the story that we simply just don’t understand. Like maybe the rushing wind was just thunder. And maybe the fire and the flames was actually just lightning. And perhaps the hysteria of this crowd was just caused by them being scared of this storm.
But I also wonder if maybe in doing so, if in doing that, we are missing the point altogether.
Maybe if we’re honest with ourselves, more often than not, we—the big “C” Church—take the role of the pious Judeans in this story, trying to explain away the mystery and make sense of what is happening. But in doing so, we are not leaving any room for God to move in ways that are inexplicable.
The pious Judean crowd often discredits what’s happening, chalking it up to just being drunk. And then Peter stands up, raises his voice, and says, “These people aren’t drunk. It’s only nine o’clock in the morning.” Which—Peter’s never been to Broadway here in Nashville—but at that time, I’m sure it made sense.
And then he gifts them with this prophetic and imaginative word from the prophet Joel. And he says:
“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young will see visions, and your elders will dream dreams. Even upon my servants, men and women, and everybody, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”
Now, a minute ago, I mentioned that I work for New Church Ministry. And that means that I get to see the amazing new and fresh ways that God is moving in our midst and the ways that God’s people are responding. But what I didn’t share then is that I also get to see how God’s people—like the Judeans in this story—often try and gatekeep what is and what isn’t church. Who is in and who’s out.
Now sure, there are criteria that make something church, right? There’s something that we’re doing together right now that’s different from any other philanthropic group or advocacy group or charity. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the rigid parameters that we put on what we will and won’t consider church. How it looks. What they preach. How they preach. Where they meet. The music that they use. The practices, the rituals that they participate in.
Friends, I often wonder if we’re getting in our own way when it comes to what God is doing in our world. I often wonder if we’re getting in our own way when it comes to what the church could be in this world.
After all, our reputation has led the world to believe that the Church at large is just this hypocritical, behind-the-times, anti-this, anti-that body. And unfortunately, they are not entirely wrong.
When I look at Tennessee, churches here seem to have big budgets for indoor fireworks shows, but I don’t see them at the Capitol when they are cutting Medicaid and other resources that people need to live.
Churches here seem to have funds to give away AR-15s as door prizes in worship, but I can’t find them at the vigils for gun violence victims.
These churches like to flaunt Jesus as a mascot for the powerful instead of a liberator for the oppressed and the poor and the downtrodden and the vulnerable.
This is who we have led the world to believe we are. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We don’t have to be that way.
One of my favorite lyrics is from composer Stephen Schwartz—who I’m sure you know from the Wicked musical (and the movie trailer for Part Two just came out recently)—but he also wrote this musical called Children of Eden. And there’s this lyric that I love. It goes:
“There’s no journey gone so far that we cannot stop and change direction.
No doom is written in our stars—it’s written in our hands.”
We have the ability to change.
Now, Vine Street has done amazing things in this community. Just last week, we heard from Terry Terrell, one of our community partners at Urban Housing Solutions, about the ways that Vine Street has helped fund this ministry for low-income and homeless seniors. And I hope that you will follow up this generous gift that we’ve given them with the opportunity to volunteer. When I heard that we can lead bingo—that sounds like my spiritual gift.
But even we are not immune from getting in our own way when it comes to being what God has called us to be in the world. Even we aren’t immune to getting in our own way when it comes to being the hands and feet of Christ in this city.
But the good news is, Vine Street, that we have this unique opportunity to decide who we want to be in this next chapter of our life as a community and as a church.
We have a strong and firm foundation of welcome and justice and fellowship, of outreach, that we can build upon. But I’m curious as to what visions our young will vision and what dreams our elders are dreaming up. I wonder what our sons and daughters and everybody will be prophesying over this church and how the Spirit will do her thing and move this community into new places that God is calling us to go.
Earlier I asked you to fill out this piece of paper: “The future of the church must include ______.” And there were a lot of good responses. If I don’t read yours, it’s because somebody also said it, and I’m trying to condense for time’s sake.
The future of the church must include me and everybody else.
The future of the church must include—and this one came up a couple times—Reverend Margie as our lead minister. And a hearty amen to that.
The future of the church must include outreach and meeting the needs of people to grow and to stay alive.
The future of the church must include beautiful music glorifying God.
The future of the church must include seeking justice for all people—“all” is in all caps.
The future of the church must include opportunities for individuals to have small group sharing and genuine connection.
The future of the church must include—and I really love this one—a functioning HVAC unit. I thought that was you, Katie.
The future of the church must include empathy, inclusivity, and courage.
The future of the church must include young faces and young voices to keep the mission going for years to come.
The future of the church must include the voices of young people whose visions will lead the way.
And this one I really liked: “The future of the church must include”—and then they marked out “include” and wrote—“must not exclude.”
“I will pour out my Spirit on all people. And your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young will see visions. And your elders will dream dreams. Even upon my servants, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they too will prophesy.”
In just a moment, we’re going to sing a hymn that is not in the hymnal. Instead, the lyrics are included on the back of your insert in your bulletin. The tune is The Church’s One Foundation, so hopefully you’ll recognize that tune. But the lyrics are new, and they have to do with what the church could be:
“Beyond all that we imagine, beyond all that we can dream,
Beyond all that’s before us and all we’ve seen.”
And if singing without sheet music freaks you out or happens to throw you off, then I pray that you’ll just reflect on those words and ask yourself what visions you might be visioning or what dreams you might be dreaming up.
Our text today highlights that while sometimes we may stand in our own way—or in the way of others—to live into what God is calling us or them to be in this world, it doesn’t have to be that way. And the prophet Joel and Peter remind us that we have that ability to prophesy over the church in ways that bring God’s kingdom down to earth, to love those who have felt nothing but hate, and to lift up those that others have put down, to free and liberate the oppressed and the poor, to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and be who God has called us to be.
Vine Street, you have a long history. You have been a bulwark in this community, led by faithful servants, both clergy and lay alike. And as I mentioned in my prayer last week, we have this firm foundation of our past that we will use to build our future.
And we have that same gift of prophetic imagination that Joel had and that Peter had—to create the church that we want to be and create the world that we want to see.
May it be so. But also, may we make it so—in our loving and our living.
Amen.
Thank you, church.